Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 10 MONTHS.
ON 06/04/2024 MORE THAN 1.951.050
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
31-10-2023
The Intriguing Tales Behind UFO Sightings: Real Accounts from Abductees
The Intriguing Tales Behind UFO Sightings: Real Accounts from Abductees
UFO sightings have fascinated humans for decades. From mysterious lights in the night sky to tales of alien abductions, these unexplained phenomena continue to capture our imagination. In an age of technology and extensive space exploration, the stories behind UFO sightings have become more compelling than ever.
Drawing Insights from the Abductees:
The documentary “Abductees” by Paul Vester delves deep into the experiences of those who claim to have been abducted by extraterrestrial beings. These aren’t just mere tales but are accounts formed from interviews, hypnotic regression tapes, and the original drawings of abductees like Linda Cortile and Rusty Hudson.
Visual Representations of the Encounters:
A striking element of these tales is the artwork that originates from the very individuals who experienced these encounters. Often, therapists and investigators ask abductees to sketch what they witnessed, and these drawings serve as the primary means to visualize their experiences. These aren’t just rudimentary sketches but vivid portrayals of their memories. The emphasis on the eyes of the extraterrestrial beings is a recurring theme. Many describe them as akin to 1950s Italian wraparound sunglasses. These depictions aren’t just for investigators; they offer a therapeutic outlet for the abductees.
Beyond the Visual – The Emotional Depth:
The emotional depth of these accounts is haunting. One abductee recounted the sheer force of telepathic communication, likening it to a radio turned too loud. Another speaks of the terrifying ordeal, describing the feeling of pressure around the kidneys and the strange sensation that followed.
The Power of Memory:
These memories, often suppressed or distorted, sometimes need hypnotic regression to surface. Some abductees remember certain aspects of the experience clearly, while others recall their encounters in fragmented sequences. The struggle between distinguishing reality from dreams becomes a significant aspect of their tales.
VIDEO:
Five tales of alien abduction: “Abductees” (Paul Vester, 1995)
In a world increasingly driven by logic and science, stories of UFO sightings and alleged abductions offer a tantalizing glimpse into the unknown. As we continue our quest for understanding, it is essential to listen, analyze, and respect these narratives. After all, in the vast expanse of the universe, can we truly claim to be alone?
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LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS (VIDEOS) - 31/10/2023
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS (VIDEOS) - 31/10/2023
anomalous lights
The Most Spectacular UFO Photo Ever Captured
Two young chefs decided to go out for a walk after a tiresome shift at the Pitlochry Hotel on the outskirts of Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. It was 9:00pm. The air was fresh, and the light was dwindling steadily. The two mates drove some miles to Calvine, close to the edge of the Cairngorms, where they began a walk across the hills.
Suddenly, up in the skies, they saw a strange-looking, diamond-shaped object over 100 feet long. It hovered above them as if searching for something.
The puzzled men went straight to the bushes to hide, but they kept watching. The mysterious flying object stayed there. Then, two British fighters passed through the area as if nothing had happened.
Strangely enough, one returned as if the pilot had seen that strange flying object. The frightened chefs desperately took some pictures of the flying object with a camera.
The UFO violently flew vertically and disappeared above the sky. It was never seen again, but the two cooks had evidence of what they had witnessed. And it would take a long time to unravel the mystery of what it was.
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Ancient Aliens: UFO Witnesses THREATENED By Men in Black (Season 2)
A pilot flies alongside flying saucers, but is threatened by mysterious men to keep quiet about his experience. See more in this scene from Season 2, Episode 4, "Extraterrestrial Close Encounters."
Did Bob Lazar Work On Restricted Alien Spacecrafts
Did Bob Lazar work on restricted alien spacecrafts? Or was he just a sensational fake who made up stories about secret government projects? In this video, we'll investigate the mystery surrounding Bob Lazar and see what evidence exists to support or refute his claims.
The Crab Nebula – otherwise known as the first object on Charles Messier’s list of non-cometary objects or M1 for short – has never really failed to visually underwhelm me! I have spent countless hours hunting down this example of a supernova remnant and found myself wondering why I have bothered. Yet here I am, after decades of looking at it, and I still find it one of the most intriguing objects in the sky.
Never has this interest been piqued more than right now after another mirror-smashing beauty of an image from the James Webb Space Telescope, and it’s already found its way to my mobile phone wallpaper!
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb telescope was launched back in December 2021, and from its position 1.5 million km away, it orbits the Sun, giving us a brand new window out into the Universe. Using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCAM) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) JWST has been exploring the Crab Nebula, the remains of a star whose explosion was recorded back in 1054. The object, which is 6,500 light years away, can be seen in small amateur telescopes and is without doubt one of the most studied supernova remnants of all.
Despite being the target of many, many observations, there are still plenty of unanswered questions about the nature of the star that exploded, the mechanics of the explosion itself, and the composition of the ejecta. Using JWSTs infrared capabilities, the image of the Crab reveals red/orange filaments of dust around the central region. The filaments weave an intricate pattern over the whole nebula, but it’s the core that has received more attention.
Compare and contrast the Hubble version on the left with the new, Webb version on the right. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)
It has been known that there is a pulsar at the core of the nebula, and it’s this pulsar that is the true remains of the progenitor star. When it went ‘supernova,’ the core collapsed to form the ultra-dense rotating object that, if you happen to be in the right place in space (hey, that rhymes), then you will see a pulse of radiation as it rotates. The infrared images from JWST reveal synchrotron emissions, which are a direct result of the rapidly rotating pulsar. As the pulsar rotates, the magnetic field accelerates particles in the nebula to astonishingly high speeds such that they emit synchrotron radiation. As a fabulously lucky quirk of nature, the radiation is particularly obvious in infrared, making it ideal for JWST.
Not only has JWST detected synchrotron radiation, but it has also mapped out locations of dust particles and even… locations where dust particles are forming. It’s fabulous to think that an object that was discovered almost a thousand years ago is still surprising us. That’s one of the things I love about astronomy: you think you have seen it all, but there is always more to learn. Over the coming years, teams of astronomers using both HST and JWST will continue to probe the depths of the Crab Nebula, and maybe one day, all of its secrets will finally be revealed.
EXCLUSIVE: FBI agents visit scientists building flying saucer at Falcon Space lab in New Jersey - and reveal they are part of 'X-Files like' government UFO investigation
EXCLUSIVE: FBI agents visit scientists building flying saucer at Falcon Space lab in New Jersey - and reveal they are part of 'X-Files like' government UFO investigation
Mark Sokol, 35, told DailyMail.com FBI agents showed up at his New Jersey lab last Friday and revealed they had been 'tasked with investigating' UFOs
The scientist, the founder of Falcon Space Lab in Hawthorne, said the feds told them they had received a tip about 'enriched uranium' being used at the site
CCTV shared with DailyMail.com shows the two FBI agents flashing their badges and interviewing the inventor as well as pacing outside with a Geiger counter
FBI agents visited a New Jersey lab where scientists are trying to build a flying saucer – after they received a report of dangerous uranium being used on site.
Mark Sokol, founder of the Falcon Space laboratory in Hawthorne, New Jersey, told DailyMail.com he was shocked when two federal agents showed up at his shop last Friday.
Sokol said the more senior of the two agents told him they had been tasked by Bureau bosses with looking into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), the government term for UFOs – making him a kind of real-life Fox Mulder from the classic show The X-Files.
They didn't find any dangerous uranium, Sokol said, but were intrigued by the experiments going on at Falcon Space.
Sokol, 35, and his colleagues are attempting to use nuclear physics to make objects weightless, the first step towards building a functioning flying saucer.
CCTV shared with DailyMail.com shows two FBI agents grilling scientist Mark Sokol during a surprise visit to his lab in Hawthorne, New Jersey on October 20
Scientists and inventors are trying to build their own gravity-defying flying saucer in the Falcon Space laboratory in New Jersey
Sokol explained he and his colleagues have been working on experiments to make objects weightless – the first step towards building a functioning flying saucer – using this foil-lined Faraday cage that managed to reduce an object's weight by 17.8%
They are inspired by verified reports of strange unidentified objects flying in extraordinary ways in our skies, seas and space, which are now being openlyinvestigated by the government.
Sokol told DailyMail.com his goal is to figure out the technology behind these objects, which some believe to be extraterrestrial craft.
CCTV shared with DailyMail.com shows the two FBI agents flashing their badges and interviewing the inventor as well as pacing outside with a Geiger counter – a device used to detect radiation – which showed no harmful radiation at the lab, he said.
'They showed up on Friday right around noon,' Sokol said. 'They flashed their badges, said ''FBI'', and asked if we had any enriched uranium.
'I laughed and told them no. One said that we're not in trouble and he wanted to come back at some point and pick my brain about UAPs because he's been tasked by the FBI, in investigating UAPs or UFOs.'
But if the senior agent is a real-life version of David Duchovny's Mulder, his partner didn't quite measure up to Gillian Anderson's Dana Scully.
Sokol said the more junior of the pair was fresh-faced and ‘probably in his early 20s’.
'They said they got a tipoff that I have enriched uranium. The only uranium we have here is a little piece that I got off Amazon to check our Geiger counter to make sure it's working.'
A spokeswoman for the FBI field office in Newark, New Jersey, told DailyMail.com: 'We receive information from the public each day through various reporting mechanisms.
Left to right: Jatin Parmar, Tom Butler, Mark Sokol, Wayne Ojala all working on an experiment at their lab in Hawthorne
Members of the Falcon Space laboratory plot their experiments to replicate UFO technology such as anti-gravity
Falcon Space was founded by Mark Sokol, who turned his battery manufacturing laboratory into a hub for scientists and inventors trying to crack the problem of anti-gravity
'In general, when we get information about a situation involving illegal and dangerous radiological or hazardous materials, our agents investigate it.'
The spokeswoman did not comment on whether their FBI office had a designated agent for UFO-related cases.
Sokol described his lab as a bootstrapped community of scientists, engineers, and inventors hoping to crack anti-gravity, warp drives, and other futuristic technologies.
They are funded by donations and a few private investors passionate about the topic.
'We're researching UFO propulsion, trying to figure out propellant-less propulsion concepts that have been theorized to work throughout the years,' he said.
'There's lots of papers and patents that have been put out. But we're a lab where we actually put those theories to the test.'
Some of their experiments test the theory that objects' mass comes from the jumbled directions in which the subatomic particles of their atoms spin.
If you can get those tiny parts to spin in the same direction, it will make them weightless, so the theory goes.
'We've seen up to 17.8% weight loss in one experiment,' Sokol said.
He believes once they can get above 90%, they'll be able to make a floating saucer.
Lab cofounder Jeremy Rys runs their YouTube channel Alien Scientist, where they post videos of their experiments and scientific discussions at their regular online 'Alternative Propulsion Engineering Conference'.
Lab cofounder Jeremy Rys said he was skeptical of the FBI visitors, noting that the senior agent had a background in financial crime investigations unrelated to X-Files-type probes
The agents appeared to be real-life versions of FBI special agents Fox Mulder, played by David Duchovny and Dana Scully, played by Gillian Anderson, from the hit sci-fi series The X-Files
Rys was skeptical of the FBI visitors, noting that the senior agent had a background in financial crime investigations unrelated to X-Files-type probes.
'They said they were interested in UAP and the kind of stuff he was doing at the lab. It could be a shoe in the door,' he said.
'Maybe they're trying to trick Mark into opening up more because they know it's his passion.
'If you lie to federal investigators in any way, even just telling them the time on a broken clock, they can later put charges against you.'
Though the government has not officially confirmed it is using FBI agents to conduct UFO-related investigations on the ground X-Files-style, there are several hints that this is the case.
In a presentation by Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in January, the DOJ was listed as one of the agency's 'key partners'
A 2021 law which created the latest incarnation of the Pentagon's UFO investigation office 'AARO' also ordered it to 'rapidly respond to, and conduct field investigations of, incidents involving unidentified aerial phenomena under the direction of the head of the Office'.
At a conference on January 11 this year, AARO director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick presented a slide deck which listed the Department of Justice, ultimately responsible for the FBI, as one of its 'key partners and stakeholders'.
Kirkpatrick, a decorated physicist and intelligence official, also included one intriguing bullet point on his slides suggesting that AARO aimed to 'recover' downed UAP.
The slide said his office is involved in 'UAP detection, tracking, mitigation, and recovery'.
The US government has itself tried to build craft resembling classic flying saucers, though official records show it achieved little success.
In the 1950s the US Air Force hired a Canadian contractor to help it try to build a supersonic flying saucer.
DailyMail.com obtained a slides from Kirkpatrick's January 11 presentation which showed the steps AARO was taking to ensure UAP 'are effectively and efficiently detected, tracked, analyzed, and managed'
Kirkpatrick's presentation warned of 'threats to the immediate safety of US citizens and Government facilities'
Documents from the venture, codenamed Project 1794, were declassified in 2012, and include schematics that look like they come right out of a science fiction movie.
According to papers published by the National Archives, the saucer was designed to fly 'between Mach 3 and Mach 4, a ceiling of over 100,000 ft. and a maximum range with allowances of about 1,000 nautical miles'.
Despite indications of initial success at a relatively low cost, the project fizzled out after engineers apparently failed to get the craft flying higher than a few feet.
From 2015 to 2017 the US Navy filed for a series of patents for futuristic inventions including a triangular-shaped 'hybrid aerospace underwater craft' and a 'craft using an inertial mass reduction device' – or anti-gravity.
The supposed inventor, Dr. Salvatore Pais, boasted in the patent of possible 'extreme speeds' by his vehicle and the potential to 'engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level'.
But other physicists criticized the filings for their lack of specific technical details and allegedly nonsensical pseudoscience terms – fueling theories that the patents could just be propaganda to confuse America's adversaries.
The Navy told US engineering news site The Drive that they spent three years and $508,000 on the project, but ended it in September 2019 after failing to prove Dr. Pais' proposed science.
'No further research has been conducted, and the project has not transitioned to any other government or civilian organization,' a spokesperson for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division told the site in 2021.
An artist's impression of an undiscovered alien world.
(Image credit: Dottedhippo via Getty Images)
We've all wondered whether we're alone in the universe, and with potentially habitable planets, strange space signals and UFO hearings hitting the headlines, it's starting to feel like we're on the cusp of a major extraterrestrial discovery. But what's the best scientific evidence we've found for the existence of alien life?
The sobering reality is that there isn't any yet. There's no scientific evidence for aliens in the declassified UFO videos, in mutilated cows whose injuries are blamed on extraterrestrial activities or in purported alien bodies. Nor is there any such evidence in the formal academic research. Live Science checked in with experts to make sure.
"There's just no evidence right now," Professor Sara Seager, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of "The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir" (Crown, 2020), told Live Science.
Nikku Madhusudhan, a professor of astrophysics and exoplanetary science at the University of Cambridge, gave a similar response, saying, "I don't think we have clear evidence just yet of any kind for alien life."
There is, however, good reason to hold out hope that the evidence will eventually come, even if it isn't personally delivered by a little green man.
Madhusudhan told Live Science that "there are hints here and there" and "there is evidence for habitable conditions." In other words, there are signs that certain planets and moons could harbor life, but we haven't found evidence of life in these places yet.
There may be hundreds of millions of habitable planets in our galaxy alone. Scientists consider planets capable of hosting life if they sit in the so-called habitable zone, the distance from a star where it's possible for a rocky planet to have liquid water on the surface, an essential ingredient for life on Earth. Planets and moons outside of the habitable zone aren't necessarily inhospitable to life either. For example, Jupiter's moon Europa isn't in the sun's habitable zone, but has a saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust that may be able to host life.
Researchers are looking inside and outside of our solar system for signs of life. Madhusudhan led a study, published in October 2023 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, that detected hints of an ocean on a planet called K2-18 b, located more than 100 light-years away. Their data also suggested "potential signs" of dimethyl sulfide, a chemical that, as far as we know, is produced only by life on Earth.
"That is very tentative," he said. "We don't know if it is present or not, but we do see it in the data at some level."
That potential sign of alien life will be subject to further studies and may be refuted. Regardless, Madhusudhan said he wouldn't be surprised if we found evidence for extraterrestrial microbial life within the next decade. "I'd be very surprised if there is no life out there of any kind," he added.
Seager believes we'd confirm the existence of alien life only with sample-return missions — collecting samples from another planet or moon and bringing them back to Earth for study, in-situ measurements or "incredibly futuristic" technology, like a solar gravitational lens telescope, a theoretical instrument that would use the sun's gravity to magnify light from distant planets.
"With all the tools we have now, or that we could build with enough money, it's sample return, because I don't see anything else being definitive," Seager said.
Seager was part of a 2020 study published in the journal Nature Astronomy that reported the "apparent presence" of phosphine gas — a potential signature of life — on Venus. The research has been debated in the scientific community since.
Researchers will argue about whether potential life signatures detected on other planets are real, and then whether those signatures are accurate, and then whether those signatures are actually caused by life, which they currently won't be able to prove without collecting samples, according to Seager.
However, she's confident that scientists will find more signs of water and oceans that could indicate habitability, as well as gases that might be due to life. "I think that's enough to keep this generation's long search moving forward," she said.
Keep in mind that space is incredibly vast. It would take humans more than a million years to visit K2-18 b with traditional rocket propulsion. Even sending our fastest probe to the nearest known exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, would take thousands of years. The planets and moons within our solar system are right on our doorstep by comparison, with probe travel times ranging from some years to mere months.
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UFO Sightings: The Mysterious Patterns in New England’s Skies
UFO Sightings: The Mysterious Patterns in New England’s Skies
The endless tapestry of the night sky has always captivated humanity. From ancient seafarers navigating by the constellations to contemporary astronauts jetting toward the moon and beyond, we’ve forever been enchanted by the vastness above. But every so often, amid that vastness, something unusual appears that cannot be easily explained. These are the phenomena we commonly label as UFO sightings.
For enthusiasts and skeptics alike, UFO sightings are not just mere claims; they present a riddle that science and society are racing to decipher. And nowhere is this truer than in New England, a region that has become a hotspot for mysterious aerial activities.
The New England Enigma
The heart of New England holds tales of magnetic anomalies, intriguing patterns, and a history of sightings that date back decades. A recent investigation by Melissa, combined with Ben Hansen’s exploration in Fairfield, Connecticut, sheds light on some of the most eerie UFO encounters America has ever seen.
Historical accounts from the late 1950s reveal an incident involving Lieutenant Colonel Frank Woolley, who reported seeing a white object floating in the Hartford sky for a staggering 45 minutes. But this was just the beginning. As years rolled on, sightings grew in frequency, with reports of strange lights and unknown flying objects coming from various parts of New England.
A Magnetic Attraction?
With each account, researchers have tried to discern patterns or explanations. Recent discoveries suggest that our very solar system may contain magnetic bubbles that could act as beacons for extraterrestrial beings. Could these magnetic thoroughfares be directing UFOs straight to Earth?
Brian Bowden, a UFO and paranormal researcher with over 40 years of experience, believes that the area’s magnetic anomalies might offer a clue. NASA’s recent finding of magnetic bubbles in our solar system, which some theorists suggest might act as a pathway for extraterrestrial visitors, only adds to the intrigue.
The Evolution of UFOs
It’s not just the number of sightings that’s fascinating but the evolution of these unidentified flying objects. While the typical “flying saucer” dominated reports in earlier decades, the recent trend points to orange objects that change color or large, shape-shifting crafts. This transformation leads to a thought-provoking question: Are the visitors upgrading their vehicles just as we upgrade ours?
VIDEO:
Shocking Alien Encounter at America| UFO Witness|Discovery Channel
While the enigma of UFO sightings remains, one thing is clear: People are more aware of their surroundings, looking up more often, and reporting anomalies with greater frequency. As science continues its pursuit of the unknown, it’s essential to keep an open mind and continue searching for the truth hidden in the skies.
XCLUSIVE: New analysis of 200ft 'saucer-shaped object' spotted over the Andes Mountains in 2010 finds it is 'a genuine UFO': 'We're getting closer to the truth,' scientists say
EXCLUSIVE: New analysis of 200ft 'saucer-shaped object' spotted over the Andes Mountains in 2010 finds it is 'a genuine UFO': 'We're getting closer to the truth,' scientists say
Scientists re-analyzed an image showing a saucer-shaped object over Chile
It shows an orange 'blob' hanging in reddish clouds during the day in 2010
A giant UFO pictured over Chile in 2010 has been described as genuinely unidentified by alien hunters.
The image appeared to show a glowing orange object hidden behind the clouds and was taken by a family picnicking in the Andes Mountains in 2010.
The National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP) investigated the sighting the same year, but scientists are reopening the case as part of a new documentary that attempts to prove or debunk strange phenomena.
An expert in physics from the University at Albany said: 'This object is truly unidentified, so it is a genuine UFO.'
A photo snapped by a family picnicking at the Andes Mountains in 2010 that appears to capture a 'massive saucer-shaped object' has been re-analyzed by scientists to determine if it was a UFO or simple camera effects
The only evidence of the sighting is a July 2010 report that describes the exterior boasting a red and white woven pattern with a large region of straight individual lines along the bottom - and the 'disc' could be up to 200 feet long
The image was taken during the day on a Sunday, which shows the sun shining through white clouds and a band of reddish clouds to the left, encasing a glowing 'solid' orange object with 'interesting surface details,' according to the NARCAP report.
The image's story dates back to February 14, 2010, when a couple and their one-year-old daughter spent the day at the El Yeso Reservoir.
The mother snapped 16 photos of the stunning valley and sky above, and upon returning home, she noticed the reddish clouds with the object.
The Chilean government shared the photo with NARCAP, an advisory of aviation professionals investigating UPAs and aviation safety.
Ted Roe, head of the organization, conducted a lengthy analysis of the image, publishing a 23-page report on July 2, 2010.
Roe was featured on 'The Proof is Out There' where he said: 'This study resolves that this is in fact an external anomaly.
The image's story dates back to February 14, 2010, when a couple and their one-year-old daughter spent the day at the El Yeso Reservoir. The mother snapped 16 photos of the stunning valley. Pictured is one of the images taken that day
The report states that a portion of the UAP appears to be obstructed by the cirrus or cirrocumulus clouds, making it difficult to assess the true size of the UAP. However, NARCAP believes the object could span more than 200 feet long
'It does not appear to be inserted in the photograph, so we're left with an unidentified aerial phenomenon.'
The case, however, went cold after the report was quietly released in July.
The sighting was featured on The History Channel's 'The Proof is Out There,' where experts determined that no camera effects are associated with the 'blob' and concluded the object is 'a genuine UFO' -saying 'we are getting closer to the truth.'
'The Proof is Out There' is a non-fiction series that brings in experts to investigate videos and images of bizarre sightings captured by the public.
Tony Harris, the show's host, told DailyMail.com: 'I think in a lot of these cases can be explained, but the beauty of the show is that by doing the work, we are weeding out the nonsense.
'We are getting closer. Through the process of taking a look at things like the Andes UAP, having the experts take a look at it and coming to the conclusion that they cannot identify it [is a] ding ding ding [moment].
'I think that is a step closer. If we can't identify it with the crew we have on board, professors from acclaimed universities and theoretical physicists, I think that means we are getting closer to something.'
Experts investigated the image under red, green and blue factors to see how the light may have been distributed
The red and green wavelengths contributed more detail and outline definition to the UAP
The upper edge of the object could be seen in each of the three hues 'as if some source of light is illuminating it'
The report states that a portion of the UAP appears to be obstructed by the cirrus or cirrocumulus clouds, making it difficult to assess the true size of the UAP.
However, NARCAP believes the object could span more than 200 feet long.
Roe also investigated the image under red, green and blue factors to see how the light may have been distributed.
The red and green wavelengths contributed more detail and outline definition to the UAP than the blue, but the upper edge of the object could be seen in each of the three hues 'as if some source of light is illuminating it,' reads the report.
The deadline is November 3 at 11:59 pm ET, and submissions will be analyzed by a 'Space and Extraterrestrial Expert.'
An investigation into pixel distortion was also conducted, which enlarged the image to the point where individual pixels were apparent to see if they may have been created or pasted into the sky.
Roe concluded in the report that 'no such distortions in luminosity or spatial displacement were discovered suggesting that the UAP was present when the photograph was taken.'
Now, 13 years later, the mysterious case in the Andes has been re-opened for another look.
'The Proof is Out There' episode features astronomer and video effects designer Mark de Antonio explaining that the strange formation could be the result of the prism effect.
The effect occurs when the sun hits ice crystals in the atmosphere, creating a stunning rainbow.
'And that is what we are seeing [in the image], in my view,' de Antonio said.
'When you divide the image in half, you have the sun [on one side] and the object [on the other.
The distance from that center frame to the object is the same. The likelihood is very small that an object is going to be the exact same distance from the sun unless there is a lens flare.'
Lens flares are when bright lights hit the camera lens, creating artifacts - but not all experts agree with de Antonio.
Meteorologist Juan Hernandez with the National Weather Service said: 'Although I am not a photography expert, it does not seem like we are looking at a camera artifact effect.
He points to the orange spot in the clouds, noting no explanation for why it is there.
Most artifacts appear as lines, but the UAP is a disc shape.
'The likely explanation towards a reddish hue in any cloud would be a setting sun, but it is the middle of the day,' said Hernandez.
Another expert, physicist Matthew Szydagis with the University of Albany, also sides with Hernandez.
'I agree with the conclusion of the NARCAP report, which suggested that this object is truly unidentified, so it is a genuine UFO.'
Harris told DailyMail.com that the verdict does not mean it is aliens.
'It means just what it says 'undefined,'' he said.
'We felt comfortable going on the air and saying exactly what it is.
'The Proof is Out There' is currently in its fourth season.
'The thing about our show, we stay on these clips and try to identify them even if it is outside of the show,' said Harris, suggesting that the truth of the Andes Mountain UAP could officially be concluded.
A documentarian has blasted military whistleblowers, claiming sensationalism is converting the public to believe that UFOs have visited Earth more than science.
Brian Dunning hit out at the three high-ranking officials who testified about their first-hand knowledge about UFOs in a first-of-its-kind hearing in DC during a podcast interview with Fox News Digital.
Dunning, who hosts a nonprofit podcast titled 'Skeptoid' said it was very easy to find UFO believers who are veterans.
He tells the interviewer: 'You've got people in Congress who are not scientifically minded, who are not well-versed in subjects like astrobiology and astrophysics.
'And when they are told that, "hey, here's some military pilots who have some UFO reports," they tend to take it very seriously, as I think most people would.
'Once you start from that foundation, it's very easy to take the next step and say, "we'd better interview these people and take it pretty seriously".
'That doesn't mean that it has any factual or scientific foundation.'
Brian Dunning hit out at the three high-ranking officials who testified about their first-hand knowledge about UFOs in a first-of-its-kind hearing in DC during a podcast interview with Fox News Digital
He also went on to claim that all of the New York Times's coverage of aliens and Congressional hearings 'have been driven by the same core group of UFO believers since they had their first big PR success getting their article published in The New York Times in 2017.
'It's really quite astonishing how easy it's been for the UFO people to sort of steer the public's belief in this subject.'
According to Dunning, the publication's coverage has led to a 50 percent increase in the public's belief in aliens.
Later in the interview, he criticizes Harvard University professor Dr Avi Loeb for making the existence of aliens 'interesting' to the public and not revealing that 'he is alone in his belief'.
He claims that while there is an 'overwhelming consensus in the astronomy community' of 'probably life being elsewhere in the universe', it is not a common belief that extraterrestrial life has made it to Earth.
'You have guys like Avi Loeb showing up in the newspapers and on TV all over the place. Harvard physicist. And it sounds very impressive. What they don't mention is he is completely alone in his belief system.
'Virtually nobody else in the entire astrophysics field agrees with the things he's been saying. They never present that perspective on TV because it's not fascinating. It's not sensational'
He also went on to claim that all of the New York Times's coverage of aliens and Congressional hearings 'have been driven by the same core group of UFO believers since they had their first big PR success getting their article published in The New York Times in 2017
Denning goes on to then question if there has ever been any empirical evidence of aliens visiting Earth or UFO sightings during the interview
But his claim about Dr Loeb is refuted by the Professor himself.
He told the channel that hundreds of scientists are working on the Galileo Project and that he is not alone in his belief.
'The Galileo Project that I lead includes about a hundred scientists, so I am hardly alone in studying whether any of the objects near Earth might be of extraterrestrial technological origin.
'Allowing for the possibility that an anomalous interstellar object is technological in origin is not a wild speculation given that we launched Voyager 1 & 2, Pioneer 10 & 11 and New Horizons to interstellar space over the past five decades, which are a fraction of one in a hundred million of the age of the sun.
'There are hundreds of billions of stars like the sun in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and most of them formed billions of years before the sun.
'It takes less than a billion years for a Voyager-like probe to cross the entire Milky Way disk from side to side. It is, therefore arrogant and unwise to suggest that we are alone,' Dr Loeb said.
The Galileo Project aims to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures of Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations (ETCs) from accidental or anecdotal observations and legends to the mainstream of transparent, validated and systematic scientific research.
Denning goes on to then question if there has ever been any empirical evidence of aliens visiting Earth or UFO sightings.
'Has Earth been visited by aliens?,' he asked. 'All of the mathematics that we know, all of the physics that we know, all of the evidence that we have suggests that, no, that's probably not ever going to be possible and certainly hasn't happened before.
'So when we're talking about things like alien visitation, a skeptical perspective would be things are probably as the laws of physics tell us they are, unless we find evidence that aliens have visited the Earth. So far, we haven't. And so we stick with the default assumption, which is that no, things are as the laws of physics tell us they probably are, and we haven't been visited.'
In July 2023, Lieutenant Ryan Graves, a former F-18 pilot with over a decade of service in the U.S. Navy, testified that his squadron regularly detected unidentified craft while stationed off Virginia's coast in 2014
Pentagon whistleblower David Grusch, who served 14 years in the Air Force claimed in June 2023 that the US had run a top-secret UFO retrieval program for decades
In July 2023, Lieutenant Ryan Graves, a former F-18 pilot with over a decade of service in the U.S. Navy, testified that his squadron regularly detected unidentified craft while stationed off Virginia's coast in 2014.
Pentagon whistleblower David Grusch, who served 14 years in the Air Force claimed in June 2023 that the US had run a top-secret UFO retrieval program for decades and said that some of the 'non-human intelligences' discovered are malevolent and have even killed humans.
He claimed that the US has had UFOs since 'the 1930s' and has been secretly back-engineering them and carrying out a public disinformation campaign to prevent the details from leaking publicly. Grusch also suggested that the US government has murdered people as part of the conspiracy to keep UFOs a secret.
Brian Denning is a writer and producer who focuses on science and skepticism. he has published multiple books on scientific skepticism and two educational films titled: 'Here Be Dragons' in 2008 and 'Principles of Curiosity' in 2017
UAP Makes Three Changes In Direction Near Sun, UFO Sighting News.
UAP Makes Three Changes In Direction Near Sun, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Oct 27, 08:30:07
Location of sighting: Earths Sun
Sun camera: LASCO C3
I sent a message to NASA on X platform (formerly Twitter) today asking them if they can explain this unusual object. I wrote...Hey @NASA @NASAJPL @NASAKennedy Whats up with this UAP changing directions three times in the span of a few seconds on Sun imager LASCO C3? Can you give us a zoom in image of this craft? UFO Sighting News. In space, an object that doesn't have any propulsion system or external forces acting upon it will generally continue to move in a straight line at a constant velocity, following Newton's first law of motion (the law of inertia). This means that without any propulsion or external influences, it will not change its direction on its own.
If they answer I will let you know. But this UAP makes three course corrections in a few seconds time. That means it's intelligently controlled. Therefore, it's an alien ship.
UAP Buzzes Plane Over Bartow, Florida Oct 25, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Video.
UAP Buzzes Plane Over Bartow, Florida Oct 25, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Video.
Date of sighting: Oct 25, 2023 Location of sighting: Bartow, Florida, USA
A plane was traveling across Florida from west to east and a giant glowing UFO shot past them. The object was about 15X larger and didn't fall but instead traveled ahead of the plane and out of sight. The ocean off the Florida coast is home for a huge alien base. This video is 100% proof of that. And please, compare the size for yourself of the UFO and the plane. That looks like a 727 that is below the UFO, so this UFO...is huge!
Chile’s Sky Shocker: UFO Phenomenon Breaks Cover Amidst the Clouds!
Chile’s Sky Shocker: UFO Phenomenon Breaks Cover Amidst the Clouds!
UFO sightings have long captured the imagination of many across the globe. From mysterious saucer-like shapes hovering over vast expanses of land to inexplicable light formations darting across the night sky, these unidentified flying objects have frequently become a topic of intrigue and debate. Our exploration dives deep into a particular incident in Chile, using it as a springboard to discuss the broader phenomenon of UFO sightings.
The Chilean Encounter
On a serene day, 45 miles southeast of Santiago, Chile, a family, blissfully unaware of the unusual encounter ahead, set out for a Sunday picnic near the ELO reservoir. With the picturesque valley and the vast sky serving as a perfect backdrop, the mother snapped a series of photos. But, a routine family outing soon turned into an event of paranormal proportions.
Upon returning home and browsing through the shots, an anomaly stood out – a gigantic, saucer-shaped object, lurking amidst the reddish clouds. This wasn’t just another digital glitch; the image had inadvertently captured what many believe to be evidence of UFO sightings.
A Deep Dive Analysis
The Chilean government, ever inquisitive about such events, entrusted the photos to Ted Row of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP). His detailed examination of the image revealed an unexplained anomaly: a disc-shaped entity amid the clouds. When contrasting the light levels within the photograph, NARCAP deduced that the photographed object was external and solid – not a mere insertion or aberration.
Chile: A Hotbed for UFO Sightings?
Chile has often been cited as a hotspot for UFO sightings. Tales of mysterious lagoon behind the mountains near ELO reservoir serving as a UFO landing strip have often made the rounds. Regions like Sométonga and the Chilean Patagonia have reported numerous UFO shaped clouds and unidentified aerial occurrences. Could Chile’s topographical and atmospheric conditions make it a preferred destination for extraterrestrial visits?
Scientific Perspectives
While the community remains divided, experts from various fields have pitched in with their theories. Mark De Antonio, an astronomer and video effects designer, hypothesizes that the unique colors captured in the Chilean image might be the result of cirrus clouds’ prismatic effects at high altitudes. On the other hand, meteorologist Juan Hernandez believes that the reddish hue, being the prime enigma, couldn’t have been the result of a setting sun.
Video:
The Proof Is Out There: Chilean UFO Spotted in the Clouds (Season 4)
While UFO enthusiasts may be quick to label such incidents as concrete evidence of extraterrestrial life, skeptics and scientists continue their quest for logical explanations. Whether these UFO sightings are real, misinterpretations of natural phenomena, or results of man-made activities, the allure and enigma surrounding them remain undiminished.
In every war there are often lesser known experiences floating about beyond the typical tales of fighting and heroism. Here in the background of all of the conflict and death often lurk outlandish accounts of something strange going on, something perhaps even more frightening than the enemy. Strange things in the sky have long been said to loiter around places of war, going all the way back to ancient times, but this is far from just in the realm of superstition and the ignorant of the past misunderstanding common celestial phenomena, and here we will look at some of the stranger cases of these things congregating to war all the way up into modern times.
Starting from World War I we have the spectacular time the Red Baron supposedly shot down a flying saucer. The so- called Red Baron was the German ace pilot Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, who was both renowned and feared for his unrivaled flying skills, often considered to be “the ace of aces” and racking up at least 80 air combat victories over his wartime carreer. In the book UFOs of the First World War, by Nigel Watson, there is a curious account that seems to show that human pilots were not the only ones the Red Baron hunted down and engaged. The story goes that as he was flying over the Belgian trenches in the spring of 1917 with fellow pilot Peter Waitzrick, the Baron spotted an unidentified object that was described as “an upside down silver saucer with orange lights” hovering in clear blue skies. After a moment of awe, fear and wonder, the Red Baron opened fire upon it, and Waitzrick, who reportedly saw the whole incident, described what happened next as follows:
We were terrified because we’d never seen anything like it before. The Baron immediately opened fire and the thing went down like a rock, shearing off tree limbs as it crashed into the woods.
But wait, it gets even weirder still. As they passed over the wreckage, two humanoid figures were supposedly seen to climb out of the otherworldly wrecked craft and scurry off into the trees, after which they were not seen again. Waitzrick would keep the whole bizarre story to himself until 80 years later, in 1999, when he would tell the world about it. There are certainly some suspicious aspects of the whole tale, not the least of which is that Waitzrick chose to come out with his amazing experience after 8 decades of silence to The Weekly World News, which many readers will recognize as perhaps not the most trustworthy of news publications. Also, the planes they were piloting were claimed to be Fokker triplanes, which is odd since these planes would not be used in the war until some months after the alleged event, in August of 1917. Perhaps Waitzrick just didn’t know anyone who would take his story seriously and didn’t know any better so it just happened to be that the Weekly World News picked it up, and perhaps with the planes his memory after nearly a century was not what it once was, but one thing he seems to be quite sure of is that the infamous Red Baron shot down a UFO, saying:
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Baron shot down some kind of spacecraft from another planet and those little guys who ran off into the woods were space aliens of some kind.
Other UFOs encountered during World War I are the so-called “Flaming Onions” which were typically described as glowing green balls that would zip around, do flips, other aerial maneauvers, and very often chase aircraft, easily outpacing and outmaneuvering them but not actually ever attacking them in any way. This strange phenomenon was purportedly seen throughout the war by both sides of the engagement, and it always terrified those who experienced it. One theory as to what the Flaming Onions were is that they might have been flares fired by the Germans, but flares typically do not actively chase aircraft and seasoned pilots can usually recognize flares as such. They remain a curious unexplained mystery of the war.
Besides spaceships and weird lights, another baffling aerial phenomenon reported during World War I began with a very strange sighting made by a Lieutenant Frederick Ardsley as he was on a morning patrol in northern France on January 9, 1918. As he flew along, another biplane of the same make and model as his own positioned itself next to him, and when he looked to see who was in the cockpit he was surprised to see a beautiful woman with long flowing blonde hair blow him a kiss and do a Can Can dance in her cockpit before swiftly flying away. Ardsley attempted to chase the mysterious pilot, but she was reportedly a far superior pilot and was able to easily lose him. Unbelievably, the mystery woman would show up at other times during the war and engage German pilots, usually easily beating them and shooting them down, and sighted by both pilots and civilians alike. Some reports even say that her plane was impervious to bullets or that she would vanish into thin air. She came to be known as “Lady Sopwith” or “The Valkyrie,” and became legendary. No one knows who she was or whether this is all just another wartime myth.
If alien forces are somehow attracted to war, then considering that World War II is one of the greatest and most massive wars of all time it is perhaps no surprise at all that they should be drawn there as well. On the evening of November 27, 1944, a Lt. Fred Ringwald of the U.S. Air Force was riding as an observer on a night operation over the Rhine Valley, just north of Strasbourg on the French-German border when he saw something in the sky that was not supposed to be there. There over a hill in the distance were eight to 10 of lights in a row, glowing fiery orange, and when he pointed them out the pilot and the rest of the crew saw them too. They checked with Allied ground radar, but they registered nothing. As they decided whether to engage, the lights then simply vanished. It was completely baffling to them, as these lights had not been any known aircraft they were familiar with and defied any rational explanation, and they decided to keep it to themselves.
Ringwald and his crew were part of a U.S. Air Force unit called the 415th Special Operations Squadron. Formed in 1943, it was tasked with carrying out missions in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, and then later in northwestern Europe during World War II. As the name suggests, they were mostly involved in nighttime operations and missions, which made them especially likely to notice strange lights in the skies around them. Although Ringwald’s crew stayed quiet about what they had seen on that mission, they would soon learn that other flights from their unit were starting to see something similar in the sky, in particular over the German-occupied Rhine Valley. Pilots were coming forward with stories of strange lights, usually red, orange, or green following them, or even flying parallel to their planes to pace them. They were reported as typically cigar-shaped, with no wings or visible propulsion system, and very maneuverable and fast, as well as often flying in formation of up to 10 of them and never showing up on radar. These mysterious lights had a habit of seeming to toy with the pilots, before suddenly tearing away at breathtaking speed or simply vanishing into thin air, and no one had any idea of what they were. One baffled airman would give a good representative account when he said:
I was flying and there was an object next to me. I couldn’t get rid of it, I slowed up, it was there. I sped up, it was there. I would dive, it would be there. I turned to starboard and two balls of fire turned with me. I turned to the port side and they turned with me. We were going 260 miles an hour and the balls were keeping up with me. I called. Nothing on radar.
These objects defied all explanation, and there were whispers that they were not of this planet. Sightings began pouring in from all over the European Theater of war, and it was looking more like the War of the Worlds than World War II. Before long these mysterious glowing craft were being called "Foo Fighters," which is a silly name that came from the comic strip Smokey Stover, in which the main character had the catchphrase “Where there’s foo there’s fire.” Considering the reliability and experience of these witnesses, on top of the sheer number and consistency of reports, the military launched an investigation into the phenomenon. At first they suspected that the Foo Fighters were some sort of top secret German weapons, but the rabbit hole got deeper when they learned that enemy pilots were seeing the same thing and they also realized that the objects never actually seemed to attack or act in a threatening manner. After a full investigation there was no official conclusion reached. Theories include that these Foo Fighters were enemy tech, some sort of atmospheric phenomenon, or just combat fatigue and the pilots seeing things, but their true nature remains unknown.
Interestingly, over in the Pacific Theater of Operations of the war pilots there were also reporting bizarre things in the sky. In this case, rather than glowing objects zipping about doing aerial maneuvers, pilots typically reported “balls of fire” hanging in the sky, often just hovering there before shooting off or vanishing. Once again, theories were thrown around that these were just some kind of Japanese weapon, but as with the Foo Fighters of Europe they never seemed to attack and the enemy fighters were seeing them as well. Although the terms UFO and flying saucer had not yet been coined, both the Foo Fighters and the Pacific balls of fire would have certainly fit the bill. Aliens or something else? The answer remains lost to the mists of time.
Moving on to the Korean War, fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953, we have a case that has largely remained confined to the shadows of history, and which supposedly involved a whole regiment of men who seem to have come under attack by forces from beyond this world. A very bizarre account from the Korean War emerged in January of 1987, when John Timmerman, of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), sat down for an interview with a former U.S. Army private first class (PFC) by the name of Mr. Francis P. Wall, who had a most unusual tale to tell. Wall had been deployed with the Army infantry, 25th Division, 27th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, 'Easy' Company, and in May of 1951 they were operating outside of Chorwon, in an area known by the military as the Iron Triangle, on a mission to reach a small village in the mountains. The village in question was in an area marked to be bombarded with artillery fire, wiped off the face of the earth, and Wall and his men were there to make sure that any innocent civilians were properly warned of the impending rain of fire. Indeed, the air was already reverberating with the thumps and booms of shells hitting, the dark of night occasionally lit up with flashes in the distance. Wall and company had made their way to a steep slope overlooking the village and the fiery flowers of artillery airbursts painting the scene with fire, and that was when they saw something they could not explain up there in the air in the middle of this war ravaged scene. Wall would say of this:
We suddenly noticed on our right-hand side what appeared to be a jack-o-lantern come wafting down across the mountain. And at first no one thought anything about it. So we noticed that this thing continued on down to the village to where, indeed, the artillery air bursts were exploding. It had an orange glow in the beginning. We further noticed that this object was [so] quick that it could get into the center of an airburst of artillery and yet remain unharmed. But then this object approached us. And it turned a blue-green brilliant light. It's hard to distinguish the size of it; there's no way to compare it. The light was pulsating. This object approached us.
The men were understandably very unsettled by this point, as the object was obviously not one of theirs, nor any known aircraft any of them had ever seen before, and they radioed the situation in to their superiors, requesting permission to open fire on it. Why they would think that their rifles would do any good when they had just witnessed it casually make its way through artillery explosions is anyone’s guess, but the permission was granted and Wall claims that he would then open fire on it with his M-1 rifle loaded with armor piercing bullets. He claims that he hit the object several times, hearing the pings of the bullets against what sounded like metal, and the bullets seemed to have an effect on it where the artillery had not, apparently damaging it and causing it to exhibit some strange behavior. Wall would say:
Now why would that bullet damage this craft if the artillery rounds didn't? I don't know, unless they had dropped their protective field around them, or whatever. But the object went wild, and the light was going on and off. It went off completely once, briefly. And it was moving erratically from side to side as though it might crash to the ground. Then, a sound -- we had heard no sound previous to this -- the sound of, like, diesel locomotives revving up. That's the way this thing sounded.
This was where things would get pretty harrowing, as according to Wall the craft unleashed some sort of a retaliatory attack on them. The craft allegedly emitted a kind of ray or beam that came in pulses, and which they could see aiming at them “like a searchlight.” When the ray swept over them the men found themselves overcome with a tingling, burning sensation, and while it didn’t seem to be causing any visible damage they could feel it penetrating through their skin and the pain was enough to make them scramble for cover, scurrying in a panic into their bunkers, where the attack seemed to continue. Wall describes the terrifying and otherworldly scene thusly:
So the company commander, Lt. Evans, hauled us into our bunkers. We didn't know what was going to happen. We were scared. These are underground dugouts where you have peep holes to look out to fire at the enemy. So, I'm in my bunker with another man. We're peeping out at this thing. It hovered over us for a while, lit up the whole area with its light, and then I saw it shoot off at a 45-degree angle, that quick, just there and gone. That quick. And it was as though that was the end of it.
Unfortunately for Wall and the others, this seemed to be far from the end of it, as over the next few days they would begin to develop an array of debilitating physical symptoms, including disorientation, memory loss, headaches, stomachaches, nausea, and extreme weakness that was potent enough that some of them had trouble even walking. Doctors who examined them could find no reason or cause for these symptoms, the only evidence that anything was wrong being an unusually high white blood cell count that could not be explained. Despite nothing really officially being wrong with them, the men were nevertheless all physically ill and suffering from something, and it was widely assumed by them that this was the doing of the beam that UFO had fired at them. According to Wall, many of them continued to suffer from ill health for years after the encounter, with him saying that even to that day he had frequent bouts of disorientation, memory loss, weakness, and difficulty putting on weight.
In later years it has been speculated that the men were probably suffering from radiation sickness, but there have been plenty of other ideas by those who have heard of this rather obscure case. One idea is that the Soviets or even the Chinese had been carrying out covert military experiments in the remote region testing anti-gravity technology and sonic weaponry, and indeed this has been used as an explanation for many of the dozens of other UFO sightings made during the Korean War. Of course there is also the notion that this encounter was exactly what it looks like, being an attack by an actual UFO, perhaps having been present in the region observing the combat for inscrutable reasons, and it has even been suggested that the craft did not mean to launch a fatal attack, but to merely disorient and immobilize them, hence the fact that that they did not suffer any severe injury or death.
Then again, maybe this is all hallucinations and the result of trauma, tiredness, and stress in the war-torn environment. It could even just be a tall tale conjured up by Wall himself, as he is the only official witness, and although he claims that 25 other men witnessed this event none of these others seem to have ever been tracked down and independently interviewed. Just about the only thing known for sure is tht he was indeed a soldier in the Korean War in the area specified on the date specified, but after that no one knows. Although he swore an oath that his story is true, in the end we are really left to take the word of one witness. So was this just war time hallucinations, Soviet or Chinese experiments, or an actual attack by an otherworldly UFO? It is quite likely we will never have a concrete answer, and that this will just remain another curious account lost in the fog and history of warfare.
By all accounts it seems that troops in the Vietnam War were also absolutely plagued by UFO activity, and some of the most spectacular reports of alien encounters that seem to have occurred during the Vietnam War have to do with actual military engagements with UFOs. One such incident allegedly occurred on June 15, 1968, along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Vietnam, where a patrol boat known as PCF-12, commanded by a Lieutenant Pete Snyder, was on a routine night patrol near Cua Viet. At 12:30AM, PCF-12 reportedly received a frantic distress call from another patrol boat in the vicinity, PCF-19, claiming that they were being attacked by unidentified lights they were calling “enemy helicopters,” which seemed odd because the North Vietnamese enemy were not known to utilize combat helicopters at the time.
Snyder ordered the PCF-12 to head for PCF-19’s position to offer assistance, and they as they closed in reported spotting in the sky two circular bright lights immersed in a “strange glow” hovering over PCF-19’s position. As they approached, one of the strange lights reportedly emitted a bright flash of light, after which PCF-19 exploded in a cascade of water and flying debris. Directly after the destruction of PCF-19, the two enigmatic lights were described as rapidly accelerating away towards the sea as PCF-12 scouted the area for any possible survivors of the carnage they had just witnessed. Two wounded men were found and recalled that the two UFOs had been trailing them for miles along the river. The survivors then claimed that they had decided to fire upon the threatening, mysterious objects, and that was when one of them had issued a piercing blast of light to obliterate the boat. At first it was thought by officials that the PCF-12 had been the victim of an enemy missile fired from shore, but a later AP dispatch from Saigon would quote a military spokesman as having attributed the loss of PCF-19 to an “unidentified object,” and not enemy coastal batteries or missiles.
The PCF-12 continued its patrol up the river and were soon approached by the same two unidentified lights, which took up positions hovering on the port and starboard sides around 300 yards away and 100 feet above the water. PCF-12 called in to headquarters to try and get an idea of what they were dealing with, but were met with the response that there were no aircraft in the area at the time. Realizing that these craft were not friendly, Snyder ordered his men to open fire on the lights, which apparently did little to faze or even slow them down, and PCF-12 began to retreat at full speed as the two mysterious aircraft tailed and stalked them, flickering in the night the whole time. Second engine man Jim Steffes would later claim that he got a good look at the craft and described them as having “a rounded front like an observation helo,” and what looked like “two crewman sitting side by side.”
Strangely, although no weapons could be seen mounted on the unidentified aircraft, PCF-12 nevertheless found itself being fired upon. Steffes remembered seeing tracer rounds piercing up into the night from the nearby base Point Dume, with their targets being what he said were other far-off blinking circular lights whizzing about in the sky above. Eventually, a group of Phantom F4 fighter jets arrived to converge upon and chase off the strange lights that were plaguing PCF-12 out to sea, leaving the crew to wonder what in the hell had just happened.
At roughly the same time, another very strange incident was unfolding out in the South China Sea with an Allied ship of the Royal Australian Navy, the HMAS Hobart, which was patrolling near Tiger Island, about 20kms off Cap Lay and reported sighting up to 30 unidentified slow-moving lights hovering in the night sky near their ship, which were at first thought to be Russian-built M-14 ‘Hound’ helicopters, but upon closer inspection it could be seen that they were not. US 7th Air Force Phantom fighter-bombers were sent to engage, supported by generous anti-aircraft fire from the ground. The lights flew out to sea as they were pursued by the fighters, which fired upon them mercilessly along with several other military ships in the area, which unfortunately contributed to the friendly fire incident in which a U.S. swift boat was sunk by missiles, killing 5 of the 7 crew.
The HMAS Hobart was prepped for battle when the radar room detected an incoming unidentified aircraft coming in fast with no identification number to mark it as friend or foe. Word soon came in that the craft was “friendly,” but it was then that a missile struck the ship to kill one and injure two others, followed by a barrage of two more missiles. Whatever the craft was swiftly fled the scene before it could be shot down. In the meantime, F4 jets scrambled about firing upon the lights, joined by a hail of anti-aircraft fire from the ground, with attempts to communicate with whoever was onboard the mystery craft going unanswered. Eventually, the lights floated off and the fighter pilots were ordered back to base. The following morning, a complete search of the area turned up not a single shred of wreckage of an enemy helicopter, or any other enemy aircraft for that matter, despite the intense fighting that had occurred. The complete and utter lack of any wreckage of any aircraft was baffling considering that these enemies had come under such resistance and been met with so much concerted, relentless fire. The Royal Australian Navy News would later confirm:
No physical evidence of helicopters destroyed has been discovered in the area of activity nor has extensive reconnaissance produced any evidence of enemy helicopter operations in or near the DMZ.
There was little confidence among the men engaged in the incident that the aggressors had been “enemy helicopters” as was at first claimed. After all, if that were the case they should have been decimated by the potent retaliatory force displayed upon their arrival and attacks. There was also no trace whatsoever of helicopters at the time in the area before or during the incident and no wreckage afterwards. A skipper aboard the Hobart during the baffling engagement would later claim that it was certainly not enemy helicopters, expressing his doubt of such a theory by saying:
Neither before nor after the incident … was there any report by any of the ships of a helicopter being there [around Tiger Island]. Now having said that, the captain of one of the American ships told me later at Subic Bay that he thought there were helicopters there, but the fact is he didn’t report, and if he believed there was a helicopter … it was his duty to report it at the time, but there was no report.
Whatever the lights were that caused so much chaos continued to be sighted sporadically for months afterwards along the DMZ, furtively skirting around the area, wandering back and forth over the line, and baffling those who saw them. They were often sighted by radar roaming up and down the coast, and apparently no one could quite figure out what they were. They appeared on radar to be low, slow moving objects just like helicopters, but often there would be no visible confirmation or they would not look at all like helicopters. They were also prone to just disappearing into thin air, and jets scrambled to intercept the objects would arrive to find nothing there. Troops on the ground would sometimes witness the lights appear and disappear out of nowhere, and in one such case American artillerymen reported seeing a group of mysterious lights along the Ben Hai River, but when they had opened fire on them the objects had suddenly vanished as if they had never been there at all. At no point did anyone report seeing an actual helicopter, and the strange objects were always described as moving lights, often hovering erratically or moving in sudden bursts of speed inconsistent with a helicopter.
The origin of the strange lights remains unknown to this day. There were theories at the time that somehow a misreading of radar signals had occurred, which had then made other friendly vessels appear to be slow moving flying blips, or that the North Vietnamese had more helicopter power than had been previously assumed. In the end the official explanation was that it was all due to atmospheric disturbances or possible enemy helicopter activity, coupled with panicked friendly fire, and there have also been theories that it was all due to bird flocks or even insect swarms, but does any of this really match up to what occurred? Would trained Navy and fighter jet personnel go to engage such mundane phenomena? What hit the Hobart? Indeed what attacked the PCF 12 and 19 at precisely the same time? If there were enemy helicopters involved where was all the wreckage, why were they never successfully shot down, and wouldn’t these trained men know helicopters when they saw them? It is also strange that an enemy helicopter would so brazenly venture over the heavily defended DMZ, and it would be strange that they should fly around with their lights on all of the time for hours on end. In the case of the Hobart it seems obvious that this was some sort of concerted attack, but by who or what remains open to debate and speculation.
It is interesting that these reports make mention of “enemy helicopters,” as this was a term used so often to describe any unidentified lights in the sky in Vietnam that it became sort of a code word for “UFO,” regardless of any relation the object had to an actual helicopter, becoming sort of a catch-all phrase for anything weird in the sky. The fact that the Viet Cong were not known to use helicopters made it a perfect way to explain discreetly when men were seeing something in the sky that shouldn’t be there. On October 16, 1973, the USAF Chief of Staff, General George S. Brown, gave a press conference in Illinois where he addressed this terminology to some extent when asked about UFOs in Vietnam, saying:
I don’t know whether this story has ever been told or not. They weren’t called UFOs. They were called enemy helicopters. And they were only seen at night and they were only seen in certain places. They were seen up around the DMZ [demilitarized zone] in the early summer of ’68. And this resulted in quite a little battle. And in the course of this, an Australian destroyer took a hit and we never found any enemy, we only found ourselves when this had all been sorted out. And this caused some shooting there, and there was no enemy at all involved but we always reacted. Always after dark.
Another comment on the matter was made by a patrol boat captain by the name of Bill Cooper, who served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969. During a UFO conference in Los Angeles in 1989, Cooper would say of his own experiences:
After about five months I was sent up north to the DMZ, to a place called Qua Vieaf [perhaps Qua Viet] on the Tacan [sic] river …. It was while there that I discovered that there was a tremendous amount of UFO and alien activity in Vietnam. It was always reported in official messages as ‘enemy helicopters’. Now any of you who know anything about the Vietnam war know that the North Vietnamese did not have any helicopters especially after our first couple of air raids into North Vietnam [during 1965]. Even if they had, they would not have been so foolish as to bring them over the DMZ, because that would have ensured their demise.
Another American ship was not directly attacked, but nevertheless allegedly had a very intimidating and threatening encounter with an Unidentified Underwater Submersible, or USO. In 1974 the ammunitions ship the USS Kilauea was operating in the Indian Ocean along with a destroyer and a carrier, and the witness claims that one evening at around 9PM he had been on deck with two friends looking up at the brilliant array of stars in the night sky. Their attention was drawn to the eerie beauty of the shifting light trails formed by phosphorus algae in the wake of the ship in formation in front of them, yet as they watched this light display of nature something else began glowing in the depths, becoming brighter and brighter until it became a blinding orange/yellow ball just under the surface. The mysterious blazing orb then spectacularly burst forth from the water to arch right over the top of the destroyer, just missing smashing into it, before crashing back into the ocean on the other side and sinking back into the dark depths. The witness would say of the puzzling, frightening incident:
We all just stared at each other with our mouths open. We could not believe what we saw, but I asked friends of mine who were on watch on the bridge if they saw it and they all did. There was nothing ever reported that I know of though and we just quit talking about it. I bet the destroyer got a good look at it. It went right over the bridge of that ship and it was big. Maybe 150 to 200 feet in diameter. That was my big encounter.
It is all a very intriguing peek into some of the more mysterious aspects of these wars. Such tales lurk beyond the known history of these conflicts, hiding in the cracks and shadows and invisible, lost to the mists of time save for the few who are willing to share their bizarre tales. What went on out there in the skies above all of the fighting? What were these troopers and pilots dealing with? Were these cases some sort of experimental aircraft, the stresses of combat playing tricks on the imagination, or something altogether more bizarre? The true answers have been buried by history and lost to the mysterious shadows of history.
The blue areas on this map of Mars are regions where NASA missions have detected subsurface water ice (from the equator to 60 degrees north latitude). Scientists can use the map – part of the Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project – to decide where the ... Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Planetary Science Institute.
Water will be one of the most important resources for human explorers on Mars. They’ll need it for drinking, propellant, breathing, and more. It makes sense to land near a spot where there’s water ice close to the surface.
NASA has released a new map of Mars’s northern hemisphere showing all the places where subsurface water ice has been detected, some of which are surprisingly close to the equator, as well as surprisingly close to the surface. This map could decide the first human landing site.
Earlier and later HiRISE images of a fresh meteorite crater 12 meters, or 40 feet, across located within Arcadia Planitia on Mars show how water ice excavated at the crater faded with time. The images, each 35 meters, or 115 feet across, were taken in November 2008 and January 2009. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Early on during the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, which arrived at Mars in 2006, scientists started finding evidence of subsurface water ice being exposed from recent impacts, showing up as bright white in the high-resolution images from the new spacecraft. While scientists were fairly certain there was ice below the surface at high latitudes of Mars, they were surprised to find that the ice was also present closer to the equator.
But whenever you’re looking for exposed subsurface ice on the Red Planet, you have to look fast. It doesn’t take long for ice — or water – to sublimate away because of the thin atmosphere on Mars.
The ice-exposing impact crater at the center of this image is an example of what scientists look for when mapping places where future astronauts should land on Mars. It’s one of several such impacts incorporated into the latest version of a series of NASA-funded maps of subsurface water ice on the Red Planet.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Scientists have now combined data from several NASA missions, including MRO, 2001 Mars Odyssey, and the now-inactive Mars Global Surveyor. The project is called SWIM, Subsurface Water Ice Mapping. The project has just released its fourth set of maps, and NASA and JPL say these are the most detailed water ice maps since the project began in 2017.
Using a mix of data sets, scientists have identified the likeliest places to find Martian ice that could be accessed from the surface by future missions.
“These ice-revealing impacts provide a valuable form of ground truth in that they show us locations where the presence of ground ice is unequivocal,” said Gareth Morgan, SWIM’s co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute, in a JPL press release. “We can then use these locations to test that our mapping methods are sound.”
These Mars global maps show the likely distribution of water ice buried within the upper 3 feet (1 meter) of the planet’s surface and represent the latest data from the SWIM project. Buried ice will be a vital resource for astronauts on Mars, serving … Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/PSI
The new maps reveal what scientists believe are masses of subsurface frozen water along Mars’ mid-latitudes. The northern mid-latitudes are especially attractive because a thicker atmosphere exists there than most other regions on the planet. A thicker atmosphere would aid in slowing down an incoming spacecraft. NASA says the ideal astronaut landing sites would be a sweet spot at the southernmost edge of this region – far enough north for ice to be present but close enough to the equator to ensure the warmest possible temperatures for astronauts in an icy region.
“If you send humans to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as you can,” said Sydney Do, JPL’s SWIM project manager. “The less energy you have to expend on keeping astronauts and their supporting equipment warm, the more you have for other things they’ll need.”
The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image of a new, 8-meter (26-foot)-diameter meteorite impact crater in the topographically flat, dark plains within Vastitas Borealis, Mars, on November 1, 2008. The crater was made sometime after Jan. 26, 2008. Bright water ice was excavated by, and now surrounds, the crater. This entire image is 50 meters (164 feet) across. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Back in 2009, data from several instruments on MRO detected and confirmed highly pure, bright ice exposed in new craters, ranging from 1.5 feet to 8 feet deep, at five different Martian sites. Scientists said they were able to figure out, given how long it took that ice to fade from view, that the ice was about 99 percent pure ice.
Over the years, MRO’s wonderful, high-resolution camera, HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) has continued to study fresh impact craters, where meteoroids may have excavated chunks of ice. For the latest maps for the SWIM project, HiRISE data was incorporated to provide the most detailed perspective of the ice’s boundary line as close to the equator as possible. Another instrument on MRO, the Context Camera, which provides a big-picture, background view of the terrain, provides data that further refines the northern hemisphere maps.
Detailed image of large-scale crater floor polygons, caused by desiccation process, with smaller polygons caused by thermal contraction inside. The central polygon is 160 metres in diameter, smaller ones range 10 to 15 metres in width and the cracks are 5-10 metres across. Credit: NASA/JPL
In addition to ice-exposing impacts, scientists also look for “polygon terrain,” where the seasonal expansion and contraction of subsurface ice causes the ground to form polygonal cracks. Seeing these polygons extending around fresh, ice-filled impact craters is yet another indication there’s more ice hidden beneath the surface at these locations.
“The amount of water ice found in locations across the Martian mid-latitudes isn’t uniform; some regions seem to have more than others, and no one really knows why,” said Nathaniel Putzig, SWIM’s other co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute. “The newest SWIM map could lead to new hypotheses for why these variations happen.”
In this artist’s concept, NASA astronauts drill into the Martian subsurface. The agency has created new maps that show where ice is most likely to be easily accessible to future astronauts.
Credit: NASA
He added that it could also help scientists tweak models of how the ancient Martian climate evolved over time, leaving larger amounts of ice deposited in some regions and lesser amounts in others.
SWIM’s scientists hope the project will serve as a foundation for a proposed future mission, called Mars Ice Mapper. This would be an orbiter with a powerful subsurface radar that could search for near-surface ice beyond where HiRISE has confirmed its presence.
This artist’s rendering shows the star HR 8799 and one of its four planets, HR 8799c. It illustrates the system at an early stage of evolution. It also shows the star's dusty disk and rocky inner planets. Credit: Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics
When the JWST activated its penetrating infrared eyes in July 2022, it faced a massive wish-list of targets compiled by an eager international astronomy community. Distant, early galaxies, nascent planets forming in dusty disks, and the end of the Universe’s dark ages and its first light were on the list. But exoplanets were also on the list, and there were thousands of them beckoning to be studied.
But one distant solar system stood out: HR 8799, a system about 133 light-years away.
Why this system over others? 15 years ago astronomers discovered three exoplanets orbiting the star. Not long after they announced a fourth, all detected with direct imaging. They’re all massive planets on wide orbits, which are rare. The HR 8799 system is also young, another important point.
The fact that they were discovered 15 years ago is also important; it means we have observations of these planets that span a lengthy time. This type of data is critical to understanding other solar systems because the duration of the data paints a more complete picture.
However, it also poses more questions and whets our appetite for more answers.
That’s why the JWST observed the system recently. Its MIRI instrument and its coronagraph can perform the kind of high-contrast imaging needed to understand the system better.
HR 8799 is 1.5 times more massive than the Sun and is almost five times more luminous. It’s also surrounded by a debris disk and is only about 30 million years old. Young solar systems are important because they can reveal the intricate details behind planet formation, one of the things the JWST was built to focus on.
The four planets are HR 8799 b, c, d, and e. They’re all massive planets, between 5.7 and 9.1 Jupiter masses, barely below the point where deuterium fusion takes place, making them brown dwarfs. They range from 16 to 71 astronomical units away from the star, and have orbits from about 45 to about 460 years. All four of them have radii of about 1.2 Jupiter radii.
A portrait of the HR8799 planetary system as imaged by the Hale Telescope. A fourth planet was eventually discovered. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Palomar Observatory.
Massive giant planets that follow large orbits greater than 5 AU are rare. So every instance of these types of planets is important. MIRI’s high contrast imaging can open up a new window on these types of systems and allowing scientists to characterize them more fully. Mid-infrared observations of the system have been difficult up until now. Not only that, but the JWST’s angular resolution makes the observations even more powerful.
What did the JWST find?
“Overall, the MIRI images of the HR 8799 system yield a very different vision than in the near IR, with the clear detection of the four planets, together with a localized but extended central emission,” the authors write.
The JWST was able to refine what we already know about some aspects of this system. The main objective of this work was to characterize the planetary atmospheres better.
While there has been some uncertainty around the nature of the planets, and if they are brown dwarfs, the JWST observations put that idea to rest. “Their colors indicate that these four giant planets differ from field brown dwarfs,” the authors write.
An artist’s depiction of the relative sizes of the Sun, a low-mass star, a brown dwarf, Jupiter, and the Earth. While there was some initial uncertainty over the nature of the planets around HR 8799, the JWST images confirmed them as planets rather than brown dwarfs. Image Credit: Jupiter: NASA,ESA,and A. Simon (NASA,GSFC); Sun and Low-Mass Star: NASA,SDO; Brown Dwarf: NASA,ESA,and JPL-Caltech; Earth: NASA; Infographic: NASA and E. Wheatley (STScI)
Their temperatures range from 900 K to 1300 K, with HR 8799 b being fainter and cooler. The JWST measurement’s shows that planet b’s temperature is lower than previous observations showed, an indication of the telescope’s greater power. MIRI also identified two atmospheric chemicals unequivocally: H2O and CO. The authors say there’s a debatable detection of methane, and that’s additional evidence that they’re planets not brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs always show the signature for methane at these temperatures.
The JWST’s MIRI instrument was built with different filters. They were partly designed to investigate the presence of ammonia, which is a solid biosignature on terrestrial planets. Unfortunately, these four planets are a little too hot for ammonia to stand out. “As a result, the current data cannot conclude on the detectability of the ammonia feature in the HR 8799 planets,” the paper states. If it had detected ammonia, it would be headline news.
This is one of the JWST’s MIRI images of HR 8799 and its four planets. It won’t grace the cover of a magazine; it’s a scientific image. Image Credit: Boccaletti et al. 2023.
The HR 8799 system is also noteworthy for its debris disk. It’s unusual in that it has two belts. Researchers have wondered if the inner edge of the outer belt was caused by a fifth planet with a mass between Jupiter’s and Saturn’s. Others thought it might be a dust clump.
But the JWST shows that it’s a background object, and seems to have ended the debate. “With a new data point, 4.44 years apart from the former detection, we can now safely conclude that this is a background object,” the authors write.
The powerful filters on the JWST’s MIRI instrument ended the debate about a potential fifth planet at HR 8799. This MIRI image helped determine that the object is in fact a background object. Image Credit: Boccaletti et al. 2023.
This was the JWST’s first look at a young exoplanetary system with its MIRI instrument, including its filters and its coronagraph. “The MIRI instrument onboard JWST is now offering high-contrast imaging capacity at mid-IR wavelengths, thereby opening a completely new field of investigation to characterize young exoplanetary systems,” the authors explain.
As such, the main thrust of the work was to test the observations and different algorithms to determine how to best use it in future work, and how to interpret the results. For example, measuring a planet’s flux successfully means accounting for how the coronagraph attenuates the images, depending on a planet’s position.
These observations contribute to using the instrument more effectively. Ironically, MIRI’s coronagraph can be so sensitive that understanding its images of young stellar systems can be challenging. The use of the instrument is only in its infancy, and the coronagraphs extreme sensitivity “can make the detection and the interpretation of young system observations very challenging, not mentioning the confusion related to background galaxies,” the authors write.
The authors point out that there’s still room for improvement, and these results will only lead to improved future results.
Former US intelligence officer David Grusch testified before Congress during the July 2023 UAP hearing, stating that we have numerous spacecraft of non-human origin. If this is the case, one might wonder if any contact has been established between humans and these extraterrestrial species. There have been persistent rumors suggesting that the US government may have signed treaties with these extraterrestrials and has been engaged in collaborative efforts with them over an extended period.
According to a rather extraordinary claim made by former US government consultant Timothy Good, it is alleged that the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had three clandestine meetings with extraterrestrials. Good claimed Eisenhower met aliens at a remote air base in New Mexico in 1954. In more recent times, former Israeli Space Head Haim Eshed stated that aliens and the U.S. government had reached some type of deal to stay quiet about their experiments on Earth and secret facilities on Mars. Eshed went on to claim the existence of a “Galactic Federation” and implied that then-President Trump was on the brink of making significant revelations in this regard.
Video Evidence
During a podcast with former Fox News anchor Clayton Morris on his show Redacted, Joshua Reid, a former United States Navy serviceman with a background in missile weapons defense systems, brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. He opened the conversation by referencing his personal experiences in the Navy, specifically during the years 2004 to 2006. Reid’s background made him intimately familiar with topics related to secret space projects, a subject that has piqued his interest for over two and a half decades.
It is worth noting that Joshua Reid’s extensive research in the field of UAPs and classified information has led him to the inner workings of certain government activities. His extensive four-year investigation revealed a disconcerting pattern. It appeared that military technology, particularly in special access programs, was unintentionally making its way to foreign adversaries, including China. This exchange of classified information seemed to involve universities and professors who were receiving grants to reverse engineer technologies from these programs.
The remarkable twist in this story was that Hillary Clinton’s emails were potentially facilitating the sale of this classified information to China and other foreign entities. China would fund universities, enticing professors to divulge information on special access programs. This enabled them to advance their technology rapidly, potentially reaching parity with the United States.
Former Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III, well-versed in these special access programs, played a crucial role in this unfolding drama. He represented David Grusch and became a central figure in the whistleblower saga. According to Reid, multiple whistleblowers were involved, with two possessing firsthand information and tangible evidence. The fear of repercussions led these individuals to testify in front of congressmen, notably, Indiana Congressman André Carson. However, it was not until these whistleblowers presented video evidence of intelligence community members communicating with extraterrestrials that congressmen took their claims seriously.
The impact of these videos was profound. Congressmen were visibly shaken, with one trembling and another drinking water profusely. This sudden shift in demeanor signified that the evidence was both extraordinary and unsettling. The whistleblowers were introduced to Inspector General McCullough, who had an extensive background in the very special access programs at the center of the controversy.
“I’ve heard that we can confirm this later, but from what I’m hearing, André Carson is this Congressman that they testified in front of, along with a few others. The Congressman didn’t take these guys seriously, but what ended up happening is they pulled out the evidence, a DVD, and they showed these congressmen video evidence of intelligence community members communicating with extraterrestrials. After these videos were shown to congressmen, they were noticeably shaken in fear. One of them was holding a piece of paper and could not stop shaking. Another was drinking water profusely, and this is when they began to take this very, very seriously and introduce these gentlemen to the former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, McCullough. Hence, he enters the picture as someone who understands these SAP programs, has been read into these programs from back in the day, and is now representing these gentlemen.”
Morris was eager to learn more about the DVDs and the physical evidence related to the astounding claims made by the whistleblowers. He posed the question of where this evidence was currently held and whether the public would ever have the opportunity to view it.
Joshua Reid responded by revealing that the evidence, in the form of DVDs and other materials, was regarded as an “insurance policy.” This meant that the evidence was securely in the hands of two prominent UFO researchers. Furthermore, Reid confirmed that these researchers had not only seen the evidence but also verified its authenticity, which was a significant factor contributing to the growing interest in this matter.
Morris was eager to learn more about the DVDs and the physical evidence related to the astounding claims made by the whistleblowers. He asked Reid where this evidence was currently held and whether the public would ever have the opportunity to view it.
Joshua Reid responded by revealing that the evidence, in the form of DVDs and other materials, was regarded as an “insurance policy.” This meant that the evidence was securely in the hands of two prominent UFO researchers. Furthermore, Reid confirmed that these researchers had not only seen the evidence but also verified its authenticity, which was a significant factor contributing to the growing interest in this matter.
One of the prominent UFO researchers who has been sharing insider knowledge on UAPs is investigative journalist Ross Coulthart. It is quite uncertain if Coulthart possesses this DVD evidence but he did reveal that there exists a huge UFO in the possession of the United States that cannot be moved, and he knows the location of the craft. Ross mentioned the existence of non-human intelligence engaging with Earth for a long time and the recovery of certain objects, but he could not disclose specific details due to concerns about revealing advanced technologies.
In a recent episode of “The UFO Podcast,” host Andy engaged in a thought-provoking conversation with Ross. The discussion centered around the secrecy surrounding UFO sightings and government knowledge. Ross, who has deep insights into the matter, shared his perspective on why certain details remain undisclosed.
Andy began by addressing a critical question that has been on the minds of many UFO enthusiasts: the location of the mysterious craft. He asked Ross whether he could reveal where the craft was being held.
Ross responded: “Let me tell you, I can’t tell you the country it’s in; it’s not America. But what I can tell you is that the place where it is kept is used for another purpose that is a laudatory purpose that’s as much in your interests in your country in the UK as it is in mine in Australia and as it is in America. The simple reasons are that there are other uses for the place where this object is stored, and we could end up with a storm Area 51-type scenario if you came out and announced it.”
Ross went on to explain the potential consequences of revealing such information, including international incidents and threats to the safety of personnel at the facilities. He also emphasized the importance of protecting sources, drawing on his experience as a journalist dealing with sensitive intelligence.
Interestingly, Steve Sprague, a UFO researcher who studied the UAP phenomenon for 30 years, claimed that an aerospace executive would come forward and share the information during the July 2023 Congressional Hearing on UAPs. This unidentified insider is described as a C-level executive within the United States-based company, which, according to Sprague, is a top firm reverse-engineering alien technology.
According to the insider, aliens not only exist but have been present on Earth for at least five millennia, if not longer. Startlingly, the individual revealed the existence of at least two civilizations currently residing on our planet: humans and a group known as the “Ganzi,” originating from a distant part of our galaxy, roughly forty light years away. The Ganzi are characterized as technologically advanced beings who possess knowledge far surpassing humanity’s capabilities.
The insider also touched upon significant presidential briefings that have taken place, shedding light on the United States government’s awareness of these developments. On various occasions, President Biden was reportedly briefed on advanced technologies recovered from the Ganzi. The briefings included demonstrations of lasers capable of remarkable feats, such as extracting elements directly from ore and analyzing biological and geological data.
Videos of these briefings purportedly exist, with one showing Biden interacting with three Ganzi beings through a small device placed in his ear. Notably, one of the individuals accompanying the beings was John Podesta, who later assumed the role of Senior Advisor for Clean Energy Innovation. The insider also linked breakthroughs in fusion energy and laser technology to the company’s efforts in reverse-engineering Ganzi technology.
Sprague wrote,
“Date 4 – May 19, 2022, Biden is now in Alaska and stopped off to refuel at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. This video is the most incredible of all. Biden meets with three of the Ganzi. Biden puts a small device in his ear and a conversation occurs without sound. The video lasts for nine minutes and then four people enter the area. One of the people is John Podesta. The other three are unknown. The beings leave and the video ends. In September of 2022, Biden names Podesta as the Senior Advisor for Clean Energy Innovation. December 14, 2022, America has a breakthrough in fusion. To achieve this scientific feat – a laser is used. This laser has ‘unique’ properties.” (Source)
Sprague’s claims cannot be verified; however, it is certain that there exists an alien craft, and the United States has successfully accessed its interior. Dr. James Lacatski, a retired DIA intelligence officer who established the UFO program that operated from 2008 to 2010, has confirmed this. He stated that the craft possesses a streamlined configuration suitable for aerodynamic flight but lacks conventional features such as an engine, wings, intakes, exhaust, or fuel tanks.
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NASA knows there is a spinning and glowing artificial object hiding in the Kuiper Belt
NASA knows there is a spinning and glowing artificial object hiding in the Kuiper Belt
On May 12, 1994 astronomers Michael Irwin and Anna Jitk were working at the observatory in the Canary Islands observing the Kuiper Belt when they spotted something and it glowed and dimmed in a regular rhythm every 5 and a half hours and according to science this object shouldn't even exist.
On April 7, 2016, the NASA team running NASA’s New Horizons mission were waiting nervously. The spacecraft was about to enter the outermost reaches of our solar system.
They'd aimed toward Pluto. Which lives in a region of the solar system called the Kuiper Belt. Just before arriving at the dwarf planet, the team noticed an object, discovered by the astronomers in 1994, nearby. And it was acting very strange. This object, whatever it was, was spinning faster than everything else around it. Too fast. Artificially fast. And the object reflected light in an odd way.
New Horizons changed course to do a fly-by. They wanted a better look at this bizarre behavior. But as the spacecraft approached the object, all communications went down.
The New Horizons spacecraft suddenly put itself into safe mode. Nothing was broken but NASA wasn't able to see or hear anything.
Something or someone was controlling it and blocking the signal and if there is someone controlling the object, they don't want to be seen and of all the places in the solar system the Kuiper belt is the best place to hide.
Whoever it was did not want NASA to know they were here and that they’ve been watching us for a very long. time.
Even though NASA did lose contact with New Horizon at one point in time it is not a surprise that there's no official record of New Horizons breaking down.
When high-ranking officials whisper secrets, hidden for decades, and Congress sheds light on age-old mysteries, there’s a seismic shift. At the heart of this change, there’s George Knapp, an investigative journalist who’s had an up-close encounter with the truth.
In the 1980s, Area 51 was mostly unknown, a mere spot in the Nevada desert. That changed with two names: Bob Lazar and John Lear. They brought to the public’s attention tales of reverse engineering alien craft, stoking the fires of UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists. While many dismissed Lazar’s accounts as fabrications, George Knapp, a seasoned journalist, couldn’t simply look away.
Throughout his career, Knapp navigated the intricate web of UFO lore, whistleblower accounts, and government silence. His encounters with David Grusch, an intelligence officer, became especially significant. Grusch unveiled his whistleblower complaint that disclosed a multi-decade UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering program. In the presence of high-ranking bosses, Grusch attended a UFO conference, shedding light on these covert operations.
The Mysterious Mantell UFO Incident by Crashed Pilot Captain Thomas F. Mantell (1948) - FindingUFO
The Pilot Who Chased a UFO... and died - Thomas Mantell
Such testimonies weren’t isolated events. There were congressional hearings where pointed questions were asked about extraterrestrial technology and biologics. Eyebrows raised at the mention of non-human entities associated with UFO crash sites. Even more startling were revelations of unidentified aerial phenomena showing interest in nuclear technology.
This isn’t merely a tale of unverified accounts. Behind the stories lies a deeper truth: a government possibly sitting on groundbreaking information. Are they safeguarding national security, or is there more to the story? As Knapp’s reporting suggests, there might be people behind the scenes who possess knowledge far beyond what’s publicly known.
In recent years, the conversation has changed. UFOs, once a fringe topic, are now discussed openly in mainstream media. The public’s interest has surged, eager for answers to questions that might reshape humanity’s understanding of itself and the cosmos.
Video:
The UFO Reporter Part 2: The Files of George Knapp | NewsNation Prime
Yet, as Knapp reminds us, the journey to truth is layered. “It would be interesting if we could have a much larger investigation by someone else,” he mused. And while the path ahead remains uncertain, one thing is clear: this enigma warrants our attention.
With researchers like Knapp and Jeremy Corbell at the forefront, sharing testimonies of whistleblowers and unearthing more pieces of the puzzle, the future promises revelations that could be both astonishing and transformative.
Planet formation is a little like making a cake. If you haven't yet added an emulsifier, you will find that the liquids and fats separate in the bowl. Something like this happened when big celestial bodies in our Solar System were forming billions of years ago. Scientists now think Mars was once covered in a global magma ocean, and eventually, gravity began to separate the different stuff within this gooey ultra-hot blob into layers.
Data from NASA’s Mars InSight mission suggests that its center is more decadent than expected. Rather than one single, sizable liquid iron core, there’s evidence that it's much smaller but topped with a coating of molten rock.
LISTENING TO A CRASH
On Wednesday, the journal Nature published two papers based on data from Insight, which listened keenly to Mars’ interior rumblings beginning in 2018 until dust blanketed the stationary lander’s solar panels, cutting off its energy supply and forcing the mission to end in 2022.
The Red Planet is only the third celestial body, after Earth and the Moon, to have its interior significantly examined via seismological waves, the same science that tracks earthquakes on Earth. On Mars, tremors are called marsquakes. These perturbations come from internal activity or when a meteorite smacks into the planet’s surface, and they give scientists an idea about what is sitting in the middle of the planet, deep below any probe could survive. Waves travel differently depending on what they move through, and thanks to one particular meteorite strike, scientists have reimagined what lies deep beneath Mars’ surface.
The two new studies focused on a strike from a meteor that smacked into Mars almost on the opposite side to where Insight was located. The September 2021 event created waves that sliced through the planet and skimmed across the top of Mars's center. This reading, paired with other marsquake data, reveals that the iron core of Mars is smaller than previously estimated, owing to the coating of a molten rock layer.
Two new studies published on October 25, 2023 suggest that Mars’ liquid iron core (center) is surrounded by a 93-mile-thick (150 km) molten rock layer.
A critical aspect of the new work is the P wave that propagated through Mars. In seismology, there are two main types of waves. Imagine a slinky on a table, and you're holding one end. Push it, and the coil will compress and travel, known as a P wave. The meteorite impact was almost on the other side of Mars to where the InSight probe was stationed, so the lander picked up this P wave after it hit the molten rock layer on top of the iron liquid core.
Other marsquakes that happened much closer to Insight produced S waves. If instead of pushing a slinky, you move the end side to side, you create a vertical wiggle known as an S wave. Altogether, P wave and S wave data show that Mars's iron liquid iron core is actually much smaller than previously predicted, as it’s surrounded by a 93-mile-thick liquid layer made of silicate.
A UNIQUE POSSIBILITY
Molten rock touching molten iron “appears to be unique,” Amir Khan, a geophysicist at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich and lead author of one of the two studies, says in a Nature article describing the research. “You have this peculiarity of liquid–liquid layering, which is something that doesn’t exist on the Earth.”
The second study suggests there was an ancient, global magma ocean on Mars, a time in the planet’s ancient past when heavy iron gravitationally separated from the lighter silicates and formed the liquid iron core that has fascinated scientists since InSight’s surveys began.
Scientists think Mars’ core is entirely covered by the molten rock, but the estimate is based on the serendipitous blows that meteorites dealt to Mars while InSight was online. There’s no future seismological survey planned for Mars to add further checks, but at the very least, what scientists have learned with the lander will inform missions to other worlds in our Solar System.
NASA heeft een prachtige opname gepresenteerd in de ‘Astronomische Afbeelding van de Dag‘ van Komeet Encke, de tweede periodieke asteroïde ooit ontdekt in de geschiedenis, na de Komeet Halley, naast de emissienevel die officieel bekendstaat als IC 410.
Encke (2P/Encke) staat bekend om zijn korte omlooptijd onder de kometen die door ons zonnestelsel reizen, en heeft slechts 3,3 jaar nodig om een volledige omloop om de zon te voltooien en zichtbaar te worden.
Bovendien is deze komeet nauw verbonden met ten minste twee jaarlijkse meteorietenregens op aarde, de Noordelijke en Zuidelijke Tauriden, die beide eind oktober en begin november plaatsvinden.
Op de afbeelding is de schoonheid van Komeet Encke te zien, met zijn groene kleur, in de buurt van een jonge sterrenhoop en wolken in de emissienevel IC 410.
NASA benadrukt een indrukwekkende opname van een komeet naast een nevel
Mars’ liquid iron alloy core is surrounded by a layer of fully molten silicate (magma) about 150 km thick, according to a pair of papers published in the journal Nature.
An artist’s depiction of a liquid silicate layer wrapped around the Martian core.
Image credit: IPGP-CNES.
In 2021, an analysis of seismic data gathered by the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument onboard NASA’s InSight lander suggested the presence of a large but low-density core, composed of liquid iron and lighter elements such as sulfur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
However, these results suggest that the core has a higher proportion of lighter elements than is feasible according to estimates of the abundances of these elements early in Mars’ formation history.
In the two new studies, the authors analyzed the latest batch of seismic data from InSight in combination with first principles simulations and geophysical models to produce their estimates for the size and composition of the Martian core.
They found that the liquid iron core of Mars is surrounded by an approximately 150 km-thick layer of near-molten silicate rock, the top of which was previously misinterpreted as the surface of the core.
This decrease in core radius implies a higher density than estimated in the earlier InSight study.
“The blanket not only insulates the heat coming from the core and prevents the core from cooling, but also concentrates radioactive elements whose decay generates heat,” said University of Maryland’s Professor Vedran Lekic.
“And when that happens, the core is likely to be unable to produce the convective motions that would create a magnetic field — which can explain why Mars currently doesn’t have an active magnetic field around it.”
Without a functional protective magnetic field around itself, a terrestrial planet such as Mars would be extremely vulnerable to harsh solar winds and lose all the water on its surface, making it incapable of sustaining life.
“This difference between Earth and Mars could be attributed to differences in internal structure and the different planetary evolution paths the two planets took,” Professor Lekic said.
“The thermal blanketing of Mars’ metallic core by the liquid layer at the base of the mantle implies that external sources are necessary to generate the magnetic field recorded in the Martian crust during the first 500 to 800 million years of its evolution,” said Dr. Henri Samuel of the French National Center for Scientific Research.
“These sources could be energetic impacts or core motion generated by gravitational interactions with ancient satellites which have since then disappeared.”
The findings support theories that Mars was at one time a molten ocean of magma that later crystallized to produce a layer of silicate melt enriched in iron and radioactive elements at the base of the Martian mantle.
The heat emanating from the radioactive elements would then have dramatically altered the thermal evolution and cooling history of the Red Planet.
“These layers, if widespread, can have pretty big consequences for the rest of the planet,” Professor Lekic said.
“Their existence can help tell us whether magnetic fields can be generated and maintained, how planets cool over time, and also how the dynamics of their interiors change over time.”
“The discovery of this stratification in the Martian mantle opens new research horizons, since the seismic data recorded by the SEIS instrument of the InSight mission will now be reconsidered in the light of this new paradigm,” said ISAE-SUPAERO’s Dr. Mélanie Drilleau.
A. Khan et al. 2023. Evidence for a liquid silicate layer atop the Martian core. Nature 622, 718-723; doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06586-4
H. Samuel et al. 2023. Geophysical evidence for an enriched molten silicate layer above Mars’s core. Nature 622, 712-717; doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06601-8
Idaho’s Unsolved Mystery: UFO Chase Ends in Military Showdown! #TruthIsOutThere
Idaho’s Unsolved Mystery: UFO Chase Ends in Military Showdown! #TruthIsOutThere
The picturesque landscapes of northern Idaho, with its expansive lakes and undulating mountains, aren’t just renowned for their beauty. For some, they harbor secrets that span both the modern age and ancient times. Among the captivating mysteries is the story of Carolyn, a resident of the region, whose tale of a mysterious sighting and an unexpected military confrontation has left many astounded.
On a seemingly ordinary day in the vicinity of Lake Pend Oreille, Carolyn’s afternoon took an unexpected turn. As she glanced towards the mountains, a strange object streaked across the sky. To the casual observer, it could have been dismissed as a meteor, but for Carolyn, it was clear this was no ordinary celestial body. The object was engulfed in flames, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake, moving faster than any aircraft she had ever seen. Intrigued and driven by an indomitable spirit of curiosity, she decided to follow it.
But what started as a pursuit of the unknown quickly took a dark turn. Rounding a bend, Carolyn was met not with answers, but with the chilling sight of military jeeps and armed personnel. The guns weren’t pointed to the skies from whence the object came, but squarely at her. The urgency and surprise in the encounter were palpable. Where had they come from? Why were they so suddenly on the scene? And most importantly, what were they hiding?
Carolyn’s account suggests that whatever she saw wasn’t just known to her, but was also of significant interest to the military. Rumors later swirled through the town of a military flatbed truck, making its way discreetly with an enigmatic cargo hidden beneath a tarp. Was it a fragment of the object she saw, or was it something else entirely?
The story is reminiscent of many UFO accounts where witnesses find themselves inadvertently crossing paths with official entities, seemingly eager to keep such incidents under wraps. What sets Carolyn’s story apart is the backdrop of Lake Pend Oreille’s rich history. The land, which is steeped in Native American culture, particularly the Kalispell tribe, has tales of the ‘star people’—beings from another realm or perhaps, another galaxy.
VIDEO:
UFO Witness Was Threatened By The US Military After Pursuing Mysterious Sighting | UFO Witness
While Carolyn’s confrontation with the military was unnerving, it’s also a testament to the lengths to which some entities might go to keep certain truths hidden. Whether the object was extraterrestrial or just a top-secret military asset is still up for debate, but for Carolyn and those who’ve heard her tale, the skies over Idaho will never look the same again.
In a world where the extraordinary is often drowned out by the noise of daily life, stories like Carolyn’s serve as a powerful reminder. Sometimes, all it takes is a glance towards the horizon to challenge what we know and push us into the realm of the unknown.
Bizarre aerial phenomenon baffles Ohio residents with sonic boom
Bizarre aerial phenomenon baffles Ohio residents with sonic boom
On October 23, 2023, an unusual event unfolded in the skies above Northwestern and Eastwestern Ohio, leaving residents perplexed.
Initially, attention was drawn to a mysterious white object descending through the daytime sky above Eastwestern Ohio which was obviously not a conventional aircraft, helicopter, drone, or meteor, the orb-like nature of this white object fueled speculation.
Soon after, a second swiftly moving object emerged above Northwestern Ohio, changing direction which means the object is under intelligent control. Adding to the intrigue, a sudden and thunderous sonic boom echoed through the air, further intensifying the mystery.
The first white object remains unexplained. Regarding the second unidentified entity, MrMBB333 proposed a hypothesis involving a potential crash into the Earth. However, alternative theories circulated, with some speculating that the resounding sonic boom might have been the result of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier. Nonetheless, this theory lacks conclusive evidence.
Whatever these two objects were, their presence in the sky constituted a highly uncommon occurrence, capturing the attention of onlookers on that October day.
When it comes to mystery and eeriness, there is no place quite like Solomon Islands. This remote island chain in the Pacific Ocean is located to the east of Papua New Guinea and consists of six major islands and hundreds of smaller islands. Guadalcanal is the largest island where the capital city Honiara is located. Much of what we know about the strange and chilling phenomena that routinely occur here was documented by an Australian aircraft engineer named Marius Boirayon, in his book titled, Solomon Island Mysteries. [1]
Marius had taken early retirement and married into the local community in the Solomon Islands. During the time he was living in Guadalcanal he came to know from the locals that the dense tropical forests of the islands are infested with hundreds of humanoid giants, some of whom are well over 15-feet tall! Sightings of these Sasquatch-like creatures are very common here, and no-one makes a big deal out of it. Terrifying stories of abduction and cannibalism practiced by the giants are remembered and passed on by the villagers. The giants have an unsavory reputation of occasionally abducting women and breeding with them, giving birth to human-giant hybrids, some of some still survive. I had written about Marius’s experiences with the Solomon Island giants in a previous article.
The Solomon Islands and Melanesia. Credit: Cruickshanks, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
As if the incredible tales of menacing humanoid giants are not enough to test the limits of our belief, Marius writes of another strange phenomenon that occurs routinely on the islands. Almost every other night, a bright, menacing, UFO - which the villagers call a “Dragon-Snake” – flies over the island, and often terrorizes the locals. During the time Marius was living in a remote seaside village in north-west Guadalcanal, he learnt that, “this creature came out of the mountains at night and flew around. Everyone in the whole area had feared this so-called Dragon-Snake for generations, as it had piercing red eyes that killed people and had been responsible for people going missing.” One night, while spear-fishing by torchlight with his friend Joseph, Marius got his first view of the Dragon-Snake.
“As I looked down the beach, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. About a kilometer away, there was a very bright luminous white object flying slowly over the water...After focusing in on the star-like, brilliantly lit object (with binoculars), I noticed that it was about 60-foot round and appeared to make no noise. We watched it for a couple of minutes until it submerged itself in the sea. Joseph told me to just wait for about ten minutes and I’d see it come back out again - which it did! When it rose out of the water, it was glowing twice as brightly as when it first went in. We continued to watch it with my binoculars as it returned back to the coast in the same direction as it came and disappeared out of sight over the top of the coconut trees.”
The UFO appeared almost every other night, and Marius recounted having seen it more than sixty times over a seven-month period. Once it flew noiselessly over Marius’s house, the brilliance of its white light illuminating the whole area. Not only could it fly at phenomenal speeds, it could also vanish instantly, almost as if it had cloaked itself! The locals said that the Dragon-Snake had been seen well over a century, but it exhibited a distinctly unfriendly and menacing attitude towards the islanders, because of which it was greatly feared. Marius was greatly mystified by these tales, as well by his own sightings. He wondered how many of the UFOs were actually there on the islands. Why did it go under the sea from time to time? What could be the reason for the killing and abduction of the natives?
A couple of disturbing incidents convinced Marius that the stories of abduction and injuries inflicted by the UFOs were not just tall tales meant for the entertainment of foreigners. One day Marius learnt from his friend Joseph that a fisherman had sustained grievous burn injury to his entire body from a UFO. Marius and Joseph visited the fisherman in the hospital, where he was lying on his bed in great pain, covered in bandages from head to toe. The fisherman recounted his story to Joseph in the Guadalcanal language.
“He told Joseph that he had been out fishing in his fiber-glass boat at about 3:00 am, when he saw the Dragon-Snake flying along. Foolishly, he started flashing his torch at it. That was when it flew over to him in an instant and hovered overhead. Panicking, he started his engine and took off to get away from it, but it followed him as he zigzagged his way back to shore. It was during this short pursuit to the beach, that the so- called Dragon-Snake fired some form of light at him, only partially hitting him…The fisherman said that when he drove his boat up onto the beach and ran into the bush, the Dragon-Snake followed him to where he was hiding behind a tree and hovered above him.”
It seems like the act of flashing the torch offended the UFO to the extent that it decided to injure the fisherman with a light beam. Of course, this is not the first time that the UFOs of Solomon Islands have tormented and terrorized the villagers, without much of a reason. It reveals an insensitive and sinister side of the UFOs that is often not observed or reported in other parts of the world.
The only other cases that I am aware of where UFOs were said to have inflicted severe burn injuries on humans, or even killed them, are those which were recorded during the UFO wave in Brazil in 1977-78. The MUFON archive in the Black Vault Encyclopedia Project contains a detailed report by UFO investigator Bob Pratt who had made more than ten field visits to Brazil between 1978 to 1993 with the express objective of collecting and translating documented information about the UFO incidents, and to interact with eyewitnesses. The report states,
“Operação Prato was a Brazilian Air Force investigation of a prolonged UFO wave that went on in Brazil in 1977-78. In the Prato investigation between October 1977 and January 1978, intelligence agents from the Air Force base in Belém in northern Brazil interviewed hundreds of witnesses in Colares and about thirty other villages north of Belém…
The men were sent to the Colares area only after several mayors complained that their villages had come under attack by UFOs and appealed to the Air Force for help. Many of the people had been burned by rays of light from UFOs that swarmed over the area. During the operation the agents themselves saw UFOs numerous times and took hundreds of photographs as well as several hours of motion picture films. Some of the films reportedly showed UFOs diving into or coming out of the waters of nearby Marajó Bay. The investigation lasted only four months but continued unofficially throughout much of 1978 because of the personal interest of the leaders of the investigators.
In 1997, long after he had retired as a lieutenant colonel, Hollanda decided he was no longer obligated to remain silent about Operação Prato and publicly discussed Operação Prato. He gave several interviews, including one with fellow researcher Cynthia Luce and me (Bob Pratt). He told us “many people” had been burned by UFOs during the UFO wave, both on the Colares Island side of Marajó Bay and on Marajó Island.... A doctor once told Belém researcher Daniel Rebisso Giese that a colonel had shown him many photos of people who had been burned….Wellaide Carvalho, the doctor in Colares at the time, told Daniel and me in 1993 that she had treated about forty people who had been burned and that two of them died. She said members of the Air Force team knew people had been burned.”[2]
Bob Pratt later wrote a book titled UFO Danger Zone (1996), where he described the harrowing encounters of the people of Colares with the UFOs during the 1977-78 wave, and the physical and psychological aftereffects of these experiences.
“Frequently, an encounter of the unhealthy kind peculiar to Brazil begins when a UFO appears without warning just above the head of someone at night, revealing itself in a burst of sudden daylight and then chasing the terrified man, woman or child as he or she flees in terror. At times, UFOs have tried to pull a victim up into their craft with some unseen force, and sometimes they've taken people away. They've also used grappling hooks to snag unfortunate souls, and dropped hot liquid on the arms and shoulders of others to make them let go of trees and bushes.
Some hapless victims have been paralyzed during encounters. Others have hidden, horror-stricken, as UFOs tried for hours to flush them out of their hiding places. Not even homes have been safe, as beams of lights from UFOs have pierced tile roofs like lasers and burned men and women inside.
Even when a person isn't injured, he or she is nearly always traumatized. They are confronted by a strange airborne machine with seemingly magical powers and humanoid creatures who try to take them away. Even the simple sighting of a fiery ball of light in the sky can be terrifying because almost everyone knows of someone who had been chased, hurt or killed by these things.”
Apparently, the UFOs that swooped down on the island of Colares in Brazil in 1977-78, and later extended to nearby locations, exhibited the same kind of terrorizing propensity as those of Solomon Islands. Could these be a specific bunch of rogue aliens who get a kick out of terrorizing hapless victims? Perhaps, they just can’t stop themselves from showing off their technological superiority and having a laugh at our expense? While abductions and genetic experiments have been reported in many UFO cases, there haven’t been too many instances of people being deliberately burnt or killed. This is kind of scary and one can only imagine the terror that the people of Colares went through and the deep scars it would have left in the collective memory.
Coming back to Marius’s adventures on Solomon Islands, sometime after the fisherman incident Marius heard on the radio news that two Catholic nuns had gone missing while walking along the road, a few kilometers east of the village where he lived. This greatly intrigued him. This region of Guadalcanal was renowned for the Dragon-Snake’s reputation for stealing people. Were the UFOs at it again? Or were the normally reclusive giants feeling the urge to breed with the villagers? These are the kinds of surreal issues that the Solomon Islanders grapple with. When an abduction happens, they try to narrow it down between giants or UFOs. They don’t think in terms of criminals or psychopathic nutcases on the loose, like the rest of us.
During one of his conversations with a local chief, Marius came to know that the Dragon-Snake comes out of a lake at the base of a waterfall, located high up on an unnamed mountain, around 8 km inland from the coast. For the sake of convenience, Marius named this mountain, “Mount Dragon”. After a bit of planning, he and Joseph set out on a difficult and dangerous trek through the dense, mountainous, rainforests, which were teeming with wild boars, snakes and leeches. After three days of arduous climbing on steep, slippery slopes, they caught sight of the waterfall lake below them. It was about half the size of a football field with reeds growing around its edge and a waterfall feeding it from above. They found a good viewing spot, and concealed themselves with leaves and twigs to avoid being spotted by the UFO and getting incinerated. Their efforts paid off, as Marius writes:
“It was nearly 9:45 pm when we first saw the light of the UFO glow in the water of the lake before it surfaced and, after moving to the edge of the lake, flew slowly northwards down the mountain range at a 45-degree angle, continuing along the length of the valley and, after a minute or so, disappearing out of sight. I remember that moment as being all the confirmation I needed of what the chiefs had told me – and the beginnings of a mind-altering realization. We had been waiting for it to return for about two hours when we saw the light of another UFO surfacing out of the lake. “What! Two of them! How many of them were there?” This one did not head north but instead went south along the valley and, shortly after, disappeared out of sight. It was approximately 2:30 am when, I presume, the one that went north emerged from the darkness and flew back up the valley, slowly climbing to the lake’s entrance and submerging itself in the lake, with the glow from the vehicle diminishing as it went deeper. I had been expecting the UFO that went south to return that night, but it didn’t.”
This is probably the only instance I know of where a UFO has been surreptitiously observed emerging from its subterranean entrance and re-entering the same entrance later at night. If this account is true – and I have no reason to believe otherwise – then it is a strong indication that the UFO phenomenon is largely driven by the inhabitants of a highly advanced underworld civilization, who prefer to keep themselves hidden from us. Marius also found out from a book kept in the Solomon Island Cultural Museum that the Solomon Islanders who had interactions with the “alien” beings flying these UFOs described them in a very similar fashion as other eyewitnesses from around the world.
“Upon arriving at the Solomon Island Cultural Museum, and after a few directions to this book, there it was! Fifteen pages of hand-drawn, detailed sketches of aliens, just like the ones we are all used to seeing on the television. An islander had compiled this short collection for the museum from different eyewitness accounts of these strange-looking creatures.”
Over time, working on tips and information received from the islanders, Marius identified five entrances on the islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita that the UFOs use to enter and exit their subterranean world. He believes that all these entrances lead to a vast, highly-advanced, subterranean civilization that we have no clue about. “Although there’s no shortage of extraterrestrial traffic around Planet Earth from other parts of the Galaxy”, he writes, “the majority of the UFO sightings that we Homo sapiens surface-dwellers see, are actually from extraterrestrial subterranean species that live beneath our planet. It’s a big world down there…”
He believes that these subterranean dwellers “were here several hundred thousand years before Homo sapiens arrived and they originally evolved here on Earth anyway. A long time ago, they and many other technologically advanced species, learnt that it is safer to live below the surface of the planet.”
Now, that is an astute observation, for it is indeed safer under the earth’s surface, where one can be sheltered from extreme temperature fluctuations, volcanic eruptions and high-energy radiation from space that causes harmful genetic mutations. However, one needs to be physiologically adapted to living in an environment with low oxygen and sunlight. Recent scientific discoveries indicate that subterranean life may be the most common form of life on the other planets of the Solar System. Surface living may be an exception, rather than the norm. In 2019, scientists found geological evidence of a “planet-wide groundwater system” on Mars. Pluto has an underground ocean below its thick frozen shell, as does Europa, the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 67 confirmed moons. These subsurface oceans may act as incubators of life. If alien life forms from the subterranean oceans or caverns of a different star system came to the earth thousands or millions of years ago, either on spaceships or by hitching a ride on interstellar comets, they would be inclined to fashion a home for themselves underground, within the vast aquifers or enormous cave systems.
Marius’s reckons that the giants of the Solomon Islands – who are sighted almost every other day somewhere on the island chain – also live under the surface of the earth, and move from place to place through extensive subterranean tunnels.
“The giants have vast cave systems running within most of the mountains of this 200-plus kilometer tropical jungle island. Some of the Guadalcanal giants live organized lifestyles with social structures, and I have come across many Guadalcanal people that believe they can go from east to west through their cave systems without seeing the light of day, and many believe that their population numbers in the thousands. The Guadalcanal islanders also believe that there is a huge city of them living inside or underneath the big mountains of the island.”
What I found most appealing about Marius’s accounts of the Solomon Island UFOs and giants is the conviction with which he claimed that both the giants and the UFOs inhabit a secret, subterranean civilization. This conviction stems not only from his own experiences and researches into this topic over a period of many years, but also the many interactions he had with many locals and eyewitnesses, who had nothing to gain by relating their incredible experiences and the stories they had heard from their ancestors.
In many parts of the world, the UFO phenomenon seems to go hand-in-hand with Sasquatch sightings. In other words, wherever Sasquatch sightings are frequent, or the legends of the giants and the dwarfs are deeply embedded in the local folklore, UFOs are also spotted from time to time. This could be because there are certain “hot spots” on the surface of the earth with multiple points of entry and exit to the subterranean civilization. The subterrestrials prefer to use these portals for their nocturnal adventures, and as such, we find a concentration of paranormal phenomenon in a specific region. Undoubtedly, Marius’s personal experiences in the Solomon Island takes us a step closer to unraveling this ongoing mystery, where answers are hard to come by.
References
[1] Marius Boirayon, "Solomon Island Mysteries: Accounts of Giants and UFOs in The Solomon Islands", 2009. [2] Operação Prato , MUFON archive in the Black Vault Encyclopedia Project, https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/MUFON/Pratt/prato.pdf
The inner structure of Mars, revealed: NASA discovers a molten layer wrapped around the planet's core - in breakthrough that could provide key clues to its formation
The inner structure of Mars, revealed: NASA discovers a molten layer wrapped around the planet's core - in breakthrough that could provide key clues to its formation
The discovery suggests Mars' core is denser and smaller than previous estimates
It may help to explain how Mars evolved and became the barren planet it is today
Like Earth, much of Mars' rocky insides remain somewhat of a mystery because the planet's interior is inaccessible to humans.
But a major new breakthrough could yet provide new insights into how Mars formed, evolved and became the barren world it is today.
That's because two new studies have helped to uncover a previously unknown molten layer wrapped around the planet's core.
The scientists involved compared it to a 'heating blanket' and say the discovery suggests the Martian core is likely to be smaller and denser than previously thought.
Their findings have been described as 'the most accurate and precise estimates so far of Mars' core and mantle structure'.
The inside of Mars: Data from NASA's Insight lander has helped to discover a molten layer wrapped around the Red Planet's core
Cutting open the Red Planet: Scientists compared it to a 'heating blanket' and say the revelation suggests the Martian core is likely to be smaller and denser than previously thought
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, with a 'near-dead' dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere.
Mars is also a dynamic planet with seasons, polar ice caps, canyons, extinct volcanoes, and evidence that it was even more active in the past.
It is one of the most explored planets in the solar system and the only planet humans have sent rovers to explore.
One day on Mars takes a little over 24 hours and a year is 687 Earth days.
Facts and Figures
Orbital period: 687 days
Surface area: 55.91 million mi²
Distance from Sun: 145 million miles
Gravity: 3.721 m/s²
Radius: 2,106 miles
Moons: Phobos, Deimos
Vedran Lekic, a professor of geology at the University of Maryland and co-author of one of the new studies, said: 'The blanket not only insulates the heat coming from the core and prevents the core from cooling, but also concentrates radioactive elements whose decay generates heat.
'And when that happens, the core is likely to be unable to produce the convective motions that would create a magnetic field — which can explain why Mars currently doesn't have an active magnetic field around it.'
Experts believe Mars once had a similar magnetic field to Earth which shut down billions of years ago and left behind only patches of magnetism thanks to magnetised minerals in the Martian crust.
Without a protective shield surrounding it, the Red Planet would then have been extremely vulnerable to harsh solar winds, causing it to lose all water on its surface and making it incapable of sustaining life.
Lekic believes the difference in internal make-up between Earth and Mars is likely to explain why the two planets took very different evolutionary paths, leading to life forming on Earth around 3.7 billion years ago.
'The thermal blanketing of Mars' metallic core by the liquid layer at the base of the mantle implies that external sources are necessary to generate the magnetic field recorded in the Martian crust during the first 500 to 800 million years of its evolution,' said the paper's lead author Henri Samuel, of the French National Center for Scientific Research.
'These sources could be energetic impacts or core motion generated by gravitational interactions with ancient satellites which have since then disappeared.'
The researchers added that the results would help to further scientists' understanding of how terrestrial planets such as Mars and the Earth form, as well as revealing more about what they are made of.
The Red Planet's internal structure was originally mapped by NASA's InSight mission — a probe which landed on Mars in November 2018 and concluded its mission last year.
Conclusion: The new studies support theories that Mars was once a molten ocean of magma which later crystallised to produce a layer of silicate melt enriched in iron and radioactive elements at the base of the planet's mantle
However, scientists are still pouring over data from the mission.
This is what helped to uncover the existence of a thin layer of molten silicates – rock-forming minerals which make up the crust and mantle of both the Earth and Mars – surrounding the Red Planet's liquid iron core.
With the new discovery of this layer, the researchers concluded that Mars' core is likely to be both denser and smaller than previous estimates indicated.
This assumption is also backed up by geophysical data and analysis of Martian meteorites.
A separate new study led by researchers at ETH Zürich in Switzerland also suggests that the liquid iron core is in fact surrounded by a 93-mile (150km)-thick layer of near-molten silicate rock, the top of which was wrongly thought to be the surface of the core.
How Mars evolved: The heat coming from these radioactive elements would have dramatically altered the thermal evolution and cooling history of the Martian world, experts say
Analysis of measurements from InSight suggested in 2021 that Mars had a low-density core made up of liquid iron and lighter elements such as sulfur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
However, this doesn't fit with estimates of how abundant such lighter elements were at the time the Red Planet was formed.
The new studies support theories that Mars was once a molten ocean of magma which later crystallised to produce a layer of silicate melt enriched in iron and radioactive elements at the base of the planet's mantle.
The heat coming from these radioactive elements would then have dramatically altered the thermal evolution and cooling history of the Martian world, experts say.
'These layers, if widespread, can have pretty big consequences for the rest of the planet,' Lekic said.
'Their existence can help tell us whether magnetic fields can be generated and maintained, how planets cool over time, and also how the dynamics of their interiors change over time.'
The two new studies have been published in the journal Nature here and here.
Tools: The InSight lander (pictured) had three key instruments
Three key instruments allowed the InSight lander to 'take the pulse' of the Red Planet:
Seismometer: The InSight lander carried a seismometer, SEIS, which listened to the pulse of Mars.
This recorded the waves travelling through the interior structure of a planet.
Studying seismic waves tells us what might be creating the waves.
On Mars, scientists suspect that the culprits may be marsquakes, or meteorites striking the surface.
Heat probe: InSight's heat flow probe, HP3, burrowed deeper than any other scoops, drills or probes on Mars before it.
It was tasked with investigating how much heat is still flowing out of Mars.
Radio antennas:Like Earth, Mars wobbles a little as it rotates around its axis.
To study this, two radio antennas, part of the RISE instrument, tracked the location of the lander very precisely.
This helped scientists test the planet's reflexes and gave them information about how the deep interior structure affects the planet's motion around the sun.
Why doesn’t Mars have a magnetic field? If it did, the planet would be protected from cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by our Sun. With a magnetic field, perhaps the Red Planet wouldn’t be the dry, barren world it is today.
It has long been believed that Mars once had a global magnetic field like Earth does, but somehow the iron-core dynamo that generated it must have shut down billions of years ago.
But new seismic data from NASA’s InSight lander might change our understanding of Mar’s interior, as well as alter the view of how Mars evolved and changed over time. InSight’s data revealed the presence of a molten silicate layer overlying Mars’ metallic core. Scientists say this insulating layer is like a blanket that might prevent the core from producing a global magnetic field.
“The blanket not only insulates the heat coming from the core and prevents the core from cooling, but also concentrates radioactive elements whose decay generates heat,” said Vedran Lekic, a professor at the University of Maryland and co-author of a new paper published in Nature. “And when that happens, the core is likely to be unable to produce the convective motions that would create a magnetic field—which can explain why Mars currently doesn’t have an active magnetic field around it.”
Earth’s magnetic field comes from its core, where molten, electrically conducting iron flows beneath the crust. This magnetic field is global, meaning it surrounds the entire planet. Even though Mars is a rocky, terrestrial planet like Earth, Mars does not generate a magnetic field on its own, outside of relatively small patches of magnetized crust.
Without the protection a magnetic field provided, Mars’ atmosphere was stripped, and eventually, any water on the surface – even oceans – would have evaporated as water vapor in the atmosphere was lost to space, making it incapable of sustaining life.
InSight’s seismometer, SEIS, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure. Credit: NASA/JPL
NASA’s InSight mission deployed the first seismometer on the surface of Mars. It recorded “Marsquakes,” and it has also helped determine the layering and thickness of the planet’s crust, the structure of the mantle, and the size of Mars’ core and its composition. Data from InSight is helping planetary scientists to work out the internal structure of Mars. Lekic and his colleagues say that InSIght has now revealed, surprisingly, the molten silicate layer overlying the planet’s metallic core.
Silicates are rock-forming minerals that make up the crust and mantle of both Mars and Earth. The molten layer on Mars lies between the mantle and core. Earlier research with data from InSight revealed that the Martian core is molten but is larger than previously thought. With the discovery of this molten layer, the researchers say this explains “other geophysical data and analysis of Martian meteorites,” according to a press release from the University of Maryland.
They also theorize that Mars was at one time a molten ocean of magma that later crystallized to produce a layer of silicate melt enriched in iron and radioactive elements at the base of the Martian mantle. The heat emanating from the radioactive elements would then have dramatically altered the thermal evolution and cooling history of the red planet.
Mars’ interior as revealed by the NASA/DLR InSight lander. Image Credit: Cottar, Koelemeijer, Winterbourne, NASA
“These layers, if widespread, can have pretty big consequences for the rest of the planet,” Lekic said. “Their existence can help tell us whether magnetic fields can be generated and maintained, how planets cool over time, and also how the dynamics of their interiors change over time.”
The InSight lander mission officially ended in December 2022 after more than four years of collecting data on Mars. InSight was part of the overall effort to understand Mars and if it was habitable in the past. By probing the planet’s interior, it has revealed some of the planet’s geological history. Another finding by InSight’s magnetometer showed that the planet’s magnetic field may have been much stronger on the surface than orbital measurements showed, which strengthens the case for its potential ancient habitability.
As this new research indicates, analysis of the spacecraft’s observations continues.
“This new discovery of a molten layer is just one example of how we continue to learn new things from the completed InSight mission,” Lekic said. “We hope that the information we’ve gathered on planetary evolution using seismic data is paving the way for future missions to celestial bodies like the Moon and other planets like Venus.”
Io has 266 Active Volcanic Hotspots Linked by a Global Magma Ocean
Jupiter’s Io stands apart from the Solar System’s other moons, with its numerous volcanoes and its surface dominated by lava flows. Io’s surface volcanism was confirmed in 1979 when the Voyager spacecraft imaged it, but its volcanic nature isn’t duplicated anywhere else in our system. Tidal heating is behind the moon’s eruptive nature, driven by Jupiter’s powerful gravity, and by resonance with other moons. But is there a magma ocean inside Io?
A final answer to that question has been elusive, but new research supports the idea of a magma ocean.
NASA’s Juno mission has shifted its focus from Jupiter to the gas giant’s moons, beginning with the volcanic Io. It’s flybys are getting increasingly closer to the unique moon, and the decreasing distance is giving the spacecraft a better and better look. It’s identified 266 active volcanoes, and together, they’re evidence of a vast global ocean of magma according to new research.
A new study titled “Io’s polar volcanic thermal emission indicative of magma ocean and shallow tidal heating models” presented these results. The lead author is Ashley Gerard Davies from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “The extreme level of volcanic activity on Io, the most volcanically active object in the Solar System, is the result of tidally-induced internal heating,” the authors write. That’s not a new conclusion, but there’s more to the research.
Juno’s Jovial Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument acquired the data behind this research. JIRAM is an image spectrometer, and was designed to probe Jupiter’s upper atmosphere in infrared, including the giant planet’s auroral regions. But now the focus has shifted to Io, and JIRAM is observing the moon’s widespread volcanic activity.
“Io is the most volcanic celestial body that we know of in our solar system,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “By observing it over time on multiple passes, we can watch how the volcanoes vary – how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, whether they are linked to a group or solo, and if the shape of the lava flow changes,” Bolton said in May 2023 when Juno came within about 35,500 km (22,000 miles) of Io.
Since then, Juno has closed the distance even more, and its latest pass brought it to within 12,000 km (7500 miles.) But it’s not just the proximity that is driving more discoveries. Juno follows a polar orbit, while previous observations of Io have been mostly confined to an equatorial plane. Why does that matter?
Scientists have been studying Io intently, trying to discover what drives its volcanic nature. They’ve developed detailed models of the moon, but haven’t been able to test them as rigorously as they can now. “Models predict enhanced heat flow at Io’s poles if tidal heating is deep in the mantle, and at lower latitudes if heating is predominantly in the asthenosphere, or a magma ocean is present,” the authors explain.
But now scientists have Juno’s data to work with, and its polar orbit is giving researchers a more complete look at the moon.
This figure from the research shows four images of Io from JIRAM. Two are from perijove 10 and show the south polar region at a resolution of 112 km/pixel (a & c.) The other two (c & d) are from perijove 43 and show the north polar region at a resolution of 21 km/pixel. Image b and d are JIRAM data overlain on Galileo/Voyager images. This new data from Io’s poles is critical to understanding the moon’s nature. Image Credit: Davies et al. 2023.
“The distribution of Io’s volcanic activity likely reflects the position and magnitude of internal tidal heating,” the authors write. Now that JIRAM has provided polar data, researchers have complete, global near-infrared coverage that reveals the distribution and the magnitude of thermal emission from Io’s actively erupting volcanoes. With that data, the researchers can probe the moon’s interior and models developed to explain it.
“This result is consistent with models of a global magma ocean or tidal heating in the shallow asthenosphere.”
From “Io’s polar volcanic thermal emission indicative of magma ocean and shallow tidal heating models” by Davies et al. 2023
The research uncovered differences in energy output between the poles and the more equatorial regions, and between the poles themselves. “On average, Io’s polar volcanoes individually generate less energy than volcanoes at lower latitudes; and the south polar volcanoes generate less energy per volcano than the north polar volcanoes,” the researchers explain.
This figure from the research shows the hot spot detections. They range in colour and size from blue up to yellow. Each increasing size and corresponding colour indicates greater spectral radiance. Image Credit: Davies et al. 2023.
Why are these findings significant? It’s because of previously developed models.
“We show that the distribution of volcanic heat flow from 266 active hot spots is consistent with the presence of a global magma ocean, and/or shallow asthenospheric heating,” the authors write.
This isn’t the first study to suggest that Io has a magma ocean. Previous research from 2009 based on Galileo’s magnetometer data showed that the moon must have a magma ocean about 50 km (30 mi) below the surface. But Galileo only did one flyby of the moon, leaving room for some doubt to creep in. More recent analysis of the same data strengthened the same conclusion, showing that the magma ocean is 50 km thick.
But there was always a little doubt cast on those conclusions because they lacked global infrared data. Now that scientists have that data, the case for a magma ocean is solidifying
After DART Smashed Into Dimorphos, What Happened to the Larger Asteroid Didymos?
Asteroid Didymos (bottom left) and its moonlet, Dimorphos, about 2.5 minutes before the impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL.
After DART Smashed Into Dimorphos, What Happened to the Larger Asteroid Didymos?
NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) slammed into asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022, changing its orbital period. Ground and space-based telescopes turned to watch the event unfold, not only to study what happened to the asteroid, but also to help inform planetary defense efforts that might one day be needed to mitigate potential collisions with our planet.
Astronomers have continued to observe and study Dimorphos, well past the impact event. However, Dimorphos is the smaller asteroid in this binary system, and is just a small moon orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the only telescope capable of visually distinguishing between the two closely orbiting asteroids. Now, astronomers have made follow-on observations on the system with JWST to see what happened to Didymos after the dust cleared.
In a new preprint paper, a team of scientists, led by Andrew Rivkin, the Investigation Lead for DART, explain how they used two instruments on JWST to measure spectra of Didymos about two months after the DART impact. One of their biggest takeaways is that Didymos and Dimorphos appear to be of the same composition, which is that of an ordinary chondrite. That’s the class of stony meteorites which account for over 80% of total meteorite falls on Earth. This means DART’s test was an extremely good proxy for the type of asteroids that might pose a threat one day.
“One of the benefits of using the Didymos system was definitely that we thought it was representative of most of what’s out there in its properties,” Rivkin told Universe Today via email. “People working on planetary defense often note that the ‘asteroid picks us rather than the other way around,’ but showing that what we did at Dimorphos is broadly applicable is very important.”
For the new observations, the scientists used NIRSpec – the near infrared spectrometer — and MIRI, the mid-infrared instrument, on November 28, 2022.
At the time of the observations, the centers of Didymos and Dimorphos were never separated by more than 0.1” from each other, from JWST’s vantage point. But the team did take advantage of Dimorphos being occulted by Didymos during the MIRI observations.
Median averaged slice through the MIRI MRS IFU showing Didymos. Note that Dimorphos was being occulted by Didymos during the entire period of MIRI observations.Credit: Rivkin et al, 2023.
“Didymos is roughly five times larger in diameter than Dimorphos and therefore it has roughly 25 times the cross-sectional area as Dimorphos,” the researchers wrote. “This size difference between the components means that roughly 96% of flux from the system typically comes from Didymos.”
The researchers said several lines of evidence suggest that the asteroid and its moon have similar compositions and the team concludes they “can reasonably estimate the composition of Dimorphos specifically from measurements of the Didymos-dominated flux.”
This image from the DART spacecraft of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DART Navigation Team
Given how hard it is to distinguish between Didymos and Dimorphos in long-range observations, I asked Rivkin if they were able to see any noticeable changes in the observations of Didymos after the impact to Dimorphos, given all the dust and debris from the impact. The results seem to indicate Didymos escaped mostly unscathed from DART’s impact of the asteroid’s moon.
“We have a lot of new results from observations of the Didymos system that are getting published (including this pre-print paper led by Theodore Kareta) talking about the tail development and evolution. It shows that after 25 days or so there was no extra brightness from debris within the Didymos system, and so by November 2022, observations of the system (including the JWST ones!) are pretty much all Didymos again.”
Rivkin added that they’ve made some puzzling observations using polarized light that suggest perhaps the average particle size or the average reflectivity might have slightly changed on Didymos, but they are waiting for spring 2024 to get more observations.
Rivulets of melted rock line the fusion crust of melted rock on this small Chelyabinsk meteorite. Credit: Bob King
An interesting (and fun!) comparison that Rivkin and his team made is how similar in composition Didymos is to the Chelyabinsk meteor, the famous meteor that created a huge airburst event over Russia in February 2013. The Chelyabinsk meteor is thought to be the biggest natural space object to enter Earth’s atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event. So, it too serves as a very representative near-Earth asteroid.
“Yes, that comparison seemed particularly apt!” Rivkin said. “What Didymos and Dimorphos are composed of are very common among near-Earth asteroids, so even a randomly chosen meteorite would have a good chance of matching!”
Other asteroids that have been studied even more closely — such as Eros and Itokawa — also have similar compositions, Rivkin said, even though they likely don’t come from the same original object. But all the asteroids mentioned here are from the same class, S-type asteroids – siliceous or stony.
Eros was the first asteroid to be orbited by a spacecraft (NEAR in 2000), and the first asteroid to have a spacecraft land on it. It was also the first near-Earth asteroid (NEA) to be discovered, in 1898. Itokawa was visited by the JAXA Hayabusa mission, and was the first asteroid from which samples were captured and brought to Earth for analysis.
Detailed view of the rubble-pile asteroid 25143 Itokawa visited by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa in 2005. Credit: JAXA
Even though remote observations of distant objects like Didymos and Dimorphos are incredibly difficult – especially for precisely determining asteroid composition – Rivkin said he’s heartened by the success they’ve had.
“We’ve spent over 50 years trying to sort out some very detailed questions and how to approach them,” he said. “Studies like the JWST observations and all of the other great work done to observe Didymos over the years and the fact they agree on the big-picture story gives us a chance to step back and realize how far we’ve come in being able to remotely tell what something is made of.”
But the observations of Dimorphos and Didymos will continue, and astronomers are looking forward to learning even more soon. ESA’s Hera mission is scheduled to arrive at the Didymos system in late 2026, and the researchers said they’ll be able to follow up or extend several of the results they found with JWST.
Hera specifically will be able to image Didymos’ surface at higher spatial resolution than was possible from DART (as well as from LICIACube — the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids, a cubesat that was part of the DART mission, which sent back images of the impact.) Hera will be able to perform a test of the regolith particle size inferences derived from mid-infrared spectroscopy and a do check on the measured thermal inertia.
“We look forward to Hera and future JWST measurements of additional S-complex asteroids to help us continue efforts to understand the population of potential asteroid impactors, for the science return and to help inform planetary defense efforts to mitigate potential collisions,” the researchers said.
Civilizations are Probably Spreading Quickly Through the Universe
TheSearch for Extraterrestrial Intelligence(SETI) has always been plagued by uncertainty. With only one habitable planet (Earth) and one technologically advanced civilization (humanity) as examples, scientists are still confined to theorizing where other intelligent life forms could be (and what they might be up to). Sixty years later, the answer to Fermi’s famous question (“Where is Everybody?”) remains unanswered. On the plus side, this presents us with many opportunities to hypothesize possible locations, activities, and technosignatures that future observations can test.
One possibility is that the growth of civilizations is limited by the laws of physics and the carrying capacity of the planetary environments – aka. The Percolation Theory Hypothesis. In a recent study, a team from the University of the Philippines Los Banos looked beyond traditional Percolation Theory to consider how civilizations might grow in three different types of Universes (static, dark energy-dominated, and matter-dominated). Their results indicate that, depending on the framework, intelligent life has a finite amount of time to populate the Universe and is likely to do so exponentially.
The study was conducted by Allan L. Alinea and Cedrix Jake C. Jadrin, an Assistant Professor of Physics and a Teaching Associate with the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics at the University of the Philippines Los Banos. The preprint of their paper, “Percolation of ‘Civilization’ in a Homogeneous Isotropic Universe,” recently appeared online. For their study, the team considered how traditional Percolation Theory could be interpreted in terms of a Logistic Growth Function (LGF), where a population’s per capita growth rate gets smaller as population size approaches a maximum imposed by the limits of local resources (aka. carrying capacity).
The Big Bang Theory: A history of the Universe starting from a singularity and expanding ever since. Credit: grandunificationtheory.com
Percolation Theory
In brief, Percolation Theory describes how networks behave when nodes or links are removed, wherein they will break down into smaller connected clusters. The first known instance of this theory being applied to the Fermi Paradox was perhaps made by Carl Sagan and William I. Newman in 1981. In a paper titled “Galactic Civilizations: Population Dynamics and Interstellar Diffusion,” they argued that the reason humanity has not encountered extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) is because interstellar exploration and settlement are not linear phenomena.
In contrast to the Hart-Tipler Conjecture, which argues that advanced ETCs would have colonized our galaxy long ago (hence, they do not exist), Sagan and Newman postulated that interstellar exploration is a matter of diffusion. Geoffrey A. Landis argued these same sentiments in his 1993 paper, “The Fermi Paradox: An Approach Based on Percolation Theory,” where he argued that the laws of physics impose limits on interstellar growth. According to Landis, there is no “uniformity of motive” to be expected from extraterrestrial civilizations:
“Since it is possible, given a large enough number of extraterrestrial civilizations, one or more would have certainly undertaken to do so, possibly for motives unknowable to us. Colonization will take an extremely longtime, and will be very expensive.It is quite reasonable to suppose that not all civilizations will be interested in making such a large expenditure for a pay off far in the future. Human society consists of a mixture of cultures which explore and colonize, some times over extremely large distances, and cultures which have no interest in doing so.”
Similarly, Prof. Adam Frank and colleagues from NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanetary Systems Science (NExSS) wrote a paper in 2019 titled “The Fermi Paradox and the Aurora Effect: Exo-civilization Settlement, Expansion, and Steady States.” Inspired by the 2015 novel Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, they argued that the interstellar settlement would occur in clusters since not all potentially habitable planets would be hospitable to an alien species. In short, the laws of physics, biology, and evolution impose limits on how far and fast a species can settle our galaxy.
Solve for T & H
To constrain those limits, the team considered the three main cosmological models of the Universe, including static, matter-dominated, and dark energy-dominated. A static Universe, as originally described by Einstein and his Cosmological Constant, is infinite in terms of space and time and is neither expanding nor contracting. A matter-dominated Universe describes the state of the Universe prior to 9.8 billion years after the Big Bang, a time when the energy density of matter exceeded both the energy density of radiation and the vacuum energy density.
A dark energy-dominated Universe describes the latest phase of cosmic evolution, which began roughly 9.8 billion years ago and is characterized by an accelerated rate of expansion. The team also considered all three scenarios in terms of a Logistic Growth Function to determine the number of planets settled with time. From this, the team obtained the two parameters of their study: T, the time needed to settle a spherical section of an ideal Universe that is both homogeneous and isotropic, and H, the Hubble parameter that describes the rate of cosmic expansion – a.k.a. the Hubble Law or Hubble-Lemaitre Law.
For a static Universe, they found that settlement follows the LGF, similar to how population growth, the spread of infectious diseases, and chemical reactions do. As they noted in their study, these dynamical systems follow a general pattern beginning with a relatively slow start due to limited sources (in this case, habitable planets). But, as they continue to expand and acquire new sources, this multiplies the number available, and the propagation speeds up. This continues until the number of sources begins to dwindle and/or the elements of the system are exhausted.
To their surprise, the team noted similar behaviors when looking at a matter-dominated and dark-energy Universe. As Dr. Alinea told Universe Today via email.
“Remarkably, when the space itself is expanding as in the dark-energy and matter-dominated Universes, the process of settlement, for the most part, still follows the Logistic Growth Function. We did not expect this result because a system with expanding space appeared to us as vastly different from a static system. Most of the studies we know on percolation are based on a static lattice (e.g., spread of forest fire, propagation of disease, information diffusion) where the logistic growth behavior is usually observed. Our study ‘extends’ this behavior to cases where the lattice is expanding like our very own Universe.”
Steps to the Hubble Constant.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)
Nevertheless, they did find there was a delay in an expanding Universe in terms of the rate of settlement compared to a static one. For a dark energy-dominated universe, they found that the total settlement time (T) was marked with divergence for a large enough expansion rate (H). In accordance with Hubble’s Law, when H is large enough, some planets would expand beyond the horizon and become “unreachable.” In essence, distant planets can be receding faster than the speed of light, making it improbable that an expanding civilization would ever reach them.
They also found that in cases where the Hubble Sphere (H) was smaller, the relation between T and H was linear – in other words, T was roughly equal to H (T ~ H). For a matter-dominated Universe, their findings indicated that where Hwas similarly small, the same relation applied, but where H became larger, the relation changed significantly to T~ H2. In comparison to that of a dark energy-dominated Universe, T did not increase exponentially or reach infinity unless H was infinite. Said Alinear:
“This is interesting because a matter-dominated Universe is also characterized by a horizon. It means that for planets far enough from a reference planet in this Universe, they are receding at a velocity faster than light, making it appear that they are unreachable. However, for a matter-dominated universe, in accordance with Friedmann Equation, the comoving Hubble Sphere is shrinking instead of expanding. Put simply and informally, those planets far away from a reference planet in this Universe (that are initially ‘moving’ faster than the speed of light) are ‘slowing down,’ making them reachable, at least in principle.”
So… Where Are They?
From their results, the team determined that advanced civilizations will generally follow a growth trend that is slow to start but will take off over time, eventually slowing and stopping as the number of “reachable” planets is exhausted. As Dr. Alineal described, “This model is marked by a three-phase pattern: slow settlement rate –> fast settlement rate –> slow settlement rate.” The question remains: what does this mean for Fermi’s time-honored question? How does this three-phase pattern help us refine the search for advanced civilizations expanding across the galaxy?
To that, the team concludes that our galaxy may currently be in Phase I, characterized by a slow settlement rate. This could be because only a few intelligent, advanced civilizations are engaged in interstellar settlement right now. “This slow phase can be exacerbated by large distances between”living” planets. But once some number of traveling civilizations is reached, we may enter Phase II, characterized by a fast settlement rate. Given enough time upon entering this phase, we may finally say hello to aliens out there.”
The center of the Milky Way as seen from Chile. The core contains very old stars that date back to early in cosmic history. Credit: ESO/P.Horalek CC by 4.0.
Moreover, their results address the possibility of humanity becoming an interstellar species someday, perhaps as a means of ensuring the continued survival and development of our species. This represents a challenge in an ever-expanding, ever-accelerating Universe dominated by Dark Energy. But as Dr. Alineal summarized, there are options:
“Given enough technology to travel near the speed of light, it is still challenging to reach any planet in the Universe, particularly the far away planets. Having said this, there is a spherical section of this Universe, centered in our location, whose planets are reachable, at least in principle, for possible settlement. Beyond this are planets that “move” away from us at a speed higher than that of light and may not be reachable. Unfortunately, this sphere is shrinking, so a section of the universe that we can inhabit, although large on the human scale, becomes smaller and smaller with time.”
“If there is a mechanism to drive the universe to a state such that its expansion rate is the same or similar to that of a matter-dominated universe, then we would be lucky enough to have a Universe that can, in principle, be colonized up to any distance from us; that is, the colonization and human influence in the Universe is not bounded by any sphere unlike that of the dark-energy dominated Universe.”
In summary, the answer to Fermi’s question may be that advanced civilizations are in an early, slow phase of expansion that has (so far) prevented us from making contact. But as there spherical volume of Hubble Space (H) that we could occupy expands, we are more likely to get close enough to someone else’s that we will finally know that we’re not alone in the Universe. Similarly, while Dark Energy may limit how far we can reach (within our galaxy, not much farther), a sufficient volume of space would enable our continued development and could prevent a single cataclysmic fate from claiming all of our species.
And who knows? Perhaps cosmic expansion will not carry on as it has for the past 4 billion years, and the Universe will slow down and achieve a sort of homeostasis – the kind Einstein preferred to believe in. In that case, our Hubble Spheres may continue to expand indefinitely, and there will be no shortage of intermingling between cosmic civilizations. It does make for some exciting prospects, doesn’t it?
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Astronomers Want JWST to Study the Milky Way Core for Hundreds of Hours
This overview of the Milky Way's Galactic Center (GC) shows the region of the proposed JWST survey. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/Caltech)
Astronomers Want JWST to Study the Milky Way Core for Hundreds of Hours
To understand the Universe, we need to understand the extreme processes that shape it and drive its evolution. Things like supermassive black holes (SMBHs,) supernovae, massive reservoirs of dense gas, and crowds of stars both on and off the main sequence. Fortunately there’s a place where these objects dwell in close proximity to one another: the Milky Way’s Galactic Center (GC.)
Astronomers know this, and they’ve studied the GC intensely. There are many unanswered questions in astronomy and astrophysics, and some of the answers are hidden in the densely-packed GC. But while its densely-packed nature make it an area practically begging to be studied, it also makes it difficult to study. Only the most powerful telescopes have the angular resolution to make sense of the Milky Way’s central region and its crowded constituents.
Fortunately, the James Webb Space Telescope has the angular resolution to make sense of the region. A new white paper lays out the case for a multi-epoch, large-area, multi-wavelength survey of the Milky Way’s inner 100 parsecs.
The paper is “The JWST Galactic Center Survey: A White Paper.” Over a hundred participants from more than 80 institutions around the world are listed authors, with Rainer Schodel from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC), Granada, Spain listed as first author.
“JWST has the unique capability to provide us with the necessary, game-changing data,” the authors write. “As a community, we have identified the key unknowns that are limiting the potential of the Galactic Center as a laboratory for extreme astrophysics and understanding how galactic nuclei shape the galaxy population.”
These images from the white paper show how the JWST’s high angular resolution can help scientists figure out what’s going on in the GC. The left image was captured with the the ESO’s Vista Telescope in 2010. The middle image was captured in 2019 with the ESO’s VLT, and the image on the right is from the JWST. Image Credits: L: Minniti et al. 2010; M: Nogueras-Lara et al. 2019; R: JWS Proposal 1939, PI J. Lu.
What are the unknowns in this turbulent region? Sgr. A*, the SMBH at the heart of it all, draws matter inexorably towards itself, shredding stars that get too close and creating an enormous swirling mass of gas and dust. Vast gas clouds are caught up in it all, and out of these clouds, stars in their multitudes are born and then extinguished, many as ultra-powerful supernovae. The Milky Way’s nuclear star cluster is there, too, and is many times more massive than Sgr. A*, an anomaly in galaxies. And then there’s the nuclear bulge, where old, comparatively metal-rich stars congregate.
This image shows the Milky Way’s nuclear bulge and its nuclear star cluster (NSC.) The Milky Way is one of the few instances where evidence shows an NSC in a galaxy that also has an SMBH. Image Credit: Schoedel et al. 2008.
This survey, if it takes place, will help astrophysicists untangle some of nature’s most perplexing, stubborn questions. In their white paper, the multi-national team of astronomers lays out five key questions that the JWST can help address in an observing campaign focused on the GC:
What is the formation history of the Galactic Center and its relation to the overall formation history of the Milky Way?
How much stellar mass formed in the past ~30 Myr and what does this imply for the overall energetics of the GC?
What is the origin of, and environmental variation in, the stellar initial mass function?
Why is the star formation rate one to two orders of magnitude lower than predicted by standard star-formation-dense-gas relations?
What is the 3D structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) orbiting and fueling accretion and star formation at the Galactic Center?
This is an ambitious list of questions that helps define the current state of astronomy and astrophysics. Perhaps the only things not mentioned are dark matter and dark energy, and those two phenomena are outside of the JWST’s primary focus.
Success depends on being able to resolve more detail than previous studies of the region. “By being able to resolve physical processes down to size scales separating individual stars, the survey will provide a foundation for addressing key open questions in other fields,” the authors write. The GC is an extreme environment, and is often the case in science, understanding the extremes helps us understand nature’s boundaries.
“What drives the mass flows and energy cycles in extragalactic nuclei and high-z environments?” the authors ask. “What shapes star formation and the evolution of nuclear star clusters, nuclear stellar discs and their interaction with central black holes?” These are all compelling questions.
The proposed survey is designed to address them. As a multi-epoch survey, it would examine the GC in three separate epochs separated by 1, 5, and 10 years. It would observe the nuclear stellar disk and associated giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the central molecular zone (CMZ,) a region containing about 60 million solar masses of star-forming gas. To see inside the region accurately, the survey would utilize the JWST’s NIRCam and its system of filters.
This image shows the Milky Way’s GC region and some of the objects of interest, including the nuclear star cluster and associated giant molecular clouds in the central molecular zone. Image Credit: Schodel et al. 2023.
One telescope can’t reveal everything, and the JWST won’t be alone in this survey. Success will rely on synergy with other telescopes. ALMA and the Hubble Space Telescope will be part of this observational coalition, as will future telescopes like the Roman Space Telescope, the ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, and Japan’s JASMINE infrared astrometry mission.
“Together these surveys herald a revolution in the interpretation of current/future data, bring together research in different sub-fields, and answer key open science questions with enormous legacy potential,” Schodel and his colleagues write.
One of the questions the survey hopes to address is particularly fundamental in astrophysics: the Initial Mass Function (IMF.) The IMF describes how mass is distributed during star formation in a giant cloud of gas. The IMF is like an agglomeration of smaller sub-functions in star formation, and it also links individual star formation to larger issues of galaxy formation and evolution. “Thus, understanding the properties of the IMF and how it behaves in different environments has far-reaching implications for star formation theory and beyond,” the paper states.
The Milky Way’s galactic center is the only GC we can observe, and it’s been a tricky target. But the JWST has the power to probe this tumultuous astrophysical maelstrom more deeply than ever before. Along with the SMBH, the NSC, and gas clouds, there are other mysteries. The GC contains hundreds of mysterious magnetized radio filaments that are so far unexplained. Then there are the questions around stellar feedback and how it interacts with the Interstellar Medium (ISM) and how black hole feedback plays into it all.
If this survey takes place, it’ll provide answers that shift the horizon of our knowledge, and also highlight new questions. This survey will far surpass other GC surveys and observations. The authors claim that they can discern the proper motion for more than 10 million stars in the GC. “Such revolutionary data would enable exploring the GC kinematically down to almost solar mass main sequence stars,” the authors write, and that would be an enormous contribution.
As always, there will be surprises, and those surprises will almost certainly spread to scientific topics beyond the study of the GC. “The project proposed in this White Paper has implications for the entire GC community – and beyond,” the authors write.
Alien Encounters and Theories: Unraveling the Mysteries with Joe Rogan
The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, a popular platform renowned for its diverse range of discussions, has occasionally delved into the enigmatic world of UFOs and extraterrestrial theories. Throughout its history, a myriad of guests have shared their personal experiences, academic opinions, and mysterious tales about otherworldly entities. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most captivating segments on this topic:
Post Malone’s Alien Story: At the start, rapper and songwriter Post Malone narrates an uncanny encounter, adding his voice to the growing number of celebrities who’ve allegedly had close encounters of the third kind.
Bob Lazar: Wilson Document & Ancient Alien Technology: Bob Lazar, often termed the whistleblower of Area 51, discusses the controversial Wilson Document. He touches upon the possibility of ancient alien technologies being concealed from the public and their potential implications on human history.
Brazil’s Roswell: Dubbed as “Brazil’s Roswell,” this segment delves into an incident that echoes the infamous Roswell event in the USA. It adds to the intrigue surrounding UFO sightings and crashes in different parts of the world.
Will We See Aliens in Our Lifetime A philosophical and speculative discussion revolves around the potential of humanity making definitive contact with extraterrestrial beings within our lifetime. It’s a topic that stokes wonder and fear in equal measure.
Zimbabwe UFO: The mysterious case of a UFO sighting in Zimbabwe, witnessed by multiple individuals, especially children at a school, is dissected. This event remains one of the most well-documented and yet unexplained sightings in UFO history.
Physicist’s Opinion on Aliens: A refreshing perspective is added with a physicist weighing in on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Grounded in science, this segment examines the odds and the scientific consensus around the phenomenon.
Travis Walton: Alien Abduction: Perhaps one of the most chilling accounts comes from Travis Walton, who claims to have been abducted by aliens. His detailed and harrowing story serves as a fitting climax to the sequence of otherworldly discussions.
From heated debates on the authenticity of these events to trying to fathom the unfathomable, Joe Rogan’s podcast episodes on alien theories present a captivating mix of skepticism and wonder. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, one thing is certain: these discussions will leave you pondering about our place in the vast cosmos.
UAP On Security Cam, Saint Louis, Missouri 6-15-2023, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UAP On Security Cam, Saint Louis, Missouri 6-15-2023, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: 6-15-2023 Location of sighting: Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Source: MUFON
Wow, look at this security cam video and you will see a huge glowing sphere passing over the house and away, but then it comes back and shoots off into the distance. UFOs often come out when at late night and early morning when there are less eyewitnesses around. This is 100% proof of that very fact.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
I was watching TV late at night with my husband, in our basement apartment. I kept hearing something like a lawn mower on mute, but he did not. It was driving me nuts, so I rushed outside to see it the next time I heard it. I looked up, and saw a rectangular object over my head. It was the brightest thing I had ever seen. It had three unwavering lights. The bottom two lights were white and rectangular; the top light was a red square. It was flying low, and it did not make a sound when I was under it. I watched as it flew away, then went inside and told my husband. He came outside with me, but it was gone.Later, I reviewed our cameras, and saw it. My camera recorded it, but it recorded something completely different. The camera picked up a very bright white orb damn near hovering over my house. It was flying incredibly low (that particular camera was placed about hip height). It shows the orb close to our basement entrance 5 minutes before I come outside. It then records me staring up at the object (orb to the camera, rectangle to me).
A series of UFO incidents occurred between 2007 and 2009 in the town of Kumburgaz, situated near Istanbul, Turkey. The events stunned the media and UFO enthusiasts after the images and videos of the sightings went viral on the Internet. The video evidence of UFOs shared by a nightwatchman named Yalcin Yalman could be another strong evidence of non-human technology.
Back in 2008, Yalcin Yalman worked as a night watchman at the Yenikent facility from where he shot all these amazing videos of UFOs, hovering over the Marmara Sea near Kumburgaz. He even showed his second-hand camera to the media in a press conference held at the Dedeman Hotel in Istanbul.
Yalman said he started recording the strange crafts as a hobby to pass his time in the night. Due to the shaky videos, some skeptics claimed that the mysterious objects over the skies of Turkey could have been a US stealth drone or other aircraft. However, numerous experts confirmed that the videos were authentic. Besides, many people witnessed the same unknown crafts in the sky. The sightings gained attention from locals, national media, and even CNN. Several videos were recorded between June 8 and 12, 2009, showing mysterious objects and lights.
Originally, the video was analyzed and made public by the Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center led by researcher Haktan Akdoğan. Haktan said the UFOs were often seen by civilians and military pilots during an International UFO Congress in 2009. (Source)
In 2009, after the conference, there were witnesses of 8-10 people including UFOlogist Dr. Roger Leir, who also witnessed and verified the Kumburgaz UFO sighting. Dr. Leir was present during the filming of one video on May 17, 2009, and confirmed that as the UAP turned, it was similar to the “Roswell” shaped craft (more boomerang-shaped) rather than a traditional disc. Dr. Leir discussed this incident that happened with him after the conference on Coast to Coast with George Knapp.
Yalcin Yalman (Left) sitting next to Akdoğan (Right), showing his camera during a press conference in Istanbul in 2009
Dr. Leir told Knapp that he, Yalman and others went to Kumburgaz to film UFOs. The group stayed up from midnight to 4 o’clock in the morning to capture any possible sightings. The conditions were ideal, with clear skies and no obstructions. During the filming, they observed a bright object below the full moon, which initially appeared as a potential star or planet. As they focused on this object, they discovered a semi-circular craft with a multitude of lights, possibly shaped like a boomerang or a cylindrical saucer.
Dr. Leir said,“You’d think, ‘Well, gee, a bright sky, bright moon, you’re not going to see anything.’ But in this case, the moon was a big help. It essentially lit up the exterior portion of the craft, which initially, when we saw it, looked a bit like a boomerang because we weren’t seeing it straight on, so we couldn’t tell the exact shape of the craft. But then we went to full film on it, and we could see that it was either a boomerang, or we were looking at a certain portion of a cylindrical craft or a saucer.
Till this day, I don’t know, and I don’t know what the analysts said about the shape. But it was either one of the two: either a boomerang shape with a round front or a complete saucer. It did turn a couple of times, so we were able to see the side, and it looked like it could have been saucer-shaped. But then we got the biggest shock of our lives because we could see light that was emanating from the internal portion of the craft in three areas. One was directly in front, and one was on either side.
This was a full-on front view, and folks can look at the Coast website and they can not only see the video but please go to the Chilean analysis because there are some still photos there which show what we saw when we looked in the central portion. That was a big shock to look and see, not a Rorschach-type thing, but actual entities that were, whatever they were doing, looking out the front of the craft, just the same as we were looking at them.”
Video Observation
From 2007 to 2009, Yalman recorded approximately 30 videos. The footage was taken with a MiniDV Canon DM-GR1-A based on the NTSC system with a diaphragm set at a maximum of 1.8. It is a 3CCD 20x optic 100x with a teleconverter mounted on a 58 mm adapter. The tele-objective is a Sony VCL HGD 1758 model lens, x 1.7. [2007 to 2009 Original Raw Footage]
The videos were examined by two influential state-sponsored organizations in Turkey, “The Scientific and Technology Research Board of Turkey” and “The TUG National Observatory.” Their objective was to identify any evidence of forgery, but the results supported the authenticity of the videos. The original film cassettes were also studied by individuals from Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Russia, and despite several attempts, no one has been able to conclusively demonstrate evidence of a hoax, fraud, or manipulation, leaving the case unidentified.
Yalman’s camera was equipped with a zoom option which allowed him to even capture the pilots, sitting in one of the crafts. The image is shaky due to the hand movements while zooming. However, with the editing software, the video was stabilized, and the result shocked everyone. Two humanoid figures could be seen in the image with large black eyes and oversized heads.
“We see the heads of not only one UFO but also of two beings in the images. This is the first in the world.” He further added that those images would have a great impact on UFOlogy. He had been researching UFOs for 22 years and had never seen something like this. He stated: “These are the most remarkable images taken in Turkish history.”
[In translation] Akdoğan stated that “these beings are generally seen in areas rich with resources, volcanic areas, and historical places. They started to come more frequently after nuclear tests. Maybe the released radiation also harms the cosmic neighbors, we disrupt the balance in the universe. Maybe they observe this dangerous process.” (Source)
The images were recorded in digital NTSC format by the above-mentioned camera.
The date on the video indicates that the recordings were made during 2007, 2008, and 2009.
The footage images of the object that visibly have a certain configuration are not computer animations, special video effects or studio-re-created images or models. The footage is genuine.
The first observation made from the footage is that some of the images were recorded in the nighttime sky at a certain altitude from the horizon. The footage also covers images of the moon in some parts which proves that the video was shot in the nighttime and open air. But, the fact that digital date displays show AM in certain frames and PM in others, raises suspicion about the validity of the time in which the recordings were made.
Since in some parts, there is no other object that can be featured as a reference in the close-up frames and no observable differences were found on background examination, the actual location, distance, dimensions and nature of the objects could not have been determined.
Through the examination of shootings of multiple dates, it is a strong possibility that 2-3 different objects were captured. However, it is difficult to determine whether the objects are moving or not. Their movement is slow even if they do so.
The reflections of light on the objects are sometimes caused by the moon which was in a convenient location at that time, and sometimes produced by some other sources of light.
The light reflection from the left side of the object which is seen on the August 10th shootings is not produced by the moon. At that time, the moon was in a phase that was pretty close to the “new moon” phase and located approximately at a 10-degree proximity/angle to the horizon. Moreover, the image processing analysis conducted on some parts of the footage revealed that the center of the object has the same density as its background, namely is of a transparent nature.
Not Debunked
Adam Goldstack of UAP Media UK mentions that many debunkers try to explain the craft as cruise ships but according to former F-16 fighter pilot and researcher Chris Letho, it does not add up. Letho analyzed the videos and case and calculated the object’s size, horizon distance, plus visual angles from the Marmara Sea. He concluded the logistics of a cruise ship did not match the reported UAP. (Source)
Additionally, the triangulation of the UAP in most video cases was calculated to be too high to be a cruise ship or boat, by other researchers. Alternatively, in the fixed/stabilized camera videos (as shown below), we can see that the objects are motionless against a black background in the vast majority of videos. The motionless aspect of the UAP could also discount the “small-boat theory,” given that even on calm waters/oceans floating objects will still move and rock around slightly. Additionally, despite the mass mainstream media coverage in Turkey at the time, no person has ever come forward to state that the objects/boats belonged to them or that they were sailing off the coast in the middle of the night.
Goldstack writes, “From an analytical perspective, the Turkey Kumburgaz UFO case is unique with regards to the clear and multiple video footage obtained. Through this case, we also have sequential data that display behavioral patterns, times, and dates. We see all of the twenty-five video encounters/incidents at night-time/early morning (with one in the late evening), which is in keeping with the wider range of Ufology data that suggests UAP often appears at night-time.
We also see another significant pattern displaying the encounters around water – in this case, the Marmara Sea. The Sea of Marmara itself is a small sea with an area of 11,350 km2 (4,380 sq mi) and with dimensions of 280 km × 80 km (174 mi × 50 mi). The sea has a greatest depth of 1,370 m (4,490 ft). How significant the Sea of Marmara is to potential UAP has still not been explained. No connection to nuclear facilities or weapons has been linked in this case.”
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
NASA krijgt "wetenschappelijke schat" met buitenaardse bodemstalen niet open
NASA krijgt "wetenschappelijke schat" met buitenaardse bodemstalen niet open
Artikel van Wim De Maeseneer
"Een wetenschappelijke schat", zo noemde NASA de verzamelde bodemstalen van de planetoïde Bennu twee weken geleden. Op 11 oktober werden de eerste resultaten en foto's bekendgemaakt van het ruimtegruis dat 3 jaar onderweg is geweest.
NASA verklaarde toen dat de capsule nog niet werd geopend, omdat er zoveel zwart stof en steentjes aan de buitenkant van de capsule waren blijven hangen dat de wetenschappers zich daar eerst uitgebreid zouden over ontfermen.Nu blijkt dat NASA de capsule eigenlijk niet open krijgt. "Het team heeft 70,3 gram stenen en stof kunnen verzamelen, veel meer dan de 60 gram die we voor ogen hadden", zo staat te lezen op deblogvan NASA over de OSIRIS-REx-missie.
"Het goede nieuws is dat er nog veel meer stalen verzameld zijn. Maar na verschillende pogingen om de capsule te openen, ontdekte het team dat twee van de 35 sluitingen niet kunnen worden geopend met het voorziene gereedschap."
NASA zoekt nu andere manieren om de bodemstalen uit de capsule te halen, zonder ze te beschadigen en besmetten.
NASA krijgt "wetenschappelijke schat" met buitenaardse bodemstalen niet open
Voor alle duidelijkheid: de capsule met de bodemstalen was tijdens de terugkeer naar de aarde beschermd door nog een tweede omhulsel. Het ruimtegruis dat zich buiten de afgesloten capsule bevond, is dus niet per definitie onbruikbaar.
Zo veel ruimtegruis dat deksel eerst niet dicht kon
In oktober 2020 kon het onbemande OSIRIS-REx-ruimtetuig bodemstalen oppikken van de planetoïde Bennu, die op dat moment zo'n 330 miljoen kilometer van de aarde stond.-
Tegen de verwachting in konden veel meer steentjes en stof worden meegenomen. Zo veel dat het deksel eerst niet meer kon sluiten, waardoor een deel van de stalen verloren zijn gegaan. NASA verwacht dat er in totaal toch nog 250 gram ruimtegruis kon worden meegenomen.Bennu is een grote ruimterots die rond de zon draait en waarschijnlijk 4,5 miljard jaar geleden is ontstaan, in het prille begin van het zonnestelsel. Wetenschappers verwachten dat Bennu de bouwstenen bevat waaruit het zonnestelsel, en ook het leven op aarde, is opgebouwd. De eerste analyses van de bodemstalen tonen inderdaad aan dat er water- en koolstof zijn op Bennu.
Hints of a government coverup, compelling eyewitness accounts from airforce officials, a spacecraft purportedly hovering through trees and landing; the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident has it all when it comes toinstances of the unexplained.
Here's a look at some of the standout witness statements, and what experts have said about the 1980 incident which has been dubbed "Britain's Roswell".
Do you believe the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident is a real case of extraterrestrials landing on Earth? Have a read and let us know what you think.
al sightings occurred in the early hours of December 26, 1980
It is now almost 40 years since the UFO incident at Rendlesham forest. Understandably, the facts are murky as contradictory accounts have emerged in the years since the incident took place.
Sections of the U.S. Air Force were stationed at the airbase when the incident occurred, including eyewitnesses that, to this day, claim they saw an extraterrestrial craft in the forest in the month of December 1980.
3. It is one of the few officially documented UFO sightings where witnesses claim to have seen a craft land
Nick Pope, who was a Ministry of Defence employee from 1985 to 2006, and who wrote a book titled 'Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of the World's Best Documented UFO Incident', described the incident with the following words:
“This was not some vague ‘lights in the sky’ sighting – the UFO actually landed.”
4. U.S. Air Force officer John Burroughs described agitated animals and red and blue lights near a farmhouse
One of the men asked to investigate the strange blue, red, orange, and white lights coming from the forest was, John Burroughs. In a witness statement, published in 1981, he said:
"The woods lit up and you could hear the farm animals making a lot of noises... You could see the lights down by a farmer’s house [on the forest's edge]... We climbed over the fence and started walking toward the red and blue lights and they just disappeared."
5. Officer Jim Penniston's witness account describes a craft made from "smooth, opaque, black glass"
USAF officer Jim Penniston, who was with Burroughs during the incident, described seeing a craft covered in hieroglyphic-like characters. He said the following:
“I estimated it to be about three meters tall and about three meters wide at the base. No landing gear was apparent, but it seemed like she was on fixed legs. I moved a little closer... I walked around the craft, and finally, I walked right up to the craft. I noticed the fabric of the shell was more like a smooth, opaque, black glass.”
6. Indentations on the ground and high radiation levels were recorded the next day
The morning after the incident witnessed by Burroughs and Penniston, indentations on the forest floor were spotted, as well as damage to the trees in the area where the lights had been seen.
Radiation levels recorded at the site of the indentations were also reported to be unusually high.
7. Colonel Halt recorded a running commentary during the second UFO sighting at Rendlesham Forest
On December 27 1980, two nights after the first reported incident, United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt was ready. Known as a pragmatic character, Halt set out to disprove the wild theories doing the rounds at the RAF bases. When more lights were spotted, he took his tape recorder and joined a military patrol group.
The resulting audiotape has since been declassified by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. It is now public domain, and can be listened to here:
During the recording, in which he mentions objects and lights in the sky, as well as a red orb floating near the ground, Colonel Halt says:
“It looks like an eye winking at you... Here he comes from the South, he's coming towards us now... Now we're observing what appears to be a beam coming down to the ground. This is unreal."
The recording is considered today to be one of the most valuable pieces of evidence from the Rendlesham Forest incident.
8. Burroughs and Penniston, the first two witnesses, suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
In the Encounter in Rendlesham Forest book, Penniston wrote: “I left the forest a different man… I was in awe of the technology and yes, a knowing that it was not an aircraft which could have been manufactured in 1980 or even now.”
Both Penniston and Burroughs have since suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, The Telegraphreported in 2015. In recent years, Penniston has claimed that the craft telepathically transmitted binary code into his brain.
9. Numerous eyewitness statements emerged following the incident
Burroughs, Penniston, and Col. Halt have been the most vocal in saying they believe what they saw was extraterrestrial in origin, but they are not the only eyewitnesses.
Sgt. Adrian Bustinza, a security police commander who investigated the incident at the time, said: “When I arrived [at the scene], it was going in and out through the trees and at one stage it was hovering.”
10. Some eyewitnesses claim not to have seen any UFO
Another witness, Ed Cabansag, described seeing, "a glowing near the beacon light, but as we got closer we found it to be a lit-up farmhouse. We got to a vantage point where we could determine that what we were chasing was only a beacon light off in the distance."
The Ministry of Defence has claimed that the lights came from the nearby Orfordness lighthouse — more on this in section 16. It also stated that the event posed no threat to national security, and was, therefore, never investigated as a security matter.
11. In 1983, a U.K. newspaper ran a front-page story which stated, "UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK, And that's OFFICIAL"
In the following years, as accounts about the Rendlesham Forest incident were released, the press started to respond to the growing public interest around the events
In 1983, the News of the World ran a front-page story which proclaimed: "UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK, And that's OFFICIAL."
12. Statements from radar operators have recently corroborated Colonel Halt's claims
As recently as 2015, the then-75-year-old Col. Halt announced that he had obtained written statements from radar operators at RAF Bentwaters and nearby Wattisham airfield that an unknown object was, in fact, tracked at the time of the incident.
As per the BBC, Halt claimed they had not wanted to come forward until after they had retired from their military roles.
"I have confirmation that (Bentwaters radar operators)... saw the object go across their 60 mile (96km) scope in two or three seconds, thousands of miles an hour, he came back across their scope again, stopped near the water tower, they watched it and observed it go into the forest where we were," said Col. Halt.
13. Today, there is a 'UFO Trail' set out for forest trekkers
In 2005, due to the public interest in the UFO incident, the Forestry Commission used Lottery proceeds to create a trail in Rendlesham Forest. They called it the "UFO Trail".
In 2014, the Forestry Service commissioned an artist to create a sculpture, that was placed at the end of the trail, based on drawings made by eyewitnesses of the UFO.
14. In 2015, a dog walker posted a fresh video of UFO footage from Rendlesham Forest
There have been more incidents of unexplained lights and UFOs in the United Kingdom and Rendlesham Forest since 1980.
Only five years ago, a dog walker posted the above video of bright moving unidentified lights in the sky above Rendlesham Forest, filmed alongside an RAF helicopter.
15. There is a story about incredibly futuristic technology secretly installed at RAF Bentwaters
Daniel Simpson, director of The Rendlesham UFO Incident, a fictionalized account of the story filmed on location in Rendlesham Forest, told The Telegraph the following story:
"I recently heard a very interesting story of a guy that went up to the Bentwaters airbase and, because it’s privately owned, some of those buildings are rented out to people. A company up there wanted to have their internet sorted out and this guy dug down and – he was a telecom guy – he came back and he was sheet white. He couldn’t believe it.
"He said he’d just come across these cables, two-foot down, and they were cables delivering such a powerful internet connection – but they were cables from 1980... They were from 1980 and yet they were so in advance of what we’ve even got now. I’m told that all the time what we get [technologically] is much behind what they [the military] actually know."
16. Recent claims suggest the Rendlesham Forest incident was a 'revenge' hoax by the SAS
In December 2018, Dr. David Clarke, a British UFO researcher, reported a claim that the incident was set up by the SAS as a revenge plot on the USAF. According to the story, in August 1980, the SAS parachuted into RAF Woodbridge to test security at the site.
The USAF detected and captured the SAS troops, who were subsequently interrogated, beaten up, and reportedly even called "unidentified aliens." As a form of revenge, the SAS devised their own prank version of an alien event.
"....as December approached, lights and colored flares were rigged in the woods. Black helium balloons were also coupled to remote-controlled kites to carry suspended materials into the sky, activated by radio-controls," The Telegraphexplains in an article about the purported hoax.
17. One original proponent now believes it was an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) that was seen at the site
Jenny Randles was one of the first journalists to report on the incident. She also co-authored the first book on the case in 1984, Sky Crash: A Cosmic Conspiracy.
In 2010, Randles suggested that a UAP, an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena of unknown origin, might be responsible for what eyewitnesses experienced.
"Whilst some puzzles remain, we can probably say that no unearthly craft were seen in Rendlesham Forest," she explained. "We can also argue with confidence that the main focus of the events was a series of misperceptions of everyday things encountered in less than everyday circumstances."
18. Some UFO skeptics believe the sightings were caused by a meteor and atmospheric distortions
As science writer and UFO skeptic Ian Ridpath explains, on the night of the incident, the British Astronomical Association Meteor Section reported that "an exceptionally brilliant meteor, termed a fireball by astronomers, was seen over southern England. It is shown that this fireball is most likely what they saw and that nothing landed in Rendlesham Forest."
Some skeptics have also suggested the lights seen in the sky may have been bright stars distorted by atmospheric and optical effects, a common source of UFO reports.
19. Others have suggested the sightings may have been caused by the nearby Orfordness lighthouse
According to the witness statements from 26 December, the flashing light seen from the forest lay in the same direction as the nearby Orfordness Lighthouse. Timings on Halt's audiotape also suggest that the light he saw flashed every five seconds — the same flash rate as the lighthouse.
As Daniel Simpson countered to The Telegraph, “the lighthouse theory is rubbish. Lighthouses don’t fly down into forests, split up into five different lights and zap off into space at Mach-3. They don’t move through the trees and get mistaken by up to 20 witnesses from the United States Air Force.”
20. There have been suggestions of a government cover-up
Colonel Halt, who recorded the audiotape commentary during the second incident, has gone on record saying that he believes what he saw was of extraterrestrial origin and that the incident was covered up by the U.K. and U.S. governments.
The Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, is adamant that the Rendlesham Forest incident was of no threat to national security, and therefore, hadn't merited a full investigation.
21. Details continue to emerge as "Britain's Roswell" earns iconic status
Academic David Clarke argues that Rendlesham Forest, which now has an iconic status amongst UFO enthusiasts, is passing into legend. And it's not about to be put to rest — new witnesses have emerged as recently as 2016 and 2019, one of which describes a glowing "reddish ball", and a new documentary called Capel Green is in the works.
With a lack of any satisfying conclusive evidence on either side, skeptics and proponents will continue to debate the matter, and compare it to the Roswell UFO incident in 1947. What do you believe?
The Rendlesham Forest "UFO" Affair: It's Weirder Than You Can Ever Think
Nick Redfern
In the final days of December 1980 multiple,strange encounters and wild incidents occurred in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England. And across a period of three nights, no less. Based upon their personal encounters, many of those who were present believed that something almost unbelievable came down in the near-pitch-black woods on the night of December 26. Lives were altered forever – and for the most part not for the better, I need to stress. Many of those who were present on those fantastic nights found their minds dazzled, tossed and turned – and incredibly quickly, too. Those incidents involved American military personnel who, at the time it all happened, were stationed in the United Kingdom. Their primary role was to provide significant support in the event that the Soviets decided to flex their muscles just a little bit too much – or, worse still, planned on hitting the proverbial red button and ending civilization in hours. Maybe, even in minutes.
Reportedly, those U.S. personnel who were in the area and helped to protect the U.K., came face to face with something much stranger than the likes of a crashed Soviet satellite, a secret Stealth-type plane that malfunctioned and went off-course, or something similar to today’s drones – all of which have been suggested as potential candidates for the whatever-it-was that landed four decades ago. Some, though, are absolutely certain that unearthly entities were encountered: aliens from another world. Confusion was all around. With that in mind, here's the original document that started everything:
(Nick Redfern) The Rendlesham Forest Affair of 1980: Still an Enigma
"1. Early in the morning of 27 Dec 80 (approximately 0300L) two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to go outside the gate to investigate. The on-duty flight chief responded and allowed three patrolmen to proceed on foot. The individuals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy. The object was briefly sighted approximately an hour later near the back gate.
"2. The next day, three depressions 1.5 inches deep and 7 inches in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the ground. The following night (29 Dec 80) the area was checked for radiation. Beta/gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded with peak readings in the three depressions and near the center of the triangle formed by the depressions. A nearby tree had moderate (0.05–0.07) readings on the side of the tree toward the depressions.
"3. Later in the night a red sun-like light was seen through the trees. It moved about and pulsed. At one point it appeared to throw off glowing particles and then broke into five separate white objects and then disappeared. Immediately thereafter, three star-like objects were noticed in the sky, two objects to the north and one to the south, all of which were about 10 degrees off the horizon. The objects moved rapidly in sharp, angular movements and displayed red, green and blue lights. The objects to the north appeared to be elliptical through an 8-12 power lens. They then turned to full circles. The objects to the north remained in the sky for an hour or more. The object to the south was visible for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time. Numerous individuals, including the undersigned, witnessed the activities in paragraphs 2 and 3.
"Charles I. Halt, Lt Col, USAF, Deputy Base Commander"
It’s fair to say that when it comes to UFOs, Rendlesham Forest is right up there with the Roswell “UFO crash” of July 1947. It’s no wonder at all that the case has become known as “Britain’s Roswell.” Not because anything actually crashed in the forest – it was described as being much more like a touch-down – but because of the widespread visibility and notoriety that surrounds the case. The December 1980 encounters have been the subjects of countless prime-time television documentaries on both sides of the pond, and of more than a few books, too. Mostly, the authors behind those same books take the view that extraterrestrials really did come down in picturesque Suffolk – and not on just one occasion. More than a few of the military personnel involved have come forward to tell their stories of what happened. Some of them are sure they had encounters with extraterrestrials. For them, no other answer can be considered. What if, however, there are other explanations for what happened decades ago? And what if that explanation, if revealed, would prove to be even more controversial than the notion that extraterrestrials really manifested within our very midst? The ramifications for the field of Ufology could be – and likely will be - immense. The fact is that Rendlesham is downright weird. As you'll see.
There may be another aspect of the Rendlesham Forest legend that prompted the people behind the experiments to choose that particular area of woods for their tests. Rendlesham Forest has a long history of ghostly encounters. Witchcraft and occult-based rites and rituals have been performed late at night in those dark woods. So-called “Alien Big Cats,” or “black panthers,” as they are mostly named, have been seen roaming through the woods on more than a few times. One of the earliest, credible cases on record is that of Jimmy Freeman, whose close encounter with a big cat occurred while driving past Rendlesham Forest late one night in the mid-1970s. While the precise date has been lost to the inevitable fog of time, the details are as fresh in the mind of Freeman today as they were on the night the incident occurred.
(Nick Redfern) Porton Down: a Secret Facility That Played a Key Role in the Forest Incidents
Given the fact that the encounter had occurred around 11:15 to 11:30 on what was a dark, cloudy and slightly misty night, Freeman was driving slowly and had his lights on full-beam as he negotiated the dark and winding roads. As a result, when something large and shadowy charged across the road in front of him, Freeman could not fail to see the creature for what it was. Long, sleek and black in color, Freeman is in no doubt that for a split second or two he had a brief sighting of a huge cat. Today, he says firmly: “If I live to be a hundred, I will tell the same: Rendlesham Forest has big cats.” On a cold winter’s afternoon in 1983, the then-soon-to-be-married Paul and Jane Jennings were blissfully strolling through those woods when they were terrified by the sudden manifestation in front of them of what Jane would describe succinctly as “a big black dog.” She elaborated that the pair had been walking along a pathway when, on rounding a bend, they came face to face with the phantom beast – something that prompted Jane to intriguingly add: “It was almost like it was waiting for us.” Far more shocking, however, was what happened next. Suddenly, the beast began to flicker on and off for four or five times, then finally vanished, literally, before the Jennings’ eyes amid an overwhelming smell that reminded the pair of burning metal. Not surprisingly, the terrified couple fled for the safety of their car and fled the area. The U.K.’s “phantom black dogs,” as they are popularly known, prompted none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the creator of Sherlock Holmes – to write his classic novel, The Hound of the Baskerevilles.
Rendlesham Forest, as well as the Suffolk locales of West Wratting and Balsham, is reportedly home to an even more diabolical beast than the phantom black dog. It is a creature that has come to be known locally as the Shug-Monkey. Described as being a bizarre combination of giant dog and large ape, the creature is said to strike deep terror into the hearts of those souls unfortunate enough to cross its path. And you thought that UFOs were the strangest things to be found in Rendlesham Forest, right? Wrong. It’s a magnet for strange phenomena – and it has been for a long, long time. It is, however, Rendlesham Forest’s UFO connection that has made those woods world-famous. In many respects, it doesn’t really matter if you are a believer or a disbeliever in supernatural phenomena, such as large and mysterious cats, ghostly hounds and a weird ape-like beast. The important thing to note is this: Rendlesham Forest has a reputation of being distinctly creepy for reasons that go far beyond UFOs and aliens, as you have just seen. If you wanted to run a secret project in an area of English woodland, then what better place could there be than Rendlesham Forest? The answer is simple: there is no better location. Here’s why: Those who do believe in the paranormal will likely say that tales of mysterious creatures seen in the woods only serve to reinforce the idea that aliens landed at Rendlesham – which is almost certainly what the people that concocted the experiments were counting on.
After all, the renowned expert on all-things supernatural, John Keel – noted most of all for his 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies - came to believe that Bigfoot, UFOs, aliens, the Djinn, the Loch Ness Monster and more mysterious entities were all inter-connected. Using an area of woods – for nefarious reasons - that already had a reputation for being drenched in unearthly phenomena, would amount to perfect planning. When the “UFOs” put in their appearances at Christmas 1980, it was just another addition to the already-bulging collection of tales of the unknown that came from within Rendlesham Forest. And, because of the eerie reputation that the woods had (and still have), no-one was thinking about secret experiments of government agencies. It was in January 2001 that the then-retired - and now late - British Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Hill-Norton, decided to get into the Rendlesham Forest controversy. Having had an interest in UFOs for decades, he used his considerable clout to try and figure out what occurred in 1980. It was hardly an easy task for Hill-Norton to achieve. Of specific interest to Hill-Norton were the claims of a connection to the activities of the Porton Down staff. He wanted to know “whether personnel from Porton Down visited Rendlesham Forest or the area surrounding RAF Watton in December 1980 or January 1981; and whether they are aware of any tests carried out in either of those two areas aimed at assessing any nuclear, biological or chemical hazard.”
Hill-Norton got a response from the government he had dutifully worked for. It was not, however, the reply that he hoped for. The reply came from Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean. She spoke on behalf of the MoD, who provided nothing but a concise comment that didn’t really advance the investigation into the case at all. The baroness said: “The staff at the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) Chemic and Biological Defense (CBD) laboratories at Porton Down have made a thorough search of their archives and have found no record of any such visits.” It has to be said that government agencies – and their fawning lackeys – can be extremely careful about what they say and how they say it. It should be noted that Baroness Symons never said that there was no Rendlesham-Porton link. What she said was that no evidence of such a connection had been found. That’s a very different thing, altogether. Playing things carefully and tactfully provides government personnel with a perfect “get out clause,” in the event that additional information might later surface that shows the earlier claims to have been erroneous.
One of those who had a fascination for the Rendlesham Forest mystery was the Admiral of the Fleet Peter John Hill-Norton, Baron Hill-Norton. From 1971 to 1973 he held the position of Chief of the Defense Staff. Having heard of the curious rumors revolving around HM Prison Highpoint North, Hill-Norton was determined to get to the heart of the matter. Unfortunately, Hill-Norton’s attempts to pry open the can of worms failed miserably. It was on October 23, 1997 that Hill-Norton brought up the issue in the U.K. government’s House of Lords. The response he got was this: “Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty’s Government whether staff at Highpoint Prison in Suffolk received instructions to prepare for a possible evacuation of the prison at some time between 25 and 30 December 1980, and, if so why these instructions were issued.” Lord Williams of Mostyn provided a response that only served to muddy the waters even more: “I regret to advise the noble Lord that I am unable to answer his question, as records for Highpoint Prison relating to the period concerned are no longer available. The governor’s journal is the record in which a written note is made of significant events concerning the establishment on a daily basis. It has not proved possible to locate that journal.”
As I’ve stressed, government personnel are very careful when it comes to making statements on sensitive topics. Lord Williams did not deny the story that a major evacuation was almost initiated in late 1980. Instead, he simply said that the logbook for that particular period could not be found. And that was the end of it. Hill-Norton was deeply frustrated by the take-it-or-leave-it response that was dished out to him. You might wonder why someone like Hill-Norton – who was the Chief of the Defense Staff for two years – would not be told the full, true story. The answer is actually quite simple: Hill-Norton retired in 1977, three years before the Rendlesham Forest incident even occurred. And it was two decades after his retirement that he demanded answers concerning HM Prison Highpoint North. Hill-Norton – despite his influential and powerful standing in the government and the military in the 1970s – was long out of the loop by the time George Wild had got the ball rolling in the 1980s. By then, Hill-Norton no longer possessed what is known in government as a “need to know.” Or, in Hill-Norton’s position, a lack of a need to know.
(Nick Redfern) Who Knows the Truth?
Now, to more bizarre activity at Rendlesham Forest: our story moves on from HM Prison Highpoint North to another strand of this curious part of Rendlesham. It’s a story that Georgina Bruni found herself involved in. Bruni confided in me that she had a source of information on the prison connections and who held a significant position in the U.K.’s Special Branch – which, in 2005, was merged into the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch (SO13). Counter Terrorism Command now performs the roles that Special Branch previously performed. According to what Georgina was told, one of the other prisons primed for evacuation was HM Prison Blundeston, which is located thirty-nine miles from Woodbridge. Opened in the early 1960s, it once housed around five hundred prisoners. In 2013, an announcement was made by the Home Office that the jail was to be closed no later than 2014. Bruni’s Special Branch whistleblower informed her that the other jail was HM Prison Hollesley Bay. The U.K. government’s HM Prison & Probation Service says of the facility: “Hollesley Bay opened on this site as a Borstal in 1938. From that year and until 2006, the prison managed an 1800 acre farm on which the care of both crops and livestock, delivered employment for the prisoners. Today the establishment is an outward looking modern institution which holds sentenced adult males from 18 years and upwards without limit. The farm has gone, and a focus on resettlement and reducing re-offending is at the heart of our agenda. The establishment has developed a strong reputation in successfully preparing life sentenced prisoners for their final release.” It should be noted that HM Prison Hollesley is barely eight miles from the village of Woodbridge.
The year 2000 was when Georgina Bruni’s important discoveries about Porton Down and Rendlesham Forest appeared publicly - in her book You Can’t tell the People. I know from speaking to Georgina on many occasions, though, that she had been working on her book for several years prior to its publication. Did someone in government (who knew that Georgina’s revelations would ultimately surface, even if it was still a couple of years down the line) decide that certain action had to be done to try and diffuse what Georgina had unearthed about the Rendlesham Forest-Porton Down connection? Was a plan initiated to encourage the idea, via the media and the world of on-screen entertainment, that there were real ties between Porton Down and aliens? That would have been much more preferable than having an enterprising journalist discover that the real story of UFOs and Porton Down was actually driven by classified tests designed to determine just how much fucking the human mind could take. Or, in some cases, couldn’t. The people behind the operations may have come up with something very much like a scenario I have conjured up: “If we can’t hide the truth of Porton Down’s secret experiments in Rendlesham Forest, and we can’t stop the publication of Georgina Bruni’s book, then let’s swamp and distort the truth with incredible tales, whistleblowers, TV shows, and novels.”
On top of all that, there's Jim Penniston: The year 2000 was when Georgina Bruni’s important discoveries about Porton Down and Rendlesham Forest appeared publicly - in her book You Can’t tell the People. I know from speaking to Georgina on many occasions, though, that she had been working on her book for several years prior to its publication. Did someone in government (who knew that Georgina’s revelations would ultimately surface, even if it was still a couple of years down the line) decide that certain action had to be done to try and diffuse what Georgina had unearthed about the Rendlesham Forest-Porton Down connection? Was a plan initiated to encourage the idea, via the media and the world of on-screen entertainment, that there were real ties between Porton Down and aliens? That would have been much more preferable than having an enterprising journalist discover that the real story of UFOs and Porton Down was actually driven by classified tests designed to determine just how much fucking the human mind could take. Or, in some cases, couldn’t. The people behind the operations may have come up with something very much like a scenario I have conjured up: “If we can’t hide the truth of Porton Down’s secret experiments in Rendlesham Forest, and we can’t stop the publication of Georgina Bruni’s book, then let’s swamp and distort the truth with incredible tales, whistleblowers, TV shows, and novels.”
Now, in the final part of this articlle, it's time to jump back and show people who found the truth of the Rendlesham affair. On the issue of how Ufology learned of the story, there’s no doubt at all that it was the team of Brenda Butler, Dot Street and Jenny Randles that got the ball rolling. They were the authors of the very first book on the mystery, Sky Crash, which was published in 1984. There is also no doubt that without their combined investigations, our knowledge of the incidents would be nowhere compared to where we are today. Possibly, even, without those three persistent investigators the truth behind those incidents would have remained hidden and locked away. Forever? I would not bet against it. That gives you some idea of the depth and determination of Dot, Jenny and Brenda to get the answers.
A bit of background for you on how the story began to surface: Brenda lived not at all far from the forest and had more than a few contacts in the region. Notably, that included friends who were employees of the U.S. military. It wasn’t one hundred percent inevitable that Brenda would hear tales of something strange having taken place just outside the confines of RAF Woodbridge. It was, however, highly likely that such a thing would eventually occur. And as the history books have shown, such a thing did occur. Dot and Brenda were friends and decided to take a deep and careful look at the story. Jenny Randles joined their team soon after, in early 1981. The three were soon hot on the trail of the story – and barely a month after Lieutenant Colonel Halt had put his memo together for the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense. And, the three never looked back. It was a story that suggested, just maybe, a spacecraft from a faraway world had come down in the woods. In the world of Ufology, this was a development that could not have been envisaged just a short period earlier. One of the key sources for the story who the three women relied on - and whose unforgettable words galvanized the trio to look ever deeper into the story - was the pseudonymous “Steve Roberts.” Such was the sensitivity surrounding the man and his story, he was careful to mask his real name. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the very early part of 1981, however. Today, we know so much more. That includes the real name of that prime, early source.
Gary Heseltine is a former Royal Air Force Police officer who went on to have a twenty-four-year-long career with the British Transport Police, serving the majority of the time as a detective. Heseltine, who has spent a large amount of time studying what happened in Rendlesham Forest, says: “Surprisingly to this day, many people don’t realize that the mysterious ‘Steve Roberts witness’ has been identified for many years as J. D. Ingles. Ingles was on the base at the time of the incident, a Sergeant in the Reports and Analysis section of the 81st Security Police Squadron.” It was, to a large degree, the words of their source that caught the attention of Street, Butler and Randles. They did a very good, solid job of pursuing the story. It was soon published. Sky Crash makes for fascinating reading. Shadowy characters, Ministry of Defense chicanery, sinister goings-on in the woods, tales of extraterrestrial visitation, and military figures hiding their real names for fear of what might happen to them, were just the start of things. In the weeks and months that followed, the Ministry of Defense proved to be highly close-mouthed when it came to discussing the December incidents with members of the public and the media. No surprise. They were even more cautious about chatting with an energized team of UFO sleuths who weren’t going to give up. That’s Jenny, Dot and Brenda, of course.
In some ways, the MoD was unable to do very much about it, as wild rumors of the startling events were already seeping out. Eventually matters would develop into a chaotic torrent. To demonstrate how incredibly careful and determined the MoD was to try and keep matters under wraps, it was not until April 13, 1983 that an official admission was made to Jenny Randles that a handful of “lights” had been seen in the vicinity of Rendlesham Forest and that remained “unexplained.” That’s right: two years passed before the rumors of something very strange and non-human having been seen in Rendlesham Forest began to unravel in the world of intelligence and the military. Those who were hiding the truth were now in the dangerous position of losing control of the situation. Almost two months later to the day, a copy of Lieutenant Colonel Halt’s memo was declassified in accordance with the laws of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. It was provided to a now-deceased American UFO investigator, Robert Todd. In a June 14, 1983 letter to Todd, Colonel Peter Bent – who, at the time, was the Commander of the 513th Combat Support Group (CSG) – made an amazement statement. He said: “It might interest you to know that the U.S. Air Force had no longer retained a copy of the 13 January 1981 letter written by Lt. Col. Charles I. Halt. The Air Force file copy had been properly disposed of in accordance with Air Force regulations. Fortunately, through diligent inquiry and the gracious consent of Her Majesty’s government, the British Ministry of Defense and the Royal Air Force, the U.S. Air Force was provided with a copy for you.”
It wasn’t long at all before Brenda, Dot and Jenny found themselves in a runaround. Curiously, during the course of an interview with MoD spokeswoman Pam Titchmarsh on August 18, 1983, Randles was told that – contrary to the statement made by Colonel Bent – the Ministry of Defense had not supplied the Americans with a copy of Halt’s memorandum. Notably, Titchmarsh was very wary about discussing the case with Randles, who had made a trip down to London with Street and Butler. “I wouldn’t know,” was Titchmarsh’s uneasy and succinct reply when Randles asked her if the MoD’s “operational staff” had built up their own files on the case. Nevertheless, since a copy of the Halt memo had been released to Robert Todd by U.S. authorities, Titchmarsh was – at the very least - obliged to admit that her department in the MoD (Defense Secretariat 8) did have a copy of Halt’s report on file. Despite that, the Ministry of Defense denied that the events of December 1980 were of any kind of defense significance. It was a stubborn, mule-like stance from which the Ministry of Defense has never, ever wavered. The MoD just loves that mule. Always has, always will.
The UFO Reporter Part 1: The Files of George Knapp | NewsNation Prime
For the first time, NewsNation is bringing you unprecedented access to the files of legendary television reporter George Knapp. “I have secret stashes of files and things all over the station,” Knapp said in an exclusive interview with NewsNation's Brian Entin. “Mountains of evidence compiled from the government’s own files.”
The UFO Reporter Part 2: The Files of George Knapp | NewsNation Prime
In an exclusive interview, Legendary Las Vegas journalist George Knapp sits down with NewsNation's Brian Entin to discuss his career covering UFOs and UAPs, giving unprecedented access to his archives that date back decades.
Pentagon Confirms Military UFO Aircraft That Defies Physics
12 Secret Aircraft That Don’t Exists. In the enigmatic realm of conspiracy theories, lies a vast and intriguing world filled with astonishing and mysterious machines. These machines, which the government vehemently denies, possess extraordinary capabilities that surpass those of ordinary devices. Among these remarkable contraptions are aircraft that can only be described as stealthy and as swift as rockets. They appear to have emerged straight out of a captivating science fiction movie or perhaps even UFO sightings. Astonishingly, the Pentagon has officially acknowledged the existence of UFO-like aircraft that defy the laws of physics, specifically at the infamous Area fifty-one. The shroud of mystery and secrecy surrounding these phenomena continues to captivate our minds, leaving us pondering over the extraordinary world of covert planes and peculiar sightings gracing our skies. As we embark on this exploration, hold on tight as we delve into the realm of twelve secret aircraft that don't exist..
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BREAKING: Former Gov Insider CONFIRMS US Unraveling Alien Tech Secrets!👽 #UFOTechReveal
BREAKING: Former Gov Insider CONFIRMS US Unraveling Alien Tech Secrets! #UFOTechReveal
In today’s world, the term “UFO” isn’t just confined to science fiction movies or late-night radio shows. With a staggering increase in UFO sightings reported around the globe, the topic has propelled itself from the fringe to the forefront of international attention.
The evolution of technology, especially with the ubiquity of smartphones, has allowed people from various walks of life to capture and share mysterious objects in the sky with ease. But is this sudden surge in reports merely a result of our hyper-connected age? Or is there something more to these UFO sightings?
Several prominent figures, from former military personnel to respected journalists, have engaged in passionate discussions on this topic. This very discourse has been amplified recently when a certain podcast delved deep into potential government knowledge about unidentified aerial phenomena. Their guest lineup, featuring experts like Luis Elizondo, Jeremy Corbell, and James Fox, added credibility to the claims of potential otherworldly encounters.
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Interestingly, the overwhelming public interest isn’t solely based on grainy videos or obscure testimonies. The conversation took a curious turn when David Grusch, a renowned entity in this domain, became the focal point of discussion, hinting at potentially game-changing revelations in the next six months to a year.
Speculation aside, this upsurge in UFO sightings isn’t just about trying to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. It’s about humanity’s innate desire to understand the unknown and broaden its horizon. Whether these sightings will lead to conclusive evidence or remain a tantalizing mystery is still up in the air (pun intended!). But one thing’s for certain, as our world becomes increasingly interconnected, the quest for truth about these enigmatic events will only intensify.
Aurora records in royal chronicles from Korea show that during the 'Maunder Minimum' between 1645 and 1715, the sun's solar cycles became several years shorter than they are today.
An annotated section of the historical Korean texts that mentions auroras occurring during the Maunder Minimum. (Image credit: Yan et al. 2023)
The sun's solar cycles were once around three years shorter than they are today, a new analysis of centuries-old Korean chronicles reveals. This previously unknown anomaly occurred during a mysterious solar epoch known as the "Maunder Minimum," more than 300 years ago.
The sun is constantly in a state of flux. Our home star cycles through periods of increased activity, known as solar maximum, when solar storms become more frequent and powerful, as well as spells of reduced activity, known as solar minimum, when solar storms almost completely disappear.
It currently takes about 11 years for the sun to complete a solar cycle, from minimum to maximum and back again. Scientists can track the sun's progress through a solar cycle by counting the number of sunspots on the star's surface, which appear more frequently in the lead-up to and during solar maximum.
But just as the sun fluctuates within individual cycles, historical sunspot records show that over longer periods, spanning decades or centuries, the overall output of solar cycles can also rise and fall.
The Maunder Minimum, sometimes referred to as the Grand Solar Minimum, was a period of greatly reduced solar activity between 1645 and 1715 when sunspots "effectively disappeared," Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado who was not involved in the recent research, told Live Science in an email._
A comparison of the sun during solar maximum (left) and solar minimum (right). (Image credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory)
During this time, the sun's output was so low that average global temperatures also dropped, in what scientists have dubbed a "mini ice age," according to NASA — though it was also likely linked to high levels of volcanic eruptions at the time.
Sunspot records paint a general picture of the Maunder Minimum, which is named after the English astronomer Edward Walter Maunder. But there is still much about the period that scientists don't know.
In the new study, published Oct. 3 in the journal AGU Advances, researchers analyzed historic auroral records from Korea and found that solar cycles during the Maunder Minimum were only eight years long on average — three years shorter than modern cycles.
This graph shows how solar activity (measured by estimated solar irradiance) dropped off during the Maunder Minimum. (Image credit: NASA/University of Colorado'/LASP Interactive Solar Irradiance Datacenter)
The aurora records were part of three separate books, or chronicles, written on behalf of Korean kings that contained detailed daily reports of royal business, state affairs, weather and astronomical phenomena that occurred within the Korean peninsula between 918 and 1910, according to the 2021 study that first described them.
The astronomical sections of the chronicles frequently speak of "red vapors" or "vapors like firelight." The researchers believe these descriptions refer to the West Pacific Anomaly (WPA) — an area above Korea that produces regular red auroras despite being far from the magnetic poles. Like other auroras, the WPA occurs when solar radiation collides with Earth's magnetic shield. But unlike other auroras at the time, these lightshows persisted despite a decrease in solar activity because the Earth's magnetic field is thinner in this region, which makes them a great proxy for solar cycle progression, the researchers wrote.
A diagram of Earth showing the location of the West Pacific Anomaly (WPA). (Image credit: Yan et al. 2023)
The dates when these auroras occurred show that solar radiation from the sun followed an eight-year cycle.
Scientists don't know what causes long-term solar cycle trends like the Maunder Minimum, McIntosh said. There are "many things" that could influence solar activity over such long periods, he added. It is also unclear why the solar cycles shortened during that time. But the new findings could provide "pivotal clues" in understanding this mysterious epoch in greater detail, researchers wrote in the paper.
Over the last few solar cycles, solar activity has decreased slightly, and there have been some slight fluctuations in cycle length. This led some experts to predict that we were entering a new epoch of reduced solar activity.
Lunar Astronauts Will Need Easy Walking Trails Around the Moon's South Pole
Before this decade is out, NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era and build the necessary infrastructure to keep sending them back. And they will hardly be alone. Alongside NASA’s Artemis Program, the European Space Agency also plans to send astronauts to the Moon and establish a permanent habitat there (the Moon Village), while China and Russia are working towards creating the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). Numerous commercial space companies will also be there to provide crew transportation, cargo, and logistical services.
All of this will happen in the Moon’s southern polar region, a topographically complex region characterized by craters, permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), and undulating slopes. This terrain could prove difficult for crews conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs) away from landing sites and habitats. In a recent study, an international team of researchers used data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to create a detailed atlas of the region that accounts for all the traverses and descents. This atlas could prove very useful for mission planners as they select landing sites for future exploration.
Shown here is a rendering of 13 candidate landing regions for Artemis III. Each region is approximately 15 x 15 km (9.3 x 9.3 mi). A landing site is a location within those regions with an approximate 100-m (328-ft) radius. Credits: NASA
“EVAs will be required to conduct planned scientific expeditions, assemble structures, perform nominal maintenance, and intervene and solve problems outside of the vehicle that cannot be solved either robotically or remotely. The ultimate success of future Exploration missions is dependent on the ability to perform EVA tasks efficiently and safely in these challenging environments. With lunar missions planned for up to 30 times more EVA hours than during the Apollo era, exploration missions to the moon and Mars will present many new challenges with regard to crew health, safety, and performance.”
While mission planners anticipate EVAs much longer than any performed by the Apollo astronauts, NASA’s understanding of human health and performance parameters in lunar gravity is limited to lessons learned from the Apollo Era. Subsequent observations and studies involving microgravity EVAs aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) have provided invaluable lessons. However, this data has mainly been used to design new spacesuits, like the recently unveiled Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU).
Nevertheless, the report also indicates that there has been limited quantification of the physiological and biomechanical variables associated with suited activities in unit and partial gravity. For the astronauts conducting EVAs as part of Artemis III (and subsequent missions), the risks and hazards largely depend on the distance being explored and whether a rover is involved. As study co-author David A. Kring, a researcher with the CLSE-LPI, told Universe Today via email:
“The initial Artemis missions will be limited to walking. The principal challenge in that type of mission will be terrain slope. Any traverse needs to be on slopes less than 20 degrees. Astronauts will also be asked to stay within 2 kilometers [1.24 mi] of the lander and, ideally, keep the lander in sight. After rovers are deployed, astronauts can travel farther from a lander. It may also be possible to reuse rovers in multiple missions. In that case, Houston will telerobotically drive rovers from one astronaut landing site to another. Topography and slope will affect the paths taken. Some of the lunar mountains are larger than Mt. Everest on Earth.”
Data visualization shows the mountainous area west of the Nobile Crater and the smaller craters that litter its rim at the lunar south pole. Credit: NASA
Exploring the Lunar South Pole
What is needed to ensure that crews don’t exhaust themselves or fall prey to the many geographical hazards that characterize the terrain, Kring and his colleagues consulted data from the LRO’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), which obtained 5-meter per pixel (16.4 ft/pixel) measurements the Moon’s southern polar region in 2015 – from which, they identified 521 PSRs. They then created an automated pipeline called MoonPath, which combines a Monte Carlo approach with Dijkstra’s minimum cost path algorithm to calculate traverse paths that minimize metabolic workload.
Like the other candidate landing regions, they are of significant scientific interest due to the potential presence of volatile compounds like water ice, which could be used to produce everything from drinking water and oxygen gas to rocket propellants. As Pena-Asensio explained, the resulting algorithm operates under a set of constraints, including round-trip traverses, minimizing steep slopes, avoiding large boulders, and restricting the overall distance to a 2 km (1.24 mi) radius:
“The optimal strategy for minimizing metabolic workload is to find the shortest and flattest route. Our tool evaluates the properties that an astronaut would encounter along the traverse, such as topographical variations, the incidence of sunlight on their bodies, direct line-of-sight to the lunar lander, temperature, and bearing capacity. Additionally, we estimate the walking speed and time based on Apollo mission records.”
Atlas for Artemis
The result of their work was an atlas that included all 521 traverses and descents to PSRs in the southern polar region. Based on their analysis, the team found that 94?% of all these PSRs are accessible from the rim on slopes below 15°. They further determined that 20 and 19 PSRs are accessible from potential landing sites 001 and 001(6) (respectively), four of which are accessible on slopes entirely below 10°, and that traverses around site 004 are more workload-demanding. This type of information is critical for optimizing astronaut EVAs and identifying accessible targets for science operations.
As they indicate in their paper, the pipeline and traverse atlas can be used to support mission planning for the collection of ice and volatile samples and address major scientific priorities. It can also be used to calculate the minimum workload astronaut paths to any other geologic and exploration targets within the AEZ or elsewhere on the Moon. As Kring summarized:
“The planning tool that the team developed will sharpen our ability to plan geologic traverses that astronauts can successfully complete on schedule. The tool be used to sharpen individual notional traverses. The tool can also be used in an automated mode that allows the team to investigate a constellation of traverse options and, thus, identify the best one from a metabolic perspective. The team developed the tool to assist Artemis astronauts, but it can also be used to explore robotic missions to the lunar surface.”
The Moon is 40 Million Years Older Than We Thought
An object the size of Mars crashed into the Earth over 4 billion years ago, creating a cloud of debris that formed the Moon. When the Apollo astronauts landed on the lunar surface, they found and brought back Moon rocks that helped pinpoint when this event happened. Now, a new study of crystals in the lunar samples pushed that event back even further –about 40 million years earlier than previous estimates — setting the Moon’s formation to about 4.46 billion years old – not long after the Earth formed.
Researchers at Northwestern University and the Field Museum in Chicago, along with the University of Glasgow in Scotland used an atom-probe tomography facility to study Moon rocks and dust collected during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. This facility allowed them to perform an improved form of radiometric dating. Radiometric dating calculates an age in years for geologic materials by measuring the presence of a short-life radioactive element, such as carbon-14, or a long-life radioactive element plus its decay.
A lunar zircon grain under a microscope.Credit: Photo courtesy of Jennika Greer.
The facility, which includes a sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe, allowed the researchers to look at every atom in the zircon crystals and count how many of the atoms have undergone radioactive decay. When an atom undergoes decay, it sheds protons and neutrons to transform into different elements. Uranium, for example, decays into lead, and zircon contains the radioactive element uranium. Uranium has been called “the clock within zircon” because it converts to the element lead at a specific rate over a long span of time.
“This study is a testament to immense technological progress we have made since 1972 when the last [crewed] Moon mission returned to Earth,” said Northwestern’s Dieter Isheim, who co-authored the paper, published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters. “These samples were brought to Earth half-a-century ago, but only today do we have the necessary tools to perform microanalysis at the requisite level, including atom-probe tomography.”
When the Mars-size object hit the Earth and formed the Moon, the energy of the impact melted the rock that eventually became the Moon’s surface.
“When the surface was molten like that, zircon crystals couldn’t form and survive,” explained Philipp Heck from the Field Museum, another co-author. “So, any crystals on the Moon’s surface must have formed after this lunar magma ocean cooled. Otherwise, they would have been melted and their chemical signatures would be erased.”
Apollo 17 was the sixth and final Apollo mission to land people on the Moon and was the only Apollo mission to have a trained geologist among its crew. Lunar module pilot and geologist Harrison Schmitt joined Commander Gene Cernan and Command Module Pilot Ron Evans. The astronauts landed on the southeastern rim of the Serenitatis Basin, known as Taurus-Littrow. Schmitt and Cernan collected about 243 pounds (110.4 kg) of soil and rock samples that were brought back to Earth for further study. Previous studies concluded that the samples from Apollo 17 came from the oldest known impact craters on the Moon.
The microscopic sharpened tip of a lunar crystal. Credit: Courtesy of Jennika Greer
For the new experiment on these samples, a small portion of the lunar sample was sharpened into a very sharp tip, using a focused ion beam microscope. Then, UV lasers evaporate atoms from the surface of that tip. The atoms travel through a mass spectrometer, and how fast they move provides evidence of how heavy they are, which in turn tells the scientists what the atoms are made of.
“These crystals are the oldest known solids that formed after the giant impact,” Heck said. “And because we know how old these crystals are, they serve as an anchor for the lunar chronology.”
Heck said that radiometric dating works somewhat like an hourglass.
“In an hourglass, sand flows from one glass bulb to another, with the passage of time indicated by the accumulation of sand in the lower bulb,” he said. “Radiometric dating works similarly by counting the number of parent atoms and the number of daughter atoms they have transformed to. The passage of time can then be calculated because the transformation rate is known.”
Lead author Jennika Greer working with the atom probe. Credit: Courtesy of Dieter Isheim, Northwestern.
A previous study by co-author Bidong Zhang suggested this older age of the lunar surface. Zhang worked with lead author Jennika Greer to use the atom probe tomography facility at Northwestern to get a nanoscale look at the lunar samples, which confirmed the age of this oldest known lunar crystal
Greer was a doctoral candidate at the Field Museum and the University of Chicago and is now a research associate at the University of Glasgow.
“It’s amazing being able to have proof that the rock you’re holding is the oldest bit of the Moon we’ve found so far,” said Greer. “It’s an anchor point for so many questions about the Earth. When you know how old something is, you can better understand what has happened to it in its history.”
The researchers said it’s important to know when the Moon formed since it is such an important part of our planetary system.
“It stabilizes the Earth’s rotational axis, it’s the reason there are 24 hours in a day, it’s the reason we have tides,” said Heck. “Without the Moon, life on Earth would look different. It’s a part of our natural system that we want to better understand, and our study provides a tiny puzzle piece in that whole picture.”
The Tunguska event was a mega explosion, which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, on June 30, 1908. It is classified as an impact event even though it exploded in the sky rather than hit the surface with as a result that about 2,000 square km of forest was flattened.
No one disputes it occurred, but how it occurred is a heated controversy.
Despite the best efforts of mainstream science, we still haven't gotten anything but ad hoc explanations that leave some inescapable facts shouting for attention.
The event began around 7:15 in the morning of June 30th, 1908. A blue-white fireball that some say was brighter than the Sun raced across the sky and then exploded (with the power) of a 10 to 15 megaton hydrogen bomb.
The shockwave alone was enough to knock people off their feet and break windows hundreds of kilometers away. The explosion though devastated 2,000 square kilometers, felling almost 60 million trees, and yet somehow left a ring of burned trees standing near the epicenter. Even stranger, several more unburned trees remained in the middle of those.
Seismic stations across Europe and Asia felt the explosion, and even as far as Britain fluctuations of atmospheric pressure were detected. That pulse of air pressure circled the Earth twice. Astronomers observed a red-glowing haze in the upper atmosphere for several nights after, even if they didn't understand what had caused it.
And then comes another oddity. Reports of an unusually bright nighttime sky begin coming out the night before the Tunguska event and several more unusually bright nights follow. For weeks, reports say the night sky was so bright you could read under it. Both the Smithsonian Astrophysical and Mount Wilson Observatories reported a decrease in atmospheric transparency that would persist for several months.
Most astronomers today figure the destruction was caused by either a small comet or asteroid bursting a few miles off the surface, with estimates putting the object around 100 meters in diameter. According to the calculations of Christopher Chyba of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, only a stony meteorite would explode at 10 kilometers up where the Tunguska blast is thought to have occurred.
However, a comet of that size would disintegrate much higher in the atmosphere, causing less damage on the ground. Yet, over a hundred years later scientists still argue over several unexplained facts and to this day no trace of the impacting object has ever been found.
Andrei Ol’khovatov, an independent Russian physicist who was intrigued by the Tunguska then agrees that the impact theory leaves too many unanswered questions.
He points out witnesses reporting strange weather and increased seismic activity in the area for days before the event. This absence of any coherent explanation has invited plenty of speculation from the mainstream. Everything from a miniature black hole passing through the earth to anti-matter bombs going off in the night. UFOs, extraterrestrial weaponry, even a theory about Tesla's death ray have been introduced to explain the unexplained.
But guess what they left out - 'the electrical force'. The one single force that allows for a unified solution that doesn't need to leave out any fields of evidence.
Proponents of the Electric Universe ask us to judge this perspective based on predictive success and their theories’ ability to explain all relevant data, without leaving a substantial collection of evidence on the cutting room floor, like the mainstream. So, let's pencil electricity into the equation and see what happens - the extraordinary power of a high-energy explosion above ground. The most likely origin of the object responsible for the Tunguska event was the short-period comet Encke acknowledged source of the Beta Taurid meteor shower which was at its peak on June 30th, 1908.
In the Electric model, the energy released by a comet fragment when they encounter Earth isn't limited to the mass and kinetic energy of a fragment. Instead, it packs the entire punch of the charge differential between itself and the earth.
What did they leave out? Electricity. Researchers who ignore the electrical force end up theorizing an object with grossly exaggerated mass and size, and these inaccuracies have made the search for fragments of the original bolide difficult. They're looking in the wrong places. Repeated testimony of strange sounds before the event
In terms of the speed of sound in the earth's atmosphere, the reports of weird sounds in advance, might seem absurd. But not when you consider electrophonic sounds that are heard either before or during sightings of brilliant meteor fireballs up to a hundred kilometers distant. Electrophonic sounds are a direct conversion by transduction of very low frequency electromagnetic energy into sound, through a medium that can be as simple as a gold tooth or a pair of glasses.
Reports of such unusual sounds connected with meteors, auroras, earthquakes, and even nuclear bomb tests, substantiate this effect. The easiest way to understand it, is as a natural resonance of extensive plasma discharge in earth's atmosphere, or underground in the case of earthquakes. In the case of the incoming comet, the body is electrified in respect to the earth.
Plasma Sheath
In our electric solar system, planets and comets all have a plasma sheath that isolates them electrically from the solar plasma. But when these plasma sheaths touch, the two bodies see each other electrically for the first time.
Now consider that these comets have plasma sheaths that are millions of kilometers in diameter. Even at the incredible speeds they're traveling, their plasma sheaths reach us days in advance, causing electrical interaction with the earth long before any physical encounter.
Strange Weather
Reports of strange weather before the event.” In our electric solar system it's the flow of electric current between the planets and the solar plasma that primarily drive earth’s weather patterns. Seen in these terms, electrical disturbances resulting in unusual weather would be expected, even days before a comet's arrival.
Reports of strange seismic activity before the event
New evidence is linking earthquakes to occurrences of underground lightning. The intrusion of even a minor electrical charged body approaching the earth, could certainly trigger earthquakes in the same way electrical sunspot activity does.
Geomagnetic storms
Geomagnetic effects before the event. Professor Weber of Kiel University observed unusual regular periodic deviations of the compass needle. An effect repeated each evening from the 27th through the 30th of June 1908. The recordings look like geomagnetic storms often caused by solar electrical activity. But in this instance, it was the approaching comet causing the disturbance. The duration of these storms indicate that comets are copious sources of electrons, meaning they carry substantial negative charge compared to the inner solar system and have a vastly greater influence than mere gravitational or inertial considerations would suggest.
Global atmospheric pressure pulse
The earth's atmosphere forms the dielectric of a capacitor with the two plates being pressure pulses earth and the ionosphere. The comet’s electrical disturbances cause pressure pulses through the atmosphere, both before and when the comet arrives. Consider the giant ionospheric disturbance that accompanied the 9.3 magnitude Sumatra earthquake on December 26, 2004, where the ionosphere moved up and down by almost 40 kilometers. Such changes have been recorded in the atmosphere five to ten days before an earthquake.
Missing crater
When a comet passes close to earth, the plasma discharge that takes place between them can cause the comet to fragment or burst from internal electrical stresses. Now these fragments can melt or vaporize in the intense plasma discharge leaving nothing left to create a crater on the ground.
Interestingly, the Tunguska epicenter is over the top of a Triassic volcano. Volcanoes are the focus of electrical discharge activity and may retain electrical conductivity that differs from the surrounding crust, adding another credible argument that the blast was electrical.
Absence of meteoric fragments
If it was just the fire and air friction breaking the bolide apart, we'd expect to find its stony remains, but as noted above all this gets vaporized in the discharge. Also, ground zero has nothing to do with any impact or crater, but is instead the spot where a focused plasma discharge between earth and comet occurs, meaning most Standard Model researchers don't even know where to look.
Instantaneous eruption of fire across hundreds of square kilometers
A discharge at these levels would have been like nothing the locals had ever seen. Both regular radiation fires and electrically ignited ones would have erupted all over a wide area, all at the same time, setting it all ablaze.
Frightful lightning and thunder in the midst of the firestorm. Saint Elmo's fire and ball lightning are generated at the earth's surface and the locals would have seen lightning snaking across a clear blue sky.
Lightning
Blasts of heat, along with a shock wave many kilometers from the explosion. Wherever the discharge touches down, there's intense heat and a blast, but these touchdown points are often far from the bolide’s track or the epicenter of the explosion. ”Presence of microscopic glassy spheres over a large area.” When those comet fragments vaporize, the explosion sprays glassy spherules outward from the discharge.
Electrical fusing
It's a common effect of lightning and yes easily demonstrated in the lab. After a hundred years, the experts are still debating if this was a comet or an asteroid that exploded over Tunguska. The comet camp points out cometary material found in a wide area, but the asteroid camp claim a fragile comet would get destroyed too high in the atmosphere. What neither side understands is that a comet is just an asteroid large enough to hold its own charge, while moving along a highly elliptical orbit through the Sun's electric field. There are no icy dirt balls. Both form the same way, and an asteroid that's big enough can become a comet simply by being knocked out of its regular circular orbit.
The above theory proposed by the Electric Universe model of cosmology could be the answer to the question of what really caused the Tunguska event. It's electric!
The Electric Universe Theory generally states that electricity is the engine behind a long list of natural and astrophysical spectacles. It supports the idea that invisible electricity powers surround our planet, our solar system, the galaxy and... everything and that cosmic occurrences are electrical in nature.
Crystals packed inside Apollo's lunar rocks suggest that the Moon could be a much older age than we thought.
Half a century after the last Apollo mission departed the Moon in December 1972, scientists have taken a fresh look at its precious parcels. A team sharpened the lunar rocks the astronauts had ferried to Earth, and then, by using a precise dating technique that measures the decay of unstable molecules called isotopes, researchers concluded that the Moon is at least 4.46 billion years old. Their new estimate, published in a new study in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters, suggests the Moon is older than previously estimated by 40 million years.
“It’s amazing being able to have proof that the rock you’re holding is the oldest bit of the Moon we’ve found so far,” Jennika Greer, lead author of the new study and former doctoral candidate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, said in an announcement.
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt in 1972.
COURTESY OF NASA
HOW DID THE MOON FORM?
The crystals that researchers examined are traces of a violent encounter between ancient Earth and a Mars-sized object. Fittingly, it's called the Giant Impact hypothesis.
This crash is time zero on the clock for the Moon’s existence as we know it. The event would have caused a molten ocean across the Moon’s entire surface.
As Philipp Heck, curator for meteoritics and polar studies at the Field Museum and the study’s senior author, explained in the announcement, “When the surface was molten like that, zircon crystals couldn’t form and survive.” Once the magma ocean cooled down, the zircon crystals would begin to form. They are, therefore, a good way to estimate the minimum possible age for the Moon.
HOW DID THEY FIGURE OUT THE MOON’S AGE?
Greer says the team used a focused ion beam microscope like “a very fancy pencil sharpener” to prepare the lunar sample for observation. The team produced five of these “nanotips.” Ultraviolet lasers then evaporated atoms from the tip; this allowed the team to learn what they were made of.
The next step was to look at the proportion of different isotopes. The team could then discern how many atoms had transformed during the passage of time as they underwent radioactive decay. This technique, which Heck described as an “hourglass,” provides a reliable way to learn the ancient age of a sample.
This new study is proof that astronomers need only peer into the nearby universe to make exceptional discoveries.
The need for self-defense has always been present in history, especially in the ancient world. Sometimes, however, the common folk were not provided with adequate weapons or sufficient training, which greatly reduced their effectiveness in battle. In many cultures, people chose to instruct themselves, and thereby developed unique martial arts that could be very deadly forms of self defense. Many of these martial arts survived through the centuries, being refined and perfected. Here are ten deadly martial arts of the ancient world!
1. Tahtib
Tahtib, also known as Arnis sa Kawayan or simply “stick fighting,” is a traditional martial art that originated in ancient Egypt. Rooted in history and culture, tahtib involves combat techniques using a long bamboo stick as the primary weapon . Practitioners of tahtib engage in choreographed movements that simulate combat scenarios, incorporating strikes, blocks, thrusts and sweeps. The art emphasizes fluid and rhythmic footwork, balance and coordination, making use of the stick as both an offensive and defensive tool.
Tahtib has cultural significance beyond self-defense, often being performed in celebratory events, festivals, and social gatherings. It serves as a means of entertainment, storytelling, and preserving historical heritage. While tahtib's prominence waned over time, efforts have been made to revive and preserve this ancient art. Modern practitioners study tahtib to connect with Egypt's martial history, promote cultural appreciation, and foster a sense of community.
Tahtib showcases the ingenuity of ancient Egyptian combat traditions and contributes to a broader understanding of the diversity and depth of martial arts across different cultures.
Kung Fu is a diverse and multifaceted martial arts discipline that originated in China and has gained global recognition. Rooted in ancient traditions, Kung Fu encompasses a vast array of styles, techniques, and philosophies that have evolved over centuries.
Kung Fu techniques include a wide spectrum of strikes, kicks, punches, blocks, joint locks, throws, and more. It emphasizes fluidity of movement, balance, flexibility, and the integration of mind and body, and it can be quite deadly when used in true combat. Many styles are named after animals, imitating their characteristics and movements. Beyond combat, Kung Fu embodies a philosophy of self-discipline, personal development and respect for others. It encompasses principles like harmony, balance and the pursuit of inner peace. Traditional Kung Fu schools often integrate meditation , philosophy and healing practices into their teachings.
The practice of Kung Fu has influenced various aspects of Chinese culture, including literature, theater and film. It gained global popularity in part due to its portrayal in movies and television. Different styles of Kung Fu, such as Shaolin , Wing Chun, Tai Chi and Wushu, showcase its versatility and adaptability to different goals, whether they be self-defense, physical fitness, artistic expression or spiritual growth.
3. Bataireacht
Bataireacht, also known as Irish stick fighting or cudgel play, is a traditional martial art that originated in Ireland. Rooted in the country's history and culture, bataireacht involves the skilled use of a wooden stick or cudgel for combat.
Practitioners of bataireacht develop proficiency in various techniques, including strikes, blocks, parries and footwork. The art emphasizes fluid movements, precision and timing, making use of the stick as an extension of the body. Bataireacht techniques can be applied in both one-on-one combat and in larger-scale confrontations.
Historically, bataireacht played a role in Ireland's fight for independence, as well as in everyday self-defense among common people. The art was often practiced covertly due to its association with resistance against British rule. While bataireacht's prominence waned over time, efforts have been made to preserve and revive its techniques and cultural significance.
Fight with Cudgels by Francisco de Goya, circa 1820, resembles a bataireacht brawl.
Pankration was an ancient Greek martial art that emerged in the early Olympics and has left an indelible mark on combat sports history. Combining elements of boxing and wrestling, pankration was a no-holds-barred fighting discipline that allowed for a wide range of techniques, including strikes, joint locks, chokes, and throws.
In pankration, combatants aimed to incapacitate or submit their opponents through a combination of brute force and strategic finesse. Matches could become intense and often ended only when one fighter either surrendered, was rendered unconscious, or was unable to continue. Despite its aggressive nature, there were rules in place to prevent maiming or death.
Pankration was held in high esteem in ancient Greek society, celebrated for its physical prowess and mental fortitude. Its champions were regarded as true all-around athletes, showcasing a blend of strength, agility, and tactical acumen.
Pankration's legacy can be seen in the modern evolution of mixed martial arts (MMA), as it bears similarities to the diverse combat techniques and versatility displayed in contemporary cage fighting. While pankration itself is no longer widely practiced, its influence endures through its impact on combat sports.
5. Kalaripayattu
Kalaripayattu is an ancient Indian martial art with roots in the state of Kerala. Considered one of the world's oldest fighting systems, it encompasses a holistic approach to physical, mental, and spiritual development. Kalaripayattu is known for its distinctive blend of striking techniques, weaponry and physical conditioning.
This martial art is divided into various stages of training, beginning with the practice of Meipayattu (body conditioning) to develop flexibility and strength. Kolthari involves training with wooden weapons like staffs, Ankathari introduces metal weapons like knives and swords, and Verumkai focuses on unarmed combat.
Kalaripayattu's unique techniques include intricate footwork, graceful movements and powerful strikes aimed at vital points on the body. It emphasizes a deep understanding of the body's energy flow and pressure points for both offense and defense.
Beyond combat, Kalaripayattu incorporates healing techniques, known as Marma Chikitsa, to treat injuries and restore balance. It's also an essential part of Kerala's cultural heritage and has influenced other martial arts like Silambam and certain aspects of traditional dance forms.
Two Kalaripayattu swordsmen in mock sword against sword martial arts combat in Kerala.
Karate is a traditional Japanese martial art that originated on the island of Okinawa and later gained worldwide recognition. Characterized by its emphasis on striking techniques using various parts of the body, karate focuses on delivering powerful punches, kicks, knee strikes and elbow strikes. It embodies principles of discipline, respect, and personal development.
Karate practitioners, known as karateka, train in forms (kata), which are choreographed sequences of movements that simulate combat scenarios. These forms help practitioners develop techniques, balance, coordination and mental focus. Karate also includes sparring (kumite), where practitioners engage in controlled, supervised combat to apply techniques in a dynamic setting.
Different styles of karate exist, each with its own philosophy and techniques. Shotokan, Shito-ryu, Goju-ryu, and Wado-ryu are some of the most well-known styles. Karate has been influenced by Okinawan and Chinese martial arts, and it has evolved over time to include both traditional and sport-focused elements.
Karate's popularity as a martial art, self-defense system and competitive sport has led to its inclusion in international events like the Olympic Games. Beyond physical skills, karate fosters mental resilience, self-confidence and a sense of community.
7. Ninjutsu
Ninjutsu is a historic and secretive Japanese martial art that encompasses a wide range of skills and techniques associated with espionage, sabotage and unconventional warfare. Originating during feudal Japan, ninjutsu was developed and practiced by the ninja, covert agents skilled in espionage and guerrilla tactics.
Ninjutsu encompasses various disciplines, including espionage, disguise, stealth, camouflage, escape, evasion and unconventional combat techniques. Practitioners, known as shinobi or ninja, were trained to operate in a clandestine and covert manner, using their specialized skills to gather information, conduct assassinations and disrupt enemy activities.
The art of ninjutsu places a strong emphasis on adaptability, deception and survival. Techniques include unarmed combat, weapon handling, explosives, poisons and the use of everyday tools as weapons. Additionally, the art includes meditation and mental training to enhance focus, awareness and control.
Ninjutsu's mystique has been popularized in modern media, though historical records are often limited due to its secretive nature. While the traditional role of the ninja has evolved, the legacy of ninjutsu endures as a symbol of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and the art of adapting to challenging circumstances.
8. Silambam
Silambam is an ancient martial art hailing from the southern regions of India, particularly Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Rooted in tradition and culture, Silambam revolves around the skillful use of a bamboo staff, also known as silambu or lathi, as a versatile weapon for both offense and defense.
Practitioners of Silambam engage in a dynamic and rhythmic dance-like combat, focusing on fluid movements, footwork and precise strikes. The art incorporates a wide range of techniques, including strikes, blocks, sweeps, thrusts and spins, making it a comprehensive, deadly, and adaptable form of self-defense.
One of Silambam's distinctive features is its emphasis on weapon-to-weapon combat, as well as unarmed techniques that complement the staff work. The art's historical roots trace back to ancient battles and warrior traditions, where the silambu was utilized to defend against various opponents and weaponry.
Over time, Silambam has evolved into a cultural expression and a symbol of regional heritage. It has gained recognition as a sport and a means of promoting physical fitness, coordination and discipline. The practice of Silambam continues to be celebrated through performances, competitions and demonstrations, showcasing its significance in preserving the rich martial heritage of South India.
9. Eskrima / Kali / Arnis
Arnis is the national martial art of the Philippines. Also known as Eskrima or Kali, this is a versatile and comprehensive martial art that can be very lethal. This ancient system places a strong emphasis on weapon-based combat, with a primary focus on sticks, blades and improvised weapons. Eskrima practitioners develop a deep understanding of both armed and unarmed techniques, making it effective for self-defense in various scenarios.
Practitioners learn to strike, block, disarm and manipulate opponents' weapons with precision and speed. The art's footwork and body positioning contribute to its effectiveness, enabling practitioners to maintain a balanced and controlled approach to combat.
While weapons training is a cornerstone of Eskrima, it also incorporates empty-hand techniques, grappling, and throws, providing a well-rounded self-defense system. The art's adaptability has led to its integration into modern law enforcement and military training, as well as its continued practice in various cultural and sporting contexts.
Eskrima remains an integral part of the nation's cultural identity, celebrated for its practicality, efficiency and holistic approach to combat and self-preservation.
Eskrima practitioner wearing a traditional headdress and striking with a stick as part of this unique martial art.
Varma Kalai is an ancient martial art and healing system that originated in the region of Tamil Nadu in South India. Rooted in the Siddha tradition, Varma Kalai focuses on the manipulation of vital points ( varma) on the body to both incapacitate opponents and promote healing, depending on the need. This martial art encompasses a wide range of techniques, including strikes, pressure point manipulation, joint locks and weapon-based combat.
Varma Kalai practitioners are trained to target specific points on the body, believed to be interconnected with the body's energy pathways, nerves, and vital organs. Strikes and pressure applied to these points can disrupt an opponent's physiological functions, causing pain, paralysis or even death. However, the art also emphasizes the ethical use of its techniques and places great importance on understanding the body's energy flow and balance.
In addition to combat applications, Varma Kalai includes a comprehensive system of healing and medicine, utilizing the knowledge of vital points to treat injuries, ailments and imbalances in the body. While the ancient art of Varma Kalai has diminished in prominence over time, efforts to preserve and revive its teachings continue, allowing its unique blend of martial prowess and therapeutic knowledge to persist as a cultural and historical treasure.
These ten martial arts, whether showcasing the graceful but lethal moves in Kalaripayattu or the brute force encounters of pankration in ancient Greek arenas, offer a deep dive into the ingenious methods developed for self-defense and warfare. They stand not just as methods of physical combat, but also as spiritual disciplines, philosophies, and influential cultural symbols woven deeply into the tapestries of their respective societies.
De maan is nog 40 miljoen jaar ouder dan gedacht, wijst nieuw onderzoek uit
Artikel van Radio 1, Maxine Rappé
Minstens 4,46 miljard jaar. Dat is de leeftijd van de maan, blijkt uit nieuw Brits en Amerikaans onderzoek. “Dat is bijna zo oud als de aarde”, zegt sterrenkundige Katrien Kolenberg in “Nieuwe feiten” op Radio 1. Voordien dacht men dat het hemellichaam 4,42 miljard jaar was.
De geboorte van de maan
Wetenschappers vermoeden dat de maan in het vroege zonnestelsel ontstond na een botsing. Een object zo groot als Mars stootte tegen de aarde, waardoor een deel van onze planeet werd weggeslingerd. Die gesteentes smolten later samen tot de maan.
“Eens dat gestold was, hebben er zich op het maanoppervlak kristallen gevormd”, zegt Kolenberg. Die werden 51 jaar geleden meegenomen door astronauten van de Apollo 17-missie, de laatste missie waarbij voet op de maan werd gezet.
Een zirkonenkristal.
Beeld Jennika Greer
Oude stenen, nieuwe inzichten
Het zijn die 51 jaar oude kristallen die nu voor meer duidelijkheid zorgen. “Ze zijn recent onderzocht door Britse en Amerikaanse onderzoekers met een nieuwe techniek: atoom sonde tomografie.” Die techniek, gebaseerd op de datering van radioactief verval, laat toe om de leeftijd van gesteente in detail vast te stellen. Met een laser worden atomen uit kristallen verdampt.
Het huidige maanoppervlak bestaat uit gesteente dat is gesmolten door de energie die vrijkwam toen de maan werd losgeslagen van de aarde. De meegebrachte kristallen kunnen zich pas hebben gevormd nadat het gesteente was afgekoeld, zegt Philipp Heck, een van de auteurs van het onderzoek.
“Nu hebben we de technieken om meer details te ontrafelen”, zegt Kolenberg. Dat verschil van "amper" 40 miljoen jaar in de datering van de maan lijkt misschien onbenullig. Toch is het een stap vooruit voor de wetenschap. “Het leert ons iets bij over de geschiedenis van ons zonnestelsel, en hoe vroeg het er al was.”
Toen het object op de aarde knalde en de maan vormde, smolt door de energie van de impact het gesteente dat uiteindelijk het maanoppervlak zou vormen. “Toen het oppervlak zo gesmolten was, konden zirkonenkristallen niet ontstaan of overleven. Dus alle kristallen op het maanoppervlak moeten zijn ontstaan nadat deze magma-oceaan op de maan was afgekoeld”, legt Heck uit. “Anders zouden ze zijn gesmolten en was hun chemische signatuur vernietigd.”
Volgens Heck is het belangrijk om te weten wanneer de maan is ontstaan om het leven op aarde beter te begrijpen. De maan stabiliseert onder meer de rotatie-as van onze planeet. Bovendien zorgt de aantrekkingskracht van de maan voor eb en vloed. “Het is een onderdeel van ons natuurlijke systeem dat we beter willen begrijpen. Onze studie is een klein puzzelstukje in dat hele plaatje”, zegt Heck.
Guys, check this amazing fossil I found recently on Mars. The fossil is about 1 meter across and looks much more worn than similar size clam fossils on earth that are 500 million years old. This is 100% proof that an ancient ocean once existed on Mars. Imagine what we the public could accomplish if given control of the rover for one year. We would make more discoveries than NASA did in its whole 55 year existence.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Ruins, strange artifacts on other planets, moons, ed ( Fr, EN, NL )
Aliens Among Us? The Startling Truth Behind UFO Sightings and Implants!
Aliens Among Us? The Startling Truth Behind UFO Sightings and Implants!
From mysterious objects implanted beneath the skin to unexplained sightings in the sky, the world of UFO investigations is as thrilling as it is perplexing. Are these phenomena the product of extraterrestrial contact, elaborate hoaxes, or something else entirely?
The Curious Case of Barbara Eberhardt
One of the most riveting accounts comes from Barbara Eberhardt, who believes she has alien implants in her body. A square-shaped anomaly beneath her skull and another in her shoulder have left experts scratching their heads. When tested with conventional methods, these implants defy logical explanation. Even metal detectors, which one might expect to pick up foreign objects, fail to identify the composition of these curious items. Some experts, like renowned UFO investigator Daryl Sims, speculate that they may be composed of unknown earthly metals or even operate on nuclear power. With implants potentially emitting radiation, the implications for the individuals involved could be dire.
A Global Phenomenon
Though often centered on US experiences, alien encounters and implant tales span the globe. Stories of abductions, unidentifiable flying objects, and mysterious implants come from far and wide, from Brazil to Italy. This international scope prompts the question: Why are these occurrences so widespread? And are they the result of a singular entity or a federation of extraterrestrial species with coordinated agendas?
Piecing Together the Puzzle
Researchers like Ben and Melissa tirelessly work to connect the dots. From the shapeshifting UFOs reported near military facilities to the submerged objects and mantis aliens blamed for abductions in Southern California, patterns slowly emerge. Native American tribes, for instance, have long spoken of ‘star people,’ visitors from the cosmos that interacted with their ancestors. In Idaho, these legends persist, while just southeast, reports of grey aliens conducting chilling experiments abound.
Imminent Invasion or Longstanding Conspiracy?
The debate rages on. Are we on the brink of an extraterrestrial invasion, or are we already ensnared in a vast conspiracy involving mind control and hybridization programs? The answers remain elusive, but one thing is certain: our understanding of the universe and our place in it is constantly being challenged.
Video:
Ben and Melissa Recap Their UFO Investigation & Investigate Alien Implants | UFO Witness
The Enmyoin Temple in the Fukushima prefecture of Japan is now known colloquially by a different name, said its Chief Monk, Tomonori Izumi: “The Miracle Temple.”
“I don’t know if it was some god or some powerful being in a UFO, but I believe that some invisible power really did come to save us,” said Izumi.
On March 11 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters ever after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused its electrical grid to fail. The simultaneous disasters laid waste to much of the surrounding area, but “miraculously, the temple was untouched.”
“The UFO's came after the explosion. There were so many of them. I was shocked,” said the monk in the fourth episode of the VICE Studio’s Netflix docuseries series Encounters: “Lights Over Fukushima.”
“Radioactive energy was leaking everywhere. I believe the UFOs came to readjust the flood of radioactive energy in order to save us. That's my theory, anyway,” said Izumi.
Just like after the Fukushima disaster, UFO’s have been documented repeatedly around places where humans have spawned nuclear activity. There are “very clear connections” between UFO sightings and nuclear sights “going back decades,” said author Dr. Jensine Andresen.
“My personal view on the basis of over 30 years of very extensive research is that there is an advanced extraterrestrial presence operating basically here on Earth and in the oceans,” she said.
Andresen cited declassified U.S. government reports from agencies like the FBI and CIA about UFO sightings near nuclear sites, saying she had looked at 39 different accounts between the 1940s and 1990s.
“It goes back to the 1930s when the science and research was being done to understand fission. But then it really heats up in the 1940s, in particular, right after the detonation of the two atomic bombs in Japan in 1945. Then it is decisive, it’s conclusive. You see one after another event occurring in proximity specifically to sites associated with nuclear weapons,” said Andresen.
There are numerous cases, she said, listing sightings near Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Laboratories, and other places “where nuclear weapons were stored.”
Another well-known case took place at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in March of 1967. Robert Salas, who worked as a missile launch officer controlling ten nuclear tipped missiles at the time, alleged one day after he received reports from other officers of strange UFO sightings, his missiles were shut down and became “unlaunchable.” He later learned that ten weapons at another nearby site were also shut down “under similar circumstances, very similar circumstances where UFOs were sighted over the launch facilities.” More recently, Salas said that he had briefed the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a unit tasked with resolving credible UFO sightings, on the event.
Andresen said one of the clearest examples of these sorts of activities around nuclear facilities was the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
“There was a lot of UFO activity reported there also. At the height of the fire in Chernobyl, the reading was 3000 milliroentgens, which is a unit of ionizing radiation. And right at the height of the fire, many people observed a UFO come, stayed for 3 minutes, shown a light right at Unit 4 and departed,” she said. “They took another reading and it had apparently dropped to 800. Just in a few minutes. That seems like a very conscious attempt to remediate the danger caused by the malfunction there.”
Like the Chief Monk of the Miracle Temple, Andresen also believes that these extraterrestrial beings are trying to help us avoid our own self destruction via nuclear catastrophes.
“I think this is an intelligence that recognizes the depth of human creativity and wants to preserve it. I think this intelligence cares about us. I think this intelligence does not want us to go extinct. That's what I think is really being communicated,” she said. “’We're right here with you. Just open your hearts. Open your minds. We'd like to help you. And, you know, let's get to know one another.’ I think that's really what the message is.”
Over the past few weeks, team members of the Galileo Project engaged in a truly heroic effort to assemble the first telescope system at Harvard University.
The Galileo Project is a scientific search program for extraterrestrial equipment near Earth. The Project was publicly announced one month after the ODNI report to the US Congress about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in June 2021. The Project’s name was inspired by Galileo Galilei’s legacy of finding answers to fundamental questions, in this case the nature of UAP, by looking through new telescopes.
The search is agnostic regarding its potential outcome. It represents a fishing expedition that could result in a mixed bag, containing primarily (after the elimination of instrumental artifacts):
Natural objects, like: bugs, birds, rocks or atmospheric phenomena.
Human-made objects, like: weather balloons, drones, airplanes, rockets or satellites.
Assembling high-quality data on the first category would be of interest to zoologists or atmospheric scientists. The second category could be of interest to national security agencies in government. But anything else would be of great scientific interest to the Galileo Project. This third category includes objects that appear to be of artificial origin, for example – showing screws or bolts in high-resolution images of their surface, but moving or interacting in ways that cannot be reproduced by current human-made devices.
The Galileo Project is a new research initiative. Its novel cameras will monitor the entire sky in the optical, infrared and radio bands, as well as in audio, magnetic field and energetic particle signals. The data will be analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that will aim to catalog objects within the above-mentioned categories.
As Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes noted: “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
The Galileo Project is a new research initiative. Existing astronomical observatories target objects at great distances and have a limited field of view of the sky, whereas the Galileo Project aims to monitor the entire sky continuously and study fast-moving objects in the vicinity of the Earth. It is an astronomy project since it analyzes data obtained by telescopes and searches for interstellar objects that originate outside the Solar system. Its novel observing strategy employs state-of-the-art cameras and computers.
Government agencies aim to protect the safety of military personnel and national security interests. From their perspective, UAP reports by military staff members, such as those discussed during congressional hearings, are of primary importance for the first task, and data from military patrol sites are linked to the second objective. Government agencies must know what the vast majority of UAP are, and for that purpose they must attend to data of compromised quality including blurry videos.
However, the goal of scientists is complementary to that. They do not need to explain most of the reports. Even if only one object is of extraterrestrial technological origin among the clutter of natural or human-made objects, it would represent the most consequential discovery in human history. To figure this out, scientists must have access to the highest quality data, such as a high-resolution image of an object showing a label “Made on Exo-Planet X”, or a maneuver at a fraction of the speed of light or a set of buttons on a futuristic gadget.
Moreover, scientists are concerned with all possible geographical locations even if they do not host military or national assets. Extraterrestrial equipment might not adhere to national borders in much the same way that a biker navigating down the sidewalk does not care which of the pavement cracks is occupied by a specific colony of ants.
The innovative new telescope system of the Galileo Project represents a brand-new observatory design with unprecedented capabilities. As its “Lego pieces” were put together seamlessly over the past few weeks, my heart filled with respect and appreciation for the professional quality of the Galileo team members. In the years to come, we will harvest new knowledge from copies of the first observatory template they constructed.
These telescopes are the new eyes and the computer system attached to them is the new brain of the Galileo Project. Watching the sky through new observatories is our best way to find out whether we have neighbors. What we do with the answer depends on the details it entails.
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s – Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011-2020). He chairs the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project, and is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors onScience and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial:The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021.
First on CNN: US is receiving dozens of UFO reports a month, senior Pentagon official tells CNN
First on CNN: US is receiving dozens of UFO reports a month, senior Pentagon official tells CNN
The US government is receiving dozens of reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, each month, according to the director of the office established to investigate the incidents, with the potential for “hundreds, if not thousands” more reports expected in the near future.
The office has received approximately 800 reports of unidentified objects to investigate as of this past April, up from 650 reports in August 2022, Sean Kirkpatrick, who heads the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office at the Pentagon told CNN. Nearly all of the new reports refer to objects observed in the air; only one comes from a maritime sighting.
The vast majority are benign objects, such as balloons or drones, but some may be the result of America’s adversaries trying to spy on the US, said Kirkpatrick.
“There are some indicators that are concerning that may be attributed to foreign activity, and we are investigating those very hard,” said Kirkpatrick, speaking exclusively to CNN ahead of the release of the annual report on unidentified aerial phenomena.
The report, released on Wednesday, said the object sightings may represent an issue for flight safety. Most sightings and observations come from near restricted military airspace, the report found, likely a result from the additional sensors and radars around the facilities.
A portion of the increase in reports comes from the Federal Aviation Administration, which monitors airspace around US airports starting to provide information to the Pentagon.
Pentagon launches 'one-stop shop' website for UFO information and reporting
About half of the reports contain enough data that they can be ruled out as “mundane things,” such as errant balloons or floating trash, Kirkpatrick said, but 2-4% are truly anomalous and require further investigation.
The report said only “a very small percentage” of observations have “interesting” signatures, such as high-speed travel or “unknown morphologies.”
Kirkpatrick’s office has transferred “a lot” of cases to law enforcement for further investigation and, if necessary, counterintelligence. But some sightings could potentially be foreign adversaries spying on the United States, like the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina in February.
The annual report on UAPs, put together by the Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said, “Although none of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities, these cases continue to be investigated.”
Asked if the Pentagon could definitively identify a sighting of an unidentified object as belonging to a foreign adversary, Kirkpatrick said that his office is “looking at some very interesting indicators of things, and that’s about all I can tell you.” But the office, which has more than 40 employees and is expected to grow, can’t say that for sure yet.
“There are ways to hide in our noise that always concern me,” Kirkpatrick said, referring to the extraneous readings picked up by US radars and other sensors. “I am worried from a national security perspective.”
But Kirkpatrick could offer few details about why certain reports raised suspicions about foreign involvement.
“It could just be a foreign entity. It could be a hobbyist. It could be anybody,” he said. “And those are the things that we have to look into.”
Huge public interest in UFOs
Ever since the Biden administration established a formal office to investigate reports of UAPs, the subject has garnered massive public attention, fueled by its inextricable link to UFO sightings. A July hearing in Congress on the matter drove the interest even higher, as David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer, alleged that the government has covered up its research into the sightings, a claim Kirkpatrick flatly denied.
But Grusch went much further, even as he acknowledged that he had no first-hand knowledge and was only told things by others, asserting that the US government had unidentified alien objects in its possession and the “non-human” pilots of the craft.
Kirkpatrick dismissed the sensational claims, saying he has “no evidence that suggests anything extraterrestrial in nature.”
“If anybody thinks that they know where those things are, they should be coming to talk to us,” said Kirkpatrick. “That’s why we have set up this entire architecture for people to securely come in and talk to us.”
New submissions from public
The Pentagon is preparing for a flood of new reports as it readies two new portals for submissions: one for historical sightings from current or former government employees and contractors and a second for public submissions of new reports.
The portal for historical sightings is set to open sometime in the next month or so, Kirkpatrick told CNN. Its purpose is to validate or refute past reports of unidentified objects, checking them against other reports and cataloging them for possible further analysis.
It is the opening of the public portal, still several months away, that Kirkpatrick says could flood the system with “hundreds, if not thousands” of new reports to sort through. Even so, Kirkpatrick has a plan for his office, which involves a system that will automatically match known objects to public reports, allowing the government to dismiss sightings of identified bodies. But the reports of unknown objects could prove to be valuable, Kirkpatrick says.
“If it’s a foreign adversary and I got 100,000 people with cell phones who can collect it, well now it makes it really hard for the foreign adversary to do anything,” Kirkpatrick says.
Asked if the US government should have created an effort to handle unidentified objects earlier, Kirkpatrick demurred. He said the new office came “probably at the right time for the right reasons.” But in an acknowledgment of the interest and the mystery of the subject matter, he added, “I think the government as a whole – that includes Congress – should have probably addressed some of this years ago in a more directed fashion.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs) have been at the center of many modern-day aquatic legends.
2011: Ocean X Crew Discovers Mysterious Object
The sonar blip caught everyone by surprise. It was 2011, and the Ocean X crew – a deep-sea treasure-hunting and salvage organization – were near the Swedish coast in the Baltic Sea, scanning the ocean floor for sunken ships.
At first, the crew believed they had found a long-lost wreckage. However, upon closer review, the sonar image revealed something nobody expected: supposed remnants of a massive disc-shaped object.
Soon, the discovery hit the press and went international. Many speculated it was a natural formation carved from the currents. But others believed it was not natural … and may not be human. Still, nobody knew what lay at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. As a result, it received the distinctive label of “USO.”
What Is a USO?
The acronym stands for Unidentified Submerged Object. In many respects, it is equivalent to UFOs (Unidentified Flying Object). While a UFO is that strange thing spotted in the sky, a USO is its equivalent. The difference, however, is that it is found under the surface of a large body of water.
Eyewitness accounts vary. Many describe a submerged disc moving at great speed. Others mention seeing something stationary and glowing. On rare occasions, some claim to see a USO shoot out from the water and rocket toward the open skies (many of these reports have never been confirmed or corroborated).
In addition, these reports suggest that the USOs come in many shapes and sizes. While the most famous description is that of a saucer, other popular ones are:
Cigar-shaped
Triangular
An orb
While they are not as popular as UFOs are in popular culture, they’ve been at the center of many modern-day aquatic legends. It’s not unusual to hear someone bring up USO with stories about the lost continent of Atlantis, The Bermuda Triangle, or the Dragon’s Triangle in the Pacific.
First Sightings?
When it comes to UFO and USO sightings, the line between myth and history tends to be blurred. Some UFOlogists (those who study UFOs) and paranormal investigators claimed that historical figures such as Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus witnessed seeing USOs or UFOS. Accounts about Alexander’s sighting are sketchy at best, and it appears that much of the evidence came from a book written in the late 20th century.
The Christopher Columbus account has a longer history. Supposedly, Columbus wrote in his journal of seeing lights emerging from the ocean. He described it as “a small wax candle that rose and lifted, which a few seemed to be an indication of land.”
This account would later be recorded by his son, Ferdinand. In his own manuscript of his father’s voyage, Ferdinand added that it bobbed up and down.
This account, alone, has been the subject of numerous documentaries. One of the first came from the 1978 theatrical documentary, Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle. In a reenactment of the incident, Columbus witnesses, in horror, several USOs splashing down near his ships. Later, he pulls out his journal and starts to describe the event as they ascend from the ocean.
Decades later, UFO Files, a History Channel presentation, had their version of the event. In this case, it claimed he saw lights under the water that rose above the waves, supposedly attached to a saucer.
While compelling as it sounds, there is a major problem to this account; Columbus’s journal hasn’t survived the test time, and his son’s surviving account were second-hand accounts from his father.
With scant evidence, it’s hard to say if this event happened, at all.
Charles Berlitz Brings Back the USO
The late Charles Berlitz was the grandson of a world-renowned language specialist (essentially responsible for the Berlitz language technique and school). Charles, himself, became a gifted linguist. However, his greatest claim to fame had to do with popularizing the Bermuda Triangle legend, which was first mentioned in a few unimpressive articles by Vincent Gaddis during the 1950s and 60s.
Berlitz’s take on the legend took shape in the best-selling book, The Bermuda Triangle (1974). While much of the book focused on mysterious maritime vanishings of boats and planes in the area of the Atlantic Ocean between the island of Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the south Florida coast, he divulged a considerable amount of time speculating on the cause of these mysteries,chiefly, USOs.
Belief in the mystery of the USO needed a “Roswell” moment. And that’s exactly what happened
Later, Berlitz wrote a companion piece, called The Dragon’s Triangle (1989). Also called the Devil’s Sea, this particular area in the Pacific near Japan supposedly had the same type of reputation as the Bermuda Triangle. And, once again, after nearly every mysterious vanishing Berlitz wrote in this book, he interjected the concept that aliens in USOs – possibly those from an underwater realm such as Atlantis may have been responsible.
While the books were popular, they didn’t do much for understanding the mystery behind USO. Berlitz seemingly used USO as a way to explain away any mysteries when he didn’t have any rationale to solve them (it needs to be noted that many of the mysterious vanishings in both the Bermuda and Dragon’s Triangle have been solved. In addition, several researchers debunked the water legends, claiming they were no different from the surrounding areas within the Atlantic and Pacific).
Belief in the mystery of the USO needed a “Roswell” moment. And that’s exactly what happened.
The Shag Harbour Incident
According to eyewitness accounts, on the night of October 4, 1967, an unidentified object crashed off the coast of a small fishing port near the southern tip of Nova Scotia, Canada. Local fishermen and members of the Canadian Coast Guard immediately went to the supposed crash zone. At the time, many believed that a plane may have crashed.
Later, the Canadian government sent more military personals, including a team of divers, to search for the downed “plane”. At the time, they didn’t have much to go on. The eyewitnesses described seeing something between 60 to 80 feet long, adorned with a row of lights, and making a “bomb-like” whistling sound before smashing into the water. Some stated that it appeared that the object “hovered” above the waves before it submerged. At least one captain on a fishing vessel described seeing a huge “yellowish” foam patch at the point of impact.
For several days, divers scoured the area, looking for any debris from the fallen aircraft. They failed to find anything. On top of that, as the Skeptoid Podcast writer Brian Durring pointed out, the original testimony of the witnesses varied. Some saw three lights gently falling to the ocean while others stated there were four. And the report of it making a noise came from one person. Flares or shooting stars? That may have been the case. However, as the article pointed out, there had been several supposed UFO sightings in the area few weeks prior to this incident.
Legend of Shag Harbour Grows
Much like a myth told through oral tradition from one generation to the next, the Shag Harbour Incident account grew to include more details. By 1993, the original accounts were replaced by a conflated version in which divers found and attempted to recover an alien aircraft.
In later retelling, especially the version told by UFOlogist Chris Styles in the 1993 book, Dark Object: The World’s Only Government-Documented UFO Crash, the USO didn’t sink to the bottom. Instead, it traveled underwater for days. Its path took it near a small offshore anti-submarine support facility operated by the US Navy.
More than 20 years after Styles’s version of events became popular, Internet accounts of the event added more to it. These days, The Shag Harbour Incident is portrayed as the most definitive proof of alien contact. In fact, Shag Harbour has been dubbed Canada’s Roswell.
Everyone is curious about the mysterious objects in the sky, but what about the ones in the ocean? Originally posted on ufoholic.com.
The USO Craze Grows
Cable TV and the Internet presented more accounts of USOs. Simply use Google and type in the term and one will get thousands of stories from various sites. As mentioned, documentaries on the subject have made it to the big screen during the late seventies. They’ve also found a niche on the small screen as well.
Here are a few of those accounts found on the Internet and TV:
UFO Evidence.orgpublished an October 2005 account made by a tourist in Kota Kinablu, Sabah, Malaysia. The tourist described a USO rising from the sea, hovering for a moment, and then streaking away to an unknown destination. This occurred within a five-minute span.
The History Channel’s UFO Hunter aired a 2006 segment called “Deep Sea UFO” (later to become a spinoff). Among the most intriguing claim, was about the Catalina Straits, which is between the island and southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula. The show’s hosts claimed it was the home to USOs. In addition, they believed these USOs played a part in a World War II incident dubbed the Battle of Los Angeles.
In 2014, Huffington Post, along with a pro-UFO site, Fade to Black reported on a supposed underwater Alien base off the coast of Malibu (eventually, Huffington Post verified it was a natural formation).
Crystallinks.comwent as far to define USOs as being an “advanced type of UFO that can operate in the water and atmosphere.” In addition, it mentioned the USO’s ability to break through ice, as well as supposed documented events from around the world between 1845 and 2014 (the last being the Underwater Malibu Alien Base).
That’s not all. UFOlogists such as Stanton Friedman (who recently passed away), Bill Birnes, and Preston Dennett were frequent guests on shows specializing in UFOs and USOs. In addition, researchers such as US Navy’s Bruce Maccabee and UCLA’s Kathryn Morgan investigated many of the claims from shows such as UFO Hunter and Deep Sea UFO.
With such attention and people backing the USO investigation, one would think compelling information of their existence would emerge.
An Elusive Truth
Despite all the attention, USOs are still more legend than reality. Eyewitness accounts, such as those from the Shag Harbour Incident proved to be contradictory. Moreover, the events in that particular case were conflated with other UFO incidents in the region (not to mention, more unverified details were added over the years).
The prospect that eyewitnesses may have misidentified animals and naturally occurring incidents from USO is a real possibility. Even the historical journals of those that claimed to have seen it, proved to be elusive or nonexistent.
... the mystery still lingers, thanks to the efforts of a repurposed article from 2011.
At this point, USO can be anything. And, in most cases, that’s exactly what they are: something else. Even the Baltic Sea Anomaly (as it came to be known) that the crew of Ocean X discovered proved to be anything but a USO. In this case, a misplacement of sonars on the ship and the falsely identified rock outcroppings may be at fault.
Then again, the mystery still lingers, thanks to the efforts of a repurposed article from 2011. For nearly a decade this particular article was republished with a few new details added from sketchy sites.
The last publishing was in the highly questionable Express.co.uk, which purported that the anomaly was 140,000 years-old. In other words, the Baltic Sea Anomaly is becoming the new version of the Shag Harbour Incident.
A 3-d rendering of the supposed Baltic Sea Anomaly
as it appeared on sonar
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
UFO sightings have long been a subject of fascination and debate, captivating the human imagination for decades. Unidentified Flying Objects, commonly known as UFOs, have sparked countless questions and mysteries surrounding their existence. Are they real? Are they otherworldly visitors, advanced military aircraft, or simply optical illusions? In this article, we will delve into the world of UFO sightings, exploring the facts, the myths, and the science behind these enigmatic aerial phenomena.
The Phenomenon of UFO Sightings
For many, the mention of UFOs immediately conjures images of little green extraterrestrials or mysterious aircraft from other galaxies. These conceptions have been popularized by Hollywood and numerous accounts of close encounters. However, when we talk about UFO sightings, we refer to any object in the sky that cannot be identified by the observer. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re dealing with alien spacecraft; it merely indicates that the origin of the object remains a mystery.
Historical UFO Sightings
UFO sightings are not a recent occurrence; they have been reported throughout history. In 1561, the Nuremberg Celestial Phenomenon startled the residents of Nuremberg, Germany, with strange, otherworldly shapes in the sky. While interpretations differ, this event is often cited as an early UFO sighting. Over the years, countless similar stories have emerged, intriguing and perplexing people across the globe.
Modern UFO Sightings
The 20th and 21st centuries have brought us a plethora of UFO sightings. Perhaps the most famous is the 1947 Roswell Incident, where an unidentified object crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, sparking intense controversy and government secrecy. More recently, the U.S. military declassified and confirmed the existence of videos showing unexplained aerial phenomena, reigniting public interest in UFOs.
The Scientific Approach
While many sightings remain unexplained, the scientific community takes a rigorous approach. Astronomers, meteorologists, and physicists carefully analyze UFO reports. In most cases, sightings are attributed to natural phenomena like weather balloons, atmospheric distortions, or astronomical events. Yet, a small percentage of cases defy conventional explanation.
UFO Sightings in the Age of Technology
In our digital age, almost everyone has a camera in their pocket, leading to an increase in UFO sightings captured on video. Amateur and professional investigators have cataloged thousands of videos and photos, further fueling the mystery surrounding these objects. The internet allows for the rapid sharing of these images, connecting UFO enthusiasts worldwide.
The Future of UFO Sightings
The ongoing debate about UFOs continues to pique human curiosity. With the U.S. government’s recent disclosure of previously classified UFO footage, it’s clear that the phenomenon remains an object of study and interest. While many questions remain unanswered, the search for truth regarding UFO sightings shows no sign of abating.
Video:
UFOs Over Hawaii (FULL DOCUMENTARY)
UFO sightings are a multifaceted and enduring mystery, woven into the fabric of human history. While the majority of sightings can be attributed to mundane explanations, a small percentage challenges our understanding of the cosmos. Whether UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors, secret military projects, or atmospheric anomalies, one thing is certain: they keep us looking to the skies, searching for answers to one of the universe’s greatest enigmas.
FBI is 'aware' of American Airlines flight's close encounter with 'fast-moving cylindrical object' over New Mexico at 36,000 feet - but won't confirm investigation
FBI is 'aware' of American Airlines flight's close encounter with 'fast-moving cylindrical object' over New Mexico at 36,000 feet - but won't confirm investigation
The FBI said it was 'aware' of the incident, but would not confirm or deny whether they were investigating
The encounter happened on Sunday as AA Flight 2292 passed over a remote stretch of northeast New Mexico, west of Des Monies, en-route to Phoenix
The flight was travelling at around 460 miles per hour at 36,000 feet
Blogger Steve Douglass said he intercepted a radio transmission from the flight in which the pilot can be heard reporting the encounter to air traffic control
The pilot says the object was a 'long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile' and had passed over the top of the plane at speed
The flight went on to land safely in Phoenix without any further incidents
The state of New Mexico is no stranger to strange encounters, with the city of Roswell reporting one of the nation's most infamous UFO sightings in 1947
The FBI has confirmed it is 'aware' of an American Airlines flight which had a close encounter a fast-moving, 'long cylindrical object' on a trip from Cincinnati to Phoenix on Sunday.
The encounter, which occurred at 36,000 feet above the remote northeast corner of New Mexico, west of Des Moines on Sunday, involved AA Flight 2292, an Airbus A320, according toThe Drive.
The FBI has since been notified of the incident, although they did not say if they were launching an investigation.
'The FBI is aware of the reported incident,' FBI spokesperson Frank Connor told Fox News.
'While our policy is to neither confirm nor deny investigations, the FBI works continuously with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to share intelligence and protect the public.
'Anyone who is aware of suspicious or criminal activity should contact their local law enforcement agency or the FBI.'
In a radio transmission intercepted by Steve Douglass, who runs the Deep Black Horizon blog, the pilot can be heard telling Albuquerque Air Traffic Control: 'Do you have any targets up here? We just had something go right over the top of us.
'I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing - moving really fast right over the top of us.'
The encounter, which occurred at 36,000 feet above the remote northeast corner of New Mexico, west of Des Moines on Sunday, involved AA Flight 2292
(file photo)
The plane was travelling at around 460 miles per hour at the time.
In a statement to DailyMail.com earlier this week, American Airlines confirmed the authenticity of the audio clip obtained by Douglass.
According to Douglass, no significant military aircraft presence was noted in the area at the time, reported to be just at 1pm local time.
Flight AA2292 went on to land in Phoenix without any further incident.
The apparent encounter shares various similarities with another incident that occurred in the same area just under three years ago.
In that incident, two pilots on different aircraft – a Learjet and an Airbus – reported having close encounters with a mysterious object flying above them.
The sightings occurred within minutes of each other on February 24 in 2018, 37,000 feet above southern Arizona, close to New Mexico.
The pilot of a Learjet 36 belonging to Phoenix Air, with the tail number N71PG, reported the initial sighting, telling Air Traffic Control: 'Was anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?'
When the dispatcher replied 'no', the pilot laughed insisting it must be a 'UFO.'
'I don't know what it was, it wasn't an airplane but it was - the path was going in the opposite direction,' the pilot went on.
Moments later, the pilot of American Airlines Flight 1095, reported a similar encounter, announcing: 'Yeah, something just passed over us, like a - I don't know what it was. But it was at least two, three thousand feet above us. Yeah, it passed right over the top of us.'
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American Airlines Flight 2292's flight path is seen above. The Airbus A320 was making its way from Cincinnati to Phoenix on Sunday
According to The Drive, the incident happened not too far from the sprawling White Sands Missile Range (above), and New Mexico itself is home to a number of military facilities and restricted areas
In the 2018 incident, pilot Blenus Green told local media: 'It was very bright but it wasn't so bright that you couldn't look at it … it didn't look anything like an airplane'
When asked if the object was in motion or hovering, the pilot said: 'Couldn't make it out whether it was a balloon or whatnot. But it was just really beaming light or could have had a big reflection and was several thousand feet above us going opposite direction.'
That pilot, Blenus Green, later told local media: 'It was very bright but it wasn't so bright that you couldn't look at it … it didn't look anything like an airplane. You know, most airplanes, you're going to see some kind of wing surface, some type of a tail, really no matter what type of airplane it is.
'What was weird about it, normally, if you have an object and the sun is shining this way, the reflection would be on this side, but this was bright all the way around. It was so bright that you really couldn't make out what shape it was.'
In Sunday's incident, the pilot's description of a missile-like object matches a number of encounters US Navy Fighter pilots have reported having with anomalous objects off the eastern seaboard over the last 15 years.
Many of such encounters were revealed in a 2019 New York Times report, in which Navy pilots spoke out for the first time about how strange craft would appear in their training airspace, sometimes for days on end – defying known propulsion and aerodynamic capabilities.
The state of New Mexico is no stranger to strange encounters, with the city of Roswell reporting one of the nation's most infamous UFO sightings in 1947
What the pilots aboard AA Flight 2292 may have seen on February 21 remains unclear.
According to The Drive, the incident happened not too far from the sprawling White Sands Missile Range, and New Mexico itself is home to a number of military facilities and restricted areas.
The likelihood that a missile may have 'gone off the reservation' during a test, or any other kind of military exercise, is slim, as procedural practice would mean the pilots would've been pre-notified to any such safety hazard.
Pictured: The FBI's field office in Albuquerque, New Mexico
The incident also occurred near the Mount Dora Military Operating Area (MOA), but again pilots would've been alerted that the airspace was 'hot' – or that military activities were being conducted in the area at that time.
The state of New Mexico is no stranger to strange encounters, with the city of Roswell reporting one of the nation's most infamous UFO sightings in 1947.
DailyMail.com has reached out to American Airlines for comment about potential FBI involvement.
"We just had something go right over the top of us," the pilot says after asking if "any targets" were in the air according to Fox News. "I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise-missile type of thing. Moving really fast and went right over the top of us."
The FBI was notified of the incident and responded to a request from Fox News. "The FBI is aware of the reported incident," FBI spokesperson Frank Connor wrote to Fox News. "While our policy is to neither confirm nor deny investigations, the FBI works continuously with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to share intelligence and protect the public. Anyone who is aware of suspicious or criminal activity should contact their local law enforcement agency or the FBI."
The Daily Mail adds that a similar incident occurred in the same area three years earlier. That sighting involved a Learjet and Airbus reporting a "mysterious object" flying over them on Feb. 24, 2018. Each aircraft reported incidents minutes apart.
"I don't know what it was, it wasn't an airplane but it was – the path was going in the opposite direction," the Learjet 36 pilot told air traffic control. The other pilot, another American Airlines craft, reported a similar encounter shortly after. "Yeah, something just passed over us, like a – I don't know what it was. But it was at least two, three thousand feet above us. Yeah, it passed right over the top of us."
New Mexico, Nevada and Utah all have a long history of UFO activity across the years. It is technically the birthplace of the UFO phenomenon with the crash at Corona, near Roswell, New Mexico. Kenneth Arnold might disagree, but it hardly matters. While initial reports at the time indicated a UFO had crashed and recovered at the scene, the story that followed changed to reflect a weather balloon, planting seeds of doubt that continue to this day.
Another of what are considered the “classic” mass UFO sightings in the United States that have made their way into the lore and legends of UAP studies is the event that has come to be known as the St. Clair Triangle sighting of 2000 in southwestern Illinois. It’s also referred to as “the UFO Over Illinois,” the name of a television documentaryreleased later the same year. Other shows and books have featured it prominently. Today The Debrief will look at the lore surrounding this event and compare it to the significant amount of original source data available.
We’ll begin with a brief summary of the details frequently seen in the ufology literature. The tale begins early in the morning on a frigid January 5th, 2000, in Highland, Illinois. 66-year-old miniature golf course owner Melvern Noll was stopping by his business to ensure the pipes hadn’t frozen. Upon exiting his building he saw a brightly lit object in the skies that he would go on to describe as looking like “a flying house with windows on the top and bottom.”
The stunned Noll quickly called the police to report what he had seen. The dispatcher he spoke to forwarded the information to Police Officer Ed Barton in Lebanon, Illinois. Barton initially responded skeptically, asking if the caller had been drunk, but went to investigate as instructed. Observing a bright light in the sky as he drove his cruiser, he closed in on the object before pulling over and exiting his vehicle. He would go on to report seeing a “huge” object in the sky that was triangular, longer than it was wide, with three white lights and one red light. It accelerated away at high speed to the southwest toward Shiloh, Illinois.
Shiloh Police Officer David Martin was on the lookout for the object and reported seeing something very similar before he too claimed that the slow-moving object sped off in the same direction at amazing speed. A third officer in Millstadt, Illinois, Craig Stevens, picked it up and reported it next. He even managed to snap a picture of it with a Polaroid camera. A fourth officer in Dupo, Illinois would later report seeing ‘something’ that might be related. Other civilian witnesses would chime in with their own accounts at later dates, but the object eventually disappeared after more than an hour of confirmed sightings.
Interestingly, musician Sufjan Stevens would go on to write a song about the event:
EXAMINING THE SOURCE DATA FOR MORE DETAILS
One of the larger challenges involved in examining any of these legendary sightings is how much “legend” winds up being inserted into popular reports over the years. Television documentaries and books supporting the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) can tend to focus on the more exotic aspects of a report while downplaying or even ignoring inconvenient anomalies in the data. Similarly, skeptics and debunkers will tend to latch onto inconsistencies while failing to acknowledge some of the more credible evidence. Today The Debrief will look at both with a (hopefully) more critical eye.
Rather than being forced to rely on the potentially fading memories of witnesses or the video simulations provided by video producers, the St. Clair triangle UFO event offers substantial original evidence from the time of the sighting. This trove includes not only transcripts of conversations between dispatchers and police officers, but original recordings of radio traffic and interviews with witnesses conducted shortly after the sighting. These are included in an excellent 2014 documentary from an investigative reporter who collected and released all of the source material.
One of the first areas of evidence to examine is the collection of descriptions of the UFO as originally reported by the witnesses. Some do seem to be consistent while others demonstrate disparities that have been seized upon by skeptics.
Melvern Noll, the miniature golf course owner, described “a flying house with windows in the top and bottom.” This is starkly different than the descriptions offered by law enforcement officials. But it has been suggested that Noll only saw the object for moments with no forewarning at four in the morning in the freezing cold before rushing to contact the police.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE POLICE OFFICERS
Officer Ed Barton in Lebanon, Illinois, at 4:21 am, described a triangular object, “longer than it was wide.” Barton estimated the altitude of the object as being between 1,000 and 1,500 feet. He described seeing three white lights and one red light. The object suddenly sped away, going eight miles in three seconds in the direction of Shiloh, Illinois. It is worth noting that in the original radio traffic recording, Barton describes how he was reaching into the squad car to grab his microphone. When he emerged, the object was far away. He did not actually see it accelerate at exotic speeds.
Shiloh Officer David Martin offered a roughly similar description at 4:23 am. He described it as being an “arrow shape, triangular-shaped object… floating in this sky over this field… with three big bright lights, lighting up the entire sky just beneath the flying object.” He put the altitude at 1,000 to 1,500 feet before the object moved to the far end of the fields “in the snap of a finger, the wink of an eye.” He heard no sound from the object despite having the windows of his cruiser down.
At 4:39 am Millstadt Police Officer Craig Stevens reports that he has an object in sight. “It’s huge.” He describes it as an “arrowhead-shaped object.” Stevens describes the craft as having “three lights to the rear, one in the center and two to either side.” Stevens adds an additional detail, saying that it is “concaved in the rear” rather than a pure triangle. But he also says “in the concave section” there is a strobing white light going side to side. His drawing makes it clear it’s the rear of the craft, not the bottom. He further describes a “red blinking light” that is on the bottom. He estimates that the object is between 500 and 2,000 feet in altitude. The object then “banked” and headed toward Dupo, Illinois.
At that point, Stevens grabbed a Polaroid camera out of his car and took a picture as it flew away. That should have been the most compelling piece of evidence, but sadly it’s not a very good photograph, showing only some blurry lights against a dark background.
One of Officer Stevens’ original polaroid images depicting illuninations purportedly associated with the massive traingular craft he observed
(Credit: Craig Stevens).
Perhaps significantly, Officer Stevens says that he could hear a “low frequency buzzing noise” that seemed to be related to the craft.
At 5:03 am the final purported sighting by a law enforcement official is recorded. Officer Matt Jany is located in Dupo, Illinois, and has been on the lookout for the craft after following the radio traffic generated by the previous sightings. He claims to have spotted the object, but reports that it is “pretty far off” and he was looking at it through binoculars. He thought the lights looked “pretty bright” but it was “hard to tell.”
Officer Stevens is still on the radio and reiterates that the object was “about 500 feet above me and it was huge.” Jany responds, saying that “it’s usually where planes are. It’s not low at all.”
This discrepancy in the perceived altitude ties in with Jany’s description of the lights, at one point mentioning a blinking green light. The other reports only mentioned white and red lights. Green blinking lights (along with red ones) are typical of commercial airliners and are required by the FAA. These factors have led many analysts to conclude that Officer Jany did not see the same craft the other officer described and instead was simply seeing a conventional aircraft flying over the area. This would not be unusual since Dupo is located between the international airports in St. Louis and Chicago and also not far from an Air Force base.
At that point, Jany reports that dispatch told him that Lambert Airport is on the phone saying there is nothing in the area on their radar. This was a reference to Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.
THE AIR FORCE CONNECTION AND RADAR DATA
Some analysts seeking explanations for this event have put forth suggestions that nearby Scott Air Force Base might be involved, launching either misidentified conventional craft or experimental classified aerial vehicles. This is where the source data becomes highly intriguing and may suggest a governmental or military coverup. Two conflicting descriptions of Scott Air Force Base have emerged in previous analyses. One theory describes the base as having a 24-hour, fully staffed control tower, but claims that it was not online due to “an unexplained suspension of operations.” The other says that it’s primarily a hospital base with a small airfield and had no operations at 4 am. The original sources suggest that both of these descriptions miss the mark.
In the documentary linked above, the St. Clair Police radio dispatcher claims to have called Scott Air Force Base and was told they could see nothing on the radar. But later, Scott AFB personnel told a reporter from the Lebanon Advertiser that “Scott Air Force Base has denied any knowledge of the sighting, reporting that it “no longer has radar on the field and that control tower personnel were not on duty at that hour.”
The information supplied to both the police and journalists by Scott Air Force Base is not only contradictory but highly suspicious, to say the least. Also, the claims about the base in previous documentaries are frequently inaccurate, leading to many justifiable questions. First of all, the idea that the base is a small medical facility with limited airfield capability is flatly wrong.
Scott Air Force base has been in continuous operation since shortly after World War 2. It’s true that they have an impressive medical facility there (the 375th Medical Group), including a fleet of Learjet C-21 twin turbofan-engine aircraft used for medical transport and evacuations which can take place at any hour of the day. They also host a fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers used for in-flight refueling of other aviation assets at any time. These massive planes require a sizable airfield. On top of that, Scott Air Force Base boasts a group of C-40 B/C transports that ferry dignitaries around the globe and are the size of Air Force 1.
The idea that a base such as Scott would have “removed their radar” or not had anyone manning the control tower is implausible in the extreme. So the answers provided to both police dispatchers and local media outlets seem dubious. The responses were also contradictory in two regards. If you had no radar, why would you bother staffing an air control tower? And why would they say they had “nothing on the radar” if there was no radar? The Debrief reached out to the Public Affairs Office of Scott Airfield for comment but received no answer prior to publication.
THE SKEPTICS HAVE THEIR SAY
Debunkers have madespirited attemptsto shoot down this story, raising some interesting possibilities. The most common of these is that all of the witnesses actually misidentified a blimp. It’s true that the location of the sightings was not far from the base of the American Blimp Company, later bought out bythe Van Wagner Airship Group. Blimps are large and very quiet, often equipped with a variety of different types and colors of lights for advertising purposes. Also, the top speed of these blimps is roughly 45 mph depending on the wind, so a blimp could have made it from Lebanon to Dupo in the one-hour and three-minute period when the live reports were recorded.
The main problem with this avenue of debunking is that it’s entirely speculative. As already noted, a blimp could have made that journey and displayed lights that would be considered unusual. Some have spoken with people in the airship industry who agree that it’s plausible. But investigators checked with the American Blimp Company and later Van Wagner and none was able to produce a record of a flight by one of those ships on that date, though one would imagine that all trips by such an expensive aircraft would be recorded.
Further, a blimp could have made the trip in the time allowed if it flew directly to Dupo. But the various witnesses described the craft as slowing, stopping, and changing directions. Also, unless we are to dismiss the testimony of the officers in Lebanon and Shiloh, the craft they observed not only hovered but shot away at a stunning velocity. Blimps are simply not capable of that type of behavior.
CONCLUSIONS
As we have discovered, there are complicated aspects to the St. Clair Triangle sighting, and the legends that have grown around it in books and television programs do not always match the record. For one thing, such shows frequently depicted the “classic” triangle, with one bright white light on each corner of the craft fixed to the bottom and a red light in the center. None of the witnesses described the lights in that fashion. And the original witness, Melvern Noll, described something that sounded entirely different, so some level of skepticism may be warranted.
With that said, the descriptions provided by all but one of the law enforcement witnesses (who likely saw a conventional aircraft) are similar enough in terms of its physical appearance and curious flight characteristics that they are difficult to ignore. Their stories remained unchanged over the years.
The baffling responses from Scott Air Force base do little to discredit the witnesses. While it seems unlikely that such a base would be home to highly classified, exotic aircraft programs, they should have been able to provide corroborating radar data or at least a confirmation that they recorded no targets in the subject area. It is not inconceivable that they had standing orders to never comment on anything UFO-related. This is a pattern the Air Force has adhered to ever since the days of Project Blue Book.
The poor quality of the photograph taken by Officer Stevens is disappointing to researchers, but the fact that it was taken at night on a dated Polaroid Instamatic pointing up at the night sky makes it understandable. Additional electronic data would make the case much stronger, but the inexplicable responses from Scott Air Force Base at least suggest that such may have existed at one point.
In conclusion, the viability of this case rests heavily on the credibility of multiple professional witnesses from different locations who would seem unlikely in the extreme to have cooked up a tale of this sort as a hoax. The lack of electronic signature data is disappointing but perhaps understandable as we already discussed. And the alternative options offered by skeptics do little to explain away the recorded, original observations as misidentified mundane phenomena. As with most of these famous, multiple-witness sightings, the final determination remains in the eye of the beholder. But the available source evidence is compelling and none of the alternate explanations are very satisfying.
Follow and connect with author Jazz Shaw on Twitter:@JazzShaw
Analysis, conclusions, and some alternate explanations included in this article are the opinions of the author and not the official position of The Debrief.
The former head of Britain's UFO investigation squad has accused the government and military top brass of not taking the 'threat' posed by unidentified flying objects seriously.
Alien hunter Nick Pope, who ran the Ministry of Defence's UFO project in the 1990s before it was disbanded, said it was 'outrageous' ministers are not taking 'meaningful action' to probe unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) - better known as UFOs.
The UFO expert also accused defence chiefs of 'falling back on a lazy, closed-minded "it can't be, so it isn't" mindset', meaning potential foreign threats to UK shores could be missed.
He claimed the MoD's position of no longer investigating sightings made 'little sense' considering the stance taken by the US government, which has ramped up its investigations into the phenomena this year.
His comments come as a map today revealed Britain's UFO hotspots, with almost 1,000 reported sightings recorded in the past two-and-a-half year.
'If the US assessment is that UAP pose a threat to national security that requires a proper investigative response, it seems illogical for the MoD not to follow suit,' Mr Pope told MailOnline.
Have youfilmed a UFO? Do you think you were abducted by aliens and want to tell your story? Email tom.cotterill@mailonline.co.uk
More than 1,000 sightings have been reported in the UK in almost three years - sparking calls for the Government to re-open its UFO investigation team
(file image)
'The Ministry of Defence needs to restart UAP investigations, a task force of some sort needs to be set up, and the defence committee needs to start holding the MoD to account on UAP, as the armed services committees are doing in the US Congress, in both the Senate and the House.'
Poll
The MoD closed its UFO desk in 2009 and nothing has ever replaced it, with a spokesman saying the Ministry of Defence has 'no opinion on the existence of extra-terrestrial life'.
Prior to this, it carried out what at the time was a highly-secretive and extensive UFO investigation of more than 10,000 possible sightings over several decades - many of which were by military personnel.
Known as the Project Condign report, it concluded that 80 per cent of the sightings were easily explained, 19 per cent were secret military craft and just one per cent were mysterious in origin.
'One thing that is clear, however, is that the UFO phenomenon, whatever it may be, does not recognise any international borders, therefore any such study surely must be international in scope rather than national,' said Philip Mantle, the former director of investigations at the British UFO Research Association.
Data, compiled by experts at UFO Identified, showed that Liverpool, London and Glasgow are all hotbeds for sightings of potential extraterrestrials, with dozens of reported encounters recorded since 2021.
Between January 2021 and May this year, the UFO spotter website documented a total of 957 sightings. That includes 410 in 2021, 494 in 2022, and 53 as of May 20 this year.
Of all counties in the UK, more UFOs were spotted in skies of Greater Manchester than anywhere else, a total of 54 documented sightings. That was followed by Greater London (52), Cheshire (37), and West Sussex (34).
Reported sightings included:
A 'dark, large oblong shaped object' that was spotted from a plane flying above the city of Glasgow, Scotland, in February of last year
And a 30ft to 40ft wide 'round saucer-like object with detailed outer rim' was observed 'hovering over a house' in Bedworth, Warwickshire in January.
A 'long cigar-shaped craft with three or four roundish patterns on it' which was witnessed in Chester, Cheshire, for 20 minutes before it 'vanished like a light being switched off' in October last year.
Ash Ellis, who runs UFO Identified, told MailOnline the reported sightings in Britain over the past couple of years could be the tip of the iceberg.
He added: ‘Sightings continue to be reported across the UK with close to 500 documented in our database annually. It’s estimated that only around 15 per cent of sightings are actually reported so the figure is 500 is more likely to be around 4,000 sightings a year in the UK, a huge amount that can't be ignored.'
The space agency's independent panel of experts stressed there was 'no reason to conclude' any were extraterrestrial in origin, but warned that mysterious flying objects were a 'self-evident' threat to American airspace.
Mr Pope said if the US was worried about this then Britain, as an NATO ally, should be too.
He added: 'The UK can make a significant contribution to the wider search for the truth about UAP, by leveraging its world class intelligence community imagery analysis resources and capabilities... The bottom line is that we need action.'
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence told MailOnline: 'The MoD has no opinion on the existence of extra-terrestrial life and no longer investigates reports of sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or Unidentified Flying Objects.
Footage released by the US Department of Defence captured the moment military pilots spotted a UFO dubbed the 'Tic Tac' - a wingless oblong filmed by a fighter jet's camera
In the US, NASA released its highly-anticipated report into more than 800 potential alien sightings over a period of three decades. NASA chief Bill Nelson (pictured) announced that a new director for UFO research would help implement the panel's recommendations
'This is because, in over 50 years no such reporting to the department indicated the existence of any military threat to the UK, and it was deemed more valuable to prioritise MoD staff resources towards other defence-related activities.'
The news comes amid dramatic claims from a former intelligence officer who suggested that people have been murdered by the US government as part of the conspiracy to keep UFOs a secret.
David Grusch - a former high-ranking American intelligence official - is one of three military whistleblowers who testified under oath that they had firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human.'
He claimed the US has been in possession of UFOs since 'the 1930s' and has been secretly back-engineering them and carrying out a public disinformation campaign to prevent the details from leaking publicly.
At one point during the first-of-its-kind hearing in July, Representative Tim Burchett asked Grusch: 'Personally, have you heard anyone [has] been murdered?' Grusch said: 'I have to be careful answering that question. I directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities.'
Grusch was sworn in along with Ryan Graves, an esteemed former pilot, and Navy veteran fighter pilot Commander David Fravor, who witnessed the 2004 'Tic Tac' UFO.
Opening the hearing, Rep Burchett promised their testimonies would be a landmark moment in uncovering 'the biggest cover-up in history.'
Grusch also claimed he had been told by multiple credible intelligence officials the US government had recovered non-human aircraft that had biological pilots inside them.
The former US Intelligence agent also said he knows of 'multiple colleagues' who were physically injured by UFOs either after encountering them or working on them as part of these special access programs.
While Grusch is still forbidden from disclosing certain information, per the terms of his Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review agreement with the Pentagon, he did to clarify his statements in a later interview with the BBC in August.
'There's certain things that I have firsthand access to that I can't publicly discuss at this time,' Grusch told the BBC.
Ryan Graves, a former pilot, Air Force and intelligence agency veteran David Grusch and Navy veteran fighter pilot Commander David Fravor have been sworn in and are ready to share their experiences
The hearing kicked off with opening statements from Representative Tim Burchett, who said: 'We are going to uncover the UFO coverup'
'However, myself and other colleagues interviewed 40 individuals, both current and former highly distinguished intelligence and military personnel that were specifically on these [UFO crash retrieval] programs.'
'And those that were willing I directed to the Intelligence Community Inspector General. So, the Inspector General was able to interview these people that do have direct firsthand information.'
The UFO investigator presented two allegedly 'non human' bodies to a congress full of astonished officials.
Mr Maussan, who has led investigations into alien phenomena for decades, stood with scientists to unveil the corpses in what he called a 'watershed' event.
The researchers made the extraordinary claim the corpses, presented in windowed boxes and supposedly recovered from Cusco in Peru, were not part of 'our terrestrial evolution', with 30 per cent of their genetic composition still 'unknown', according to Mexican media.
The mummified bodies were presented to photojournalists and deputies at Mexican congress
The presentation caused a frenzy online among UFO conspiracy theorists but also drew scepticism
A closer view shows remains of an allegedly non-human being at the event on September 12
Carbon dating by the National Autonomous University of Mexico found the bodies, pictured with three-fingered hands, no teeth and stereoscopic vision, were more than 1,000 years old, Maussan claimed.
The bizarre presentation triggered a frenzy of excitement among conspiracy theorists online - but it has also drawn scepticism from the scientific community.
Speaking of the revelation, stargazing Professor Brian Cox said 'extraordinary' claims had been made, but without 'extraordinary evidence' to back it up.
Have you filmed a UFO? Where you abducted by aliens or experienced an encounter with a UFO? Email tom.cotterill@mailonline.co.uk
Now Astronomers have Discovered “Ultra-Fast Radio Bursts” Lasting Millionths of a Second
Artist rendition of a radio telescope discovering ultra-fast radio bursts that were recently discovered and the focus of this recent study. (Credit: Daniëlle Futselaar/www.artsource.nl)
Now Astronomers have Discovered “Ultra-Fast Radio Bursts” Lasting Millionths of a Second
A recent study published in Nature Astronomy examines the discovery of what astronomers are dubbing “ultra-fast radio bursts”, a new type of fast radio bursts (FRBs) that the team determined lasts for a mind-boggling ten millionths of a second or less. Traditionally, FRBs have been found to last only thousandths of a second, but this study builds on a 2021 study that hypothesized FRBs could possibly last for millionths of a second. This also comes after astronomers recently announced the discovery of the oldest and farthest FRB ever observed, approximately 8 billion light-years from Earth.
“During our group meetings, we often talked about it,” said Mark Snelders, who is a Ph.D. candidate at ASTRON and the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), along with being lead author of the most recent study and a co-author on the 2021 study. “By coincidence, I found out that there was a public dataset that we could use for this.”
For the study, the team was able to obtain five hours of data on a known FRB called FRB 20121102A, which was discovered in November 2012 and is located approximately three billion light-years from Earth, along with being considered the first known repeating FRB, according to a 2022 study. The data was obtained from the Breakthrough Listen project, which is a worldwide scientific collaboration with the goal of finding evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, with the data specifically coming from the Breakthrough Listen at Green Bank portion of the Open Data Archive.
Upon obtaining the data, the team took the first 30 minutes and split each second into 500,000 separate images, then incorporated machine learning and software filters to isolate outliers within the data to identify eight ultra-fast radio bursts lasting a mere ten millionths of a second or less. For context, ten millionths of a second is equivalent to 0.0000001 seconds.
The researchers note, “In detecting and characterizing these microsecond-duration bursts, we show that there exists a population of ultra-fast radio bursts that current wide-field FRB searches are missing due to insufficient time resolution. These results indicate that FRBs occur more frequently and with greater diversity than initially thought. This could also influence our understanding of energy, wait time, and burst rate distributions.”
While questions remain as to how these ultra-fast radio bursts are produced, the team does expect to identify more ultra-fast radio bursts in the future. However, the difficulty lies in finding data files capable of being split into 500,000 separate images per second, as some files lack the necessary specifications to make such splitting possible.
The long-term goal for the tea, is to use FRB data to map the space that exists between stars and galaxies, which they hope will help them gain better insights into the interactions between galaxies and the gas in the surrounding environment.
FRBs are some of the most mysterious celestial phenomena ever studied ever since they were first discovered in 2007, and astronomers have made incredible strides in both understanding their potential origins and the number of FRBs that exist in the universe. This includes discovering that most FRBs come from outside our Milky Way Galaxy.
However, in 2020, astronomers found one source of FRBs was from a magnetar within our own Milky Way Galaxy. Also, while FRB 20121102A is designated as the first known repeating FRB, a 2023 study identified 25 regularly repeating FRBs found using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), which is located in British Colombia, Canada, and has found more than 1000 FRBs to date.
What new discoveries about FRBs ultra-fast radio bursts will astronomers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
When it comes to the current era of space exploration, one of the most important trends is the way new technologies and processes are lowering the cost of sending crews and payloads to space. Beyond the commercial space sector and the development of retrievable and reusable rockets, space agencies are also finding new ways to make space more accessible and affordable. This includes NASA, which recently built and tested an aluminum rocket engine nozzle manufactured using their newReactive Additive Manufacturing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution(RAMFIRE) process.
Additive manufacturing (AM), otherwise known as 3D printing, has led to a revolution in manufacturing. Unlike traditional machine production, which fashions things from raw materials and throws away what is not used, 3D printing builds made-to-order components from the bottom up. This production process creates virtually no waste and is very rapid, cost-effective, and efficient compared to traditional methods. Whereas it was once confined to modeling and prototyping, the technology’s applications have expanded considerably in recent years – including the aerospace industry.
The aluminum nozzle was developed by NASA’s Announcement of Collaborative Opportunity in partnership with the leading AM company Elementum 3D. Based in Erie, Colorado, Elementum 3D specializes in metal alloy additive manufacturing research, material and print process development, and scaled-production methods. In 2020, the company was selected as part of an Announcement of Collaborative Opportunity to create a weldable type of aluminum that is heat-resistant enough to be used in rocket engines, leading to the aluminum variant known as A6061-RAM2.
Compared to other metals, aluminum has a lower density and can enable high-strength, lightweight components. However, with conventional manufacturing, a rocket nozzle may require a thousand individually joined parts. This makes aluminum impractical since it has a low tolerance to extreme heat and a tendency to crack during welding. The RAMFIRE process, which was funded under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), does away with this by producing aluminum components as a single piece, requiring far fewer bonds and significantly reduced manufacturing time.
In addition, the nozzles are designed with small internal channels that keep the nozzle cool enough to prevent melting. Meanwhile, the RAMFIRE 3D printer and process were developed by another commercial partner, RPM Innovations (RPMI). This South Dakota-based company specializes in Directed Energy Deposition (DED), where layers of powdered alloy are deposited and fused by lasers. When combined with Elementum 3D’s specialized aluminum powder, the resulting process is known as laser powder-directed energy deposition (LP-DED).
Earlier this summer, two RAMFIRE nozzles completed a series of hot-fire tests at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s East Test Area in Huntsville, Alabama. The nozzles performed well using liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2), as well as LOX and liquid methane fuel configurations, and at pressures exceeding 5690 kilopascals (825 psi) – higher than what is anticipated for launches. The nozzles successfully completed 22 start tests and fired for nearly 10 minutes, demonstrating that they can operate in the most demanding deep-space environments. Paul Gradl, RAMFIRE principal investigator at NASA Marshall, said in a NASA press release:
“Industry partnerships with specialty manufacturing vendors aid in advancing the supply base and help make additive manufacturing more accessible for NASA missions and the broader commercial and aerospace industry. This test series marks a significant milestone for the nozzle. After putting the nozzle through the paces of a demanding hot-fire test series, we’ve demonstrated the nozzle can survive the thermal, structural, and pressure loads for a lunar lander scale engine.”
Liftoff of Terran 1, the first rocket made entirely using 3D-printed parts.
Credit: Relativity Space/Michael Baylor
NASA also demonstrated the effectiveness of 3D-printed components in March 2023 when Relativity Space test-launched their Terran 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This test rocket was the first to be made entirely of 3D-printed parts, including nine engines made of an innovative alloy known as Glenn Research Copper (GRCop). These engines were additively manufactured at NASA’s Glenn Research Center under the agency’s Game Changing Development program, and were able to tolerate temperatures approaching 3,315 °C (6,000 °F) – up to 40% higher than traditional copper alloys.
In addition to rocket nozzles and engines, RAMFIRE has also manufactured a 91-centimeter (36-inch) diameter aerospike nozzle incorporating components for cryogenic fuel applications. These innovations are crucial to NASA’s Moon to Mars program, which includes Project Artemis and returning astronauts to the Moon, and the creation of the lunar infrastructure necessary to mount crewed missions to Mars. Intrinsic to this program is the capability of sending larger payloads to the Moon, Mars, and other deep-space destinations.
By manufacturing lightweight rocket components capable of withstanding higher structural loads and extreme temperatures, NASA is one step closer to returning to the Moon (to stay) and placing boots on Martian soil. Said John Vickers, the principal technologist for STMD advanced manufacturing:
“Mass is critical for NASA’s future deep space missions. Projects like this mature additive manufacturing along with advanced materials, and will help evolve new propulsion systems, in-space manufacturing, and infrastructure needed for NASA’s ambitious missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”
A New Weather Feature was Hiding in JWST’s Picture of Jupiter
Image of Jupiter taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) in July 2022 displays striking features of the largest planet in the solar system in infrared light, with brightness indicating high altitudes. One of these features is a jet stream within the large bright band just above Jupiter’s equator, which was the focus of this study. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hueso (University of the Basque Country), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley), T. Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), M. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI))
A New Weather Feature was Hiding in JWST’s Picture of Jupiter
In July 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) used its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to capture stunning infrared images of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter. Within these striking images, scientists recently discovered a jet stream in the northern latitudes just over Jupiter’s equator and 20-35 kilometers (12-21 miles) above Jupiter’s cloud tops. This jet stream stretches approximately 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) with speeds of 515 kilometers per hour (320 miles per hour), more than double the speed of a Category 5 hurricane on Earth.
“This is something that totally surprised us,” said Dr. Ricardo Hueso, who is a lecturer at the University of the Basque Country in Spain and lead author of the study published in Nature Astronomy that describes these incredible findings. “What we have always seen as blurred hazes in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appear as crisp features that we can track along with the planet’s fast rotation.”
The reason this jet stream is traveling so fast is due to the Coriolis effect, as all planetary bodies spin faster at their equator to cover the same amount of distance as everything else. However, while the Earth spins on its axis at approximately 1,600 kilometers per hour (1,000 miles per hour) at its equator, the speeds experienced at Jupiter’s equator are a mind-bending 43,000 kilometers per hour (28,273 miles per hour), resulting in not only a rotation at 9 hours and 50 minutes at the equator (9 hours and 56 minutes at the poles), but also result in the extremely fast and powerful wind storms within its massive clouds.
This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) in July 2022 shows a narrow jet stream traveling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks, which was the focus of this study. Scientists hypothesize the multitude of bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are possibly very high-altitude cloud tops of comprised of condensed convective storms. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hueso (University of the Basque Country), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley), T. Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), M. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI))
While JWST made its observations within Jupiter’s high altitudes, the team used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to make observations in lower altitudes just one day later, which helped the team estimate changes in wind speeds with respective to altitude within the clouds, also known as wind shears. While they found the jet stream of 515 kilometers per hour (320 miles per hour) higher in the clouds, these wind speeds decreased as the altitude decreased, with speeds of 362 kilometers per hour (225 miles per hour) and 402 kilometers per hour (250 miles per hour) occurring only a few miles lower in Jupiter’s massive atmosphere. Essentially, the team of astronomers briefly played the role of meteorologists as they analyzed and calculated Jupiter’s weather patterns.
“Jupiter has a complicated but repeatable pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, high above the winds in the clouds and hazes measured at these wavelengths,” said Dr. Leigh Fletcher, who is a Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Leicester and one of several co-authors on the study. “If the strength of this new jet is connected to this oscillating stratospheric pattern, we might expect the jet to vary considerably over the next 2 to 4 years – it’ll be really exciting to test this theory in the years to come.”
This is not the first time that scientists have observed jet streams on Jupiter, as NASA’s Cassini spacecraft observed such activity in the early 2010s. These jet streams were also observed just above the gas giant’s equator and estimated to be traveling at 523 kilometers per hour (325 miles per hour).
Along with this jet stream, these incredible images from July 2022 also revealed Jupiter’s faint rings, its northern and southern aurorae, and two of its smaller moons, Amalthea and Adrastea. Jupiter’s rings were discovered by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979 as it flew past the gas giant, and scientists hypothesize they were formed from meteoroids striking one of Jupiter’s small moons. Like Earth, Jupiter’s massive aurorae are produced from its even more massive magnetic field, which is 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. The two small moons, Amalthea and Adrastea, were discovered in 1892 and 1979, respectively, with both orbiting within the orbit of Io, the first Galilean Moon of Jupiter.
What new discoveries will JWST continue to make about Jupiter and its amazing features in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
Do Red Dwarfs or Sunlike Stars Have More Earth-Sized Worlds?
This artist's concept illustrates a young, red dwarf star surrounded by three planets. Are Earth-sized planets more common around red dwarfs? Image Credit: By NASA/JPL-Caltech - NASA Image of the Day, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17104843
Do Red Dwarfs or Sunlike Stars Have More Earth-Sized Worlds?
Earth is our only example of a habitable planet, so it makes sense to search for Earth-size worlds when we’re hunting for potentially-habitable exoplanets. When astronomers found seven of them orbiting a red dwarf star in the TRAPPIST-1 system, people wondered if Earth-size planets are more common around red dwarfs than Sun-like stars.
But are they? Maybe not.
The exoplanet-hunting age arrived when NASA launched the Kepler space telescope in 2009. The mission was a success, and found almost 5,000 exoplanets, with 2,711 confirmed and another 2056 awaiting confirmation. The Kepler mission ended in 2018, and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) took over planet hunting that same year.
Kepler’s initial results suggested that Earth-sized exoplanets in habitable zones were more common around M-dwarfs. But as time has passed, the Kepler sample has come under increased scrutiny.
New research digs into the issue and explains what’s happened since Kepler, and how its data needs a rethink. The paper is “No Evidence for More Earth-sized Planets in the Habitable Zone of Kepler’s M versus FGK Stars.” It’s been accepted into The Astronomical Journal and is currently available on the pre-press site arxiv.org. The lead author is Galen Bergsten, from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona.
“Reliable detections of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone remain elusive in the Kepler sample, even for M dwarfs,” the authors write. Astronomers used to think that Kepler had found quite a sizable number of these planets. Different researchers used Kepler’s findings to extrapolate the occurrence rate of these desirable planets. But current research suggests that Kepler’s results weren’t accurate. That means the estimated occurrence rates were inaccurate, too.
Illustration of the Kepler spacecraft. Kepler’s mission is over, but not the discussion about its data. (NASA/Kepler mission/Wendy Stenzel)
Kepler was meant to focus on Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars, with preferential long-term monitoring of around one year. One year monitoring would produce more robust data than shorter monitoring, when it comes to measuring the occurrence of these planets. But the spacecraft suffered some mechanical failures which ended that phase of operations. As a result, its survey was interrupted before it could deliver a confident survey of Earth-sized planets in habitable zones.
But the data was all researchers had to work with. This led to estimates of the occurrence of Earth-sized planets extrapolated from Kepler’s data on red dwarfs. A 2014 study suggested that 25% of red dwarfs have super-Earths. And a 2015 study found 156 Earth-size candidates around low mass M dwarfs. The 2015 results arrived at an occurrence rate of 0.16 Earth-size planets around red dwarfs. Since about 75% of the Milky Way’s stars are red dwarfs, that means there’s an enormous number of Earth-size planets around red dwarfs. Could it be true?
Maybe not.
The ESA’s launched their Gaia spacecraft in 2013 and it specializes in measuring stars. It’s focused on astrometry, which measures the positions, distances, and motions of stars. But it also performs photometric measurements of the stars’ luminosity, revealing their temperatures, masses, and ages. It’s better at that than Kepler was.
Artist’s impression of the ESA’s Gaia Observatory. Credit: ESA
Gaia exposed the inaccuracy in Kepler’s results. “However, updated stellar properties from Gaia have shifted many Kepler stars to earlier spectral type classifications, with most stars (and their planets) now measured to be larger and hotter than previously believed,” the authors explain.
What astronomers are seeking is the elusive number of Earth-sized planets in habitable zones across all star types. The only reliable way to find it, other than measuring every star and planet, is to extrapolate from a sample. Since Kepler’s sample is now understood to be flawed, it means that previous extrapolations are flawed. Where does that leave us?
This research arrives at new numbers based an both Kepler’s data and Gaia’s data. The new numbers are far lower than initial estimates and extrapolations. “The updated sample’s paucity of Earth-sized habitable zone planet detections means that Kepler offers no evidence supporting an increased number of Earth-sized habitable planets around M dwarfs compared to FGK stars,” the authors write. “When evaluated in instellation, we found a lack of sufficient evidence that would support M dwarfs having more Earth-sized planets than FGK stars at habitable zone instellations.” Instellation is a planet’s proximity to a star.
This figure from the study helps illustrate the results. It clearly shows that there are not more Earth-sized planets around red dwarfs (M dwarfs) than around Sun-like (FGK) stars. The shaded grey region denotes the regime where there are no detections of Earth-sized planets around F type stars. Image Credit: Bergsten et al. 2023.
So Kepler’s early data was not reliable.
There’s still more research to be done before we understand how many Earth-like planets there are, around M dwarfs or around Sun-like (FGK) stars. Red dwarfs are dim to begin with, and a smaller planet doesn’t block much light, making transits difficult to detect.
This research isn’t the last word. As better data rolls in and planet-hunting scientists study it meticulously, they’re bound to arrive at a better understanding.
We’d all like to know how many Earth-sized planets there are in habitable zones. But when it comes to red dwarfs, habitability is not well understood to begin with. Red dwarfs, especially younger ones, emit lots of radiation. It might render planets in their putative habitable zones inhabitable. Their may be no way for them to hold onto their atmospheres.
We can’t talk about red dwarf exoplanet habitability without bringing up red dwarf flaring. Stellar flares could threaten life on red dwarf planets. Credit: NASA, ESA and D. Player (STScI)
And stars aren’t consistent. Their luminosity changes over time, which means their habitable zones shift over time. Our own Sun used to be fainter, and it’s slowly, inexorably brightening. So getting a star’s age wrong skews everything else.
There are a lot of unanswered questions around Earth-sized exoplanets, optimistic versus conservative habitable zones, red dwarf flaring, and a host of other issues. But one of the basic things astronomers would like to understand is how widespread Earth-sized planets are.
Where Did Earth's Water Come From? & How Do We Know? GEO GIRL
Earth has an abundance of water at its surface (and even more within its interior!), but where did all Earth's water come from? In this video, I cover all the hypotheses regarding the origins of Earth's water and how we study the potential sources of Earth's water and how much they may have contributed using isotopes! Hope you enjoy ;D
Why Go To Mars If We Haven't Even Colonized Our Own Oceans?
Right now in history, major private space industry players like SpaceX are investing millions, even billions of dollars, into projects aimed at permanently relocating humanity into space. It's a grand and wondrous dream, one that has rightly captured our species' imagination for thousands of years, propelling us toward exploration and the quest for other forms of life. All of this is magnificent and commendable, but if scientific curiosity is truly driving us, why don't we realize that right here, just a stone's throw away, on this very planet, there's an equally mysterious world to explore beyond the Earth's surface? What is that world? Well, it's the ocean depths! Isn't it strange? Continents are teeming with human beings - currently over seven billion and rapidly increasing. Yet, even more surprisingly, despite all our technological prowess, humanity persists in crowding itself onto dry land, which constitutes just 29% of the planet's surface. The rest is dominated by seas and oceans, where the permanent human population is precisely zero. Why? How can this be? We have detailed maps with resolutions down to less than a meter for distant worlds like the Moon and Mars, yet all we know about the ocean depths is represented with a resolution in kilometers. Is that not surprising? Perhaps not when we consider that there have been 12 men who have walked on the Moon compared to just 3 who have reached the deepest point of our oceans, the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 11,000 meters.
Of course, we can't use satellites to scan the seafloor because water is opaque to electromagnetic radiation. We need different, slower approaches like sonar. Still, it's a fact that even today, less than 5% of the oceans have been mapped with a resolution finer than 100 meters. But it's not just a matter of geology. We also know practically nothing about the creatures inhabiting these ocean depths. Biologists estimate that after a thousand meters in depth, there may be at least 750,000 animal species yet to be discovered, many of them of considerable size. It's almost certain that many of these species will go extinct before they are ever discovered. Yet, undeterred, we persist in seeking life among the stars... Let's try to understand it together!
NASA Have Just Revealed The Truth About Skinwalker Ranch After Revealing This
History Of The Shermans, What Going On In The Skin Walker Ranch, What Did NASA Leak About Skin Walker Ranch. In the midst of the Utah desert, concealed in an aura of confidentiality, exists a location enveloped in mystery. This place has confounded researchers, alarmed the nearby residents, and stirred the creative musings of conspiracy theorists for many years. Skinwalker Ranch, a subject of quiet discussion for a considerable period, is seen as the epicentre of perplexing occurrences. However, a momentous revelation is on the brink of emerging, as NASA have just revealed the truth about Skinwalker Ranch after revealing this image. Their findings are truly astonishing. Join us as we uncover the latest revelations from NASA regarding Skinwalker Ranch, which are sure to evoke a sense of intrigue and fascination..
Neil Armstrong Breaks His Silence Before His Death And Reveals His Secret
Neil Armstrong - The Moon Landing. Renowned astronaut Neil Armstrong made history on July twenty, nineteen sixty-nine, as the first human to step onto the lunar surface, a defining moment in space exploration. Recently, an alleged long-held secret of Armstrong's has emerged, suggesting a deeper significance behind the moon landing, promising to unveil a new perspective on this remarkable event. Join us as we uncover the captivating story of the moon landing, Neil Armstrong, and this intriguing revelation...
10 Clearest Looking UFOs in History Caught On Camera
Welcome to Futureunity, where we explore the fascinating world of science, technology, and the universe! From the inner workings of the human body to the outer reaches of space, we delve into the latest and most interesting discoveries that are shaping our world. Whether you're a science buff or just looking for some mind-blowing facts, we've got you covered. Join us as we uncover the mysteries of the world around us and discover new frontiers in the fields of science and technology. Get ready for a journey. Please remember that our videos are purely made for entertainment purposes only. Our information may not be correct. Enjoy, but question and explore further
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For decades, the mysteries of the cosmos have captivated the human spirit, and UFO sightings remain at the forefront of this enigma. One particular incident that sparked intrigue and debate was the Houston UFO sighting of 2014.
On the fateful night of August 11th, 2014, the night sky over Houston was lit not just by flashes of lightning but also by a perplexing anomaly. A resident, attempting to capture the building storm, inadvertently filmed a hovering circle of lights that took the online community by storm. For many, this added another intriguing chapter to Houston’s storied relationship with the unknown.
At the first glance, this captivating footage seemed irrefutable evidence of extraterrestrial existence. With the object so clear and looming large in the sky, theories ran wild. One popular hypothesis proposed that it was merely light reflecting from noctilucent clouds – high-altitude clouds known for their unusual glowing effects. Others believed it could be an instance of the elusive ball lightning, a phenomenon that, despite thousands of reports over centuries, remains enigmatic. However, the peculiar circular formation of the Houston lights rendered such an explanation as unlikely.
As the speculation intensified, multiple witnesses came forward with similar accounts. Coincidentally, all these incidents occurred within a 30-mile radius of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. This proximity led to wild theories that perhaps extraterrestrials were spying on NASA or that these sightings could be connected to NASA’s secretive crafts, like the LDSD (Low Density Supersonic Desellerator). But the LDSD, designed to aid human travel to Mars, was unlikely to be tested over a populated city like Houston.
Months passed before a logical, earthly explanation emerged. The mysterious lights bore a striking resemblance to Houston’s distinct freeway street lights. The conclusion? A lens flare created by these lights. It was an answer that grounded the UFO speculation but showcased the intriguing dance between our natural environment and human interpretation.
Another curious incident in 2015 involved a milky rain in Washington State and Oregon. Reminiscent of a previous phenomenon in 1994, conspiracy theories linked it to potential germ warfare. Yet, the real cause lay in the heart of nature: a windstorm over an ancient saline lake in Oregon, which led to the peculiar rainfall.
These incidents remind us of the power of nature and its ability to mystify, even in our modern age. While the quest for understanding UFO sightings continues, we’re often reminded that sometimes the answers lie closer to home than we might think.
Pentagon says it's received 291 UFO sightings over past year: Warns some craft appeared to display 'unusual maneuverability' and 'high-speed travel'
Pentagon says it's received 291 UFO sightings over past year: Warns some craft appeared to display 'unusual maneuverability' and 'high-speed travel'
Pentagon's UFO chief told CNN his office is scrutinizing 'concerning' evidence that some aerial anomalies 'may be attributed to foreign activity' from US rivals
Pentagon vows 'to make significant progress' on undersea UFO database in 2024
The Pentagon's dedicated UFO investigations office has fielded at least 291 UFO cases within the past year, according to a report made public late Wednesday night.
Some of these seemingly advanced craft appeared to exhibit 'concerning performance characteristics,' the military's UFO investigators wrote, including 'high-speed travel' and 'unusual maneuverability.'
The report caps off a summer hot with extraterrestrial intrigue in Washington, where multiple government UFO whistleblowers have come forward, some publicly, some behind closed doors, with allegations of an illegal UFO crash retrieval program.
While that new report concludes that none of 2023's airborne mysteries were the result of classified US programs, the Pentagon's UFO chief told reporters that a few UFOs displayed 'concerning' signs of being made by America's foreign adversaries.
In fact, the Pentagon UFO head said 'a lot' of these UFO cases have been referred to law enforcement and, in some serious cases, US counterintelligence investigators.
While that new report concludes that none of 2023's airborne mysteries were the result of classified US programs, the Pentagon's UFO chief told reporters that a few UFOs displayed 'concerning' signs of being made by America's foreign adversaries
'A lot' of UFO cases were referred to law enforcement last year, Dr. Kirkpatrick told reporters, and, in some serious cases, to US counterintelligence investigators. Above a heat map of the UAP or UFO hot spots that have emerged from the past year of reports to the Pentagon
'I am worried from a national security perspective,' physicist Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the US Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) told CNN in advance of his office's new UFO report.
'There are some indicators that are concerning that may be attributed to foreign activity,' Dr. Kirkpatrick said, 'and we are investigating those very hard.'
The physicist — whose classified work prior to assuming leadership of AARO included stints with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the CIA — expressed fear that foreign nations may be designing espionage drones specifically to evade US radar and other detection hardware.
'There are ways to hide in our noise that always concern me,' Kirkpatrick told CNN.
The annual report published Wednesday by Dr. Kirkpatrick and his team included a glossary to aid in the standardization of the once fringe topic of UFOs, now known professionally as UAP, for 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon.'
The glossary defined 'UAP Threat' as any UAP that demonstrate a national security risk to military 'persons, materiel, or information,' in an indication of the priority AARO has given to intelligence and espionage risks posed by the phenomenon.
Despite Kirkpatrick's statement that his office is actively chasing down possible foreign espionage cases, AARO's annual UAP report drew a more measured conclusion: 'None of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities'
In one now infamous wave of cases, following identification of a large white Chinese spy balloon last February, military officials identified more potential airborne surveillance platforms by readjusting the sensitivity of their radar system filters.
'I suspect that filters on US systems had previously been ignoring things that were too slow, high, or small to be considered threats,' RAND Corporation senior technical analyst and former US Navy aviator Brynn Tannehill told Wired that month.
'Now that the parameters on the filters have been adjusted, we're seeing more of what was already there for the past few years.'
Those adjustments to US military radar's noise reduction methods led to the identification of an object, first spotted north of Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly the size of a small car.
Despite Dr. Kirkpatrick's statement that his office is actively chasing down potentially similar cases, AARO's annual report Wednesday drew a more measured conclusion.
'None of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities,' according to AARO's unclassified report for fiscal year 2023.
In addition to statistics on the typical elevations and locations at which UAP have been reported, the FY2023 AARO reported took pains to note the issue of 'collection bias' and its future plans to better collect space-based and undersea data on UAP.
'The space and maritime domains need to be fully integrated into AARO's processes,' the report stated.
Kirkpatrick's UFO office plans to work with the US Navy and the National Intelligence Manager for Military Integration (NIM-MIL) to improve the speed and quality of reporting on undersea UAP or sea-to-air transmedium UAP.
'Collaboration with Space Force, US Space Command, NRO [the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees US spy satellites] and NASA is well underway,' AARO said in the report.
In a nod to NASA's own UAP advisory panel, the report made numerous references to the need to better calibrate, or prepare and standardize, military sensors in an effort to obtain the kind of reliable and comparable data needed to investigate UAP.
Despite the ostensible openness and promises detailed in AARO's report, many longtime civilian UFO researchers, expressed concern that the office has overseen a retrenchment in transparency on the topic.
At least one longtime UFO researcher, government open records advocate John Greenewald, Jr., described the Pentagon's new policies as 'a weird mixture' of 'increased excessive secrecy surrounding UAP' and 'preaching about 'transparency.''
Greenewald has noted new difficulties in obtaining government records on UFOs via the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the years since the creation of dedicated UAP investigative mandates internally within the Pentagon.
He flagged one comment from the new AARO report as particularly worrisome, which stated the belief that 'most UAP will likely resolve to ordinary phenomena.'
'AARO's, and subsequently the DoD's, position is once data is fine tuned and proper, most - if not all - UAP cases will resolve to simply being 'ordinary,'' Greenewald posted to X (formerly Twitter).
'This is exactly how Project Blue Book progressed and then ended,' he said, in reference to the US Air Force's Cold War-era UFO investigation program.
'They concluded the majority were explainable; they convened a panel of scientists to independently look at the findings; and it all ended with the military halting interest and stopping all funding for more than 40 years,' Greenewald said.
Have YOU seen one? The Pentagon reveals what the most commonly reported UFO looks like
But that could finally change following the official release of information from the Pentagon about the mysterious aerial phenomena.
The new Department of Defense document reveals characteristics of the typical UFO, including the colour and the shape, velocity, and flight level
Based on clues from reported sightings, the typical UFO has a round shape, usually described as spherical or an orb, with a white or silver colour, often translucent.
It also has a size of between 3 and 13 feet (1 to 4 metres) and usually travels through the air at a height just below commercial passenger planes.
A NASA probe has become the fastest man-made object in history.
The Parker Solar Probe, which investigates our sun, hit a record speed of 394,736 miles per hour (mph) last month, twice as fast as a bolt of lightning or 200 times the speed of a rifle bullet.
The achievement was made during its 17th sun swing on September 27, breaking its distance record by skimming just 4.51 million from the solar surface.
The Parker Solar Probe will spend the next week finishing off data transmissions back to Earth from this last encounter, which focused on recording solar winds' properties, structure, and behavior.
The Parker Solar Probe, which investigates our sun, hit a record speed of 394,736 miles per hour (mph) last month, twice as fast as a bolt of lightning or 200 times the speed of a rifle bullet
The spacecraft entered the encounter in good health,' Michael Buckley of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory reported in a post to NASA's blog, 'with all systems operating normally.'
Since the Parker probe's launch in 2018, a team of roughly a dozen physicists, engineers and support staff at Johns Hopkins have managed the NASA mission, including the initial design and construction of the $1.5 billion spacecraft.
The record-setting and lightning-fast craft has been 'sending a stream of telemetry (status data)' back to mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, since October 1st.
The probe's latest speed milestone came thanks to a gravity-assist flyby from Venus, which is approximately 67,237,910 miles from the sun.
Parker completed that 'Venus Flyby 6' on August 21, meaning it traveled over 67 million miles in just over a month.
In April 2021, NASA's Parker Solar Probe traveled through the corona on its eighth attempt, the spacecraft flew by structures called coronal streamers (pictured). Such a view is only possible due to the spacecraft's ability to go above and below the streamers inside the corona
The US space agency's probe revealed distinctive surface features such as continental regions, plains, and plateaus, as well as a luminescent halo of oxygen in the atmosphere that surrounds Venus.
In April of 2021, the Parker Solar Probe battled temperatures of 2370F and radiation 500 times stronger than Earth's on its first confirmed pass through the sun's upper atmosphere.
Due to the sun's lack of a solid surface, the corona is where the action is; exploring this magnetically intense region up close can help scientists better understand solar outbursts that can interfere with life here on Earth.
'Parker Solar Probe 'touching the Sun' is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat,' Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said that year celebrating the probe's eighth solar flyby.
'Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our Sun's evolution and (its) impacts on our solar system, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe.'
Having completed its 17th 'solar encounter,' Parker has seven more sun-examining orbits planned by its mission scientists back home until the end of 2024.
Its last act after those pass-bys will be an every-encroaching curve into the sun's atmosphere, recording solar winds data until the probe vaporizes in the heat.
In its final moments, the Parker Solar Probe will become part of the solar wind itself - a 'sort of a poetic ending,' as one mission researcher, space plasma physicist David Malaspina, told Popular Science.
The Parker Solar Probe travelled seven times closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it
Nasa's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) will travel seven times closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it by the end of its mission.
It launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on August 12, 2018.
The probe flew to the sun's outer atmosphere to study life of stars and their weather events.
It is hoped that Parker can help scientists to better understand solar flares — brief eruptions of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface that can knock out communications on Earth.
Over the next few years the probe will continue to make new discoveries as it moves closer to the sun, eventually making its closest approach in the year 2024, as it flies 3.9 million miles above the solar surface.
The craft faces extremes in heat and radiation and will reach speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour (700,000 kph) at its closest flyby of the star.
The craft's kit includes a white light imager called Whisper, which will take images of solar waves as the craft propels through them at high speeds.
To measure the 'bulk plasma' of solar winds — described by Nasa as the 'bread and butter' of the flares — a set of magnetic imaging equipment will also be stored on board.
The Pentagon 's dedicated UFO investigations office has fielded at least 291 UFO cases within the past year, according to a report made public late Wednesday night. Some of these seemingly advanced craft appeared to exhibit 'concerning performance characteristics,' the military's UFO investigators wrote, including 'high-speed travel' and 'unusual maneuverability.' The report caps off a summer hot with extraterrestrial intrigue in Washington, where multiple government UFO whistleblowers have come forward, some publicly, some behind closed doors, with allegations of an illegal UFO crash retrieval program. The claims — which have included ' intact and partially intact vehicles ,' exotic weapons programs , charges of witness intimidation and recovered 'non-human' bodies — are now being investigated by federal and congressional oversight authorities alike.
While that new report concludes that none of 2023's airborne mysteries were the result of classified US programs, the Pentagon's UFO chief told reporters that a few UFOs displayed 'concerning' signs of being made by America's foreign adversaries. In fact, the Pentagon UFO head said 'a lot' of these UFO cases have been referred to law enforcement and, in some serious cases, US counterintelligence investigators. 'I am worried from a national security perspective,' physicist Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the US Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) told CNN in advance of his office's new UFO report. 'There are some indicators that are concerning that may be attributed to foreign activity,' Dr. Kirkpatrick said, 'and we are investigating those very hard.'
The physicist — whose classified work prior to assuming leadership of AARO included stints with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the CIA — expressed fear that foreign nations may be designing espionage drones specifically to evade US radar and other detection hardware. 'There are ways to hide in our noise that always concern me,' Kirkpatrick told CNN . The annual report published Wednesday by Dr. Kirkpatrick and his team included a glossary to aid in the standardization of the once fringe topic of UFOs, now known professionally as UAP, for 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon.' The glossary defined 'UAP Threat' as any UAP that demonstrate a national security risk to military 'persons, materiel, or information,' in an indication of the priority AARO has given to intelligence and espionage risks posed by the phenomenon. In one now infamous wave of cases, following identification of a large white Chinese spy balloon last February , military officials identified more potential airborne surveillance platforms by readjusting the sensitivity of their radar system filters.
'I suspect that filters on US systems had previously been ignoring things that were too slow, high, or small to be considered threats,' RAND Corporation senior technical analyst and former US Navy aviator Brynn Tannehill told Wired that month. 'Now that the parameters on the filters have been adjusted, we're seeing more of what was already there for the past few years.' Those adjustments to US military radar's noise reduction methods led to the identification of an object, first spotted north of Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly the size of a small car. US Air Force F-22 Raptors and F-16s were dispatched by the Biden White House to shoot down the sedan-sized UFO and others spotted over Canada's Yukon territory and the Great Lakes north of Michigan . Despite Dr. Kirkpatrick's statement that his office is actively chasing down potentially similar cases, AARO's annual report Wednesday drew a more measured conclusion.
'None of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities,' according to AARO's unclassified report for fiscal year 2023. In addition to statistics on the typical elevations and locations at which UAP have been reported, the FY2023 AARO reported took pains to note the issue of 'collection bias' and its future plans to better collect space-based and undersea data on UAP. 'The space and maritime domains need to be fully integrated into AARO's processes,' the report stated. Kirkpatrick's UFO office plans to work with the US Navy and the National Intelligence Manager for Military Integration (NIM-MIL) to improve the speed and quality of reporting on undersea UAP or sea-to-air transmedium UAP. 'Collaboration with Space Force, US Space Command, NRO [the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees US spy satellites] and NASA is well underway,' AARO said in the report. In a nod to NASA's own UAP advisory panel, the report made numerous references to the need to better calibrate, or prepare and standardize, military sensors in an effort to obtain the kind of reliable and comparable data needed to investigate UAP. Despite the ostensible openness and promises detailed in AARO's report, many longtime civilian UFO researchers, expressed concern that the office has overseen a retrenchment in transparency on the topic.
At least one longtime UFO researcher, government open records advocate John Greenewald, Jr. , described the Pentagon's new policies as 'a weird mixture' of 'increased excessive secrecy surrounding UAP' and 'preaching about 'transparency.'' Greenewald has noted new difficulties in obtaining government records on UFOs via the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the years since the creation of dedicated UAP investigative mandates internally within the Pentagon. He flagged one comment from the new AARO report as particularly worrisome, which stated the belief that 'most UAP will likely resolve to ordinary phenomena.' 'AARO's, and subsequently the DoD's, position is once data is fine tuned and proper, most - if not all - UAP cases will resolve to simply being 'ordinary,'' Greenewald posted to X (formerly Twitter). 'This is exactly how Project Blue Book progressed and then ended,' he said, in reference to the US Air Force's Cold War-era UFO investigation program. 'They concluded the majority were explainable; they convened a panel of scientists to independently look at the findings; and it all ended with the military halting interest and stopping all funding for more than 40 years,' Greenewald said.
The latest Pentagon UFO report reveals 274 different sightings of UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) between August 31, 2022 and April 30, 2023, and 291 reports in total.
Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) at the Pentagon, also reported to CNN that his organization has received approximately 800 reports of UFOs in total since it was established in July of 2022.
According to the Pentagon UFO report, “a very small percentage” of the sightings that have been reported have “unknown morphologies.”
However, there were some UFO reports in which the objects showed “concerning performance characteristics” with capabilities such as “high-speed travel” and “unusual maneuverability.”
Much of the reporting of UFOs, as has been typical over the years, seems to occur over military airspace.
Also, like NASA’s 33-page UFO report, issued in September, the AARO report states that a large amount of UFO sightings (approximately 25 percent) involved objects that were characterized as orbs, round, or spherical in shape.
In 53 percent of cases, the UFO sightings were unable to determine a shape, six percent were said to be “irregular,” four percent said the objects were “oval-shaped,” four percent said the UFOs were either discs or rectangular, and two percent claimed what they saw was cylindrical or triangular in shape.
Lawmakers in Washington are expected to receive further access to classified UFO documents before the end of the year, according to Congressman Tim Burchett.
“It’ll be before Christmas, I believe, is what we’ve heard,” Burchett told Elizabeth Vargas on NewsNation this week. “It’s coming up here, I believe, in the next couple of weeks from what I understand, but all those things are kind of subjective to what’s going on elsewhere in Washington. I would hope we could get in there because a lot of people are asking.”
Burchett added, “People are very nervous, and they should be, at the Pentagon. Because they’ve been covering this thing up since 1947. And now, all of a sudden, hey, 55% of America believes that there’s something else out there. A major news network like yourself is covering this, so they realize there’s money available, they want us to study it now. All I say is, bring out the documents, let the American public decide.”
InSight’s Largest Marsquake Was Likely Caused by Geological Processes, Study Says
InSight’s Largest Marsquake Was Likely Caused by Geological Processes, Study Says
During its time on Mars, NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander recorded over 1,300 seismic events, known as marsquakes. Of these, a number were identified as coming from meteoroid impact cratering events on the planet’s surface. The largest event identified by InSight, labeled S1222a, bore some similarities to two large impact events recorded earlier in the mission. In order to investigate whether the S1222a event might also have been caused by an impact event, planetary scientists from the University of Oxford and elsewhere undertook a comprehensive search of the region in which the S1222a marsquake occurred. The researchers did not identify any fresh craters in the area, implying that the marsquake was likely caused by geological processes.
An artist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
On May 4, 2022, InSight recorded the seismic waves from an event on Mars of magnitude 4.7.
This event, labeled S1222a in the catalog, was the largest of the mission and displayed characteristics spanning all previously identified marsquake families. The event also displayed clear evidence of surface waves.
Because its seismic signal was similar to previous quakes known to be caused by meteoroid impacts, the InSight team believed that S1222a might have been caused by an impact as well, and launched an international search for a fresh crater.
Although Mars is smaller than Earth, it has a similar land surface area because it has no oceans.
In order to survey this huge amount of ground (144 million km2), University of Oxford researcher Benjamin Fernando and colleagues sought contributions from ESA, the Chinese National Space Agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation, and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency.
This is thought to be the first time that all missions in orbit around Mars have collaborated on a single project.
Each group examined data from their satellites orbiting Mars to look for a new crater, or any other tell-tale signature of an impact (e.g. a dust cloud appearing in the hours after the quake).
After several months of searching, the scientists announced that no fresh crater was found.
They conclude that the S1222a event was instead caused by the release of enormous tectonic forces within Mars’ interior.
The results indicate that the Red Planet is much more seismically active than previously thought.
This spectrogram shows the magnitude 5 marsquake discovered by NASA’s InSight lander on May 4, 2022.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ETH Zurich.
“We still think that Mars doesn’t have any active plate tectonics today, so this event was likely caused by the release of stress within Mars’ crust,” Dr. Fernando said.
“These stresses are the result of billions of years of evolution; including the cooling and shrinking of different parts of the planet at different rates.”
“We still do not fully understand why some parts of the planet seem to have higher stresses than others, but results like these help us to investigate further.”
“One day, this information may help us to understand where it would be safe for humans to live on Mars and where you might want to avoid!”
“This experiment shows how important it is to maintain a diverse set of instruments at Mars, and we are very glad to have played our part in completing the multi-instrumental and international approach of this study,” said Dr. Daniela Tirsch, science coordinator for the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft.
“We are willing to collaborate with scientists around the world to share and apply this scientific data to get more knowledge about Mars, and are proud to have provided data from the color imagers on Tianwen-1 to contribute to this effort,” said Dr. Jianjun Liu, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“This has been a great opportunity for me to collaborate with the InSight team, as well as with individuals from other major missions dedicated to the study of Mars,” said Dr. Dimitra Atri, group leader for Mars at New York University Abu Dhabi and contributor of data from UAE’s Hope spacecraft.
“This really is the golden age of Mars exploration!”
This seismogram shows the largest quake ever detected on another planet. Estimated at magnitude 5, this quake was discovered by NASA’s InSight lander on May 4, 2022, the 1,222 Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
InSight’s domed Wind and Thermal Shield covers the lander’s seismometer, called Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS. The image was taken on the 110th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The results appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Benjamin Fernando et al. 2023. A Tectonic Origin for the Largest Marsquake Observed by InSight. Geophysical Research Letters 50 (20): e2023GL103619; doi: 10.1029/2023GL103619
Planetary Researchers Probe Origin of Complex Organics on Ceres
Planetary Researchers Probe Origin of Complex Organics on Ceres
How aliphatic organic compounds originated on the dwarf planet Ceres has been the subject of intensive research since their discovery by NASA’s Dawn mission in 2017. Some studies have concluded that a comet or other organic-rich impactor delivered them to Ceres; others indicate the molecules formed on the dwarf planet after its primordial materials were altered by briny water. New research led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory planetary scientists is extending our understanding of how impacts have affected Ceres’ aliphatic molecules and what the implications are for determining their origin and assessing the dwarf planet’s habitability.
This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Scientists use false color to examine differences in surface materials. The color blue on Ceres is generally associated with bright material, found in more than 130 locations, and seems to be consistent with salts.
“The organics were initially detected in the vicinity of a large impact crater, which is what motivated us to look at how impacts affect these organics,” said lead author Dr. Terik Daly, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
“Although researchers have performed impact and shock experiments on various types of organics in the past, what was missing was a study dedicated to the type of organics detected on Ceres using the same type of analytical method used by the Dawn spacecraft to detect them.”
The experiments mimicked the impact conditions typical of Ceres, with impact speeds ranging between 2-6 km/s (4,400-13,000 mph) and impact angles varying between 15 and 90 degrees relative to horizontal.
The authors also conducted a new analysis that combined data from two different instruments — the camera and the imaging spectrometer that flew on the Dawn spacecraft — and then used an algorithm to extrapolate the compositional information from the spectrometer down to the camera’s higher spatial resolution.
The results allowed them to investigate the organics at finer detail than has previously been possible.
“People had looked at the Dawn camera data and the Dawn spectrometer data separately, but no one else had taken the approach our team used to extrapolate the data from one instrument to another, which provided new leverage in our search to map and understand the origin of organics on Ceres,” said co-author Dr. Jessica Sunshine, an astronomer at the University of Maryland.
“By capitalizing on the strengths of two different datasets collected over Ceres, we’ve been able to map potential organic-rich areas on Ceres at higher resolution,” said Dr. Juan Rizos, an astrophysicist at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia.
“We can see a very good correlation of organics with units from older impacts and with other minerals like carbonates that also indicate the presence of water.”
“While the origin of the organics remains poorly understood, we now have good evidence that they formed in Ceres and likely in the presence of water.”
“There is a possibility that a large interior reservoir of organics may be found inside Ceres. So, from my perspective, that result increases the astrobiological potential of Ceres.”
The researchers hope the results from NASA’s Lucy mission will soon shed more light on organics in the Solar System.
“We will likely find differences, as the Trojan asteroids have experienced very different impact histories from Ceres, and because there are two compositionally different types of Trojan asteroids,” Dr. Sunshine said.
“Comparisons to Ceres will help up us understand the distribution of organics in the outer Solar System.”
R. Terik Daly et al. 2023. The effects of impacts on the reflectance spectra of aliphatic organics: implications for Ceres. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 55 (6): 153-1; doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-392730
In an era where every smartphone is equipped with a camera and social media platforms are rife with shared content, “UFO sightings” have risen to a level of prominence never seen before. Yet, while grainy images and shaky footage often dominate UFO discussion boards, an increasing number of credible professionals are turning their attention to the sky, and beneath the ocean’s waves, in search of answers.
Uncharted Waters: UFOs Beneath the Sea?
We’re all familiar with tales of mysterious flying objects zipping through the sky, but what about those that plunge into our planet’s oceans? Recent revelations suggest that unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) may not just be confined to our atmosphere. Ocean scientists have come forward, detailing instances where UAPs transition from the sky and disappear beneath the water’s surface. These trans-medium occurrences are a new frontier in the study of UFO sightings.
The Ocean’s Silent Observers
Dr. Chris, an ocean scientist with three and a half decades of experience, expressed astonishment that more ocean experts aren’t delving into what he calls “the story of the century.” He described instances where submariners from the Cold War era reported inexplicable sonar readings—objects that moved in ways no known underwater vessel could. Another captivating account includes the USS Omaha’s radar operator, who noticed a USO (unidentified submerged object) speeding by underwater.
An Involved Scientific Community
But it’s not just anecdotal evidence that’s raising eyebrows. Research teams, like those from the Galileo project, are developing intricate collection systems, employing a combination of radar, electro-optical/infrared (EOIR), and acoustic means. These systems have picked up spheroid objects detectable only in infrared—meaning they’d be invisible to the naked eye. Such advancements underscore the evolving landscape of UFO sightings research.
Championing a New Age of Exploration
UAP Society, a recently founded organization, is taking the hunt for UFO evidence to new heights (and depths). They’ve announced a “UAP Video Challenge,” urging enthusiasts to share their ideas on capturing tangible UAP evidence. From sophisticated camera systems to innovative apps, they’re looking for fresh perspectives to shed light on these enigmatic phenomena.
Video:
Admiral Revelations: Underwater UFOs
UFO sightings are no longer just the domain of conspiracy theorists or science fiction enthusiasts. From seasoned oceanographers to dedicated research teams, the concerted effort to unravel the mystery of UAPs is in full swing. As technology advances and the world becomes ever more connected, perhaps we’re on the cusp of understanding one of the universe’s most intriguing questions: Are we truly alone?
Astronomen en ruimteliefhebbers hebben de kans om dagelijks naar de bijzonderheden van het heelal te kijken dankzij de “Astronomische Foto van de Dag” van de NASA. Op de afbeelding van vandaag (20 oktober) kun je het exacte moment zien waarop een komeet zich een weg baant tussen de sterrenstelsels.
De foto is genomen op 12 oktober onder de hemel van June Lake, Californië, Verenigde Staten, en toont fascinerende sterrenstelsels in het noordelijke sterrenbeeld Canes Venatici, ofwel de ‘Jachthonden’.
In de linkerbovenhoek van de afbeelding, op een afstand van ongeveer 23,5 miljoen lichtjaar, zie je het prachtige spiraalvormige sterrenstelsel NGC 4258, ook wel bekend als Messier 106. Direct boven en rechts van het midden, op een afstand van 60 miljoen lichtjaar, bevindt zich een ander spiraalvormig sterrenstelsel, NGC 4217. Opmerkelijk in deze waarneming is de komeet C/2023 H2 Lemmon, die in april is ontdekt.
De komeet vertoont een groene kleur en een gladde staart die zich uitstrekt naar de bovenkant van de afbeelding. C/2023 H2 Lemmon zal op 29 oktober het perihelium bereiken, het punt het dichtst bij de zon, terwijl het perigeum, het punt het dichtst bij de aarde, zal plaatsvinden op 10 november.
NASA benadrukt een fascinerende foto van een komeet tussen de sterrenstelsels (Dan Bartlett // NASA – APOD)
This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered something new in Jupiter's atmosphere. Above the leading clouds, a high-speed jet stream runs over the giant planet's equator. This jet stream is about 3,000 miles (4,800 km) wide and travels about 320 miles (515 km) per hour. It is located in the lower stratosphere, about 25 miles (40 km) above the clouds.
Discovery of this jet stream
The discovery of this jet stream surprises the scientists who study Jupiter's weather. They are interested in how the different layers of the atmosphere interact with each other and create the planet's famous storms and winds. The jet stream could be a clue toRELATED understanding these processes. The researchers' results were recently published in Nature Astronomy.
The research team used Webb's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) data in July 2022. The camera captured images of Jupiter in four different filters, each showing a different altitude of the atmosphere. The images were taken 10 hours apart, or one Jupiter day.
De Pater noted that despite the observations made by various ground-based telescopes, spacecraft such as NASA's Juno and Cassini, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on the changing weather patterns within the Jovian system, Webb has already delivered fresh insights on Jupiter's rings, satellites, and its atmosphere.
NIRCam images of Jupiter/Multiwavelength maps of the equatorial region.
Jupiter is very different from Earth, but both planets have layered atmospheres. The other missions have observed the lower layers of Jupiter's atmosphere, with massive storms and ammonia ice clouds. Webb can see farther into the near-infrared than before and detect the higher layers of the atmosphere, about 15-30 miles (25-50 km) above the cloud tops. In these layers, high-altitude hazes usually look blurry in near-infrared images. But with Webb, they look sharper and more detailed.
Webb and Hubble data
The researchers used Webb and Hubble data to compare the winds at different altitudes. They found that the winds change speed and direction with height, creating wind shears. They also saw that some storms in Jupiter's equator were not connected to the jet stream.
Michael Wong, a team member from the University of California, Berkeley, who led the Hubble observations associated with the study, explained that the distinct wavelengths of Webb and Hubble allowed them to unveil the three-dimensional configuration of storm clouds. Additionally, they harnessed the timing of the data to track the rapid development of storms.
The researchers added some context to their findings by explaining that Jupiter has a complex pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, which repeats itself over time. They said that one of their team members, Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, suggested that the strength of the new jet stream might be related to this pattern and that they expected it to vary a lot over the next 2 to 4 years. They said that they were excited to test this theory in the future.
They also said that Fletcher was amazed by their discovery, as he had been tracking Jupiter's clouds and winds from many observatories for years, and he expected to find such a hidden feature when they saw the new NIRCam images in 2022.
Study abstract:
The atmosphere of Jupiter haseast–westt zonal jets that alternate as a function of latitude as tracked by cloud motions at tropospheric levels. Above and below the cold tropopause at ~100 mbar, the equatorial atmosphere is covered by hazes at levels where thermal infrared observations used to characterize the dynamics of the stratosphere lose part of their sensitivity. James Webb Space Telescope observations of Jupiter in July 2022 show these hazes in higher detail than ever before and reveal the presence of an intense (140 m s−1) equatorial jet at 100–200 mbar (70 m s−1 faster than the zonal winds at the cloud level) that is confined to ±3° of the equator and is located below stratospheric thermal oscillations that extend at least from 0.1 to 40 mbar and repeat in multiyear cycles. This suggests that the new jet is a deep part of Jupiter’s Equatorial Stratospheric Oscillation and may therefore vary in strength over time.
Image: Jupiter’s Winds
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) have discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks. At a wavelength of 2.12 microns, which observes between altitudes of about 12-21 miles (20-35 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, researchers spotted several wind shears, or areas where wind speeds change with height or with distance, which enabled them to track the jet. This image highlights several of the features around Jupiter’s equatorial zone that, between one rotation of the planet (10 hours), are very clearly disturbed by the motion of the jet stream.
Image : NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hueso (University of the Basque Country), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley), T. Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), M. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), A. James (STScI)
While Webb’s exquisite resolution and wavelength coverage allowed for the detection of small cloud features used to track the jet, the complementary observations from Hubble taken one day after the Webb observations were also crucial to determine the base state of Jupiter’s equatorial atmosphere and observe the development of convective storms in Jupiter’s equator not connected to the jet.
“We knew the different wavelengths of Webb and Hubble would reveal the three-dimensional structure of storm clouds, but we were also able to use the timing of the data to see how rapidly storms develop,” added team member Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the associated Hubble observations.
The researchers are looking forward to additional observations of Jupiter with Webb to determine if the jet’s speed and altitude change over time.
Image: Zoom in on Webb’s View of Jupiter
A zoomed in view of Webb’s Jupiter image.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hueso (University of the Basque Country), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley), T. Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), M. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI)
“Jupiter has a complicated but repeatable pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, high above the winds in the clouds and hazes measured at these wavelengths,” explained team member Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. “If the strength of this new jet is connected to this oscillating stratospheric pattern, we might expect the jet to vary considerably over the next 2 to 4 years – it’ll be really exciting to test this theory in the years to come.”
“It’s amazing to me that, after years of tracking Jupiter’s clouds and winds from numerous observatories, we still have more to learn about Jupiter, and features like this jet can remain hidden from view until these new NIRCam images were taken in 2022,” continued Fletcher.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
Webb Spots High-Speed Equatorial Jet in Jupiter’s Stratosphere
Webb Spots High-Speed Equatorial Jet in Jupiter’s Stratosphere
The newly-discovered intense (140 m/s) jet is confined to ±3° of Jupiter’s equator, is approximately 4,800 km wide, and is located in the gas giant’s lower stratosphere, according to a paperpublished in the journal Nature Astronomy.
This Webb image of Jupiter shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Aurorae, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover.
Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Ricardo Hueso, UPV / Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley / Thierry Fouchet, Observatory of Paris / Leigh Fletcher, University of Leicester / Michael H. Wong, UC Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.
“This is something that totally surprised us,” said Dr. Ricardo Hueso, an astronomer at the University of the Basque Country.
“What we have always seen as blurred hazes in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appear as crisp features that we can track along with the planet’s fast rotation.”
In the study, Dr. Hueso and colleagues analyzed data gathered by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument in July 2022.
“Even though various ground-based telescopes, spacecraft like NASA’s Juno and Cassini, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the Jovian system’s changing weather patterns, Webb has already provided new findings on Jupiter’s rings, satellites, and its atmosphere,” said Professor Imke de Pater, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.
“While Jupiter is different from Earth in many ways — Jupiter is a gas giant, Earth is a rocky, temperate world — both planets have layered atmospheres.”
“Infrared, visible, radio, and ultraviolet-light wavelengths observed by these other missions detect the lower, deeper layers of the planet’s atmosphere — where gigantic storms and ammonia ice clouds reside.”
“On the other hand, Webb’s look farther into the near-infrared than before is sensitive to the higher-altitude layers of the atmosphere, around 25-50 km above Jupiter’s cloud tops.”
“In near-infrared imaging, high-altitude hazes typically appear blurry, with enhanced brightness over the equatorial region. With Webb, finer details are resolved within the bright, hazy band.”
Hueso et al. discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks. At a wavelength of 2.12 microns, which observes between altitudes of about 20-35 km above Jupiter’s cloud tops, the astronomers spotted several wind shears, or areas where wind speeds change with height or with distance, which enabled them to track the jet. This image highlights several of the features around Jupiter’s equatorial zone that, between one rotation of the planet (10 hours), are very clearly disturbed by the motion of the jet stream.
Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Ricardo Hueso, UPV / Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley / Thierry Fouchet, Observatory of Paris / Leigh Fletcher, University of Leicester / Michael H. Wong, UC Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.
The newly-discovered jet stream travels at about 515 km per hour, twice the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane here on Earth.
It is located around 40 km above the clouds, in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere.
By comparing the winds observed by Webb at high altitudes, to the winds observed at deeper layers from Hubble, the astronomers could measure how fast the winds change with altitude and generate wind shears.
While Webb’s exquisite resolution and wavelength coverage allowed for the detection of small cloud features used to track the jet, the complementary observations from Hubble taken one day after the Webb observations were also crucial to determine the base state of Jupiter’s equatorial atmosphere and observe the development of convective storms in Jupiter’s equator not connected to the jet.
“We knew the different wavelengths of Webb and Hubble would reveal the three-dimensional structure of storm clouds, but we were also able to use the timing of the data to see how rapidly storms develop,” said Dr. Michael Wong, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.
The researchers are looking forward to additional observations of Jupiter with Webb to determine if the jet’s speed and altitude change over time.
“Jupiter has a complicated but repeatable pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, high above the winds in the clouds and hazes measured at these wavelengths,” said Dr. Leigh Fletcher, an astronomer at the University of Leicester.
“If the strength of this new jet is connected to this oscillating stratospheric pattern, we might expect the jet to vary considerably over the next 2 to 4 years — it’ll be really exciting to test this theory in the years to come.”
“It’s amazing to me that, after years of tracking Jupiter’s clouds and winds from numerous observatories, we still have more to learn about Jupiter, and features like this jet can remain hidden from view until these new NIRCam images were taken in 2022.”
R. Hueso et al. An intense narrow equatorial jet in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere observed by JWST. Nat Astron, published online October 19, 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02099-2
Huge alien structures in moon craters, NASA photos, UFO Sighting News.
Huge alien structures in moon craters, NASA photos, UFO Sighting News.
Guys, this is just a sample of what I found today during breakfast. Think about what I can find by lunch time. These structures have a lot of right angles, similar to structures on Earth. They also have some unique colors to them, green, pink, dark blue and dark gold-orange.
This is from a much larger map-like photo and I will make a few videos about it soon. I'm just blown away that NASA didn't discover these structures and edit them out.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Ruins, strange artifacts on other planets, moons, ed ( Fr, EN, NL )
Mysterious UFO sightings over Florida and Colombia
Mysterious UFO sightings over Florida and Colombia
Two compelling UFO sightings have emerged; the first incident unfolds over SRQ Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Florida, where a metallic orb defied explanation and the second sighting, occurring over the skies of Colombia, where a plane passenger while traveling from Bogotá to Salento captured an amazing footage of a spinning flying saucer.
UFO sighting over Florida's SRQ Airport:
The live footage captures a steady, silver orb hovering in the sky, its metallic surface gleaming in the sunlight. The orb maintaining a consistent position, defying the characteristics commonly associated with conventional aircraft.
Some suggest that the object might be a top-secret military aircraft, while others lean towards the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement. The absence of discernible propulsion systems or conventional wings only adds to the mystery, leaving room for various interpretations.
A Spinning Saucer over Colombia:
As if synchronized with the intrigue over SRQ Airport, another astonishing sighting occurred high above the Colombian skies.
A passenger, en route from Bogotá to Salento, managed to capture a video of a spinning flying saucer. The footage, taken from the vantage point of an airplane, depicts the saucer-like object rotating gracefully against the backdrop of clouds and sky. There is much speculation on the origins and intentions of the mysterious craft.
The Florida and Colombia UFO sightings add new chapters to the ongoing saga of mysterious aerial phenomena. Whether these sightings are the result of experimental human-made crafts or encounters with extraterrestrial intelligence, the search for answers continues...
Nan Madol is the only ancient city ever built upon a coral reef. It is comprised of a set of almost 100 stone and coral filled platforms atop artificial islands separated by narrow channels and enclosed by an outer seawall. Nan Madol includes the remains of stone palaces, temples, tombs and residential domains.
Despite the enormity of the undertaking in building the city, no records exist regarding when exactly it was built, where the enormous rocks came from, how they were transported there, and for what reason Nan Madol was constructed on top of a reef .
A Globally Significant Masterpiece of Creative Genius
UNESCO has finally paid attention to the immense historical significance of Nan Madol, a mysterious ancient coral reef city off the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia, by placing it on the World Heritage List. Describing it as a “globally significant masterpiece of creative genius”, Nan Madol is an engineering marvel, but it has not yet given up all its secrets.
Evidence of the early human activity on the islands dates back to the first or second century BC, but it is not known exactly when the construction of the artificial islets started. Theories range from the 5th to the 11th century AD, when it was purportedly built as a ritual and ceremonial center for the ruling chiefs of the Saudeleur Dynasty. UNESCO dates the site at 1200 to 1500 AD.
However, uranium dating techniques completed in 2016 suggest it was built sometime between 1180 and 1200. This date means it is the oldest known monumental scaled burial site on the remote islands of the Pacific.
The Saudeleur dynasty was the first organized government uniting the people of Pohnpei island, ruling from around 1100 to around 1628 AD. However, this era was preceded by the Mwehin Kawa (“period of building”) and Mwehin Aramas (“period of peopling”).
Nan Madol was Originally the Reef of Heaven
The name Nan Madol means “spaces between” and refers to the canals that crisscross the ruins. However, its traditional name was Soun Nan-leng (Reef of Heaven), according to Gene Ashby in his book Pohnpei, An Island Argosy .
The total area of the enclosure is 75 hectares. The foundations of the islets were constructed of huge basalt boulders , on which walled enclosures were built using columnar basalt in a header and stretcher pattern in-filled with coral rubble. Walls were as high as 15 meters (49.21 ft.) and up to 5 meters (16.40 ft.) thick.
The average weight of each stone is 5 tons, with some weighing as much as 50 tons, and it has been estimated that the total weight of the columnar basalt that makes up the city’s construction is up to 750,000 metric tons.
Probable quarry sites around the island have been identified, but the exact origin of the stones used in the construction of Nan Madol is yet to be determined. No quarries exist in the immediate vicinity meaning that the stones must have been transported to their current location. What is even more incredible is that the builders managed to accomplish the task without pulleys, levers, or metal to aid in the process.
Legends of Nan Madol’s Construction
Most Pohnpeians still believe the legend that Nan Madol began with the arrival of twin sorcerers Olisihpa and Olosohpa from the mythical Western Katau. The twins were said to be much taller than native Pohnpeians.
The brothers sought a place to build an altar so that they could worship Nahnisohn Sahpw, the god of agriculture . The two sorcerers successfully built an altar at Nan Madol, where they performed rituals to levitate the huge stones with the aid of a flying dragon. When Olisihpa died of old age, Olosohpa became the first Saudeleur.
Historians and archaeologists have suggested that they huge rocks may have been floated via raft to the islets, however, the exact means of engineering with which the massive stones were moved from their distant quarries, over land and water, and erected on the reef complexes is still unknown.
According to UNESCO, Nan Madol represents a “globally significant masterpiece of creative genius” because it exhibits the most perfectly preserved habitation, leadership, and ceremonial plan of an architectural ensemble of the Pacific region. In a statement published on their website, they write: “The huge scale of the edifices, their technical sophistication and the concentration of megalithic structures bear testimony to complex social and religious practices of the island societies of the period.”
However, it seems that local authorities are not yet ready for the UNESCO status to encourage large-scale international tourism at Nan Madol. Concerns have recently been raised that the site is “more fragile than it appears” and that sustainable tourism is the only real option to preserve the site.
Nan Madol housed the ruling elite caste of Saudeleur dynasty and was used as a political and ceremonial seat of power. As a means of control of their subjects, Saudeleur rulers forced local chieftains to leave their home villages and move to the city where their activities could be more closely observed.
The islets to the northeast, particularly Nan Douwas, were used for rituals and ceremonies, while over time all the seawall islets (nearly 60) functioned as burial places. Other islets were administrative and residential, and some served special purpose, such as food preparation, coconut oil production or canoe construction .
Rule was maintained by one man, the Saudeleur, at Nan Madol. The land, its contents, and its inhabitants were owned by the Saudeleur ruler, who leased the land to landlord classes overseeing commoners harvesting the land. The commoners were required to present the ruler with frequent tributes of fruit and fish.
The logistical difficulties of the site, which involved having no fresh water and no place capable of growing crops, were not a problem for the Saudeleur because the people of the islands brought everything that was needed.
The Saudeleur dynasty ruled the islands for more than a millennium, yet there is nothing left of them but legend and the crumbling black basalt ruins. There is no art, no carvings, and no writing. The only knowledge that remains is that which has been passed down through oral history by the Pohnpeians, who describe the Saudeleurs as deeply religious, tyrannical, and cruel, and the remains of their civilization are often viewed with fear and superstition by modern-day Pohnpeians.
According to local lore, the ultimate downfall of the Saudeleurs was their increasingly oppressive rule and centralized social system. The dynasty was toppled in 1628 by the semi-mythical warrior Isokelekel, who came from the island of Kosrae 530 km (329.33 miles) to the east, creating the modern Nahnmwarki system of tribal chiefdom that has existed in one form or another to this day in the island’s five municipalities.
Saudeleur dynasty tomb (mausoleum) inside walls of Nan Madol.
There is much variation among sources for the exact events before, during, and after the invasion of Nan Madol by Isokelekel; at least 13 different accounts of the war have been published and told by the Pohnpeians. In most versions of the legend, the Saudeleur ruler had become oppressive and its lords had offended the Thunder God revered by the Pohnpeians.
Thus, the Thunder God left Pohnpei for Kosrae, where he impregnated a human by feeding her a lime. This union produced the semi-divine Isokelekel, who in the womb knew his destiny of vengeance.
There are many accounts of Isokelekel’s battle with the Saudeleur ruler. In one version, Isokelekel's warriors are aided by hidden weapons that suddenly appeared. The tide of war reversed several times, but ended against the Saudeleur, who retreated with his army into the main island of Pohnpei.
Legend recounts that the battle ended with the Saudeleur lord retreating uphill to a stream, where he transformed into a fish and remains today. Isokelekel took the title of Nahnmwarki and assumed the seat of power in Nan Madol.
When the period of the Nahnmwarkis began, the new rulers at first resided at Nan Madol, but they could not depend on anyone regularly supplying them with food and water and eventually they moved back to their own districts, abandoning Nan Madol forever.
Since then local legends have arisen saying that the ruins of Nan Madol are haunted, and the site has received the nickname “Ghost city.” The strange tales associated the abandoned city led H.P. Lovecraft to make it the home of Cthulhu in a short story.
By any measure, the city of Nan Madol is impressive. The work required to build it was on such an enormous scale, yet the current inhabitants of Pohnpei live in humble grass huts . What accounts for this huge contrast? More importantly, how was the city built in the first place?
The fact that there are no existing records on Nan Madol means that we may never know the secrets buried within the walls of this unique coral reef city.
Top Image: Nan Madol - archaeological site on the island of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.
Unraveling Nan Madol’s Mind-Blowing ALIEN Mysteries!
Unraveling Nan Madol’s Mind-Blowing ALIEN Mysteries!
Nestled amid the serene waters of the Western Pacific lies one of the world’s most enigmatic archaeological sites: Nan Madol. With its labyrinthine network of canals and artificial islands, the stone city rises majestically from the sea, seemingly defying the very laws of physics with its massive basalt columns. How could an ancient civilization have built such a colossal structure? The legends and mysteries surrounding this site make it a perfect backdrop for an epic tale.
A Sight to Behold
When adventurers David and Georgio first laid eyes on the towering walls of Nan Madol, they were left awestruck. Spread over a vast expanse, this site boasts an estimated 250 million tons of basalt stacked into immense walls and artificial islands. Some of the individual blocks are so huge that they would dwarf a modern-day car. David’s reaction perfectly encapsulates the grandeur of the site: “It boggles the mind… some of these blocks are massive, just massive.”
Many, like David, believe that Nan Madol might predate its officially recorded history. The awe-inspiring complexity of the site suggests a level of engineering and architecture that many think was not possible for the era it is believed to have been built in.
The Legends of Nan Madol
The people of Pohnpei, the island upon which Nan Madol stands, have passed down tales of its creation for generations. The most enduring legend tells of two twin sorcerers, Olopa and Osba, who were foreign to the island. These towering figures, with their vast knowledge and inexplicable powers, are said to have levitated the massive stones into place.
While skeptics might scoff at such tales, one cannot help but draw parallels between the legends of Nan Madol and those of other ancient sites. From the giant statues (Moai) of Easter Island to the mammoth blocks of the Great Pyramid in Giza, stories of levitating stones and otherworldly assistance are a recurring theme.
Extraterrestrial Theories
Given the seemingly impossible feat of constructing Nan Madol, some ancient astronaut theorists, including Georgio, argue that the site may be the handiwork of extraterrestrial beings. They base this theory on oral traditions, like the one that speaks of a “giant bird” – possibly a misunderstood piece of advanced technology – that flew the basalt blocks from their quarry to the construction site.
Such theories gain traction when you consider the baffling fact that around 60% of the basalt used in Nan Madol’s construction cannot be sourced to any known location. Furthermore, a recent revelation suggests that some stones might have been excavated from the top of a nearby volcanic outcrop, Pen Mik. The sheer inaccessibility of this location has led many to wonder how such a feat could have been achieved without advanced technology.
Video:
Ancient Aliens: Decoding the Strange ALIEN Secrets of Nan Madol
The mysteries of Nan Madol, from its awe-inspiring architecture to its enigmatic legends, make it a must-visit for any history or archaeology enthusiast. Whether the site was the result of human ingenuity, extraterrestrial intervention, or a mix of both remains a topic of passionate debate. What is undeniable, however, is the sense of wonder and intrigue that this ancient city evokes in all who lay eyes upon it.
A classified report detailing the Pentagon’s latest findings in its ongoing investigations into unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, has been delivered to Congress, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has revealed.
The 2023 Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena was presented to Congress by the DoD and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, according to a Pentagon press release issued that same evening.
An unclassified version of the report, required by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, as amended by the NDAomaly ResoA for Fiscal Year 2023, was also subsequently made available on the website of the All-domain Anlution Office (AARO), the official office within the DoD tasked with investigations into mysterious aerial incursions and other phenomena encountered by U.S. personnel which currently remain unresolved.
Cover page of the 2023 Annual UAP Report, released on October 18, 2023
(Credit: AARO/DoD).
What follows are several of the key findings detailed in the unclassified version of the 2023 Annual UAP Report released late on Wednesday:
291 NEW REPORTS OF UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA
The latest UAP report primarily documents sightings that occurred between August 31, 2022 and April 30, 2023, with 274 of the reports having occurred during this period, and an additional 17 from previous reporting periods dating as far back as 2019, amounting to a combined total of 291 reports.
As of April 2023, AARO has reportedly been reviewing more than 800 UAP incident reports.
The report, while acknowledging the persistence of a “strong but shifting collection bias,” notes that the abundance of UAP reports AARO has received that occurred within restricted military airspace has been tempered somewhat by reports from commercial pilots which show “a more diverse geographic distribution of UAP sightings across the United States.”
However, even the broadening number of reports from commercial aviators AARO has begun to integrate into its dataset still conveys what the report calls a “U.S.-centric collection bias that will grow significantly relative to the rest of the world.”
NO ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH UAP INCIDENTS
The report says that none of the reports collected between August 2022 and April 2023 indicated U.S. personnel or other witnesses had suffered any adverse health effects resulting from their unexplained encounters.
“ODNI and DoD acknowledge that health-related effects may appear at any time after an event occurs,” the report states, “therefore any reported health implications related to UAP will be tracked and examined if and when they emerge.”
CONCERNING PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS
Some UAP reports involved objects that “potentially exhibited one or more concerning performance characteristics such as high-speed travel or unusual maneuverability,” the report states, raising concerns over possible flight safety issues that may result from UAP encountered by aviators. While acknowledging such safety risks, the report adds that “none of these reports suggest the UAP maneuvered to an unsafe proximity to civil or military aircraft” or posed any other direct threats to any aircraft or their crew and passengers.
NO EVIDENCE LINKING RECENT UAP SIGHTINGS TO FOREIGN ACTORS
The report also states that none of the UAP reports from the period in question have been directly linked to foreign activities by any U.S. adversaries or other state actors.
BETTER DATA IS NEEDED
Insufficient data from various sensors and other collection platforms “can cause observational misperceptions,” the report adds, noting that as better data is collected over time, “most UAP will likely resolve to ordinary phenomena and significantly reduce the amount of UAP case submissions.”
UAP REPORTING IS INCREASING OVERALL
The report states that reports involving unidentified anomalous phenomena are increasing, primarily due to what it characterizes as “deepening federal relationships and AARO’s ability to incorporate new reports into its adjudication and research process.
290 of the most recent batch of reports involved aerial encounters, while just one occurred “in the maritime domain.” There were no space-based UAP sightings during the recent period, nor were there any incidents involving transmedium phenomena that were observed.
AN ABUNDANCE OF SPHERICAL UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA
Among the most common shapes reported in the recent batch of sightings, about a quarter (25%) involve
Earlier this year during an April 2023 Senate hearing, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of the DoD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), said at that time that more than half of all UAP reports collected by his Office involved observations of objects characterized as orbs or otherwise spherical objects with white, silver, or translucent coloration.
“That’s what we’re looking for and trying to understand what that is,” Kirkpatrick said during the hearing, shortly before sharing footage obtained by an MQ-9 Reaper Drone in the Middle East in 2022 where a flying object resembling a metallic sphere could be seen passing through the air.
Diagram displaying common morphologies associated with unidentified anomalous phenomena in reports collected between August 2022 and April 2023 (Credit: AARO/DoD).
While more than half (53%) of all sightings provided no details on the shape of the objects that were encountered, 6% of the incidents involved “irregular shapes,” while 4% involved oval-shaped objects, discs and rectangles each comprised 2% respectively, while cylindrical objects and triangles each comprised 1% respectively. An additional 5% of reports involved what were characterized as “Ambiguous Sensor Contact.”
FEWER UAP DISPLAYED LIGHTS
Of the 291 reports from the recent collection period, less than a quarter (21%) possessed lights, while the vast majority (79%) appeared to possess no lights, or at least none were displayed at the time of the observations.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DATA
Intriguingly, the report also describes the data collection and analysis process as new UAP reports are acquired, noting that “AARO’s analysts scour multiple classified and unclassified databases to identify any existing data on each UAP case,” adding that investigations prioritize “technical sensor information that yields the highest quantity of pertinent, valuable data for review.”
HIGH SPEED TRAVEL AND OTHER ODDITIES
Based on the ongoing analysis of UAP sightings AARO has collected, the report states that “only a very small percentage of UAP reports display interesting signatures, such as high-speed travel and unknown morphologies.” Currently, most of the sightings AARO has collected involve objects that “demonstrate ordinary characteristics of readily explainable sources,” although a lack of data has prevented a large number of cases from being able to be resolved.
Screenshot from a video filmed off the Baja California coast in 2004 depicting unidentified anomalous phenomena famously nicknamed the “Tic Tac” by U.S. Navy personnel who encountered it
(Credit: DoD).
“For the few objects that do demonstrate characteristics of interest,” the report adds, “AARO is approaching these cases with objectivity and analytic rigor.”
SENSOR CALIBRATION TO HELP RULE OUT KNOWN OBJECTS
Known objects, which include balloons, unmanned aircraft systems (UAVs), atmospheric events and other natural phenomena are all being considered in relation to ongoing sensor calibration efforts which are aimed to help rule out such objects or events, and offer future avenues for pilot training and algorithm development.
DECLASSIFICATION OF “FULL-MOTION VIDEOS” AND MORE
Notably, the report states that AARO is “working to standardize and routinize” a declassification process for the release of data and “full-motion videos,” adding that this process had been employed prior the public display of such data during Congressional hearings held earlier this year.
UAP BY AIR, SPACE, AND SEA
Within the report’s Appendix section, a new series of definitions is provided for UAP respective of the domains in which they are observed. These are Spaceborn UAP, defined as “Sources of anomalous detections above the Karman Line (i.e., 100 km above Earth’s mean sea level),” Airborne UAP, which occur “between Earth’s mean sea level and the Karman Line,” and Seaborn UAP, which involve “Sources of anomalous detections at or below Earth’s mean sea level within a body of water.”
Additionally, the report advises that integration between space and maritime domains into AARO’s current analytic efforts would be beneficial, though adding that “Collaboration with Space Force, U.S. Space Command, NRO, and NASA is well underway.”
ONGOING CONTROVERSY OVER UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA
The 2023 annual report arrives amidst widespread public interest in the UAP subject that has ensued since 2017, following a report featured in The New York Times that reinvigorated the debate over mysterious aerial encounters reported by military personnel.
Sandia National Laboratories, one of several U.S. Department of Energy sites where UAP observations have been made in recent years
(Credit: DOE).
“Analyzing and understanding the potential threats posed by UAP is an ongoing collaborative effort involving many departments and agencies,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder in a statement following the release of the unclassified version of the 2023 Annual UAP Report, which appeared on AARO’s official website.
“The safety of our service personnel, our bases and installations, and the protection of U.S. operations security on land, in the skies, seas, and space are paramount.”
“We take reports of incursions into our designated space, land, sea, or airspaces seriously and examine each one,” Ryder added.
There are 14,000 Potentially Hazardous City-Killing Asteroids Left to Find
Everyone likes a cool infographic, right? Does that statement hold even if the infographic points out a gap in our knowledge that could kill millions of people? Because that’s what a cool-looking infographic NASA released on October 16th does.
One of NASA’s more practical tasks is commonly known as “Planetary Defense” – basically, it’s keeping an eye out for asteroids that could potentially hit the Earth and cause widespread devastation. Most people have heard about what happened to dinosaurs. NASA’s planetary defense side wants to ensure it doesn’t happen to us.
That’s easier said than done. Asteroids don’t emit any of their own light, so usually, the only way to detect them is when sunlight reflects off their surface down to one of the various telescopes watching the night sky. Lately, there have been more and more of them that are specially designed to be asteroid hunters.
Fraser discusses how difficult it is to find asteroids
Those new telescopes have been doing work – the infographic points out that, as of the end of August 2023, there are 32,000 known Near-Earth asteroids. The effort to find and track them has been even more impressive – more than 405 million observations from amateur and professional astronomers alike have been submitted to the Minor Planet Center, one of the central hubs of NASA’s planetary defense strategy and a central clearinghouse for asteroid hunters all over the globe.
Now for the disturbing parts – of those 32,000 near-Earth asteroids, more than 10,000 are more than 140 m in diameter. By most common estimates, if one of those were to hit the Earth, it would be capable of wiping out an entire city. In comparison – the asteroid that hit the Chelyabinsk district of Russia back in 2013, shattering windows and injuring almost 1,500 people, was estimated to be at most 20 meters.
An asteroid seven times that size would be much more devastating and likely hit the ground. In contrast, the Chelyabinsk meteor disintegrated in an air burst before it got there. Placed in the right spot, such an asteroid could easily wipe out a city and, depending on where it came down, could potentially kill millions of people.
Finding the dangerous ones is the most important – Fraser discusses how with expert Dr. Ned Wright.
As of now, we aren’t aware of any of those 10,000 140-meter-wide asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth. But another number in the infographic is probably the most terrifying – NASA’s planetary defense experts think we haven’t even found half of the near-Earth asteroids of this size.
They estimate there are more than 14,000 140m diameter asteroids that we have yet to find. And one of those could well be on a collision path. Even more strikingly, they estimate that there are around 50 1km diameter asteroids that we have yet to find floating in the void of space. An asteroid that size could be catastrophic to civilization on a scale far larger than a single city, though still not quite on the scale of the impact that did for the dinosaurs, estimated to be about 10 kilometers in diameter.
The planetary defense community, which includes a slew of other organizations – not just NASA, has a lot more work to do to ensure the safety of humankind if these estimates are correct. But every little bit helps – even infographics that simply convey information can potentially inspire someone to join the hunt. We need all the help we can get.
If There Was Ever Life on Mars, this Ancient Mud Lake is the Perfect Place to Look
This image of Mars shows a region dominated by massive outflows from the planet's Southern Highlands to its Northern Lowlands. All that sediment could hold evidence for ancient life, if scientists look in the right place. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MOLA Science Team
If There Was Ever Life on Mars, this Ancient Mud Lake is the Perfect Place to Look
When it comes to Mars and our ongoing efforts to understand that planet’s ancient habitability, evidence is so far elusive. But scientists have an idea where the evidence is likely hiding: in sediments.
New research shows that an ancient mud lake is a good place to explore.
Where should we search for evidence of life on Mars? It’s not obvious, though regions with plenty of sediments are a good starting point. That’s one of the reasons NASA’s Perseverance rover is in Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient paleolake, where sediment deposits could be one km. deep. But there are many sediment-rich regions. Where else should scientists search to widen their scope?
“The quest for past Martian life hinges on locating surface formations linked to ancient habitability,” the researchers write in their paper.
One region that attracts attention is where massive outflow channels carried material from Mars’ Southern Highlands into its Northern Lowlands, to the east of Valles Marineris. Massive amounts of sediments accumulated in these northern lowlands, and that might suggest that it’s a good place to explore. But the authors of a new paper say that might be a mistake.
Instead of exploring the region where the sediments flowed into, scientists should focus on the source of the sediments.
“Venturing into the northern plains for sampling could prove precarious, as distinguishing between materials sourced from the aquifers and those eroded and transported during channel formation could become an intricate task,” said Rodriguez.
Instead, researchers should focus on the Hydraotes Chaos region, a sub-region of Oxia Palus. Hydraotes Chaos might contain an ancient mud lake in the form of plains, and the sediments there could be hiding evidence of life.
This is the Oxia Palus quadrangle, one of 30 quadrangle maps that the USGS uses. There are massive, ancient outflows in the region which attract scientific attention. But a new study says an area called Hydraotes Chaos, in the yellow box, is a better target because its the source of some of the sediments. The authors suggest this is a promising region to search for evidence of life. Image Credit: USGS
“The plains, situated within Hydraotes Chaos, offer a unique glimpse into ancient aquifer materials. These plains, which we think formed from mud extruding into a basin directly above their source aquifer, provide a more targeted exploration opportunity,” Rodriguez said.
The vast flood channels stretching from the highlands into the lowlands are a region that’s so vast it’s almost impossible to explore. There’s also the complicated task of differentiating between sediments from different sources in the enormous region. The flat basin in Hydraotes Chaos could simplify exploration. “Unlike vast flood channels with their complex erosion patterns, this finding simplifies the examination of Martian aquifers, reducing the risk of overland sedimentary acquisition, and opens a new window into Mars’ geological past,” said Rodriguez.
This basin is more directly connected to Mars’ subsurface, and if the planet was ever habitable, its subsurface would’ve likely remained habitable longer than the surface. When Mars’ magnetic shield failed around four billion years ago, the surface became an inhospitable place. But simple life could’ve persisted underground, in the right conditions.
“Our research focuses on a sedimentary unit within Hydraotes Chaos, which we interpret to be the remnants of a mud lake formed by discharges from gas-charged mudstone stratigraphy dating back to nearly 4 billion years ago, a time when the surface of Mars was likely habitable. These sediments might harbor evidence of life from that or subsequent periods,” said Rodriguez. “It is important to remember that the subsurface of Mars might have included habitability lasting the duration of life’s history on Earth,” added Rodriguez.
This figure from the study shows Hydraotes Chaos (white outline), including the location of the proposed mud lake (black arrow).Image Credit: Rodriguez et al. 2023/NASA.
Mars’ surface and its geology is a puzzle that’s not easy to solve, even though scientists have made progress. Sometimes it involves some deep sleuthing, as in this research. The ancient mud lake isn’t where life persisted, but it’s intricately linked to where it could have existed, if it did at all.
Here’s what the researchers think happened in this region in Mars’ deep past.
The ancient mud lake had a source aquifer of mudstone directly under the lake. Within the mudstone, igneous activity triggered phase segregation, forming vast chambers of mostly liquid water that were several kilometers wide and hundreds of meters in depth. The chaotic nature of Hydraotes Chaos’ terrain suggest there were many of them, and that they were interlinked. Earth has similar features, but nowhere near as large.
This figure from the research shows some of the detail behind the mud lake’s formation. Note the inter-linked chambers underground and how an igneous intrusion helped drive water and sediment into a subsidence basin, which is the mud lake. Image Credit: Rodriguez et al. 2023.
But all that water and sediment didn’t stay in the aquifer.
“Initially, biomolecules could have been dispersed throughout the volume of large groundwater filled cavities.” Rodriguez said. “As the water was released to the surface and ponded, the water went away leaving behind lags of sediments and potentially high concentrations of biomolecules.”
Potentially high concentrations is a good place to start, and NASA has taken note.
“NASA Ames is considering the plains as a possible landing site for a mission to search for evidence of biomarkers, specifically lipids. These biomolecules are extremely resistant and could have endured billions of years on Mars,” co-author Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA Ames Research Center said.
The region holds other interesting features as well, and they’re also pieces of the Martian puzzle. There are widespread mud volcanoes and also diapirs, igneous intrusions of deformable material forced through brittle overlying rock. That gives researchers a glimpse of underground processes and structures without having to dig for them.
This figure from the research shows how what could be mud volcanoes (orange dots) and diapirs (white dots) are widespread. In both of these types of features, sediments could’ve breached the surface. The yellow box highlights the potential landing spot. Image Credit: Rodriguez et al. 2023/NASA.
“In addition, the study region includes widespread mud volcanoes and possible diapirs, providing additional windows into subsurface, potentially habitable rocks,” said co-author Jeffrey Kargel, also from NASA AMES. “A small rover could within short distances sample the mud lake sediments and these materials, dramatically increasing the odds of biosignature detection.”
The region’s age also aligns with Mars exploration goals, and the planet’s history. The plains may be only one billion years old, meaning any biomolecules wouldn’t have been on the surface for three or more billion years like some other regions. That boosts the chances of finding any intact biomolecules, since the surface exposure would degrade them.
“Our crater counts indicate that the plains are relatively recent, returning an age of 1 billion years. This age is good news for our search for life. This age is way younger than the ages of most aquifer releases on Mars, dating back to approximately 3.4 billion years ago. So, the materials spent a huge amount of time in the subsurface.” co-author Berman said.
A small rover could visit many of these features without travelling great distances, and that’s always an attractive idea. The farther a rover needs to travel, the larger, more complicated, and more expensive it usually needs to be. There’s also more risk of failure, breakdown, or other problems.
The ESA’s upcoming Rosalind Franklin rover will land in Oxia Planum sometime after 2028, but it’s landing spot is far from this region. There are currently no plans for a mission to Hydraotes Chaos and the ancient mud lake. But the team has targeted a particular landing site for a potential mission to the region.
This image shows the region inside the yellow box in the image above. It shows the lobate margin forming part of a constant elevation contact, which the authors say is the lake’s inundation periphery. This region is a good landing spot because of its proximity to so many features. Image Credit: Rodriguez et al. 2023/NASA.
Who knows how long or how many missions it’ll take before we find the evidence we’re looking for. Maybe we never will. But as long as we keep looking, there’s a chance. The better we understand the planet as a whole, the more we know where to look. This work points out what could be a prime location for exploration, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The Combination of Oxygen and Methane Could Reveal the Presence of Life on Another World
This artist’s impression shows the planet orbiting the Sun-like star HD 85512 in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail). This planet is one of sixteen super-Earths discovered by the HARPS instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. This planet is about 3.6 times as massive as the Earth lis at the edge of the habitable zone around the star, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, could potentially exist. Credit: ESO
The Combination of Oxygen and Methane Could Reveal the Presence of Life on Another World
In searching for life in the Universe, a field known as astrobiology, scientists rely on Earth as a template for biological and evolutionary processes. This includes searching for Earth analogs, rocky planets that orbit within their parent star’s habitable zone (HZ) and have atmospheres composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. However, Earth’s atmosphere has evolved considerably over time from a toxic plume of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and traces of volcanic gas. Over time, the emergence of photosynthetic organisms caused a transition, leading to the atmosphere we see today.
The last 500 million years, known as the Phanerozoic Eon, have been particularly significant for the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere and terrestrial species. This period saw a significant rise in oxygen content and the emergence of animals, dinosaurs, and embryophyta (land plants). Unfortunately, the resulting transmission spectra are missing in our search for signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres. To address this gap, a team of Cornell researchers created a simulation of the atmosphere during the Phanerozoic Eon, which could have significant implications in the search for life on extrasolar planets.
The research was led by Rebecca Payne and Lisa Kaltenegger, a research associate and assistant professor with the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University (respectively). The paper that describes their findings, “Oxygen Bounty for Earth-like exoplanets: Spectra of Earth through the Phanerozoic,” recently appeared in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. They have made the full model and high-resolution spectra available online, which provide a tool to plan, optimize, and interpret observations with ground- and space-based telescopes.
The study of exoplanets is currently experiencing a transition. With 5,528 exoplanets confirmed to date, and another 9,899 candidates awaiting confirmation, the process has been moving from discovery to characterization. This transition has benefitted from next-generation ground and space-based telescopes capable of obtaining spectra directly from exoplanet atmospheres. This is a process where light is analyzed using spectrometers to identify absorption features that correspond to different chemical compounds, thus revealing vital data about the composition of an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
This can be done using the Direct Imaging method, where astronomers examine light reflected from a planet’s atmosphere (or surface). Another method involves obtaining “transmission spectra,” where astronomers analyze light passing through an exoplanet’s atmosphere as it passes in front of its star relative to the observer (transits). Thanks to observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers can finally obtain transmission spectra from smaller rocky planets that orbit closer to their suns – where potentially habitable, Earth-like planets are believed to reside. As Prof. Kaltenegger told Universe Today via email:
“To date, we know of about 35 rocky exoplanets circling in the habitable zones of their stars. While at the edge of technical capability for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, analyzing the atmosphere of some of these exoplanets is now a possibility. But scientists need to know what to look for. Our models identify planets like a Phanerozoic Earth as really promising targets to find life in the cosmos, of course, that life by no means would have to be dinosaurs.”
Despite the plethora of exoplanets that have been discovered and characterized, there is a shortage of Earth analogs whose atmospheres are in various phases of evolution. This is particularly true of the Phanerozoic Eon, the current and the latest of the four geologic eons preceded by the Proterozoic, Archaen, and Hadeon Eons. This period was particularly important for the evolution of terrestrial lifeforms because of the many crucial developments that took place throughout. This includes the Cambrian Explosion, characterized by the appearance of most modern animal species in the fossil record.
The Pleistocene of Northern Spain showing woolly mammoths, cave lions eating reindeer, tarpans, and woolly rhinoceros. Credit: Wikipedia Commons/Mauricio Antón
It also included the Devonian, where countless aquatic species adapted to dry land; the Triassic and Jurassic, which began and ended with major extinction events (the Permian–Triassic and the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event extinction events, respectively); the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the extinction of the dinosaurs; and the Neogene, where mammals and birds continued to evolve into modern forms, and the first modern humans appeared in the geological record. To predict what the atmosphere of this Eon would look like, said Kaltenegger, they created a model that combined established models with new atmospheric simulations:
“Our models simulated the transmission spectra generated by a planet with an atmosphere crossing our line of sight to its star, a transit. The planet’s atmosphere absorbs some of the colors of the starlight but lets others filter through, creating a ‘light fingerprint’ that scientists use to determine the atmosphere’s composition and whether there are signs of life in that atmosphere. Using estimates from two established climate models (called GEOCARB and COPSE), Rebecca Payne simulated Earth’s atmospheric composition and resulting transmission spectra over five 100-million-year increments of the Phanerozoic, the epoch when the biosphere diversified and forests became widespread, changing the mix of oxygen and other gasses in the air.”
Key to their simulations was the oxygen content of the atmosphere, which rose from about 10% at the beginning of the Phanerozoic (the Cambrian period) to 35% by the end (the Neogene). The resulting higher oxygen levels, they state, were arguably a prerequisite for the evolution of complex life – including the dinosaurs, mammals, and hominids (eventually leading to modern humans). Regardless, the “light fingerprint” their simulation produced would stand out even more than that of modern-day Earth because of the higher oxygen content.
“Analyzing the most recent 540 million years of Earth’s evolution, the Phanerozoic Eon, we found that chemical signatures of life in the atmosphere of an Earth-like exoplanet are more pronounced than for modern Earth,” said Kaltenegger. “During the Phanerozoic – that includes the time of the dinosaurs (245-66 Mio years ago), two key biosignature pairs – oxygen and methane, and ozone and methane – appeared stronger about 300 Million years ago, when oxygen levels were significantly higher.”
This artistic conception illustrates large asteroids penetrating Earth’s oxygen-poor atmosphere. Credit: SwRI/Dan Durda/Simone Marchi
This research is bolstered by another recent study led by a team from Dartmouth College (on which Kaltenegger was a co-author). In their paper, which recently appeared in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (“An Information Theory Approach to Identifying Signs of Life on Transiting Planets“), the team described how they simulated a range of transmission spectra to create an algorithm for identifying potential biosignatures on Earth-analogs. They tested this algorithm on three epochs of atmospheric evolution for Earth-like planets orbiting a range of host stars.
The resulting diagnostic tool, they said, can be applied to future observations to constrain planetary habitability. This research and the model created by Payne and Kaltenegger could have drastic implications for astrobiology by providing a template for finding planets in various stages of habitability. As Kaltenegger summarized:
“So for identifying potentially habitable worlds, there was a time when this fingerprint of life was even more pronounced than now – and it was during the reign of the dinosaurs. Thus, even though finding life in the cosmos is incredibly hard, it just might have gotten a little bit easier than we thought. Jurrasic worlds – with their large, complex life – might just give us the chance to find it a tiny bit easier. And who knows, maybe we get lucky, and there are other dinosaurs waiting to be found.”
Thinking About Time Travel Helps Solve Problems in Physics
Physicists have shown that simulating models of hypothetical time travel can solve experimental problems that appear impossible to solve using standard physics. Credit: Yaroslav Kushta via Getty Images
Thinking About Time Travel Helps Solve Problems in Physics
Time travel. We’ve all thought about it at one time or another, and the subject has been explored extensively in science fiction. Once in a while, it is even the subject of scientific research, typically involving quantum mechanics and how the Universe’s four fundamental forces (electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear forces, and gravity) fit together. In a recent experiment, researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that by manipulating quantum entanglements, they could simulate what could happen if the flow of time were reversed.
In the realm of quantum theory, entanglement describes when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share proximity in such a way that their quantum states become identical. As physicists have observed for over a century, these particles will remain in this state long after, even though they may become separated by vast distances (what Einstein referred to as “spooky action at a distance.”) This is the basis of quantum computing, where entangled particles are used to perform computations that are too complex for classical computers.
Illustration depicting quantum entanglement between particles. Credit: ATLAS Experiment
Whether or not particles can travel backward in time has also been the subject of considerable debate among physicists. While physicists have previously simulated models of how such “time travel” might occur, the Cambridge team took a new approach by connecting their theory to quantum metrology, which uses quantum theory to make highly sensitive measurements. As a result, the Cambridge team showed that entanglement can solve problems that otherwise seem impossible. Said lead author Arvidsson-Shukur in a Cambridge press release:
“Imagine that you want to send a gift to someone: you need to send it on day one to make sure it arrives on day three. However, you only receive that person’s wish list on day two. So, in this chronology-respecting scenario, it’s impossible for you to know in advance what they will want as a gift and to make sure you send the right one. Now imagine you can change what you send on day one with the information from the wish list received on day two. Our simulation uses quantum entanglement manipulation to show how you could retroactively change your previous actions to ensure the final outcome is the one you want.”
In their experiment, the team entangled two particles. The first was sent to be used in the experiment, while the second was maintained separately. The experiment then manipulated the second particle to effectively alter the first particle’s past state, changing the experiment’s outcome. To demonstrate the potential relevance of their experiment to quantum computing and other technologies, the team incorporated quantum metrology. In traditional metrology experiments, photons are prepared before being introduced onto a sample and then registered with a special camera.
Their results showed that the team can use time travel simulations to retroactively change the original photons, even if they only learn how to prepare the photons after reaching the sample. However, the team also noted that this effect was only observable in one out of four experimental runs, meaning the simulation has a 75% chance of failure. The theorists propose sending many entangled photons to counteract the high chance of failure, knowing that some will eventually carry the updated information.
This illustration shows the “arrow of time” from the Big Bang to the present cosmological epoch. Credit: NASA
They also recommend using a filter to remove the “uncorrected” photons while the updated photons pass to the camera. At best, said Arvidsson-Shuku, the experiment will produce the desired results a quarter of the time, which is tantamount to getting the desired “gift” one in four times. Moreover, if the “gifts” are inexpensive, many can be sent over extended periods, eventually leading to a statistically significant number of desirable outcomes. Of course, Arvidsson-Shuku and his colleagues stress that this is not “time travel” in the traditional sense:
“That we need to use a filter to make our experiment work is actually pretty reassuring. The world would be very strange if our time-travel simulation worked every time. Relativity and all the theories that we are building our understanding of our universe on would be out of the window. We are not proposing a time travel machine but rather a deep dive into the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. These simulations do not allow you to go back and alter your past, but they do allow you to create a better tomorrow by fixing yesterday’s problems today.”
The team’s research was supported by the Sweden-America Foundation, the Lars Hierta Memorial Foundation, Girton College, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
UFO expert Jeremy Corbell, accompanied by investigative journalist George Knapp, released a groundbreaking episode of “Weaponized,” featuring Dr. James Lacatski and Dr. Colm Kelleher. The episode revealed insider information that had never been shared before. Dr. Lacatski and Dr. Kelleher played pivotal roles in the operation of a UFO program funded by the US government for five years, with a total budget of $22 million.
Dr. James Lacatski is a retired DIA intelligence officer who set up the UFO program that ran from 2008 to 2010. In the early 2000s, he headed up the DIA annual missile threat assessment. He originally started the research out of concern that UFOs could pose a national security threat, specifically to U.S. missile defense systems. In the interview, he says the United States Government is in possession of a UFO and has accessed the inside of it.
In the interview, while addressing the events mentioned in the newly launched book “Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program Initial Revelations,” Dr. Lacatski clarified the differences between AAWSAP and AATIP. He stated that AAWSAP (Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program) was created in collaboration with Senator Harry Reid at the DIA, with a budget of $22 million and the capacity to run for five years, though they completed their objectives in two years.
He further explains that the name AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) was not created by him but was chosen for a specific reason, which he did not disclose. The need for a different name arose from a document that indicated DIA’s receipt of funding, with “secret” written next to the program name. To avoid potential security concerns, a different name was necessary. It is implied that AAWSAP was the original name, and someone in Congress may have designated it as AATIP.
Dr. Lacatski discussed some of the intriguing aspects of UFO cases and their various designs. He mentions how some cases involved people reporting seeing the same UFO decades apart, which raises questions about time and the nature of these sightings.
Knapp brings up a particularly important revelation in the book regarding a craft of unknown origin that the government accessed the inside of. Dr. Lacatski confirms that the book contains an exact statement of the event that occurred within a congressional facility. However, he could not provide further details due to security concerns. He clarified that the DOD reviewed the book for release, and the wording was approved.
UFO & Its Inside
In Chapter 9 of the book, Dr. Lacatski reveals that the United States government possesses a craft of unknown origin and has successfully accessed its interior. This craft has a streamlined configuration suitable for aerodynamic flight but lacks conventional features like an engine, wings, intakes, exhaust, or fuel tanks.
Corbell presses for further confirmation, asking Dr. Lacatski if the government indeed has a UFO in its possession and has been reverse-engineering it, to which Dr. Lacatski affirms, “Yes.”
Knapp follows up with a question about the nature of this object, asking how they know it is a craft and not just a doorstop. Dr. Lacatski hints that there is more to the discussion that day, but they cannot delve into those details. However, he does mention that it is described in the book as looking “primitive.”
Corbell questions why this topic is considered delicate, given that the United States government possesses a UFO and has been reverse engineering it. Dr. Lacatski explains that the sensitivity arises from the presence of adversaries and competitors who may be monitoring the information. He emphasizes that the government cannot say more than what they have been approved to share due to security concerns.
In fact, Lacatski asserted that there is no reason for humanity to fear potential non-human intelligence, provided that the human species discovers its full capabilities, stating: “If full human capabilities were known to us right now, it is not something that we need to fear.”He added: “Our capabilities have never been fully revealed. And we’re still learning; we’ve got a long way to evolve still.”
Dr. Lacatski then shifts the focus to the questions raised in his previous books, particularly “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders’ Account of the Secret Government UFO Program.” He points out that they have posed questions about why the program was started, why it ended, and certain unexplained meetings with high-level officials from other countries. He suggests that reading between the lines is crucial but warns that there may be multiple answers or no clear-cut bottom line.
“So the thing is, we can’t say anything more than what we’ve been approved to say, and there’s insight to this. But I want to shift it just slightly, but it shows my point: Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders’ Account of the Secret Government UFO Program, if I might use the shorter title on this new book, has what I would call zingers in it. But it has some interesting doors that have not even been mentioned. One, why was this program started? Two, why was this program ended? And we’ve raised this partially, and Skin Walkers at the Pentagon, did it end? Also, we had a chapter in Skin Walkers at the Pentagon where we met with a high-level Brazilian official at a meeting started introducing some of our cohorts, and no one ever asked us, why did you have that meeting? What was so important about that meeting? You know, there’s a lot of material in there that, as Kit Green, Dr. Kit Green, one of our consultants on the asset program, said, ‘Read between the lines.’ That applies both to Skin Walkers at the Pentagon and Initial Revelations. Read between the lines. Now, you may come to the wrong conclusions, and I can tell you, on the topics I just read to you, you don’t have enough information to come to the correct answers
David Grusch is credible but there are forged documents
Corbell brings up the fact that former US intelligence officer David Grush testified before Congress, and many were hoping that Dr. Lacatski would testify as well. Dr. Lacatski responds that he does not know Mr. Grush and has never met him. When asked about the credibility of Grush’s claims, Dr. Lacatski refrains from making any definitive statements but mentions that he personally did not witness any illegal activities during his time in the program. He acknowledges that Grush’s claims are reasonable but does not confirm or dispute them.
Corbell probes further about Grush’s claims, particularly regarding UFOs and reverse engineering. Dr. Lacatski responds that he cannot provide any additional information on certain topics, including biological aspects, due to security reasons. “I can’t answer…no, that goes back to something that occurred, a similar question, very similar to your question. It wasn’t asked by you, but it was asked to Colm, and he said, ‘We found no smoking gun. That is the standard answer we’re to give,” Dr. Lacatski says.
Corbell expresses his curiosity about the reasons behind the secrecy and alludes to a sense of suspicion among the public. He speculates whether the reasons for withholding certain information might be dark or disturbing.
Dr. Lacatski replies, “If you want my opinion on that, I see no darkness at all here. Basically, there were some considerable write-ups on the skinwalker at the Pentagon that our program was stopped due to religious concerns from the far right. Well, if there were, I knew nothing about that. I saw no evidence of that being true. But people can say whatever they want on the internet, apparently. And that was not, that was not—I did not witness any of that. And I think that that’s come up in some of these Congressional hearings.”
Corbell asks if David Grush’s information is considered credible by Dr. Lacatski, to which he responds, “I do,” implying that the information is credible. Dr. Lacatski mentions that Grush worked with someone he knows and trusts in the UAP Task Force, indicating that there’s a level of trust in the source. However, he brings up the phenomenon where individuals can genuinely believe in and talk about things that are factually incorrect.
Corbell emphasizes that Grush has talked about tangible and physical aspects, such as program names and the locations of UFOs, along with the involvement of individuals who worked on these “Legacy UFO programs.” Dr. Lacatski confirms the existence of Legacy UFO programs and mentions the presence of forged documents.
Dr. Lacatski mentions that AAWSAP has also faced similar challenges, with certain documents being misrepresented as genuine. He highlights the closed and secretive nature of AAWSAP, comparing it to the way SAPs (Special Access Programs) operate. Only a select few within the program were aware of its existence, and it was structured to limit exposure to external influences and political inquiries.
He points out that the documents that have emerged over time as forgeries have no official endorsement or validation. It is not clear why these forgeries were created, and Dr. Lacatski suggests that if they were part of a Counter Intelligence effort, it might not have been very effective. He emphasizes that their work is based on real, verifiable references.
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Area 51’s Hidden Mysteries UNVEILED: Dive into Bob Lazar’s Extraterrestrial Odyssey!
Area 51’s Hidden Mysteries UNVEILED: Dive into Bob Lazar’s Extraterrestrial Odyssey!
In the world of ufology, few names resonate as loudly as Bob Lazar’s. From claims of working on reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology at Area 51‘s S4 base to revealing government secrets, Lazar has been a figure of fascination and controversy for decades. Now, an ambitious project aims to bring his stories to life through the immersive power of virtual reality.
Introducing Project Gravur: a unique endeavor led by Luigi Vatelli and his dedicated team. Their goal? To reconstruct Lazar’s experience at the S4 base, allowing users to walk in Bob’s shoes, so to speak.
Delving deep into this project, one uncovers the meticulous care that the Gravur team has taken. The representation is not just about the infamous sports model UFO that Lazar spoke of, but the entirety of S4—from hallways to briefing rooms and beyond. A standout feature is the recreation of the “sports model” craft. With exacting precision and attention to detail, Vatelli’s team has constructed a lifelike simulation, guided by Lazar’s own descriptions.
The project isn’t just about sights; it’s also about emotion. The aim is to humanize Bob Lazar’s story. To help users understand the thrill, curiosity, and trepidation Lazar might have felt in those hidden hallways, staring at a craft from another world.
One delightful tidbit reveals a fun aspect of the simulation. There’s a virtual death ray, inspired by one in Lazar’s Oregon lab, that can “burn a hole through anything.” While it adds a touch of levity, it also symbolizes the impressive technological feats Lazar has achieved beyond his time at S4.
Bob Lazar‘s journey with this project has been deep and collaborative. Vatelli speaks of a mutual respect and trust between them. The entire team, once skeptical, has grown to appreciate Lazar not just for his stories but as a genuine, down-to-earth individual.
Video:
S4-AREA 51 SECRETS EXPOSED: Recreating Bob Lazar’s Alien Tech Journey | The Richard Dolan Show
Scheduled for an early 2024 release, this immersive VR experience promises to be a groundbreaking addition to the realm of ufology and beyond. The film treatment, “Lazar: The Original Whistleblower,” will precede the VR project. Viewers can first understand Bob’s narrative and then virtually “become” Bob, exploring the S4 base on their own.
In an age where technology constantly evolves, the marriage of Lazar’s revelations with cutting-edge VR innovation might just be the next big step in understanding the mysteries of our universe.
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18-10-2023
UAP Over Sarasota Airport, Florida Oct 16, 2023, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UAP Over Sarasota Airport, Florida Oct 16, 2023, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Oct 16, 2023
Location of sighting: Sarasota, Florida, USA
Source: MUFON
Guys, this UFO is very similar to shape, color and movement to recently government released UFO videos. This object was seen over the airport which must have gotten on radar screens, but did it delay any flights? This craft is awesome, the shape is oval and about the size of a car. Breathtaking catch. Also it's compounded by the fact it's near the ocean, just a few miles away. Most alien bases on Earth are under the ocean floor, since 75% of this planet is covered it water, its just logical aliens would choose ocean floors to avoid detection and interactions with humans.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
I was at SRQ airport waiting for my flight inside the terminal and I saw this silver orb outside. Thought it was a balloon at first but it didn’t behave like one. It stayed at the same elevation/altitude the entire time. It was so steady in its flight there was no way it could have been a Mylar balloon that would have reflected light in that way.
The mysterious 'Fiji mermaid' examined by NKU students
The mysterious 'Fiji mermaid' examined by NKU students
The Fiji Mermaid, a mysterious creature housed in an Ohio museum for over a century, recently underwent examination by radiology students from Northern Kentucky University.
The creature, a 3 feet long mummified, black-looking diminutive specimen was discovered with it's mouth open, its tail turned over, and its arms thrown up, giving it the appearance of having died in great agony, reportedly donated to Ohio's Clark County Historical Society in 1906 by a Navy sailor who obtained it in Japan, intrigued the students.
The peculiar creature, featuring a human-like head and a fish's body, prompted the university's radiology department to employ CT scans and X-rays to unravel its construction.
Contrary to initial expectations of a combination of a monkey and a fish, the scans revealed additional amphibious features, especially towards the hands. The university plans to share the scan results with experts at the Cincinnati Zoo and Newport Aquarium to identify the specific animals involved in creating this enigmatic creature.
Tegenwoordig is het probleem van afval in de ruimte een nachtmerrie geworden voor astronauten en ruimtevaartexploitanten. De hoeveelheid puin in de ruimte is de afgelopen zestig jaar gestaag toegenomen, omdat steeds meer satellieten in een baan om de aarde zijn gebracht en talloze raketten zijn getest. In 2009 kwamen twee werkende satellieten met elkaar in botsing, waardoor tonnen nieuw ruimteafval met een ongelooflijke snelheid in een baan om de aarde terechtkwamen. Dit soort gebeurtenissen creëert een vicieuze cirkel: elke keer dat er puin botst, wordt er steeds meer afval geproduceerd. Iedereen die betrokken is bij de verovering van de ruimte is nu gedwongen de afvalwolken voortdurend in de gaten te houden en in geval van nood hun werkende satellieten om te leiden. Maar veel satellieten zijn ‘vergeten’ en zullen onvermijdelijk botsingen veroorzaken. Momenteel zijn alle pogingen om dit puin te minimaliseren of te vermijden ontoereikend en kunnen zware gevolgen hebben voor onze satellieten en andere activiteiten op aarde. Het wordt hoog tijd dat we onze ruimterommel opruimen!
Regie: Bertrand Loyer
Unexplained Discoveries That Could Rewrite History
Classic Flying Saucer Shaped UFO Sigthed During A Commercial Flight Over Colombia.
This footage was taken about two weeks ago while the witness was traveling from Bogotá to Salento in Colombia. The footage was posted to the Spanish Internet forum "Forocoches". In the footage we can see this flying saucer just fly without a care in the world and not afraid to be seen but what could this object be???
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How far does the Milky Way REALLY extend? Discoveries at the Edge of Our Galaxy | Space Documentary
Have you ever imagined what lies at the edge of our galaxy?
The Milky Way has captivated human eyes since the dawn of time. It remains magnificent and fascinating on a dark night, whether you're in the middle of the desert or on top of a mountain. On beautiful summer nights, devoid of light pollution, we can follow its path through the celestial vault without even needing an observation instrument. It forms a wispy band around the entire sky. In this band, over 200 billion stars are gathered together. Of these, around 6,000 are detectable without binoculars or telescopes
We've known since the 20th century that the Milky Way is our galaxy. This immense disk of stars is made up of a very luminous, compact central region, known as the bulge, and smaller spiral arms. The Milky Way has an estimated diameter of 100,000 light-years and a thickness of over 1,000 light-years. Since the 1990s, astronomers have discovered that our galaxy is not simply a spiral galaxy, but a barred spiral galaxy. It has a short bar of stars on either side of the central bulge. The Milky Way is home to the solar system, and thus to the Earth. It is part of the Local Group itself attached to the Virgo supercluster belonging to Laniakea.
Most Powerful Planetary Collision Ever Seen Detected In Our Galaxy
James Webb Telescope Just Intercepted A Mysterious Object No One Can Explain
About six months after the James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space, it intercepted a mysterious object no one can explain. The telescope spotted four most distant galaxies, which happened to be the oldest about 13.4 billion years ago. The cosmos was just 350 million years old at the time, or roughly 2% of its present age. What is this mysterious object, and how important is it to space exploration and research? What other mysteries are out there in space waiting to be uncovered by James Webb and space probes?
Orbiting Mars, We Discovered Another Ship. It's Not Human, And It's Not Empty | Sci-Fi Creepypasta
Amazing UFO video – Flying saucer filmed from a plane over Colombia 2 weeks ago
Amazing UFO video – Flying saucer filmed from a plane over Colombia 2 weeks ago
UFO Sighting Caught on Camera: Bogotá to Salento Flight Reveals Stunning Saucer!
In the vast realm of UFO sightings, every once in a while, a video emerges that sends chills down the spines of even the most skeptical observers. Early this October 2023, such a video surfaced, taken by a passenger aboard a commercial airliner journeying from Bogotá to Salento in Colombia.
The Encounter
While it’s not uncommon for plane passengers to capture breathtaking views of the clouds or the sunset, capturing a potential UFO is definitely not on the usual itinerary. The footage, described as both “clear” and “crisp,” depicts what many might call a classic flying saucer, making its way through the vast blue sky.
The object’s distance from the plane or its size is hard to pinpoint. However, its distinctive shape and appearance are unmissable. At first glance, one might mistake it for a stray balloon, peacefully floating and adrift in the wind. But as you continue to observe, the object seemingly spins on its axis – a behavior often attributed to many Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).
Mysteries Remain
The conversations and reactions of the passengers onboard remain a mystery, as the video doesn’t provide clarity on their sentiments. Yet, one can’t help but wonder: Was this UFO moving with purpose, or was it just gracefully floating, allowing the plane and its passengers a fleeting glimpse into the unknown?
A Must-Watch
For those intrigued by mysteries of the skies, the video is a must-watch, especially with its stabilised version, which provides an even clearer view of this remarkable sighting. Whether you’re a believer in extraterrestrial encounters or just someone with a penchant for the unexplained, this footage from the skies above Colombia will undoubtedly pique your curiosity.
As we continue to search for answers in the vastness of the universe, one thing is certain: UFO sightings, like the one captured on this Bogotá to Salento flight, remind us that the skies are full of wonders waiting to be explored.
Interested in more intriguing UFO sightings? Dive deeper into our collection of similar UFO videos at our Youtube channel and stay updated with the latest unexplained phenomen.
Florida: UFO Over SRQ Airport? Shocking Daytime Sighting of Metallic Orb
Florida: UFO Over SRQ Airport? Shocking Daytime Sighting of Metallic Orb
Florida, 16th October 2023 – UFO sightings have always captured the imagination of enthusiasts and skeptics alike. Yesterday, the skies above SRQ Sarasota Bradenton International Airport bore witness to a curious phenomenon: a metallic orb, steadily hovering in broad daylight.
Check the video bellow here to view the remarkable footage.
As the afternoon sun shimmered over the horizon, travelers inside the airport terminal busied themselves, awaiting their respective flights. Among them was an observant traveler who couldn’t help but notice something out of the ordinary through the vast terminal windows.
“I was at SRQ airport waiting for my flight inside the terminal and I saw this silver orb outside,” the witness reported. At first glance, one could mistake it for a shiny balloon lost in the vast blue yonder. Yet, upon closer observation, it became evident that this was no ordinary object.
“Thought it was a balloon at first but it didn’t behave like one,” the witness added. The peculiar orb maintained its altitude with a precision not associated with conventional airborne objects like balloons. Even if it was a Mylar balloon, the reflection it cast was unusually consistent and steady.
Given the proximity of the sighting to the airport and its flight pattern, questions are abound. Was it a drone? A novel type of aircraft? Or perhaps something more mysterious?
UFO enthusiasts and researchers will undoubtedly pore over the video footage, analyzing its every detail, trying to decipher what it could possibly be. As with most UFO sightings, definitive answers might be elusive, but the intrigue and fascination will endure.
For those lucky enough to witness such events, or for anyone with an interest in the unexplained, the skies above Florida seem to hold more mysteries than ever before. With this recent sighting added to the ever-growing list of UFO encounters, one thing’s for sure: the search for answers continues.
Have you had any recent UFO sightings or encounters? Share your experiences and join the global community in the quest for understanding the unknown.
The Big Bang Theory explains how the universe began.
The Big Bang Theory explains how the universe began 13.7 billion years ago.
(Image credit: RomoloTavani via Getty Images)
The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation for howbegan. Simply put, it says the universe as we know it started with an infinitely hot and dense single point that inflated and stretched — first at unimaginable speeds, and then at a more measurable rate — over the next 13.7 billion years to the still-expanding cosmos that we know today.
Existing technology doesn't yet allow astronomers to literally peer back at the universe's birth, much of what we understand about the Big Bang comes from mathematical formulas and models. Astronomers can, however, see the "echo" of the expansion through a phenomenon known as the cosmic microwave background.
While the majority of the astronomical community accepts the theory, there are some theorists who have alternative explanations besides the Big Bang — such as eternal inflation or an oscillating universe.
Around 13.7 billion years ago, everything in the entire universe was condensed in an infinitesimally small singularity, a point of infinite denseness and heat.
Suddenly, an explosive expansion began, ballooning our universe outwards faster than the speed of light. This was a period of cosmic inflation that lasted mere fractions of a second — about 10^-32 of a second, according to physicist Alan Guth’s 1980 theory that changed the way we think about the Big Bang forever.
When cosmic inflation came to a sudden and still-mysterious end, the more classic descriptions of the Big Bang took hold. A flood of matter and radiation, known as "reheating," began populating our universe with the stuff we know today: particles, atoms, the stuff that would become stars and galaxies and so on.
Hubble images show the far-distant galaxy GN-z11 as it appeared shortly after the Big Bang. (Image credit: NASA)
This all happened within just the first second after the universe began, when the temperature of everything was still insanely hot, at about 10 billion degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 billion Celsius), according to NASA. The cosmos now contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons and protons — the raw materials that would become the building blocks for everything that exists today.
This early "soup" would have been impossible to actually see because it couldn't hold visible light. "The free electrons would have caused light (photons) to scatter the way sunlight scatters from the water droplets in clouds," NASA stated. Over time, however, these free electrons met up with nuclei and created neutral atoms or atoms with equal positive and negative electric charges.
This allowed light to finally shine through, about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
Sometimes called the "afterglow" of the Big Bang, this light is more properly known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It was first predicted by Ralph Alpher and other scientists in 1948 but was found only by accident almost 20 years later.
A map of the background radiation left over from the Big Bang, taken by the ESA's Planck spacecraft, captured the oldest light in the universe. This information helps astronomers determine the age of the universe. (Image credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration, CC BY-SA)
This accidental discovery happened when Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, both of Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey, were building a radio receiver in 1965 and picked up higher-than-expected temperatures, according to a NASA article. At first, they thought the anomaly was due to pigeons trying to roost inside the antenna and their waste, but they cleaned up the mess and killed the pigeons and the anomaly persisted.
Simultaneously, a Princeton University team led by Robert Dicke was trying to find evidence of the CMB and realized that Penzias and Wilson had stumbled upon it with their strange observations. The two groups each published papers in the Astrophysical Journal in 1965.
BIG BANG THEORY FAQS ANSWERED BY AN EXPERT
We asked Jason Steffens, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a few frequently asked questions about the Big Bang Theory.
Jason Steffens
Jason Steffens is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Has the Big Bang Theory been proven?
This isn't really a statement that we can make in general. The best we can do is say that there is strong evidence for the Big Bang Theory and that every test we throw at it comes back in support of the theory. Mathematicians prove things, but scientists can only say that the evidence supports a theory with some degree of confidence that is always less than 100%.
So, a short answer to a slightly different question is that all of the observational evidence that we've gathered is consistent with the predictions of the Big Bang Theory. The three most important observations are:
The Hubble Law shows that distant objects are receding from us at a rate proportional to their distance — which occurs when there is uniform expansion in all directions. This implies a history where everything was closer together.
The properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). This shows that the universe went through a transition from an ionized gas (a plasma) and a neutral gas. Such a transition implies a hot, dense early universe that cooled as it expanded. This transition happened after about 400,000 years following the Big Bang.
The relative abundances of light elements (He-4, He-3, Li-7, and Deuterium). These were formed during the era of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. Their abundances show that the universe was really hot and really dense in the past (as opposed to the conditions when the CMB was formed, which was just regular hot and dense — there's about a factor of a million difference in temperature between when BBN occurred and when the CMB occurred).
Is there any occurrence that contradicts the Big Bang Theory?
Not that I know of. There are some issues that arise with the simplest model of the Big Bang, but those can be resolved by invoking a physical process that is still consistent with the basic premise of the Big Bang Theory. Specifically, the fact that the CMB temperature is the same everywhere, that the universe does not appear to have any curvature, and that density fluctuations from quantum mechanical predictions do not produce galaxy clusters of the right size and shape today. These three issues are resolved with the theory of inflation — which is part of the broader Big Bang Theory.
When was the Big Bang Theory established?
Who came up with the idea?
Hubble was really the person who set up the observations. Evidence continued to mount, especially in the 1970s with the detection of the CMB. The term "Big Bang" was first used in the late 1940s by the astronomer Fred Hoyle — eventually, it caught on in the 1970s.
MODELLING THE BIG BANG
Because we can't see it directly, scientists have been trying to figure out how to "see" the Big Bang through other measures. In one case, cosmologists are pressing rewind to reach the first instant after the Big Bang by simulating 4,000 versions of the current universe on a massive supercomputer.
"We are trying to do something like guessing a baby photo of our universe from the latest picture," study leader Masato Shirasaki, a cosmologist at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), told our sister website Live Science.
With what is known about the universe today, the researchers in this 2021 study compared their understanding of how gravitational forces interacted in the primordial universe with their thousands of computer-modeled universes. If they could predict the starting conditions of their virtual universes, they hoped to be able to accurately predict what our own universe may have looked like back at the beginning.
Other researchers have chosen different paths to interrogate our universe's beginnings.
In a 2020 study, researchers did so by investigating the split between matter and antimatter. In the study, not yet peer-reviewed, they proposed that the imbalance in the amount of matter and antimatter in the universe is related to the universe's vast quantities of dark matter, an unknown substance that exerts influence over gravity and yet doesn't interact with light. They suggested that in the crucial moments immediately after the Big Bang, the universe may have been pushed to make more matter than its inverse, antimatter, which then could have led to the formation of dark matter.
THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE
Artist's impression of the European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft. Planck's main goal is to study the Cosmic Microwave Background — the relic radiation left over from the Big Bang. (Image credit: ESA/C. Carreau)
The CMB has been observed by many researchers now and with many spacecraft missions. One of the most famous space-faring missions to do so was NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, which mapped the sky in the 1990s.
Several other missions have followed in COBE's footsteps, such as the BOOMERanG experiment (Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics), NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the European Space Agency's Planck satellite.
Planck's observations, first released in 2013, mapped the CMB in unprecedented detail and revealed that the universe was older than previously thought: 13.82 billion years old, rather than 13.7 billion years old. The research observatory's mission is ongoing and new maps of the CMB are released periodically.
The maps give rise to new mysteries, however, such as why the Southern Hemisphere appears slightly redder (warmer) than the Northern Hemisphere. The Big Bang Theory says that the CMB would be mostly the same, no matter where you look.
Examining the CMB also gives astronomers clues as to the composition of the universe. Researchers think most of the cosmos is made up of matter and energy that cannot be "sensed" with our conventional instruments, leading to the names "dark matter" and "dark energy." It is thought that only 5% of the universe is made up of matter such as planets, stars and galaxies.
WHAT ARE GRAVITATIONAL WAVES?
While astronomers study the universe's beginnings through creative measures and mathematical simulations, they've also sought proof of its rapid inflation. They have done this by observing gravitational waves, tiny perturbations in space-time that ripple outwards from great disturbances like, for instance, two colliding black holes or the universe's birth.
According to leading theories, in the first second after the universe was born, our cosmos ballooned faster than the speed of light. (That, by the way, does not violate Albert Einstein's speed limit. He once said that light speed is the fastest anything can travel within the universe — but that statement did not apply to the inflation of the universe itself.)
As the universe expanded, it created the CMB and a similar "background noise" made up of gravitational waves that, like the CMB, were a sort of static, detectable from all parts of the sky. Those gravitational waves, according to the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, produced a theorized barely-detectable polarization, one type of which is called "B-modes."
In 2014, astronomers said they had found evidence of B-modes using an Antarctic telescope called "Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization," or BICEP2.
"We're very confident that the signal that we're seeing is real, and it's on the sky," lead researcher John Kovac, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told Space.com in March 2014.
But by June, the same team said that their findings could have been altered by galactic dust getting in the way of their field of view. That hypothesis was supported by new results from the Planck satellite.
By January 2015, researchers from both teams working together "confirmed that the Bicep signal was mostly, if not all, stardust," the New York Times said.
This graphic shows a timeline of the universe based on the Big Bang theory and inflation models. (Image credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team)
However, since then gravitational waves have not only been confirmed to exist, they have been observed multiple times.
These waves, which are not B-modes from the birth of the universe but rather from more recent collisions of black hles, have been detected multiple times by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), with the first-ever gravitational wave detection taking place in 2016.
A major gravitational wave breakthrough was announced on June 28, 2023 when teams of scientists around the world reported the discovery of a "low-pitch hum" of these cosmic ripples flowing through the Milky Way. While astronomers don't definitively know what's causing the hum, the detected signal is "compelling evidence" and consistent with theoretical expectations of gravitational waves emerging from copious pairs of "the most massive black holes in the entire universe" weighing as much as billions of suns, said Stephen Taylor, a gravitational wave astrophysicist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee who co-led the research.
Although the Big Bang is often described as an "explosion", that's a misleading image. In an explosion, fragments are flung out from a central point into a pre-existing space. If you were at the central point, you'd see all the fragments moving away from you at roughly the same speed.
But the Big Bang wasn't like that. It was an expansion of space itself – a concept that comes out of Einstein's equations of general relativity but has no counterpart in the classical physics of everyday life. It means that all the distances in the universe are stretching out at the same rate. Any two galaxies separated by distance X are receding from each other at the same speed, while a galaxy at distance 2X recedes at twice that speed.
THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
The universe is not only expanding, but expanding faster. This means that with time, nobody will be able to spot other galaxies from Earth or any other vantage point within our galaxy.
"We will see distant galaxies moving away from us, but their speed is increasing with time," Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb said in a March 2014 Space.com article.
"So, if you wait long enough, eventually, a distant galaxy will reach the speed of light. What that means is that even light won't be able to bridge the gap that's being opened between that galaxy and us. There's no way for extraterrestrials on that galaxy to communicate with us, to send any signals that will reach us, once their galaxy is moving faster than light relative to us."
Some physicists also suggest that the universe we experience is just one of many. In the "multiverse" model, different universes would coexist with each other like bubbles lying side by side. The theory suggests that in that first big push of inflation, different parts of space-time grew at different rates. This could have carved off different sections — different universes — with potentially different laws of physics.
"It's hard to build models of inflation that don't lead to a multiverse," Alan Guth, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said during a news conference in March 2014 concerning the gravitational waves discovery. (Guth is not affiliated with that study.)
"It's not impossible, so I think there's still certainly research that needs to be done. But most models of inflation do lead to a multiverse, and evidence for inflation will be pushing us in the direction of taking [the idea of a] multiverse seriously."
While we can understand how the universe we see came to be, it's possible that the Big Bang was not the first inflationary period the universe experienced. Some scientists believe we live in a cosmos that goes through regular cycles of inflation and deflation, and that we just happen to be living in one of these phases.
JWST AND THE BIG BANG
The James Webb Space Telescope has the ability to look deep into the past. (Image credit: dima_zel via Getty Images)
A telescope is almost like a time machine, allowing us to peer back into the distant past. With the aid of the Hubble space telescope, NASA has shown us galaxies as they were many billions of years ago — and Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, has the ability to look even deeper into the past.
NASA hopes it will see all the way back to when the first galaxies formed, nearly 13.6 billion years ago. And unlike Hubble, which sees mainly in the visible waveband, JWST is an infrared telescope — a big advantage when looking at very distant galaxies. The expansion of the universe means that waves emitted from them are stretched out, so light that was emitted at visible wavelengths actually reaches us in the infrared.
THE BIG BANG THEORY: BECOMING A HOUSEHOLD NAME
Although it took a while, TV audiences have taken a liking to the geek-inspired comedy The Big Bang Theory. (Image credit: CBS)
The name "Big Bang Theory" has been a popular way to talk about the concept among astrophysicists for decades, but it hit the mainstream in 2007 when a comedy T.V. show with the same name premiered on CBS.
Running for 279 episodes over 12 seasons, the show "The Big Bang Theory" followed the lives of a group of scientists, which included physicists, astrophysicists and aerospace engineers. The show explores the group's nerdy friendships, romances and squabbles. Its first season premiered on Sept. 24, 2007, and the show officially ended on May 16, 2019.
Although the show itself didn't dive too much into actual science, the showrunners did hire UCLA astrophysicist David Saltzberg as a science consultant for the entire run of the show, according to Science magazine. Science consultants are often hired for sci-fi and science-related shows and movies to help keep certain aspects realistic.
Thanks to Saltzberg, the characters' vocabulary included a host of science jargon and the whiteboards in the background of labs, offices and apartments throughout the show were filled with a variety of equations and information.
Over the course of the show, Saltzberg said, those whiteboards became coveted space as researchers sent him new work that they hoped might be featured there. In one episode, Saltzberg recalled, new evidence of gravitational waves was scrawled across a whiteboard that ostensibly belonged to famed physicist Steven Hawking, who also approved the text.
Veteran NASA astronaut Mike Massimino (right) poses for a photo with Big Bang Theory actor Simon Helberg and another actor during a break from filming the season finale of CBS' Big Bang Theory. (Image credit: Mike Massimino (via Twitter as @Astro_Mike))
The show took some liberties, as it was fictional. This included fabricating some new scientific concepts and fictionalizing the politics of Nobel prizes and academia, according to Fermilab physicist Don Lincoln.
Notably, several characters in the series take trips. One episode sees main characters Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard set out on a research expedition to the Arctic — many physics experiments are best performed at or near the extreme environments of the poles. Another put aerospace engineer Howard on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and, later, a model of the International Space Station along with real-life astronaut Mike Massimino.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Discover more about CMB on NASA's webpage on putting the Big Bang theory to the test. NASA has also put together what the Big Bang might have looked it in this animation. Here are 5 quick facts about the Big Bang from How It Works magazine.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
There are accounts of astronauts seeing unidentified flying objects (UFOs) while being in the International Space Station (ISS). Sometimes they have beenspotted during the live broadcast but the space agencies ignore them, claiming space debris, dirt in the camera’s lenses, or light effect.
However, the case of two UAPs and Samantha Cristoforetti’s scream in fear, Italy’s first female astronaut onboard the Soyuz spacecraft during docking with the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014 is still unexplainable.
Samantha Cristoforetti was born in Milan, Italy, on April 26, 1977. Between November 2014 and June 2015, she spent 200 days in space on her Futura mission to the International Space Station as a Flight Engineer for Expeditions 42 and 43. Samantha was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. She joined ESA in September 2009 and completed her basic astronaut training in November 2010. She’s completely fluent in Italian, English, German, French, and Russian.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti floating sideways with her colleagues, NASA astronaut Terry Virts (left) and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov in the International Space Station. They are dressed in the Sokol suits they wear in the Soyuz spacecraft that takes them to the Space Station and back. Image credit: NASA
On November 23, 2014, the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft was planning to drop its Russian robot, Skybot F-850 to dock at the International Space Station. Cristoforetti was onboard Soyuz TMA-14 along with Roscosmos astronaut Anton Shkaplerov, and NASA astronaut Terry Virts at that time.
As the spacecraft approached the ISS and docking was in process, Cristoforetti saw what appeared to be two huge, glowing orbs zooming toward each other. The orb can be seen moving from top to bottom in the center of the screen at approximately the 1:20 mark.
What appeared on the screen, shocked Cristoforetti so much that she screamed in fear, and immediately her colleague Anton Shkaplerov can be heard saying her to calm down. The video quickly went viral and in no time, it was all over social media.
After the noticeable excitement on the video, many were wondering what Cristoforetti actually saw that caused such a response so she took to Google+ to give an explanation for the shout. Cristoforetti explains she “wasn’t prepared in the least for what I saw when we were at about 30-40 meters [from the Space Station].”
“I had released my shoulder straps quite a bit at that point, so I was floating over my seat. As I turned to look outside, at first I looked back and saw one of our Soyuz solar panels, which I had seen before of course. Then my eyes caught something in the peripheral view.
And as I slowly turned my gaze and when I realized what I was seeing, I was overcome by pure amazement and joy: the Space Station was there, but not just any view. The huge solar panels were flooded in a blaze of orange light, vivid, warm almost alien.
I couldn’t help exclaiming something aloud, which you can probably hear in the recordings of our docking, since at that point we were “hot mic” with Mission Control. Anton reminded me of that and so I tried to contain my amazement and return to the docking monitoring. When I peaked again later, the orange glow was gone.
Butch told me later that he had heard my amazement on com when “the Station had turned orange.” I didn’t know, but apparently there’s only a few seconds during day-night transition that the Station is lit by that amazing orange glow. And it happened to be exactly when I peaked outside! I feel very fortunate that I had such a unique first glimpse of our human outpost in space: such a great welcome!
The ISS live stream spotted two anomalies in 2014 while Soyuz spacecraft docking with the International Space Station (ISS)
In fact, former US Department of Defense UFO investigator Nick Pope stated that this was not only an unprecedented occurrence but also one of the greatest proofs of extraterrestrial life, not only in space but in our Solar System and very close to us.”
In her Wiki, her NASA.gov profile, and interview with Financial Times there’s no mention of the scream incident. The reporter gets closest to the mystery when asking, “Did you suffer from any unexpected/unpleasant experiences while in space?” She never mentions the scream (which seems odd considering the question) but answers in the affirmative because she “didn’t fall into the 50% who suffer space sickness.” In her latest video by NASA, she mentioned no scream incident as well.
It is unprecedented that even after everything was recorded on live footage, she never spoke about it. However, there are other outer space incidents that happened with astronauts who publicly admitted experiencing strangeness in space.
Former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin claimed to have seen what appeared to be an “organic, alien-like creature” in the space shuttle payload bay and even reported the sighting to ground control.
During his time in space, former NASA astronaut Jerry M. Linenger saw some anomalies that were not space debris. He shared his sightings in a live interview with Bild in 2018.
On May 5, 1981, retired Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalyonok saw something remarkable from the porthole of Salyut 6. According to Kovalyonok, at around 6 p.m., when the spacecraft was flying over South Africa moving towards the Indian ocean, he saw an elliptical-shaped object that was flying along with the spacecraft.
Former NASA astronaut Franklin Story Musgrave said about his experience in space would shock anyone. He claimed to have seen an 8-foot-long snake, white in color, floating through space. It is hard to explain how a snake could reach space, but Musgrave has never denied it. (Click here to read the full story)
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Unveiling UFO Secrets: Men in Black, Alien Autopsy, and Global Enigmas
Unveiling UFO Secrets: Men in Black, Alien Autopsy, and Global Enigmas
In a universe teeming with the vastness of space, the possibility of otherworldly beings has intrigued and haunted us for centuries. However, when two rational individuals came across evidence that potentially showcased an actual extraterrestrial entity, the world was spellbound.
For Ray and the unnamed protagonist of our story, this wasn’t just another conspiracy or a quirky headline; it became the center of their lives. In the heart of Cleveland, the cameraman stumbled upon what seemed like an alien autopsy footage. This wasn’t just another vague UFO sighting or grainy photograph from an amateur. This was a meticulous recording of what looked like an actual extraterrestrial being.
The imagery in the footage matched eerily with the worldwide reports of alien sightings. From the delicate, otherworldly features of the supposed alien to its unique biological characteristics, the footage seemed to reveal a creature straight out of millions of eyewitness accounts. But was this the ultimate proof humanity had been waiting for?
VIDEO:
However, the enigma didn’t end there. Stories of military leaders, astronauts, doctors, lawyers, and ordinary individuals witnessing UFOs or having encounters with extraterrestrial beings have been consistent across history. Tales of sky battles in the 16th century, UFO sightings in the 18th century, and many more weave a tapestry of mystery that blankets our past.
As our duo delved deeper, they came across a slew of evidence pointing to an ongoing interaction between humanity and these otherworldly entities. From the alleged animal mutilations to chilling accounts of human genetic and hybrid experimentation, it felt as though humanity was but a plaything in the hands of a far more advanced civilization.
But the most significant question that remains is, do the governments of the world already know about these beings? If they do, why the silence?
The weight of the evidence grows heavier every day. As more people from all corners of the world continue to report strange occurrences, lights in the sky, and encounters with beings not of this world, the clamor for transparency becomes even more urgent.
In the end, whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, the evidence is undeniable that we’re not alone. As we continue our quest for understanding, one can only hope that the truth will soon emerge from the shadows. Until then, the enigma of the alien autopsy remains one of the greatest mysteries of our time.
'Scary Barbie' is an incredibly bright cosmic object that has been burning for two years, and it has yet to sputter out.
An artist's illustration of a black hole swallowing a star, the event that gave rise to Scary Barbie.
(Image credit: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images)
Astronomers have detected one of the longest, brightest and most energetic cosmic objects ever observed — and they've named it "Scary Barbie," in part due to its terrifying power.
The remote object, an astonishingly bright flash of light that has lasted for more than two years, was discovered lurking inside an enormous data set gathered by computer-guided telescopes.
After finding the brightly burning patch of sky in the data and cross-referencing it with observations made by other telescopes, the astronomers realized they had stumbled across one of the most powerful cosmic explosions ever witnessed. They reported their findings April 17 on the preprint server arXiv, and their paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"It's absurd. If you take a typical supernova and multiply it a thousand times, we're still not at how bright this is — and supernovas are among the most luminous objects in the sky," co-author Danny Milisavljevic, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue University, said in a statement. "This is the most energetic phenomenon I have ever encountered."
Scary Barbie was born from the final death throes of a star being torn to shreds by a supermassive black hole.
Black holes feed upon unfortunate stars that cross their paths, using tidal forces exerted by their immense gravitational pulls. As the star is reeled ever closer to the black hole's maw, the gravity affecting the regions of the star closer to the black hole is far stronger than that acting on the star's farside. This disparity "spaghettifies" the star into a long, noodle-like string that gets tightly wound around the black hole layer by layer — like spaghetti around a fork.
This noodle of hot plasma then quickly accelerates around the black hole and spins out into an enormous jet of energy and matter, which produces a distinctive bright beam of light — known as a transient event — that optical, X-ray and radio-wave telescopes can detect.
Because Scary Barbie's light came from a remote region of the sky — traveling around 7.7 billion years across the expanding fabric of space-time — astronomers didn't spot the event directly. Instead, by developing a machine-learning system called Recommender Engine For Intelligent Transient Tracking, the researchers combed through data from many observations before finding the extremely bright light source. By using the Lick Observatory in California and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the researchers were better able to characterize the light as coming from a transient event.
But Scary Barbie — a nickname made by appending its randomly assigned alphanumeric name, ZTF20abrbeie, with a reference to its frightening power — is weird even among other rare and extreme astronomical events. It is much brighter than any other transient event the astronomers could compare it to, and, while transient events usually last only weeks or months, Scary Barbie has already burned incandescently for more than two years, with no indication it will sputter out.
The astronomers said further observations of Scary Barbie, possibly using the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, could enable them to snap some high-resolution images of the incredibly rare cosmic outburst.
"There are few things in the universe that can be so powerful, reactions that can be this long-lived," Milisavljevic said. "Discoveries like this really open our eyes to the fact that we are still uncovering mysteries and exploring wonders in the universe — things no one has ever seen before."
Mysterious Messages from the Cosmos: The Enigma of Crop Circles
Mysterious Messages from the Cosmos: The Enigma of Crop Circles
For decades, vast fields of wheat and corn have been transformed overnight into intricate designs known as crop circles. These complex patterns often appear without explanation and have intrigued scientists, paranormal enthusiasts, and skeptics alike. Do these crop circles serve as a message from extraterrestrial intelligences, or are they just elaborate hoaxes?
Crop Circles – An Overview:
Crop circles, geometric patterns that emerge overnight in fields, have been a topic of intense debate and curiosity. Originating in the English countryside, these patterns have since been reported worldwide. With perfect geometry and precision, they often stretch hundreds of meters, leaving many experts baffled.
Significance of the Date – July 14th:
A particularly interesting observation is the recurring appearance of intricate designs on the date of July 14th. One such design in Somerset mirrored the geometry of particles being pulled into a black hole. Could these patterns hint at interdimensional portals or methods of traversing vast cosmic distances?
The Phenomenon of Phantom Shapes:
In 2017, a remarkable event occurred in Clay Hill, England. A design spanning over 70 meters appeared in a wheat field. The subsequent year, canola plants were sown in the same area. Astonishingly, the canola did not grow where the previous year’s design had been, hinting at residual energy impacting the growth. These ghostly imprints are referred to as “phantom shapes”, serving as evidence that the phenomenon is not just a simple man-made deception.
A Touch of the Spiritual:
Perhaps one of the most moving accounts came from Switzerland. Following the passing of a field’s owner, a crop circle manifested nearby. The design, a circle with 12 left-leaning blades, appeared during the family’s time of grief, leading many to interpret it as a cosmic message of love and connection.
The Message Behind Crop Circles:
Jaime Maussan, a renowned Mexican journalist covering extraterrestrial phenomena, believes that crop circles are a way of communicating a simple, yet profound message: “You are not alone”. He suggests that these patterns are a call to humanity to mature, acknowledge our place in the cosmos, and address the environmental crises we face.
VIDEO:
Crop Circle Realities (2021) | Full Documentary Movie | Stephen Bassett | Gary King
While the origins and meanings of crop circles remain shrouded in mystery, one thing is certain: they captivate our imagination and challenge our understanding of the world. Whether they are interstellar messages, natural phenomena, or human-made art, crop circles continue to be a subject of wonder and speculation.
Onderzoekers hebben de precieze datum bepaald waarop een asteroïde mogelijk de aarde zou kunnen inslaan, met een kracht die gelijk is aan die van 22 atoombommen. Dit hemellichaam, genaamd Bennu, nadert onze planeet elke zes jaar. Wetenschappers zijn echter van mening dat 24 september 2182 de datum zou kunnen zijn waarop er een reëel risico bestaat op een botsing tussen de aarde en de asteroïde.
Ondanks dat de mogelijke datum van de apocalyptische gebeurtenis nog ver weg is, is NASA momenteel bezig met intensieve inspanningen om de asteroïde Bennu af te buigen en bevindt zij zich in de laatste fase van haar missie. Zeven jaar geleden lanceerde de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie een sonde naar de asteroïde met als doel monsters te verzamelen, in de hoop dat de verzamelde informatie een mogelijke catastrofale ontmoeting zou kunnen helpen voorkomen.
Asteroïden hebben de aarde door de jaren heen vele malen getroffen. Bekijk de volgengalerij voor enkele van de meest betekenisvolle effecten.
Meteor Crater, ook bekend als Barringer Crater, gelegen nabij Flagstaff, Arizona, is een grote meteorietinslagkrater. Dit opmerkelijke natuurverschijnsel is een van de best bewaarde kraters in zijn soort op onze planeet, met een diameter van ongeveer 1200 meter en een diepte van ongeveer 170 meter.
Het kenmerkende geologische kenmerk van de Tenoumer-krater in de Sahara-woestijn van Mauritanië is de dramatische, bijna cirkelvormige rand. De foto van Michael Dennig geeft perfect de afmetingen van de krater weer.
De Vredefort krater in de Zuid-Afrikaanse provincie Vrijstaat is de grootste bevestigde inslagkrater op aarde, met een diameter van meer dan 300 km (190 mijl). De afbeelding toont de Vredefort Dome, het centrale deel van de krater.
Kaali verwijst naar een groep van negen meteorietkratermeren in het dorp Kaali op Saaremaa, een Ests eiland. Dit cluster van meren werd gevormd rond 1530-1450 v.Chr.
De opmerkelijke meteoorkrater Gosses Bluff, gelegen in het zuidelijke deel van het Northern Territory, heeft een diameter van 5 km en een randhoogte van 200 meter. Deze locatie wordt door de westerse Arrernte Aboriginals Tnorala genoemd en wordt als een heilige plaats beschouwd.
Het Manicouagan Reservoir in het centrum van Quebec ontstond 214 miljoen jaar geleden door een meteoorinslag. René-Levasseur Island is het eiland in het midden van het meer. De hele formatie wordt gewoonlijk "het oog van Quebec" genoemd.
De Wolfe Creek-krater in West-Australië is een opmerkelijk intacte inslaglocatie. Het meet een diameter van ongeveer 875 meter (2871 ft) en heeft een diepte van 60 meter (200 ft) van rand tot vloer. Deze krater, die minder dan 120.000 jaar oud is, ligt in het hart van het Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park.
Het Sudbury Basin in Ontario beslaat ongeveer 10-15 km (6,2-9,3 mijl) en ontstond ongeveer 1,8 miljard jaar geleden. Een afbeelding van het bassin wordt weergegeven in NASA's wereldbolsoftware WorldWind.
De Popigai-krater, gelegen in Siberië, werd ongeveer 35 miljoen jaar geleden gevormd. De oostkant van de krater, met een diameter van 100 km (62 mijl), is linksboven in het satellietbeeld zichtbaar.
Lake Acraman in Zuid-Australië is een opvallend kenmerk van de Acraman-krater, die ongeveer 590 miljoen jaar geleden werd gevormd door een asteroïde-inslag. Dit satellietbeeld legt de 40 km lange krater vast, met het meer in het hart.
Karakul is de aangewezen naam voor het meer gelegen in een aanzienlijke inslagkrater van 52 km (32 mijl) in het Tadzjiekse Nationale Park. Deze formatie, zichtbaar op dit satellietbeeld, is ongeveer 25 miljoen jaar geleden ontstaan.
Ongeveer 35 miljoen jaar geleden werd de Chesapeake Bay aan de oostkust van Amerika gevormd door sediment dat over het puin van een meteoorinslag viel. De afbeelding toont een deel van de inslagstructuur in Virginia.
Lake Bosumtwi is het enige natuurlijke meer in Ghana, gelegen in een oude inslagkrater ten zuidoosten van Kumasi. De Ashanti-bevolking vereert Bosumtwi als een heilig waterlichaam.
Het Morasko Meteoriet Natuurreservaat ligt in de bossen nabij Poznań. Bezoekers kunnen zeven kraters verkennen, waarvan de grootste een diameter van ongeveer 100 meter (328 ft) heeft en een diepte van ongeveer 11 meter (36 ft) bereikt
De Middlesboro-krater in Kentucky dankt zijn naam aan de stad waar hij nu staat. De krater is ongeveer 5 km breed en vermoedelijk minder dan 300 miljoen jaar oud.
De Middlesboro-krater in Kentucky dankt zijn naam aan de stad waar hij nu staat. De krater is ongeveer 5 km breed en vermoedelijk minder dan 300 miljoen jaar oud.
De schilderachtige Tswaing-krater ligt ten noordwesten van Pretoria en is vermoedelijk tussen de 220.000 en 52.000 jaar oud. Met name blijkt uit archeologisch bewijs dat de krater minstens 100.000 jaar geleden door mensen werd bezocht, zoals blijkt uit stenen werktuigen uit het middensteentijdperk.
Het Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve in het Northern Territory van Australië bestaat uit minstens 14 kraters. Deze kraters zijn het resultaat van een meteoriet die uit elkaar viel bij een botsing met het aardoppervlak. De grootste krater, die een combinatie is van twee kleinere kraters, is 217 meter lang, 111 meter breed en 15 meter diep.
Het El'gygytgyn-meer ligt binnen de poolcirkel in het noordoosten van Siberië en werd ongeveer 3,6 miljoen jaar geleden gevormd uit een inslagkrater van een asteroïde.
De inslagstructuur van Araguainha is gemakkelijk herkenbaar als een cirkelvormige omtrek met een diameter van 40 km (25 mijl), gelegen op de grens van de staten Mato Grosso en Goiás. Het wordt beschouwd als de grootste inslagkrater van Zuid-Amerika.
De Nördlinger Ries is een belangrijke inslagkrater in het westen van Beieren en het oosten van Baden-Württemberg. Het werd gebruikt als trainingslocatie voor de Apollo 14-astronauten. De foto toont de zuidelijke bosrand van de Nördlinger Ries.
De Haughton-krater, gevonden op het eiland Devon in Nunavut, is vermoedelijk ongeveer 39 miljoen jaar oud en is het resultaat van een asteroïde-inslag die een 23 km brede krater creëerde.
Het Lappajärvi-meer, gelegen in de Finse regio Zuid-Österbotten, is een watermassa die de gedeeltelijk geërodeerde meteorietinslagkrater van Lappajärvi beslaat. Deze indrukwekkende krater, die 23 kilometer (14 mijl) beslaat, dient als herinnering aan een gebeurtenis die ongeveer 76 miljoen jaar geleden plaatsvond.
De Chicxulub-krater, gelegen onder het schiereiland Yucatán, is het gevolg van een enorme asteroïde-botsing die ongeveer 66 miljoen jaar geleden plaatsvond en leidde tot het uitsterven van dinosauriërs. Op deze NASA-foto van het noordwestelijke deel van het schiereiland benadrukt een vage donkergroene curve de overblijfselen van de inslagkrater, die de op een na grootste ter wereld is.
In het jaar 1908 drong een meteoriet de atmosfeer van de aarde binnen, maar in plaats van de grond te raken, ontplofte hij in de lucht. Deze buitengewone gebeurtenis vond plaats nabij de rivier Podkamennaya Tunguska en resulteerde in een wijdverbreide verwoesting. Hoewel er zich geen zichtbare krater vormde, veroorzaakte de explosie het afvlakken van ongeveer 80 miljoen bomen, waardoor een uitgestrekt bosgebied van 2.150 vierkante kilometer (830 vierkante mijl) werd aangetast. Bekende bronnen die informatie verstrekken over dit incident zijn onder meer NASA, de National Park Service, Smithsonian Magazine, Geopark Ries en EarthSky.
Als je geïnteresseerd bent, kun je hier ook enkele van de gevaarlijkste vulkanen ter wereld verkennen: Ontdek enkele van de gevaarlijkste vulkanen ter wereld
Milky Way is Embedded in Tilted Dark Matter Halo, Research Suggests
Milky Way is Embedded in Tilted Dark Matter Halo, Research Suggests
The outer disk of our Milky Way Galaxy is warped and flared. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain these phenomena, but none have reproduced both features. Recent work has demonstrated that the Milky Way’s stellar halo is tilted with respect to the disk plane, suggesting that at least some component of the dark matter halo may also be tilted. In a new modeling study, astronomers from the Harvard and Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics show that a dark halo tilted in the same direction as the stellar halo can induce a warp and flare in the Milky Way’s disk at the same amplitude and orientation as the data. The work bolsters current thinking about how our Galaxy evolved and may offer clues into some of the mysteries of dark matter.
From a great distance, our Milky Way Galaxy would look like a thin disk of stars that orbits once every few hundred million years around its central region, where hundreds of billions of stars provide the gravitational ‘glue’ to hold it all together. But this pull of gravity is much weaker in the Galaxy’s far outer disk. There, the hydrogen atoms making up most of the Milky Way’s gas disk are no longer confined to a thin plane, instead they give the disk an S-like, or warped, appearance.
Image credit: Xiaodian Chen.
The Milky Way Galaxy is located inside a diffuse cloud called the stellar halo, which extends much farther out into the Universe.
In a previous work, Jiwon Jesse Han and colleagues deduced that the stellar halo is tilted and elliptical in shape, like a zeppelin or football.
Building on that, they assumed the same shape for the dark matter halo, the larger entity that encompasses everything in and around the Milky Way.
Dark matter makes up 80% of the Galaxy’s mass but is invisible because it doesn’t interact with light, so the shape of that halo must be inferred.
Using models to calculate the orbits of stars within a tilted, oblong dark matter halo, the astronomers found a near-perfect match to existing observations of a warped, flared galaxy.
“A tilted dark halo is actually fairly common in simulations, but no one had explored its effect on the Milky Way,” said Dr. Charlie Conroy, co-author of the study.
“It turns out that the tilt is an elegant way to explain both the magnitude and direction of our Galaxy’s wobbly disk.”
Astronomers had long surmised that the Milky Way formed due to a galactic collision; the new work further underscores that hypothesis.
“If the Galaxy was just evolving on its own, it would have had this nice, spherical halo, this nice, flat disk,” Han said.
“So the fact that the halo is tilted and has a football-like shape suggests that our Galaxy experienced a merger event, where two galaxies collide.”
Their calculation of the dark matter halo’s probable shape may also provide clues as to the properties and particle nature of dark matter itself, which remain unsolved mysteries in physics.
“The fact that the Galaxy is not spherical in our data implies that there is some limit to which dark matter can interact with itself,” Han said.
“Confidence in these findings might lead to better ways to cleverly study the unobservable dark matter that makes up most of the Universe.”
“This includes new ways to pick up on kinematic signatures of dark sub-halos, which are miniature dark matter halos zipping around the Galaxy.”
A paper on the findings was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
J.J. Han et al. A tilted dark halo origin of the Galactic disk warp and flare. Nat Astron, published online September 14, 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02076-9
For over 90 years, the UFO enigma has captivated people’s minds worldwide, sparking curiosity, debates, and countless investigations into the phenomenon. The wait is over, as David Grusch, David Fravor & Ryan Graves are set to testify before the US Congress during the congressional meetings scheduled for July 26, 2023.
Meanwhile, various theories were postulated by United States Representative Mike Gallagher on the possible origin of UFOs while he appeared on Pat McAfee’s show on June 27, 2023. The former Marine suggested that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) might possibly represent an enigmatic “ancient civilization” that had remained hidden on Earth until recently when they began to surface.
“This should be an opportunity for the government to be transparent,” he said. “If we have information that disconfirms the extraterrestrial hypothesis, or all these other ones, at least it shows the government doing something competent and being forward-leaning by declassifying information to the public.”
Rep. Gallagher made this statement in response to the wild interview of David Grusch with Ross Coutlhart that hit the media. Mr. Grusch, who is confirmed to testify before Congress in the upcoming hearings, claimed that the US government has proof of alien life and that there are spacecraft from another species. He mentions that there is a significant number of these spacecraft, some of which have landed while others have crashed.
When asked about the duration of the cover-up, Grusch mentions that the first recovery of a UAP occurred in 1933 in Magenta, Italy, during the regime of Benito Mussolini. He explains that the Italian government moved the recovered craft to a secure air base until 1944-1945 when the Vatican informed the Americans about it.
Appearing on the sports talk show, Gallagher suggested that one possible explanation of supposed UFO sightings was the so-called “Terminator” theory — derived from the film of the same name — that aliens were actually human beings from the future. Gallagher further put forth another theory, suggesting the following: “Instead of us from the future, it might indeed be an ancient civilization that has been lurking here, and suddenly it’s making its presence known.” Ancient Aliens, does it ring a bell?
A similar theory was also proposed by Tim Peake, one of Britain’s famous astronauts. He said that the UFOs filmed by the US military over 100 times could either time traveling humans or aliens from other civilizations. During an interview with Good Morning Britain in June 2022, Briton astronaut Tim Peake, who spent more than six months on the International Space Station, was asked about the UAP videos, which the Pentagon recently declassified.
Peake said: “I heard one theory where a pilot was talking about that potentially in the future, they’ve developed time travel – is it something that’s come back from the future?” He did not exactly say what the UFOs are but shared some theories that have long been discussed by UFOlogists.
“I don’t think it’s a development of any state nation or non-state organization at all. I think it’s quite remarkable when you see the video footage. It does seem extraordinary as to what these machines are capable of.”
There is a huge buried UFO hidden outside the US, and Ross Coulthart claimed that he knows the location of this immovable craft. There is no confirmation from Coulthart about the nature of this craft if it was retrieved. However, some have speculated this could be an archeological dig. Could this particular craft potentially be a remnant of a bygone civilization?
Considering Rep. Gallagher’s theory, scientists have explored the possibility of detecting ancient civilizations in Earth’s geological record. A recent paper called “The Silurian Hypothesis” discusses how traces of industrial civilizations could be found. While fossils and artifacts are unlikely to survive over millions of years, anomalous changes in chemical compositions could serve as clues. By studying geological anomalies and applying models to other planets, scientists hope to understand if civilizations existed in the distant past.
NASA has spent many years seeking the truth regarding extraterrestrial life. Furthermore, the space agency has never denied the existence of non-human life beyond Earth in any form. This is sufficient to discuss the idea of non-human life existing beyond Earth in any form, from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Avi Loeb, a professor at Harvard, has supported the idea that there may have been earlier civilizations on both Earth and Mars, and that these civilizations may have been the origin of UAPs. (Click here to read the full article)
Mr. Loeb writes: “Planets like Mars or Earth could have given multiple births to technological civilizations that were a billion years apart and hence were not aware of each other. Like stable parents, the planets recovered from the environmental impact of these civilizations over time. We may have been separated in time from siblings that we never had the opportunity to meet and so we are unaware of their existence.”
Former Pentagon UFO official, Lue Elizondo, shared intriguing insights in an interview about crash retrievals and materials related to UFOs/UAPs. He believes the US government possesses exotic materials but lacks transparency on the matter. (Click here to read the full article)
Elizondo used an analogy of finding an out-of-place object in King Tut’s tomb to emphasize the significance of finding advanced materials before our known technology existed. Some interpreted this analogy as a hint that UFOs could be considered archaeological findings, possibly ancient rather than just old.
Interestingly, Bob Lazar, on the Joe Rogan Experience, mentioned hearing that at least one recovered UFO was found during an archaeological dig, suggesting its ancient origin. Astronomer Avi Loeb suggested that some advanced devices made by early inhabitants of Mars and Earth might still be operational elsewhere in the Solar System, potentially accounting for some Unidentified Aerial Phenomena reports.
Physicist John E. Brandenburg’s 2015 study speculated about a massive thermonuclear explosion that destroyed Mars’ once-Earthlike atmosphere, considering the Cydonian Hypothesis and Fermi’s Paradox. These ideas explore the possibility of ancient advanced civilizations in our solar system.
In the past 90 years, UFO sightings have been reported countless times. However, it was only since 2017 that the world began to take the UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) seriously. From dismissing UFOs as hoaxes to conductingUAP hearings, many things have changed regarding this subject. The United States and other world governments have started treating this matter seriously, and NASA has even established a division to study these phenomena. Interestingly, there is a massive UFO buried on Earth, hidden from the public eye.
Before the 2023 Congressional UAP hearings, on the Jay Anderson show “Project Unity,” award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart dropped a bomb. He revealed that there exists a huge UFO in the possession of the United States that cannot be moved, and he knows the location of the craft. Ross mentioned the existence of non-human intelligence engaging with Earth for a long time and the recovery of certain objects, but he could not disclose specific details due to concerns about revealing advanced technologies.
In the interview, Coulthart discussed the potential implications of the new US Senate intelligence bill. He mentions Douglas Dean Johnson’s writings about the bill, which apparently requires holders of non-earth origin or exotic UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) material to make it available to the All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) within six months.
Anderson raises a concern that this six-month window could give those holding such materials enough time to hide or conceal them. Ross acknowledged the possibility but suggested that some of the UAP materials could be so large that they cannot be easily moved. He mentions the existence of a building constructed over such a massive object in a foreign country, which may sound preposterous to some.
Okay, people are going to question what I’m about to say. What if some of that [__] is so big it can’t be moved?. [They are] so big they built a building over it in a country outside of the United States of America. I know that sounds preposterous, and I know, oh my God, you can just hear them now, the bleeding debunkers. Let’s see this investigated. Let’s just see what happens. Let’s test these allegations before Congress,” Ross said.
He highlighted the importance of conshttps://www.howandwhys.com/idering the implications if some of the claims, such as those made by David Grush, turn out to be true. He specifically mentions the idea that certain objects might be too large to be moved, which Anderson finds astonishing. Coulthart revealed to Anderson that he shared this information for the first time in the interview.
Further, at the end of his interview, Coulthart claims that he knows the exact location of this gigantic UFO. He is sure that this information would come out one day.
“It’s really interesting because it’s absolutely gobsmacking that it’s being kept as a secret. Imagine having an object that’s so big, it’s just not conceivable to move it. I thought it was bollocks when I heard it too, and most people listening to this will, anyway. But yeah, I mean, again, just an allegation, but one that I’m, you know, assured should be taken seriously and hopefully will be investigated by Congress. Because, again, where did the money come from? What’s that money accounted for? The continued security and control of such an object for many decades. Who’s paid for that? What programs have paid for that? Has that been disclosed to taxpayers? This is gonna be a really fun inquiry if Congress starts doing its…”
In a recent episode of “The UFO Podcast,” host Andy engaged in a thought-provoking conversation with Ross. The discussion centered around the secrecy surrounding UFO sightings and government knowledge. Ross, who has deep insights into the matter, shared his perspective on why certain details remain undisclosed.
Andy began by addressing a critical question that’s been on the minds of many UFO enthusiasts: the location of the mysterious craft. He asked Ross whether he could reveal where the craft was being held.
Ross responded: “Let me tell you, I can’t tell you the country it’s in; it’s not America. But what I can tell you is that the place where it is kept is used for another purpose that is a laudatory purpose that’s as much in your interests in your country in the UK as it is in mine in Australia and as it is in America. The simple reasons are that there are other uses for the place where this object is stored, and we could end up with a storm Area 51 type scenario if you came out and announced it.”
Ross went on to explain the potential consequences of revealing such information, including international incidents and threats to the safety of personnel at the facilities. He also emphasized the importance of protecting sources, drawing on his experience as a journalist dealing with sensitive intelligence:
Ross Coulthart: “I don’t want the personnel in those facilities to be hurt, and it could create an international incident. I mean, it’s up to the US to make a judgment about it. So many people privately know what’s going on. What’s going on is pretty bloody horrifying and confronting and outrageous. I know the White House knows about it.”
Ross further says “I’ve been in situations where I’ve known the identities of active intelligence operatives in countries overseas, and I’ve realized, Christ, if I published this, I could jeopardize their lives. There is an element of source protection as well.”
He expressed a wish for more significant leadership and transparency from the US government. “I wish somebody in the US intelligence community would show leadership and develop a spine and go to the White House National Security adviser and say, ‘Mr. Sullivan, for God’s sake, let us put out some kind of a statement because we really are at that state at the moment.'”
Ross believes that the evidence regarding non-human intelligence engaging with the planet is undeniable and should be shared with the public. “I think they should say that we are aware of a non-human intelligence engaging with this planet, and the reason I say that they should say that is because I know the evidence is incontrovertible.”
This revelation left the UFO community curious about the place where the craft might be situated. Interestingly, the late former CIA pilot John Lear previously mentioned the existence of buried crafts too massive to move. In 2018, Lear posted on Facebook, recounting the enigmatic tale of a massive buried UFO near Garrison, Utah. This peculiar incident became a topic of discussion at a UFO conference in Las Vegas, piquing Lear’s curiosity. (Click here to read the full article)
Lear even provided the coordinates of the location: Latitude 38 degrees 37 minutes 40 seconds North, Longitude 113 degrees 40 minutes 40 seconds West. This further deepens the mystery, leaving people intrigued about the truth surrounding the buried UFO near Garrison, Utah.
Moreover, there is alleged John Lear’s statement on the alien presence, posted to Paranet on December 29, 1987. Here are the paragraphs published by UFOmind.com discussing the buried craft: [this page was first archived on January 31, 1997]
“Moore is also in possession of more Aquarius documents a few pages of which leaked out several years ago and detailed the supersecret NSA project which had been denied by them until just recently. In a letter to Senator John Glenn NSA’s Director of Policy Julia B. Wetzel wrote, “Apparently there is or was an Air Force project by that name Aquarius) which dealt with UFO’s. Coincidentally, there is also an NSA project by that name.”
NSA’s project Aquarius deals specifically with the ‘communications with aliens’ (the EBE’s). Within the Aquarius program was project ‘Snowbird’ a project to test fly A recovered alien aircraft at Groom Lake, Nevada. This project continues today at that location. In the words of an individual who works at Groom Lake ‘our people are much better at taking things apart than they are at putting them back together’. Another saw a saucer being trucked into the Nevada Test Site in March of 1988. Still another informant witnessed a saucer being buried at that location (for God knows whatever reason) during the second week of August 1988.”
There is another version of this statement: (Source)
“Germany may have recovered a flying saucer as early as 1939. General James H. Doolittle went to Sweden in 1946 to inspect a flying saucer that had crashed there in Spitzbergen…
In July of 1952, a panicked government watched helplessly as squadron of “flying saucers” flew over Washington, D.C., and buzzed the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Pentagon. It took all the imagination and intimidation the government could muster to force that incident out of the memory of the public.
Thousands of sightings occurred during the Korean war and several more saucers were retrieved by the Air Force. Some were stored at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, some were stored at Air Force bases near the location of the crash sight.
One saucer was so enormous and the logistic problems in transportation so enormous that it was buried at the crash sight and remains there today. The stories are legendary on transporting crashed saucers over long distances, moving only at night, purchasing complete farms, slashing through forests, blocking major highways, sometimes driving 2 and 3 lo-boys in tandem with an extraterrestrial load a hundred feet in diameter.”
On Neil Mitchel’s radio show in Australia, Ross offered valuable insights into the evolving landscape of UAP disclosures. He speculated about the possibility of the UFO truth becoming public knowledge in the near future, suggesting that within 12 to 18 months, the world might have a clearer understanding of the mysterious phenomenon of UAPs and UFOs. “I think that the world will probably know publicly within, I suspect, 12 to 18 months,” he said.
Now, Andy asked Ross to expand on how we might transition from the current state of awaiting legislation to a potential acknowledgment within the specified timeframe. Ross emphasized that his optimism about a forthcoming disclosure was contingent on key legislative actions. He explained that if the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the Intelligence Act passed with UAP reforms that mandated informing Congress about any Legacy UAP program, it could open the door to greater transparency. He continued to say, “I’m very optimistic that by the end of next year or the year following, early in the year following, we’ll have an idea of what’s been going on, and that’s because essentially Congress is mandating that this happen.”
However, Ross expressed a concern regarding Congress’s commitment to informing the public, noting that leaks could occur even if Congress decided not to disclose information. He stated, “I’m amazed Congress hasn’t leaked already, frankly because I know what’s been said to very important intelligence committees both in the house and in the Senate.”
Ross highlighted the significance of former senior public officials coming forward to share their knowledge and insights in the next 12 months. He expected that more of these individuals would break their silence. He also raised questions about the possibility of future hearings involving the Intelligence Community Inspector General, Thomas Monheim, and his investigation into David Grush’s claims.
This morning, a new NASA mission launched toward one of the Solar System’s strangest residents.
Asteroid 16 Psyche is a metal-rich object that may be a remnant of an ancient collision that rendered the heart of a now-dead planet bare. Or, it signals that the Solar System used to be more peculiar than once thought, with Psyche having grown out from a particularly metal-rich pocket. Astronomers don’t know much about this oddity in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a distance about three times farther than Earth is from the Sun.
After a delay last week due to weather conditions, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft set sail toward the metal-rich asteroid. The mission launched on Friday at 10:19 a.m. Eastern time from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
Its next major maneuver is to unfurl its cross-shaped solar panels. This takes place an hour after launch, and each wing will take a little more than seven minutes to deploy and latch into place. When they are fully deployed, the spacecraft will reach the size of a singles tennis court.
WHERE IS THE SPACECRAFT GOING?
Then, the spacecraft settles into its six-year journey to asteroid Psyche. The asteroid's distance from the Sun is about 235 million to 309 million miles, But the probe will travel 2.5 billion miles through the Solar System to reach it, cruising in an ever-expanding spiral and hopscotching on Mars’ gravity to speed up and set its trajectory.
When the spacecraft finally enters orbit around asteroid Psyche, the trio of instruments onboard will collect data from various altitudes, ranging from 400 miles and getting up-close to just around 47 miles above the asteroid’s surface, which Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s science directorate, called “freaking cool!”
An artist’s illustration of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it approaches the asteroid Psyche. The mission launched this morning and will arrive at the asteroid in 2029.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU
WHY IS NASA STUDYING ASTEROIDS LIKE PSYCHE?
Psyche is one of several active asteroid-centric missions at NASA. The space agency witnessed the descent of samples from asteroid Bennu on September 24, the first time it had attained such a dusty prize.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which plucked this material, is now sailing towards Apophis, an intriguing asteroid that will fly near Earth in 2029. Another NASA mission called Lucy is flying through the Solar System towards a mysterious population of asteroids near Jupiter. Before it reaches its first of these so-called Trojan asteroids, it will visit asteroid Dinkinesh on November 1, 2023.
Studying these pieces of space rock helps scientists better understand the origins of the universe and what occurred as planets were forming. The asteroid Psyche is even more intriguing. Preliminary research suggests that it could be dense, and be abundant in iron. Scientists will have a better understanding of Psyche and what it could mean once they get a closer look. Unfortunately, they’ll have to wait until 2029.
The Intriguing Tales of Bob Lazar: Area 51’s Most Controversial Whistleblower
The Intriguing Tales of Bob Lazar: Area 51’s Most Controversial Whistleblower
In the realm of UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists, few names shine as brightly as Bob Lazar. As the man who famously blew the whistle on Area 51 and the U.S. government’s alleged extraterrestrial projects, Lazar’s tale is a gripping mix of suspense, revelation, and controversy.
Las Vegas, 1989:Most of the world knew little about Area 51, a top-secret military installation buried deep in the Nevada desert. But on May 15th, an investigative report on local TV station KLAS would change that forever. An anonymous figure, only identified as “Dennis”, was interviewed. Veiled in shadows, “Dennis” made startling claims: he had been employed at Area 51 and had witnessed nine extraterrestrial flying discs. This, he declared, was technology far beyond our current understanding.
The claims might have vanished into the abyss of conspiracy theories, except for one detail: “Dennis” was soon revealed to be Bob Lazar. By unveiling his identity, Lazar effectively put himself in the crosshairs. He believed this was his safety net – by publicizing his knowledge, he felt he would be less likely to vanish mysteriously. And as he would later share, his life had already been threatened, his home invaded, and menacing messages left for him.
Over the years, Lazar’s revelations have continued to captivate. He described alien reactors, machines that, if understood, could revolutionize our world, reshaping everything from transport to the economy. Imagine a world without the need for fuel, where travel is not bound by our current limitations. It’s a utopia that, according to Lazar, could become a reality if the secrets of Area 51 are fully unveiled.
Yet, after his explosive allegations, Lazar stepped back from the limelight, preferring a life out of the public gaze. However, the allure of his narrative never truly faded. In 2018, filmmaker Jeremy Corbell brought Lazar’s story back into focus with the documentary “Bob Lazar: Area 51, and Flying Saucers.” In it, Lazar reiterated his claims, asserting that in the late 1980s, the U.S. government had, indeed, recovered multiple alien spacecrafts, studying them secretly in the desert.
But, as with all such tales, there are skeptics. The U.S. government has consistently denied Lazar’s allegations, and some critics argue inconsistencies in his narrative. Yet, whether one believes Lazar’s tales or not, his influence is undeniable. Thanks to him, Area 51 is now synonymous with extraterrestrial mysteries, and his story continues to inspire debates, research, and the quest for the truth about our universe.
A Huge New Gaia Data Release: More Stars, Gravitational Lenses and Asteroids
The ESA's Gaia observatory expanded its targets to include the tightly-packed center of Omega Centauri, an ancient globular cluster. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Acknowedgements: Michele Trabucchi, Nami Mowlavi and Thomas Lebzelter
A Huge New Gaia Data Release: More Stars, Gravitational Lenses and Asteroids
The ESA’s Gaia mission is releasing a new tranche of astronomical data. The mission has released three regular, massive hauls of data since it launched in 2013, named Gaia DR1, DR2, and DR3. The ESA is calling this one a ‘focused product release,’ and while it’s smaller than the previous three releases, it’s still impactful.
The Gaia mission can fly under the radar for most of us. It doesn’t generate gorgeous images that work their way through the internet like the James Webb Space Telescope or the Hubble. Instead, it makes a muscular contribution in the form of foundational, raw data that affects a wide array of issues in astronomy and astrophysics.
Gaia’s mission is simple: it measures the motions, distances, and positions of a billion stars with extreme precision, known collectively as astrometry. Along the way, it also measures the positions of some exoplanets. Its goal is to paint our most detailed picture of the Milky Way yet and to reveal new perspectives on our place in the Universe.
In this new targeted release, Gaia covered up some gaps in its previous coverage, including regions where stars are tightly packed together. Gaia does its work by examining individual stars. But in this release, it turned its attention to other things, including globular clusters.
“We’ve dployed this amazing cosmic tool at maximum power.”
Alexey Mints, Gaia Collaboration Member
Globular clusters (GCs) are ancient, spheroidal groups of stars bound together by gravity. They can contain millions of stars and are found in galaxies, including our own. Omega Centauri was the first GC humanity knew about, though in antiquity, we thought it was a single star. It’s 17,000 light years away and has about 10 million member stars.
The ESA decided to put Gaia to work on Omega Centauri, also called NGC 5139.
This is Omega Centauri, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008. Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgement: A. Cool (San Francisco State Univ.) and J. Anderson (STScI)
Omega Centauri is regarded as a typical GC, and it’s also the most massive one in the Milky Way. To study it, the ESA used a testing and calibration mode on the observatory that wasn’t designed for science. “We didn’t expect to ever use it for science, which makes this result even more exciting,” said Katja Weingrill of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, Germany. Weingrill is also a member of the Gaia collaboration and the lead author of one of several papers presenting the new results.
The observing mode differs because it doesn’t focus on individual stars. Instead, it mapped a wide patch of sky that included Omega Centauri. The observatory added over half a million new stars it hadn’t seen before.
“In?Omega?Centauri,?we?discovered?over?half?a?million?new?stars?Gaia hadn’t?seen?before?– from?just?one?cluster!” said Weingrill.
Gaia examined Omega Centauri and saw ten times more stars in the cluster’s core. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia.
It turns out that Gaia’s engineering mode can make a contribution that the observatory’s regular observing mode can’t. The stars in Omega Centauri’s center are so tightly packed that they’re difficult to distinguish. But not in engineering mode.
“It’s not just patching up holes in our mapping, although this is valuable in itself,” added co-author and Gaia Collaboration member Alexey Mints, also of the AIP. “Our data allowed us to detect stars that are too close together to be properly measured in Gaia’s regular pipeline. With the new data, we can study the cluster’s structure, how the constituent stars are distributed, how they’re moving, and more, creating a complete large-scale map of Omega Centauri. It’s using Gaia to its full potential – we’ve deployed this amazing cosmic tool at maximum power.”
This image shows Gaia’s two different “views” of Omega Centauri. The image on the left is from Gaia’s DR3, and the core appears dark and empty because the observatory can’t see any stars in science mode. On the right is Gaia’s image of Omega Centauri from its engineering mode. It found so many stars that the core is solidly bright. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Omega Centauri is ancient. Its stars are between 10 and 12 billion years old. GC’s role in the evolution of galaxies is unclear, as are their origins. They may be remnants of galaxy mergers, but scientists aren’t certain. This robust new data from Gaia may help answer our questions about GCs as it has with other issues in astronomy.Gaia is going to use its engineering mode to explore eight more regions similar to Omega Centauri. Those results will be included in the upcoming DR4, due sometime after 2025.
The splendid Omega Centauri isn’t the only target in Gaia’s new release. Though it was never intended to study cosmology, the observatory looked deep into the Universe and found gravitational lenses. Gravitational lenses are extraordinarily massive objects like galaxy clusters. Their mass bends and magnifies the light, and when they’re between us and an object even more distant than the lens, we can see the distant object of interest.
This illustration shows how a gravitational lens works. The orange arrows show the apparent location of the background source being studied, and the white arrows show how the light from the source bends around the gravitational lens in the middle. Image Credit: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112602
Gravitational lenses allow astronomers to see extremely distant objects as long as everything lines up right. Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted their existence, and now they’re one more tool in astronomers’ toolboxes. They bring objects that are ordinarily too distant to observe within range. Distant, puzzling quasars are one of the objects that gravitational lenses bring into view.
Gaia found almost 400 candidate quasars and 50 that are almost certainly quasars.
“Gaia is a real lens-seeker,” said Christine Ducourant?of Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, France, and a member of the Gaia collaboration. “Thanks to Gaia, we’ve found that some of the objects we see aren’t simply stars, even though they look like them. They’re actually really distant lensed quasars – extremely bright, energetic galactic cores powered by black holes. We now present 381 solid candidates for lensed quasars, including 50 that we deem highly likely: a goldmine for cosmologists and the largest set of candidates ever released at once.”
Gaia also uncovered five quasars that are quadruply-lensed. These are extremely rare and play an important role in understanding dark matter halos, regions of dark matter uncoupled from the Universe’s expansion.
Lensed quasars are difficult to see. Their images can clump together and become indistinct. They’re challenging to search for, but not for Gaia.
“The great thing about Gaia is that it looks everywhere, so we can find lenses without needing to know where to look,” said Laurent Galluccio of Université Côte d’Azur, France, and member of the Gaia collaboration. “With this data release, Gaia is the first mission to achieve an all-sky survey of gravitational lenses at high resolution.”
The elegant thing about space observatories like Gaia is how their results fuel the efforts of other telescopes and observatories. Just as the Hubble Telescope helped pave the way for the JWST, Gaia is helping pave the way for another ESA mission, Euclid. Euclid launched in July 2023 with a cosmological survey mission. Its job is to make a 3D map of the Universe based on billions of galaxies. It’s like Gaia, but it’ll map galaxies instead of stars. Gaia’s lensed quasars can help Euclid’s observations.
Several new research papers present Gaia’s new results, and they focus on things like asteroids and variable stars.
Gaia’s DR3 from June 2022 contained 150,000 asteroids. The new focused release provides more information on these asteroids by watching them for a longer period of time. These extended observations produced more detailed orbits for the asteroids that are 20 times as precise.
This image shows the orbits of over 150,000 asteroids. Gaia’s new data release improved the accuracy of their measured orbits. The blue circle signifies Jupiter’s orbit. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
A more precise understanding of asteroid orbits is valuable for different reasons. One is that we don’t want one to hit us, and interdiction depends on accurate orbital data. But asteroids are also fascinating objects of scientific study that can tell us a lot about how the Solar System formed. Improved orbits could lead to more missions to asteroids to study them and even sample them. Astronomers can only calculate potential positions for many asteroids, and Gaia’s new data increases accuracy by reducing the number of potential positions.
The final subject in Gaia’s focused release is variable stars. Their brightness fluctuates in two ways. Either it’s due to something external, like a cloud of dust passing in front of the star, or something internal to the star, like swelling or shrinking. The two types of variables are called extrinsic and intrinsic variables. Variable stars are important to astrophysics because they can give us information about stellar properties like mass, radius, luminosity, temperature, internal and external structure, composition, and evolution. We don’t have any other way to acquire some of this information except from the study of variable stars.
In its new focused data release, Gaia delivered data on 10,000 variable stars. Variable stars are also key tools in determining cosmic distances, so having better data on such a massive number of variable stars will eventually help lead to a better understanding of the cosmic ladder.
Each symbol on this skymap indicates the position of one of the sources in Gaia’s data. Each one is colour-coded according to the type of variable star. Red are long-period variables (LPVs) whose variability is driven by the star pulsating. Green dots are so-called ‘long secondary period’ stars (LSPs), whose cause of variability is still debated but believed to be linked to a cloud of dust orbiting the star. Blue symbols are ellipsoidal variables: red giants that are part of a binary system with a dense, compact object distorted into an egg-like shape due to its companion’s powerful gravitational pull. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Acknowledgements: Michele Trabucchi, Nami Mowlavi and Thomas Lebzelter“The mission is providing a truly unique insight into the Universe and the objects within it.”Timo Prusti, Gaia Project Scientist.
“This data release further demonstrates Gaia’s broad and fundamental value – even on topics it wasn’t initially designed to address,” said Timo Prusti, Project Scientist for Gaia at ESA.
Gaia is a star surveyor at heart, and it excels at it. But this focused data release shows that it’s capable of an even larger contribution. “Although its key focus is as a star surveyor, Gaia is exploring everything from the rocky bodies of the Solar System to multiply imaged quasars lying billions of light-years away, far beyond the edges of the Milky Way,” said Prusti. “The mission is providing a truly unique insight into the Universe and the objects within it, and we’re really making the most of its broad, all-sky perspective on the skies around us.”
Gaia can get lost in the deluge of headlines from telescopes like the James Webb and the Hubble and even from installations as arcane as neutrino observatories. But it keeps chugging along, and instead of generating headlines, it generates bedrock knowledge that feeds into all sorts of research. It’s becoming increasingly rare to encounter published research in astronomy and astrophysics that doesn’t rely, even in some small way, on Gaia’s foundational data.
It’s nice to see Gaia be the star of the show, even if it’s only for a short time.
Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ (15th Century). Photo: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
Talk of UFOs—sorry, “unidentified aerial phenomena”—spilled into yet another U.S. congressional hearing in July. The session followed a run of announcements andstudies by the likes of NASA and the RAND Corporation regarding UAP sightings, turning what once was a fringe science and conspiracy theory into a matter of national interest and security.
This new spate of interest in extraterrestrials is but the latest chapter in ufology, a field with roots in the late 19th century. But if certain E.T. proponents are to be believed, this fascination with the existence of aliens stretches back further in history. Their evidence? Cave paintings, Nazca lines, prehistoric sculptures, and—for our purposes—art-historical paintings.
That some old masters depicted encounters with the third kind might be plainly in view for anyone looking closely (very closely) to a few of their works. Squint or stare and you might spot curious aerial phenomena, bizarre beings, or other unexplainable artifacts. Are they signs of an extraterrestrial presence or merely symbols of religious rapture? Is there a difference? Who knows?
Below, we’ve arrayed seven of these historical artworks that contain unidentified objects, so you can make like Congress and be the judge.
1. Masolino da Panicale - The Miracle of the Snow (c. 1428–32)
Masolino da Panicale, The Miracle of the Snow (c. 1428–32).
Photo: Mondadori Portfolio / Getty Images.
The Florentine painter created this altarpieceto commemorate the founding ofRoman basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. Legend has it that the church’s site was chosen by the Virgin Mary herself, who caused snow to fall on that exact spot on the Esquiline Hill in the summer of 352—a scene renderedin Da Panicale’s panel.To some eyes, however, Da Panicale’sdepiction of lenticular clouds looks akin to a fleet of alien spaceships,overseen by Jesus and Mary.Could the so-called miracle of the snow be an allegory for an invasion of flying saucers?It’s worth noting that even in the colder seasons, snow is rare in Rome. But then again, so are UFOs… presumably.
2. Jacques Legrand - Livre des Bonnes Meurs (c. 1430)
Jacques Legrand, Livre des Bonnes Meurs (c. 1430), folio 129v.
Photo: Musée Condé, Chantilly.
Contemporary interest in the pages of the illuminated manuscriptLivre des Bonnes Meurs has less to do with its content, which teaches good manners to folks from clerics to commoners, but a striking image on folio 129 verso. In rich tones, it depicts the goddess of luck Fortuna beside her wheel, surrounded by a group of male petitioners, with a decorated gold sphere hovering bizarrely in the sky above them. Could it be the sun, a hot-air balloon, or another representation of the wheel of fortune? No one has figured it out, but you bet the ufologists have.
3. Domenico Ghirlandaio - The Madonna with Saint Giovannino (c. 15th century)
Domenico Ghirlandaio, The Madonna with Saint Giovannino (c. 15th century).
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The reputation of this 15th-century painting, installed at the Palazzo Vecchio, is such that it is colloquially referred to as “Madonna dell’UFO.” While portraying the Madonna with the infant Jesus and Saint John, Ghirlandaio (the work has also been attributed to Jacopo del Sellaio and Sebastiano Mainardi) chose to paint an odd blob in the sky to the right of Mary’s shoulder, with the figures of a man and a dog looking on. There’s even speculation that Mary has positioned herself to shield the children, who, it seems, might not be the only celestial beings in frame.
4. Michael Pacher - Saint Augustine and the Devil (c. 1475)
Michael Pacher, Saint Augustine and the Devil (c. 1475).
Photo: DeAgostini / Getty Images.
Pacher’s oil illustrates a simple legend: the devil showing Augustine his entry in the book of vices (the saint only has the one recorded sin of not praying hard enough, of course). Or does it? Depending on who’s viewing it, the Gothic painter’s grotesque demon, complete with green skin and red eyes on its rear-end, is less mythical and more extraterrestrial. Which turns the painting’s depiction into less a meeting of good and evil, and more artistic proof that we’re not alone.
5. Carlo Crivelli - The Annunciation with Saint Emidius (1486)
Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation with Saint Emidius (1486).
Photo: VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images.
Crivelli’s luxuriously detailed work offers his artistic interpretation of the annunciation, the archangel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she will soon bear the Christian messiah. Except that Mary looks to be receiving the announcement from an extraterrestrial vehicle, its message beaming down laser-like to reach her. It’s the kind of light, so say proponents, consistent with those reported in modern-day alien abductions, presenting fodder for the theory that Mary was, well, abducted and artificially inseminated by aliens.
6. Hans Glaser - Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremburg (1561)
Hans Glaser, Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremburg broadsheet with woodcut (1561).
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
In 1561, Glaser, a Nuremberg artist and publisher, produced a broadsheet to report on a “dreadful apparition” that occurred just above the city on April 14. Accompanying his account of an aerial battle between objects shaped like globes and crosses was his illustrative, almost buoyant woodcut depicting the multi-colored UAPs (to those of you who are new to ufology, that is short for unidentified anomalous phenomena) swirling across the sun. While skeptics today reckon the phenomenon was down to parhelia, an atmospheric optical occurrence, or perhaps an early use of fireworks, Glaser deemed it—what else?—a “high sign” from God.
7. Aert de Gelder - Baptism of Christ (c. 1710)
Aert de Gelder, The Baptism of Christ (c. 1710).
Photo: The Fitzwilliam Museum.
De Gelder was one of Rembrandt’s last pupils and his paintings of Biblical scenes bear the Dutch Master’s heightened emotionalism. His circa 1710 work captures the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist at the River of Jordan, spotlit by beams from a huge disc in the sky. It’s ostensibly a representation of “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on [Jesus],” according to Matthew 3:16. Or could it be de Gelder was trying to tell us something about the audience at Jesus’s baptism?
Fast radio bursts are extragalactic transient phenomena that shine in radio wavelengths for short durations lasting only 1-10 milliseconds. Some sources of fast radio bursts are known to produce many bursts repeatedly. Repeaters are thought to be neutron stars, but the causes of bursts and the radiation mechanism are not well understood.
Totani & Tsuzuki found remarkable similarities between the statistical properties of fast radio bursts and earthquakes, especially the laws on aftershock occurrence.
Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are enigmatic and rarely detected bursts of energy that come from far beyond the Milky Way Galaxy.
These events have durations of milliseconds and exhibit the characteristic dispersion sweep of radio pulsars.
They emit as much energy in one millisecond as the Sun emits in 10,000 years, but the physical phenomenon that causes them is unknown.
The first FRB was discovered in 2007, although it was actually observed some six years earlier, in archival data from a pulsar survey of the Magellanic Clouds.
To date, more than one hundred FRBs have been detected, yet only some of these have so far been observed to repeat.
“The cause of FRBs is unknown, but some ideas have been put forward, including that they might even be alien in origin,” said University of Tokyo astronomers Tomonori Totani and Yuya Tsuzuki.
“However, the current prevailing theory is that at least some FRBs are emitted by neutron stars.”
“These stars form when a supergiant star collapses, going from eight times the mass of our Sun (on average) to a superdense core only 20-40 km across.”
“Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, and these have been observed to emit FRBs.”
“It was theoretically considered that the surface of a magnetar could be experiencing a starquake, an energy release similar to earthquakes on Earth,” Professor Totani added.
“Recent observational advances have led to the detection of thousands more FRBs, so we took the opportunity to compare the now large statistical data sets available for FRBs with data from earthquakes and solar flares, to explore possible similarities.”
“So far, statistical analysis of FRBs has focused on the distribution of wait times between two successive bursts.”
“However, calculating only the wait-time distribution does not take into account correlations that might exist across other bursts.”
So the astronomers decided to calculate correlation across two-dimensional space, analyzing the time and emission energy of nearly 7,000 bursts from three different repeater FRB sources.
They then applied the same method to examine the time-energy correlation of earthquakes (using data from Japan) and of solar flares (using records from the Hinode mission), and compared the results of all three phenomena.
They were surprised that, in contrast to other studies, their analysis showed a striking similarity between FRBs and earthquake data, but a distinct difference between FRBs and solar flares.
“The results show notable similarities between FRBs and earthquakes in the following ways,” Professor Totani said.
“First, the probability of an aftershock occurring for a single event is 10-50%.”
“Second, the aftershock occurrence rate decreases with time, as a power of time.”
“Third, the aftershock rate is always constant even if the FRB-earthquake activity (mean rate) changes significantly.”
“And fourth, there is no correlation between the energies of the main shock and its aftershock.”
This strongly suggests the existence of a solid crust on the surface of neutron stars, and that starquakes suddenly occurring on these crusts releases huge amounts of energy which we see as FRBs.
“By studying starquakes on distant ultradense stars, which are completely different environments from Earth, we may gain new insights into earthquakes,” Professor Totani said.
“The interior of a neutron star is the densest place in the Universe, comparable to that of the interior of an atomic nucleus.”
“Starquakes in neutron stars have opened up the possibility of gaining new insights into very high-density matter and the fundamental laws of nuclear physics.”
The team’s work was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Tomonori Totani & Yuya Tsuzuki. 2023. Fast radio bursts trigger aftershocks resembling earthquakes, but not solar flares. MNRAS 526 (2): 2795-2811; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad2532
Glowing UAP Over Dallas, Texas Oct 13, 2023, UFO Sighting News.
Glowing UAP Over Dallas, Texas Oct 13, 2023, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Oct 13, 2023
Location of sighting: Dallas, Texas, USA
Source: MUFON
This just in. Several videos of this event came in today and I chose the best one, most steady and most high quality of video. This one shows an unknown object in the sky over Dallas and there were thousands of people who saw it happen. Some say aliens, some wonder if it's SpaceX or NASA, but one thing is clear, the US gov will not tell us the truth about a real UFO over US territory. They keep the details quiet and suggest it's a rocket launch or some other excuse. Well it's aliens and thats the truth.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
I was taking my usual early evening walk when I noticed an odd fuzzy-looking light in the western sky. Since the sky was completely clear and other objects in the sky - including aircraft and stars - were sharp and clear, it seemed odd that it looked almost like it was enshrouded in fog. Stars could be clearly seen behind it, and aircraft were also visible, since we are close to DFW Airport. As the object moved in a southerly direction I quickly took out my cellphone and snapped several photos before switching to video, While videoing the object it emitted a sudden vapor cloud in the direction of its travel. I was fortunate to capture that cloud on video, as well as an aircraft that passed in its vicinity. The object then slowly dissipated or faded away. The whole viewing lasted no more than a handful of minutes. None of my photos nor the video have been altered or renamed in any way. If this is an explainable terrestrial event I'd like to know, since I've never seen anything like it.
A view of Noctis Labyrinthus on Mars, from Mars Odyssey data. ESA's Mars Express has created a flyover video from eight years of its data. Courtesy Mars Odyssey.
Many of us have dreamed about flying over the surface of Mars—someday. The planet offers so many cool places to study, and doing it in person is something for future Marsnauts to consider. The Mars Express spacecraft has been mapping the Red Planet for years. It now gives us an up-close look now, through an animation of thousands of images of Mars from its cameras.
One of the most striking areas on Mars is its Noctis Labyrinthus—Latin for the “Labyrinth of Night.” It lies between Mars’s Valles Marineris and the gigantic volcanoes of the Tharsis Bulge. This shattered terrain is a system of valleys that stretch out across nearly 1,200 kilometers. Scientists combined ESA’s Mars Express images into an amazing flyover of this terrain, giving us a tasty hint of what future explorers will see.
A flight over Mars’s Noctis Labyrinthus region made from Mars Express images. Courtesy ESA.
What Caused Noctis Labyrinthus?
This maze of valleys didn’t just happen overnight. It’s a fracture zone at the heart of a region called the Tharsis Rise. Essentially, the valleys formed when volcanism in the Tharsis region led to the creation of a bulge, which caused much of the surrounding area to arch up. That created tectonic stresses on the surrounding areas.
The crust actually grew thinner and structures called “grabens” formed. (“Graben” means “grave”.) Think of grabens as trenches of material that settled down as the crust thinned and extended. In addition, there are fractures running under most of the region. Some of the grabens are as deep as 5,000 meters, a testament to the tectonic forces at work in Mars’s ancient past.
Flying Over This Region of Mars
A flight over Noctis Labyrinthus is a trip through time. For example, the highest plateaus in the imagery represent the original surface level. So, imagine what it looked like before all the tectonic activity and before chunks of surface fell away.
Noctis Labyrinthus on Mars as seen by Viking 1 orbiter. It extends off the end of the Valles Marineris. Courtesy NASA.
The intersecting canyons and valleys created by the volcanic stresses may look small here, but they are up to 30 km wide and six km deep. Over the millennia, gigantic landslides thundered down the slopes, covering up the older surface units. Other valley slopes show large dune fields. These formed when Martian winds blew sand across the surface. All in all, this flyover gives you an idea of millions of years of geologic history. It’s somewhat analogous to flying over and through Earth’s Grand Canyon and studying the cross-cutting fracture zone at its base. Such a flyover would show the earliest structures that contribute to the complexity of the Canyon.
Creating the Mars Flyover
It’s cool to think of Mars Express focusing a high-resolution movie camera on the surface. However, this movie comprises many individual images. The views come from more than eight Mars Express orbits. In addition to images, the team combined images with topographic information from a digital terrain model. That helped the visualization team generate a three-dimensional landscape, with every second of the video comprising 50 separate frames rendered according to a pre-defined camera path.
In addition to showing the ancient history of Mars terrain, the video also shows some Mars Express history. The opening credits (Mars globe, first 24 seconds) were created using the recent 20-year Mars global color mosaic. Haze has been added to conceal the limits of the terrain model. It starts building up at a distance of between 150 and 200 km. The video is centered at the Martian coordinates of 7°S, 265°E.
Unravelling the mystery of ‘Britain’s Roswell’: UFO expert reveals his controversial new theory on the Suffolk forest where 17 mysterious sightings were reported 43 years ago
Unravelling the mystery of ‘Britain’s Roswell’: UFO expert reveals his controversial new theory on the Suffolk forest where 17 mysterious sightings were reported 43 years ago
Ex-cop Gary Heseltine claims the UFO mystery may have occurred over six days
Rendlesham Forest is central to one of the most mysterious UFO sightings ever
Dubbed 'Britain's Roswell', the Rendlesham Forest mystery has captivated UFO enthusiasts ever since it took place 42 years ago.
On three separate nights over Christmas, military personnel were convinced they had seen strange flashing lights near to a Royal Airforce base in Suffolk.
Numerous theories have emerged regarding what they saw that night, including pranks, a distant lighthouse and even time travel.
But former detectiveGary Heseltine claims to have uncovered new information about the incident that brings everything we thought we knew into question.
Surprisingly, he believes the mind-boggling 1980 event may have taken place over five or six nights, having tracked 17 different sightings.
On three separate nights over Christmas, military personnel were convinced they had seen strange flashing lights near to a Royal Airforce base in Suffolk
'In simple terms, the Rendlesham case is very different from most other UFO cases because it's not one event, it's a series of events over consecutive nights,' Heseltine told MailOnline.
Former detective Gary Heseltine claims to have uncovered new information about the incident that brings everything we thought we knew into question
'For a long time it was believed there were only two events on two nights. Then over time more details came out, and we were pretty happy that it was three events over three nights.
'As a former detective, when I re-investigated this, I did it in a chronological way as best I could to break down the incidents and the different people involved.
'And, in the conclusion of my book, there were 17 different timed events involving numerous personnel over what is likely to be now a five to six day period.
'New information came to me that dates the first incident to be the 23rd of December - nobody had ever heard of that.'
Back in 1980, military personnel claimed to see lights hovering in the sky and descending into the woodland on three separate nights just before New Year.
While they were allegedly convinced these shapes were alien spacecraft, it has since been brushed off as a scaremongering prank played on the US air force by Britain's Special Air Service (SAS).
At the time, the SAS were said to have regularly tested the US security by probing the nearby perimeters of RAF Woodbridge, which allegedly stored nuclear warheads at the time of the Cold War.
On one occasion, the Brits were allegedly subjected to a brutal interrogation and beaten up by US security before being released 18 hours later after authorities intervened.
However, Heseltine claims there was more to this incident than what has been made public, suggesting that it all started with airman Steve Wagner on December 23.
Just before Christmas Eve, it's said that Wagner investigated a strange incident near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge as something had reportedly 'come down' amongst the trees.
Alongside two others, Wagner reportedly went out to investigate and in Heseltine's book 'Non Human' it's claimed they found something quite unexpected.
Just before Christmas Eve, it's said that Wagner investigated a strange incident near to the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge where something had reportedly 'come down' amongst the trees
Controversially, Gary Heseltine believes the mind-boggling 1980 event may have taken place over five or six nights, having tracked 17 different sightings
Mystery of the 1947 Roswell wreckage
In July 1947, a rancher reported pieces of debris scattered over his land.
Authorities were called to the scene and after investigating the wreckage, determined the pieces were from a flying sauce.
The local paper's front page story reported that the Roswell Army field recovered a flying saucer on a New Mexico Ranch after metallic-looking, light but strong material was scattered across the land.
'The intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment Group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into the possession of a Flying Saucer,' Roswell Daily Record reported on July 8, 1947.
However, shortly after the 'UFO' discovery made headlines, the War Department in Washington released a statement claiming the debris was the remains of a weather balloon.
'The airman Steve Wagner says what they came across were depressions in an equilateral triangle in this little clearing near the trees,' Heseltine told MailOnline.
'What he said was really significant because the depressions were all the same size and shape - they were approximately 5ft wide.
'So the 23rd of December - if the day is accurate - and he said "I'm pretty certain it was before Christmas", it's a lot bigger than what happened on the night of Christmas night into Boxing Day - so hugely significant.'
As 42 years have now passed, Heseltine has largely relied on the corroboration of witness accounts to evidence these claims.
Alongside Wagner, the former detective has also investigated a number of other key witnesses including Jim Penniston, Ed Cabansag, Larry Warren and Sergeant Adrian Bustinza.
He now claims that three separate unexplained events also took place on December 27, six on December 28 and one on December 29.
One of his boldest claims regards US Lieutenant Bonnie Tamplin, who allegedly encountered an 'unknown object' near the site while driving.
This reportedly caused her to crash into a ditch, having lost complete control of her car.
The former detective even claims she was relieved from her duties after the incident and returned to the US in distress.
Heseltine's claims come just as the US Senate is expecting to consider a bipartisan measure regarding UFO sightings.
Numerous theories have emerged regarding what they saw that night, including pranks, a distant lighthouse and even time travel
The 64-page UFO Disclosure Bill seeks to make all information relating to 'unidentified anomalous phenomena' (UAPs) public.
Heseltine believes that legislation such as this will help boost the legitimacy of extraterrestrial sightings at a time when they are often disregarded as bogus.
He thinks there is a chance that the UK may one day follow suit in its own legislation.
'In my lifetime I've never seen this level of build up to something that appears to be genuinely happening,' he added.
'There is such an excitement building that we might get official confirmation that we are dealing with a non-human intelligence.'
RENDLESHAM FOREST INCIDENT
In December 1980, strange lights were reported by servicemen in Rendlesham Forest near RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge, in Suffolk.
The incident came to be known as 'Britain's Roswell'; named after the supposed UFO sightings in New Mexico.
Soldiers investigated what the lights were, including Staff Sgt Jim Burroughs, Airman First Class Edward Cabansag and Airman First Class Larry Warren.
The disputed sightings, over three nights between December 26-28, occurred when Britain and the West were on high alert during the Cold War.
Retired US Air Force officer Steve Longero broke a 36 year silence in December 2016, to reveal he also saw something in the night sky.
Mr Longero said the UFOs looked like red and green fluorescent lights hovering over treetops.
He also dismissed one theory that the lights had been caused by a lighthouse.
The incident became a topic of fascination in the UK after a group of servicemen went into Rendlesham Forest to investigate the mysterious lights and came out convinced they had seen seen an alien spacecraft.
The Suffolk sightings resurfaced claims from those living in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, when an unexpected crash was alleged to have been the remains of a spacecraft and alien bodies.
But this was rejected by the US military following a close investigation into the wreckage.
The British Ministry of Defence has also dismissed the claims regarding Rendlesham.
It said there was no threat to national security and the UFOs were likely to be caused by a series of nocturnal lights.
Unmasking the Secrets: The Roswell UFO Sightings Uncovered
Unmasking the Secrets: The Roswell UFO Sightings Uncovered
The world of UFO sightings has long been shrouded in mystery, with Roswell, New Mexico at its heart. Nestled deep within the tales of extraterrestrial encounters, the infamous Roswell incident has intrigued UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike. With recent revelations, it seems we might be closer than ever to uncovering the truth behind this historic event.
In 2011, the FBI unveiled a treasure trove of files from their online vault. Among the released documents, a memo from 1950 stood out. Addressed to the iconic FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, it highlighted startling information about the recovery of three flying saucers in New Mexico. This memo instantly rejuvenated interest in the 1947 Roswell incident, where locals claimed an unidentified flying object crashed on a ranch.
The narrative took an unexpected twist when, just days after the crash, The Roswell Daily Record’s front page declared the military had captured a flying saucer. However, 24 hours later, the story was retracted, dismissing the crashed object as a mere weather balloon. Given Roswell’s reputation as home to the 509th Bomb crew, the only atomic bomb-capable squadron at the time, the abrupt turnaround raised eyebrows. Would the elite of the elite mistake a simple weather balloon for an extraterrestrial craft? This marked the beginning of decades of debates, speculations, and conspiracy theories.
VIDEO:
Ancient Aliens: LEAKED Documents Reveal Alien Secrets at Roswell (Special)
Fast forward to 2014, ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Tsoukalos visited the Walker Air Force Base in Roswell. Meeting with Mayor Del Jurney, he explored the very hangar where the Roswell wreckage and alleged extraterrestrial beings were first housed. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the location’s history, Tsoukalos remarked on the significance of standing where possible alien entities once lay. The remnants of the crash? Believed to be securely stored within a classified military facility.
The Roswell UFO crash incident has evolved from a local legend to a global enigma. With the release of more classified documents and a growing number of witnesses coming forward, the line between fact and fiction blurs. The world may soon find out whether the UFO sightings in Roswell were a result of human error or proof of extraterrestrial life.
UAP Over San Antonio, Texas Oct 11, 2023, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UAP Over San Antonio, Texas Oct 11, 2023, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Oct 11, 2023
Location of sighting: San Antonio, Texas, USA
Source: MUFON
This UFO was caught by an Uber while driving in San Antonio. He caught a tear drop light in the distance and it stands out powerfully against the overcast sky. Similar UFOs have been seen worldwide, often called the jellyfish UFOs, the lower part has glowing dangly tentacles like a jelly fish. Texas...its a hotbed of UFO activity.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
I was headed home from work in my Uber when I glanced out the window and observed the object hovering in the sky shining like a star but it was very close to the ground a few hundred feet from the ground.
They fell from the sky as written on 12,000 years old stone discs
They fell from the sky as written on 12,000 years old stone discs
There is much written about the mysterious extraterrestrial beings known as the "Dropa," described as extraterrestrial greys, who, around 12,000 years ago, experienced a crash landing on Earth in the Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains along the Chinese-Tibetan border.
According to what may be the earliest version of the tale, in 1937 an archeological expedition in the Bayan Har mountains led by Chi Pu Tei found half buried on the dust floor a large round stone disc, in total they found 716 stone discs and each disc was 9 inches (22.7 cm) in diameter and 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick. Each disc also had an exactly circular 2 cm hole in its center.
Besides the stones, the cavern walls where adorned with pictograms portraying our Solar System and intricate maps illustrating routes among the stars using intersecting lines and dots as well as remains of thin bodies with unusually large heads were also present at the site.
Amazingly, not only all 716 granite discs, dated to 12,000 years before present, were filled with carved tiny hieroglyph-like markings, which, after decoding the markings in 1962, turned out to be a ‘record’ of alien writing composed of microscopic characters written in a language never encountered before .
In 1966 further research has been conducted by Soviet researchers in Moscow who discovered that they contained large amount of cobalt and other metals, that they behaved as electrical conductors, and that they produced a humming sound when placed on a special turntable.
It would have made it difficult for the primitive people to carve the lettering, especially with such minute characters. When testing a disc with an oscillograph, a surprising oscillation rhythm was recorded as if, the scientists said, they had once been electrically charged or had functioned as electrical conductors.
The stone discs told the story of the Dropa people, space travelers from a distant planet whereby one stone disc had a thin spiral groove filled with hieroglyphics that told of the Dropa crashing their spaceship 12,000 years ago and they couldn’t repair their craft. Local Chinese (Han) killed off most of them and the survivors were those intombed in the cave.
The Dropa stones have become a focal point of controversy, with numerous assertions suggesting that they might be nothing more than an elaborate hoax. However, when researchers visited the Banpo museum in Xian in 1994 where several discs were on display, they were informed by the museum director that higher authorities had mandated the destruction of the discs. Officially, the museum did not recognize the existence of these mysterious stones.
This raises the question: were the 716 stone discs, purportedly bearing evidence of extraterrestrial visitation to Earth, truly unearthed, or is there a deliberate effort to conceal their discovery?
Montserrat is located 50 kilometers northwest of Barcelona. It is one of the most beautiful and admirable mountains in the world due to its abrupt and huge shapes. Its appearance impressive and threatening have created many legends around it. The impact it produces the first time you arrive at the mountain and contemplate the panorama is indescribable. It is a sense of mysticism and reflection that traps body and mind and offers you an aura of magical tranquility.
The interior of the mountain hides an even more mysterious world, a network of caves that are focus of many stories and legends. One of those caves, the most outstanding for its size, is the Cave of Salnitre or Cave of Collbató of almost a kilometer long.
Here our favourite legends of Montserrat and stories that you must know before visiting this amazing natural park.
The Madonna of Montserrat:
According to the legend, the Madonna of Montserrat, «La Moreneta», was found in the year 888 by some shepherds in a cave of the mountain (the «Santa Cova»). They went to the place after seeing some fireballs that came out of the cave. The lights were so strong than illuminated the church and part of Manresa. When they arrived, they found the Madonna inside the cave so they decided to transfer her to the city of Manresa but the figure began to weigh more and more. They understood then that the sacred Madonna wanted to stay in the place where the monastery is located today. Since then, there were many miracles that are associated to «la Moreneta» and her fame has grown throughout Europe.
This legend was testified by thousands of people and by the authorities. Since then, the city of Manresa has always celebrated this event with the «Festes de la Llum», which take place in February.
La Moreneta – Black Madona
“El timbaler del Bruc”:
This legend tells the story of a young man who, with his drum and the noise that the mountain did when he redoubled it, made the French troops of Napoleon Bonaparte left the sacred place. As they thought that the echo of the drum was a numerous army that came to fight against them.
Performance in Manresa of one of the legends
The warrior Ignacio de Loyola:
There is a great variety of legends, such as the conversion of Ignacio de Loyola in the 16th century. Iñigo, a Basque warrior had his conversion after venerating the virgin and overcome the temptation in a cave of Manresa. The soldier left his sword in the monastery and later founded the order of the Jesuits.
Place of abductions:
According to some testimonies of citizens of Manresa in the year 1345 stars were spotted on the peaks of Montserrat. In the 70’s some people assured to have been abducted by aliens or seen UFOs. These facts have motivated many curious and fans of the alien world to meet every day waiting for the approach of extraplanetary life.
Earth of energies that opens doors to other dimensions:
The natural park is formed by needles and monoliths of calcareous formation that act in Montserrat like powerful antennas that emit frequencies of geobiological magnetism. In addition, the storage of water in the subterranean caverns of the mountain produces a strong environmental ionization. These forces are perceived consciously or unconsciously by the visitors.
There are esoteric groups that perform their rituals invoking the magnetic forces that arise from the earth to enhance the chakra of the human being.
Believers or not, the truth is that there have been strange events in these lands, such as the disappearance of people without a trace. It is true that it is very easy to get lost in the mountains and that some roads end in cliffs. But the total disappearance of the bodies is something that keeps the investigations confused. It is said that in Montserrat there are inter-dimensional doors. Be careful when walking in the mountain to do not pass through one of them
Couple waiting for ovnis in Montserrat
The Holy “Grail”:
The Grail Mythology during the age of the Crusade of Europe locates the exact location of the sacred chalice near the Pyrenees, on the mountain called Mont-Salvat. Many people believed that Mont-Salvat was Montserrat. This motivated many adventurers to seek the precious treasure. The Nazis were one of them. It is said that Himmler, the Reichführer SS, visited Barcelona and looked for the Holy Grail in Montserrat in 1940. The Nazis tried to get the Force emanating from the Grail to become invincible. Himmler himself showed special interest in the geological formations of the mountain and his underground world. However, Hitler was not able to seize the Holy Chalice.
Nazis visiting the monks in Montserrat
The mysticism of The Vespers:
Don’t forget to walk around the monastery, where there is still a community of 70 monks that live there. Get close to the Black Madonna with no queues. And the absolute best experience of all: listen to the children’s choir, the Escolania, in the evening. The audience is small and quiet, so the children’s angelical voices will reach to you clearly at 6.45 pm so you can see the Vespers, the evening singing of the boys’ choir.
Montserrat: Where Sacred Meets the Extraterrestrial
Montserrat: Where Sacred Meets the Extraterrestrial
Nestled in the heart of Spain, the jagged peaks of Montserrat rise as a testament to nature’s grandeur. But for those who’ve dared to tread its rugged terrains or simply gaze upon its beauty, there’s a palpable feeling that Montserrat is more than just a mountain. It’s a nexus where the divine and the unknown intertwine.
The Madonna’s Mystical Echo
At the mountain’s core lies the Benedictine abbey, home to the Black Madonna. Thousands flock to see her every year, driven by faith, hope, and tales of miracles. But is it possible that the Madonna’s allure might be connected to something… not of this world? Whispers among the locals suggest that the numerous sightings of celestial phenomena on the 11th of every month might not be mere coincidence.
The Luminous Sky Dance
On cool, clear nights, the skies above Montserrat come alive. Eyewitnesses recount seeing strange, glowing orbs dancing across the horizon, sometimes in patterns too synchronized to dismiss as mere flukes. Javier, a local farmer, shared his own experience: “I was tending to my sheep when the sky lit up. At first, I thought it was a shooting star, but then it zigzagged in ways no star ever could.”
Caverns of Cosmic Secrets
The mountain’s vast network of caves and passages holds tales of their own. Ana, a seasoned explorer, recounts an eerie episode. “We were deep inside one of Montserrat’s caves when our equipment began to malfunction. The compass spun wildly, and our lights flickered. Then, we heard a hum – soft at first, then deafening. By the time we exited, two hours had passed, though it felt like mere minutes.”
The Silent Observers
Several visitors have also reported seeing mysterious figures observing them from a distance. Not quite human, these entities seem to vanish when approached. A café owner, Luisa, said, “There’s a spot on the mountain where you feel watched. It’s not menacing, just… curious.”
Beyond Earthly Explanations
While skeptics might brush off these accounts as products of overactive imaginations, the sheer volume of stories and their consistency raises eyebrows. Is Montserrat a cosmic crossroads? Are the spiritual and extraterrestrial realms converging here?
Intrigue in the Shadows
There are murmurs that the government knows more than they’re letting on. Discreet vehicles with tinted windows, sightings of unfamiliar military personnel, and inexplicable electronic disruptions have all been reported. It seems Montserrat’s mysteries might be drawing attention from higher up.
Video:
Montserrat remains an enigma, a place where faith, legend, and the unexplained coalesce. For those brave enough to venture forth, the mountain promises more than scenic beauty; it offers a journey into the very fabric of the unknown.
De Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA heeft een ruimtesonde gelanceerd naar de asteroïde Psyche. Die bestaat voor een groot stuk uit kostbare metalen, zoals goud en platina, en zou veel meer waard zijn dan de hele wereldeconomie. Het ruimtetuig moet in 2029 aankomen om 2 jaar lang rond de asteroïde te draaien voor onderzoek.
9 triljoen euro (een 9 met 18 nullen erachter), ofwel zo'n 100.000 keer meer dan de hele wereldeconomie. Dat is de geschatte waarde van de asteroïde Psyche (officieel: "16 Psyche"). Er wordt aangenomen dat de asteroïde grotendeels uit metaal bestaat, vooral ijzer en nikkel. Maar ook uit kostbare edelmetalen, zoals goud en platina.
Het is naar die asteroïde dat in de Verenigde Staten de gelijknamige ruimtemissie Psyche is vertrokken. Om 16.19 uur Belgische tijd is een Falcon Heavy-raket van SpaceX gelanceerd met de ruimtesonde aan boord.
De ruimtesonde moet na een reis van 3,6 miljard kilometer in 2029 aankomen bij Psyche om er 2 jaar lang rond de asteroïde te cirkelen. Het is dus niet de bedoeling om er te landen en bodemstalen op te pikken, zoals ruimtesonde OSIRIS-REx deed op de asteroïde Bennu.
Feiten en cijfers
Psyche is een enorme brok metaal die rond de zon draait, ergens tussen Mars en Jupiter. Het is één van de grotere en zwaarste asteroïden die we kennen.
Psyche heeft een onregelmatige vorm en lijkt wat op een aardappel. Op haar breedst is Psyche zo'n 280 kilometer groot, ongeveer dezelfde afstand in vogelvlucht als van De Panne naar Aarlen. De oppervlakte is zo'n 165.000 vierkante kilometer groot.
De NASA-missie kost ongeveer 1,1 miljard euro.
De Falcon Heavy-raket staat klaar op het lanceerplatform in Cape Canaveral, Florida
Psyche wordt ook wel eens de asteroïde genoemd die elke aardbewoner schatrijk kan maken. Of dat is de theorie natuurlijk. Want mocht goud plots in overvloed aanwezig zijn, zou het ook zijn waarde verliezen.
NASA heeft (voorlopig) vooral een ander doel voor ogen: kennis vergaren. Het is de eerste ruimtemissie naar een wereld die niet vooral uit steen of ijs bestaat, maar uit metaal.
Er wordt vermoed dat Psyche een dode planeet is waarvan enkel de kern is overgebleven. Haar buitenste laag zou ze zijn verloren door botsingen met andere objecten in het begin van het ontstaan van ons zonnestelsel.
Het geeft wetenschappers de kans om voor het eerst zo'n kern te bestuderen. Ook onze aarde en alle andere gekende rotsplaneten hebben een kern van metaal.
"We kunnen geen gat boren tot in de kern van onze aarde of van andere planeten", zegt astronoom Jim Bell van de Arizona State University die het wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar Psyche leidt.
"Het is te heet en de druk is te groot, onze instrumenten zouden smelten." De reis naar Psyche kan dus worden gezien als een reis naar het binnenste van onze aarde, klinkt het bij NASA.
Nikkel, goud en platina van Psyche halen en naar de aarde brengen, is technisch nog niet mogelijk en veel duurder dan wat het oplevert. Maar de mogelijkheden van mijnbouw op asteroïden worden wel al volop onderzocht. Je kan er dus van op aan dat het ooit werkelijkheid wordt én winstgevend. En een hoop vragen met zich zal meebrengen.
The reality of the UAP phenomenon is larger than just non-human crafts flying with incredible speed in the air and water. Reportedly, there are incidents where UFOs were noticed interacting with the nuclear arsenal of the United States, shutting down the nuclear missiles. It is well-acknowledged by the US Defence Department that whatever this phenomenon is, it is a serious concern to national security. Moreover, instead of disabling nukes, UFOs have severely affected the witnesses biologically and physically.
Award-winning journalist Linda Moulton Howe held a special interview with Former AATIP head Luis Elizondo on surpassing 200,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel. She asked Elizondo audacious questions regarding the phenomenon and its effect on the human body. Mr. Elizondo briefed on the previously known facts: that UFOs interfered with electrical and nuclear systems, and that there are unique physical effects for witnesses after close encounters.
First of all, not going into depth due to protocols, Mr. ELizondo revealed that an alleged incident happened in the 1970s, where UFOs knocked an entire nuclear-powered aircraft carrier offline for some time. This revelation was made in a talk where Elizondo outlined why the world’s governments have been so secretive about these objects and why they consider them a potential security threat.
Secondly, the UFO impacted the consciousness of the individual. In 2021, Stanford Professor said in an interview with Motherboard: “Some of their (UFO contactee) brains were horribly, horribly damaged.” He was approached by a CIA-led group that showed him MRI scans of the people injured by the fields generated by UAPs, and the presence of brain trauma was evident.
It has been reported that some pilots and others who had close encounters with UFOs experienced radiation burns and negative mental damage. However, Mr. Elizondo told Linda Howe that he was equally astonished by seeing certain instances where exposed individuals experienced “good” side effects after coming into touch.
He said: “There is also some preliminary data to suggest that some individual individuals actually report the opposite so rather than having some sort of negative biological consequence all of a sudden you have somebody who’s now for example a piano virtuoso who’s never sat in front of a piano before or who now becomes suddenly super artistic or who claims to have some sort of extra-sensory capabilities or talents now if you will or a sixth sense.”
Linda Howe discussed a highly classified report from the year 2000 produced by the UK Air Defence that noted down the serious biological impact of UAPs on humans. “The well-reported Rendlesham Forest/Bentwaters event is an example where it might be postulated that several observers were probably exposed to UAP radiation for longer than normal UAP sighting periods There may be other cases that remain unreported. It is clear that the recipients of these effects are not aware that their behavior/perception of what they are observing is being modified. The E field strengths which are known to affect the brain are of the order 50 multivolts per centimeter at between 1 and 100MHz and experiments have shown that effects can be produced at levels of 10-7 to 10-8 volts per centimeter.” (Source)
It is concluded therefore that if some UAPs, as is believed and correlated by actual reports (collateral effects on, for example, car electrical equipment), produce EM radiation, then there is a high probability that they can affect the human brain.
The AATIP report, which The Sun obtained from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as part of a sizable Freedom of Information request, looks into the effects of paranormal experiences on people’s health. According to interviews in this Pentagon report from 2010, UFO sightings have left witnesses with radiation burns, mental damage, and “felt time suspension.” It compiled 42 cases of adverse effects from medical files and 300 from “unpublished” cases. (Source
The study is titled “Anomalous Acute And Subacute Field Effects on Human and Biological Tissues.” It is dated March 11, 2010. “Classified information exists that is highly pertinent to the subject of this study and only a small part of the classified literature has been released,” the document states.
Following these incidents, astronomer Jacques Vallée developed an alternative hypothesis that UFOs are part of a mechanism for controlling mankind. During his interview in 1986, he said that UFOs are “physical object that interacts with the environment that causes effects on the witnesses on the psychology and the physiology and leaves traces on the ground and yet are capable of appeared to be manipulating time and space in ways that go beyond what our physics understands.”
While working on the French Space Committee, Dr. Vallée claimed to have witnessed his superiors destroy tracking tapes of a UFO that his team had observed. This, along with a personal UFO sighting several years earlier, created his lifelong interest in UFOs. Initially falling in line with the Extraterrestrial hypothesis, he soon began to realize its serious flaws, namely:
The unexplained close encounters are far more numerous than required for any physical survey of the earth; the humanoid body structure of the alleged “aliens” is not likely to have originated on another planet and is not biologically adapted to space travel; the reported behavior in thousands of abduction reports contradicts the hypothesis of genetic or scientific experimentation on humans by an advanced race; the extension of the phenomenon throughout recorded human history demonstrates that UFOs are not a contemporary phenomenon; the apparent ability of UFOs to manipulate space and time suggests radically different and richer alternatives.
According to Dr. Vallée, the basic idea is that UFOs are essentially a “show” put on for people to generate some sort of reaction, and have been operating on human culture for all of recorded history. Dr. Vallée argued that when investigating a UFO encounter, the focus should be on the witness, and how he/she interpreted the event, and how it affected their life (he noted that many people tend to emotionally react to a UFO sighting as a spiritual or religious experience).
AATIP’s successor, the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), is discussed in the recently released book “Skinwalkers at The Pentagon.” The researchers describe how this phenomenon has been well-documented with plenty of proof that it affects people in the book.
The AAWSAP looked into reports of UFO sightings, examined reports of UFO encounters on US military installations and a number of odd occurrences that government investigators came across at Skinwalker Ranch. UFO encounters frequently led to the “attaching” of unusual phenomena to military troops, who came to the ranch and brought “something” home. As a result, their families experienced terrifying paranormal outbreaks that scared and occasionally injured their children.
In evaluating Dr. Vallée’s control system hypothesis, the obvious questions are: Who or what is in charge and managing it? If something is non-human, then what? Where is the real evidence for this idea, other than that some of Vallée’s carefully selected cases can be made (with difficulty) to force-fit the theory? Most people care little about UFOs and have no interest in the subject, so how does this theory stand up?
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12-10-2023
EXCLUSIVE: I've handled the Mexican 'alien mummies' that set the world alight last month - I don't think they're aliens, I think they're something much SCARIER
EXCLUSIVE: I've handled the Mexican 'alien mummies' that set the world alight last month - I don't think they're aliens, I think they're something much SCARIER
Mummy heads have 'remarkable similarity' to alpaca skulls
But musician Will Galison doesn't believe they are a deliberate hoax
A UFO enthusiast who has seen two supposed ‘alien’ mummies up close has revealed they are probably not ETs - but something perhaps even scarier.
The miniature corpses were presented in Mexico last month by Jaime Maussan, a controversial journalist who has previously made debunked claims of finding aliens and claims they are extraterrestrial.
But ufologist Will Galison - a close friend of the archaeologist who first analyzed the supposed 'aliens' - said he believes the 'corpses' are dummies that are 1,000 years old - but he does not think they are a hoax.
He said they may have been made from animal remains a millennia ago, possibly for ritual purposes, with the heads bearing a 'remarkable similarity' to alpaca skulls.
Galison - who has performed with Sting, Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, and Chaka - saw the mummies in 2017 in Peru long before Maussan's presentation, and had traveled to see them initially because he believed they might be extraterrestrial remains.
Will Galison is friends with Thierry Jarmin, the French archaeologist who was allegedly given the mummies by a tomb robber (Nub TV)
The alleged 'aliens' were shown off in Mexico by controversial journalist Jaime Maussan
Galison said in a documentary interview with UFO TV show Nub TV that he visited Peru twice and even took a cast of one of the mummy 'heads'.
He said, ‘I’m friendly with the French archaeologist Thierry Jarmin, who is a person who is not mentioned as much as he should be.
'He received these mummies in 2016 from a tomb robber. Thierry was very surprised and quite upset by Jaime Maussan’s press conference.’
Maussan claimed in the press conference in September: 'This is the first time extraterrestrial life is presented in such a form and I think there is a clear demonstration that we are dealing with non-human specimens that are not related to any other species in our world and that any scientific institution can investigate it. We are not alone.'
Galison said that he now no longer believes that the mummies ‘came down in a flying saucer’ - but believes they were constructed a long time ago, for unknown reasons.
The mummies appear to be constructed from a mixture of animal and human bones, he says.
He said in the documentary: ‘They found one bone in the arm of one of the mummies that clearly was not the organic bone that was there. So that raises the question, is the rest of it fake?
In Maussan's presentation, a doctor claimed that an MRI scan showed that the skeletons were 'complete', but most scientists were convinced the remains were a hoax - with previous similar remains having turned out to be mutilated mummies of pre-Hispanic children, sometimes combined with bits of animal parts.
‘My thinking shifted when I was up in the friend's house in the country, north of New York. And I saw a deer skull on the mantel and the back of that deer skull, to my mind, resembled the front of this of this skull and I thought, “Oh wow”.’
The mummies are to undergo tests, Maussan claimed
The Nub TV show blends music and UFO discussions (Nub TV)
He said that there is a ‘remarkable similarity’ between the heads of the alleged aliens and alpaca skulls.
He also pointed out that the eggs inside the mummies, which Maussan highlighted as proving their non-human origin ‘look like reptilian eggs’ - although it's less clear why their creators put eggs within the bodies.
He says in the documentary, ‘It was obviously put together - the question is was it put together in 2015 to sell to Thierry, or was it made 1,000 years ago?
‘I do not think that they flew down in saucer and landed on Earth recently, or even 1,000 years ago, because a CT scan showed another thing according to some of the doctors that examined these things: the leg bones on these things were suffering from osteoporosis.’
He said that he was initially ‘really invested in these things being real’, and has since seen similar mummies in Peru which are not as widely known.
He remains curious as to why an Incan culture 1,000 years ago would have made such creatures - including going to the lengths of putting eggs inside them which could only be seen via X-ray.
He says that he still wonders whether the mummies were a recreation of some form of being that the Incans had encountered.
Mark Christopher Lee, the presenter of Nub TV, who interviewed Galison, said: ‘Will has been to Peru and examined the mummies as close friends with Thierry and they have discussed them for many hours. Thierry is not very happy about Jaime Maussan's press conference in Mexico.
‘Will examined them and he suggests that maybe the Incans made them to venerate - possibly as their Gods or ancestors - why make them in that image?
‘'aime Maussan, as well as being under investigation for bringing these artefacts out of Peru to Mexico, has a notorious track record of making false claims etc.’
Maussan told politicians that the strange little corpses, which were displayed in satin-lined makeshift coffins, had been found in the city of Cusco, Peru, in 2017.
Maussan also testified under oath that almost a third of their DNA was 'unknown' and the specimens were not part of 'our terrestrial evolution'.
Lee’s TV show, Nub TV, mixes music and paranormal discussions - and revealed recently that Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb believes that aliens could visit earth in the form of AI drones, and might feel ‘kinship’ with AI systems on Earth.
Nub TV was inspired by Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World in the 70s, Steel said. ‘I like to take UFOs and other phenomena from a slightly skeptical scientific approach - but looking at them with an open mind.
‘Because I’m a musician, we tend to mix it up with music, so it’s been described as a mix of Wayne’s World and The X-Files!’
Nub TV is on Tubi and Ayozat.com, and the interview with Galison will air later this month.
What are UFOs? The question that has been buzzing for decades might not have a simple explanation. From alien spaceships to interdimensional crafts, these mysterious objects are associated with various strange phenomena. There are a number of whistleblowers who have claimed that the U.S. government possesses UFO materials retrieved from crash sites, but the exact nature of these materials is not known.
UFO filmmaker Jeremy Corbell claims: “UFOs are real, and we’re no closer to understanding what a UFO truly is, who operates them, where they are from, what their intent is, or what they represent to humankind. So when the public in general sees that on the news, it’s like, “Okay, yeah, we all kind of thought that because we’re seeing them. Thanks, government, but nothing’s really answered.”
Corbell has discussed various theories surrounding UAPs/UFO phenomena with Steve-O on his podcast. He put forward ideas on what UFOs could manifest. Apart from interplanetary spacecraft, terrestrial, non-terrestrial, or interdimensional objects, Corbell introduced a new term to explain UFOs, which is “extratemporal.” He explained that many scientists working on UFO-related projects believe these crafts utilize gravitational propulsion, a technology we have yet to fully understand. Manipulating gravity could distort time and space, suggesting that these crafts might originate from another time; hence, the term is “extratemporal.”
Corbell noted that when it comes to duplicating or reverse-engineering these non-human technologies, our current understanding of science is not up to that mark. Corbell mentions that one of the significant challenges in understanding UFOs is the limitations of our material science. He explains that attempts at reverse engineering UFO materials or craft are hindered because our material science has not advanced enough to replicate these materials accurately.
“These craft can move; they call it transmedium. From space through air without a sonic boom, they can move at speed and into the sea without disturbance, without slowing down. That’s transmedium. So the idea of how do they do that with physics? Some people say, ‘Well, the craft’s skin, you know, it’s like hydrophobic; when you go in, it just slips in.’ But really what we’re seeing is objects that appear to move in ways that our physics understands; we just can’t replicate gravitational fields,” Corbell says.
Corbell explains that some people think UFOs might be using things like time travel or manipulating gravity to achieve these unusual movements. He mentions the idea that if they can control gravity somehow, they could create a kind of force field around their craft that makes them move in ways that we cannot explain with our current science.
Corbell also talks about the way UFOs can move from space into the Earth’s atmosphere or even underwater without making a sound or causing disturbances. He suggests that this could be related to their ability to control gravity, allowing them to smoothly transition between different environments.
Skin of the UFO is alive
Steve-O expresses his view that the distinction between craft and biologics in the UFO phenomenon is not entirely clear to him. He suggests that it might be more accurate to consider that the boundary between what is traditionally thought of as a craft and a biological entity is blurry. He implies that the craft themselves might have some form of biological elements.
Corbell agrees with this perspective and mentions that many military personnel who have had close encounters with UFOs often report a strange characteristic about the craft’s “skin.” According to these reports, the craft’s exterior appears to exhibit signs of intelligence and liveliness. Corbell notes that this observation is puzzling, especially to engineers who are accustomed to thinking of machines as non-biological entities.
Corbell further explores the idea that these UFOs may be so integrated with biological elements that they could be considered a form of biology as we understand it, even though they are still functional craft capable of carrying things.
Some of these UFOs appear to be piloted by what Corbell refers to as artificial intelligence, essentially acting like drones. Others seem to carry occupants, which they refer to as “biologics” or biological entities. However, they entertain the idea that even these occupants could be some form of cybernetic organisms with synthetic flesh, essentially functioning as autonomous AI beings.
Israeli Psychic Uri Geller, who is often misjudged on social media for his bizarre posts, was a part of CIA secret programs where his abilities were used in the area of “mind projection” and possibly for national security purposes. A declassified CIA document revealed information about the “Project Stargate” that was focused on remote viewing.
He played an important role in the CIA investigation into ESP and psychokinesis. In one experiment for the CIA, Geller was isolated in a room to draw the same picture that had been drawn by another person in another room. He drew a picture of a square with diagonals. In 2017, the CIA released some 12 million pages of records, revealing details about Project Stargate.
One of Geller’s least-known claims is about working with NASA. He got acquainted with Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell and later, the two became friends. He was then asked by Mitchell to meet a legendary German-born American aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun.
Geller said Kennedy argued to bring him to the US so that they could use his mind. Along with his brother-in-law Shipi Shtrang, Geller visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. While being there, Geller gave his secret spy camera to Shtrang which he used later to take photographs of Geller, Mitchell, von Braun, and more.
Geller claimed that he could not believe his eyes as he was shown extraterrestrial evidence at the Goddard Space Flight Center. During their meeting, Von Braun doubted Geller. “He said he heard about my powers and told me that if he took his wedding ring off his finger and put it in the palm of his hand and I’d be able to bend it while it’s there, he’d believe me,” Geller recounted. “And I did – completely.”
After that, Geller was shown a piece of metal at Von Braun’s office. “It was metallic, smooth, pearl-like, with rainbow reflective ‘skin.’ When I held it I sensed vibrations. It felt like it was breathing… as if it was alive. Von Braun said I was right – and that it was from a crashed UFO,” he explained. He never found out where this metal had come from. “UFOs/UAPS are not just nuts and bolt craft,” Geller posts on X (formerly Twitter).
With Curt Jaimungal on his Theories of Everything (TOE) podcast in 2021, former AATIP head Luis Elizondo carefully hinted that “potentially” the U.S. government had acquired otherworldly biological samples. He also suggested that the government has images of UAPs that appear to show beings inside them.
“Have there potentially been biological samples recovered?” Curt asked. ELizondo replied: “Yes. I’m not going to expound on that… and be careful when I say that. I’m being purposely very open and vague at the same time, right? What does that mean? Well, it means what it means.”
Besides, when asked if there are photos that show occupants inside “craft,” Elizondo said: “There are some very compelling photos out there that seem to show something inside, some sort of occupancy, And I’ll leave it at that, because it gets really murky, much beyond that.
And there’s a lot that can be speculated. And so I try to avoid speculation as much as possible. But yes, I’ve spoken to enough people with firsthand knowledge that not only report the crafts that we know exists, but potentially some sort of intelligence inside these vehicles.”
Why isn’t this topic being discussed by everyone on the planet? Is it feasible that the majority of people are disregarding this news, even if they are aware of it? At what point does the truth and its mind-boggling consequences become too conspicuous to overlook?
Former intelligence officer David Grusch also testified in July 2023 UAP hearings that the U.S. has recoverednon-human “biologics”from alleged crash sites, which further bolsters Corbell and Geller’s claims that the craft’s skin or its occupants exhibit signs of intelligence and liveliness.
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Bigfoot Spotted Near Train In Southern Colorado, Oct 10, 2023 UFO Sighting News. Video
Bigfoot Spotted Near Train In Southern Colorado, Oct 10, 2023 UFO Sighting News. Video
Date of sighting: Oct 10, 2023
Location of sighting: Colorado, USA Source: bt92.travels (IG user)
Now this looks like some powerful evidence that Bigfoot exists. This is one of the top 3 worldwide videos ever taken and it looks real to me. This thing is tall, about 7-8 feet and he sits down at the end of the video to try to blend in so he can't be seen. It looks like Bigfoot not only exists, he's living in South West Colorado, USA. Yes I feels he's an alien, and he talks walks through nature for mediation like humans go to temples and churches.
Whats your thoughts about this one? Is bigfoot an alien? Is this really him or is this a hunter in disguise? It looks real to me, let me know in the comments below. Scott Waring
Government's secret UFO dump: Border security quietly releases tranche of 10 videos of mysterious 'craft' whizzing around US skies - as ex-intelligence officer says they are a THREAT
Government's secret UFO dump: Border security quietly releases tranche of 10 videos of mysterious 'craft' whizzing around US skies - as ex-intelligence officer says they are a THREAT
US Customs and Border Protection quietly fulfilled a UFO FOIA request
CBP's release includes 10 videos 'pertaining to Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon'
The mysterious release also includes 389-pages of partially redacted records
A tranche of UFO videos — including never-before-seen footage — has been quietly released by federal law enforcement.
US Customs and Border Protection, the agency responsible for keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the country, uploaded 10 videos that appear to show craft moving in strange ways in our skies.
The videos were released on August 9without warning, a press release or much in the way of context, only to be discovered by UFO enthusiasts and online sleuths earlier this week.
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 yet another apparent floating orb, hovering this time near a parked 16-wheeler truck.
But the enigmatic nature of the drop — which offered little detail regarding the times and locations of these sightings, plus more than a few sweeping redactions — has left more questions than answers.
The quiet video drop follows rising tensions within the corridors of power in Washington on the once taboo subject of UFOs.
Open congressional hearings, federal legislation and even brand new government offices have now been dedicated openly to the investigation of these aerial mysteries, with at least one former senior US intelligence official calling the strange sightings 'a national security issue.'
US Customs and Border Patrol uploaded 10 videos that appear to show craft moving in strange ways in our skies. One video documents a fighter jet pursued by an apparent flying orb (above), in which key technical details from the agency's infrared camera display are redacted
But perhaps most significantly, the US CBP release confirms, at least tacitly, the veracity of a heavily scrutinized, 2013 thermal UFO video leaked to UFO researchers in 2015. For the first time since the leak, the April 25, 2013 Aguadilla, Puerto Rico UFO video has been confirmed
The videos were released on a dedicated site for agency records made public via requests under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
But perhaps most significantly, the release confirms, at least tacitly, the veracity of a heavily-scrutinized, 2013 thermal UFO video leaked to UFO researchers in 2015.
Asked by NBC News, Chris Mellon, a former official with the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, described the release as 'very significant.'
'This will help the public understand what our military personnel are encountering all over the world,' Mellon said.
Chris Mellon, formerly with the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, praised US Customs for their UFO records drop, saying the newly released videos 'will help the public understand what our military personnel are encountering all over the world'
"We're getting, on the Defense Department side, 50 to 100 [UFO] reports per month — and this is happening globally.'
'It's happening overseas. It's happening off the east coast and the west coast,' he elaborated. 'This will help people better understand why Congress takes the issue seriously [and] why it's a national security issue.'
While Mellon praised US Customs' show of openness and transparency with the official release of these 10 videos, America's dedicated community of UFO skeptics were less impressed.
Mick West, a prolific and dedicated examiner of UFO claims and the owner of the skeptics forum Metabunk, described the videos as 'mostly not new.'
'And those that are new are not particularly interesting,' West told the DailyMail.com, noting that several had already been the subject of unofficial leaks to reporters and researchers on the UFO beat.
West, a retired computer programmer and video game designer, described the first of US Customs' UAP videos as something that 'looks like a microlight aircraft.'
Several others, he noted, appeared to be 'ambiguous white dots, [...] a balloon or a plastic bag.'
The second video, West said, was the so-called 'Rubber Duck' UAP, which the noted skeptic devoted considerable time to investigating on his YouTube channel and in Metabunk's forum back in 2021.
West identified CBP video 9 as the 'infamous 'Aguadilla' video,' which he has argued reveals a thermal signature 'consistent with a pair of wedding lanterns drifting in the wind.'
West has taken the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) to task for errors located in an Appendix to their lengthy report on the Aguadilla case, but at least according to the SCU's co-founder, engineer Robert Powell, those errors do not undermine the remainder of his team's assessment.
'The report does not depend on Appendix L,' Powell told the DailyMail.com, stating that West did not have an answer for why floating wedding lanterns would veer from west to north, as the Aguadilla UFO is recorded doing in the video's final moments.
'The second reason it's not Chinese lanterns,' according to Powel, 'is that Chinese lanterns can't survive the wind speeds that were occurring that day. The wind speeds were around 13 miles an hour.'
'It's basically a little candle that sits on these little wires, and you've got a very light [plastic or paper] bag around it,' Powell said. 'Heavy winds will collapse the outside of your Chinese lantern.'
Whatever the mystery of Aguadilla proves to be, US Customs' 10 videos were not the only agency records quietly released this August under FOIA.
The agency's official confirmation of these previously only leaked thermal videos and security recordings were also accompanied by a 389-page PDF document, ostensibly of UAP records held internally by US Customs.
In another video, released via FOIA by US Customs and Border Protection, yet another apparent orb can be seen hovering near a parked 16-wheeler truck
While the paperwork includes much chaff — news clippings, and already public government reports — the FOIA drop also included internal emails detailing internal deliberations on the law enforcement agency's UFO cases.
Several agency emails from August 2021, document an exchange between a UFO enthusiast and his superior regarding efforts to comply with spirit of the then-recent congressional legislation on UFOs and the resulting UAP Task Force report.
'As a pet project, or for fun, do all the research you want,' the redacted official wrote to the CBP's equivalent to X-Files FBI agent Fox Mulder. 'I know this topic is of great interest to you and there's a ton of information to sift through.'
'There just isn't an avenue for any formal research or reporting any type of findings or conclusions,' the redacted official stressed.
The also-redacted CPB employee responded, 'T4... I apologize, and took The Director of National Intelligence's UAP report seriously.'
But the release also includes over two dozen tantalizing pages that have been redacted in their entirety.
Per statute, each page lists the legal exemption under which US CBP is permitted to withhold certain records relevant to an open records request.
The majority of these redactions, in this case, were justified under the b(5) and b(7)e exemptions clauses of federal FOIA law.
Investigative reporters and open government advocates have dubbed the b(5) exemption the 'The Withhold It Because You Want To Exemption' as its guidelines were even described by the US Justice Department as 'opaque.'
The b(7)e exemption pertains effectively to law enforcement's own 'sources and methods,' as it withholds details that would 'disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions' and other material that officials believe 'could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.'
To this end, several of the released videos have notably redacted the majority of the heads-up-display information from US CBP's infrared or thermal video recordings: which would likely include data on the altitude, bearing and range of these UAP.
Another video shows a strange glowing orb - but the videos were released with little by way of supporting documentation as to dates, times, personnel or recording equipment used, making each of US Custom's UFO videos hard to contextualize
All summer long, a sweltering UFO fever has gripped Washington DC, stoked in no small measure by a series of extraordinary claims and revelations from lawmakers, former US intelligence and Navy personnel.
This past June, charges of an illegal, hidden UFO crash retrieval program operating within the shadows exploded across television airwaves and online as made by Air Force and intelligence agency veteran David Grusch.
Soon thereafter, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio revealed he too had been briefed by several other US government officials with top-level security clearances, who professed that they personally had 'first-hand' knowledge of UFO programs.
By late July, Grusch was reasserting many of his claims under oath before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, along with Ryan Graves, an esteemed former pilot, and veteran Navy fighter pilot Commander David Fravor, who witnessed the now famous 2004 'Tic Tac' UFO.
In his further comments on the new CPB videos, former DOD intelligence official Chris Mellon hoped that the newly official US Customs videos would spur the Pentagon toward greater transparency itself.
Mellon noted that these mysterious UFO videos highlight 'the challenges we are facing monitoring and controlling our airspace.'
He cited both last February's infamous Chinese spy balloon affair (and still-as-yet-unidentified UAP), and 'of course the explosion of drone use around the world,' as examples of the new threats to US sovereignty posed by the weak official reporting and widespread stigma surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena.
'I hope that the Defense Department and [US] Intelligence Community are paying attention,' Mellon told NBC.
'They have many videos that are of a similar, unclassified nature,' he noted, 'or were, until they — out of nowhere — created this new classification guide.'
Echoing comments by Grusch on the legality of the Pentagon's actions, Mellon went on to express the opinion that the DoD's new and more expansive classification standards for its own UAP or UFO videos might not be 'lawful.'
'I don't think that's consistent with the executive order governing classification,' the former intelligence official said. 'But they are withholding a lot of similar kinds of videos from the public on that basis.'
Have YOU seen one? The Pentagon reveals what the most commonly reported UFO looks like
But that could finally change following the official release of information from the Pentagon about the mysterious aerial phenomena.
The new Department of Defense document reveals characteristics of the typical UFO, including the colour and the shape, velocity, and flight level
Based on clues from reported sightings, the typical UFO has a round shape, usually described as spherical or an orb, with a white or silver colour, often translucent.
It also has a size of between 3 and 13 feet (1 to 4 metres) and usually travels through the air at a height just below commercial passenger planes.
Pilot Examines Border Patrol’s Classified UFO Videos
Pilot Examines Border Patrol’s Classified UFO Videos
The Modern Era of UFO Sightings
UFO sightings have been part and parcel of modern folklore. But in recent times, they’ve transcended from mere campfire tales to subjects of rigorous investigation and debate.
One prominent figure who has significantly contributed to this dialogue is Chris Lehto, an ex-fighter pilot. Lehto delved deep into a series of videos released by the US Customs and Border Protection, providing an analytical lens only a seasoned aviator could offer. His insights have stirred discussions, raising more questions about these inexplicable aerial events.
Bob Thompson: The Unsung Hero Behind the Revelations
While many UFO enthusiasts were preoccupied with speculations and theories, it was Bob Thompson, a paramedic and Border Patrol agent, who played a pivotal role in the release of these pivotal UFO videos. Thompson’s endeavors highlight how individuals from varying professions can collaboratively push the boundaries of our knowledge.
Decoding the Aerial Enigma
Among the most debated videos is one dubbed the “rubber duck”, an unidentified object whose true nature remains a mystery. Another series of footage features the A10 aircraft in close proximity to unidentified aerial phenomena, sparking curiosity about the potential interplay between known human-made machinery and the unknown.
VIDEO:
Pilot Analyzes Border Patrol’s Secret UFO Footage
Chris Lehto’s assessments, coupled with available data, emphasize the need for a more informed dialogue on the topic. As more government videos and reports become public, the narrative surrounding UFO sightings is bound to evolve.
The Bigger Picture
UFO sightings may be just the tip of the iceberg in our quest to understand our place in the vast cosmos. Each sighting, report, and analysis adds a piece to this cosmic puzzle. As we collectively gaze upwards, one can’t help but wonder: what other secrets do the heavens hold?
The unveiling of these videos is a testament to human curiosity and perseverance. As technology advances and our understanding deepens, the boundary between the known and unknown will continue to blur.
Fighter pilot analyzes Border Patrol's secret UFO Footage
Fighter pilot analyzes Border Patrol's secret UFO Footage
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recently made public infrared records related to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UFO/UAP).
A comprehensive analysis of these records has been undertaken by Chris Lehto, a retired fighter pilot and a dedicated investigator of UAP. In his examination, Lehto delves into 10 UAP videos obtained from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, offering viewers valuable insights.
He dissects each video to provide essential context and explores potential explanations for the observed phenomena. His attention is particularly focused on key footage, including the intriguing "Rubber Duck" video, A-10 engagement videos, and notable incidents like La Bruja and Aguadilla.
Furthermore, Lehto sheds light on the crucial role played by paramedic and Border Patrol agent Bob Thompson in the release of these videos. Thompson's involvement underscores the collaborative effort involving individuals from various professional backgrounds in bringing these records to the public domain.
The insights provided by experts like Chris Lehto contribute to a more informed and nuanced dialogue on the subject.
In the age where technology reigns supreme and our skies are constantly monitored by satellites, the intrigue surrounding UFO sightings remains undiminished. For decades, unidentified flying objects have captured the imagination of many, fueling countless conspiracy theories. But in a fascinating turn of events, NASA – an institution centered on scientific exploration – is delving into the realm of the unknown, specifically the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).
For those new to the term, UAPs are essentially UFO sightings backed by some credible pieces of evidence. The approach to these phenomena has evolved over the years, often straddling the line between skepticism and genuine curiosity.
Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, a former NASA official, voiced that the solution to these sightings isn’t necessarily to create a dedicated UAP program, but to incorporate it into NASA’s existing research strategies. This isn’t the first time NASA has assimilated such an approach. A few years back, the search for technosignatures, such as scanning for alien radio signals, was embedded into NASA’s research framework. This move came in the wake of a bill that deemed the search for extraterrestrial life as one of NASA’s key objectives.
However, embracing UAP research isn’t just about quenching mankind’s thirst for the unknown. For NASA, it is also an opportunity to incorporate artificial intelligence into its analysis toolkit. The unpredictable nature of UAPs brings with it the challenge of diving deep, adopting high-risk, and potentially high-impact research methods.
In an endeavor to truly understand and possibly decode theUAP enigma, NASA has leaned towards the use of Earth-observing satellites and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Furthermore, the space agency is harnessing the power of crowdsourcing and AI to identify patterns in UAP reports.
One intriguing aspect, revealing the global reach of the UFO phenomenon, is the so-called ‘Chinese balloon incident’. This involved unusual objects seen around U.S. Navy planes, particularly in the Pacific. The rapid advancements in drone technology, as evidenced in recent global events, have further highlighted the pressing need to understand, document, and possibly demystify UAPs.
What’s particularly enthralling is NASA’s interest in launching a phone app geared towards recording UAPs. This app aims to document sightings in a manner that produces valuable data while minimizing the chances of false reports. Such an initiative not only democratizes the process but also reduces the conspiracy haze that often shrouds UFO sightings.
In conclusion, as our quest for understanding the universe deepens, institutions like NASA are embracing the challenge, marrying cutting-edge technology with human curiosity. And who knows? The next big UFO sighting might just be decoded using an app on your smartphone!
NASA’s Bennu Asteroid Sample Contains Carbon, Water
NASA’s Bennu Asteroid Sample Contains Carbon, Water
A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Sample material from asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle right. Scientists have found evidence of both carbon and water in initial analysis of this material. The bulk of the sample is located inside.
Photo: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold
Abbey A. Donaldson
Initial studies of the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu sample collected in space and brought to Earth by NASA show evidence of high-carbon content and water, which together could indicate the building blocks of life on Earth may be found in the rock. NASA made the news Wednesday from its Johnson Space Center in Houston where leadership and scientists showed off the asteroid material for the first time since it landed in September.
This finding was part of a preliminary assessment of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) science team.
“The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Almost everything we do at NASA seeks to answer questions about who we are and where we come from. NASA missions like OSIRIS-REx will improve our understanding of asteroids that could threaten Earth while giving us a glimpse into what lies beyond. The sample has made it back to Earth, but there is still so much science to come – science like we’ve never seen before.”
Although more work is needed to understand the nature of the carbon compounds found, the initial discovery bodes well for future analyses of the asteroid sample. The secrets held within the rocks and dust from the asteroid will be studied for decades to come, offering insights into how our solar system was formed, how the precursor materials to life may have been seeded on Earth, and what precautions need to be taken to avoid asteroid collisions with our home planet.
Bonus sample material
The goal of the OSIRIS-REx sample collection was 60 grams of asteroid material. Curation experts at NASA Johnson, working in new clean rooms built especially for the mission, have spent 10 days so far carefully disassembling the sample return hardware to obtain a glimpse at the bulk sample within. When the science canister lid was first opened, scientists discovered bonus asteroid material covering the outside of the collector head, canister lid, and base. There was so much extra material it slowed down the careful process of collecting and containing the primary sample.
“Our labs were ready for whatever Bennu had in store for us,” said Vanessa Wyche, director, NASA Johnson. “We’ve had scientists and engineers working side-by-side for years to develop specialized gloveboxes and tools to keep the asteroid material pristine and to curate the samples so researchers now and decades from now can study this precious gift from the cosmos.”
Within the first two weeks, scientists performed “quick-look” analyses of that initial material, collecting images from a scanning electron microscope, infrared measurements, X-ray diffraction, and chemical element analysis. X-ray computed tomography was also used to produce a 3D computer model of one of the particles, highlighting its diverse interior. This early glimpse provided the evidence of abundant carbon and water in the sample.
“As we peer into the ancient secrets preserved within the dust and rocks of asteroid Bennu, we are unlocking a time capsule that offers us profound insights into the origins of our solar system,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson. “The bounty of carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water-bearing clay minerals are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg. These discoveries, made possible through years of dedicated collaboration and cutting-edge science, propel us on a journey to understand not only our celestial neighborhood but also the potential for life’s beginnings. With each revelation from Bennu, we draw closer to unraveling the mysteries of our cosmic heritage.”
For the next two years, the mission’s science team will continue characterizing the samples and conduct the analysis needed to meet the mission’s science goals. NASA will preserve at least 70% of the sample at Johnson for further research by scientists worldwide, including future generations of scientists. As part of OSIRIS-REx’s science program, a cohort of more than 200 scientists around the world will explore the regolith’s properties, including researchers from many U.S. institutions, NASA partners JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and other scientists from around the world. Additional samples will also be loaned later this fall to the Smithsonian Institution, Space Center Houston, and the University of Arizona for public display.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lauretta, the principal investigator, leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft, provided flight operations, and was responsible for capsule recovery. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace were responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample when it arrived on Earth, is taking place at NASA Johnson.
OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Find more information about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission at:
Zoals wetenschappers hadden gehoopt, blijkt dat de asteroïde Bennu water en koolstof bevat. Dat kondigt de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA aan, die in het Johnson Space Centre beelden toonde van monsters die mee naar de aarde zijn teruggebracht.
"Water en koolstofmoleculen zijn precies het soort materiaal dat we wilden vinden", vertelde NASA-baas Bill Nelson tijdens een evenement in Houston. "Dit zijn cruciale elementen in de vorming van onze eigen planeet, en ze gaan ons helpen bij het bepalen van de oorsprong van de elementen die tot leven geleid zouden kunnen hebben.
De ruimtesonde OSIRIS-REx slaagde erin in 2020 een monster te nemen van Bennu en de capsule keerde iets meer dan twee weken geleden succesvol terug naar de aarde en landde in de Amerikaanse woestijn.
Sindsdien probeert NASA met nauwgezette processen de capsule te openen. Het is de grootste verzameling buitenaards gruis die ooit naar de aarde is gebracht. Omdat er veel materiaal buiten het verzamelcompartiment is gevonden, is het hoofdvak van de capsule zelf nog niet geopend, verklaarde Eileen Stansbery, hoofdwetenschapper bij het Johnson Space Centre. Ze voegde eraan toe dat ze hun tijd zullen nemen voor de analyses.
Voordat de capsule landde, schatte de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie dat het gelukt was om ongeveer 250 gram materiaal van de asteroïde Bennu te verzamelen, veel meer dan twee eerdere Japanse missies naar andere asteroïden.
Met de stof van planetoïde Bennu kan meer onderzoek worden gedaan naar ons zonnestelsel.
"It's beautiful, it really is - certainly what we've seen of it so far," said Dr Ashley King.
The UK scientist was in a select group to put first eyes and instruments on the rocky samples that have just been brought back from asteroid Bennu.
The materials, scooped up by a US space agency (Nasa) mission and returned to Earth 17 days ago, are currently being examined in a special lab in Texas.
"We've confirmed we went to the right asteroid," Dr King told BBC News.
The three-day analysis by the Natural History Museum (NHM) expert and five others on the "Quick Look" team showed the black, extraterrestrial powder to be rich in carbon and water-laden minerals.
That's a great sign. There's a theory that carbon-rich (organic), water-rich asteroids similar to Bennu may have been involved in delivering key components to the young Earth system some 4.5 billion years ago. It's potentially how we got the water in our oceans and some of the compounds that were necessary to kick-start life.
The asteroid samples will be used to test these ideas.
"We're trying to find out who we are, what we are, where we came from. What is our place in this vastness called the Universe?" said Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson during a briefing at the Johnson Space Center, where the dedicated lab is housed.
Ashley King: "We've confirmed we went to the right asteroid
Although it's evident the mission has returned an "abundance of sample", scientists are still not sure precisely how much of Bennu they actually have in their possession.
The sample canister which landed in the Utah desert on 24 September has been opened but the inner chamber used by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft to store the asteroid fragments for the journey home has yet to be fully emptied of its contents and weighed.
The mission team thinks it has about 250 grams (9oz) in total. It will take a few more days' careful disassembly to corroborate this estimate.
To perform their initial experiments, Dr King and colleagues used particles that had been spilled from the inner chamber - or Tag-Sam (Touch And Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) as it's known. This fine Bennu dust coats all the canister's enclosing surfaces.
"When they took the lid off the sample canister, it just revealed this black powder everywhere. It was incredible; it was so exciting," Dr King recalled.
"We were sitting at the time and everybody just stood up and started pointing at the screen. It meant we had lots to play with for the 'quick look'. It made our job easier."
IMAGE SOURCE,NASA
Image caption,
When the sample canister was opened, a black dust coated all surfaces
The dust was put in an electron microscope, subjected to X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy techniques and scanned by a computed tomography (CT) machine.
One of the key findings is the presence of that carbon. Lots of it. Close to 5% by weight.
"That's a big deal. When the data came back, there were scientists on the team going 'Wow, oh my God!' said Dr Daniel Galvin, an analyst from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center. The quick look team detected both carbonates and more complex organics.
Osiris-Rex principal investigator Dr Dante Lauretta highlighted the samples' water content held in clay minerals.
"They have water locked inside their crystal structure," the cosmochemist from the University of Arizona explained.
"I want to stop and think about what that means. That water - that is how we think water got to the Earth. The reason that Earth is a habitable world - that we have oceans and lakes and rivers and rain - is because clay minerals, like the ones we're seeing from Bennu, landed on Earth 4.5 billion years ago."
IMAGE SOURCE,NASA
Image caption,
A CT scan enables scientists to construct a 3D model of particles and see inside them (Scalebar = 1mm)
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft picked up the Bennu materials in October 2020, using a daring manoeuvre to approach and then "high-five" the asteroid - an operation performed while 330 million km (205 million miles) from Earth.
It then took almost three years, for the Nasa probe to come home and drop off its precious cargo at a restricted military test range a couple of hours' drive west of Salt Lake City.
Once the full sample is extracted, a portion of it will be shared with researchers worldwide. About 100 milligrams is expected to come to the UK to be further worked on by Dr King's department at the NHM, and by collaborators at the Open, Oxford and Manchester universities.
The Osiris-Rex teams aim to have a raft of studies completed in time to report at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in March. Two major overview papers are also expected to be published at the same time in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
IMAGE SOURCE,NASA
Image caption,
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft delivered the Bennu samples to the Utah desert in a capsule
Op de planetoïde Bennu is water en koolstof gevonden. Dat blijkt uit de eerste resultaten van bodemstalen die ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA op de ruimterots verzamelde. Het gruis is vorige maand in een capsule naar de aarde gebracht en wordt nu onderzocht. Wetenschappers hopen dat de bevindingen ons kunnen helpen begrijpen hoe het leven op aarde is ontstaan. NASA heeft vandaag de eerste foto's van de stalen en de eerste resultaten van het onderzoek wereldkundig gemaakt.
NASA heeft de eerste monsters getoond van de bodemstalen van een asteroïde van meer dan 4 miljard jaar oud. De stalen werden drie jaar geleden verzameld op een asteroïde met een doorsnede van meer dan 500 meter die rond de zon draait. Vorige maand heeft ruimtesonde Osiris-Rex tijdens een scheervlucht langs de aarde de stalen veilig in de woestijn in de Amerikaanse staat Utah gedropt.
Tijdens een persconferentie heeft NASA vandaag foto's vrijgegeven van het zwarte gruis dat werd verzameld én de eerste onderzoeksresultaten van de deeltjes wereldkundig gemaakt. Die resultaten bevestigen wat de onderzoekers al dachten. De asteroïde bevat water- en koolstofmolecules.
"Dit zijn cruciale elementen in de vorming van onze eigen planeet", zegt NASA-baas Bill Nelson. "Ze gaan ons helpen om de oorsprong te bepalen van de elementen die hier tot leven zouden kunnen hebben geleid."
"Wetenschappelijke schat"
Er wordt geschat dat tijdens de missie zo'n 250 gram aan bodemstalen van Bennu is verzameld, maar de exacte hoeveelheid kennen we nog niet. De capsule werd namelijk nog niet geopend, omdat er zoveel zwart stof en steentjes aan de buitenkant van de capsule zijn blijven hangen dat de wetenschappers zich daar eerst uitgebreid over ontfermen.
"We nemen onze tijd om alles methodisch te verwerken en goed voor elk stukje Bennu te zorgen", legt Eileen Stansbery, hoofdwetenschapper bij het Johnson Space Center uit. "Dit is nu al wetenschappelijke schat," voegt de leidende wetenschapper van de missie, Dante Lauretta van de Universiteit van Arizona, eraan toe.
"Wetenschappelijke schat": NASA deelt eerste foto's en onderzoeksresultaten van bodemstalen van asteroïde van meer dan 4 miljard jaar oud
In space, the dead sometimes speak — and sometimes they scream.
Massive stars end their short, blazing lives in tremendous stellar explosions called supernovae, and they sometimes leave behind dense, highly magnetized balls of neutrons called magnetars. And for reasons that astronomers don’t yet fully understand, sometimes a magnetar lets out a short but powerful shriek. Astronomers call these Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs: very intense blasts of radio waves that last just a few milliseconds.
Astronomers have observed thousands of these strange radio signals over the last few years, and most of them seem to be one-off events: a brief burst of radio waves from a dead star, and the rest is silence. Only a small, fascinating handful of FRBs actually repeat, or so it seems. In a recent study, a team of astronomers led by McGill University astronomer Bridget Andersen suggest that many more FRBs — maybe even all of them — may repeat, if only we would listen long enough.
CHIME’s oddly-shaped antennas can scan the whole northern sky once a day.
MCGILL UNIVERSITY
HIDDEN IN THE DATA
Andersen and her colleagues recently combed through years of data from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME, a radio telescope in British Columbia that scans the entire northern sky every day. They were searching for repeating FRBs that might have gotten buried in the data because their signals arrived so far apart that they escaped astronomers’ attention. To find them, Andersen and her colleagues looked for signals from the same part of the sky, even if they were far apart in time, using new statistical methods to help work out whether they were seeing a repeating FRB or just two unrelated FRBs that happened to come from the same direction.
“We can now accurately calculate the probability that two or more bursts coming from similar locations are not just a coincidence,” says co-author Ziggy Pleunis, an astronomer at the University of Toronto.
The astronomers identified 25 repeating FRBs in the CHIME data. That means that astronomers have now heard at least 50 FRBs repeat their chilling cries — that’s out of the thousands that have been recorded so far. But Andersen and her colleagues say we may just need to listen longer.
SOLVING AN ASTRONOMICAL PUZZLE
Computer artwork showing the magnetic field (lines) around a magnetar. A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field (a million billion times stronger than that of the Earth), which is formed when certain stars undergo supernova explosions.
MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES
Astronomers have detected thousands of FRBs in recent years, but that doesn’t add up to knowing much about them. So far, fewer than sixty FRBs have been traced back to their host galaxies, and thirty of those were only announced earlier this year. (Nearly all FRBs come from galaxies far, far away; astronomers have only ever detected one inside our own Milky Way.) And while it’s generally agreed that FRBs come from magnetars, the exact mechanics behind them remain a puzzle waiting to be solved. Some FRBs may come from different sources, too, according to the team that traced thirty of them to their host galaxies back in January.
And whether or not those signals repeat could offer a clue. So far, the small number of FRBs that repeat seem to have a different length and cover a different range of radio frequencies than the one-off FRBs. That leads some astronomers to suggest that repeaters and one-offs might actually be two different types of FRBs, with two different explanations.
Andersen and her colleagues now have a different idea.
“Many apparently one-off bursts have simply not yet been observed long enough for a second burst from the source to be detected,” says Pleunis.
Some of the repeating FRBs they found buried in CHIME data held their silence for a long time between repeats, crying out less than once in every week of observing time. That means that unless astronomers are willing to keep listening to the same patch of sky for days or weeks at a time — a risky gamble in a field where telescope time is in high demand — a repeating burst might end up looking like a one-off. It’s even possible that all FRBs may repeat… eventually.
Differences in radio frequency and the length of the signal may still point to more than one origin for these weird cosmic signals, though. When it comes to FRBs, questions still abound, and astronomers can only answer them with more data.
On July 28, 2011, former astronaut and scientist Brian O’Leary passed away shortly after making a big statement. When the United States space agency NASA selected its sixth group of astronauts in August 1967, he was selected to be a member of that group. O’Leary had been a member of Princeton University’s physics faculty for many years. According to him, there is substantial evidence indicating that Earth is being visited by extraterrestrial beings. He claimed that advanced civilizations arrived on earth a very long time ago and that these civilizations employ technology that are founded on consciousness.
“There is much evidence that we have been contacted by aliens, and that these civilizations have been visiting us for a very long time, their appearance may be bizarre from any traditional Western materialistic point of view. These visitors use consciousness-influencing technologies – the toroid and use co-rotating magnetic disks for their propulsion systems, which appear to be the common denominator of the UFO phenomenon,”— Dr. Brian O’Leary on Thrive Movement
Dr. Brian O’Leary was born on January 27, 1940. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer and died of a heart attack. In August 1967, he was one of the astronauts chosen by NASA to participate in the sixth group of astronauts. The people that made up this team were commonly referred to as the scientist-astronauts. Dr. O’Leary attended Williams College and earned a bachelor of arts degree in physics in 1961. He then attended the University of California at Berkeley and earned a doctor of philosophy degree in astronomy in 1967.
NASA selected Brian O’Leary as a scientist-astronaut in 1967, for a potential manned mission to Mars. Image via New York Post
He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and secretary of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union. In addition, he led the Asteroidal Resources Group for the NASA Ames Summer Study on Space Settlements. He was a founding board member of the International Association for New Science and the New Energy Movement’s first president. He was a fellow at the World Innovation Foundation and a Princeton University physics professor.
After O’Leary quit NASA, Carl Sagan invited him to lecture at Cornell University in 1968. He stayed there as an astronomy research associate from 1968 to 1969 and as an assistant professor from 1969 to 1971. He looked into lunar mascons while he was at Cornell. During the 1970–1971 academic year, O’Leary worked as a visiting researcher at the California Institute of Technology. He was the deputy team leader of the Mariner 10 Venus-Mercury TV Science Team. NASA recognized the team’s efforts by presenting them with a group accomplishment award.
During a live interview with Kerry Cassidy of Project Camelot, he shared some fascinating insights regarding Carl Sagan. O’Leary and Sagan had been friends for a number of years, but when O’Leary decided to leave Cornell, they had a falling out. (Source)
Following his departure, O’Leary began to explore some of Carl’s work. He claimed that the iconic “Face” at Cydonia on Mars, which was photographed by Viking in 1975 and resembled a human face, was altered by Sagan before being released to the public: “It was very, very disappointing to me, because not only was Carl wrong, he also fudged data. He published a picture of the ‘Face’ in Parade Magazine, a popular article, saying that the ‘Face’ was just a natural formation, but he doctored the picture to make it not look like a face.”
In May 1990, O’Leary released a paper titled “Analysis of Images of the Face on Mars and Possible Intelligent Origin,” which only further demonstrated his skepticism. It was published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol.43 No.5. O’Leary also went on the record and stated:
“I began to realize, just directly from the scientific point of view, not only hearsay, that this man was colluding with NASA, that there might be more to this than before… Carl was on a committee with a number of notable people. There was a report issued by the Brookings Institution in 1961 — and that’s about when I knew Carl, during those years; the ’60s mostly was when I worked closely with him — that he and this other group said: Well, if any ETs ever showed up on the Earth, it has to be covered up. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to manage this, because if we can’t, then it would be too much of a culture shock.”
On the 18th of September, 1994, Dr. O’Leary said during the International Forum on New Science in Fort Collins in Colorado: “A secret group within the U.S. government keeps the masses for nearly 50 years away at about UFOs and extraterrestrial contact. We have contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. This information is probably obscured by an elite group within the CIA, NSA and DIA. This small group knows well the secrets to keep. Watergate and the Iran-Contra affair are child compared to this cosmic Watergate about UFOs, aliens, mind control, genetic engineering, free energy and antigravity.”
O’Leary suggested not only the existence of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth, but also the existence of a face on Mars. He also penned the introduction to Steven Greer’s book Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge. The book is about repressed alien technologies such as free energy, anti-gravity, and extraterrestrial presence on Earth.
“There is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, by other civilizations. Who they are, where they are from, and what they want should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation and not be the subject of ‘rubishing’ by tabloid newspapers.” (source) – Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, Former Chief of Defence Staff, 5 Star Admiral of the Royal Navy, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
“Intelligent beings from other star systems have been and are visiting our planet Earth. They are variously referred to as Visitors, Others, Star People, Et’s, etc…They are visiting Earth now; this is not a matter of conjecture or wistful thinking. – Theodor C. Loder III, Phd, Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire (source)
“Aliens are living among us and that it is likely at least two of them are working with the U.S. government. Decades ago, visitors from other plants warned us about where we were headed and offered to help. But instead, we, or at least some of us, interpreted their visits as a threat, and decided to shoot first and ask questions after…Because I know that they are. As a matter of fact, they’ve been visiting our planet for thousands of years.” – Paul Hellyer, Former Canadian Defense Minister (source)
My people tell of Star People who came to us many generations ago. The Star people brought spiritual teachings and stories and maps of the cosmos and they offered these freely. They were kind, loving, and set a great example. When they left us, my people say there was a loneliness like no other.” – Richard Wagamese, Ojibway Author (source)
Documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell has stunned UFO enthusiasts with his piece of evidence on the phenomenon and information he received while studying UFOs. He is the one who shared the video footage showing the UFO as a transmedium vehicle. Additionally, he says that UFOs and aliens are just a small part of a larger reality along with other interesting and eye-opening statements in an extensive interview with Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal.
Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell is an American contemporary artist and investigative filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. He did extensive research on nanotechnology, aerospace exploration, and exotic propulsion systems, as well as an in-depth examination into the life and discoveries of the enigmatic “Godfather of Conspiracy” John Lear.
Corbell has documented the surgical removal of alleged off-world alien implants, and has filmed NASA’s analysis of anomalous materials alleged to be physical evidence of extraterrestrial nano-technology from UFO landing sites. He has obtained deathbed confessions from former CIA and government intelligence officials who claim to expose the truth about UFOs and the worldwide coverup of the ultimate truth.
Jeremy Corbell with former Pentagon UFO official Luis Elizondo.
Corbell released the film “Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers” on Netflix, adding credibility to Lazar’s case. Moreover, his 2-hour interview with Curt Jaimungal discussed dozens of topics that added great information to the UAP/UFO phenomena. In 2021, he leaked a film of the US Navy photographed & filmed “spherical” shaped UFOs & advanced transmedium vehicles. In the footage shared by filmmaker and UFO enthusiast Jeremy Corbell, a flying object can be seen disappearing into the water off California.
In this interview, he covers a variety of controversial subjects including the release of the Tic-Tac videos by the government, possible government disinformation campaigns, and the claims of Bob Lazar that he once worked on backward engineering an alien craft.
UFOs and Aliens Just Small Part of ‘Larger Reality’
Corbell asserted in the interview that aliens and UFOs are a small part of a much larger reality of this mysterious and mind-boggling phenomenon.
He said:
“UFOs appear to be part of a larger phenomenon meaning UFOs are kind of an auxiliary implication of a much larger reality. So this idea that what we’re seeing are machines from other planets. I’m unconvinced what we may be seeing is an alternate reality. You know maybe it is something closer to dimensional travel.
There seems to be another version of reality that is occurring and that somehow once they pop through into our reality. And this is not just from a cursory look at the ufo phenomenon, this is from talking with thousands of close encounter eyewitnesses who tell me that this is something bigger than just flying machines.
To give you an example at Skinwalker Ranch. The report is that a piece of the sky opened up like a tear and out of this came “Beings” came “Craft.” So, UFOs is a symptom, it’s part of this alternate reality, The phenomenon as I call it. But it’s not just about UFOs represent this phenomenon.
I know this to be true that Skinwalker ranch is the best example of this because you have UFO phenomena. But you also have cattle mutilation which is often associated with lights in the sky. So, cattle mutilation is something a concrete example.
Cattle mutilation, Is this a UFO phenomenon or a government experiment, or is this a private corporation that’s going around mutilating these cows and draining their blood in the dead of the night? Nobody has ever been caught during these cattle mutilations.
They are the same across the board. They’re drained of blood. The farmers and people that are cattle ranchers see UFOs oftentimes during these mutilations so I can’t separate them.”
American billionaire Robert Bigelow shared his personal experiences and losses that prompted his interest in life after death, as well as UFOs. He talked about possible links between consciousness research and UFOs. He also talked about the risks of trying to establish communications with the unknown.
“That’s been mainly what I’ve been doing except for the skinwalker ranch thing for 20 years as the space world has been huge in my life to pursue the legitimate parochial kind of you know using fire engines rockets to get you there. We didn’t expect anything like this to happen and so there this is different. This is the holy grail and is different than the second holy grail. If the second one is ‘Beings’ (E.T.), then the first one: Is there any part of your consciousness that survives your bodily death? That’s a big deal. That’s a huge story. That’s gigantic.”
Dr. Travis Taylor’s Statement On Skinwalker Ranch
Dr. Taylor joined businessman Brandon Fugals’s team at Fugals’s infamous Skinwalker ranch three years ago and firmly believed he would be able to resolve the ranch’s assorted mysteries in short order. But the longer he stayed, the stranger things became. In his interview with investigative journalist George Knapp, he said: “You know, I had never seen a UFO until I got out there. Now, I have seen more UFOs now than you can count.” (Source)
In the surprisingly candid and wide-ranging interview, Dr. Taylor shared his opinions about the role of science in the pursuit of the unknown, his personal experiences with strange phenomena on Skinwalker Ranch, the physical effects of close encounter cases, and the mysterious “hitchhiker effect” that multiple UFO/paranormal eyewitnesses have reported.
In his opinion, this unexplained phenomenon can be different for people in regards to their brain activity. Hypothetically speaking, he said that the phenomenon can be connected with different planes in the universe. He added that he could go along with the idea of a portal but was not sure. He believes it is bizarre but there is some truth to it.
What’s Next for NASA’s UFO Research? Outside Observers Weigh In
BOULDER, Colo. — NASA says it’s going to play a bigger role in studying what’s behind unidentified anomalous phenomena, the newfangled name for what we used to call UFOs. But exactly how should NASA step into that role? The astrophysicist who helped get the ball rolling last year as NASA’s associate administrator for science is suggesting a quick and easy way to get started.
“You basically say, ‘Here’s opportunities,’ and you squeeze them in,” Zurbuchen said Oct. 7 in Boulder at the ScienceWriters 2023 conference. “Generally speaking, I think it’s a lot easier to do that.”
The alternative could be to create a separate UAP program, but that might get more complicated.
There’s precedent for taking the quick and easy way. Zurbuchen noted that NASA’s science directorate took a similar approach in 2017 when it made the search for technosignatures — including scans for radio signals from alien civilizations — part of its research and analysis program.
“We added it in part because of an authorizing bill that told us that looking for life elsewhere was one of the purposes of NASA,” he explained. “The way we did it is, we just added it to calls [for research proposals] that were already there.”
Raising the profile for UAP research was one of the key recommendations in a 36-page report that was delivered to NASA by an independent panel in June, at the end of a months-long process initiated under Zurbuchen’s watch.
Participants in a panel about unidentified anomalous phenomena included, from left, moderator Dan Vergano, a senior opinion editor at Scientific American; Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder; Nadia Drake, a science journalist who was a member of NASA’s independent panel on UAP research; and former NASA official Thomas Zurbuchen. (Photo credit: Alan Boyle)
The roots of the report
Zurbuchen said the spark for convening the independent panel came from a convergence of multiple factors — ranging from the Department of Defense’s campaign to destigmatize UFO reporting by fighter jet pilots, to the personal interest of politicians and policymakers including NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Zurbuchen said he decided to go ahead with the independent study for three reasons. “The first reason is that I really believe — after I looked into it and did a lot of briefings, some of them classified — that what’s flying in the airspace needed to be better understood,” he said. “We don’t actually understand at the level that we should.”
Zurbuchen also saw UAP research as an opportunity to add artificial intelligence to NASA’s analytical toolkit for more down-to-earth purposes. “Doing an AI strategy for Earth science and space science data was a good thing to do,” he said. “And using that as an excuse was fine with me.”
The third reason had to do with Zurbuchen’s deeply held belief that NASA shouldn’t shy away from doing high-risk, potentially high-impact research. “Just because you feel embarrassed asking the question, you should still do it,” he said. “Reputation should not be the major reason you don’t do something.”
The members of the panel faced a wave of criticism — from those who felt NASA was taking the UFO phenomenon too seriously, as well as from those who felt the panelists should have delved more deeply into UFO lore. The online harassment and threats got so bad that NASA security had to be put on the case, said Nadia Drake, a science journalist who was one of the panelists.
“I was unprepared for how nasty it was,” Drake said. “I certainly was not the only panel member who was getting a lot of harassment and hate from online, but with me, it was a little bit different in tenor because I am a woman.”
A U.S. Coast Guard photographer, Shell R. Alpert, took a photograph that seemed to show unidentified flying objects flying in a “V” formation at the Salem, Mass., air station at 9:35 a.m. on July 16, 1952, through a window screen. (Photo credit: U.S. Coast Guard)
Flying saucers vs. firm science
Although unidentified anomalous phenomena have been the subject of government-backed studies since Project Sign in the 1940s, and Project Blue Book in the ’50s and ’60s, Drake said UAP research has consistently fallen short of scientific standards. “The science that we need is just not there,” she said.
“We decided that if NASA wanted to go ahead and pursue this question, the first thing that needed to happen was that we needed to actually approach it scientifically — because as I said, there just was not enough useful data there,” Drake said. “We need to figure out how to actually collect data that’s informative, that can be analyzed, that can be interpreted in ways that actually answer the questions that we wanted to answer.”
In their final report, the panelists laid out a set of recommendations that included making use of assets such as Earth-observing satellites and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, harnessing the power of crowdsourcing and citizen science to collect data about UAPs, and using AI to look for significant patterns in those UAP reports.
NASA responded to the report by appointing a director of UAP research and endorsing the idea of employing new tools to collect and analyze data. The research director is Mark McInerney, who previously served as NASA’s liaison to the Pentagon on the UAP issue and specializes in Earth science data analysis.
What will it take to bring solid science to flying-saucer sagas? Mick West, a retired software engineer who specializes in analyzing UAP reports, said it won’t be an easy task.
“The problem with writing about the science of UFOs is that there’s very little science to write about,” West said. “UFOs have always been a bit of a fringe topic for a variety of reasons, but it shouldn’t be that way, because UFOs represent some very real issues for flight safety, national security and scientific inquiry.”
To show how difficult it can be to dissect the data, West recounted a recent case involving a video that showed an array of lights moving around in the night sky.
“We recognized this as looking like Starlink satellites, briefly reflecting the sun near the horizon,” West said. “But the video was anonymous, without an accurate date and without a location, so it remained unsolved for several months.”
He and his colleagues at Metabunk.org painstakingly sifted through geospatial databases — including one database that listed the locations of wind turbines across the country, and another that documented the occurrence of lightning storms — to figure out where and when the video was taken. The results lined up perfectly with Starlink satellite flashes.
Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who serves as the director of the Center for National Security Initiatives, recommended setting up a well-documented catalog about UAPs, including Starlink streaks.
“If some catalog could be developed where ‘if it looks like this, it’s almost certainly that,’ I think that would be great,” Boyd said. “And build it up over time, so that we narrow down to the very, very unusual events. But to go beyond that — to be able to explain in real time every single event — I mean, it’s not doable.”
Boyd suggested that the resources required to solve all of the mysteries surrounding UAPs would be available only to a civilization more advanced than our own.
“In the end, we have to do a careful evaluation and wrap and stack and prioritize what are the key challenges, the key risks, the things that may endanger flight … because it really is a ‘needle in the haystack’ kind of problem,” he said. “I don’t think we can afford to do much more than what we’re already doing.”
Looking beyond the budgetary and technical limitations, Zurbuchen said it might be too much to expect NASA to settle the mysteries surrounding anomalous phenomena to the satisfaction of the UFO community’s true believers, even if the space agency supported a full-scale research program.
“There’s never been anybody that was convinced by any argument to move away from their initial beliefs,” Zurbuchen told an audience consisting primarily of science journalists. “I would really spend a lot of time thinking about engaging in that fringe before you do. I just think it could be a huge waste of time. I think what’s better is to focus on the principles of science, focus on actual in-depth reporting … not looking away, but focusing on what are the most important and most exciting stories, and getting them out.”
Sky Life, a group known for its in-depth exploration into lesser-known territories, recently delved into the mystifying world of UFOs. Their recent episode paints a vivid portrait of Melanie, a woman who claims to have encountered these unidentified aerial phenomena multiple times throughout her life. Here’s a detailed insight.
UFO Encounters: More Than Just A Glint in the Sky
For many, UFO sightings and abductions are tales straight out of a sci-fi movie. Yet, for others, they are very much a part of their real-life experiences. Melanie’s recounting of her experiences spans decades, from her childhood right into her 60s. What’s startling isn’t just her encounters, but also the physical marks she claims to have received during these experiences.
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Sleep Paralysis or Something More?
On certain occasions, Melanie would wake up with needle marks and injuries, with vivid memories of alien abduction scenarios the previous night. These memories raised questions. Could these events simply be sleep paralysis, a known phenomenon where one feels awake but can’t move, often coupled with hallucinations? Melanie denies this explanation, asserting the physical evidence on her body as a testament to her claims.
The Power of Nature and Lightning Strikes
What adds another layer to this narrative is Melanie’s connection with nature, particularly her encounters with lightning strikes. In a group discussion, it was discovered that two out of the five people present had been struck by lightning. The probability of this is almost incomprehensible. Even ChatGPT, a renowned language model, suggested the chances were near zero.
The Sacred Land Link
Another angle is the special land on which Melanie resides. Known as a hotspot for UFO sightings, this area has also been recognized as sacred by indigenous populations. Places that are deemed sacred, like Sedona, Arizona, are often associated with a higher number of UFO sightings. Perhaps, there’s a correlation between the energies of these lands and these mysterious sightings?
Listening: A Pillar of Understanding
The narrative underscores the importance of active listening and refraining from passing judgment. As Melanie emphasizes, it’s crucial to listen to others, especially when they recount experiences that may sound far-fetched. Dismissing these stories doesn’t do justice to the depth of emotion and conviction behind them.
To sum it up, while skepticism is natural, it’s equally essential to approach such tales with an open mind. Whether you believe in UFOs or not,Sky Life’sepisode on Melanie’s encounters provides a gripping look into the unknown, challenging us to reconsider what’s possible.
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09-10-2023
Mysterious objects caught on Ring Cam, Oct 8, 2023, Ohio, UFO Sighting News.
Mysterious objects caught on Ring Cam, Oct 8, 2023, Ohio, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Oct 8, 2023
Location of sighting: Ohio, USA (city not stated) Source: MUFON
Now this is an odd capture. Several disks were seen flying through his yard. There is a reflection of light that may have caused the UFOs to become visible by bending the light rays enough to change them, revealing any cloaked ship visible, mush like infrared does. Ringcams often have infrared light emitting during nighttime to catch things in the darkness.
Lately Ringcam company has posted a one million dollar reward for the best alien/UFO ring cam capture, making more people use ring cams and keep an eye out for unusual anomalies. But it may also make people fake such things, so I am careful of posting Ringcam at the moment. However this does appear authentic.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
Upside down acorn like object hovering over my back yard fence. It seems to be on edge of my patio deck. It is transparent because I can see branches of tree behind it from neighbors yard. But there are things swimming inside it like fish or bugs. This was noticed on my ring camera and it wasn't there when I went to look out. It disappeared.
UAP Fleet Over New Mexico May 4, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Video.
UAP Fleet Over New Mexico May 4, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Video.
Date of sighting: Mary 4, 2023
Location of sighting: New Mexico Source: MUFON
Hey this just in all. A person was on a passenger jet and was over New Mexico when they noticed six glowing disks outside in the distance. The objects were seen traveling above, and through the clouds and look as large as the passenger jet itself. The interesting thing is that these objects are flying very close together, as if it's trying to mimic military formation in case they do get intercepted by military they will be safer this way, and also less change of being seen in not spread over a long distance. If this was a daily event, full disclosure would have happened by now. We need more evidence like this.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
On May 4th 2023 I was aboard an American Airlines flight that departed from Charlotte, NC on route to Los Angeles, CA. Approximately at 17:25MDT I observed 6-7 disc shaped glowing objects outside my cabin window traveling West within close proximity of our aircraft. The objects at first appeared in 3 rows stacked 2 per row. The top and bottom rows slightly trailed the middle row, as the objects traveled along side our aircraft they would slowly form a stagnated straight line. Our aircraft was traveling over the state of New Mexico near Taos with an air speed of roughly 490mph and a little over 30,000 feet above sea level. These objects kept pace with our aircraft for the duration of the sighting and didn’t appear to ascend or descend at any point.
When I first noticed the objects the lights coming from them appeared a bright yellowish orange color with a flame like appearance. The light source coming from the objects seemed to pulsate at a steady interval, when the light source would dim at times I could make out a reflective silver rim on 2 of the objects. The rim came to a point on both ends of each object, they appeared to be disc shaped or cylindrical in nature.
After observing them with the naked eye, I began filming them at approximately 17:26MDT with my phone which records in 4K quality. The objects appeared to have a yellowish white glow to them when viewed through the camera on my phone as opposed to the yellowish orange color when seen with the naked eye. After recording the objects for 1 minute and 22 seconds.
Alien Abduction: Young Girl’s Unsettling Encounter with Mantis-Like Extraterrestrials
Alien Abduction: Young Girl’s Unsettling Encounter with Mantis-Like Extraterrestrials
In a tranquil farming town named Covina, nestled on the outskirts of Los Angeles in 1963, the unimaginable happened. Seventeen-year-old Linda Porter’s life took an eerie turn one night, propelling her to the center of one of the most mysterious alien abduction stories of the era.
Linda recalled waking up aboard an unfamiliar spacecraft, surrounded by blinding lights and sounds she had never encountered before. Guided by a small gray creature, she was led into a room where she met another being: an almost eight-foot-tall figure resembling a praying mantis. This wasn’t the typical “gray alien” story we’ve often heard of in pop culture.
What sets Linda’s story apart is its timeline. The incident predates the popularization of the alien abduction narrative, adding a layer of credibility to her account. Over the years, there have been numerous accounts of individuals claiming to have been abducted by gray aliens, but Linda’s tale also introduces the world to the much less common praying mantis alien figure. This has left many wondering if there’s a hierarchy amongst these extraterrestrial beings, with the praying mantis type at the helm.
Throughout her teens and twenties, Linda claimed to have several encounters with these otherworldly beings. It was only in her mid-forties that she decided to share her experiences, reaching out to investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe. Her accounts were richly detailed, supplemented by drawings that vividly depicted her experiences aboard the spacecraft and her interactions with the aliens. One standout illustration featured the tall praying mantis in a peculiar room illuminated with sparkling lights.
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The mantis-like beings have sparked intense discussions among researchers. Some draw parallels between the reported aliens and insects on our planet. Could the gray aliens represent worker bees, while the praying mantis figures represent a queen bee, more intelligent and of higher rank? Such speculation, while fascinating, has yet to find a solid grounding.
The intrigue doesn’t stop here. According to Linda, these aliens have a keen interest in the human soul. They seem perplexed by its essence, curious about where it travels after death. Linda spoke of witnessing humans in a form of suspended animation, encased within cylinders, raising questions about the extraterrestrials’ role in studying the human spirit and possibly even the cycle of reincarnation.
With stories from various victims reporting encounters with praying mantis-like beings and ancient tales of mantis gods, it begs the question: Are we truly alone? Or is there an insectoid race from another realm, silently watching and studying us?
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Pentagon Verifies Military Craft Sighting with Mind-Boggling Physics
Pentagon Verifies Military Craft Sighting with Mind-Boggling Physics
For decades, the sky has been a canvas of mysteries, with countless reports of unidentified flying objects or UFO sightings sparking intrigue and debate. While some are quick to link these to extraterrestrial encounters, others point towards military advancements. Yet, regardless of one’s belief, the fascination around UFO sightings remains undiminished. This article delves into some of the most talked-about sightings, drawing connections between aviation advancements and unexplained aerial phenomena.
1. The TR-3A Black Triangle Enigma:
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous reports flooded in describing large, silent, low-flying triangular crafts. These UFO sightings depicted an aircraft that defied conventional aviation rules, with the ability to hover, rapidly accelerate, and make acute turns. While many speculate these sightings to be top-secret military aircraft, others believe in their extraterrestrial origin. What’s intriguing is its alleged advanced stealth technology, rendering it invisible to radars.
2. The SR-72: Son of the Blackbird:
Although not officially a UFO, the SR-72 has captured imaginations worldwide due to its hypersonic speeds, potentially exceeding Mach 5. This aircraft, currently under development, has been wrapped in secrecy, leading many to speculate on its capabilities. While it’s designed to redefine global surveillance, its hidden details have only fueled UFO sightings and speculations.
3. The Legendary RQ-180 Drone:
Officially confirmed in 2013 by the US Air Force, this stealthy high-altitude drone is believed to be designed for deep penetration and covert intelligence operations. Its capabilities to operate at heights above 65,000 ft, coupled with its advanced sensors, make it a strong contender for many UFO sightings reported worldwide.
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While aviation advancements continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, the line between identified and unidentified becomes increasingly blurry. As more secretive projects come into light, and as more people turn their eyes to the skies, UFO sightings will remain a captivating topic of discussion. As technology advances, the skies might hold even more mysteries, waiting to be unveiled.
Ze zijn superhelder, heel zwaar en maar relatief kort waarneembaar. We hebben het over Wolf-Rayetsterren en James Webb heeft er eentje gespot. En hoe!
De krachtige ruimtetelescoop James Webb werd eind 2021 gelanceerd en opende tegen de zomer van 2022 de ogen. En één van de eerste dingen die de telescoop toen zag, was – zo onthullen de Amerikaanse en Europese ruimtevaartorganisaties nu – een zeldzame Wolf-Rayetster. Het levert een spectaculaire en ongeëvenaard gedetailleerde opname op.
WR 124 Wolf-Rayetsterren zijn zware sterren die door toedoen van krachtige sterrenwinden veel massa verliezen. Ze leven maar kort en exploderen uiteindelijk tot supernova. Op de opname van James Webb schittert de Wolf-Rayetster WR 124. De ster bevindt zich op zo’n 15.000 lichtjaar afstand, in het sterrenbeeld Boogschutter.
WR 124 is ongeveer 30 keer zwaarder dan de zon en druk bezig om zijn buitenste lagen af te stoten. Inmiddels heeft de ster al zo’n 10 zonsmassa’s aan gas weggeslingerd. Dat weggeslingerde gas koelt – op enige afstand van de ster – af, waarna stof ontstaat.
Laatste stuiptrekkingen Je kunt het zien als de laatste stuiptrekkingen van WR 124. De ster is namelijk gedoemd om op korte termijn te exploderen. We gaan WR 124 dus verliezen. Maar we krijgen er ook weer een hoop voor terug, zo is de overtuiging van astronomen. De stervende ster creëert immers grote hoeveelheden stof, waarvan naar verwachting in ieder geval een deel de supernova-explosie zal doorstaan. En uit dat stof worden vervolgens weer nieuwe sterren – en uiteindelijk ook weer planeten – gevormd. Daarnaast vormt het stof ook een platform waarop moleculen zich kunnen vormen en bijvoorbeeld tot bouwblokken van leven kunnen samenklonteren.
Afbeelding: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team.
Het belang van gedetailleerde opnamen Het moge duidelijk zijn: stof speelt een belangrijke rol in het universum. Daarnaast weten we dat er ook heel veel stof in de kosmos te vinden is. Veel meer eigenlijk dan astronomen kunnen verklaren. Geen wonder dat ze met bovengemiddelde interesse kijken naar stofproducenten, zoals WR 124. En dankzij James Webb kunnen ze deze stofproducent nu beter dan ooit bestuderen. Kosmisch stof kun je namelijk het beste observeren in infrarood licht en daar is James Webb voor gemaakt. De krachtige telescoop onthult structuren in het gas en stof rond WR 124 die eerder onzichtbaar bleven en stelt astronomen zo voor het eerst in staat om zich een gedetailleerd beeld van de stofproductie rond Wolf-Rayetsterren te vormen. Zo kunnen ze bijvoorbeeld nagaan of dat stof grof en talrijk genoeg is om – ook tijdens een supernova-explosie – stand te kunnen houden en bij te dragen aan het ‘stofbudget’ van de kosmos.
Daarnaast is het natuurlijk ook gewoon heel gaaf om een Wolf-Rayetster zo gedetailleerd te kunnen bekijken. Zeker als je bedenkt dat deze sterren vrij weinig worden waargenomen. In onze eigen Melkweg – gevuld met zo’n 100 miljard sterren – kennen we er slechts 500. Dat ze zo zeldzaam zijn, heeft alles te maken met het feit dat de sterren maar een kort leven beschoren zijn. Het maakt de opname van James Webb alleen maar waardevoller; de telescoop is er immers glansrijk in geslaagd een naar kosmische maatstaven vluchtig moment te vereeuwigen.
15 Incredible Ancient Buildings and Structures (Video)
The sheer scale of human construction throughout history is awe-inspiring. From buildings to bridges, roads to houses, temples to theaters, humans have been creating structures for millennia. However, the structures featured in this video are particularly remarkable. From Borobudur Temple to the Great Aqueduct, Saksaywaman, Derinkuyu underground city , Abu Simbel Temple and more, these are some of the oldest and most impressive remnants of ancient civilizations. Despite their age and the challenges of preservation, we are doing our best to protect these structures so that future generations can appreciate and learn from them.
There is a UFO/alien controversy surrounding Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, where one of three UFOs allegedly landed in May 1971. The incident has been recently discussed by “Moment of Contact” filmmaker James Fox, who says the full video of the UFO landing exists, including the alien entities walking out of the craft.
However, as it is so often in such cases, instead of the government releasing a film of the entire incident to author/filmmaker Robert Emenegger as promised, it only released 8 seconds of this special footage that ultimately made it into the film. Holloman Air Force Base is the United States Air Force base established in 1942 and located six miles southwest of the central business district of Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The story begins in 1971 when Emenegger and producer/director Allan Sandler were invited by US intelligence to Norton Air Force Base in California to discuss the significant UFO phenomenon that had occurred previously and create a documentary film about it.
Apparently, Mr. Fox recalls the Holloman incident on Julian Dorey Podcast, published on February 25, 2023. He says that he interviewed Sandler and Emenegger about it and they as well believe the UFO landing film footage exists. He points out this happened not far from Socorro, where Lonnie Zamora had his famous sighting roughly a year prior of a similarly shaped “tic tac” white craft and beings walking around the UFO.
There is no official record of the reason why the US government allowed giving secret UFO footage for a documentary film. It is believed that the administration of President Nixon did it to look strong in the science field for the upcoming 1972 re-election campaign.
Emenegger said that he was promised by the USAF officials to get the authentic UFO landing footage that happened at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in 1971. It showed the alien visitors emerging out of the craft that met with the US military. Even though Emenegger was skeptical about it, the Air Force assured him that the footage was authentic.
One of the military’s officials named Paul Shartle, who was in charge of the audio-video department, said in a 1988 national television broadcast with Mike Farrell that he had watched the 16mm film of three disc-shaped craft. One of them landed and the others flew away.
“I saw footage of three disc-shaped crafts one of the crafts landed and two of them went away. It appeared to be in trouble because it oscillated all the way down to the ground. However, it did land on three pods, a sliding door open a ramp was extended, and out came three aliens. They were human-sized. They had an odd gray complexion and a pronounced nose. They wore tight-fitting jumpsuits, thin headdresses that appeared to be communication devices, and their hands in their hands they held a translator I was told.”
Robert Emenegger (Right) and Paul Shartle (Left)
Mr. Fox revealed on the podcast that Allan Sandler told him on the phone call that he had seen three discs escorted by a military jet. “He was not sure of the altitude, but he estimated that they were at roughly 10 to 12,000 feet,” Mr. Fox said. He continued: “Paul Shartle (One of the military’s officials at Norton Air Force Base in California who was in charge of the audio-video department) admitted that he had seen it and that it was not of Earth origin.”
Sandler told Mr. Fox that two of the discs peeled away while one wobbled to the ground. He said it was like a leaf floating down from the sky, and it looked like it was in trouble. Mr. Fox said that the wobbling movement was similar to the footage he had seen of a UFO before. He does not think that Allan knew how the UFO hovered. The disc eventually went to the ground.
“He said James, just like in a sci-fi movie, the seamless door opens and out come these beings that had very large noses, slits for mouths, and their eyes were almost like a vertical slit, like a cat’s eye, very, very big. They had… I’m just like… I [Fox] need to make this abundantly clear to your audience. I’m not saying what’s true or what’s not true, or if it happened or if it’s alien or whatever it is. I’m just telling you what I was told by people who saw it, and claimed to have seen it. They came out and they met with the base commanders, and then they either got into a Jeep or were about to get into a Jeep or do something and then the film footage just cuts.”
Emenegger claimed that he personally visited the landing site and inspected the area where the extraterrestrial craft had been stored, and that the US military and the alien visitors had held meetings that lasted for several days.
Additionally, Emenegger’s production team was granted access to highly classified documents at DoD facilities, and they received assistance from military officials who had expertise in UFO-related matters, such as Col. William Coleman of Project Blue Book and Col. George Weinbrenner, who headed Foreign Technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
Paul Shartle, who showed the footage to Allan Sandler, faced some men in dark suits that showed up from an unknown location and warned him not to speak of the incident. They confiscated the footage, stating that it was not supposed to have happened. Sandler did not inform Emenegger for over 40 years.
Emenegger completed extensive research and film production only to feel cheated when the authorization to use real footage was withdrawn. Despite this setback, he went ahead and released his documentary “UFOs: Past, Present, and Future,” which was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1974. The documentary was groundbreaking because it provided information from the Department of Defense (DoD).
High Speed Test Track at Holloman Air Force Base
The United States Air Force (USAF) required Emenegger to add animated footage of the alleged Holloman UFO landing. According to Emenegger, some frames from the original footage were used during the editing stage with USAF authorization, which was not entirely missing from the frames. The viewers spotted a genuine bright disc coming down slowly in the distance against the backdrop of Holloman’s surrounding landscape.
David Cameron, a UFO researcher, shared in an interview that he was involved in confirming that the Pentagon was not covering up UFO sightings. He recounted the story of the Holloman Air Force Base film, where the government allowed producers to use eight seconds of footage of a landed alien ship in a documentary, but the classified part where an alien got out was removed.
Mr. Fox explains that the point of the story is that there is compelling evidence of an event occurring involving an unidentified object and that there may be film footage of the incident. Despite the existence of this evidence, the story has been overshadowed by other sensational claims, such as secret meetings between President Eisenhower and aliens.
While it is unclear what exactly happened, there is substance to the story and it should not be dismissed outright. However, the addition of other claims has muddied the waters and made it difficult to investigate the case of the president making contact with extraterrestrial life.
“The Finch” is a bright flash of light that appeared on manytelescopes on April 10, 2023. To this day, astronomers don’t know what set it off.
The avian moniker belongs to an event scientists spot roughly once a year. It’s called a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), and it doesn’t fit the mold of a supernova.
Supernovas create drama, but their sparks are different from LFBOTs. Supernovas take weeks or months to dim; LFBOTs take just days. Supernovas are also explainable: When stars reach the end of their life, they, in one way or another, explode. LFBOTs could be star deaths, too, but while past LFBOTs appear in stellar nurseries, the Hubble Space Telescope found that the Finch emanated from a dark chasm between galaxies.
“The discovery poses many more questions than it answers,” Ashley Chrimes, astronomer and lead author of a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, says in statements from both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) describing the Finch. “More work is needed to figure out which of the many possible explanations is the right one.”
Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) designated AT2023fhn (nicknamed the Finch), indicated in this Hubble Space Telescope image by pointers.
The Finch, like all other LFBOTs, is ephemeral. It shines intensely in blue light and evolves quickly into its peak brightness; then, it's gone. It takes only a few days for them to fade.
They are some of the brightest visible-light explosions in space. The first was discovered only recently, in 2018, and a handful have been observed ever since. With a small sample size, astronomers have limited guesses about their source.
They had an inkling that these phenomenal events could come from places within galaxies where stars were being born based on the location of the past blasts. But the Finch has thrown a wrench into that idea.
It’s “unlike any other LFBOT seen before,” NASA and ESA officials write. The Finch appears outside of two galaxies rather than inside of one. It was 50,000 light-years from a nearby spiral galaxy. Although it was three times closer to a smaller galaxy, the Finch emerged in what appears to be a desolate place.
Even if a star had managed to emigrate out of a galaxy and then exploded, the large blast would have needed to be powered by a large star, and astronomers don’t think one could have survived the exodus.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Astronomers need to grow their LFBOT sample size to get a clearer picture of these mysterious events. All-sky survey telescopes like the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory may help detect more of these short-lived events.
For now, researchers have their theories. Perhaps the dark patch of sky is filled with a community of stars that our telescopes can’t see, but where the fuel for such a blast was dwelling and where a black hole was prowling and, in April 2023, finally pounced.
Quite naturally, the October 11, 1973, alien abduction case featuring Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson in Pascagoula, Mississippi, took the headlines in the media at home and abroad. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that UFO sightings continued, not just in Mississippi, but across the USA. However, UFO sightings were still coming in from Mississippi, and another peculiar sighting came just ten days after the Hickson/Parker encounter.
There was a discussion on social media about the Pascagoula case when a gentleman by the name of Kevin Garrett joined the discussion with the following account.
Kevin Garrett
The following is my retyped copy of a letter from my grandfather to my aunt, describing events in Monticello, MS (about two hours north of the Mississippi Gulf Coast), just a few days following the incident in Pascagoula. I remember it happening, but honestly do not remember any details, except the globs themselves.
Sunday, 6:10 P.M., October 21st, 1973:
Dear Yvonne & Family:
We received your letter this morning and read it before going to Church. A.D. will write you telling that we are glad that you have bought a new vehicle. Also, to tell you of other happenings around here that may interest you.
The purpose of this letter from me is to tell you of our experience last Thursday afternoon. I was in the yard painting a record cabinet I have made for A.D. and A.D. was in the house resting. Martha came over to tell us what she had just heard over the radio. She heard the announcer state that spider-web-like material was falling from the sky in North Mississippi and that globs had fallen in a woman’s yard, and that her dog was lapping it. Martha was anxious for us to hear the next newscast, so at 4:00 P.M., she brought her small radio over, and we sat in the yard to listen to the news.
Sure enough, the first thing mentioned was that the spidery-webbed substance was then falling over Jackson. After listening for the 15-minute newscast to the end, I said, well, if spider webs had gotten to Jackson from North Miss., in that short period of time, we should be able to see some down this far. It was then about 4:25 P.M. and I was anxious to finish my painting, which I did. When Martha went home, she was looking up into the sky and, inasmuch as her TV antenna was almost in front of her, she noticed a silky like thread or web-like stringy something hanging from it. She called us, and we all went over to look.
There was another long strand hanging over a tree nearby, and while we were looking at this, someone said, “Look!, what’s that coming over.” From the North or slightly NE, we saw globs of whitish-silvery looking, odd, shaped UFOs coming over. At first sighting one, you would think it was a white bird, then it would reflect its true shape as it passed over. Not knowing the height from the ground, we cannot guess how large any of them were. They were not all the same size or shape. One appeared to be about the size of two 500-gallon butane tanks welded together lengthwise. Both ends were dome-shaped, and our guess was that it would have to be at least six to eight feet in diameter. It had no wings and it made no noise. It did not tumble over and over but kept a straight line, lengthwise. Ahead of it was a smaller blob like the others we saw. The smaller ball or glob was leading the bigger, cigar-like shaped thing, and we could see stringy-like silvery ribbon strands connecting the smaller to the large thing trailing. All were traveling at a tremendous speed, and we couldn’t figure out how they traveled so fast, especially since the wind was from the NW and they were coming from the NE. It could be that they were in a jet stream, but how did it get that height and what was propelling them unless they were in the jet stream? All were traveling very fast, and unless you spotted one in time, it was almost impossible for one who saw it to point it out to you. I would say that from the time one was spotted until you could see it no more toward the SW, would be about 30 seconds.
The birds and butterflies were disturbed. Some butterflies looked to be as big as a bat, and they were reddish-rust in color. They were not as high as those objects we saw but were traveling in the same direction. I have never seen butterflies, if they were; fly as high as these were flying. Blackbirds were flying over from the NW, going toward the river, and they acted funny. Two out of three out of a flock of ten to twenty would turn around, fly in the opposite direction, then turn and try to catch up. I believe that perhaps they had run into some of that spider-web-like stuff.
Well, I see that I had my carbon backward, so I can’t write on the reverse of the first page. Martha would not let Rusty touch the web-like material as she wanted Tom to see it when he came home. He did. Also, after getting his glasses, he finally begins to see those white objects coming over. He said he had never seen anything like it. About that time, we spotted two globs coming over. They were bigger than all the others except that cigar-shaped thing and they were going at a faster rate of speed than the others and seemed to be lower. One glob would get ahead of the other, then they would change and the other overtake the first one. They seemed to have a cord or something connecting them together and they were oddly shaped and would change shape as they traveled. These were also going toward the SW, and it appeared that the wind was tossing them about. Again, the wind was from the NW as a thin layer of cloud cover came over from that direction. So, the way I figure it, the wind we ordinarily know as wind, was coming from the NW and these things were traveling toward the SW. This, then, would not indicate that they were traveling against or opposite to the wind, but more or less across or more like an X, not exactly + to the other.
They have said very little about this except to state that they were taking samples to Hattiesburg for analysis. I heard one follow-up say that it turned out to be spider webs. We have not heard the report from Hattiesburg.
The only other report of sightings of this matter around here was by a class of children at Silver Creek who happened to be outside.
I have been a little reluctant to relate what I and we saw to others as I imagine it would be hard to believe. I have related this to you exactly as WE saw it, and you can draw your own conclusion as to what it was. Sometimes, when we are together, AD & I will tell you about the other object we saw about two weeks ago. This was prior to the incident at Pascagoula and AD and I got home in time for Martha and the children to see it. By the way, these blobs we saw, about 18 to 20 of them, lasted for about an hour. I had hoped they would keep over until sundown, but we did not see any more. Hope you appreciate this explanation and please excuse the errors. No, I am not excited, just rusty with my typing.
Love,
George Bowskey Russell was Kevin Garrett’s grandfather, the author of the letter, and A.D. (Alonzo Dulaney) was his grandmother A.D, Russell.
I, of course, am Kevin; Rusty is my brother; Tom was my father; Martha was my mother; Yvonne was my mother’s sister who lived near Fort Worth, TX, and to whom the letter was addressed. George Bowskey and Alonzo Dulaney were my maternal grandparents and we lived next door to them. The copy is from page two of a Xerox (when was last time you heard that term?) of the letter written by my grandfather to my aunt.
Kevin added on June 12th, 2023, via email: “The only thing I remember was seeing the globs getting caught in the limbs of the large pecan tree in the area between our houses. To me, they seemed a bit stringy. One would certainly assume some made it to the ground, but I don’t remember that. While I definitely remember the incident, I don’t remember many details. For example, I don’t remember the large silver things in the sky.”
Page two of the original letter
Kevin Garrett informed us that he had recently moved house so it was difficult to locate the actual type-written letter in question. He did, however, have one page that he had previously digitized. The above account and the copy of the letter are reproduced with the permission of Kevin Garrett. Mr Garrett also supplied us with a photo of his grandparents.
Alonzo Dulaney Russell
George Bowskey Russell
This is yet another peculiar UFO sighting coming from Mississippi in what was a flap of sightings in 1973. The Parker/Hickson abduction account was the most outstanding of cases reported during this flap. It makes you wonder how many more sightings were made but never reported.
About the author:
Philip Mantle is a long-standing UFO researcher and author from the UK. He was formerly the Director of Investigations for the British UFO Research Association and the MUFON Representative for England. He is the founder of FLYING DISK PRESS and can be contacted by email at: philip.mantle@gmail.com.
Our new book ‘BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT – The Pascagoula Alien Abduction’. Out September 1, 2023, on Amazon.
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The Astonishing UFO Sightings of Las Vegas: A Detailed Account
The Astonishing UFO Sightings of Las Vegas: A Detailed Account
The world remains captivated by unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, with countless individuals sharing their own stories and footage of bizarre occurrences in the sky. One of the most intriguing instances recently occurred over Las Vegas, where a local resident captured a mesmerizing display of these unexplained phenomena.
Las Vegas: A New Hub for UFO Sightings?
On October 5th, 2023, between 7 and 8 pm, a Las Vegas resident from Summerlin, looking up at the skies from his backyard, witnessed a display that has left the UFO community abuzz. The footage showcased an awe-inspiring arrangement of UFOs moving in perfect unison. Their unique ability to space themselves uniformly in the sky and their seamless formation hinted at advanced technology beyond our comprehension.
The video is reminiscent of earlier footage from 2021, which displayed similar impressive formations. The videographer noted that the appearance and behavior of these UFOs have evolved over the years. Notably, since 2017, it seems these unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) have become conscious of being observed and documented, leading to a shift in their patterns.
More Than Just A Passing Plane
To the untrained eye, the night sky over Las Vegas is often filled with the regular comings and goings of commercial airplanes. However, this witness emphasizes a clear distinction between regular jets preparing to land and the UFOs. While jets approach at a steep angle, these unidentified objects maintain a flat trajectory, occasionally side by side, and seem to operate at varying altitudes.
Interestingly, the observer hypothesizes a location on the base’s backside where these UFOs might be captured. Here, they float in and are potentially seized by an unknown technology, placing them underground.
A Message in the Movements
One standout feature in the recent video is the behavior of three particular UFOs. They initially move in a straight line to the east before breaking formation and smoothly floating toward the observer. Such deliberate movement cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence. Could this be a greeting or a form of communication? The excitement and mystery around these objects are palpable as they seem to showcase maneuvers, suggesting intent and perhaps even awareness.
The Age-old Question: Are They Ours?
As our understanding of UFO sightings grows, so does the debate about their origin. Are these advanced technologies developed secretly on Earth, or do they originate from the vast expanse of the universe? While many hope for the latter, offering the thrilling possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life, some believe these sightings are a testament to human ingenuity. If they are ours, what magnificent advancements in aerospace technology might we be on the cusp of unveiling?
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The UFO sightings in Las Vegas reiterate the fascination and unanswered questions surrounding these mysterious objects. As more individuals come forward with their own accounts and evidence, one can only hope that the truth behind these astonishing phenomena will be unveiled. Whether it’s an extraterrestrial signal or a human-made marvel, the skies above us continue to captivate and intrigue.
The disclosure has probably been going on for some time, but most of us have been oblivious to it. Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, made the most startling claims about extraterrestrial visitors. He thinks there is intelligent life beyond Earth, on worlds that might be just as sophisticated and well-organized as ours. Mr. Nelson expressed his hope that some of the unexplained UFO sightings are not evidence of an “adversary here on earth.” He suggested that it is more likely that these sightings are evidence of life existing on other planets.
NASA conspirators/whistleblowers have a full assurance that the US space agency has been covering the evidence of UFOs since the first Apollo mission. Donna Hare claimed to have worked for NASA contractor Philco Ford in the early 1970s. She had a high-security clearance to walk into NASA’s photo lab and other departments.
During the Disclosure Project press conference, Hare revealed that NASA covered up and eliminated space anomalies such as UFOs from satellite photos. Hare has got several awards in space programs. She dedicated most of her time as a technical illustrator to space programs. She created lunar maps, and landing slides and had been working for 15 years as a sub-contractor for NASA.
Former NASA scientist Robin Brett, who was among the first people to study and direct research on moon rocks said: “It seems easier to explain the non-existence of the Moon than its existence.” Besides, according to scientists, the Moon is older than the Earth by nearly 800,000 years, which raises a lot of questions.
Former US Air Force Sergeant Karl Wolfe, who died in a bike accident in 2018, was another person who shared a story similar to Donna Hare. He also had top-secret clearance and worked at Langley Air Force base in Virginia, the USA. He worked as a precision electronics photograph repairer for NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Project. One day, he was taken into a lab by another worker who showed him a photo of artificial buildings at the lunar base. These photos had been taken prior to the Apollo landing in 1969.
Sergeant Karl Wolfe
“…At any rate, I was in a color lab one day when my boss, Staff Sergeant Taylor, came over to me and said that they were having a problem with some equipment on the base and it was the first lunar orbiter program, where they had a mission to pretty much locate the first landing sites for the 1969 lunar mission for the astronauts.
So he said they were having some problems with equipment over there. it was similar equipment to what we had- it was computerized contact printing equipment. He wanted to know if I would go over and take a look at it. He said to me, It’s an NSA facility. At the time, I didn’t know what the NSA was – I was pretty naive.
I thought he said NASA. So in my mind, for a long time, I thought it was a NASA facility that I had gone to, but I remembered him saying NSA and converting it in my own mind to NASA…”
Wolfe claimed that one day, when NSA photographic equipment failed, he was asked to assist them with the important repair work that was needed to keep the machines on the job. He was the only person who was readily available at the time and was trained in the type of equipment that had failed. This was really a coincidence. In the regular course of events, he would be breaking protocol by entering NSA territory.
The level of his security clearance was enhanced, and as a result, he was allowed to even enter the extremely secure laboratory. Wolfe’s heart was pounding when he entered the here-to-fore forbidden hangar on that particular day, and he was astounded to witness the frenzied activity in the laboratory, which was being carried out by individuals from different countries.
Wolfe had expected that only people with the American citizenship would be in the NASA lab, but he was surprised to see a large number of people with guest name tags and obviously from other countries present on this particular day. This led him to believe that those people had traveled from their home countries for some event that required their temporary presence.
Concerning the outcome of his mission, he experienced feelings of dread. Whatever it was that required his presence, it was of the utmost significance. Someone had informed him that the relevant equipment was located in a nearby dark room.
When he was first carried into the chamber, the only thing that greeted him was the red glow of a safety light. However, after a time, he was able to make out the form of one airman who manned the area even though it was dark.
Wolfe was aware that in order to fix the image processing equipment, it would first need to be removed, and he was also aware that the diagnostics on this kind of equipment would take some time to complete.
Quickly, arrangements were made for the camera equipment to be moved to a safer place so Wolfe could start the long process of figuring out what was wrong. While Wolfe was waiting for his ride, he started talking to the other airman. Wolfe asked very carefully why NASA work was being done at Langley instead of at NASA’s headquarters in Houston.
After that, he was informed that all of the NASA picture data was transferred to Langley, where it was upgraded and transformed into finished photographs, which were then analyzed by various parts of the armed forces. Wolfe was given some insight by the attendant of the dark chamber as to the nature of the enigma surrounding the situation.
Wolfe was told that new, better pictures had shown structures on the surface of the Moon’s dark side that were both surprising and clear. Structures that could not have been made by natural means like meteors or ancient collisions between other celestial bodies. The structures were created by intelligent beings. “We discovered,” the airman said, “a base of the back side of the Moon.”
Wolfe was obviously stunned by this extraordinary disclosure. He remembers literally “shaking” trying to take in the enormity of what he had been told. Seeing Wolfe’s disbelief, the dark room attendant continued: “Yes, a base on the dark side of the Moon.”
Although the attendant had not explicitly stated that the structures were not created by inhabitants of Earth, it appeared obvious. Wolfe was still in awe as he looked down at the photos he was attempting to visualize in his mind. As he stooped beneath the red-glowing lamp, he saw something that so few would ever see. He was able to discern geometric shapes that were well-organized and planned. Most noticeable to him were what looked exactly like radar antennas, very similar to what one could see on Earth.
There was no longer any question in Wolfe’s mind as to the reason behind the peculiar assortment of investigators and scientists that were present at this location on this particular day. They had traveled to the moon in order to view and investigate the structures that he was currently staring at, which were built on the moon by intelligent beings.
He might be detained or worse. He only wanted to complete his task, get out of there, and leave things alone. Wolfe carried on the task at hand, putting the memories of that day to the back of his mind, and continued living his life. Wolfe, however, was haunted by the images he saw that day for many years to come.
After he left the active service, his security clearance prohibited him from leaving the United States for five years, and he was sworn to keep what he had seen to himself. Before he finally informed anyone about that remarkable day, it would be thirty years. The 74-year-old Sgt. Wolfe was killed after being hit by a trailer while cycling in Lansing, New York. Wolfe was rushed to Cayuga Medical Center where he later died from the injuries sustained in the crash.
Wolfe was not the only whistleblower whose death seems mysterious. Former U.S. Army Command Sgt. MajorRobert Orel Deanclaimed that when he worked for NATO in France, he read a document titled “The Assessment” in the 1960s. According to him, the document contained information about “photos of dead aliens, crashed UFOs and reports by military pilots and scientists.” Coincidently, he died a week before Wolfe’s death in 2018.
The sixth episode of the podcast”Weaponized,” starring filmmaker Jeremy Corebll and investigative journalist George Knapp, has ignited a long debate on Area 51 holding secrets of UFOs and non-human beings. Mr. Knapp explained a lot of the corroborating evidence regarding people that confirm Bob Lazar’s claims, as well as the S4 base he worked at Nevada desert and the company that vetted him, EG&G.
Lazar’s identity as an Area 51 scientist has always been discussed by other people in the UFOlogy. Lately, Dr. Travis Scott has also been seen discrediting Bob Lazar and said he did work at Area 51 but as a janitor. Many users find it a direct attack on Lazar’s credentials as he failed to show his qualifications. However, there are credible experts that have confirmed Lazar’s work at Area 51.
Mr. Knapp revealed to Corbell that while working on the follow-up series “UFOs: The Best Evidence” in 1990, he came to know about a man named Alfred O’Donnell, who was the general manager at EG&G in Nevada that managed Area 51. According to Knapp, O’Donnell claimed that “they did have a flying saucer that had been recovered from New Mexico,” and a “live being.”
EG&G was created by three scientists, Harold Edgerton, Kenneth Germeshausen, and Herbert Grier. The company specialized in the measurement of energy created by nuclear weapon explosions. EG&G was involved in the development of a complex little gadget that could arm an atomic bomb, start an automated countdown, set it off, and collect data on how it behaved. The company played a role in the migration of well-educated professionals to Las Vegas in the early 1950s, including Alfred O’Donnell, a technician who worked for the company.
Alfred O’Donnell
O’Donnell was the prominent figure in Area 51, who had all clearance to walk anywhere in the facility. Moreover, his background is good enough to add credibility to Bob Lazar’s claims. Mr. Knapp shared his story of meeting O’Donnell who told him about the recovered craft that was stored at the Indian Springs (Creech US Air Force Base), but later it was transferred to the newly built Area 51 in 1955.
“They moved it to an adjacent facility he didn’t say it was S4 he didn’t say it was Papoose but I think that’s what he’s talking about Papoose lake is where Bob Lazar said he worked and where they had built hangers underground disguised it to look like the desert and where they had other recovered craft,” Mr. Knapp said.
O’Donnell told Knapp all the secret information about UFOs at a coffee shop. He said that they were trying to reverse-engineer the recovered crafts and duplicate the technology to build more crafts like that. Further, O’Donnell revealed that they were worried that “IT” could get out. He said they were holding it in a cage as they did not understand it.
“We didn’t know what it was… To tell you the truth, we couldn’t communicate with it. In the beginning, we didn’t know what it was, we didn’t know where it was from. And we didn’t know what to do with it…”
“Eventually, they figured out a way to communicate with it and so I asked him well what did it look like… he said well kind of looks like a certain political candidate… at the time Ross Perot was running for president, he said it looks like Ross Perot, a little skinny guy with big ears and a tiny head, not a classic gray looking alien but a very odd looking creature.”
Mr. Knapp further shared a story about a former female employee of defense contractor Holmes & Narver, who allegedly had knowledge about “crashed saucers, recovered materials, and what sounded like a Roswell-type incident.” The woman had been intimidated by unknown agents before she was scheduled to speak with Knapp, causing her to cancel the meeting.
Knapp also mentioned that former Congressional staffer Richard D’Amato investigated claims about crashed saucers and visited Area 51, but was unable to verify the statements. Knapp later scheduled a meeting between D’Amato and EG&G employee O’Donnell, which was allowed by EG&G co-founder Herbert Grier. However, O’Donnell refused to tell D’Amato anything.
Knapp stated that O’Donnell made a deathbed confession, confirming the existence of a crashed flying saucer and a living being. However, no recording of O’Donnell’s confession has surfaced. If the recording was made public, it would lend credibility to the assertions made by Bob Lazar, who claimed to have worked on recovered saucers in Area 51.
Years after his initial conversation with Knapp, O’Donnell changed his story and shared a different version of the flying saucer incident with journalist and author Annie Jacobsen, which regarded the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) incident at Roswell in 1947.
Journalist Christoper Sharp writes that Jacobsen mentioned different version of O’Donnell’s story in the book “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base,” according to which “Roswell incident was not the result of non-human intelligence, but in fact a Russian craft with ‘grotesque, child-size aviators’ developed in human experiments by Nazi doctor and war criminal Josef Mengele.”
But Mr. Knapp debunked this story as he discovered the Russians were just as mystified about the Roswell incident as the Americans.
Bob Lazar claimed in 1989 that the US government was conducting a project to reverse engineer alien technology from nine different UFOs collected over decades and hidden in hangars at a location called S-4 near Papoose Lake.
Jeremy Corbell shared a video of Mr. Knapp discussing a real story of a civilian, Jerry Freeman, who snuck onto the Area 51 base and saw Papoose Lake. Freeman reported seeing security lights on the perimeter and lights that opened and closed near the center of the lake, and he felt vibrations for almost two minutes, which he thought could be either from underground or from Groom Lake.
Freeman also reported seeing a door opening in space with a bluish light, and then disappearing. George Knapp confirmed that Freeman did not know who Bob Lazar and John Lear were, and that former employees who worked with Bob verified that he was a physicist, but those claims were made informally and off the record.
Medium user SignalsIntelUFO has done great work by transcribing over 50 interviews of Bob Lazar with in-depth information. Bob claimed to have been hired as a physicist at Los Alamos in May 1982. For evidence about his employment, there is an article written by Terry England on June 30, 1982. “To Lazar, a physicist at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility, the important thing is the jet engine. It’s something he’s been working on for years,” England wrote.
Terry England article on Bob Lazar
In July 2020, during Joe Rogan’s podcast with Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp, Corbell said he asked Terry England about Bob Lazar’s occupation as a physicist at Los Alamos. Corbell said: “Look, here’s the point, you said Bob Lazar was a physicist at Los Alamos. So how did you base that? You’re writing a paper…” and he [England] goes “yeah,” — and it got picked up by AP news — he goes “if I [England] had misrepresented that he was a physicist at Los Alamos I would have been blackballed by everybody at Los Alamos. They take that very seriously. He was a physicist. I reported it. AP News picked it up, they repeated it. Not word one from anybody saying he wasn’t a physicist at Los Alamos.”
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LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS (VIDEOS) - 06/10/2023
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS (VIDEOS) - 06/10/2023
"We Are Convinced They Are Real" Ufologist Offers To Pay Scientists To Examine 'Alien' Mummies'
Howard Hughes is joined by Mexican investigative journalist, TV personality and ufologist Jaime Maussan who recently made headlines after saying he will fund two scientists to examine the 'alien' bodies found in Peru to prove that they are real.
Ancient Aliens: UFO Technology Found on Earth
Is there evidence of extraterrestrial technology existing on our planet? See more in this compilation from Ancient Aliens.
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The Government's UFO Problem with Christopher Mellon
Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, joins Chris Cuomo for a wide-ranging conversation about government bureaucracy and transparency, how intelligence agencies handle unidentified flying objects, and how processes like Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) can serve as a model to make Congress more productive. Mellon goes in depth about why the government has been so secretive about UFOs and UAPs, including the reasons agencies err on the side of classifying material over public disclosure, and how cultural biases affect attitudes toward unexplained phenomenon.
UFO/UAP Phenomenon! How does Netflix's ENCOUNTERS shine a light? | Yon Motskin | Big Thing
The UAP/UFO conversation continues at an all time high. Last week Netflix released a new 4 part series about the phenomenon covering 4 different cases. Kristian had the opportunity to talk with the director Yon Motskin about how he got involved and what his experience was filming it and what he learned about the situation. Reilly and Kristian discuss the series and the claim by Ross Coulthart that major reveals will be coming by other whistleblowers in the next year or so.
Hundreds in Maryland report UFO sightings as Congress, NASA investigate, push for transparency
Hundreds in Maryland report UFO sightings as Congress, NASA investigate, push for transparency
Top 4 Mysterious UFOs in the USA! | The Proof Is Out There
These strange UFOs have been spotted all over the continental United States. See more in this compilation from The Proof Is Out There.
The Parker Solar Probe is the little engine that just keeps going and going by the Sun. On September 27th, it made its 17th close approach and skimmed just 7.26 million kilometers (4.51 million miles) above the sun’s “surface” layer (called the photosphere).
That’s just the latest achievement by the probe, which also became the first-ever spacecraft to fly through a coronal mass ejection—and live to tell the story. That CME pass-through occurred on September 5, 2022, during its 13th approach to the Sun.
The spacecraft’s most recent accomplishment was set up by a gravity-assist flyby of Venus in late August. During the closest approach, the Parker Solar Probe was moving at 635,266 kilometers per hour (394,735 miles per hour). Both the close approach and the CME encounter are just two of many highlights of a mission that’s planned to continue its studies of the Sun and solar environment through mid-2025. So far, the spacecraft is in pretty good shape, considering what it’s experiencing during the mission. Parker does all this while experiencing temperatures up to 1400 C. Its main instruments are protected by shielding, which allows them to operate in a near-normal room-temperature environment.
Parker and Its Solar Accomplishments
Solar scientists sent Parker to help them understand some of the most puzzling aspects of our star’s activities. Its main target is the solar corona. They want to figure out what heats the corona by tracing the flow of energy that heats this uppermost part of the solar atmosphere. In addition, they want to understand how and why the solar wind gets accelerated as it leaves the Sun.
Artist’s impression of the solar wind from the sun (left) interacting with Earth’s magnetosphere (right). The Parker Solar Probe studies this wind at its source. Credit: NASA
Since the Sun is largely plasma, they want to understand its structure and the magnetic fields that exist and influence the flow of plasma from the Sun through the solar wind. Finally, the mission is equipped to study energetic particles flowing from the Sun and determine their transport mechanism.
About that Coronal Mass Ejection
We on Earth experience coronal mass ejections as they pass from the Sun on their way through the Solar System. These powerful events hurl huge masses of plasma through space, moving at speeds of 100 to 3,000 kilometers per second. Many CMEs do not encounter our planet, but when they do, they twist and stretch our planet’s magnetic field. The results can range from beautiful displays of aurora borealis to disruption of communications and electrical grids.
Solar physicists would like to be able to forecast these awesome solar storms. They’ve long wanted to measure the forces that drive CMEs. In particular, they want to know what accelerates the charged particles in the explosions to high speeds. They hope that Parker can give them data on just what’s happening on the Sun as one builds up.
A video showing Parker Solar Probe Wide-field images at the moment when it passed through a coronal mass ejection. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory/Brendan Gallagher/Guillermo Stenborg/Emmanuel Masongsong/Lizet Casillas/Robert Alexander/David Malaspina
On September 5, 2022, Parker was cruising the far side of the Sun. It flew just about 6 billion kilometers above the surface. That’s when it detected the CME as it built up. Later on, the spacecraft passed through the structure of the ejection, experienced its leading edge, and then exited the material. It was a pretty extreme CME and allowed Parker to pick up data about the shock wave’s speed and density. Luckily, this one didn’t hit Earth. However, if it had, the event would have severely damaged communications systems and probably caused widespread power blackouts.
“This is the closest to the Sun we’ve ever observed a CME,” said Nour Raouafi, the Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, which built the spacecraft within NASA’s timeline and budget, and currently manages and operates the mission. “We’ve never seen an event of this magnitude at this distance.”
Parker and The Sun
To get the scientific information to understand the corona and CMEs, scientists needed a spacecraft that could essentially fly through the Sun—or at least its corona. That’s where Parker comes into play. A heat shield, onboard radiators, and a thermal protection system protect it from CMEs and the solar wind. During the CME, the only effect it suffered was a little “torque”—a small turning action that it compensated for immediately.
For the rest of this year and into 2024, Parker will be following close orbits around the Sun. In late 2024, it will make its final Venus flyby, which will set the last three perihelion passages into 2025. In all, scientists plan for 24 perihelion passages before the mission ends. The data it is providing should open new windows of understanding about the solar wind and the processes that launch it through the Solar System.
Hundreds of Free-Floating Planets Found in the Orion Nebula
This image shows the full survey of the inner Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster made using the NIRCam instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This is the long-wavelength colour composite, which focuses on the gas, dust, and molecules in the region with unprecedented sensitivity in the thermal infrared. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson.
Hundreds of Free-Floating Planets Found in the Orion Nebula
It appears that rogue planets – free floating worlds that aren’t gravitationally bound to a parent star – might be more common than we thought. New data from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed 540 (yes, that’s right) planetary-mass objects in the Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster.
If confirmed, this would be by far the largest sample of rogue planets ever discovered.
Astronomers Samuel Pearson and Mark McCaughrean of the European Space Agency made the observations and posted a preprint paper to arXiv. The paper has yet to be peer reviewed, but has been submitted to Nature.
The researchers say a near-infrared survey from JWST allowed them to discover and characterize this large sample of 540 planetary-mass candidates. The team says these planetary mass objects (PMOs) are too small to be stars, as their masses are well below the traditional cutoff for a deuterium-burning brown dwarf, even down to 0.6 Jupiter mass — not much more massive than Saturn.
Within the large group of rogue planets are 42 pairs of planets that are gravitationally bound together, something that’s never been observed before. The astronomers named them Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or JuMBOs.
Graphic of a rogue star being kicked out of a galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
“How pairs of young planets can be ejected simultaneously and remain bound, albeit weakly at relatively wide separations, remains quite unclear,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
“The Jupiter Mass Binary Objects or JuMBOs are a really big discovery, we believe,” said McCaughrean, a senior adviser for science and exploration at ESA, on Mastodon. In the pre-print, researchers said that these planetary-mass binary objects is “a result that is highly unexpected and which challenges current theories of both star and planet formation.”
The conventional definition of a planet is that it is in orbit around a star. Additionally, current theories of planetary formation suggest that Jupiter-sized objects can only be formed through the process that gives rise to stars inside the clouds of dust and gas found in a nebula.
“It is clear that further simulations and modelling will be needed to understand how a substantial population of objects can form below [5 Jupter masses] and how a significant fraction of them can end up in multiple systems,” the team concluded.
The exact mechanisms for how planets go “rogue” are unknown, but several theories exist. The theories include that planets are pulled away from one star by gravitational interactions with other passing stars, or that supernovae kick them out, or that they free float into space after their sun dies.
Alternatively, for the JuMBOs, the researchers speculate that planetary ejections can be caused through planets scattering in a planetary disk or by dynamical interactions between stars.
“The latter are relatively common in dense star-forming regions like the Trapezium Cluster,” the team wrote. “The ensemble of planetary mass objects and JuMBOs that we see in the Trapezium Cluster might arise from a mix of both of these “classical” scenarios, even if both have significant caveats, or perhaps a new, quite separate formation mechanism, such as a fragmentation of a star-less disk, is required.”
Rogue planets are usually impossible to image in visible light, which makes JWST’s sensitive infrared vision the perfect tool to look for them.
This image shows the full survey of the inner Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster made using the NIRCam instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. which reveals the nebula, its stars, and many other objects in unprecedented detail in the infrared. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson.
The Orion Nebula has been studied for decades to observe the formation and early evolution of stars and other celestial objects. It lies 1,350 light years away from Earth and is visible to the naked eye as a misty smudge at the bottom of the Orion constellation, part of the ‘sword’ of the mythical Greek hunter after whom the constellation is named.
To see the images in detail, see ESA’s ESASky application, which has a user-friendly interface to visualise and download astronomical data. These are among the largest JWST mosaics observed to date.
Area 51: Some of the Strangest Tales and Mysteries From Aliens to Marilyn Monroe
Area 51: Some of the Strangest Tales and Mysteries From Aliens to Marilyn Monroe
Nick Redfern
Area 51: we've all heard about it. But, what about some of the craziest stories that have come out of it? Let's have a look at some of them. Here they are, in their top weirdness and in no particular order: there can be very few people on the planet who have not heard of its infamous name. Many will be familiar with the extraordinary claims of what, allegedly, goes on there. It’s a place that is saturated in secrecy, cloaked in conspiracy theories, and, according to many, it is home to Uncle Sam’s very own, highly classified, prized collection of secret aircraft, dead aliens, crashed UFOs, and extraterrestrial technology. Highly fortified, and guarded by personnel who have the right to use “deadly force” to protect its many and varied secrets, it is, of course, Area 51. For years, there were rumors of a top secret installation deep in the Nevada desert. Incredibly, outside of the world of officialdom and the people who lived in the area, hardly anyone had heard of the place until the latter part of the 1980s. That was when a controversial character named Bob Lazar came out of the shadows and revealed a startling story. According to Lazar, in late 1988 he worked briefly at a facility on Area 51 called S-4. That work reportedly revolved around the study of a number of acquired alien spacecraft. Yes, the U.S. Government has a secret storage area for vehicles from other worlds. Maybe even from other galaxies. At least, if you buy into the stories of Lazar.
(Nick Redfern) The most secret military facility on the planet
It’s hardly a surprise that when the Lazar story hit the headlines the media quickly latched onto it, as did the UFO research community, many of whom saw Lazar’s revelations as the breakthrough they had waited for, patiently, and for so long. Maybe it was just such an amazing breakthrough, but, on the other hand, perhaps it wasn’t. We’ll come to that thorny issue later. Regardless of whether or not people bought into Lazar’s revelations, the fact is that the genie’s bottle – so to speak – was, thanks to his disclosures, now open and ready to be mined. As a result, Area 51 appeared in various episodes of The X-Files, in a block-buster movie of 1996, Independence Day, and in numerous other sci-fi-driven shows, as well as on almost endless numbers of television documentaries. Although, from the government’s perspective, it’s barely acknowledged to exist, Area 51 is known worldwide. In a very strange fashion, it has become part of our pop-culture. And that is unlikely to ever change, such is the allure of the tales coming out of the base. But how and why did one top secret government facility achieve such notoriety? Let’s see…
Area 51, the Nevada Test and Training Range, aliens, JFK and the death of Marilyn Monroe: are they all connected? It’s a hugely charged saga that dates back to the mid-1990s and which is clearly not going to go away anytime soon. The vast majority of the story is reliant on a controversial document of questionable origins and of equally questionable authenticity. Allegedly, it’s a CIA document dated August 3, 1962 and which deals with Marilyn Monroe’s supposed knowledge of Roswell and UFO-themed conspiracies. And matters relative to what is referred to as a “secret base.” Now, where might that be…? What is particularly interesting about the “Monroe document” is not so much what it says, but what it specifically doesn’t say. Despite what many researchers have said, there is not even a single reference in the document to aliens, extraterrestrials, flying saucers, or UFOs. Not a single one. In fact, the wording could actually push the whole thing down a very different paths you will soon see. But, first, let’s see how and under what circumstances the controversial one-page document surfaced.
It all began in 1995, at a Los Angeles-based press conference. It was a press conference held by a man named Milo Speriglio. He was a man with a deep interest in the circumstances surrounding Marilyn’s death. Speriglio was so interested in her final day in August 1962 that he wrote three books on the issues of her life and her still-controversial death. They were Crypt 33, The Marilyn Conspiracy, and Marilyn Monroe: Murder Cover-Up. Until 1995, Speriglio had not made any kind of connection between the Hollywood uber-babe and UFOs. So, what was it that prompted Speriglio to head off into new and highly inflammatory territory? It was a revelation from a man named Timothy Cooper. Today, many people within Ufology might not recognize that name. But, from the early-to-late 1990s, Cooper – of Big Bear Lake, California – was a well-known figure in Ufology. He was also a controversial figure, too. Most of the controversy stemmed from the fact that Cooper claimed to have received a wealth of old, sensational, leaked documents from retired figures in the intelligence community – almost all of them on crashed UFOs, Roswell, dead aliens, and the notorious Majestic 12 group. Rather notably, the initial batch came to Cooper from a source in…Nevada.
(Nick Redfern) Who really knows the truth?
There’s no doubt that the documents existed (and still exist). There are literally hundreds of pages. The big question is: are they the real deal? When the papers were made available, there were those researchers who believed that the documents were one hundred percent real. Some investigators, though, considered them to be government disinformation. And others were firmly of the opinion that Cooper had created them himself, perhaps for fame, notoriety or money. Possibly, all three. The controversy raged on for a while, but finally imploded upon itself with barely a sigh. The Marilyn document was one of those which Cooper claimed to have received from one of his various sources, or as we might justifiably call them: “ufological Snowdens.” Now, onto somthing else weird and connected to Area 51.
Now, to a matter concerning NASA and which provoked a whirlwind of controversy in 1974. It all revolves around three astronauts and NASA’s almost legendary craft, Skylab. NASA states: “Skylab was hailed as a ‘bold concept’ by Rocco Petrone, who served as director of launch operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida before becoming director of the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., during 1973 and 1974. The program demanded innovation and ingenuity, said Petrone in Skylab, Our First Space Station, a NASA report published in 1977. ‘Experience and knowledge gained from earlier space programs provided a solid foundation on which to build, but the Skylab Program was truly making new pathways in the sky.’ The project began as the Apollo Applications Program in 1968 with an objective to develop science-based human space missions using hardware originally developed for the effort to land astronauts on the moon. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979.”
It was on April 19, 1974 that trouble started brewing. It was on that day that the then-Director of the CIA, William Colby, received a communication from one of his colleagues, an unknown figure who wanted to discuss a certain “issue.” Colby was told that: “The issue arises from the fact that the recent Skylab mission inadvertently photographed” Area 51. Colby was additionally informed that: “There were specific instructions not to do this.” Dwayne A. Day, of The Space Review, and who personally broke the story in 2006, said: “In other words, the CIA considered no other spot on Earth to be as sensitive as Groom Lake, and the astronauts had just taken a picture of it.” Uh-oh. Not good. Those astronauts who had caused all of the problems were Edward Gibson, Gerald Carr and William Pogue. Both Pogue and Carr had military backgrounds and Gibson had a doctorate in engineering physics. Day says of their actions: “Why the Skylab astronauts disobeyed their orders and took the photo is unknown, as are what it depicted.”
Director Colby’s informant told him: “This photo has been going through an interagency reviewing process aimed at a decision on how it should be handled. There is no agreement DoD elements (USAF, NRO, JCS, ISA) all believe it should be withheld from public release. NASA, and to a large degree State, has taken the position that it should be released – that is, allowed into the Sioux National Repository and let nature take its course.” Colby was also advised that: “There are some complicated precedents which, in fairness, should be reviewed before a final decision.” There was, Colby was told, “a question of whether anything photographed in the United States can be classified if the platform is unclassified; such complex issues in the UN concerning United States policies toward imagery from space” and “the question of whether the photograph can be withheld without leaking.”
In terms of the outcome, Dwayne A. Day said: “Nothing more is known of this Skylab incident than the fact that the photograph was not released. NASA and the State Department clearly lost the argument. But the opponents of releasing it preserved national security, as they defined it.” None of this explains, exactly, why the NASA astronauts deliberately went against protocol and photographed Area 51. Were they, perhaps, aware of the strange rumors surrounding the base and, as a result, decided to get a photo of the legendary installation? It’s very hard to come to another, viable conclusion. Although the story of Area 51 didn’t really take off big time until 1989 – which was when Bob Lazar entered the scene in controversial and eyebrows-raising fashion – there were significant indications as far back as 1984 that something very weird and deeply conspiratorial was going down out in the heart of the Nevada Desert. We know this, thanks to a now-declassified U.S. Government document of 1987 on what are referred to in its pages as “military land withdrawals. The title: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-Ninth Congress, Second Session.
On March 11, 1986, beginning at 9:45 a.m., in room B-352, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable John F. Seiberling made a notable statement on the U.S. Air Force’s plans to prevent American citizens from accessing massive slabs of land that, legally, the Air Force had no right to claim as their own. That land, of course, was – as the government saw things – way too close to Area 51 for comfort. But, before we get to that, let’s take a look at a certain controversy that was going down in 1984. It provides us with a timeline that led directly to the events of March 11, 1986. In his 1991 book, Alien Liaison, British ufologist Timothy Good wrote: “In early 1984 the U.S. Air Force illegally seized 89,000 acres of public land, known as the Groom Range, in order to further restrict access to Area 51. The decision to control access was made after the consultation with local Bureau of Land Management officials and after USAF Headquarters had conferred with the Air Force Secretariat.”
As a result of this controversial land-grabbing operation, in August 1984 a hearing was held to specifically address this issue. It was held in the U.S. House of Representatives. The debate was between the Honorable John Rittenhouse – who was there to represent the interests of the Air Force – and the Chairman, the Honorable John F. Seiberling. The debate went as follows: Seiberling: “Is it true that Air Force has already acted to restrict public use of the Groom Range area?”
(Nick Redfern) Marilyn Monroe and Area 51: a strange connection
Rittenhouse: “Yes, sir, it is true. We have asserted the right to control the surface access and egress to the extent of requesting people not to go in and out. We have people posted to the roads and at certain times we do not. We ask their cooperation.”
Seiberling: “Under what legal authority was that done; that right asserted?”
Rittenhouse: “As far as I know, sir, there is none; except decisions were made at a much, much higher level than mine that that be done.”
Seiberling: “There is no higher level than the laws of the United States.”
Rittenhouse: “No, sir, I understand, and we can describe that further if you would like, sir.”
Seiberling: “I would like.”
Rittenhouse: “In closed briefing.”
Seiberling: “Why would that have to be in a closed briefing?”
Rittenhouse: “I can’t discuss it, sir.”
Area 51's secrecy was in danger of being lost.
One of the most controversial of all of Lazar’s claims is that he read a series of highly-classified documents on various aspects of the UFO phenomenon. One of those documents, Lazar maintained, told a strange and almost sinister story of a violent confrontation between security personnel at Area 51 and a group of aliens that were in residence and working at S-4, alongside a scientific team. It was a confrontation that reportedly resulted in more than a few deaths. Far more than a few. To his credit, Lazar has admitted that he cannot say for sure that the briefing papers he read were the real thing. He has acknowledged that they may have been disinformation, designed to swamp him with both real and bogus material. Why might the project leaders at Area 51 do such a thing? Simple: if there were concerns that lazar might blow the whistle on what he knew (which, as history has shown, he did, in 1989), mixing up the truth with a more than liberal amount of lies might have an adverse effect on his credibility. It should be noted that’s exactly what happened. That said, and although he cannot say for sure that the documentation was the real deal, he does recall the contents of the material, in relation to this fire-fight situation.
According to Lazar, the deadly confrontation occurred at some point in 1979, in the S-4 facility. Lazar said: “I believe the altercation came about in 1979, or sometime like that. And I don’t remember exactly how it was started, but it had something to do with the security personnel. The aliens were in a separate room. I think it had something to do with the bullets [the security guards] were carrying, and somehow they were trying to be told that they couldn’t enter the area with the bullets, possibly because it was hazardous – the bullets could explode, through some field or whatever.” Lazar continued that despite the warning, one of the security guards did indeed enter the room with the bullets – something which resulted in a violent and lethal response from the aliens. Lazar recalled that the papers he read described how the security personnel were all quickly killed by “head wounds.” The same fate befell a group of scientists on the program, too. Timothy Good, who interviewed Lazar at the height of the controversy surrounding his claims, said: “The incident is said to have led to the termination of an alien liaison at the Nevada Test Site.”
There is a particularly important aspect to the controversy surrounding Bob Lazar that many researchers are either completely unaware of or have overlooked – possibly not realizing the importance of that certain aspect. It’s the distinct possibility that while working out at S-4 Lazar may have had his mind tampered with. We’re talking about ways and means to blur reality, to have the targeted individual – in this case Lazar – see and experience something that may not actually be part of what passes for reality. Timothy Good made a notable statement on this issue. Good stated that Lazar told him, “Security was formidable, and various methods of intimidation (including the possible use of drugs and hypnosis [italics mine]) were used to ensure that those who worked at the base kept their mouths shut.”
Renowned ufologist, Dr. Jacques Vallee, noted something that was almost certainly connected to the drugs / hypnosis issue. Vallee, speaking on KLAS-TV’s show, UFOs: The Best Evidence, said he asked Lazar “if he felt that his memory might have been tampered with.” There was a good reason for that question to have been asked. Lazar has admitted that on a couple of occasions, all he could remember was being flown out to S-4…and flying back. And that’s all. His mind had been wiped clean of around two days’ worth of memories. And he never, ever got those missing days back. In light of that, we have to seriously wonder if Lazar genuinely recalled his experiences as he remembered them, but that what he remembered wasn’t real. It may well have been part of an ingenious plan to have Lazar become the ultimate patsy in a plot to convince someone – maybe the Russians – that the U.S. Government has UFOs and alien technology in its secret arsenals. In that sense, the entirety of Lazar’s story needs to be addressed very carefully. Not because he was a liar. But, because his memories cannot be trusted. Of course, though, that’s not down to him. It’s all down to whoever it was who messed with his mind.
One of the lesser known aspects of the Bob Lazar controversy is that which suggests he just might have seen an alien entity at Area 51 – a live one, no less. The story gets very little publicity, but it’s fascinating in the extreme. The issue of aliens – alive, dead or both at Area 51 -first surfaced from Lazar in early 1989. When asked about that specific matter by George Knapp, Lazar quickly shot down the question in an awkward fashion and changed the subject. Later, though, in what was a private, rather than public, interview, Lazar opened up a bit more. What he had to say was brief but amazing – if true, of course. According to Lazar, “I walked down the hallway at one time I was working down there, and there were these doors – the doors that go to the hangar are smaller than the doors in the corridors and have a 9-inch or 12-inch square window with little wires running through it, just about head level. And as I was walking by, I just glanced in and I noticed – at a quick glance – there were two guys in white lab coats, facing me towards the door.”
Lazar then got to the heart of the matter: the two men were looking down at a small, humanoid figure with long arms, seemingly talking to it. Although Lazar only saw the entity for a second or so, he was in no doubt about what it appeared to be. I say “appeared” because Lazar himself wondered if this was some kind of set-up. He said of this possibility: “Maybe they stuck a doll in front of these guys and made me walk by it and look at it, just to see what my reaction would be.” Such a thing is not at all impossible, as the following brief, but notable, comment from Lazar makes clear: “They play so many mind games there [italics mine].” While enthusiastic UFO researchers may dearly want to believe that living aliens are at Area 51, Lazar’s carefully worded statement suggests we should exercise restraint on this issue – at least until, or if, further vindication comes along. It’s important too to note that there is an intriguing precedent to this – a very similar tale of fabricated aliens, as we will imminently see. George Knapp made a thought-provoking statement in 1993 which may have a bearing on the issue of how the government might be using the UFO issue as a cover for something else, such as a dummy for an alien, we might suggest. Knapp said: “Again and again, I have heard self-appointed Groom Lake experts conclude, without any reservations, that the Groom Lake aerial ballet is disinformation, pure theater, a show designed to distract attention away from earthly black projects, or as some sort of exercise in mass psychology.”
It’s a fact that most people who have studied the claims of Bob Lazar focus their attentions on what he had to say about the UFOs allegedly held at S-4, as well as his statements concerning Element 115. There is one issue which doesn’t get the attention that it really should. It’s a part of Lazar’s story which takes things down a path that is filled with disturbing revelations involving the afterlife. One of the many briefing papers that Lazar said he read at S-4 stated that the aliens refer to us, the human race, as what we would call “Containers.” But, containers of what? Well, that’s where things get really controversial. Lazar told KLAS-TV’s George Knapp “religion was created so we have some rules and regulations for the sole purpose of not damaging the containers.”
There followed an awkward conversation which saw Knapp pressing for answers, and Lazar almost squirming because of the nightmarish nature of the story. That’s hardly surprising, because the claimed big secret is that the aliens have an interest in the human soul. Worse, though, they allegedly use the human soul in a way that the U.S. Government doesn’t fully understand. Or, that the government does know, but does not know how to tell the world the awful truth. One of the theories is truly terrifying: that the aliens “feed” on the human soul, on our life-force. In this scenario, the earth is a farm and we are the cattle. On our deaths our souls are reaped and the life-energy sustains the aliens. Far out? Definitely. But, Lazar stands by what he read in those briefing papers. The soul angle has led some UFO researchers to believe that the aliens are actually nothing of the sort. Rather, the theory is that they are high-tech demons; it’s an issue we will come to shortly.
George Knapp was not the only person who Bob Lazar spoke to on this issue of containers. Michael Lindemann is the author of a 1995 book, UFOs and the Alien Presence. He also questioned Lazar on this controversy-dominated aspect of the story of Lazar and Area 51. Lazar added a bit more to the story, when speaking with Lindemann, as the latter acknowledged in his book. He noted that Lazar said the containers were “extremely, extremely unique,” that they were “very difficult to find,” and that the biggest secret of all revolved around our souls. No wonder that the people in the know at Area 51 didn’t know how to tell the rest of the world the story they were forced to sit on – out of fear of worldwide anarchy breaking out, if it was revealed that religion was a creation of ancient extraterrestrials who devour our souls.
As we have seen, there is one thing – more than any other – that sets Area 51 apart from just about every other military or government facility in the United States: it’s the sheer extent of the government’s determination to make sure that absolutely nothing gets out of Area 51 and no-one gets in. Of course, and particularly so in today’s climate of uncertainty and threats of nuclear attacks, everyone needs to be vigilant. And that includes everyone who works at Area 51, too. They are, when all is said and done, just like us, regular people with lives and families. The big difference, though, is that they know the reasons for so much secrecy and we don’t. It would be hard – in fact, impossible – to find a military installation in the United States that protects its secrets to a greater degree than Area 51. People have been forced to leave their homes and their land – solely due to U.S. Government concerns and worries that those same people just might see something they shouldn’t see. The outrageous story of the Sheahan is a perfect example. Those who stray too close to portions of the Nevada desert that the staff of Area 51 would prefer to keep under wraps risk large fines, imprisonment and even death, and all in the name of national security.
Aircraft are banned from flying close to or over Area 51. They can even be shot down out of the sky, if circumstances dictate and warrant such drastic action. When, in 1974, NASA’s astronauts on-board Skylab took an aerial phot of the base, all hell broke loose in the defense- and intelligence-based communities of the United States. The CIA and the Department of Defense quickly got involved. Major concerns were expressed about how on Earth (or, in this case, off it) such a thing could have happened. Secret files were created, most of which have never publicly surfaced. Motion-detector equipment peppers the landscape. Cameras are everywhere. Guards patrol the local roads for any perceived suspicious characters. Night-vision technology ensures that no-one can penetrate the base in the early hours of the morning.
The government practically refuses to acknowledge not just the existence of Area 51, but even its name. That same government refused to offer help on the 1996 movie Independence Day, and all because a substantial portion of the movie revolved around Area 51 and the 1947 incident at Roswell, New Mexico. All of the above is astonishing. No facility in the United States comes even close to the level of secrecy and paranoia that surrounds Area 51. Which brings up an important question: is all of this overwhelming secrecy just in place to protect next-generation after next-generation of aircraft? Or, are the rumors and the whispers true? You know the ones, of course: the claims that are deeply hidden at Area 51 are the remains of the Roswell wreckage, recovered flying saucers, and alien corpses. Maybe, even living aliens are at the base, too.
Three Enigmatic Lights Spotted in Earth’s Orbit by Astronauts!
Three Enigmatic Lights Spotted in Earth’s Orbit by Astronauts!
Article: The Enigma of Space: UFO Sightings or Astral Phenomena?
From the vast emptiness of space, mysteries emerge. Stories of unidentified flying objects have long intrigued the masses, stirring up questions about extraterrestrial life and the unknown. As advancements in technology bring us closer to the stars, they also offer more enigmatic findings.
During a routine survey to ensure the safety of Atlantis’ heat shield, astronauts reported seeing three flashing lights in Earth’s orbit. Was it a sign of extraterrestrial life visiting our planet? This sighting, though brief, captivated NASA scientists and enthusiasts of UFO sightings alike.
However, a closer examination suggested that the lights might be incidental objects that broke free accidentally from the shuttle. The concern was justified when, a day later, NASA found evidence that Atlantis had been hit by a micrometeorite. While the triangular formation of the lights witnessed by the crew remained an unsolved puzzle, NASA’s swift caution ensured the shuttle’s safe return.
Atlantis had always been a beacon of hope and a symbol of human achievement in space exploration. The unexpected incident only reinforced the importance of its impeccable performance.
Space Oddities: Beyond Triangular Lights
Triangular patterns aren’t the only peculiar symbols reported in space. Astronomer Jim Scotty of Kit Peek Observatory in Arizona, upon hearing of an unconventional comet, set his sights on the skies. Using his 1.8-meter telescope, he glimpsed something out of the ordinary – an object that looked eerily distinct from any known comet.
Further investigation revealed a hazy image that seemed to have a probe-like extension. This caught NASA’s attention, leading them to deploy their most powerful observational tool – the Hubble Space Telescope.
The images relayed were nothing short of astonishing. A giant ‘X’ shape loomed in space, an anomaly that had scientists stepping back in awe. This X-structure, which spanned over 1,500 miles, was unlike anything manufactured on Earth and was unlike any recognized natural phenomena. Theories abounded, with some speculating a collision between two asteroids, while others mused on the possibility of an unknown space construction.
Despite the abundance of advanced equipment and seasoned experts, the universe continues to retain its mysteries. As Astronomer JJ Cavalars aptly puts it, “There’s more that we don’t know than we do know.”
Whether UFO sightings, mysterious space formations, or the enigmatic ‘X’ in the sky, the universe constantly reminds us of its vastness and the multitude of secrets it holds. While some questions might find answers in time, others might remain in the beautiful realm of the unknown.
Should Britain be taking UFOs more seriously? As NASA sets up a taskforce to study possible extraterrestrial visitors in the US, experts say it's time for the UK to follow suit in the interests of 'national security'
Should Britain be taking UFOs more seriously? As NASA sets up a taskforce to study possible extraterrestrial visitors in the US, experts say it's time for the UK to follow suit in the interests of 'national security'
Experts have accused UK Government of failing to take UFOs seriously enough
Ministry of Defence closed its UFO desk in 2009 and nothing has ever replaced it
Britain should follow America's lead and create its own UFOtaskforce to investigate potential extraterrestrial sightings, experts have said.
They accused the UK Government of failing to take the issue seriously enough and warned that it could have serious implications for the country's defence capabilities.
Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the British military in the 1990s before the unit was disbanded, said it was 'outrageous' that ministers are not taking 'meaningful action' to probe unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) — more commonly known as unidentified flying objects.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) needs to restart UAP investigations, a task force of some sort needs to be set up, and the Defence Committee needs to start holding the MoD to account on UAP, as the Armed Services Committees are doing in the US Congress, in both the Senate and the House,' he told MailOnline.
Mr Pope accused defence officials of 'falling back on a lazy, closed-minded "it can't be, so it isn't" mindset', meaning potential foreign threats to UK shores could be missed.
Is anyone out there? Britain should follow America's lead and create its own UFO taskforce to investigate potential extraterrestrial sightings, experts have said
Alien hunter: The inaugural boss of NASA's newly-created UFO research division has been named as former meteorologist and liaison to the Pentagon Mark McInerney
The MoD closed its UFO desk in 2009 and nothing has ever replaced it.
Prior to this, it carried out what at the time was a highly-secretive and extensive UFO investigation of more than 10,000 possible sightings over several decades — many of which were by military personnel.
Known as the Project Condign report, it concluded that 80 per cent of the sightings were easily explained, 19 per cent were secret military craft and just 1 per cent were mysterious in origin.
However, the MoD accepted that there are always going to be UAP and that those which are unexplained are likely an 'an unknown kind of plasma' and not of concern.
'The MoD has consistently stated that no UFO/UAP sighting has ever shown a threat to the UK, therefore they are of no defence significance and as a result the MoD is not interested,' said Philip Mantle, the former director of investigations at the British UFO Research Association.
He told MailOnline that for this reason it would be 'pointless' to set up a UFO taskforce.
'The MoD are not interested and science in general usually gives the subject a wide berth,' Mr Mantle added.
'One thing that is clear, however, is that the UFO phenomenon, whatever it may be, does not recognise any international borders, therefore any such study surely must be international in scope rather than national.'
The space agency's independent panel of experts stressed that there was 'no reason to conclude' that any were extraterrestrial in origin, but warned that mysterious flying objects were a 'self-evident' threat to American airspace.
Mr Pope said that if the US was worried about this then Britain, as an NATO ally, should be too.
In the US, NASA last week released its highly-anticipated report into more than 800 potential alien sightings over a period of three decades. NASA chief Bill Nelson (pictured) announced that a new director for UFO research would help implement the panel's recommendations
The newly-formed UFO research division will continue studying UAPs, even though the space agency yesterday ruled out that aliens were to blame for some 800 such sightings over almost three decades. Above, a weather balloon careens through the air following its release from the Cape Canaveral weather station in Florida. NASA's panel included this image in their report as an example of the striking, highly unusual objects that actually have a terrestrial explanation
He added: 'The UK can make a significant contribution to the wider search for the truth about UAP, by leveraging its world class intelligence community imagery analysis resources and capabilities.
'The bottom line is that we need action.
'Just as lawmakers in the US – Republicans and Democrats alike – are taking up this issue, UK Parliamentarians should start asking the MoD some hard questions, not accept boilerplate responses, and ensure that meaningful action is taken by setting up a task force modeled on the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.'
A petition has also been set up calling for the UK to set up an investigatory office on UFOs/UAPs but has so far attracted just 1,500 signatures since May.
It requires 10,000 for the Government to respond to it and 100,000 to be considered for debate in Parliament.
Interesting: Earlier this year the Department of Defense released a document disclosing the 'world's UFO hotspots'. It includes a map showing where the most sightings of unidentified objects have been recorded, based on reports between 1996 and 2023
The petition states that the office 'would be primarily to research and investigate reports of UFOs (unidentified flying objects) and UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena) over the United Kingdom and also assist and support witnesses.'
Even though they poured cold water on the extraterrestrial hypothesis, NASA's experts did not deny the possibility of a 'potential unknown alien technology operating in Earth's atmosphere'.
Their 33-page report called for NASA to utilise its technological might to continue studying UFOs because many cases remain unsolved — and researchers still have no idea what some of these sightings are.
But that could finally change following the official release of information from the Pentagon about the mysterious aerial phenomena.
The new Department of Defense document reveals characteristics of the typical UFO, including the colour and the shape, velocity, and flight level
Based on clues from reported sightings, the typical UFO has a round shape, usually described as spherical or an orb, with a white or silver colour, often translucent.
It also has a size of between 3 and 13 feet (1 to 4 metres) and usually travels through the air at a height just below commercial passenger planes.
Het is een van de raadselachtigste massa-extincties die de Aarde heeft gekend: hoe konden die grote en machtige dinosaurussen 66 miljoen jaar geleden in één klap worden weggevaagd? En niet alleen de dino’s, driekwart van het leven op Aarde verdween. Was het een meteorietinslag of toch een vulkaanuitbarsting, die op dramatische wijze een einde maakte aan het Krijt?
Onderzoekers besloten zich er eens niet zelf mee te bemoeien, maar een computer het werk te laten opknappen. En dat leidde tot een verrassende uitkomst: niet de asteroïde, maar de uitbarsting van de Deccan Traps zou het leven op Aarde fataal zijn geworden. Rond de overgang van het Krijt naar het Tertiair barstte het westen van India open over een oppervlakte van 500.000 vierkante kilometer. De vulkaanuitbarstingen hielden een miljoen jaar aan, waardoor er enorme hoeveelheden CO2 in de lucht belandden en de Aarde snel opwarmde. Het gebied van de Deccan Traps bestaat uit een laag van 2 kilometer dikke gestolde basalten.
Vulkaan versus meteoriet Volgens de laatste theorie vormden deze vulkaanuitbarstingen de voorzet, waarna de meteoriet de genadeklap was. Het puin en stof in de lucht na de inslag blokkeerde het zonlicht waardoor het zo’n tien jaar lang koud en donker werd op Aarde, wat tot de uitsterving van een groot aantal soorten kan hebben geleid. Maar zeker weten doen we het niet.
Dus misschien kan een computermodel uitsluitsel bieden. “In plaats van te zeggen: ‘laten we de vulkanen de schuld geven en uitleggen waarom’ of ‘laten we de asteroïde de schuld geven en uitleggen waarom’, was het doel om zo min mogelijk menselijke input of vooroordelen te hebben”, zegt rekenkundig geoloog Alexander Cox van het Amerikaanse Dartmouth College.
Boringen in de diepzee Het idee was om bij het bewijs te beginnen, want dat is er: bij boringen in diepzeesedimenten zijn geologische resten gevonden die wijzen op dodelijke hoeveelheden gas in de atmosfeer en in de oceanen, met name CO2 en zwaveldioxide. Maar die gassen kunnen net zo goed afkomstig zijn van de vulkaanuitbarstingen als van de meteorietinslag, aangezien daardoor rotsen zijn verbrand op het oppervlak van de Aarde, redeneren de onderzoekers.
Speciaal wiskundig model Om te ontrafelen hoe groot de bijdrage was van beide rampen, hebben ze een specifiek statistisch model gebruikt: de Markov-keten Monte Carlo-methode (voor de liefhebbers). Deze methode berekent systematisch de kans op verschillende emissiescenario’s van de diverse bronnen. De oplossing ontstaat, doordat de resultaten van de simulaties steeds dichterbij de geologische observaties komen. Wat de bevindingen extra sterk maakt, is dat de onderzoekers maar liefst 128 verschillende processors parallel simulaties lieten draaien. “Alle processoren vergeleken daarna hoe ze het deden aan het eind van elke simulatie, zoals klasgenoten hun antwoorden vergelijken”, aldus Cox. Zo konden berekeningen die normaal wel een jaar duren in een paar dagen worden uitgevoerd.
Foraminiferen De gegevens waren afkomstig uit drie kernen die gedrild zijn in diepzeesedimenten, allemaal daterend van 67 tot 65 miljoen jaar geleden. In die sedimenten zijn foraminiferen gevonden, micro-organismen waarvan de schaal verschillende isotopen van koolstof en zuurstof bevat. Dit kun je zien als een afspiegeling van de chemische samenstelling van de oceaan in die periode. Daarom kun je het gebruiken als een proxy om bijvoorbeeld de temperatuur in die tijd af te leiden of hoeveel diertjes er in de oceanen leefden en hoeveel koolstof er heen en weer ging tussen de atmosfeer, de oceaan en het land.
En de computersimulaties leverden iets interessants op: de hoeveelheid gas die in de atmosfeer werd gespuwd door de vulkanen was genoeg voor de temperatuurverandering en koolstofcyclus, zoals die is af te leiden uit de foraminiferen in de drilkernen. En de asteroïde, die de enorme Chicxulub-krater vormde in wat nu Mexico is, produceerde waarschijnlijk niet zo’n enorme piek in koolstof- of zwaveldioxide als gedacht, blijkt verder uit de analyse.
Niet overtuigd Maar veel wetenschappers zijn nog niet helemaal overtuigd dat deze computerberekening nu voor eens en voor altijd het antwoord is op een vraag die onderzoekers al decennia bezighoudt. “Het is een elegante manier om dit probleem op te lossen”, reageert geochemicus Sierra Petersen van de University of Michigan. “Een model op deze manier gebruiken, geeft de vrijheid om tot een consensus te komen, waarbij rekening is gehouden met vele data. Maar, zoals met elk model, hangt de output af van de input.” Volgens Petersen zijn foraminiferen niet de ideale proxy om vroegere temperaturen uit af te leiden. De zuurstofisotopenratio’s kunnen niet alleen door temperatuur veranderen maar ook door de samenstelling van het zeewater. Verschillende temperatuur-proxy’s leiden waarschijnlijk tot verschillende patronen van vrijkomend gas, zoals die worden gereproduceerd door de modellen, legt Petersen verder uit.
Ook heeft ze kritiek op de conclusie uit de studie. “Het is nogal een stap om te stellen dat deze studie aantoont dat de meteorietinslag de extinctie niet heeft veroorzaakt. Ik denk dat enkel wordt aangetoond dat er bij de inslag niet zoveel gas vrijkwam.” Maar de asteroïde kan nog steeds op een andere manier een dodelijke impact hebben gehad. Zo kwamen er grote wolken van roet en stof in de lucht. Eerder onderzoek stelde dat daardoor het zonlicht dat de Aarde bereikte mogelijk met wel 20 procent afnam, waardoor het steenkoud werd en vele dieren en planten stierven.
Toch een stapje dichterbij Hoewel deze studie dus een interessante toevoeging is in het debat over het einde van het dinotijdperk biedt hij wederom geen uitsluitsel in de discussie ‘vulkaanuitbarsting versus meteorietinslag’, maar misschien is het wel weer een puntje erbij voor de vulkaantheorie.
Grote opwinding onder wetenschappers als in 2017 voor de kust van Antarctica een monsterachtige ijsberg het levenslicht ziet. De ijsberg dobbert jarenlang rond en vindt uiteindelijk pas in 2020 zijn Waterloo. En nu blijkt ook die ondergang van de machtige ijsberg behoorlijk opwindend te zijn (geweest).
Want in een nieuw onderzoek – verschenen in het blad Geophysical Research Letters – schrijven wetenschappers dat de ijsberg – terwijl deze ten onder ging – een enorme impact had op zijn directe omgeving. Zo blijkt de ijsberg er eigenhandig voor gezorgd te hebben dat de oppervlaktetemperatuur van de Zuidelijke Oceaan lokaal met maar liefst 4,5 graad afnam. En ook het zoutgehalte liep door toedoen van de smeltende ijsberg met meer dan 60 procent terug. Het zijn grote veranderingen; groter dan alle andere veranderingen die wetenschappers ooit in reactie op een smeltende ijsberg hebben waargenomen.
Als een riviermonding in open zee “De A68-ijsberg was één van de grootste en best bestudeerde ijsbergen ooit,” vertelt onderzoeker Roseanne Smith. “Toen deze uiteen begon te vallen, was het een beetje alsof er een enorme riviermonding in de open oceaan was geïnstalleerd die koud, zoet water in de bovenste laag van de oceaan pompte.”
Over A68 De ijsberg waar het onderzoek van Smith en collega’s om draait, ontstond in 2017, toen een enorm stuk ijs van de Larsen C-ijsplaat voor de kust van Antarctica, afbrak. In eerste instantie was de resulterende ijsberg ongeveer net zo groot als de provincie Gelderland. Naarmate de tijd verstreek, braken er echter steeds meer stukken ijs van de ijsberg af. En in 2020 was deze nog ongeveer zo groot als Luxemburg. Rond diezelfde tijd had A68 – al dobberend – ook al een flinke afstand afgelegd en stevende deze af op het nagenoeg onbewoonde eiland Zuid-Georgië. En daar begint de ijsberg in datzelfde jaar uiteen te vallen en – al smeltend – enorme hoeveelheden koud, zoet water in een relatief klein deel van de oceaan te brengen. Wetenschappers zitten er bovenop; met behulp van satellieten observeren ze de smeltende ijsberg en hoe deze de bovenste centimeters van de Zuidelijke Oceaan lokaal beïnvloedt. Het resulteert in de ontdekking van ongeëvenaarde, lokale afwijkingen in de temperatuur en het zoutgehalte van de oceaan, zo is in het blad Geophysical Research Letters te lezen.
De reis van A68, van Antarctica naar Zuid-Georgië. Afbeelding: ESA.
Fytoplankton Het roept natuurlijk de vraag op in hoeverre die veranderingen ook de bewoners van die wateren hebben geraakt. Dat is op dit moment lastig te zeggen, vertelt Smith aan Scientias.nl. “A68 heeft waarschijnlijk de grootste directe invloed gehad op de onderste regionen van de voedselketen, oftewel op microalgen of fytoplankton – die aan het oppervlak van de oceaan leven. Elke soort is aan specifieke omstandigheden – waaronder een bepaalde watertemperatuur en een bepaald zoutgehalte – aangepast. Dus een verandering in die omstandigheden – zoals ontstaat wanneer een enorme ijsberg koud, zoet water in de nabijheid dumpt – is waarschijnlijk van invloed op een breed scala aan verschillende fytoplanktonsoorten in dit gebied.” Als je het zo bekijkt, lijkt de smeltende ijsberg dus slecht nieuws voor fytoplankton – en mogelijk ook de organismen hogerop in de voedselketen die voor hun overleving (grotendeels) van fytoplankton afhankelijk zijn.
Complex verhaal Maar het is een stuk gecompliceerder dan dat, vertelt Smith. Want zo’n smeltende ijsberg kan fytoplankton inderdaad het leven zuur maken door de temperatuur en het zoutgehalte van hun oude vertrouwde oceaan tijdelijk te veranderen. Maar tegelijkertijd kan de ijsberg de groei van (andere) fytoplanktonsoorten ook weer bevorderen. “Het smeltwater van de ijsberg is rijk aan opgelost ijzer en ijzer is iets wat de Zuidelijke Oceaan door de bank genomen mist. Dus ijsbergen kunnen de oceaan als het ware ‘bemesten’.” En zo de groei van fytoplankton stimuleren. “Dus als we kijken naar de gigantische ijsberg A68 en het smelten en ineenstorten daarvan voor de kust van Zuid-Georgië, in de zomer van 2020/2021, was die gebeurtenis dan goed nieuws voor algen? Dat is lastig te zeggen. Er groeit van nature namelijk ‘s zomers al veel fytoplankton in de wateren rond Zuid-Georgië. Voor nu wijzen satellietdata er echter voorzichtig op dat het fytoplankton in sommige gebieden toenam en in andere iets afnam.”
Tegelijkertijd kan op dit moment ook niet worden uitgesloten dat de smeltende ijsberg de omringende oceaan niet alleen op ijzer, maar ook op fytoplankton getrakteerd heeft. “Het is mogelijk dat de ijsberg zelf ook fytoplanktonsoorten herbergde die normaliter niet zo noordelijk voorkomen,” vertelt Smith. “Die soorten kunnen tijdens het smelten van de ijsberg zijn ontsnapt en in de wateren rond Zuid-Georgië zijn gaan groeien, omdat ze het wel prettig vinden in dat koude, zoete smeltwater dat rond hen vrijkwam.” Het is iets wat onderzoekers in eerdere studies naar andere (kleinere) smeltende ijsbergen wel hebben zien gebeuren. Maar of ook A68 fytoplankton meevoerde, is nog niet bewezen. “We hebben simpelweg te weinig bewijs om nu te zeggen dat dat het geval is. Ook kunnen we nog niet zeggen of het netto effect van de ijsberg op het ecosysteem van Zuid-Georgië nu positief of negatief was. Daar worden de komende maanden en jaren nog wel studies over gepubliceerd,” verwacht Smith. “Want er zijn in die tijd (dat de ijsberg smolt, red.) veel watermonsters verzameld en die worden nu nog onderzocht.” Wordt vervolgd dus.
Enorme afstand Wat we ondertussen wél zeker weten, is dat de impact van de ijsberg ook verder reikte dan de directe omgeving van Zuid-Georgië. Het koude, zoete smeltwater werd namelijk door stromingen in oostelijke richting van het eiland weggevoerd. En niet zo’n klein eindje ook. “Wat mij het meest heeft verrast, was de enorme afstand waarover de smeltwaterpluim van A68 verspreid werd,” vertelt Smith. “Voor A68 hadden we al vastgesteld dat temperatuurdalingen en veranderingen in het zoutgehalte van het water aan het oppervlak van de oceaan zelfs op tientallen kilometers afstand van de rand van de ijsberg nog gedetecteerd konden worden. Dat komt doordat het smeltwater door lokale stromingen wordt weggevoerd. Maar in het geval van A68 was het echt een heel ander verhaal: de pluim bestaande uit koel, zoet smeltwater werd over een enorme afstand weggevoerd. Op een gegeven moment was deze pluim zelfs meer dan 1000 kilometer lang! Dat is ongeveer de afstand tussen Parijs en Wenen!”
Heldenrol voor satellieten De enige reden dat onderzoekers überhaupt in staat waren om de enorme afstand waarover het smeltwater verspreid werd, vast te stellen, is dat ze gebruik maakten van satellietdata. “In de meeste eerdere studies naar smeltwaterpluimen van ijsbergen werd gebruik gemaakt van sensoren op schepen of boeien, maar je zou heel veel schepen en heel veel tijd (en dus ook heel veel geld) nodig hebben om op die manier de omvang van de smeltwaterpluim van A68 te meten. Alleen dankzij satellietdata is het ons gelukt om de volledige lengte en distributie ervan over een periode van meerdere maanden vast te stellen.”
Dat het smeltwater zo ver werd weggevoerd, betekent ook dat de impact die het smeltwater eventueel op fytoplankton nabij Zuid-Georgië had, in ieder geval tijdelijk was. “Het is onwaarschijnlijk dat de impact van het smeltwater na de winter van 2021 nog door de fytoplankton gevoeld werd,” stelt Smith. “De ijsberg was in april 2021 (oftewel tijdens de herfst op het zuidelijk halfrond, red.) volledig weggesmolten en het resterende koude, zoete smeltwater was toen door stromingen al bij Zuid-Georgië weggevoerd. Tegen het aanbreken van de lente was alles rond Zuid-Georgië waarschijnlijk weer als vanouds.”
Groeven in de zeebodem Is er dan anno 2023 niets meer dat ons herinnert aan het ontstaan en de ondergang van de machtige ijsberg A68? Zeker wel! “Daarvoor moeten we echter onder het ruwe, stormachtige oppervlak van de oceaan duiken, richting de bodem rond Zuid-Georgië,” vertelt Smith. “Het is gebruikelijk dat grote ijsbergen over de bodem van de zeebodem schuren als ze door relatief ondiep kustwater bewegen.” Het resulteert in blijvende groeven in de zeebodem. Ook beïnvloedt het alles wat op die zeebodem leeft. “Als ijsbergen over de zeebodem schuren, bulldozeren ze het fragiele ecosysteem op die zeebodem en dat kan erin resulteren dat meer dan 98 procent van de lokale dieren en planten sterft. Het kan vervolgens ook lang (in de orde van jaren) duren voor dat ecosysteem weer hersteld is.” Zuid-Georgië heeft al veel ijsbergen door haar kustwateren zien reizen, dus de zeebodem herbergt heel wat groeven die daarvan blijvend getuigen. “Van A68 wordt vermoed dat deze de zeebodem ten zuiden van Zuid-Georgië half december heeft geraakt,” vertelt Smith. En daarmee is het leven op de zeebodem mogelijk zodanig aangetast dat het wel even duurt voor het zich weer hersteld heeft. En de zeebodem zelf is in dat scenario sowieso voorgoed enkele groeven rijker.
Het onderzoek naar de impact die monsterachtige ijsbergen op de lokale oceaan en ecosystemen hebben, is belangrijk. Want de verwachting is dat we in de nabije toekomst veel meer van deze grote ijsbergen zullen zien ontstaan. “Klimaatmodellen laten zien dat een verdere opwarming van de atmosfeer en oceaan door broeikasgassen de stabiliteit van de vele ijsplaten rond Antarctica aantast. Als die ijsplaten uiteenvallen, kunnen ze in korte tijd veel grote ijsbergen in de Zuidelijke Oceaan loslaten,” legt Smith uit. “Meer ijsbergen betekent ook dat meer met ijzer verrijkt zoetwater de Zuidelijke Oceaan bereikt. En dat resulteert in een afnemend zoutgehalte en meer stratificatie in de bovenste delen van de oceaan, oftewel: die bovenste lagen gaan zich moeilijker mengen met diepere waterlagen.” Dat laatste heeft alles te maken met het feit dat zoet water een geringere dichtheid heeft dan zout water en dus minder makkelijk zinkt. “Het kan verschillende effecten hebben,” gaat Smith verder. Zo zorgt de stratificatie van het water ervoor dat oppervlaktewater moeilijker naar grote diepte zinkt. “En dat is belangrijk, omdat het zinken van dat oppervlaktewater helpt bij de opslag van koolstof en warmte in de diepere delen van de oceaan.” Daarnaast kan het smeltwater ook van invloed zijn op de aangroei van zee-ijs, zo verwachten de onderzoekers. “En dat is belangrijk, omdat zee-ijs helpt om de energie van de zon te reflecteren en minder zee-ijs betekent dus dat er meer zonne-energie (en dus warmte) wordt geabsorbeerd (en vice versa).” En ten slotte kunnen ijsbergen dus ook nog eens op verschillende manieren hun stempel drukken op lokale ecosystemen. “Welk van deze effecten het meest dominant zal zijn, is lastig te zeggen,” erkent Smith. “Maar als de frequentie waarmee grote ijsbergen ontstaan, substantieel toeneemt, kan het zijn dat de tijdelijke invloeden die elke individuele ijsberg heeft, zich gaan opstapelen en resulteren in grotere, langer aanhoudende en meer wijdverspreide veranderingen in de Zuidelijke Oceaan, met gevolgen voor zee-ijs, de groei van fytoplankton en het zinken van oppervlaktewater.”
The melting of the supergiant iceberg A-68 had a huge impact on the ocean around South Georgia, in sub-Antarctica,_Povl Abrahamsen, BAS
Mysterious light appears in the images pulled from the depths of the universe using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). And now, it finally has an explanation.
JWST, the next-generation observatory from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, is able to view infrared light like never before. Infrared reveals visible light that has been stretched by the universe as it expands and which has poured out from the farthest reaches of space across billions of light-years. Once this light reaches Earth, astronomers can see the cosmos as it once was.
They haven't seen anything like JWST’s images before, which first went public in July 2022. But, they had good guesses about what they’d find.
There are more than 20,000 galaxies in this field, observed by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope view when it looked between the Pisces and Andromeda constellations.
However, one particular characteristic of the ancient galaxies appearing before them left many stumped. Although astronomers know very little about Cosmic Dawn, the 100 million years to 1 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe sprouted its first stars and galaxies, they did not expect to see galaxies shining as bright as they see in the telescopic images. Rohan Naidu, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, even toldQuanta Magazine that the galaxies were “stupidly bright.”
WHY ARE THE ANCIENT GALAXIES SO BRIGHT?
Their luminosities were so shocking that some physicists questioned the standard model of cosmology, which describes how the universe has evolved since the Big Bang.
The issue is that, usually, bright galaxies mean big galaxies. “But because these galaxies formed at cosmic dawn, not enough time has passed since the Big Bang,” Claude-André Faucher-Giguère, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University in Illinois and an author of a new paper, says in a statement describing the study. “How could these massive galaxies assemble so quickly?”
A research team led by Guochao Sun, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern, found an explanation: bursts of formation. They published their findings on Tuesday in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“If star formation happens in bursts, it will emit flashes of light. That is why we see several very bright galaxies,” Sun said in a Northwestern University statement describing the study.
The young galaxies, which the statement called “too bright, too massive, and too mature to have formed so soon after the Big Bang,” may just plain and simply be bursting with new stars.
Unlike modern galaxies, which form stars at a steady rate, the early galaxies seed a process known as bursty star formation. “So-called bursty star formation occurs when stars form in an alternating pattern — many stars at once, followed by millions of years of very few new stars and then many stars again,” according to the statement.
Now that the JWST imagery begins to make more sense, astronomers can use its sensitive instruments to investigate other cosmic mysteries.
Geoscientists Discover Massive Undersea Water Reservoir Off New Zealand’s Coast
Geoscientists Discover Massive Undersea Water Reservoir Off New Zealand’s Coast
Revealed by 3D seismic imaging, the newly-discovered water reservoir lies 3.2 km (2 miles) under the ocean floor off the coast of New Zealand, where it may be dampening a major earthquake fault that faces the country’s North Island. The fault is known for producing slow-motion earthquakes, called slow slip events. These can release pent-up tectonic pressure harmlessly over days and weeks.
3D seismic imaging and ocean drilling at the Hikurangi margin reveal a widespread and previously unknown fluid reservoir within the extensively hydrated (up to 47 vol % water) volcanic upper crust of the subducting Hikurangi Plateau large igneous province.
Image credit: Gase et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0150.
“Many slow slip earthquakes are thought to be linked to buried water,” said Dr. Andrew Gase, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas.
“However, until now there was no direct geologic evidence to suggest such a large water reservoir existed at this particular New Zealand fault.”
“We can’t yet see deep enough to know exactly the effect on the fault, but we can see that the amount of water that’s going down here is actually much higher than normal.”
The site where Dr. Gase and colleagues found the water is part of a vast volcanic province that formed when a plume of lava the size of the United States breached the Earth’s surface in the Pacific Ocean 125 million years ago.
The event was one of the Earth’s largest known volcanic eruptions and rumbled on for several million years.
The study authors used seismic scans to build a 3D picture of the ancient volcanic plateau in which they saw thick, layered sediments surrounding buried volcanoes.
They ran lab experiments on drill core samples of the volcanic rock and found that water made up nearly half of its volume.
The seismic image of the Hikurangi Plateau reveals details about the Earth’s interior and what it’s made of. The blue-green layer under the yellow line shows water buried within rocks
Image credit: Gase et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0150.
“Normal ocean crust, once it gets to be about 7 or 10 million years old should contain much less water,” Dr. Gase said.
“The ocean crust in the seismic scans was ten times as old, but it had remained much wetter.”
“The shallow seas where the eruptions took place eroded some of the volcanoes into a porous, broken-up rock that stored water like an aquifer as it was buried. Over time, the rock and rock fragments transformed into clay, locking in even more water.”
The finding is important because scientists think that underground water pressure may be a key ingredient in creating conditions that release tectonic stress via slow slip earthquakes.
This usually happens when water-rich sediments are buried with the fault, trapping the water underground. However, the New Zealand fault contains little of this typical ocean sediment.
Instead, the researchers think the ancient volcanoes and the transformed rocks — now clays — are carrying large volumes of water down as they’re swallowed by the fault.
“The findings suggest that other earthquake faults around the globe could be in similar situations,” said Professor Demian Saffer, a researcher at the University of Texas.
“It’s a really clear illustration of the correlation between fluids and the style of tectonic fault movement — including earthquake behavior.”
“This is something that we’ve hypothesized from lab experiments, and is predicted by some computer simulations, but there are very few clear field experiments to test this at the scale of a tectonic plate.”
The study appears in the journal Science Advances.
Andrew C. Gase et al. 2023. Subducting volcaniclastic-rich upper crust supplies fluids for shallow megathrust and slow slip. Science Advances 9 (33); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0150
Researchers Find Two Extraterrestrial Minerals in El Ali Meteorite
Researchers Find Two Extraterrestrial Minerals in El Ali Meteorite
The El Ali meteorite, a 15.2-ton iron meteorite found in 2020 near the tiny town of El Ali in Somalia, contains at least two new minerals: elaliite and elkinstantonite.
This sample of the El Ali meteorite contains two new minerals: elaliite and elkinstantonite.
Image credit: Nick Gessler / Duke University.
“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” said University of Alberta’s Professor Chris Herd.
“That’s what makes this exciting: in this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.”
The two minerals, elaliite and elkinstantonite, came from a 70-g slice that was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, and there already appears to be a potential third mineral under consideration.
“If researchers were to obtain more samples from the massive meteorite, there’s a chance that even more might be found,” Professor Herd said.
Professor Herd and his colleagues from the University of Alberta, the University of California, Los Angeles and Caltech classified the El Ali as an ‘Iron, IAB complex’ meteorite, one of over 350 in that particular category.
“The very first day University of Alberta’s Dr. Andrew Locock did some analyses, he said, ‘You’ve got at least two new minerals in there.’ That was phenomenal. Most of the time it takes a lot more work than that to say there’s a new mineral,” Professor Herd said.
“The rapid identification was possible because the two minerals had been synthetically created before, so he was able to match the composition of the newly discovered natural minerals with their human-made counterparts.”
The scientists are continuing to examine the new minerals to determine what they can tell us about the conditions in the meteorite when it formed.
“That’s my expertise — how you tease out the geologic processes and the geologic history of the asteroid this rock was once part of,” Professor Herd said.
“I never thought I’d be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.”
“Any new mineral discoveries could possibly yield exciting new uses down the line,” he said.
“Whenever there’s a new material that’s known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society.”
“While the future of the El Ali meteorite remains uncertain, we’ve received news that it appears to have been moved to China in search of a potential buyer.”
“It remains to be seen whether additional samples will be available for scientific purposes.”
This day in History, Pilot encounters giant pyramid-shaped UFO over Pelotas, Brazil, Oct 5, 1996, UFO Sighting News.
This day in History, Pilot encounters giant pyramid-shaped UFO over Pelotas, Brazil, Oct 5, 1996, UFO Sighting News.
Perhaps the most impressive UFO story told during the recent Brazilian World UFO Forum was that of Haraldo Westendorf, who made news headlines a year ago when he allegedly flew his private plane within a few dozen meters of an enormous unidentified flying object.
Westendorf is 40 years old, a father of three children and a successful businessman. He is also an avid private pilot rated for acrobatic flying.
The following account is based directly on his one-hour presentation at the Brazilian UFO conference, which included several detailed illustrations. Westendorf says he took off in his single-engine Piper Apache [correction: the plane was actually an Embraer EMB-712, the Brazilian version of the Piper Cherokee Archer II] from the city of Pelotas near the southernmost tip of Brazil on the morning of November 5, 1996. It was to be a routine recreational flight of the kind he takes for fun whenever time allows. On this occasion, he had been in the air only about 12 minutes and was flying at an altitude of 5,000 feet over a large lake some five miles southeast of Pelotas when he saw ahead of him an enormous aerial object. The time was about 10:30 a.m. He radioed the Pelotas tower to learn if they could see the object from the ground.
They confirmed that the object was visible to them and asked him for a close-range report. Westendorf then decided to fly as close as he could. Westendorf emphasizes that he did not believe in UFOs and says this accounts for his initial willingness to fly close to the object. He didn't know he might be in danger. When he got close to the object, he realized that in his twenty years of piloting experience he had never seen or heard of anything like it. Since he had done stunt training in the United States and had also flown in France, he had become acquainted with some very advanced and exotic aircraft.
But he knew that this was not an airplane. Westendorf showed several detailed color drawings of the object, with his own plane drawn to scale alongside it. He describes the object as a faceted cone, flat on the bottom with a rounded point on top. On each of the eight or ten sloping side panels were three large bulges, like triangle-shaped bay windows on the side of a house -- but they did not look like windows. The entire surface was brown in color. The structure was about 70 meters (225 feet) high and about 100 meters (325 feet) in diameter, big enough to fill nearly an entire soccer field if landed. His own plane, less than 6 meters wide, was tiny by comparison. Westendorf says he spent about 12 to 14 minutes in close proximity to the object, trying to see as much as he could. Although the Pelotas air tower does not have radar, he believes the airport radar at Curitiba (nearly 450 nautical miles northeast of his position) tracked the whole encounter. However, officials at Curitiba deny this (see below). The object was spinning around slowly and moving southeast toward the nearby seacoast at a speed of about 60 nautical miles per hour. Westendorf managed to fly entirely around the base of the object three times. At one point, he says, his wingtip came within about 40 meters of the object. After his third lap around the object, Westendorf noticed that the rounded top seemed to disappear, leaving what looked like an open hole at the top. Then he saw, emerging from inside the object, a classic flying saucer. It rose sideways, its long axis vertical until it cleared the top of the larger object, then tipped down to assume its normal orientation and departed at tremendous speed. Westendorf said that this saucer was about 10 meters in diameter, or nearly twice as wide as his own plane, and he thinks it flew away at more than Mach 10. The saucer showed no indication of noticing Westendorf's presence nearby. As soon as the saucer disappeared, Westendorf decided to try to fly over the top of the object. Brazilian media later reported that he wanted to fly his plane into the interior of the object, but he says he never even considered that. He only hoped for a peek through the opening. To get more altitude, he flew his plane several hundred meters away from the object, turned around and began a steep climb. He noticed that the object was now rotating much faster. Then he saw brilliant beams of red light shoot from the top of the object toward the sky. He quickly abandoned his plan to fly over the top. Then, to his amazement, the object rose straight up at tremendous speed. For the first time, Westendorf was scared, because he believed the object's rapid acceleration might produce a shock wave of turbulence that could overwhelm his own plane.
As a trained pilot, he knew that air traffic controllers recommend staying at least three minutes behind a large aircraft to avoid such turbulence. He estimated that the unidentified object probably weighed at least three times as much as a 747 jumbo jet, so its shock wave should be huge -- and he was only a few hundred meters away. He quickly began emergency procedures in case his plane went into a spin or a stall. But to his surprise, he did not encounter any turbulence.
Former Sheriff Recounts Cigar-Shaped UFO Encounter Near Rattlesnake Butte
Former Sheriff Recounts Cigar-Shaped UFO Encounter Near Rattlesnake Butte
In the vast world of UFO sightings, stories range from mildly interesting to downright unbelievable. The Pearson Case, as it came to be known, is a captivating tale that comes from a place of authenticity and has managed to stay largely under the radar.
Early one morning, near the mysterious backdrop of Rattlesnake Butte, a family’s regular morning routine took an unexpected turn. The mother, as was her habit, prepared coffee and stood by the kitchen window. The view she usually admired, the one of Rattlesnake Butte situated some distance away, held a different spectacle that day. Hovering close to the Butte was a colossal cigar-shaped mothership. It remained steady in a subtle depression on the landscape, and smaller saucer-like crafts flew around it, entering and exiting the mothership’s belly.
Awakened by the spectacle, the husband joined the watch. The couple observed this bewildering scene for approximately half an hour. They eventually decided to alert a retired sheriff, who, intrigued by the vague call, rushed to the scene. Although the ship had left by the time he arrived, he did get a comprehensive account from the couple. They provided explicit details and labeled it as a “cigar-shaped Mothership,” with the smaller crafts entering and exiting it.
What lends credibility to this account is the nature of the eyewitnesses. These were simple farm folk with no apparent reason to fabricate such a tale. The sheriff, who interviewed them, felt confident in their honesty, emphasizing the depth and authenticity of their account. The sighting remains a unique and unforgettable memory for those involved, echoing the sentiment, “I wish you’d come back. That’d be quite a view.”
While UFO sightings are not uncommon, cases like these – grounded in genuine human experiences and witnessed by reliable individuals – make for truly fascinating tales. With the Pearson Case, we are reminded that sometimes, the most unbelievable stories are the ones that ring true.
The new method is being hailed as the "holy grail of astrobiology."
The robotic arm of NASA's Perseverance rover is visible in this image used by the AI4Mars project. Users outline and identify different rock and landscape features to help train an artificial intelligence algorithm that will help improve the capabilities of Mars rovers.
(Image credit: NASA)
Can machines sniff out the presence of life on other planets? Well, to some extent, they already are.
Sensors onboard spacecraft exploring other worlds have the capability to detect molecules indicative of alien life. Yet, organic molecules that hint at intriguing biological processes are known to degrade over time, making their presence difficult for current technology to spot.
But now, a newly developed method based on artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of detecting subtle differences in molecular patterns that indicate biological signals — even in samples hundreds of millions of years old. Better yet, the mechanism offers results with 90% accuracy, according to new research.
In the future, this AI system could be embedded in smarter sensors on robotic space explorers, including landers and rovers on the moon and Mars, as well as within spacecraft circling potentially habitable worlds like Enceladus and Europa.
"We began with the idea that the chemistry of life differs fundamentally from that of the inanimate world; that there are 'chemical rules of life' that influence the diversity and distribution of biomolecules," Robert Hazen, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington D.C. and co-author of the new study, said in a statement. "If we could deduce those rules, we can use them to guide our efforts to model life's origins or to detect subtle signs of life on other worlds."
The new method relies on the premise that chemical processes that govern the formation and functioning of biomolecules differ fundamentally from those in abiotic molecules, in that biomolecules (like amino acids) hold on to information about the chemical processes that made them. This is likely to hold true for alien life, too, according to the new study.
On any world, life may produce and use higher quantities of a select few compounds to function on a daily basis. This would differentiate them from abiotic systems — and it is these differences that can be spotted and quantified with AI, the researchers said in the statement.
The team first trained the machine learning algorithm with 134 samples, of which 59 were biotic and 75 were abiotic. Next, to validate the algorithm, the data was randomly split into a training set and a test set. The AI method successfully identified biotic samples from living things like shells, teeth, bones, rice, human hair as well as from ancient life preserved in certain fossilized fragments made of things like coal, oil and amber.
The tool also identified abiotic samples including chemicals like amino acids that were created in a lab as well as carbon-rich meteorites, according to the new study.
Almost immediately, the new AI method can be used to study the 3.5 billion-year-old rocks in the Pilbara region in Western Australia, where the world's oldest fossils are thought to exist. First found in 1993, these rocks were thought to be fossilized remains of microbes akin to cyanobacteria, which were the first living organisms to produce oxygen on Earth.
If confirmed, the bacteria's presence so early in Earth's history would mean the planet was friendly towards thriving life much earlier than previously thought. However, those findings have remained controversial, as research repeatedly pointed out that the evidence can also be due to pure geological processes having nothing to do with ancient life. Perhaps AI holds the answer.
This research is described in a paper published Monday (Sept. 25) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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The UFO event over Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 2006 is one of the most intriguing UFO sightings in recent history. Despite being unremarkable as far as UFO sightings go, the reaction of the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was anything but ordinary, suggesting some type of cover-up between the implicated authorities.
On November 7, 2006, United Airlines Flight 446 was preparing to depart from O’Hare International to North Carolina when a dozen of airline employees, including mechanics and pilots, spotted a gray and metallic saucer-like object hovering above Gate C17 of the United terminal. The object remained there for several minutes before flying off into the clouds at an unnatural speed. This event was captured in official FAA audio recordings, with a United controller and a colleague discussing the sighting.
The disc was estimated to be at least 22 feet in diameter and hovered around 1,500 feet off the ground, below a heavy cloud cover at 1,900 feet. One grounded pilot announced his sightings over the radio, alerting a taxi mechanic and several other pilots to the presence of the object. At least two grounded pilots were able to lean out of their cockpit windows and see the object in great detail.
The story of the O’Hare UFO incident went almost completely unnoticed until the Chicago Tribune published an article on December 31, 2006, nearly two months after the incident. The story became the highest-hitting article in the website’s history, and other news outlets picked up the story as well.
Jon Hilkevitch, a transportation reporter with the Chicago Tribune, started interviewing the witnesses. Initially, both the FAA and United Airlines denied any knowledge of the event but were forced to admit that this was a lie when an audio tape was leaked to the press that captured a United Airlines radio conversation on the date of the event.
The FAA supervisor identified as “Sue” was asking several controllers at O’Hare if they had seen a flying disc over gate C-17. They initially laughed off the question, but she called back 15 minutes later to confirm that several pilots had seen the disc and that one had captured a photograph of it. Unfortunately, this alleged photograph has never s
The tape also recorded the control tower operators warning outgoing planes of the UFO and advising them to be cautious. Even in the wake of the tape, United Airlines and the FAA continued to brush off the incident. The airline prohibited any employees from discussing the incident with the media.
However, after the Chicago Tribune article compelled them to address the situation, a spokesperson from the FAA claimed that the alleged disc was nothing but the reflection of airport lights off the low cloud cover. However, this explanation was unconvincing, as the sighting occurred in daylight, before any of the airport’s lights were turned on.
Despite the assertions of several credible witnesses, the airline and the FAA declined to investigate the matter further and wrote it off as a rare weather phenomenon known as a fallstreak or “hole-punch cloud.” However, Mark Rodeghier, the director for the Center for UFO Studies Scientific Director, did not accept this explanation and stated:
“It’s an unknown object over O’Hare, and it’s seen by official personnel and does United or the FAA take it seriously? Of course not, they have zero interest because UFOs can’t exist. But how can you not worry about something hovering over an airport after 9/11? It doesn’t make sense.”
This explanation did not stand up to reason too, as journalist Leslie Kean soon discovered. Hole-punched clouds form, when ice crystals from higher clouds fall down through a lower cloud shelf, punch a hole in it, and evaporate in the warm air below, only forming in below-freezing temperatures. The air at the altitude of the sighting on the day in question was 53 degrees Fahrenheit, which was above freezing.
Despite the FAA’s lack of interest in the O’Hare UFO incident, an independent investigation group called NARC conducted their own research. The team of former NASA scientists, pilots, meteorologists, and aerospace engineers, among others, prepared a 154-page report that confirmed the presence of a physical object over O’Hare. The report stated that the object’s maneuvers could not be explained by conventional means and advised the FAA to launch their own investigation. However, to this day, the FAA has not acted upon this recommendation. (Source)
Joe Abegg, Captain at United, says “The employees that I talked to about the sighting accepted it as real.”
“There have been documented cases where safety appears to have been implicated, and more and more we are coming to the point of view that we are dealing with an intelligent phenomenon. We must be proactive before an aircraft goes down,” said Richard Haines, a former chief of the Space Human Factors Office at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
The reaction of the airline and the FAA in the aftermath of the incident suggests some type of cover-up between the implicated authorities. The airline prohibited its employees from sharing the details of the incident, and the FAA provided unconvincing explanations for the UFO sighting, such as the reflection of airport lights off low cloud cover or a misidentified weather phenomenon. These explanations were quickly debunked by journalists and independent investigators.
Jon Hilkevitch emphasized how unusual it is for the FAA to ignore such a significant UFO sighting. The FAA has launched investigations for far less extraordinary incidents, such as spilled coffee pots and airport aisles. This lack of interest in the O’Hare UFO incident raises questions about the extent of government involvement in hiding the truth about UFOs from the public.
The taxi mechanic described Chicago’s O’Hare UFO as follows:
“The craft appeared to be hovering right below the ceiling of the cloud cover (about 700 or 800 feet). The cloud ceiling that day was 1900 feet. The top of the craft was clearly outlined as a very dark gray material, but the bottom and the edges of the craft were hazy like when you see the mirage-like surface of the road on a hot day.
The other interesting observation was that after the craft accelerated straight up (observed by other witnesses), there was a hole punched in the clouds. The hole in the clouds was about the same size as the unidentified craft. It looked like a cookie cutter hole stamped out of dough ‘very similar in size’ to the craft. The hole stayed for a little while and then dissipated into the overcast clouds. The sighting lasted about 20 minutes from the time of the first radio call to the time when the mechanic and witness parked the Boeing 777 that he was taxiing across the airport.”
Reddit user Buddy_Felcher describes what he saw during the 2006 O’Hare Airport UFO sighting:
“I was working at American Airlines as a ramp service clerk at O’Hare when that thing came. I saw it, and only one other coworker saw it as well. And nobody believed me even after other airline workers said they saw it too. Until I heard other people saw it everyone had me convinced I was crazy…
Have you ever seen the movie flight of the navigator? That’s what it sort of looked like but also kind of like it was a chrome bubble of air or like the way invisible people in movies look when it’s raining on them. I only saw the latter part of it being there, the guy I worked with said it was solid grey at first and then changed to what I saw.” (Source)
A nameless mesa in a strange Martian landscape once stood at the center of a swirl of alien conspiracy theories.
In a low-resolution snapshot from NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft, taken in 1976, the brightly lit ridges and darkly shadowed dips in the terrain atop the mesa formed a weirdly compelling optical illusion: a grim, black-eyed face staring back at us from Mars. Conspiracy theorists insisted the mesa must have been the work of alien sculptors. But it turns out that if you see the mesa in more detail and in different lighting, the stark contrasts of light and shadow that originally formed the face completely disappear.
But the “face on Mars” is a great example of the same phenomenon that may once have inspired early humans to draw some of the first art on cave walls here on Earth.
Spot the face! (That’s a hilarious joke, because an imaging error caused this photo to be spotted with little black specks.)
NASA
FACE? OFF.
The SETI Institute recently shared a blast from the past: an image from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor satellite, which snapped an image of the famous “Mars face,” revealing a discouraging lack of alien megaliths or slumbering giants.
In the original image, from Viking 1, with a low resolution of about 164 feet per pixel, the mesa shows up in stark patterns of light and shadow, creating the illusion of dark eyes in a pale face – one that looks unsettlingly like a death mask.
But seen in more detail at 6.6 feet per pixel, and with the Sun shining down from a different angle in the Martian sky, the facial features came into focus as weathered ridges of rock. If you know what you’re looking for, you can still trace the outline of the illusion on the top of the mesa and think to yourself, “Okay, I see how that weird dip in the ground looks like an eye in the right lighting,” but it’s also easy to tell the face isn’t really there.
This is the same mesa from the Viking 1 image, shown in much higher resolution (and with the sunlight coming from the lower left instead of the upper left). The face vanishes!
NASA
Nobody carved this two-mile-long mesa into the shape of a very spooky face. It’s just an example of a very ancient quirk of the human mind called pareidola. The phrase refers to our tendency to see faces and other familiar shapes in random patterns, like clouds, rock formations, or the stars in the night sky.
A recent study, published last week in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, suggested that paraidolia may have provided some of the inspiration for humanity’s first artworks on cave walls. Archaeologist Izzy Wisher and her colleagues found that more than half the Paleolithic images drawn on cave walls in northern Spain — some dating back 40,000 years — included natural features of the cave wall in the shapes they depicted. A curved section of rock, viewed in a flickering firelight at just the right angle, might look like a bison’s back, and that image might have inspired an ancient person to draw the rest of the animal, for example.
“However, whilst our study showed that pareidolia did have some influence on the cave artists, this was not always the case, giving us a fascinating insight into the work of these early painters,” says Wisher in a recent statement. “It seems to us that their art may have been part of a ‘creative conversation’ with the cave walls, where they both took inspiration from what they saw in the cracks and shapes of the cave wall but also used their own creativity.”
There’s still another famous face on Mars: a smiley face traced by mountain ranges in Galle Crater (not to be confused with Gale Crater, home of NASA’s Curiosity Rover) and made famous in The Watchmen. That one is really there, but the iconic smiley face is a great example of pareidolia in its own right, since the mind is managing to make a face out of two dots and a curved line.
And if you’re still wondering how we connected The Watchmen, ancient cave art, and an optical illusion on Mars, the word you may be looking for is apophenia.
The candle experiment would likely be impossible on the International Space Station, which has strict rules regarding flammable materials and open flames.
China's Shenzhou 16 astronauts conducted an eye-raising experiment in space involving open flames aboard the Tiangong space station.
Astronauts Gui Haichao and Zhu Yangzhu lit a candle during a live lecture broadcast from China's Tiangong space station on Sept. 21 to demonstrate how flames burn in microgravity. Strikingly, the flames appear nearly spherical, rather than the teardrop-shaped flames we're familiar with back on Earth.
Lit candles on Earth produce flames shaped through buoyancy-driven convection, with hot air rising and cold air descending. That combustion convection current is weak in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit, however. This means flames diffuse in all directions, resulting in spherical fireballs.
Astronauts Gui Haichao and Zhu Yangzhu light a candle aboard the Tiangong Space Station during a live lecture on Sept. 21, 2023. (Image credit: CCTV)
The livestreamed lecture was the fourth so-called "Tiangong classroom" hosted on China's space station. The astronauts interacted with students in five classrooms across China, demonstrating a number of microgravity phenomena. As with previous classrooms, the astronauts demonstrated that many physical processes behave differently than they do on Earth.
However the candle experiment — in which Gui strikes a match to produce an open flame to light the candle — would likely be met by surprise by International Space Station participants, who have strict rules regarding flammable materials and open flames.
Strict fire safety measures aboard the ISS are in part a response to a significant fire on the Russian space station Mir in in 1997.
Combustion in microgravity has been the subject of numerous experiments on the ISS, but usually using a specially-designed combustion integrated rack, keeping fire isolated and contained.
Tiangong also has its Combustion Experiment Rack (CER) for serious research in this area.
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Magnetic Fusion Plasma Engines Could Carry us Across the Solar System and Into Interstellar Space
A new study offers a new means of propulsion that could revolutionize space travel - the Magnetic Fusion Plasma Drive (MFPD). Credit: Created with Imagine
Magnetic Fusion Plasma Engines Could Carry us Across the Solar System and Into Interstellar Space
Missions to the Moon, missions to Mars, robotic explorers to the outer Solar System, a mission to the nearest star, and maybe even a spacecraft to catch up to interstellar objects passing through our system. If you think this sounds like a description of the coming age of space exploration, then you’d be correct! At this moment, there are multiple plans and proposals for missions that will send astronauts and/or probes to all of these destinations to conduct some of the most lucrative scientific research ever performed. Naturally, these mission profiles raise all kinds of challenges, not the least of which is propulsion.
Simply put, humanity is reaching the limits of what conventional (chemical) propulsion can do. To send missions to Mars and other deep space destinations, advanced propulsion technologies are required that offer high acceleration (delta-v), specific impulse (Isp), and fuel efficiency. In a recent paper, Leiden Professor Florian Neukart proposes how future missions could rely on a novel propulsion concept known as the Magnetic Fusion Plasma Drive (MFPD). This device combines aspects of different propulsion methods to create a system that offers high energy density and fuel efficiency significantly greater than conventional methods.
Florian Neukart is an Assistant Professor with the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) at Leiden University and a Board Member of the Swiss quantum technology developer Terra Quantum AG. The preprint of his paper recently appeared online and is being reviewed for publication in Elsevier. According to Neukart, technologies that can surmount conventional chemical propulsion (CCP) are paramount in the present era of space exploration. In particular, these technologies must offer greater energy efficiency, thrust, and capability for long-duration missions.
What will it take before human beings can travel to the nearest star system within their own lifetimes? Credit: Shigemi Numazawa/ Project Daedalus
This is especially true for missions to Mars and other locations beyond the Earth-Moon system, which pose serious risks to astronaut health, safety, and well-being. Even when Earth and Mars are at their closest every 26 months (a Mars Opposition), it can take up to 9 months to make a one-way transit to the planet. Combined with surface operations that could last up to a year and the nine-month return trip, missions to Mars could last up to 900 days! During this time, astronauts will be exposed to elevated levels of cosmic and solar radiation, not to mention the toll of long periods spent in microgravity will have on their bodies.
Hence, NASA and other space agencies are actively investigating alternate means of propulsion. As noted in a previous article, “How Long Would It Take To Travel To The Nearest Star?“, these concepts are also considered potential means for achieving interstellar travel for decades. They include fuel-efficient concepts like electric or ion propulsion, which utilize electromagnetic fields to ionize inert propellant (like xenon gas) and accelerate it through nozzles to generate thrust. However, these concepts generally produce low thrust and must rely on heavy power sources (solar arrays or nuclear reactors) to generate more.
Solar Sails are another option, which can generate continuous acceleration while requiring no propellant (thereby saving on mass). However, missions equipped with this technology are limited in terms of thrust and must operate closer to the Sun. A twist on the idea is to employ Gigawatt-energy (GWe) laser arrays to accelerate spacecraft equipped with sails to relativistic speeds (a fraction of the speed of light). However, this concept requires expensive infrastructure and tremendous amounts of power in order to be feasible.
Another popular concept is nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), which NASA and DARPA are currently developing in the form of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). This method relies on a nuclear reactor to heat propellant (like liquid hydrogen), causing it to expand through nozzles to generate thrust. The benefits of NTP include very high energy density and significant acceleration, but it also comes with numerous technical and safety challenges involving the handling and launching of nuclear materials.
There are also propulsion concepts that harness fusion reactions, like Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) and Deuterium-Hydrogen three (D-He3) reactions, something that theoretical scientists have been working with for decades. These methods offer the potential for high thrust and extremely high specific impulse but also present technical challenges, not the least of which are related to handling the necessary fuel and achieving sustained and controlled fusion reactions. There are also more exotic concepts, like antimatter propulsion and the Alcubierre Warp Drive, but none of these will be available in the foreseeable future.
A spacecraft powered by a positron reactor would resemble this artist’s concept of the Mars Reference Mission spacecraft. Credit: NASA
And there’s Neukart’s proposal, which combines elements of fusion propulsion, ionic propulsion, and other concepts. As he explained to Universe Today via email:
“The MFPD is a propulsion system for space exploration, utilizing controlled nuclear fusion reactions as a primary energy source for both thrust and potential electric power generation. The system is predicated on harnessing the immense energy output from fusion reactions, typically involving isotopes of hydrogen or helium, to produce a high-velocity exhaust of particles, thereby generating thrust according to Newton’s third law.
“The plasma from the fusion reactions is confined and manipulated using magnetic fields, ensuring controlled energy release and directionality. Simultaneously, the MFPD concept envisages the possibility of converting part of the fusion energy into electrical power to sustain onboard systems and possibly the reaction control system of the spacecraft.”
To develop this concept, Nuekart began with deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactions since it is one of the most researched and understood reactions and offers a clear and familiar basis for elaborating the core principles and mechanics of MFPD. Furthermore, Neukart added, D-T reactions have relatively low ignition temperatures and a higher cross-section than other concepts, making it a good “starting point.” Therefore, they provide a useful benchmark for measuring and comparing the performance of this theoretical propulsion system.
However, the ultimate goal of MFPD is to harness aneutronic fusion (p-B11), where very little of the energy released by the reactions is carried by neutrons. Aneutronic reactions, in contrast, release energy in the form of charged particles (typically protons or alpha particles), thereby significantly reducing the level of neutron radiation produced. The advantages of this system are immediately apparent, combining high specific impulse and immense energy density and providing both thrust and power from a single energy source. Other benefits, said Neukert, include the following:
High Specific Impulse: The MFPD can provide a high-specific impulse, delivering substantial velocity change (delta-v) to the spacecraft, facilitating missions to distant celestial bodies.
Energy-Dense Fuel: Fusion fuel, like isotopes of hydrogen, is incredibly energy-dense, potentially enabling extended missions without needing vast amounts of propellant.
Lower Mass Fractions: The spacecraft might be designed with lower mass fractions dedicated to fuel storage, affording more mass allocation for scientific instruments or additional technologies.
Dual Utility:The MFPD is not just a propulsion system; it is also envisioned to provide electrical power for the spacecraft’s systems and instruments, which is crucial for long-duration missions.
Adaptability:The potential to adjust the thrust and specific impulse, offering versatility for different mission phases, such as acceleration, cruising, and deceleration.
Reduced Travel Time: The potential for higher continuous thrust may significantly reduce transit times to distant destinations, mitigating risks related to cosmic radiation exposure and onboard resource management.
Radiation Shielding: Although challenging, the inherent magnetic and physical structures might be engineered to provide some level of radiation shielding for the spacecraft and crew, utilizing the plasma and magnetic fields.
Independence from Solar Proximity:Unlike solar sails or solar electric propulsion, the MFPD does not depend on proximity to the Sun; thus, it is viable for missions into the outer solar system and beyond.
Minimized Risk of Nuclear Contamination: Compared to nuclear-thermal or fission-electric concepts, the MFPD could be designed to minimize the risk of radioactive contamination, given that fusion, in general, requires less radioactive material and potentially allows for safer reactor shutdown.
Artist’s concept of a Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket in Low Earth Orbit.
Credit: NASA
As to the implications this system could have for space exploration, Nuekart emphasized the ability to traverse vast cosmic distances in reduced timeframes, expanding mission profiles (fast transits to other planets in the Solar System and interstellar missions), mitigating the risks of long-duration space missions (exposure to radiation and microgravity), revolutionizing spacecraft design by providing propulsion and electrical power simultaneously, and enhancing human exploration capabilities.
Beyond that, he also foresees the potential for technological spin-offs in materials science, plasma physics, and energy production that could have applications here on Earth. The development of this system could also foster international collaborations, bringing experts and resources from multiple fields together to realize common exploratory objectives.
Of course, no next-generation technology proposal would be complete without some caveats and addendums. For instance, said Nuekart, the main challenge for MFPD propulsion lies in achieving and maintaining stable fusion relations in space. On Earth, researchers have made considerable progress with magnetic confinement (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The former involves Tokamok reactors using magnetic fields to confine fusion in the form of plasma, while the latter relies on lasers to compress and heat tablets of D-T fuel.
However, similar experiments have not been conducted in space, leading to questions about how the system will handle heat caused by reactions, the resulting radiation, and the structural implications for spacecraft. Nevertheless, the ball is already rolling on nuclear tests in space (the aforementioned DRACO demonstrator). Given the benefits of fusion propulsion, it’s not likely to remain on the drawing board for long. Ultimately, says Nuekart, the research into MFPD aims to establish a pathway that will lead to interplanetary and (someday) Interstellar exploration:
“While the journey to realize the MFPD concept will undeniably be layered with challenges and scientific hurdles, the potential payoff is monumental. Achieving reliable, effective, and efficient fusion propulsion could redefine the boundaries of achievable goals, propelling humanity into a new era of exploration, discovery, and understanding of the cosmos. The hope is that the research seeds curiosity, innovation, and determination among scientists, engineers, and explorers across the globe, charting the course toward our future among the stars.”
The large mound structures that dominate one of the lobes of the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin. Credit: Southwest Research Institute.
When New Horizons flew past Arrokoth in 2019, it revealed close-up images of this enigmatic Kuiper Belt Object for the first time. Astronomers are still studying all the data sent home by the spacecraft, trying to understand this two-lobed object, which looks like a red, flattened snowman.
Scientists have now identified 12 mounds on Arrokoth’s larger lobe, which are roughly the same size – about 5-kilometers long – as well as the same shape, color, and reflectivity. The scientists think their similar look is because they all formed the same way, where icy material slowly accumulated on the surface of Arrokoth.
A new study published in the Planetary Science Journal suggests that these mound-shaped “building blocks” could help researchers better understand how planetesimals form. These insights will be beneficial when the Lucy spacecraft arrives in Jupiter’s Trojan Belt.
“Similarities including in sizes and other properties of Arrokoth’s mound structures suggest new insights into its formation,” said Alan Stern, the Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission, presenting the findings this week at the American Astronomical Society’s 55th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting in San Antonio. “If the mounds are indeed representative of the building blocks of ancient planetesimals like Arrokoth, then planetesimal formation models will need to explain the preferred size for these building blocks.”
This composite image of Arrokoth was compiled from data obtained by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it flew by the object on Jan. 1, 2019. The image combines enhanced color data (close to what the human eye would see) with detailed high-resolution panchromatic pictures. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute//Roman Tkachenko
Arrokoth is one of the thousands of small icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, a massive population of objects that are essentially leftover material from the formation of the Solar System. Much like the Main Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt is also home to several larger bodies, such as Pluto and Charon. Since the turn of the millennium, many more have been discovered, like Eris, Haumea, Makemake, 2007 OR10, Quaoar, and others.
Arrokoth — which had an original designation of (486958) 2014 MU69 — is the most distant and most primitive object ever explored by a spacecraft. It was discovered in 2014 by NASA’s New Horizons science team, using the Hubble Space Telescope.
New Horizons flew by Arrokoth on Jan. 1, 2019, snapping pictures showing the strangely shaped object. It wasn’t until well after the flyby that scientists realized the two lobes on Arrokoth were not round, but flattened like a pancake.
Graphic of Arrokoth’s true shape. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
“It’s amazing to see this object so well preserved that its shape directly reveals these details of its assembly from a set of building blocks all very similar to one another,” said Lowell Observatory’s Dr. Will Grundy, co-investigator of the New Horizons mission, in a Southwest Research Institute press release. “Arrokoth almost looks like a raspberry, made of little sub-units.”
Arrokoth measures about 22 miles (35 kilometers) long. It is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide, by 6 miles (10 kilometers) thick. Most of the mounds were identified on Arrokoth’s larger lobe, Wenu, but three more mounds were tentatively identified on the object’s smaller lobe, Weeyo.
A three-dimensional model created from images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft shows that the larger lobe is flatter and has dimensions of approximately 14 × 12 × 4 miles (22 × 20 × 7 kilometers). The smaller lobe is more rounded and is approximately 9 × 9 × 6 miles (14 × 14 × 10 kilometers) in its dimensions.
Observations of the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth suggest it formed from an assembly of similarly sized objects, brought together at low speeds in a local area undergoing gravitational collapse. These findings support the streaming instability model of planetesimal formation and are described in a new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern. Credit: Courtesy of New Horizons/NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/James Tuttle Keane
Scientists say the shape of Arrokoth indicates that its two lobes most likely formed separately and gently merged within a cloud of particles early in the history of our solar system. It is thought that Arrokoth is primordial — existing since the beginning of the solar system. The two lobes are similar in color, adding evidence to this interpretation.
Arrokoth means means ““sky” in the Powhatan/Algonquian language.
Scientists think there is a good chance that some of the flyby targets for NASA’s Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids and ESA’s comet interceptor will be other pristine planetesimals, which could contribute to the understanding of accretion of planetesimals elsewhere in the ancient solar system, and whether they differ from processes New Horizons found in the Kuiper Belt.
“It will be important to search for mound-like structures on the planetesimals these missions observe to see how common this phenomenon is, as a further guide to planetesimal formation theories,” Stern said.
Found this in a Lunar orbiter 3 mission photo, had to share it. It looks like a subteraining advanced alien culture does exist on Earths moon. In this photo there is some huge structures within the depths to he craters. It's no wonder why NASA can't go back to the moon, the aliens wont let them! Scott C. Waring
Maryland could be a UFO hotspot, as nearly 2,000 sightings of bizarre objects in the sky have been reported since the mid-1990s.
Residents of the eighth-smallest state have reported a 'flat bottom black triangle' with green lights, 'a classic flying saucer,' and an oval-shaped craft that 'stayed stationary for about a minute and a half.'
Reports of the phenomenon have been collected in a database that shows that the first recorded sighting in Maryland dates back to May 15, 1946 — but wasn't reported until June 2017.
More modern sightings, like the glowing 'orbs' witnessed above Ocean City this past April, now get reported to the database within a matter of days.
'My daughter and I looked up and saw 'four orbs' moving in a circular motion, then come back to the middle, then spread back out,' the witness from Ocean City, who works in the defense sector, wrote to the UFO database.
This map, compiled in February 2023, reveals the number of UFO sightings in each US state
For decades, the official policy of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been that commercial pilots and other civilians should not bother reporting unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) or craft (UFOs) to the federal agency.
Per the FAA's 'Aeronautical Information Manual,' anyone who sees something strange in the sky should report their sightings to the volunteers at the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) instead.
'If concern is expressed that life or property might be endangered,' the FAA manual's guidance on UFO sightings continues, 'report the activity to the local law enforcement department.'
One White House official, former Clinton chief of staff and current Biden 'clean energy' czar John Podesta, likened the FAA's official stance to 'illogical directives' and 'discrimination.'
And, as of this summer, NASA's UAP advisory panel now recommends that the civilian air agency should admit the public's UFO and UAP sightings into its own Aviation Safety Reporting System.
'It's heartening to me that so many people are coming forward now,' Davenport told CBS News.
'We're getting significantly more reports than just six months or a year ago,' he said. 'There are UFO reports coming from probably most cities in the country.'
California is reported to have the most UFO sightings out of any state in the US, with more than 15,000 claims.
And the state has seen more than 200 objects this year alone.
Maryland has witnessed 1,923 UFO incidents, as logged by 1,818 reports maintained by this civilian UFO database.
Below are some of Maryland's most compelling cases from the past year.
UFO sightings in Baltimore and Brunswick, Maryland captured on camera
Multiple electric blue lights, several in a tight triangular formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore on August 5, 2023, according to one crisply recorded UFO report to NUFORC
August 5, 2023 - Baltimore, Maryland
Multiple electric blue lights, several in a tight triangular formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore, according to one crisply recorded UFO report to NUFORC.
'We were outback celebrating and I notice some bright lights in the sky,' the witness wrote along with their submission of the video.
'I started recording because I didn't think they were stars like most people thought,' the witness said. 'I usually look at the sky at night and never saw those before, plus they were moving slowly across the sky.'
While the witness described seeing 'at least 10 lights' during the sighting, at most eight or nine are seen during the 30-second video.
Although the lights do twinkle in the distance like stars, no other stars are visible in the night sky — and, by the video's end, the lights can be seen moving slowly in unison 'across the sky' just as the witness describes.
July 4, 2023 - Brunswick, Maryland
During a clear night of Independence Day fireworks, multiple witnesses at an apartment complex in Brunswick noticed a pair of blinking lights that appeared connected to one another, hovering around their local fireworks show.
'What is that? Oh, my gosh! What is that?' one confused witness video-recording the event can be heard asking as the reportedly 'quick moving lights in synchronization' glides across the sky, leaving 'no sound or trails.'
'Happened during fireworks but very easy to tell it's not fireworks, nor a plane or helicopters in formation,' said the witness who submitted his report and cell phone video to NUFORC.
'The objects also seemed fairly close, as in not extremely high,' the witness added, 'but the objects still seemed smaller than crafts known of.'
'The flight pattern was so consistent between the two lights that I truly don't believe it's drones being flown as the line between the two was absolutely perfect and did not change at all during flight.'
A child witness, who can be heard in the video, guesses that the mystery lights might be 'a firework,' but the adults remain unsure.
For about a minute near Jackson Station Road on March 19, 2023, one driver reported seeing a 'flat-bottom black triangle shape flying low to the ground with a low wooshing sound'
March 19, 2023 - Perryville, MD
For about a minute near Jackson Station Road, one driver reported seeing a 'flat-bottom black triangle shape flying low to the ground with a low wooshing sound.'
'I stopped my car and rolled down the window and heard a low wooshing sound coming from it,' the witness told NUFORC in their written report.
The UFO, which they referred to as 'the shape,' was then reportedly 'flying low to the ground and moving really slow.'
The witness further described the UFO as appearing 'black in color' with a green light on 'each point' of its triangular shape.
'I got one blurry picture,' the witness reported, 'when a car pulled up behind me and I had to keep driving.'
On November 7, 2022, one Maryland witness saw what they described as 'a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the 'front'' moving very slowly above their parents' house in Rockville, north of Washington DC. The witness said it was slow 'compared to [...] an aircraft'
November 7, 2022 - Rockville, MD, USA
One Maryland witness saw what they described as 'a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the 'front'' moving very slowly above their parents' house in Rockville just north of Washington DC.
'Saw this weird flying saucer-looking thing, took some photos,' the witness wrote into NUFORC.
'I was looking at the evening sky and saw a strange looking object with no trail,' their account continues, noting that the UFO 'seemed to be relatively low' in the sky and was moving 'very slowly (compared to, for example, an aircraft).'
In the throwback to the mid-20th Century's UFO sightings, the object, they report, 'looks like a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the 'front' (what was visible).'
Then, just like a classic UFO, it apparently zipped off: 'It seemed to disappear after I filmed and photographed it for 30 seconds,' the witness wrote.
Although Davenport has been working for NUFORC since 1994, the group's director has few predictions for what the recent resurgence in interest might lead to.
'I don't know what the future has in store for us,' Davenport said.
'But I am encouraged that more people are coming forward and the government recognizes the UFO phenomenon [as] something worthy of their attention.'
In the unending expanse of the cosmos, Earth holds secrets that have perplexed and fascinated humans for centuries. As we race towards the future, pushing the boundaries of what is scientifically possible, we find intriguing clues from our ancient past suggesting that we may not be alone in the universe.
One of the most riveting stories from history dates back to 1946, with the expedition called Operation High Jump led by the renowned Admiral Richard Byrd. This mission, considered the largest Antarctic expedition at that time, has been mired in mystery. Whispers of an aerial battle involving advanced flying craft and encounters with extraterrestrial beings suggest an incredible and almost unbelievable narrative. Adding more intrigue to the tale, a 2018 satellite image captured what appeared to be a contrail stretching from the North to the South Pole. The sheer speed necessary to leave such a trail hints at technology far beyond our current capabilities.
This is not the only tale that nudges us to reconsider our understanding of human history. The Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical computer found in the Aegean Sea, dates back to 200 BC. This device, which was used to predict astronomical events, stands as a testament to the advanced technological capabilities of ancient civilizations. It was so advanced that it’s likened to finding a jet plane in King Tut’s tomb! Such anomalies make one wonder: was the knowledge of our ancestors influenced or even given by extraterrestrial beings?
Jumping from the ancient to the ultra-modern, science is on the brink of creating wonders with nanotechnology. Imagine microscopic robots, a mere 244 atoms across, swimming through our bloodstream, repairing damaged tissues, healing wounds at unprecedented speeds, and perhaps even reversing the aging process. Such advancements are not confined to the realms of science fiction anymore. The field is advancing so rapidly that it promises not just longer life but perhaps a reversal of the aging process in the foreseeable future.
Could it be that these modern scientific marvels echo knowledge passed down from celestial visitors? The merging of our ancient past and a promising future raises exciting questions. Are we, as a species, evolving to resemble our potential extraterrestrial ancestors? The universe holds its secrets close, but with each discovery, we inch closer to understanding our place in this vast cosmos.
Wetenschappers van de National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hebben onlangs bekendgemaakt dat ze het einde naderen van hun zoektocht naar het proberen voorkomen dat een asteroïde over 159 jaar op de aarde botst.
Volgens deskundigen zou de asteroïde 'Bennu' op 24 september 2182 de aarde kunnen treffen. Deze cataclysmische gebeurtenis heeft een kans van 1 op 2.700 om de aarde te raken, maar specialisten nemen geen enkel risico en maken zich dan ook zorgen over deze kleine kans. Zozeer zelfs dat NASA zeven jaar geleden een ruimtevaartuig naar Bennu lanceerde om gegevens te verzamelen die zouden kunnen helpen bij het afwenden van de ramp, als en wanneer deze zich voordoet.
Ruimterots komt elke 6 jaar in buurt van onze planeet
Volgens NASA werd de asteroïde in 1999 geïdentificeerd en reist hij ongeveer elke zes jaar in de buurt van de aarde. De ruimterots is naar schatting even groot als het Empire State Building en heeft de kracht van 22 atoombommen. Tijdens de Touch-and-Go (TAG)-monsterverzamelingsoperatie daalde NASA's 'OSIRIS-Rex-ruimtevaartuig' in 2020 af op het oppervlak van asteroïde Bennu en haalde rotsachtig materiaal op van een monsterlocatie genaamd 'Nightingale'.
Bennu, een oeroud overblijfsel van ons zonnestelsel, bestaat volgens wetenschappers al ruim 4,5 miljard jaar. Het raakte voor het eerst bekend als '1999 RQ36'. Nadat een kind uit de derde klas, Michael Puzio, een wedstrijd had gewonnen om de asteroïde een naam te geven, werd deze in 2013 omgedoopt tot Bennu.
Hoe wil NASA botsing tussen aarde en asteroïde voorkomen?
“We bevinden ons nu in de laatste etappe van deze zeven jaar durende reis, en het voelt heel erg als de laatste paar kilometer van een marathon, met een samenloop van emoties zoals trots en vreugde die naast elkaar bestaan met een vastberaden focus om de race goed te voltooien,” citeerde Telegraph Rich Burns, projectmanager voor OSIRIS-REx bij NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. De asteroïdemonsters van de OSIRIS-REx-missie arriveerden eind september op aarde en worden nu intensief geanalyseerd.
De bevindingen van de missie kunnen niet alleen de wereld redden van een catastrofale botsing, maar kunnen ook informatie onthullen over de oorsprong van het leven op aarde. De missie doet denken aan de film Armageddon uit 1998 van Bruce Willis. In de film voorkomt Willis dat een asteroïde ter grootte van Texas in botsing komt met de aarde door erop te landen en deze met een atoombom in tweeën te breken. Maar ook 'Don't look up' uit 2021 lijkt heel erg op deze gebeurtenis.
(Skwadra by Tagtik/Source: News18 - Telegraph/Illustration picture: Pixabay)
The Perseverance rover has captured footage of an unusually large twister, or "dust devil," moving across the Martian landscape. Based on images of the swirling storm, researchers estimate that it could be more than a mile tall.
A screenshot of recently released footage of a dust devil (circled) on Mars that was captured by the Perseverance rover on Aug. 30. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA's Perseverance rover has captured rare footage of a towering twister, or "dust devil," dancing across the surface of Mars. The dusty vortex is taller than the average-size U.S. tornado and five times taller than the Empire State Building, according to NASA.
The rover spotted the swirling storm on Aug. 30 on the 899th Sol, or Martian day, of its mission on the Red Planet. The wandering robot filmed the dust devil for around 84 seconds as it raged on top of a nearby ridge around 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away. A time-lapse of the dust devil, showcasing the action at 20 times speed, was shared online by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) on Sept. 29.
The towering twister was moving at around 12 mph (19 km/h) and was roughly 200 feet (61 meters) wide. It reached a max height of 387 feet (118 m) in the video, but the top part of the storm has been cut off, meaning its true height is unknown. However, the researchers estimate that it was exceedingly tall.
"We don’t see the top of the dust devil, but the shadow it throws gives us a good indication of its height," Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Perseverance science team, said in a statement. "Most are vertical columns. If this dust devil were configured that way, its shadow would indicate it is about 1.2 miles [2 km] in height."
Dust devils form when rising cells of warm air mix with descending columns of cooler air. They also form on Earth, particularly in dry and dusty places like Arizona, and typically range from between 10 and 300 feet (3 and 91 m) wide and 500 to 1,000 feet (152 and 305 m) tall, according to the National Weather Service.
In general, Martian dust devils are weaker and shorter than the dusty vortexes found on Earth, according to the statement. But clearly, the recently filmed whirlwind was much taller. Based on the researchers' estimate, the vortex was taller than average fully-fledged U.S. tornados, which grow to between 1,640 to 4,920 feet (500 and 1,500 m), according to FOX Weather.
It is unclear why this particular dust devil was so tall. But unlike an Earth tornado, which can only grow as tall as the clouds above it, there is nothing impeding the height of a Martian dust devil.
An artist's impression of what dust devils on Mars may look like close-up. (Image credit: Getty Images)
In a 2018 study published in the journal Icarus, researchers estimated that on any given day there could be at least one dust devil per square kilometer on Mars, which equates to around 145 million a day. As a result, dust devils are likely the main transporter of dust across Mars.
Because of how dust devils reshape the Martian environment, both the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers are constantly on the lookout for nearby twisters. So far, Perseverance has witnessed dozens of dust devils, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.
In 2021, for the first time ever, researchers recorded the sound of a dust devil that passed directly over Perseverance. This enabled the rover to track how particles move within the vortex and provided clues as to how they form and grow.
The dust devil is not the only unusual extraterrestrial twister that was caught on camera this year. In March, an enormous "solar tornado," that stood taller than 14 Earths, raged on the sun's surface for more than three days after a plume of plasma got caught in a rapidly rotating magnetic field.
The abduction of Betty Andreasson Luca is considered to be one of the most documented cases in the history ofUfology. The woman from Massachusetts experienced multiple abductions, and her case is widely studied by UFO researchers. It became popular after the publication of the best-selling novel “The Andreasson Affair,” which came out in the late 1970s. She attended many radio shows and TV interviews where she discussed her encounter with grey aliens and even drew sketches of the incident.
Betty Andreasson was born on January 7, 1937, to Waino and Eva Aho. She went to school in Westminster and Gardner MA and had a great interest in art since childhood, which later became her passion. Betty married twice and with her first husband, she gave birth to seven children. She met her second husband Bob Luca in 1977.
Betty Andreasson Luca
According to the official reports, on the evening of January 25, 1967, Betty was at home with her seven children and parents. At around 6:30 p.m., she was busy in the kitchen when the lights in the house started blinking strangely. Soon after it, the kitchen’s window was hit by a reddish light beam, and the whole house went out of electricity. The children got terrified with the scene and Betty tried to calm them down. Her father looked out to find the source of the light and saw five strange-looking humanoid creatures walking right towards the house. Before he could understand the situation, the beings walked inside the house through the door which put the whole family in a state of shock.
Betty Andreasson during one of her hypnotic regression sessions
One creature went to Betty’s father while the other four came to her, and one of them started talking with her telepathically. The one who was made telepathic contact with Betty was about 5 feet tall, while others were shorter than him. The description by the witnesses was similar to the modern illustration of grey aliens. They had only slits on their mouth, three fingers in one hand, and wore a blue-colored one-piece suit.
Betty was frightened but at the same time, she felt calm by the friendly nature of the beings. They did not harm any member of the family and even released her daughter from a state of unawareness. Then she was taken outside and boarded on their saucer-shaped craft with a small dome that was standing in the backyard. After that, the ship went up in the air and merged with the mothership where Betty went through medical tests and was under the effects of strange equipment. Later, she was taken to some strange place where she felt much pain which, according to her, was a “spiritual experience.”
UFO sketch by Betty Andreasson
Later that night, Betty returned home at 10:40 p.m. and found her family still in a frozen state, where one of the aliens was watching them in her absence. Then the family was put to bed by the beings and the aliens left. What’s more, she forgot about her abduction until undergoing hypnotherapy in later years.
Betty said in some of her interviews that the creatures were angelic in nature but not biblical. She is a religious person, had only some school education and did not understand much about UFOs. Only after this bizarre experience, she understood that whatever she had experienced that night was much like aUFO abduction
In 1975, Dr. Allen J Hynek posted an ad in the newspaper to learn more about the abduction experiences and asked help from common people. Betty answered his ad by sending a letter, but it was rejected due to its unusual details. It was only in 1977 when her case was deeply investigated by the experts including a solar physicist, an electronics engineer, an aerospace engineer, a telecommunications specialist, and a UFO investigator.
Her case was first investigated by Jules Vaillancourt, a Mutual UFO Network investigator in 1977. He said: “What I found most amazing about Betty was her ability to draw. The detail of the (space) craft and the beings she drew under hypnosis were such that it really made me believe there was something to this.”
He also added that the detective who had given a psychological stress evaluation to Betty and her daughter believed in her story. She even spoke the language of aliens under hypnosis. Her case investigation continued for 12 months where she and her daughter had gone through hypnosis sessions, lie detector tests, and a psychiatric interview. Both mother and daughter passed them with a genuine reaction. Author and UFO researcher Raymond E. Fowler wrote five books on her UFO experiences that include the famous “The Andreasson Affair” series.
During one of her hypnotic regression sessions, she remembered one of the early abductions that occurred to her in childhood. It took place in 1950 when she was taken from her home into a spacecraft as usual. But this time, the craft was flying toward an ocean or sea. She was terrified that the craft would crash into the water. But the ship submerged into the water and entered into a kind of tunnel. Betty could see everything underwater, as the place was filled with light. What she said next under hypnosis is so bizarre that even gave a chill to Fowler.
Betty Andreasson drew what Fowler called Museum of Time
She saw people from all eras, different races, encased in the glass container. Fowler called it “The Museum of Time.” Betty said that people in the container were in old-fashioned clothes, and there were uncountable cubicles with humans inside at that underwater base.
Fowler wrote that when he listened to her one of the regression session recordings, his mind blew up as he found it difficult to believe. “A cold chill coursed through my body when Betty was describing people and animals enclosed in glassy cubicles in an icy cavern.”
Betty Andreasson and her second husband Bob Luca
Betty traveled a lot across the country, attending numerous TV interviews and radio shows and lecturing about her UFO experiences. She and her husband Bob Luca had been unsettled for many years until 1995 when they moved to Virginia. They lived in VA for 5 years and then moved to Florida. Shed died on March 18, 2022.
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04-10-2023
EXPLORING THE CLAIMS THAT AMERICA’S TR-3A UFO FOUGHT IN DESERT STORM
EXPLORING THE CLAIMS THAT AMERICA’S TR-3A UFO FOUGHT IN DESERT STORM
BYALEX HOLLINGS
For decades, rumors have swirled about the United States secretly operating highly classified black, triangular craft known as the TR-3A and TR-3B, with some going as far as to claim that these platforms were designed using reverse-engineered alien technology. In fact, in the early ’90s, it was even reported that these covert craft flew alongside the F-117 during combat operations over Iraq in Desert Storm.
In our last installment of this series, we explored a meta-investigation conducted by the National Institute of Discovery Science regarding black triangle UFOs seen over the United States. In this installment, we’ll explore the possibility that the United States could have secretly funded the development of such a platform.
COULD THESE BLACK TRIANGLES HAVE BEEN SECRET AMERICAN AIRCRAFT?
A B-2 Spirit lands at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Sunday, April 30, 2006. B-2s are replacing the B-1B Lancers at Andersen as part of the continuous bomber rotation. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Michael S. Dorus)
The United States has placed a heavy emphasis on aviation technology since the very inception of manned flight, with the U.S. Army placing an order for the world’s first military aircraft from the Wright Brothers in 1908. Today, America’s warfare doctrine leans heavily on the nation’s ability to take and keep control of the airspace over any battlefield the world over. Of course, maintaining that capability in the face of increasingly capable international competitors has always required both significant investment and equally significant secrecy.
You can find a laundry list of secret aircraft programs that, once disclosed, still seemed awfully alien. Not only were highly classified stealth aircraft like the F-117 flying for years before the government acknowledged it existed, but even more exotic secret aircraft are now known to have been prowling the skies over the Southwestern United States for years.
Boeing’s YF-118 Bird of Prey, as just one example, started its design process in 1992 within the secretive confines of the U.S. military’s Groom Lake facility (known to most as Area 51) and conducted a total of 40 classified test flights over Nevada between 1996 and 1999.
Boeing’s YF-118G Bird of Prey over Area 51. (U.S. Air Force photo)
The very alien-looking Bird of Prey was only disclosed to the public by Boeing in 2002 because the company financed the entire $67 million program without a penny of taxpayer funding. It’s been widely reported that other more classified government-funded technology demonstrators will never see similar disclosure, with some even reportedly being buried in the sands of Area 51 to be lost to time.
The Bird of Prey was actively flying while plane spotters and UFO junkies were collecting reports of other alleged secret aircraft like the TR-3B and the hypersonic reconnaissance platform many called Aurora. Sandboxx News has covered Aurora in depth before. While we’re all but certain that name was actually tied to the B-2 Spirit program, there is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that something similar to what people were reporting as the Aurora may have really been in testing, housed in the same secretive hangars as Boeing’s Bird of Prey and other secret platforms already lost to time.
Although defense spending did see consistent reductions following the fall of the Soviet Union, it’s worth noting that, until the late 1990s, the United States was still allocating a larger percentage of the nation’s GDP to defense than it does today. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, America’s 1992 defense budget of $325.03 billion equates to more than $718 billion today – meaning Uncle Sam certainly had the money to fund a variety of classified programs. Further, in 1991 it was reported that the U.S. Air Force had devoted more than $60.3 billion to classified research, development, and procurement over the five preceding years – that’s the equivalent of nearly $137 billion today, or enough to purchase more than 1,500 F-35As in today’s market.
REPORTS OF AMERICA’S TR-3A BLACK TRIANGLE SERVING IN DESERT STORM
In 1991, America’s Black Triangle was seemingly revealed to the world in a series of articles published by Aviation Week and Popular Mechanics. According to Aviation Week, the stealthy aircraft was designed by Northrop – the same firm responsible for the black, triangular B-2 Spirit – in 1976 alongside Lockheed’s Have Blue efforts that would ultimately produce the F-117. Northrop called its stealthy triangular aircraft the Tactical High Altitude Penetrator (THAP).
According to Aviation Week, the Air Force ultimately awarded Northrop a fixed-price research and development and demonstration/validation contract near the end of 1978 to build a prototype high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft based on their THAP design. That prototype, Aviation Week claimed, made its first test flight out of Area 51 in 1981, and a production contract was subsequently awarded in 1982.
(SecretProjects.uk)
In a follow-up article, Aviation Week went on to claim that Northrop’s TR-3A was about 42 feet long, 14 feet high, and had a wingspan of 60-65 feet, which describes a much smaller aircraft than popular reports made the “TR-3B” to be. Yet, this would seem to be in keeping with a sighting that is often attributed to Aurora over the North Sea in 1989, reported by a trained airfield observer named Chris Gibson.
Manipulated image meant to represent Chris Gibson’s sighting. (Twitter)
According to Aviation Week’s unnamed sources, these aircraft “may have” been deployed to Alaska, Britain, Panama, and Okinawa, as well as flying in concert with the F-117 Nighthawk during combat operations in Iraq to provide laser-designation of targets over Baghdad.
That claim, while not officially substantiated, might explain why the documents given to Iraqi MiG pilots to identify the F-117 in the air also showed the silhouette of the B-2. Confusion over just what was being seen in the skies over Iraq may have prompted them to include the only other black triangle aircraft America was known to fly. However, the B-2 was not in service then, which would raise the question of what they actually saw. Though, admittedly, this line of reasoning may be a bit of a stretch.
Document recovered from Iraqi Air Force Base in Tallil.
Popular Mechanics discussed the Northrop TR-3A alongside other undisclosed but reportedly sighted aircraft in their coverage, including another boomerang-shaped platform said to be completely silent and boasting a massive wingspan that stretched between 600 and 800 feet – or three to four times the size of the B-52 Stratofortress.
Like Aviation Week, Popular Mechanics also reported on the TR-3A being significantly quieter than other aircraft, but not silent, as is often reported about the TR-3B.
BUT EVIDENCE OF TR-3A’S EXISTENCE ISN’T QUITE AS STRONG AS IT SEEMS
Those articles in Aviation Week that so authoritatively relayed the story of the TR-3A’s development? Well, they were both written by or with the support of William Scott – a journalist who is now known for sometimes getting a little too excited about the unusual topics he covered, resulting in some serious, if likely unintentional, stretching of the truth.
In 1990, for instance, he reported that the United States had a secret hypersonic bomber that could launch nuclear weapons from vertical launch tubes. That aircraft, of course, never manifested either. The TR-3 designation, many now believe, was the result of Scott simply mishearing stories about Tier 3, which was a program that followed Tier 2 (an effort that resulted in the Global Hawk drone). Tier 3 was supposed to be an unmanned SR-71 successor that was also known as “Quartz,” but that ultimately didn’t make it beyond the design stage. Elements of the Tier 3 program, known as Tier 3 Minus, did ultimately result in Lockheed and Boeing building the Darkstar in 1996 – no, not the hypersonic one Maverick flew, but rather a much slower drone meant for ISR duties.
In fact, when you save this image of the Darkstar from Wikimedia Commons, the file name includes both Darkstar and “Tier 3.”
Lockheed’s original Darkstar, which flew in 1996. (Wikimedia Commons)
And when you read the Popular Mechanics coverage that was published in 1991, you’ll find that it pulls primarily from Scott’s reporting in Aviation Week.
Many, including me, were struck by the details in the Aviation Week story because it’s a well-respected outlet with a history of having insider information. But the outlet also has a well-recorded history of publishing some less-than-factual accounts of black aircraft programs over the years; stories with little in the way of disclosed sources that made lofty claims about a near-term future that never manifests.
In 2006, space historian and policy analyst Dwayne Day summed up how academics now perceive Scott’s 1990 coverage of the TR-3A:
“The Manta story demonstrates a pattern that Scott repeats in all of his black airplane stories. Usually there is a small bit of real information about a classified aircraft project. Scott then connects alleged sightings of an unusual aircraft in flight to this bit of information. Then the article is padded out with a large amount of speculation, usually involving various studies and research projects conducted by various contractors. The characteristics are always the same, however: he never quotes anybody by name who has any direct connection to the alleged program, and he never even includes anonymous quotes of anybody who supposedly knows the big picture about the alleged program.”
But this isn’t the end of the story for these unusual black triangle sightings. In our next installment in this series, we’ll explore stories about the TR-3B – a similar black triangle that’s said to be powered by reverse-engineered alien technology. We’ll also look into the real patents that may support these claims.
For decades, rumors have swirled about the United States secretly operating highly classified black, triangular craft known as the TR-3A and TR-3B, with some going as far as to claim that these platforms were designed using reverse-engineered alien technology. In fact, in the early ’90s, it was even reported that these covert craft flew alongside the F-117 during combat operations over Iraq in Desert Storm
In our last installment of this series, we explored a meta-investigation conducted by the National Institute of Discovery Science regarding black triangle UFOs seen over the United States. In this installment, we’ll explore the possibility that the United States could have secretly funded the development of such a platform.
COULD THESE BLACK TRIANGLES HAVE BEEN SECRET AMERICAN AIRCRAFT?
The United States has placed a heavy emphasis on aviation technology since the very inception of manned flight, with the U.S. Army placing an order for the world’s first military aircraft from the Wright Brothers in 1908. Today, America’s warfare doctrine leans heavily on the nation’s ability to take and keep control of the airspace over any battlefield the world over. Of course, maintaining that capability in the face of increasingly capable international competitors has always required both significant investment and equally significant secrecy.
You can find a laundry list of secret aircraft programs that, once disclosed, still seemed awfully alien. Not only were highly classified stealth aircraft like the F-117 flying for years before the government acknowledged it existed, but even more exotic secret aircraft are now known to have been prowling the skies over the Southwestern United States for years.
Boeing’s YF-118 Bird of Prey, as just one example, started its design process in 1992 within the secretive confines of the U.S. military’s Groom Lake facility (known to most as Area 51) and conducted a total of 40 classified test flights over Nevada between 1996 and 1999.
The very alien-looking Bird of Prey was only disclosed to the public by Boeing in 2002 because the company financed the entire $67 million program without a penny of taxpayer funding. It’s been widely reported that other more classified government-funded technology demonstrators will never see similar disclosure, with some even reportedly being buried in the sands of Area 51 to be lost to time.
The Bird of Prey was actively flying while plane spotters and UFO junkies were collecting reports of other alleged secret aircraft like the TR-3B and the hypersonic reconnaissance platform many called Aurora. Sandboxx News has covered Aurora in depth before. While we’re all but certain that name was actually tied to the B-2 Spirit program, there is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that something similar to what people were reporting as the Aurora may have really been in testing, housed in the same secretive hangars as Boeing’s Bird of Prey and other secret platforms already lost to time.
Although defense spending did see consistent reductions following the fall of the Soviet Union, it’s worth noting that, until the late 1990s, the United States was still allocating a larger percentage of the nation’s GDP to defense than it does today. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, America’s 1992 defense budget of $325.03 billion equates to more than $718 billion today – meaning Uncle Sam certainly had the money to fund a variety of classified programs. Further, in 1991 it was reported that the U.S. Air Force had devoted more than $60.3 billion to classified research, development, and procurement over the five preceding years – that’s the equivalent of nearly $137 billion today, or enough to purchase more than 1,500 F-35As in today’s market.
REPORTS OF AMERICA’S TR-3A BLACK TRIANGLE SERVING IN DESERT STORM
In 1991, America’s Black Triangle was seemingly revealed to the world in a series of articles published by Aviation Week and Popular Mechanics. According to Aviation Week, the stealthy aircraft was designed by Northrop – the same firm responsible for the black, triangular B-2 Spirit – in 1976 alongside Lockheed’s Have Blue efforts that would ultimately produce the F-117. Northrop called its stealthy triangular aircraft the Tactical High Altitude Penetrator (THAP).
According to Aviation Week, the Air Force ultimately awarded Northrop a fixed-price research and development and demonstration/validation contract near the end of 1978 to build a prototype high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft based on their THAP design. That prototype, Aviation Week claimed, made its first test flight out of Area 51 in 1981, and a production contract was subsequently awarded in 1982.
In a follow-up article, Aviation Week went on to claim that Northrop’s TR-3A was about 42 feet long, 14 feet high, and had a wingspan of 60-65 feet, which describes a much smaller aircraft than popular reports made the “TR-3B” to be. Yet, this would seem to be in keeping with a sighting that is often attributed to Aurora over the North Sea in 1989, reported by a trained airfield observer named Chris Gibson.
According to Aviation Week’s unnamed sources, these aircraft “may have” been deployed to Alaska, Britain, Panama, and Okinawa, as well as flying in concert with the F-117 Nighthawk during combat operations in Iraq to provide laser-designation of targets over Baghdad.
That claim, while not officially substantiated, might explain why the documents given to Iraqi MiG pilots to identify the F-117 in the air also showed the silhouette of the B-2. Confusion over just what was being seen in the skies over Iraq may have prompted them to include the only other black triangle aircraft America was known to fly. However, the B-2 was not in service then, which would raise the question of what they actually saw. Though, admittedly, this line of reasoning may be a bit of a stretch.
Popular Mechanics discussed the Northrop TR-3A alongside other undisclosed but reportedly sighted aircraft in their coverage, including another boomerang-shaped platform said to be completely silent and boasting a massive wingspan that stretched between 600 and 800 feet – or three to four times the size of the B-52 Stratofortress.
Like Aviation Week, Popular Mechanics also reported on the TR-3A being significantly quieter than other aircraft, but not silent, as is often reported about the TR-3B.
A B-2 Spirit lands at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Sunday, April 30, 2006. B-2s are replacing the B-1B Lancers at Andersen as part of the continuous bomber rotation.
(U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Michael S. Dorus)
BUT EVIDENCE OF TR-3A’S EXISTENCE ISN’T QUITE AS STRONG AS IT SEEMS
Those articles in Aviation Week that so authoritatively relayed the story of the TR-3A’s development? Well, they were both written by or with the support of William Scott – a journalist who is now known for sometimes getting a little too excited about the unusual topics he covered, resulting in some serious, if likely unintentional, stretching of the truth.
In 1990, for instance, he reported that the United States had a secret hypersonic bomber that could launch nuclear weapons from vertical launch tubes. That aircraft, of course, never manifested either. The TR-3 designation, many now believe, was the result of Scott simply mishearing stories about Tier 3, which was a program that followed Tier 2 (an effort that resulted in the Global Hawk drone). Tier 3 was supposed to be an unmanned SR-71 successor that was also known as “Quartz,” but that ultimately didn’t make it beyond the design stage. Elements of the Tier 3 program, known as Tier 3 Minus, did ultimately result in Lockheed and Boeing building the Darkstar in 1996 – no, not the hypersonic one Maverick flew, but rather a much slower drone meant for ISR duties.
In fact, when you save this image of the Darkstar from Wikimedia Commons, the file name includes both Darkstar and “Tier 3.”
And when you read the Popular Mechanics coverage that was published in 1991, you’ll find that it pulls primarily from Scott’s reporting in Aviation Week.
Many, including me, were struck by the details in the Aviation Week story because it’s a well-respected outlet with a history of having insider information. But the outlet also has a well-recorded history of publishing some less-than-factual accounts of black aircraft programs over the years; stories with little in the way of disclosed sources that made lofty claims about a near-term future that never manifests.
In 2006, space historian and policy analyst Dwayne Day summed up how academics now perceive Scott’s 1990 coverage of the TR-3A:
“The Manta story demonstrates a pattern that Scott repeats in all of his black airplane stories. Usually there is a small bit of real information about a classified aircraft project. Scott then connects alleged sightings of an unusual aircraft in flight to this bit of information. Then the article is padded out with a large amount of speculation, usually involving various studies and research projects conducted by various contractors. The characteristics are always the same, however: he never quotes anybody by name who has any direct connection to the alleged program, and he never even includes anonymous quotes of anybody who supposedly knows the big picture about the alleged program.”
But this isn’t the end of the story for these unusual black triangle sightings. In our next installment in this series, we’ll explore stories about the TR-3B – a similar black triangle that’s said to be powered by reverse-engineered alien technology. We’ll also look into the real patents that may support these claims.
Chariots of the gods, ships in the sky: how unidentified aerial phenomena left their mark in ancient cultures
For thousands of years, people have been describing unexplainable gleaming objects in the sky.
Some aerial phenomena like comets, meteor showers, bolides, auroras or even earthquake lightning – all easily explained by today’s knowledge – were widely reported in the ancient world.
The US Congress is currently investigating unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs – what you might think of as UFOs), in the wake of previously classified footage of UAPs being leaked and a former intelligence official alleging the US government possesses “off world” technologies.
Meanwhile, a recent NASA report concluded there is no evidence suggesting UAPs are of extraterrestrial origin.
Ancient writers saw these phenomena as signs of social unease and impending disaster. In this way, modern reactions to UAPs are similar to those of thousands of years ago. There is a long history of strange objects in the sky associated with political and military crises.
In the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel mentioned a divine chariot: it glowed like hot metal in a fire and Ezekiel could see four living beings in it. They looked human-like, though they had four faces and four wings.
The vimāna – the flying chariots of the gods – also appear in ancient Indian epics, including the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana.
In Hindu myths, the gods were portrayed as riding these chariots to every corner of the universe.
Krishna and Rukmini as Groom and Bride in a Celestial Chariot Driven by Ganesha, India, Rajasthan, Bundi, 1675-1700.Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Describing portents of the winter of 218 BC, the Roman historian Livy said a “spectacle of ships gleamed in the sky”. The Second Punic War had begun, and the enemy general Hannibal was on the verge of a series of victories.
Maybe these “ships” in the sky were odd cloud formations, but Livy’s choice of words suggests something “shining” or “gleaming” – qualities even today associated with UAPs.
Livy reports another appearance of ships in the sky in 173 BC, when a “great fleet” allegedly appeared. In the spring of 217 BC, with Hannibal still threatening Rome, Livy says “round shields were seen in the sky” over central Italy.
Livy doesn’t say if these objects gleamed like the “ships” seen the previous year, but the “shields” recall the appearance of “flying saucers”, the type of UAP that came to prominence at the height of the Cold War.
An unexplained object in a video still provided by the Department of Defense labelled Gimbal, from 2015.Department of Defense via AP
Another curious classical UAP is recorded by the Greek writer Plutarch in his Life of Lucullus, a Roman general. Lucullus’ forces were about to fight King Mithridates VI of Pontus when a strange object appeared between the two armies:
suddenly, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar (pithos), and in colour, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated.
That the object was described as a pithos, a vessel which has a specific shape, suggests something more than a flashing light. Some have interpreted this as a meteor, but Plutarch’s focus on its shiny metallic nature does not match this possibility.
Whatever it was, both armies thought it was a bad omen and withdrew.
Roman-Jewish historian Josephus, writing about war between Roman and Jewish forces, records an aerial battle between UAPs in AD 65. Before sunset, “chariots” were seen in the sky, accompanied by “armed battalions hurtling through the clouds”.
Josephus says numerous eyewitnesses saw it and believed it foretold the Roman victory that followed.
From ancient to modern doomsdays
Saint Paul referred to God’s “shield of faith” in his Letter to the Ephesians, while “ships voyaging in the sky” were a common theme in medieval Ireland, symbolising the safety the “ship” of the Church afforded believers.
Reports of unusual phenomena increased at the turn of every millennium, when Christian people feared or hoped for the Judgement Day predicted in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
A King and His Retinue Confronting Ladies under a Celestial Battle, French, c. 1600.The National Gallery of Art
Millennial ufology is a fascinating development of recent Christian predictions of the end of the world, where the Messiah poses as a space traveller who returns to save us from Satanic aliens.
Millions of adults every year report experiences with UAPs: when interviewed about their experiences, some admit they are religious; others insist they are not. Importantly, ufology may well be a way of reconciling religion with science, an approach many find appealing.
We will never know what the objects and lights described by ancient texts were, and whether they were real or the result of psychological stress. At the very least, significant ancient sightings of UAPs almost always speak to conditions of anxiety and imminent change.
UAPs – ancient and modern – confirm our need to project our crises to objects in the skies.
Ancient people did not have the Doomsday Clock to warn them how close the end was, but they watched the skies carefully and found plenty of warning up there.
On June 12, 2023, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Dr. Steven M. Greer, a renowned founder of the Disclosure Project delivered an exceptional presentation, unveiling compelling evidence related to covert and unauthorized black budget projects associated with UFO/UAP operations. For 33 years, Dr. Greer has been dedicatedly working as a volunteer for the Disclosure Project. His last event was conducted 22 years ago on May 9, 2001, where 22 individuals from various government sectors participated.
In a 3-hour-long event, Dr. Greer has recently presented his investigations on secret programs, and he was joined by six courageous whistleblowers who shared compelling information about covert operations.
In this long disclosure event, one of the most compelling testimonies was given by DC Long, an Army combat veteran who served in the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, from 1997 to 2013. He was medically retired due to injuries sustained during a combat jump. His father was also a government contractor at Fort Bragg, adding an interesting connection to the military base.
DC claimed he was in the service, when he and his father, a government contractor, were allegedly contacted by the U.S. Army to visit Fort Bragg to set up a shoot house and an indoor live fire range at the training facility.
DC and his father were allegedly escorted by two different people at a classified location known as “Range 19” at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in late 2010 or early 2011. Upon their arrival, they were taken through a freight elevator to an underground facility. The place appeared ordinary at first, but they soon discovered a peculiar sight: a monolithic slab suspended in mid-air with nothing supporting it. The sensation of intense vibration in DC’s body added to the surreal atmosphere. Surrounding the slab were boulders with strange black boxes on top, seemingly related to levitation technology.
DC recalled his astonishment, saying, “I glanced p underneath it and there’s absolutely nothing underneath this damn thing, nothing holding it up whatsoever.” The enigmatic slab was about 20 feet long, seven feet tall, and remarkably heavy. It would have been impossible for any human to lift or move it without significant equipment. “The scope of equipment that it would take just to get it off the ground… at this point, I’m still down on my knee and I’m looking… there’s absolutely nothing in there… everything… just vacated.”
“It looked like a granite slab,” the soldier recalls, “but the sheen on it caught my attention the most. It was like it had a smooth, translucent surface, and there was something behind it.” This massive monolithic slab held an inexplicable allure that both intrigued and bewildered them.
Credit: Dr. Steven Greer
As they explored further, they noticed two individuals behind the slab, effortlessly spinning another massive boulder with one hand. The soldier described how those men displayed incredible strength, casually manipulating objects that seemed impossibly heavy for human hands. The escort’s urgent prompt to move on prevented them from investigating further, leaving them with more questions than answers.
After spending a mere 15-20 minutes in the underground facility, DC and his father returned to the hangar, only to find that everything they had witnessed earlier vanished without a trace. The monolithic slabs and boulders disappeared, leaving no sign of their previous presence.
“We weren’t even 100 yards below them,” the soldier recalls, “whatever they were taking out, we would have heard it. But it was dead silent, like there was nothing there at all.”
Intriguingly, less than 30 minutes elapsed since they had first encountered the mysterious granite slab and the extraordinary feat of strength displayed by the unknown men. The absence of any construction equipment ruling out sound muffled below strengthens the enigma surrounding the entire episode.
Upon further reflection, the soldier recounted the strange vibrations they had felt in the underground facility, akin to being near a concert speaker, minus any audible noise. “It was an odd feeling,” he admitted, “like being at the center of an inexplicable force.”
What did they stumble upon that day? Why were there seemingly superhuman individuals in a top-secret military facility? And most importantly, where did everything disappear to in the blink of an eye?
The soldier chose not to disclose the names of the individuals he recognized among the escort team. Despite the passage of time, DC remained tight-lipped about the classified incident, hinting at a potential revelation that could send shockwaves through the military community.
Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL engages in a captivating Q&A with DC Long as he recounts his baffling experience during a visit to the covert underground facility at Fort Bragg. Here is their intriguing conversation:
Shawn Ryan: How far away from the slab did you feel the vibration? Did you feel it before you saw it?
DC Long: No, no. It was when the doors of the freight elevator opened, and I looked in, I could see it. It wasn’t any farther than, you know, from here to that camera pod. About six or seven feet away from me as we were walking in. But what made me stop was that it was so close. And what made me stop was, as close as we got, I noticed that in front of me, with my dad and the other escort in front of him, it was almost like hopping on a tripwire, you know, when you’re on the trail, you just hit it and go. That was the first thing I noticed. And then the closer I got to it, that intense vibration, and I was just too curious. Yeah, I couldn’t stand it. I had to figure out what it was. And, um, I really shouldn’t have.
Shawn Ryan: When did the vibration stop?
DC Long: It didn’t stop until I walked away, right in the center, looking at the top of it. You could see this black box. Um, I’ve tried to describe it before, and it was extremely difficult. It just looked like a small black GMTK toolbox that a military mechanic would have or carry around. It wasn’t very big, and it just had two leads that came off of it, and it looked like it was wrapped in a case, and that you could almost see something inside of it, but it wasn’t mechanical, it wasn’t moving, they didn’t have lights, it was just opaque, but it didn’t really seem to serve any purpose. But the other boulder had the same thing on top of it.
Shawn Ryan: Are you saying you saw two boulders and a slab?
DC Long: Yeah, and they were in all three of them at the same time. The slab itself, the monolithic slab, it was about 12 to 15 inches off the ground. Whenever I knelt down to tie my shoes, I could look through it and I saw the first boulder that I noticed, and it was just sitting on the ground. Okay, and then I’ll glance back, and that’s when I saw the other boulder that had the same black box on top, that was being moved around, and that was levitating.
Shawn Ryan: Did the slab have a black box anywhere near the monolithic slab? Where was that located?
DC Long: Yeah, it did. It was on the top near the center, where I was feeling most of the vibration. It was like the closer I got to it, that’s where it was the most intense, at the center of the slab where that box was on top of it.
During their visit, DC and his father were not alwed to take any notes or photographs. After the visit, they were asked to sign a non-disclosure agloreement (NDA). DC declined, feeling that the experience was too surreal and improbable to be taken seriously. However, shortly after this, everything changed for DC’s father. His business and assets were seized, reducing him from a successful contractor to a destitute and bankrupt individual.
DC later suffered a life-threatening injury during a military exercise, potentially related to his father’s mysterious experience. Following this incident, he lost contact with his father, who became homeless and seriously ill. When DC finally reconnected with his father after two years, he found him in a deteriorated state, battling cancer from the consequences of unknown events.
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Saturn’s Rings May Have Formed Following Massive Collision between Two Moons, Scientists Say
Saturn’s Rings May Have Formed Following Massive Collision between Two Moons, Scientists Say
Saturn’s rings could have evolved from the debris of two progenitor icy moons that collided and shattered a few hundred million years ago; debris that didn’t end up in the rings could also have contributed to the formation of some of Saturn’s present-day moons, according to new simulations carried out by planetary researcher from the University of Glasgow, the University of Oslo, NASA’s Ames Research Center, SETI Institute and Durham University.
Teodoro et al. simulated the collision of precursor icy moons analogous to Dione and Rhea as a possible origin for Saturn’s remarkably young rings. Such an event could have been triggered a few hundred million years ago by resonant instabilities in a previous satellite system. Using high-resolution simulations, they found that this kind of impact can produce a wide distribution of massive objects and scatter material throughout the system.
Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.
Most contemporary high-quality measurements about Saturn have come from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that spent 13 years studying the planet and its systems after entering Saturn’s orbit in 2004.
An analysis of Cassini data indicated that Saturn’s rings were much younger than first thought.To investigate this further, Dr. Jacob Kegerreis from NASA’s Ames Research Center and his colleagues modeled what different collisions between precursor moons in Saturn’s system may have looked like.
“There’s so much we still don’t know about the Saturn system, including its moons that host environments that might be suitable for life,” Dr. Kegerreis said.
“So, it’s exciting to use big simulations like these to explore in detail how they could have evolved.”
The team’s simulations were conducted at a resolution more than 100 times higher than previous such studies, using the open-source simulation code SWIFT and giving scientists their best insights into the Saturn system’s history.
Saturn’s rings today live close to the giant planet, within what’s known as the Roche limit — the farthest orbit where a planet’s gravitational force is powerful enough to disintegrate larger bodies of rock or ice that get any closer.
Material orbiting farther out could clump together to form moons.By simulating almost 200 different versions of the impact, the researchers discovered that a wide range of collision scenarios could scatter the right amount of ice into Saturn’s Roche limit, where it could settle into rings.
And, while alternative explanations haven’t been able to show why there would be almost no rock in Saturn’s rings, this type of collision could explain that.
“This scenario naturally leads to ice-rich rings. When the icy progenitor moons smash into one another, the rock in the cores of the colliding bodies is dispersed less widely than the overlying ice,” said Dr. Vincent Eke, a researcher at Durham University.
Ice and rocky debris would also have hit other moons in the system, potentially causing a cascade of collisionsSuch a multiplying effect could have disrupted any other precursor moons outside the rings, out of which today’s moons could have formed.
But what could have set these events in motion, in the first place? Two of Saturn’s former moons could have been pushed into a collision by the usually small effects of the Sun’s gravity ‘adding up’ to destabilize their orbits around the planet.
In the right configuration of orbits, the extra pull from the Sun can have a snowballing effect — a resonance — that elongates and tilts the moons’ usually circular and flat orbits until their paths cross, resulting in a high-speed impact.
Saturn’s moon Rhea today orbits just beyond where a moon would encounter this resonance.
Like the Earth’s Moon, Saturn’s satellites migrate outward from the planet over time.
So, if Rhea was ancient, it would have crossed the resonance in the recent past.
However, Rhea’s orbit is very circular and flat. This suggests that it did not experience the destabilizing effects of the resonance and, instead, formed more recently.
“We conclude that the impact of two destabilized icy moons is a promising scenario for the recent formation or rejuvenation of Saturn’s rings and reaccretion of mid-sized moons,” the scientists concluded.
“Future work on the long-term evolution of the orbit-crossing debris, combined with further and more detailed modeling of collisions between both icy moons and smaller fragments, will help to constrain the implications of this scenario for Saturn’s rings, its moons, their craters, and other surface environments.”
Now I want to believe in the US gov and how these scientists built this huge solar power array satellite, but I just can't. There is a huge object in Earths orbit right now as I write this and nobody seems to have noticed it till today. Very odd, The object looks like it could be an alien craft in orbit. I believe that this may all be an elaborate cover-up by the US gov to try to convince the public its just a satellite, when its really a spacecraft that may be in orbit for an unknown about of time.
I found a person laying down on Mars in the most recent batch of Mars rover photos dated Oct 3, 2023. The person appears not to be made of stone, but to be petrified or turned to stone. They are in a laying down position which seems to show them struggling to survive with both arms outreaching to someone in the distance. It's very similar to the ancient Pompeii statues excavated in Italy long ago.
I also found an object...a structure that l believe to be an alien ship that crashed in this location and parts of its outer walls were taken off and used for there things. Just food for thought.
It would be nice if NASA would allow the public to chose where to explore and what objects in photos deserve closer scrutiny, like this ancient person...but then, the truth would come out, and NASA can't allow that to happen.
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Mysterious UFO Sighting Over Azumayama Captured by Japanese Mountain Climbers
Mysterious UFO Sighting Over Azumayama Captured by Japanese Mountain Climbers
In the world of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, sightings have become an intriguing, yet mysterious part of human history. These sightings stir our imaginations, fuel our curiosities, and make us question what might be beyond our atmosphere. One such captivating incident occurred in 1995, on the picturesque slopes of Azumayama in Japan.
Japanese mountain climbers, amidst their challenging ascent, encountered a sight that would forever change their understanding of the skies. Hovering above them was a mammoth, cigar-shaped UFO, its orange luminescence contrasting starkly with the night sky. The vastness of the object was evident from its reported size: a staggering 80 meters.
The mountain climbers, amateur alpinists exploring the wonders of Azumayama, were able to capture this unique phenomenon on film. As they aimed their camera towards the sky, the footage, although occasionally shaky due to the cameraman’s astonishment, revealed an incredibly detailed image of the tubular object. The clarity was such that even the road beneath, with vehicles in motion, was visible. It provided a reference, emphasizing the sheer size of the object.
There’s an air of mystery surrounding the event. The camera, which had so perfectly captured the object, reportedly malfunctioned the very next day. Was it a mere coincidence, or was there a more profound, inexplicable reason?
For many UFO enthusiasts, this sighting remains a testament to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The Azumayama footage is often cited as one of the most significant pieces of evidence due to its clarity and the number of witnesses present. However, like many UFO sightings, definitive answers remain elusive.
The account does more than just feed our extraterrestrial theories. It reminds us that our universe is vast, with countless possibilities waiting to be explored. Whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, the Azumayama UFO sighting invites you to gaze upwards and wonder.
0:16 So many people climbing, this is what. It’s big, huh? It’s really big. Thank you. See, the amateur cameraman cannot hold the camera. So you can see the car is driving on the road. He must board to take a shot and he climb up again.
01:02This is Azuma mountain. Azuma mountain? Yes. There is a friend named Mr .Suda. Is that UFO? That’s amazing. What is that? Oh, it’s over. It’s not over, it’s the middle of the screen. The next day I took this UFO, the camera broke.
01:32This is the light of the future that the Kinochi people expect. The UFO that continues to stay in the place, with the light of the orange color from under the aircraft, is about 150 meters tall. The TRII that made such a UFO video in the middle of the night, does not think about it, but speaks such a word.
01:53Today’s giant UFO.
01:58This video was taken by a man who was in the woods. Some of the light was shining on the battlefield. The size was quite huge. There were many people who were not able to walk. The car’s size was about 4 meters.
02:19This UFO’s size was about 80 meters.
02:23 The image obtained by a group of Alpinistas Amateurs, that by climbing the ladders of a mountain in Japan, managed to obtain one of the most important images of a tubular object flying in the sky. The image is very good, despite the camera movements that try to capture with definition and stability, the object in the air.
02:43 It even manages to see a road where some vehicles were circulating. Look carefully, it has enough references to be able to be treated as a very large object, which remains static flying in the final plane of the shot.
03:01 Unfortunately, the ladders continued with their ascension and stopped recording the object.
The mysteries around the Moon have been circulating after the first Apollo mission. Did the first crew really encounter the aliens there? First, many people still believe that NASA has never gone to Moon. But the majority strongly support the six lunar landing missions. In reference to the missions, NASA whistleblowersclaimed that the agency is hiding the secret of artificial structures on the Moon. Among them, Dr. Ken Johnston claimed that NASA knows that astronauts discovered ancient alien cities and the remains of incredibly advanced machinery on the Moon. Some of these technologies can manipulate gravity.
Dr. Ralph Kennedy Johnston Sr was born at Fort Sam Houston US Army Air Corps Base in San Antonio, TX. in 1942. He was one of the four Civilian Astronaut Consultant Pilots at NASA who trained Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins for the Apollo 11 Mission.
Additionally, Dr. Ken Johnston is a retired aerospace engineer, former active duty US Marine, and now known as “NASA Whistleblower.” He refuses the term “whistleblower” as he says what he did was providing the public with first-hand information that they deserve to know.
Dr. Ken Johnston was selected as Mars One Astronaut Round 2 Candidate but later the program was stopped due to no funding.
He refused to strictly follow orders and destroy a nearly-complete collection of 8″ x 10″ glossy photo prints from the Apollo program. These photos are not available from NASA at this time and are of a higher resolution than what is found online.
In the last 40 years, other scientists, engineers, and technicians have accused NASA of cover-ups and data withholding. There is a growing number of people who accuse the space agency of withholding information about anomalous space objects and lying about discovering artifacts on the surface of the Moon and Mars, denying evidence of life reported by the Viking probe in the mid-1970s.
According to Dr. Johnston, the Apollo astronauts brought back photographic evidence of the artifacts they found during their extravehicular activities on the moon. Johnston claimed that NASA ordered to destroy the EVA images at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but he refused. When he went public, he was fired from the agency.
In the 2007 press release, Kay Ferrari, JPL’s Director of the SSA program, asked Dr. Johnston to resign. It was Johnston “being quoted [as] criticizing NASA in Hoagland’s new book, ‘Dark Mission,'” that prompted her to ask for Johnston’s resignation from the SSA Program. When Dr. Johnston refused, citing First Amendment protections of free speech afforded all NASA employees, even those at JPL, Ferrari apparently decided to remove him arbitrarily from the SSA Program, as stated in the press release.
After his abrupt departure, he indicated that he was tired of the US government sitting on evidence for more than four decades, evidence that ancient alien cities exist on the Moon. The low-quality pictures included in the book depict ruins of buildings, huge dome-like objects made of glass, stone towers, and castled hanging in the air.
“I have nothing to lose. I have quarreled with NASA and I got fired,” Ken Johnston said.
American space journalist James Oberg continued to attack Dr. Johnston despite he provided his credentials, certificates, and awards, including his doctoral certificate from the Reform Baptist Theological Seminary of Denver, granted in 1985.
Dr. Ken Johnston shared a document on his Facebook page where he stated that he was the substitute for the NASA Astronauts during the testing of the Lunar Module, better known as LTA-8 in Vacuum Chamber “B” at the Johnson Space Center. Source
From his ridiculous accusation that Dr. Johnston was not “in charge” of the photographs in his possession at NASA’s Lunar Receiving Laboratory, to attacking the doctorate itself, Oberg has been – inexplicably for a guy who says he wants to “move on to other things” – persistent. By his own account, Oberg had been burning up the phone lines trying to find something to discredit a man he had known for over 30 years while continuing to pretend he had never even met Dr. Johnston.
Otherwise, Dr. Johnston logged about 3,000 hours as a space pilot without ever going into space. As a test conductor, he helped train all of the Lunar Landing Mission astronauts to fly the Lunar Module.
When the first landing on the moon ended, about 30,000 employees were laid off because research and development were no longer needed, he said. After that, he became the Data and Photo Control Department manager at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory where he was responsible for controlling all of the data and photographic information generated from the Lunar missions.
Dr. Ken Johnston: Here I am wearing a Gemini suit developing the ingress/egress procedures for getting an astronaut (or me) into the giant Vacuum Chambers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Back then it was called MSC for the Manned Space Center.
Dr. Ken Johnston: This picture was taken by a remote camera inside the Lunar Module space craft, right after I had crawled in through the front door.
Dr. Ken Johnston: A picture of me in the Apollo space suit about 1967.
Dr. Ken Johnston: You should try this. I am wearing the Shuttle Suit assembly with 600 lbs of led strapped to my back and suspended from a two story hoist to test tile repair in ‘almost’ 0-G. If the chain had broken I would have been crushed by all the weight I had on.
Dr. Ken Johnston: My 3,000 Hour Certificate as a Lunar Module Space Craft Pilot.
Dr. Ken Johnston: Me flying 0-G in NASA’s KC-135 Vomit Comet.
Dr. Ken Johnston: The inside opening page of my LM Pilot Log Book.
Dr. Ken Johnston On Aliens
On his visit to Hindustan International School and University (India) in 2017, he shared a lot about the Apollo Mission and aliens with the New Indian Express. [Source]
– Do you believe that aliens exist?
– Yes. Don’t you? Your ancient history suggests that extraterrestrials came to our planet. Back in 1958, we unearthed proof that Eisenhower did meet with extraterrestrials. There is so much evidence not only to prove that there are aliens, but also that they have an impact on this planet.
– How did you develop an interest in aliens and space?
– Back in those days, I would watch series like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Flash Gordon. I wanted to go to space. My father was a pilot and I wanted to be one too.
– And then you went on to train Neil Armstrong.
– Not just Neil Armstrong. We were a team of four and our job was to test the lunar mission module in the vacuum chambers to ensure that the systems were safe to be taken to space. In the process, we trained Neil, Buzz and Michael to land it on the moon.
– What is your take on the ‘moon landing – faked’ controversy?
– (Laughs) We still have people who think that Earth is flat. Once a reporter told Buzz Aldrin that he didn’t go to the moon and he punched him. Even the latest satellite pictures show the same lunar footprints.
– How did you manage to get first-hand information about extraterrestrials?
– Once we were done with the first three missions, I was put in charge of photographing and documenting their exact location. One day, my boss ordered me to destroy these images. I reminded him that the government had paid for them and that they should be made public to which he replied, “No. Get rid of it. I don’t care what you think.”
– But why?
– Because there were elements in the pictures that were unexplainable. You can now download them for free from my website. You can see the lunar anomalies too. It looks like something has been smudged out. Way before Photoshop, they would paint things out. Once, when I walked into the photo lab, I saw a woman painting something out. She called herself a ‘stripper’ and said that she was paid for it. This really upset me as I was in charge of keeping a record of things. I guess that’s why they call me a whistleblower.
– How transparent is NASA?
– People like me, who’ve gotten into trouble with NASA, have a different expansion for the acronym — Never A Straight Answer.
The Orion Nebula Is Full of Impossible Enigmas That Come in Pairs
An infrared composite image of the inner Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Credit...NASA, ESA, CSA/Mark McCaughrean & Sam Pearson
The Orion Nebula Is Full of Impossible Enigmas That Come in Pairs
In new, high-resolution imagery of the star-forming region, scientists spotted worlds that defied explanation, naming them Jupiter Mass Binary Objects.
We have discovered a lot in this universe. Planets that orbit stars at right angles. Forbidden worlds that have cheated death. Space explosions that defy explanation.
Yet the cosmos continues to surprise us.
The latest spectacle, observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, is an agglomeration of nearly 150 free-floating objects amid the Orion Nebula, not far in mass from Jupiter. Dozens of these worlds are even orbiting each other. The scientists who discovered them have called them Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or JuMBOs, and the reason for their appearance is a complete mystery.
“There’s something wrong with either our understanding of planet formation, star formation — or both,” said Samuel Pearson, a scientist at the European Space Agency who worked on the observations that were shared on Monday, which have not yet been peer reviewed. “They shouldn’t exist.”
Scientists believe that five pairs of newly-discovered faint sources, above, are young, hot objects with just a few times the mass of Jupiter. They are called JuMBOs, short for Jupiter-Mass Binary Objects.Credit...NASA, ESA, CSA/Mark McCaughrean & Sam Pearson
The Orion Nebula is a region of star formation 1,350 light-years from Earth, located in the belt of the northern hemisphere constellation of Orion. It has long been studied by astronomers, but the scientists involved in the new Webb telescope study of the area, also released on Monday, say the new images are “by far” the best views yet.
“We have better than Hubble resolution but now in the infrared,” said Mark McCaughrean, a senior adviser for science and exploration at the ESA. He said the latest observations revealed reams of star formation and fledgling planetary systems in a manner never seen before.
“Shrapnel” racing away at more than 100 kilometers per second in the Orion Nebula. It resulted from an explosion scientists believe was a huge collision between two massive young stars that took place in the last thousand years.Credit...NASA, ESA, CSA/Mark McCaughrean & Sam Pearson
Stars in our universe form when giant clouds of dust and gas gradually coalesce under gravity. Eventually, regions of a cloud become so dense that they squeeze atoms of hydrogen together and kick-start nuclear fusion, forming the core of a star. In less dense areas, a more diminutive version of fusion — deuterium fusion — can occur in smaller objects. These are called brown dwarfs, or sometimes “failed stars.”
JuMBOs appear to be a smaller class of gaseous object. While brown dwarfs can grow to about 13 times the mass of Jupiter, the new objects can get as small as about half the planet’s mass, with temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. They are separated by about 200 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, orbiting each other on paths that take more than 20,000 years to complete.
James Webb Space Telescope's stunning mosaic of Orion Nebula uncovers rogue planets (photos)
James Webb Space Telescope's stunning mosaic of Orion Nebula uncovers rogue planets (photos)
Story by Keith Cooper
On the left, the image from Webb’s NIRCam short-wavelength channel shows the nebula, its stars, and many other objects in the near infrared. On the right, the image from Webb's NIRCam long-wavelength channel reveals the gas, dust and molecules in infrared, but at lower spatial resolution than in the short-wavelength image.
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured two stunning wide-field mosaics of the grandiose Orion Nebula, a large region of star formation that's one of the closest stellar nurseries to the solar system. It sits just 1,344 light-years away.
The huge mosaics, made of over 3,000 individual images, have also been added to the European Space Agency's ESASky app, which is an interactive all-sky map with a user-friendly interface that enables members of the public to view amazing images of the universe taken by the likes of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Orion Nebula is rife with budding stars located inside its billowing clouds of molecular gas. Some 2,800 young stars are known to exist inside the nebula, with many more stellar embryos cocooned within the area's dense veil of gas and dust. And the JWST’s Near Infrared Camera, known as NIRCam for short, is able to peer through much of this gas and dust — doing so has revealed proto-stellar disks, outflows from burgeoning stars, and even free-floating planets.
This second view from Webb's NIRCam long-wavelength channel reveals the gas, dust and molecules with unprecedented sensitivity in infrared, but at lower spatial resolution than in the short-wavelength image. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
On a winter's night, the nebula is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy object just below the three stars that make up the Belt of the Orion constellation. The nebula is illuminated by the Trapezium Cluster, which is a grouping of young stars so-named after the pattern of their four most prominent members. Each star in this quartet is massive, with between 15 and 30 times the mass of our Sun. Their short lives, spanning just a few millions of years rather than billions, will end in supernova explosions.
Up to a thousand fainter stars lurk in the Trapezium Cluster as well, some with evaporating circumstellar disks — these are disks of gas and dust that sprouted planets. Now, residual gas from such planet formation is being blown away by the newly awoken stars' stellar winds.
Not all of the planets born in the Trapezium have parent stars, however; the JWST has detected about 40 pairs of free-floating gas-giant planets,r Jupiter Mass Binary Objects (JuMBOs).
Free-floating planets have been found in the Orion Nebula before, but the JuMBOs are surprising because they seem to come as couples. The question astronomers are still unable to answer is, did the JuMBOs (and other free-floating planets) form directly out of the gas of the Orion Nebula as failed stars, or were they snatched from a planetary system, perhaps by the gravity of a close-passing star that wrenched them from their orbits?
The new mosaics are split between longer and shorter wavelengths. NIRCam's short wavelength channel, which covers an infrared waveband between 0.6 and 2.3 microns, is closest to the visible red end of the spectrum and achieves the greatest angular resolution the JWST can accomplish. The short-wavelength mosaic shows all the fine details of the nebula's star-forming activity.
Meanwhile, NIRCam’s longer wavelength channel, covering 2.4 to 5.0 microns, has recorded the network of dust and organic compound filaments, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, that abound in the Orion Nebula. PAHs are carbon-based molecules that make up a good proportion of dust found everywhere in the universe, and observations such as those of the Orion Nebula are teaching astronomers how these ubiquitous molecules form. Given how interstellar dust is recycled into the next generation of stars, PAH abundance has a role to play that the infrared vision of the JWST can reveal.
In particular, the JWST's greater spectral resolution can reveal PAHs on smaller spatial scales than ever before, helping to determine how they accumulate depending upon their molecular size, shape and electric charge.
The Orion Nebula is one of those rare objects that is accessible for inspection by everyone, from stargazers with the most basic observing kit to the most advanced space telescopes. As Orion rises this winter, what can you see in the greatest nebula in the sky?
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In the world of UFO research, the name of retired Army sergeant Clifford Stone is nearly a legend. Stone claimed to have been serving for 22 years as a Decorated Vietnam combat veteran. From 1968 to 1990, he was a part of the secret elite group that was assigned to recover the crashed UFO or E.T. parts, alien bodies, and artifacts. Besides, he said that intelligent life had been visiting our planet in highly advanced crafts that are capable of covering many light-years in less time which is beyond modern human knowledge.
Initially, he was assigned to the NBC Team (nuclear, biological, and chemical retrieval and abatement detail) at Fort McClellan Army post in Alabama and did some regular assignments until he was called for retrieval duties. He was reportedly out for a week when the army required him for UFO retrievals. What is more, his army service record was manipulated and excluded all his UFO recovery activities, showing him as a typist.
To support his claims, Stone cleverly disclosed the existence of classified projects such as Moon Dust and Blue Fly, that had been created to hide the UFOs’ debris by using Freedom of Information Acts.
Clifford Earl Stone January 2, 1949 ~ February 10, 2021 (age 72). Image credit: Ballard Funeral Home & Crematory
For example, in reviewing an Air Force Intelligence letter known as the Betz memo (1961), Sgt. Stone was able to reveal to the general public evidence that Project Moon Dust involved a “potential for employment of qualified field intelligence personnel on a quick reaction basis to recover or perform field exploitation of unidentified flying objects.” (Source)
Stone’s catalogs in UFOs are real documents he had been able to retrieve by FOIA even during his years of military service. Consequently, Stone’s pioneering documentary research into UFO crash retrievals is strong support for his testimony of actually having served on such teams during his military service.
Stone claimed in his old interviews that during his military service, he was monitored by an individual whose rank he was never told but whom he called “Colonel.” The colonel was present at UFO crash retrieval locations and led debriefing sessions of Stone. He noted that the colonel allowed him to read a three-inch thick notebook manual that contained information on 57 types of extraterrestrial biological entities (EBEs) known to the military.
He said that many species looked like humans, but their eyes were slightly larger and had black iris. According to him, extraterrestrial species contacted only through telepathy and could even read minds.
In 1973, Stone was involved in the retrieval of a crashed UFO. He hid a small metallic piece of UFO in his shoe and buried it near his property in New Mexico, Nevada, after his retirement in 1989.
He said: “Yes, I have it and wouldn’t dare to keep it in the house. I had it here to show some people where I kept it, a day longer than I should have and then somebody actually came here and tried to take it. That was some tense moments, I almost shot somebody that day.”
On May 9, 2001, over twenty military, intelligence, government, corporate and scientific witnesses came forward at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to establish the reality of UFOs or extraterrestrial vehicles, extraterrestrial life forms, and the resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. As part of the Disclosure Project, Sgt. Stone publicly revealed his story and was willing to testify before Congress if they asked him.
Below is the transcript of Sgt. Stone’s part in the Disclosure Program (Full Video link here):
“Morning ladies and gentlemen, my name is Clifford Stone, I was a sergeant first class United States Army. I had a secret clearance with nuclear surety. I could get the clearance that I needed to do whatever it was necessary for me to do at the time on special operations when I was called in on those.
What I’m referring to here is that I was involved in situations where we actually did recoveries of crashed saucers. There were bodies involved with some of these crashes and also some were alive. While we were doing all this, we were telling the American public there was nothing to it. We were telling the world there was nothing to it.
I’d like to go into detail on some of the cases about the nuts and bolts cases right here. But I will be available if you have any questions concerning my involvement in this, you can talk to Dr. Greer to arrange for me to get to talk to you. But the whole situation is, we have setback, we’ve told the American people that there’s no such thing as UFOs. I’ve been involved where we have recovered these objects, we know them to be of extraterrestrials.
In 1969, I had an event that happened to me while I was stationed at Fort Lee Virginia. We went to Indiantown Gap Pennsylvania that would be my first exposure to any time that we would be recovering an unidentified flying object. When we went there, we already had people that were in the facility with a backup team which was supposed to be NBC because there were supposed to be some nuclear materials that were on board this craft.
Later on, most people involved were told that there was nothing on board. It was nothing more than to crash at one of our aircraft. I know better because I was one of the people that approached it with a Geiger counter to get surface readings. I was the first person to go ahead and see that there were bodies on it that would be the first of approximately 12 events.
UFO crashes are not events that take place every day. They’re rare. I know we’re not alone in the universe. I know that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, it’s evidence that has been denied to the American people. I stand before you today and my Almighty God, and I tell you this: if the Congress calls me in and says: ‘Will you testify in detail what you know?’ I stand here today prepared and ready to do just that, governments must never lie to the people for no reason. Thank you.”
Further, she talked about Stone’s alien encounter in Vietnam, where he helped aliens to escape from military custody, as he cared for the rights of extraterrestrials who visit Earth.
Sgt. Clifford Stone claimed that he had been good at communicating with the ETs found at the crash sites or in an encounter with his military team. Once, his team fired a bullet at an ET, but they deflected it with some advanced technology. He also mentioned the teleport techniques of ETs when he found himself hundreds of feet from his initial position.
Stone also claimed that there are many alien groups that visit our solar system and Earth as well, but when humans learned how to detect their crafts, they limited their visits but did not stop.
He had no intention to benefit from his claims and evidence and no desire to gain publicity. His only desire was to let the US citizens know the truth about the UFOs and extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), that these are interplanetary spacecraft. Sgt. Clifford Stone, aged 72, passed away peacefully at his home on February 10, 2021.
On September 12, 2023, the Mexican government hosted a historic UAP hearing, organized by the Commission of Science and Technology of the Chamber of Deputies. The event included testimonies from various UAP experts and whistleblowers including former US Navy pilot Ryan Graves. However, the hearings drew criticism from many, as the primary focus was on the two alleged alien corpses presented by Jaime Maussan, a Mexican journalist and UFOlogist with decades of experience researching and reporting on UAPs.
The two tiny alien corpses were displayed in windowed boxes for all to see. The small mummified specimen was retrieved from Cusco, Peru in a layer of diatomaceous earth. They are believed to be one thousand years old. “These aren’t beings that were found after a UFO wreckage,” Maussan said, “They were found in diatom mines, and were later fossilized.” He later added: “Whether they are aliens or not, we don’t know, but they were intelligent, and they lived with us. They should rewrite history.… We are not alone in this vast universe, we should embrace this reality.”
Maussan claimed that DNA testing has been done on the mummies, and more than 30% of it is unknown. Besides, one corpse allegedly was discovered to have what appeared to be eggs or ovaries inside, while another had implants of rare metals, such as Osmium.
Skepticism
However, these claims were rightly called a hoax by many people — a public stunt by Maussan, who has been connected to previous claims of debunked alien discoveries, including five mummies discovered in Peru in 2017, later determined to be remains of human children.
Julieta Fierro, a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy in Mexico, expressed skepticism about some details related to alleged alien corpses and claims made by researchers. Fierro also questions the use of X-rays in determining if the calcified bodies are “non-human.” “Maussan has done many things. He says he has talked to the Virgin of Guadalupe,” she said. “He told me extraterrestrials do not talk to me like they talk to him because I don’t believe in them.”
Vox published an article in an attempt to debunk the Mexican alien mummy case. The article straightforwardly states that these alien remains were likely a hoax, constructed using a combination of pre-Columbian human remains and animal bones, all held together with plaster. It further discusses the broader issue of how such hoaxes contribute to a long history of erasing the achievements of pre-Columbian cultures and perpetuating racist myths. It mentions the practice of cranial reshaping in indigenous South American cultures and how it has been misinterpreted as evidence of alien influence.
Not a hoax
Maussan’s claims regarding these alleged mummified alien bodies are truly otherworldly, causing people to lose faith in this case. However, these specimens possess something genuinely intriguing that is drawing the attention of scientists for further study.
Scientists had previously said the bodies displayed in Mexico UAP hearings were generally assembled from human and animal bones. Now, a new study was conducted on two bodies and found each of them belonged to a single skeleton. According to Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, a director of the Scientific Institute for Health of the Mexican Navy, the studies showed that the alleged bodies belonged to a single skeleton and were not assembled.
Dr. Rubén García Linaje, an orthopedic surgeon mentioned that they were observing bones, and it appeared to be a skeleton. He pointed out that there were some unusual features, such as the circular shape of the ribs. He did not see a sternum, and the ribcage seemed to have limited expansion capabilities due to the shape of the ribs.
Dr. Armando González Ballesteros, who specializes in radiology and is an expert in interpreting CT scans also believed it was a skeleton, and it did not appear to be assembled or fabricated. He mentioned that the cranio-cervical junction looked congruent, suggesting it could belong to a biological entity. He commented on certain ribs that appeared to be embedded in the spinal canal, which seemed unusual and could have been due to trauma or other factors. He noted the glenoid, which was the socket where the upper limb articulated, seemed realistic, and the thoracic cage appeared small. However, they could not identify any remnants that would indicate the presence of lungs or other organs.
Dr. González further explained that the term “glenoid” referred to the cup where the upper limb articulated, providing the range of motion for the upper limb. He pointed out that the humeral and glenoid parts resembled those in humans and even noted some signs of wear, similar to arthrosis found in older patients.
Regarding whether this body had been assembled or manipulated, Dr. González noted that based on their preliminary observations, it did not seem to have been fabricated. He mentioned that if it had been manipulated post-mortem, there would likely be signs of cutting or modifications, which they had not seen so far.
The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that Jaime Maussan met with Mexican senators, including Eduardo Ramírez and Alejandro Armenta, who expressed optimism about supporting him in a reform that would officially recognize the existence of extraterrestrial life.
According to the newspaper, Maussan emphasized that the bodies were not fake and stressed the need for further investigation to determine their true nature. Maussan also mentioned that he and Senator Alejandro Armenta were exploring the possibility of amending the law to acknowledge non-human anomalous phenomena, specifically objects lacking characteristics of terrestrial technology. If successful, this would make Mexico the first country in the world to officially acknowledge such phenomena.
Maussan insisted that the bodies he presented were not fake and refuted the Peruvian government’s contrary claims. He believed that officially recognizing these bodies as non-human would position Mexico at the forefront of global discussions regarding the existence of extraterrestrial life. He also praised the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies for their openness and support in advancing these issues.
Moreover, this might be good news to Maussan as a NASA contractor is reportedly looking to study “alien bodies” he presented in the Mexoco UAP hearings. Dailymail writes that “NASA’s top UFO investigator Dr David Spergel was pressed about the purported alien corpses – and did not shut them down entirely.”
Dr Spergel told reporters: “We don’t know the nature of those samples. My recommendation is, if you have something strange, make samples available to the world scientific community, and we’ll see what’s there.”
In recent years, the discussion surrounding UAPs has gained new momentum due to groundbreaking revelations and insights from researchers like Leslie Kean. She says that there is a bundle of evidence that posits that the UFO phenomena are linked with an “Alternate dimension.” She believes UFOs could be connected to “the afterlife” and “near-death experiences” and could come from another “dimension.”
Leslie Kean, a respected journalist known for her extensive research on UFOs, has shed light on the multifaceted nature of these encounters in a podcast with Chris Letho. According to Leslie, there are two distinct aspects of the UFO phenomenon. The first one is the physical aspect, involving UFOs being detected on radar and approached by the military in a traditional, empirical manner. However, Kean also highlights the second, more enigmatic layer of UFO experiences.
Leslie told Lehto that she is increasingly sure there is a connection between the supernatural, near-death experiences, and unexplained sightings. She said, “Certainly, the more paranormal elements of the UFO phenomenon seem to have some relationship to what people describe in near-death experiences and other types of activities that take place in terms of just consciousness-related anomalous experiences that people have, which are very varied. There just is some kind of crossover air, and I don’t know what it is. I mean, there is the whole component of UFOs, which is just purely physical.”
Leslie speculates that there might be a connection between UFOs and some form of alternate dimension that exists beyond the boundaries of our five senses. This dimension, she suggests, may overlap with our own, providing a possible explanation for the mysterious and often inexplicable aspects of UFO phenomena.
The connection between the paranormal and UFOs takes us to Skinwalker Ranch. In 2007, James Lacatski, a scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) became interested in Skinwalker Ranch. His visit to the ranch led him to believe in the existence of paranormal phenomena, including UFOs, ghosts, and monsters. He shared his experience with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, leading to the creation of AAWSAP, a program aimed at studying aerospace technology trends.
In 2017, Leslie pitched a story to the New York Times about a Pentagon UFO program called “AATIP,” without mentioning AAWSAP or its paranormal investigations. This led to public interest in UFOs, but according to former AAWSAP contractor Colm Kelleher, the true story was largely hidden.
Despite the controversy and skepticism surrounding AAWSAP/AATIP, some former members continued to pursue their interest in UFOs and the paranormal. Some even briefed Congress on UFO-related matters, causing a stir among elected officials and the media. Jay Stratton, an AAWSAP/Skinwalker Ranch alum, provided UFO information to a Pentagon press office and headed a Pentagon UFO Task Force during the Trump administration. (Source)
However, it is suggested that the task force was more focused on unconventional UFOs than addressing other national security concerns. Some former DOD officials criticized Stratton’s leadership, alleging that he was preoccupied with paranormal stories related to Skinwalker Ranch.
Dailystar writes, “Leslie says it’s a shame that the entire area of the paranormal got a bad reputation because so many fraudsters got involved in it. And similarly, the number of hoax UFO sightings has led to scientists not taking reports as seriously as they should. She say more investigation of both phenomena is needed to understand exactly what’s going on. She added that there are major UFO reports such as the sighting in Stephenville, Texas, in 2008 that urgently need to be re-examined.”
Leslie says that at the moment, UFO research is being taken more seriously than it has been in decades, but scientific inquiry into life after death is being almost ignored. “I think people should know that the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness studies [BICS], which was founded by Robert Bigelow, is doing investigations into all of these questions,” she said.
The institute launched an essay competition for the best accounts of near-death experiences. “Robert Bigelow was offering huge cash prizes for the winners of this contest, so there was a lot of motivation and there were some amazing essays that were submitted which provided fascinating evidence,” she said.
The ranch gained notoriety in the 1990s when it was purchased by Mr. Bigelow, who funded a number of studies of the phenomena reported at the ranch. However, the specifics of what has been reported at the ranch and the credibility of those reports have been the subject of much debate and skepticism. Some people believe that the ranch is a hotspot for extraterrestrial activity, while others claim that the reports of strange occurrences at the ranch are the result of hoaxes or misidentifications of natural phenomena.
In an interview with award-winning journalist George Knapp, Mr. Bigelow shared his personal experiences and losses that prompted his interest in life after death, as well as UFOs. He talked about possible links between consciousness research and UFOs. He also talked about the risks of trying to establish communications with the unknown.
“That’s been mainly what I’ve been doing except for the skinwalker ranch thing for 20 years as the space world has been huge in my life to pursue the legitimate parochial kind of you know using fire engines rockets to get you there. We didn’t expect anything like this to happen and so there this is different. This is the holy grail and is different than the second holy grail. If the second one is ‘Beings’ (E.T.), then the first one: Is there any part of your consciousness that survives your bodily death? That’s a big deal. That’s a huge story. That’s gigantic.”
“Be a little careful about what you wish for. So on the face of it, communication sounds great and that by the way has been tried forever ever since the oracle of Delphi. I mean you can go back thousands of years and that’s been attempted. So It’s not now you know the last 100 years through electronics and using some kind of electrical apparatus to try to have some kind of communications. And you know communication can be at all different kinds of levels. There might be communication that just causes you an awareness.”
Mr. Bigelow’s investigative team, headed by Colm Kelleher, the institute’s scientific administrator and biochemist, documented their own paranormal events, according to a 2005 book “Hunt for the Skinwalker,” by Dr. Kelleher and Mr. Knapp.
Mr. Bigelow said he saw “interdimensional” forces at play through portals at certain paranormal hot spots like Skinwalker. But he also said he had frequently visited the ranch without experiencing the kind of chilling events others reported, as if some intelligence were selecting the people to act upon. “I slept like a log every single night,” he said. And no human was physically harmed, but he said he and other visitors often carried strange things home, like a sulfurous stink in a certain part of his house. His wife felt the presence of a faceless creature pressing down on her side of bed.
Brandon Fugal, the current owner of Skinwalker Ranch says one of the most unexpected intersections of UFO phenomena and religious belief comes from Mormon theology. Mormonism teaches that the universe is inhabited by countless worlds and dimensions, a concept referred to as “worlds without number.” This belief is rooted in the idea that there is a divine plan for existence, and the universe is teeming with diverse life forms. (Source)
Within the framework of Mormonism, the notion of multiple dimensions of reality separated by a spiritual fabric known as “the veil” is essential. In these dimensions, there are worlds populated by people who are aliens to Earth. Travel between these dimensions is considered possible through the power of God or, interestingly, through the power of Satan.
One notable figure who recognized the potential connection between Mormon beliefs and UFO phenomena was the late U.S. Senator Harry Reid. When asked about reconciling his Mormon faith with his interest in the paranormal, Reid emphasized that Mormonism’s teachings align with the idea of otherworldly existence. He believed that there is ample evidence to suggest that there are indeed other dimensions and realms of reality, paralleling the quest to understand UFOs and the unexplained phenomena at Skinwalker Ranch.
David Grusch, a popular UFO whistleblower claimed that in 1945, the United States intercepted a mysterious craft that was initially recovered by Mussolini’s forces in Italy back in 1933. As evidence of this extraordinary event, Grusch presented a handwritten Italian memo containing small drawings at the bottom. What made this revelation even more intriguing was the implication of the Vatican’s involvement, suggesting the religious institution was not only aware of the existence of NHI but also actively participated in suppressing this information. (Click here to read the full article)
Grusch made significant assertions regarding the NHI, stating that these entities might be extraterrestrial or interdimensional, or possibly both. Astronomer and UFO researcher Jacques Vallée states that UFOs and related events of a paranormal nature involve visitations from other “realities” or “dimensions.” The idea proposes that these alternate realities exist separately yet parallel to our own. In 1975 book “The Edge of Reality,” Vallée and Hynek considered the possibility of what they call “interlocking universes.”
Astronomers Watched a Massive Star Just… Disappear. Now JWST Might Have Some Answers
In 2009 a giant star 25 times more massive than the Sun simply…vanished. Okay, it wasn’t quite that simple. It underwent a period of brightening, increasing in luminosity to a million Suns, just as if it was ready to explode into a supernova. But then it faded rather than exploding. And when astronomers tried to see the star, using the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), Hubble, and the Spitzer space telescope, they couldn’t see anything.
The star, known as N6946-BH1, is now considered a failed supernova. The BH1 in its name is due to the fact that astronomers think the star collapsed to become a black hole rather than triggering a supernova. But that has been conjecture. All we’ve known for sure is that it brightened for a time then grew too dim for our telescopes to observe. But that has changed, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The new study, published on the arXiv, analyzes data gathered by JWST’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments. It shows a bright infrared source that appears to be a remnant dust shell surrounding the position of the original star. This would be consistent with material ejected from the star as it brightened rapidly. It could also be an infrared glow from material infalling into the black hole, though that seems less likely.
Images of BH1 show three sources, not one. Credit: Beasor, et al
Surprisingly, the team also found not one remnant object, but three. This makes the failed supernova model less likely. Earlier observations of N6946-BH1 were a blend of these three sources since the resolution wasn’t high enough to distinguish them. So a more likely model is that the 2009 brightening was caused by a stellar merger. What appeared to be a bright massive star was a star system that brightened as two stars merged, then faded.
While the data leans toward the merger model, it can’t rule out the failed supernova model. And that makes our understanding of supernovae and stellar mass black holes more complicated. We know from black hole mergers observed by LIGO and other gravitational wave observatories that stellar-mass black holes exist and are relatively common. So some massive stars do become black holes. But whether they become supernovae first is still in question. Regular supernovae can have enough remnant mass to become a black hole, but it’s hard to imagine how the largest stellar black holes could have formed after supernovae.
N6946-BH1 is in a galaxy 22 million light-years away, so the fact that JWST can distinguish multiple sources is impressive. It also gives astronomers hope that similar stars will be observed in time. With more data, we should be able to distinguish between stellar mergers and true failed supernovae, which will help us understand the last stages of stars as they move toward becoming stellar-mass black holes.
Glowing UAP Shoots Off Over Illinois Oct 2, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Video.
Glowing UAP Shoots Off Over Illinois Oct 2, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Video.
Date of sighting: Oct 2, 2023
Location of sighting: Illinois, USA (City unknown)
Source: MUFON
Guys watch this video and you will see something you will not believe, but it will stay with you all day long. This woman caught a UFO shooting away and over the rooftops of her neighborhood and it seems to have shaken her up a bit. But she's not the only one, I believe this UFO was so surprised by the woman being outside at this hour that it too was frightened and shot away. This shows me that the UFO was controlled by an AI so advanced it's hard to imagine, but also that AI fears some things, like getting caught. They must have a rule against allowing it.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
I was taking Live Photo of Venus and this white mass zoomed past my right side, across the street and went over a tall tree.
This photo is going to need a little enhancing, I added some contrast and focus to bring out the detail and I discovered a strange alien craft sitting in a white sand location. The spacecraft looks to be some kind of mining craft, there to gather particular minerals necessary. The The shape is like nothing I have ever seen, the front is cone with circle openings and the back is four long arms, the bottom two arms are linked together. 100% proof that alien tech is on Earths moon. All in the latest moon photo from NASA.
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Amazing Triangle UFO Sighting Over Minnesota – Filmed today just after midnight!
Amazing Triangle UFO Sighting Over Minnesota – Filmed today just after midnight!
On the night of October 3rd, 2023, at precisely 00:15, Minnesota residents witnessed what can only be described as an extraordinary sight in the night sky. Hovering above was a brilliantly illuminated, triangular-shaped UFO, its sheer magnitude defying common descriptions. The enigmatic structure was accentuated by 3 to 4 pronounced, intense lights that pierced through the dark sky.
Witnesses at the scene were baffled. One onlooker reported, “At first, I thought it was an airplane, but it was silent and far too bright.” This report raises the stakes in the ongoing debate about the nature of such unidentified objects. Given its characteristics, several speculations have surfaced.
Is it the TR-3B?
For the uninitiated, the TR-3B is an alleged secret reconnaissance aircraft within the black projects portfolio, believed to be developed by the U.S. military. It’s said to boast a triangular design, mirroring the object spotted in Minnesota. While there is no concrete evidence to affirm the existence of the TR-3B, sightings similar to this recent one have fueled speculation about its veracity.
Military or Alien Origin?
Military Stealth Craft: Some believe that the Minnesota UFO is a next-generation military stealth craft, possibly the TR-3B or another classified aircraft. Given the silent nature of its flight, the theory seems plausible.
Extraterrestrial Craft: On the other hand, the enormity of the object, its luminance, and the inexplicable technology behind it make some wonder if we are looking at an advanced extraterrestrial craft.
Other Theories: With our skies becoming increasingly populated by private companies testing innovative technologies, could this be a new, undisclosed commercial venture?
No theory can be definitively proven or dismissed at this time. One thing is clear though – the Minnesota sighting is one of the most compelling UFO sightings in recent history. As we await the video evidence, the world watches with bated breath, yearning for answers.
For those interested in this event, a riveting video capturing the sighting is available in the player below!
Space.com spoke with author Laura Krantz about her new book "Is There Anybody Out There?"
Cover art for "Is There Anybody Out There?" by Laura Krantz.
(Image credit: Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Is there anybody out there in space?
It's a question we've all wondered. Given all of the advances in space telescopes, robotic missions to other planets and even the wild headlines related to UFOs and possible extraterrestrial visitation these days, the question can seem more pressing than ever. And for children, the question can feel frightening, fascinating and everything in between, given some of the sensationalism that surrounds the subject.
To help sort out fact from fiction, author and podcast host Laura Krantz has written "Is There Anybody Out There?: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, from Amoebas to Aliens," a new book from Abrams Books for Young Readers coming out on Oct. 3, 2023. The book takes a rational look at the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the flyby of interstellar object 'Oumuamua and even well-known examples of UFO lore like the July 1947 crash of either a flying saucer or a secret U.S. military balloon outside Roswell, New Mexico,
Space.com spoke with Krantz to learn about the book, her take on the UFO buzz these days and even some tips on how to talk to kids about aliens.
Is There Anybody Out There? (A Wild Thing Book): The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, from Amoebas to Aliens: $19.99 at Amazon
Author Laura Krantz, host of the "Wild Thing" podcast series, takes a deep dive into the search for extraterrestrial life and the UFO phenomenon in this beautifully illustrated and thoroughly researched book for young readers.
Is There Anybody Out There? (A Wild Thing Book): The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, from Amoebas to Aliens: $19.99 at Amazon
Author Laura Krantz, host of the "Wild Thing" podcast series, takes a deep dive into the search for extraterrestrial life and the UFO phenomenon in this beautifully illustrated and thoroughly researched book for young readers.
Space.com:First off, I have to say that this is a beautifully illustrated book.
Laura Krantz: I just love it. I love the colors. I love this sort of like blocky illustration style. I just I think it turned out really, really well. [Illustrator Rafael Nobre] has a good sense of humor, too. Like he's able to incorporate some of the funnier stuff into like, great photos. Like there's the scene of an alien trying to cook life, I just I love that one.
Illustration from "Is There Anybody Out There?" (Image credit: Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Space.com: What was the inspiration for the book?
Krantz: The book is really a spin-off of the Wild Thing podcast. When I started doing the podcast, I wasn't really thinking about kids at all, I was thinking about adults. And I started getting letters from parents who were listening with their kids, teachers who were using elements of the podcast in their classroom to talk about like, evolution, DNA evidence and the scientific method. And I started talking to my agent, and she suggested doing a middle-grade nonfiction book, because that is really an area where teachers love this kind of information and resources for kids.
But it's interesting to write this kind of stuff. Because when you're doing it for an adult audience, you assume they know what DNA is, they know what evolution is. They know what all these sort of terms mean, at least sort of obliquely. But when you're writing for kids, you're like 'Crap, I have to understand what this actually is, and be able to explain it in plain language!' So it was like getting a crash course in science education.
Illustration from "Is There Anybody Out There?" (Image credit: Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Space.com: Why do you think it's important for young people to read this book?
Krantz: I think one of the most important things about it is that [the question of alien life] kind of sits firmly in the gray area. There's no answer to the question "Is there anybody out there?" Just like there's no answer to the Bigfoot question. It's like, this is an area to explore. This is an area to think about things scientifically and wonder and hypothesize. And guess what? We don't have a solid answer.
And in some ways, it's like teaching kids to be comfortable with the idea that there's no answer, because I think we are in a society now where things tend to be pretty black and white, good or bad, right or wrong, one side or the other side. And with this, you just kind of have to be like, 'There might be aliens out there; I can see both sides of this argument.' I can see all different ways this might go. And I still don't know for sure. And I think that that's valuable.
And then I think the other thing, too, is it's helpful to help. It's helpful for kids to see how science works, that science has such a long timeline, that the work that was done in the '50s and '60s and '70s on space science, many of those scientists aren't around or won't be around to see where the sort of seeds that they planted end up. And I think that that's sort of important for kids to understand — that science is constantly building on itself and revising and resubmitting, and trying to figure it out as best as it can using the evidence at the time. I think those are two really valuable things.
And then, also, space is cool.
Illustration from "Is There Anybody Out There?" (Image credit: Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Space.com: I read in your introduction like you were not familiar with the UFO topic before getting into this, right?
Krantz: What really caught my attention was, firstly, the 'Oumuamua story, which I just thought was fascinating. I mean, we guessed that there were things coming in from outside our solar system. But we hadn't really been able to say that for sure. And this is the first moment we were like, 'This thing is from very far away.' And I think that that's just kind of a cool thing to think about — like, this moment in time, we have this realization of just how big the universe is, and what kinds of things are traveling through it.
And also seeing photos coming out of the James Webb Space Telescope. And granted this that was after this project was mostly finished. But it's hard not to look at those photos and just have your jaw drop with, you know, how amazingly beautiful and yet, kind of terrifyingly awesome they are. A lot of those photos make you feel very small and insignificant, which is, I guess, kind of a good reminder of our place. And in the grand scheme of things.
Space.com: What do you make of the current UFO buzz in the U.S. government?
Krantz: I saw how, like, crazy, everybody went over the AATIP program [an alleged U.S. Department of Defense UFO study program]. And when the announcement came out about that, like, people lost their marbles; the headlines on that were just constant. And so that was the moment where I was like, 'There's something to be done here on this' and sort of take my glancing interest in it and pull in these threads where it's obvious that this is a question that people think about a lot, even if it's not something we're talking about day to day.
I think that it's a perfect opportunity to apply some rational thought. So, for instance, the whistleblower who testified in front of Congress, he said that people told him that they had recovered bodies, but he hadn't seen them for himself. So that to me is the first red flag. It's like, if you're the whistleblower, you need to have been seeing some of the stuff, you can't just use hearsay. Generally, that's not admissible in court, from what I understand about legal proceedings. So I think that should be a rational thing. And in science, too, and in scientific inquiry.
I don't doubt that there's some weird stuff up in the sky, and that pilots are seeing things. I do think there needs to be a recording process for that, that does not have a stigma attached to it.
Illustration from "Is There Anybody Out There?" (Image credit: Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Space.com: What do you hope kids take away from the book?
Krantz: That wonder is a huge asset. I think it's so valuable. And I think we kind of beat the wonder out of people as they become grownups. It's like, there's these boxes, you have to check in these things you have to do and the wonder kind of slips by the wayside. But wonder is so important, because it gets you figuring out how your world works. And it gets you thinking about things from different perspectives. And scientifically, like the first step of the scientific method is, it's about wonder. Ask a question; what are you wondering? And I think that that is a really valuable thing for kids.
And I also think it's a valuable thing for adults to wonder about the world around you, to wonder about what life is like for other people to just sort of have this curiosity and questions and continuing to maybe question your own thoughts on things and beliefs. And, you know, it extends beyond science. I think wonder is a skill that we sometimes lose as we get older.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
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NASA’s UAP Study Team Releases Its Final Report
NASA’s UAP Study Team Releases Its Final Report
On September 14, 2023, the NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena independent study team published its final report containing a series of recommendations for how the agency could help to move our understanding of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) forward.
The NASA UAP independent study team recommends that NASA plays a prominent role in the whole-of-government effort to understand UAP by leveraging its extensive expertise to contribute to a comprehensive, evidence-based approach that is rooted in the scientific method. The team members specifically recommend that NASA utilize its existing and planned Earth-observing assets to probe the local environmental conditions associated with UAP that are initially detected by other means. In so doing, NASA can directly probe whether certain environmental factors are coincident with known UAP. They further recommend that NASA explore enhancing collaborations with the U.S. commercial remote-sensing industry, which offer powerful constellations of high-resolution Earth-observing satellites. Image credit: NASA.
UAP, popularly known as UFOs, are one of our planet’s greatest mysteries.
Observations of objects in our skies that cannot be identified as balloons, aircraft, or natural known phenomena have been spotted worldwide, yet there are limited high-quality observations.
The nature of science is to explore the unknown, and data are the language scientists use to discover our Universe’s secrets.
Despite numerous accounts and visuals, the absence of consistent, detailed, and curated observations means, scientists do not presently have the body of data needed to make definitive, scientific conclusions about UAP.
In 2022, NASA commissioned the independent study to better understand how the agency can contribute to ongoing government efforts to further the study observations of UAP.
The independent study team, set up outside of NASA, used unclassified data from civilian government entities, commercial data, and data from other sources to inform their findings and recommendations in the report.
There are currently a limited number of high-quality observations of UAP, which currently make it impossible to draw firm scientific conclusions about their nature.
The team’s report contains the findings and recommendations which aim to inform NASA on what possible data is available to be collected and how the agency can help shed light on the origin and nature of future UAP.
While NASA still is evaluating the report and assessing the independent study team’s findings and recommendations, the agency is committed to contributing to the federal government’s unified UAP effort by appointing Mark McInerney director of UAP research.
“At NASA, it’s in our DNA to explore — and to ask why things are the way they are. I want to thank the Independent Study Team for providing insight on how NASA can better study and analyze UAP in the future,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“NASA’s new Director of UAP Research will develop and oversee the implementation of NASA’s scientific vision for UAP research, including using NASA’s expertise to work with other agencies to analyze UAP and applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to search the skies for anomalies.”
“NASA will do this work transparently for the benefit of humanity.”
The overall recommendation for NASA from the new report is that the agency can play a prominent role in the government’s effort to understand UAP by furthering the study and data collection of UAP.
The external study recommends that NASA use its open-source resources, extensive technological expertise, data analysis techniques, federal and commercial partnerships, and Earth-observing assets to curate a better and robust dataset for understanding future UAP.
NASA also will advance citizen reporting by engaging with the public and commercial pilots to build a broader, more reliable UAP dataset to use to identify future UAP incidents as well as destigmatize the study of UAP.
“Using unclassified data was essential for our team’s fact-finding, open-communication collaboration, and for upholding scientific rigor to produce this report for NASA,” said David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation and chair of the UAP independent study team.
“The team wrote the report in conjunction with NASA’s pillars of transparency, openness and scientific integrity to help the agency shed light on the nature of future UAP incidents.”
“We found that NASA can help the whole-of-government UAP effort through systematic data calibration, multiple measurements and ensuring thorough sensor metadata to create a data set that is both reliable and extensive for future UAP study.”
“Data are the critical lifeblood needed to advance scientific exploration, and we thank the independent study team members for lending NASA their expertise towards identifying what available data is possible to understand the nature and origin of future UAP,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
“The director of UAP Research is a pivotal addition to NASA’s team and will provide leadership, guidance and operational coordination for the agency and the federal government to use as a pipeline to help identify the seemingly unidentifiable.”
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Novel AI Technique Reveals Sample’s Biological or Non-Biological Origin with 90% Accuracy
Novel AI Technique Reveals Sample’s Biological or Non-Biological Origin with 90% Accuracy
The search for definitive biosignatures — unambiguous markers of past or present life — is a central goal of paleobiology and astrobiology. A team of researchers led by the Carnegie Institution for Science has developed a robust method that combines pyrolysis gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) measurements of a wide variety of terrestrial and extraterrestrial carbonaceous materials with machine-learning-based classification to achieve 90% accuracy in the differentiation between samples of abiotic origins vs. biotic specimens, including highly-degraded, ancient, biologically-derived samples.
An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414 system.
Image credit: Sci.News.
Since the early 1950’s scientists have known that given the right conditions, mixing simple chemicals can form some of the more complex molecules required for life, such as amino acids.
Since then, many more of the components necessary for life, such as the nucleotides needed to make DNA, have been detected in space.
But how do we know if these are of biological origin, or if they are made by another abiotic process over time. Without knowing that, we don’t know if we have detected life.
“We are asking a fundamental question: Is there something fundamentally different about the chemistry of life compared to the chemistry of the inanimate world?” said Carnegie Institution for Science’s Professor Robert Hazen.
“Are there ‘chemical rules of life’ that influence the diversity and distribution of biomolecules?”
“Can we deduce those rules and use them to guide our efforts to model life’s origins or to detect subtle signs of life on other worlds? We found that there is.”
“From an evolutionary point of view, life is not an easy thing to sustain, and so there are certain pathways which work and certain which don’t.”
“Our analysis does not rely on absolute identification of a compound but determines biological/non-biological origins by looking at the compound in relation to the sample context.”
Professor Hazen and colleagues employed pyrolysis GC-MS methods to analyze 134 varied carbon-rich samples from living cells, age-degraded samples, geologically processed fossil fuels, carbon-rich meteorites, and laboratory-synthesized organic compounds and mixtures.
“59 of these were of biological origin (biotic), such as a grain of rice, a human hair, crude oil, etc,” they said.
“75 were of non-biological origin (abiotic), such as lab-synthesised compounds like amino acids, or samples from carbon-rich meteorites.”
“The samples were first heated in an oxygen-free environment, which causes the samples to break down (a process known as pyrolysis).”
The treated samples were then analysed in a GC-MS, an analytical device which separates the mixture into its component parts, and then identifies them.
Using a suite of machine-learning methods, three-dimensional (time/intensity/mass) data from each abiotic or biotic sample were employed as training or testing subsets, which resulted in a model that can predict the abiotic or biotic nature of the sample with greater than 90% accuracy.
“From a chemical standpoint, the differences between biotic and abiotic samples relate to things like water solubility, molecular weights, volatility and so on,” said Carnegie Institution for Science’s Dr. Jim Cleaves.
“The simple way I would think about this is that a cell has a membrane and an interior, called the cytosol; the membrane is pretty water-insoluble, while the cell’s content is pretty water-soluble.”
“That arrangement keeps the membrane assembled as it tries to minimize its components’ contacts with water and also keeps the ‘inside components’ from leaking across the membrane.”
“The inside components can also stay dissolved in water despite being extremely large molecules like chromosomes and proteins.”
“So, if one breaks a living cell or tissue into its components, one gets a mix of very water-soluble molecules and very water-insoluble molecules spread across a spectrum. Things like petroleum and coal have lost most of the water-soluble material over their long histories.”
“Abiological samples can have unique distributions across this spectrum relative to each other, but they are also distinct from the biological distributions.”
The new technique may soon resolve a number of scientific mysteries on Earth, including the origin of 3.5 billion-year-old black sediments from Western Australia — hotly debated rocks that some researchers contend hold Earth’s oldest fossil microbes, while others claim they are devoid of life signs.
Other samples from ancient rocks in Northern Canada, South Africa, and China evoke similar debates.
“We’re applying our methods right now to address these long-standing questions about the biogenicity of the organic material in these rocks,” Professor Hazen said.
And new ideas have poured forth about the potential contributions of this new approach in other fields such as biology, paleontology and archaeology.
“If AI can easily distinguish biotic from abiotic, as well as modern from ancient life, then what other insights might we gain? For example, could we tease out whether an ancient fossil cell had a nucleus, or was photosynthetic?” Professor Hazen said.
“Could it analyze charred remains and discriminate different kinds of wood from an archeological site? It’s as if we are just dipping our toes in the water of a vast ocean of possibilities.”
The team’s work appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
H. James Cleaves II et al. 2023. A robust, agnostic molecular biosignature based on machine learning. PNAS 120 (41): e2307149120; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2307149120
At least one B-type star — the second most massive type — lurks within a star-forming region called G35.2-0.7N, and a powerful protostellar jet that it is launching towards us is the source of the spectacular light show.
This Hubble image shows G35.2-0.7N, a star-forming region some 7,200 light-years away in the constellation of Aquila.
Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Fedriani / J. Tan.
G35.2-0.7N resides approximately 7,200 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Aquila.
The color image of G35.2-0.7N was made from separate exposures taken in the infrared region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
“This beautiful picture of G35.2-0.7N was assembled using data that were collected primarily for very specific research purposes,” Hubble astronomers said.
“The research conducted using these data included measuring the extent of ionization in the jets being blasted out of the protostar buried within this region.”
“Ionization is a process by which atoms or molecules become charged, often because they are in such a high-energy environment that they have lost some of their electrons,” they explained.
“Protostellar jets are enormous collimated beams of matter that are ejected from protostars.”
“Collimated simply means that the matter is ejected in parallel (column-like) streams, which in turn means that the jets do not spread out much, but extend out very far in relatively straight lines.”
“The visual result of the ejected matter is the glorious display visible in the image,” the astronomers said.
“Much of the nebula is dark, with light being blocked from Hubble’s view by the rich dust clouds that produce these massive stars.”
“Near the very center can be seen the location of the star and the jet of material it is emitting.”
“The small, bright orange streak there is a cavity in the dust carved out by the ferocity of the jet as it streams towards us.”
“By breaking through its dusty cocoon, the jet reveals light from the protostar, but there is still so much dust that the light is ‘reddened’ to a fiery orange.”
“The massive protostar lies at the very lower-left tip of this cavity.”
India's Moon Mission FINALLY Found What NASA Was Hiding....
Chandrian three marks India's triumphant third lunar voyage, boldly venturing towards the mysterious South Pole of the Moon. This audacious mission is a vital chapter in India's awe-inspiring space odyssey, which embarked on its amusing journey back in nineteen sixty-two with the launch of a humble rocket from the pleasant fishing village of Thumba. Since those modest beginnings, India has extended its divine wings, sending an impressive convoy of satellites, rockets, and scientific probes into the universe.
James Webb Discovers a Galaxy That Could Break Physics!
The vast universe holds many secrets, and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is on track to uncover some of them. Described as a time machine, the Webb telescope itself doesn’t travel through time directly, but what it does is much more profound than just giving us clues about the past. The supreme observatory can voyage back to “the edge of time” not by actually going anywhere, but by sending us direct images of some of the earliest moments of the Universe – showing us what it would have looked like if we had actually been there, more than 13 billion years ago, watching the first galaxies form.
Black Triangular Shaped UFO Sighted Over Karlsruhe in Germany On October 1, 2023.
The witness stated the following: "Today October 1st 7PM CET my friend and me spotted a weird unknown object flying though the sky of Karlsruhe, Germany. The video shows a paper glider-like object (at least seems like it). At some point it rotates around which make me really wonder what it can be. And I am not even joking, after I made that video my phone restart and after it restarted I got a camera error which I never had before. I guess it was because I really stretched out the zoom feature.."
The Extraordinary Origins of Earth
Welcome to our channel, where today we embark on a captivating journey into the past, exploring "The Extraordinary Origins of Earth." Prepare to be amazed as we delve into the incredible cosmic story of our beloved planet.
The Dark Enigma of UFO Whistleblowers
Today we delve deeper into the exciting yet dark enigma that is David Grusch. Long hailed as a UFO whistleblower, Grusch's tale takes a sinister turn as we discuss uncovered hidden police documents, revealing a troubled man battling his own demons. But how does this affect the credibility of his extraordinary claims? And the bigger question.. Who can we really trust when the truth is as elusive as the unidentified flying objects themselves? Make up your own mind as we venture into the abyss of secrets, UFOs , and cosmic uncertainties.
MORE UFO WHISTLEBLOWERS Confirm David Grusch’s Testimony: Michael Shellenberger
Investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger weighs in on the intelligence community's ongoing failure to publicly disclose UFO/UAP-related information. Originally aired September 26, 2023;
7 Days With The Man Who Confirmed ALIENS Exist (under oath)
Thank you for watching and being here, and I hope we manage to spark your curiosity about the phenomenon. And deepen your empathy towards the humans who experienced it. This has been one of the greatest journeys of seeking discomfort I have ever embarked on. I hope you take some time to keep exploring, as I did three years ago.
The largest telescope that will ever be built*
The Extremely Large Telescope, in Paranal, Chile, is probably going to be the largest optical telescope that will ever be constructed. I was invited out there by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council and the European Southern Observatory, and I wasn't going to turn down a chance like that.
Real Historical Accounts Of Giants
History is filled with stories of giants, from Goliath in the Bible to the giants of Patagonia, which Magellan and other explorers reported finding in the 1500s. Most of these accounts are nothing more than myths and legends, but there have been verified cases of human gigantism that blur the line between fact and fantasy. Let’s take a look at giants throughout history.
What is this dark tower? It seems to have had something hit or push down from the top causing many pieces to fall down around its base in disarray. Its similarities to the Area 51 black tower are incredible. Is it possible that Israel was creating a landing base location for aliens in the future? Whats your thoughts of this?
New England’s UFO Enigma Unveiled! From Historical Sightings to Modern Day Mysteries – Dive In Now! 🌌 #UFOSightings
New England’s UFO Enigma Unveiled! From Historical Sightings to Modern Day Mysteries – Dive In Now! 🌌 #UFOSightings
UFO sightings have been a global phenomenon for decades, sparking intrigue, debates, and countless theories. New England, in particular, has turned into a hotspot for such unexplained aerial phenomena. As the frequency of sightings increases, researchers scramble to find explanations, diving deep into the history of this region to uncover patterns and truths.
A Rising Trend in New England
Recent investigations have brought forward a startling trend: UFO sightings in New England have skyrocketed by almost 300% in the last decade alone. Fairfield, Connecticut, has particularly caught the eye of enthusiasts with its mysterious sightings. Just a stone’s throw away from Auburn, Massachusetts, a video has surfaced showcasing a fast-moving object flying past a house in broad daylight.
The Quest for Clarity
Ben, an avid UFO researcher, took it upon himself to scrutinize this peculiar video. Aiming to deconstruct its mysteries, he collaborated with renowned video analyst Marc D’Antonio. Their combined expertise pointed to multiple anomalies in the video. Rather than just a single UFO, the video might have captured a swarm of them in the background. Notably, these UFOs bore a shade of yellow, consistent with other reported sightings in the region.
A Glimpse into the Past
Digging into the past uncovers an even deeper mystery. New England’s history with UFOs goes way back, with sightings being reported as early as the 1950s. One particular case stands out: Frank Woolley, a lieutenant colonel, reported witnessing a white object hovering in the sky above him in the Hartford area. Woolley’s sighting was just the beginning of what would become a series of unexplained events in the region.
Could Magnetic Anomalies Be a Clue?
Interestingly, local experts believe that New England’s magnetic anomalies might play a role. Recent NASA findings suggest the existence of magnetic bubbles in our solar system, which some speculate could serve as beacons for extraterrestrial beings. Could these UFOs be following a cosmic map leading them straight to Earth?
The Evolution of UFO Technology
Researchers like Brian Bowden, a historian with over 40 years of experience in UFO and paranormal research, suggest that while the nature of the beings might not have changed, their crafts have evolved over time. The earlier reports from the ’50s and ’60s predominantly featured the iconic flying saucer. However, recent sightings point more towards luminous orbs or intelligently controlled lights.
Video:
The rise in UFO sightings, particularly in New England, presents a plethora of questions waiting to be answered. As technology advances and more evidence surfaces, one can only hope that the enigma surrounding these events will soon be unveiled.
If Robert O. Dean’s claims aboutUFOs and extraterrestrials are true then they have the potential to turn the world upside down. His credibility cannot be questioned as he worked at NATO headquarter from 1963 to 1967. He claimed to have come across the 1964 report called “An Assessment,” the NATO military study that acknowledged and analyzed the implications of the alien presence on Earth.
Robert “Bob” Dean joined the US Army on April 5, 1960, he also served in combat service in Korea and later in Vietnam. He retired from the army on October 31, 1976, as a Command Sergeant Major.
Mr. Dean was a very controversial figure for his claims about seeing a secret document labeled “UFO Assessment: An Evaluation of a Possible Threat.” According to him, it contained detailed information on UFO sightings, ET encounters, and alien autopsies. He stated that the research was approved by NATO.
After his 28-year career in the US military, he finally decided to reveal the secret information on July 5 at the Roswell 50th anniversary celebration. He first arrived at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in 1963, where he was assigned to the Operations Division. In two years, he was promoted to E8 Master Sergeant and became Chief Security NCO for the Language Services Branch. Then, he controlled and inventoried as well as had access to all the classified materials in the branch.
When Mr. Dean worked at the Language Services Branch, he had a Cosmic level clearance. According to him, during the 1950s and early 1960s, UFOs were flying over Europe, which almost precipitated World War III.
He said: “My first assignment there was with the operations division and I learned of a study in progress a high classification cosmic top-secret study that had been initiated in 1961 to determine whether there was a threat to allied military forces in Europe a study was called for because during the early 1960s even in the late 1950s there were incidents involving Large numbers of large metallic, circular objects were flying all over Europe.
These things would fly in formations out of the east toward the west over Europe, over the southern coast of England, then they would turn north over the channel and then would disappear off of NATO radars off the Norwegian Sea.”
He further claimed that NATO had launched a three-year program to investigate the UFOs and find out if they posed a military threat. He received this information from a 1964 NATO report titled “AN ASSESSMENT” (An Evaluation of a Possible Military Threat to Allied Forces in Europe). He said the report was so sensitive that only 15 copies of it were printed. Besides, the report contained in-depth studies of atmospheric physicists, astronomers, astrophysicists, sociologists, historians, and theologians.
Mr. Dean said: “There had been case after case of UFO landings, face-to-face confrontations, invitations to come aboard their ships. It had been going on for some years. It has been going on for centuries.” According to him, the report stated that “there apparently was not a military threat because if…[ETs] were hostile or malevolent, the game would have been up a long time ago.” This conclusion sounds similar to the UFO emails sent to John Podesta by Edgar Mitchell, who also called E.T. “nonviolent.”
He further reported that the NATO officials were disturbed by knowing that out of four extraterrestrial types, one looked exactly like humans, walking along the NATO corridors without being identified.
In an interview with Australian ufologist Michael E. Salla, Mr. Dean explained how he had got access to those top-secret documents. He said: “My first exposure to The Assessment was when an Air Force, full Colonel, who was on duty that night, as the SHOC controller, pulled it out of the vault and threw it on my desk and said ‘Read this. This’ll wake you up!'”
American journalist Phil Klass wrote that Mr. Dean learned from the NATO report that in late 1963 or 1964, a 100-feet diameter UFO crashed in Germany. British Army engineer battalion recovered the UFO debris along with 12 ET bodies. Mr. Dean was shocked to know that apart from the extraterrestrials’ visit from different star systems, the military and scientists had been dealing with more advanced species that were apparently multi-dimensional.
In his research, Mr. Dean cited several ancient arts where he was intrigued by the continued projection of lenticular clouds in the paintings. He suspected that those clouds were flying saucers.
During the Barcelona Exopolitics Summit, on July 25, 2009, Mr. Dean released a set of amazing images. He also explained the Apollo missions and what the astronauts encountered unlike anyone before. He released to the public a set of fascinating images supposedly captured by the astronauts of the Apollo 12 mission, including an image showing some mysterious spacecraft several hundred feet in diameter.
In his 41 years of federal service to the United States, Mr. Dean heard a lot of bizarre things, but the thing that the human race is a hybrid race stunned him. He said: “I’ve learned that we are not merely alone; we have never been alone. We have had an intimate interrelationship with advanced extraterrestrial intelligence from the beginning of our history. And let me tell you that that intimate interrelationship is still going on.”
He continued: “This one race, in particular, apparently reengineered us as a species about 200,000 years ago. What we are here today is what we call homo sapien sapiens — you’re an engineered creature. Your genetics have been manipulated. You’re not the same as what you were and you are not the same as to what your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be in the next hundred years.” (Click here to read the full story)
Mr. Dean is very well known for his great contribution to the field of UFOlogy and received three-lifetime achievement awards. Still, skeptics found his claims obscured.
SHAPE writes: “We have analyzed these claims in detail, including a photograph alleged to be of the front cover of the assessment, and have concluded that the cover page is a forgery and that SHAPE prepared no report on UFOs during the 1960s. While some will no doubt dismiss this conclusion as part of some sort of long-standing cover-up of the existence of UFOs, we would like to point out that in the 1960s – like today – SHAPE was confronted by much more pressing threats than UFOS and did not have the time and resources to spend 2½ years studying them, as Sergeant Major Dean alleges. We are not saying that UFOs do or do not exist but simply that SHAPE did not prepare a report on them.”
Anyway, most opinions shared on the Internet are in favor of Mr. Dean, and the majority believes that he was legit. He died on October 11, 2018, at the age of 89 in Tucson, Arizona.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
01-10-2023
Americans think they'd be safer under Trump than Biden if ALIENS ATTACK: Daily Mail UFO poll shows 40% think aliens have visited in last 50 years - and 70% think Joe is hiding something
Americans think they'd be safer under Trump than Biden if ALIENS ATTACK: Daily Mail UFO poll shows 40% think aliens have visited in last 50 years - and 70% think Joe is hiding something
DailyMail.com polled 1,000 US voters about their feelings about UFOs
More than 40% said the Biden Administration is withholding information
More than four in 10 respondents said they would feel safer if Donald Trump were President of the US if aliens were to invade Earth, while a third said they would feel safer under Joe Biden. The rest were unsure.
DailyMail.com asked 1,000 US voters about UFOs. More than 40 percent believe the Biden administration is withholding information about aliens
DailyMail.com also asked respondents if aliens attacked Earth, who do they think we would be safer under, Joe Biden or Donald Trump?
J.L Partners conducted the poll from September 15 through 20, asking questions to Americans by phone, text and in its dedicated app.
Participants ranged in age from 18 to over 65. Scarlett Maguire, Director at JLP, said: 'Biden's approval rating isn't the only thing that has fallen to Earth recently.
'Only four in 10 Americans believe recent reports of UFOs are human in origin, and just one in four rule out extra-terrestrials having visited in the last 50 years.
'And, perhaps unsurprisingly, for a demographic that embraces astrology, 18-29-year-old women are one of the groups most likely to think we have already had a close encounter of the third kind.'
'As with crime and the economy, the public's trust in the Biden administration's handling of UFOs doesn't survive first contact.
'Even Democrats don't believe they have been told everything about UFOs. And when Mars attacks, there is only one man in town to save the day: more Americans - including independents - would choose Trump over Biden to defend them.'
When asked about the recent strange sightings by US Navy pilots, a total of 27 percent said they were 'probably alien in origin.'
A 41 percent majority said the strange flying objects were of human origin, and 32 percent said they did not know.
However, males, Black voters, non-graduates and Republicans were among the highest groups to believe the sightings were extraterrestrial in origin.
The poll revealed that more Americans than not believe the Biden Administration is withholding information about UFOs.
More than 66 percent of Republicans answered 'definitely', compared to just 22 percent of Democrats.
Another question revealed that more Americans than not believe aliens have visited Earth in the last 50 years
DailyMail.com also asked respondents if aliens attacked Earth, who do they think we would be safer under, Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
Forty-three percent voted for Trump, 32 percent said Biden and 25 percent gave 'don't know' as their answer.
Every age, race, education level and political party chose Trump.
Trump appeared on the 'Hugh Hewitt' podcast this month, where he said he was briefed on UFOs during his presidency.
The former president explained how he spoke with 'a couple of people from the Air Force' who experienced strange objects in the sky.
When asked if he believes in them, Trump responded: 'I have, I always have an open mind.'
Biden has steered clear of the topic in interviews.
In 2021, the president was asked about Barak Obama's statements that there is footage and records of objects in the sky — these unidentified aerial phenomena - but said he does not know what they are.
Biden responded: 'I would ask him again.'
However, earlier this year, he announced an interagency group to look into unidentified objects in US airspace.
White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby, who briefed reporters in February, announced the formation of the inquiry team.
US Customs and Border Patrol uploaded 10 videos showing craft moving in strange ways in our skies. One video documents a fighter jet pursued by an apparent flying orb (above), in which key technical details from the agency's infrared camera display are redacted
'The president, through his national security adviser, has today directed an interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks,' Kirby said.
He explained that the team will include 'every element' of the government and stressed its formation was intended to 'redouble' the United States' efforts to understand and, hopefully, prevent incidents with what he described as 'high-altitude, low-speed craft.'
In another video, released via FOIA by US Customs and Border Protection, yet another apparent orb can be seen hovering near a parked 16-wheeler truck
A tranche of UFO videos, including some never-before-seen, were quietly released by the US Customs and Border Protection, the agency responsible for keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the country.
The agency uploaded 10 videos showing craft moving strangely in our skies.
The videos were released on August 9 without warning, a press release or much in the way of context, only to be discovered by UFO enthusiasts and online investigators last week.
The videos document a fighter jet pursued by a baffling flying orb, as well as something that appears to be a propeller-powered hang-glider and yet another apparent floating orb, hovering this time near a parked 16-wheeler truck.
But the enigmatic nature of the drop — which offered little detail regarding the times and locations of these sightings, plus more than a few sweeping redactions — has left more questions than answers.
The full, unedited UFO videos released by the US government
Scientists have floated the idea that humans live in a computer game controlled by aliens, and a UFO expert has suggested that would explain the multiplicity of religions on Earth.
He explained that the intelligence behind what we call our reality may have assigned different tasks to different designers, and mistakes could have been made in the programming - causing us to have contrasting ideologies.
'Often in cosmology, there seems to be a disconnect between theory and observation,' said Pope.
'In religious terms, it would be as if several different gods all had a hand in creating the universe, and all had their different styles.'
Scientists have floated the idea that humans live in a computer game controlled by aliens, and a UFO expert has suggested it would explain the multiplicity of religions
Pope is one of several UFO experts featured in the new documentary 'God Versus Aliens,' which examines whether life as we know and perceive it is just a simulation designed and controlled by extraterrestrials for some unknown purpose.
The film, available on Tubi TV, highlights the religious belief that a higher power created our universe but suggests the higher power could be an alien race.
'Every aspect of human society would be deeply and profoundly affected by open contact with extraterrestrials, and nowhere would this impact be bigger than when it comes to religion,' Pope told DailyMail.com.
'There are so many variables that the result is difficult, if not impossible, to predict.
'What if advanced civilizations regard religion as primitive superstition, and we find that we're living in a predominantly atheist universe?
'What if there's a dominant religion in the universe that we'd regard as crazy, but aliens arrive here as zealous missionaries, intent on converting us?'
Pope also highlighted that if our reality is a simulation, was religion programmed into the game, or did it emerge spontaneously?
He also believes the theory would explain fundamental discrepancies within individual religions, like the disconnect between the Old and the New Testaments.
Nick Pope, who ran the British Government's UFO project in the 1990s, told DailyMail.com that the simulation theory would solve why each religion believes their god created the universe
'Christians say the Bible is the word of God, yet the Old Testament features plagues and thunderbolts and an angry, vengeful god who thinks nothing of wiping out most of his creations if they don't worship him.
'The New Testament is quite different and tries to focus on themes such as kindness and forgiveness.
'How could we test this theory? If religion is simply a construct of programmers who designed our universe, then maybe one of those programmers left an "Easter egg", in the same way that film and TV makers occasionally slip a sort of inside joke into a production.
Avi Loeb - former chair of Harvard's astronomy department - said these creatures may even be responsible for our universe.
'Perhaps they'd insert something hilariously nonsensical into the middle of a somber holy text.'
He provided DailyMail.com with an excerpt from the Bible: 'From there Elisha went up to Bethel.
'As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD.
'Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.'
'Something as absurd as that could surely never be in the Bible. Yet, if you check the Old Testament, 2 Kings 2:23-24, there it is,' said Pope.
Mark Christopher Lee, the director of 'God Versus Aliens', said in a statement that certain faiths see first contact with aliens as a sign of the anti-Christ.
'Some Evangelical Christians believe the first contact with aliens would herald the end of the world, the apocalypse, because it goes against their belief,' he said in the documentary.
'The belief is based on the idea that the Bible is the only source of truth and anything that goes against it is the sign of the end times.'
Lee also said the disclosure that 'we are not alone' could have a colossal impact on society, though perhaps not as dramatic as 'War Of The Worlds.'
'This could lead to a shift in religious beliefs as people begin to question the validity of their current beliefs and consider the possibility that the universe was created by an alien race and that we are just stuck in a simulation,' Lee said in the film.
'Some people have suggested that this sort of stuff is already in the Vatican's secret archives.'
One of those 'people' is David Grusch, a former high-ranking intelligence official, who claims to have firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human.'
In June, Grusch claimed the US has run a top-secret UFO retrieval program for decades and claimed the 'Vatican was involved' in the first-ever UFO crash.
The decorated official also said the first recovery of a UFO was in Magenta, Italy, in 1933, and it was held by Mussolini's Italian government until 1944 to 1945, when Pope Pius XII tipped America off about it.
'1933 was the first recovery in Europe, in Magenta, Italy,' Grusch told News Nation.
'They recovered a partially intact vehicle, and the Italian government moved it to a secure airbase in Italy until around 1944 to 1945.
'The [Vatican] Pope back-channeled that and told the Americans what the Italians had, and we ended up scooping it.'
Grusch was then asked to clarify whether the Catholic Church was aware of 'non-human' existence on earth, and he replied: 'Certainly.'
Pope told DailyMail.com the issue humans may have with their religions once contact is made with aliens are the same issues arising concerning AI and sentience.
'If it says it is, and its behavior is indistinguishable from sentience, it will essentially be unknowable,' he told DailyMail.com.
'Perfect mimicry of sentience is indistinguishable from actual sentience, in the same way that perfect mimicry of being a god is indistinguishable from being an actual god - if such a thing exists.'
For five months after Halloween of 2007, more than 300 locals living 80 miles southwest of Dallas/Fort Worth in Texas began reporting something strange in their skies: a giant 'delta-shaped' UFO.
Estimates of its size ranged from 'over 300 feet to one mile long,' as the large 'V-shaped formation,' sometimes seen with seven orange-red lights, hovered above campfires, cruised past major highways and sped silently across the horizon.
Now, Netflix's new UFO docu-series 'Encounters,' which premiered Wednesday, has delivered fresh details on this larger-than-life object witnessed by over 300 locals high above the desert.
The four-part, Steven Spielberg-produced film brought on several eyewitnesses and the nanotechnology engineer whose investigation helped capture the giant UFO via Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar data.
'Next time I asked,' that engineer, Robert Powell, told the DailyMail.com, 'I couldn't get that radar data.'
Over 300 people reported seeing a UFO during the 2007-08 wave near Stephenville, Texas. UFO researcher Robert Powell was on the ground for the media 'circus' that ensued (above), as hundreds of residents and reporters descended on Erath County, Texas, looking for answers
Some residents described the UFO as a mile and four city blocks long. Netflix's 'Encounters' is the second major docu-series to do a deep dive on the Stephenville UFO. Above, an image of the mile-long Texas UFO as seen in the prior NatGeo doc
Powell, a nanotech and semiconductor engineer, helped to capture the giant UFO via Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar data. Powell worked with Glen Schulze, a career electrical engineer once with the US Army at White Sands Proving Ground, to analyze the FAA radar data
According to Powell, his work on this 2007-2008 Stephenville, Texas, UFO incident was one of the last times the FAA would release raw radar tower data to the general public via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
'Basically, what they no longer provide is the type that I got there,' Powell said, 'where you get the individual tower and all of the raw data that comes from that radar tower.'
Powell was on the ground for the media 'circus' that ensued, as hundreds of residents and an international scrum of reporters descended upon Erath County, Texas, looking for answers.
Although it is colloquially known as the 'Stephenville UFO' case, the wave of sightings from November 2007 to March 2008 spanned multiple nearby towns in Texas, including Dublin and Gorman to the west and Fort Worth to the northeast.
The most widely publicized incident occurred on January 8, 2008, when 19 witnesses spotted a UFO as it passed west from Dublin to Stephenville and then back again, pursued by US military fighter pilots.
Eyewitness, pilot and businessman Steve Allen told the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) that the UFO was 'a large object one mile long and half a mile wide, moving away at high speed, soundless,' per the group's report
One witness, pilot and businessman Steve Allen, told civilian researchers with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) that this UFO was 'a large object one mile long and half a mile wide' and was 'moving away at high speed, soundless.'
On the second pass of that UFO — which was described as being longer than 17 football fields — the MUFON team wrote that the object was chased by 'jet aircraft on after-burners breaking the sound barrier.'
Another witness, a local law enforcement officer, estimated that the UFO was closer to '4 city blocks wide or close to 1/8 mile,' according to a second report co-authored by Powell.
This officer reportedly said the UFO had 'two very large lights' 25 feet in diameter each.
The mass sighting made national news in 2008 with coverage in the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, and on National Public Radio.
The mass sightings of these Texas-sized UFOs made national news with coverage in the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and on National Public Radio. Above, a local high school football team's marching band celebrates the local UFO event in Netflix's 'Encounters'
It also briefly made a national figure out of a tenacious local reporter, Angelia Joiner (above), who first broke the story for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Her dedication to the case would tragically cost Joiner her job with the newspaper
It also briefly made a national figure out of a tenacious local reporter, Angelia Joiner, who first broke the story for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Her dedication to the case would tragically cost Joiner her job with the newspaper.
The map reveals Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, the east and west coasts of the US, including California, as well as parts of the Middle East are all hotspots for UFO sightings
'She actually became a pretty good friend,' Powell told the DailyMail.com. 'I talked to her quite a bit, even after she left the paper.'
Joiner helped MUFON secure a meeting spot to take local witness statements at a location donated by the Dublin Dr Pepper Co and the Dublin Rotary Club. An estimated 500 people attended this January 19, 2008 event, according to MUFON, with over 50 reports taken amid the commotion.
'It was like a circus,' Powell told the DailyMail.com.
'We were interviewing various witnesses — it was so loud that you couldn't even interview them properly,' Powell recollected. 'The key witness interviews occurred outside of that.'
But one key source did come from Powell and his fellow MUFON investigators' work during that media frenzy: Glen Schulze, a career electrical engineer whose radar work for the US Army at White Sands Proving Ground had once earned him a letter of commendation with the 4th US Army field division.
'I met Glen at that giant meeting,' Powell recalled. 'I believe Angelia Joiner introduced me to him.'
'And he said, 'You know, I sent off a Freedom of Information request.' And I said, 'Well, I did too.' And, and so then that's we just decided to collaborate at that point.'
The full results of Powell and Schulze's labors, which were published in December 2010 by the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), analyzed over 2.8 million radar returns from five different radar sites operated by the FAA.
Ten different FOIA requests went into their research, including radar data from the National Weather Service and logbooks for the 457th Fighter Squadron out of nearby Carswell AFB.
These records, plus transponder data — signal beacons that all military and civilian flights must emit by law — allowed Powell and Schulze to separate the known craft and atmospheric phenomena on January 8th from the UFO.
The duo identified 'an unknown target' on radar that corresponded to sightings by six witnesses between 6:00 and 6:20 PM CT that night, including a radar ping at 6:15 PM about 9 miles north of Stephenville.
'If the two unknown objects picked up on radar are one and the same,' Schulze and Powell wrote, 'then the object moved at about 2100 mph.'
The results of ten different FOIA requests went into Powell and Schulze's research. These records plus transponder data — signal beacons that all military and civilian flights must emit by law — allowed them to separate the known craft and atmospheric phenomena from UFOs
Above, a rough map generated by Powell and Schulze for their Dec. 2010 report, as published by the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU). Their map depicts the known civil and military aircraft that could be tracked via FAA radar and publicly available transponder data
Above another map generated by Powell and Schulze for their Dec 2010 report, as published by the SCU. This map depicts — as yellow triangles — UFOs seen by witnesses that could also be tracked via FAA radar. However, these UFOs did not have any identifying transponder data
They also identified unknown radar tracks that correlated with later sightings of the UFO between 6:40 and 7:15 PM southwest in Dublin and further southwest near Comanche at 9:30 PM.
One witness 'saw the object in a stationary position for just a few seconds,' they report, 'and then it disappeared.'
Another witness, a former air traffic controller who saw the giant UFO evading USAF fighter jets after 8:00 PM, compared the military planes to the large object 'as raisins to a grapefruit.'
Retired meteorologist William Puckett, formerly with the National Weather Service and the EPA, obtained Doppler radar data for MUFON's initial report. Puckett's data also helped confirm objects or phenomena above Stephenville on the night of January 8, 2008
This former air traffic controller was near downtown Comanche, about 40 miles to the southwest of Stephenville.
Witnesses of this caliber and expertise were just one reason, as Powell told the DailyMail.com, why Joiner became so devoted to continuing her investigation even as the national and local news cycles moved on.
'She felt that she owed it to the citizenry (right?) to give them answers,' Powell recalled. 'They knew these weren't F-16s [fighter jets] because F-16s would fly over every day of the year, constant, nonstop. So, they knew what F-16s look like.'
'So, they would call her and say, 'Well, what have you found out? Has anyone else reported it?' blah, blah, blah — and she felt obligated to answer their questions.'
Joiner, according to Powell, eventually 'got a little disillusioned' as years went by, because 'there's so many wackos in this field that will contact you and tell you, you know, they've got a piece of a UFO or what-have-you.'
High-caliber eyewitnesses, like former air traffic controllers, local police and trained pilots, were just one reason why a local reporter like Angelia Joiner became so devoted to continuing her UFO investigations, even as the national and local news cycles moved on, Powell said
'A guy who was supposedly in law enforcement in Mississippi kept telling her he had an [alien implant] object that was embedded near his genitals,' Powell said, 'and he wound up sending her a photograph of his genitals.'
'That's how crazy some of the people are that are out there.'
Undaunted, Powell and Joiner corresponded on the Stephenville sightings, their own lives, and some other UFO cases until her tragic passing from Covid in 2021.
However, Powell's correspondence with the FAA over those same years was considerably less cordial, with the civilian aviation agency changing its policies on what radar data they would release to the public.
Among the information suddenly off limits: radar data from the FAA's high-speed Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities, which track landing aircraft within 50 miles of airports nationwide.
'What their current policy is,' Powell said: 'long-range radar [data], they'll want to keep 45 days; short range, they'll keep 15 days.'
But, one FAA radar operator, who Powell said called him after reading the SCU's report, told him, 'That's not true, and I'll tell you why.'
'He goes, 'Every six months, we get reviewed by the effectiveness of our work. And, in order to review me, they have to pull that radar data, you know. [...] They pull radar data six months a year all the time.'
'If they were being honest,' in Powell's opinion, 'it would be, 'It's not on our current servers, and we're not going to go, you know, hunt for it.'
Documents released by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) have revealed new details about incidents involving the unauthorized operation of unmanned aerial systems near American nuclear sites and sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
The documents, comprised mainly of Operations Reports filed by the Protective Force Division of the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), involve suspected unauthorized drone incidents near Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and other DOE facilities that occurred between May 2018 and April 2021, along with a series of correspondences that include historical references to UAP observations and related subjects.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Credit: LLNL/Public Domain)
A semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), the NNSA is responsible for maintaining the security of the U.S.’s nuclear weapons and responding to nuclear emergencies, along with providing the U.S. Navy with nuclear propulsion and maintaining the safety of its reactors.
According to the DOE documents, Site 300, an experimental site 15 miles east of LLNL’s main site used in the testing of high-explosives and materials to aid research into the development of nuclear weapons, was the location of several of the recent UAS incidents.
The documents were included on a page that also included links to other U.S. government resources related to UAP that appeared on the DOE’s website in late September 2023.
UNAUTHORIZED DRONE ACTIVITY OVER NUCLEAR SITES
One Operations Report filed in September 2021 describes an incident that occurred on the morning of April 1 of that year, where an LLNL employee reported seeing a suspected drone operating over the facility.
“At approximately 0635 hours I was driving on West Perimeter Drive and noticed a possible drone hovering 50-75 feet off the ground in the buffer zone,” a portion of a witness statement included in the report reads. “Due to the darkness I only saw the red and white lights.” The employee notified the Central Alarm Station following the observation, but no security camera footage or other corroborating evidence for the sighting could be found.
A similar incident that occurred at LLNL on July 22, 2020, described a “white fixed wing drone flying over at approximately 100 feet above building 271 heading west bound.” The aircraft was monitored until it left the area, after which Oakland Flight Standards District Office, the FAA, and other regional authorities were notified.
Another Operations Report describing events that occurred in the early morning hours of October 18, 2019, describes a sighting of a UAS with “two red lights and one white light” believed to be equipped with a camera that was observed by an LLNL Site 300 Maintenance Mechanic. The object passed between 20 and 30 feet above the employee’s vehicle, and despite the close distance, no identifying marks could be seen on the UAS.
Another incident involving a possible drone observed near Site 300 was also reported on July 3 of that year, which followed a June 24, 2019 incident involving a “four rotor propeller drone” with blue and red lights observed 40 feet above building 583 that “appeared to be recording.”
RESTRICTION OF DRONE FLIGHTS OVER U.S. NUCLEAR FACILITIES
On December 18, 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first announced that it would begin restricting drone flights up to 400 feet within the lateral boundaries of several U.S. Department of Energy facilities.
Although Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was not among the sites listed by the FAA at that time, a joint announcement by the FAA and the DOE later that month restricted drone flights above all DOE facilities, which includes the agency’s nuclear assembly facilities, laboratories, and research centers.
Despite the FAA restrictions, FOIA documents later obtained by researcher Douglas D. Johnson revealed sightings of swarms of large drones that were observed on September 29, 2019, at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Maricopa County, Arizona. Subsequent FOIA documents Johnson obtained revealed additional incidents that occurred at a total of 24 nuclear sites, involving 57 drone incursions reported between 2015 and 2019.
(Image Source: Stock Image)
Although the FAA had already issued a Notice to Airmen as early as 2004 advising pilots to avoid airspace over nuclear power plants (with later updated versions also extended to include drone operations), in late 2019 ongoing drone incidents over nuclear facilities prompted the nuclear industry to begin working with the FAA and the DOE to try to impose formal flight restrictions over nuclear power plants.
A classified technical analysis produced jointly by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Sandia National Laboratory in October 2019 found that nuclear power plants in the U.S. did not appear to possess any significant vulnerabilities that were believed to be exploitable by foreign adversaries employing drones near such facilities (an unclassified summary of that analysis can be found here). The assessment also concluded that the NRC’s design-basis threat, which the agency employs “as a basis for designing safeguards systems to protect against acts of radiological sabotage and to prevent the theft of special nuclear material,” already accounts for the potential of information that may be obtained through aerial surveillance using drones.
In July 2020, an incident involving a modified unmanned aircraft that crashed near a Pennsylvania power substation was determined to have been intended as an attempt to disable or disrupt the facility’s electrical equipment, according to a federal law enforcement memorandum.
Arguably one of the more intriguing incidents logged in the recent Operations Reports released by the DOE occurred on April 30, 2019, involving an observation of a “drone like object” over LLNL described as a “round silver drone flying around the Process Area and periodically stopping and hovering for several seconds.” The object then moved toward the north, stopping and hovering again for a short period.
“It flew over [the] area for several minutes and departed south east [sic]. It was really high up and it looked like it was just under the clouds,” the observer’s report states.
Diagram presented by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick during April’s Senate hearing on UAP detailing common characteristics attributed to UAP (Credit: DOD/AARO).
During an April 2023 Senate hearing, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of the DoD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), acknowledged that more than half of all UAP reports collected by his Office involved observations of objects characterized as orbs or round/spherical objects possessing white, silver, or translucent coloration. Other typical characteristics of UAP in reports collected by AARO include a size range of 1-4 meters, movement at speeds of up to Mach 2, no evidence of propulsion, and intermittent signature detectability.
“That’s what we’re looking for and trying to understand what that is,” Kirkpatrick said during the hearing, just before sharing a short video obtained by an MQ-9 Reaper Drone operating over the Middle East in 2022 featuring a flying object resembling a metallic sphere. A briefing slide that accompanied the footage characterized the object as “consistent with other ‘metallic orb’ observations in the region,” adding that the object presented “No demonstration of enigmatic technical capabilities and no apparent threat to airborne-asset safety.”
Screen shot of an unreconciled UAP captured with electro-optical sensors aboard an MQ-9 Reaper, shown during Wedesday’s hearing (DOD/AARO).
Intriguingly, similar descriptions of metallic, white, or translucent spherical objects date back several decades. A December 14, 1944 New York Times article titled “Floating Mystery Ball Is New Nazi Air Weapon” described Allied pilot encounters with objects remarkably similar in description.
“Airmen of the American Air Force report that they are encountering silver colored spheres in the air over German territory,” the brief Times report read. “The spheres are encountered either singly or in clusters. Sometimes they are semi-translucent.”
Over the decades, several other incidents involving purported UAP sightings near U.S. strategic sites, some of which resulted in formal investigations, have hinted at the possibility of surveillance being undertaken by unknown parties employing unconventional aerial technologies.
The DOE is not the only U.S. agency to have recently joined the effort to release records involving unexplained incidents involving suspected drones or other aerial objects. Recently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection also released several videos related to unidentified aerial phenomena, some instances of which had already been previously available online. In May 2022, The Debrief reported on several videos that were reportedly obtained by the agency’s personnel, and subsequently leaked online.
The documents recently released at the DOE and CBP websites come in advance of the delivery of AARO’s next periodic report that will provide an update on its ongoing efforts to analyze and attempt to resolve UAP sightings.
“No single explanation addresses the majority of UAP reports,” reads a FAQ page on AARO’s official website, which was launched last month. “We are collecting as much data as possible, following the data where it leads, and sharing our findings whenever possible.”
“We will not rush to conclusions in our analysis,” the FAQ page reads.
Check out an alarming new trailer for this freaky alien invasion movie landing in October.
Blink-182 co-vocalist Tom DeLonge has never shied away from his passionate beliefs about extraterrestrial life and the quest for truth regarding governmental coverups and conspiracy theories circulating around UFOs and alien sightings.
Now the Grammy Award-nominated musician who performs with the popular pop-punk band alongside Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker is taking his fringe campaign to the next level by directing his first feature film, the upcoming paranormal release "Monsters of California."
The film revolves around myriad mysteries swirling amid the current UAP hysteria.
Scene from "Monsters of California."(Image credit: Screen Media)
Here's the official synopsis:
"After discovering research left behind by a missing government agent, Dallas Edwards and his misfit high school friends embark on a righteous and dangerous adventure to uncover a paranormal conspiracy in Southern California that brings them face-to-face with some of the government's most guarded mysteries."
DeLonge has slipped into the directors chair for this timely film, which he co-wrote with Ian Miller and Ben Kull. Screen Media is handling the theatrical distribution that lands in multiplexes and on demand starting on Oct. 6.
"The film takes my fascination with the unexplained, combines it with the skate culture I grew up a part of, and tosses in my ridiculous sense of humor that millions got to witness during my Blink-182 days," DeLonge said in a press statement. "In recent years, I’ve had the good fortune of helping the government remember how much they care about UFOs through the work we do at To The Stars, and it's that experience which helped inspire this movie. I can't wait for audiences to see the f***ed up fun adventure these kids go on."
"Monsters of California's" cast includes Jack Samson ("Zodiac"), Casper Van Dien ("Starship Troopers," "Sleepy Hollow"), Camille Kostek ("Free Guy"), Richard Kind ("A Serious Man") and Arianne Zucker ("Days of Our Lives").
DeLonge, Stan Spry and Eric Scott Woods serve as producers. The indie sci-fi horror movie is also fortified with an original score composed by Ilan Rubin and produced by DeLonge and Aaron Rubin. A version of Blink-182's tune "Aliens Exist" can be heard in this wild advanced preview.
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The US Navy's involvement in UFO encounters that they keep concealed
The US Navy's involvement in UFO encounters that they keep concealed
The US Navy's engagement with UFO encounters is not a recent phenomenon. UFO sightings by the Navy can be traced back to the 1950s and 1960s. However, during that period, these sightings were shrouded in secrecy. Crew members were explicitly instructed to remain silent about the incidents, and when pressed, they were often provided with vague or nonsensical explanations regarding the nature of these mysterious objects.
Even with the latest official announcements of supposed UFO/USO encounters such as the
USS Nimitz UFO Incident (2004)
USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO Incident (2014-2015)
USS Kidd UFO Incident (2019)
USS Russell UFO Incident (2019)
USS Omaha UFO Incident (2021)
You can imagine that the US Navy has experienced many more UFO / USO encounters over the years but these events are kept secret.
Here are five UFO / USO incidents in which the US Navy has been involved during the 60's, 70's and 80's.
1. Azores Islands, Early fall 1965, USS Albany GC10
Late at night, lights out, watch shift. Technician and air traffic controllers observed 3 unidentified objects on radar following the fleet at a distance of about 40-50 miles for over an hour.
Three jets deployed to investigate. The pilots flying at speeds of around 1350 nots, but failed to make visual contact with the unknown objects. The technician, however, could spot the bogies on the height-finding radar, SP530.
As the jets attempted to approach the UFOs, the objects moved away rapidly, maintaining their triangular formation.
Then, within seven radar sweeps, the UFOs had completely disappeared from the radar, while the jets remained visible.
2. Azores Islands, May 23, 1968, USS Monrovia APA-31
Witness was on board the USS Monrovia APA-31 and observed a large submerged object on the starboard side of the ship, just behind the stern.
This USO had an elongated oval shape and emitted a luminescent orange glow. It appeared to have a translucent quality.
The USO seemed to mimic several changes in the ship's compass, radar, and radio equipment to malfunction, rendering them inoperable.
As suddenly as it had appeared, the USO vanished.
The sighting lasted for about 90 minutes and was witnessed by around 1,100 members of the ship's crew, including a contingent of US Marines.
3. Mediterranean Sea, Summer 1974, USS Forrestal CV-59
Signalman on duty during a regular night-watch spots an unusual reflection appearing as an underwater light, approximately 8 miles away and reports the sighting to the control tower.
Despite sonar failing to confirm the contact, the visual sighting was strong enough to bring the captain, executive officer, flight boss, and several intelligence officers to the deck. Over the next 20 minutes, they watch the object moving at high speed across the ship's bow.
The object zigzagged from 60 to over 100 miles per hour until it halted directly in the ship's path at one point within 4 miles of the Forrestal, before disappearing into the depths of the sea.
In the aftermath, the witness was ordered by the executive officer to remain silent.
4. Bermuda Triangle, June 15, 1977, USS Glover AGFF-1
Early morning of June 15, 1977 witness's watch duty above the bridge interrupted by a bright red-orange circular object that dropped from the sky and neared the ship and almost simultaneously, another watch also spotted the object.
Within moments, two more similar objects appeared, compelling them to report 3 unidentified contacts to the bridge and the Combat Information Center (CIC).
Suddenly, the ship lost all power, including radar and sonar, and came to a standstill in the water while the 3 objects conducted astonishing maneuvers across the sky before forming a triangle directly above the ship.
The 3 objects then converged to form a single bright orange light circle about 200 yards directly above the ship. Then vanish and the ship regains full power, and all systems reboot.
Later that night, ship encounters a surface contact that moved at an estimated speed of 70 mph and dove underwater without any slowdown, eventually, it plunged into depths of the Atlantic, disappearing both from the sonar and radar screens.
The following morning, the crew was assembled and ordered to forget everything they had witnessed and told they had seen 'an experimental Russian helicopter.'
5. Caribbean Sea, Summer 1980 or 1981, USS W.S. Sims FF-1059
An urgent dispatch was relayed to the USS W.S. Sims to head to Puerto Rico where there were reports of a Russian submarine exhibiting suspicious maneuvers in the area.
Onboard were divers, scientists and other experts, all brought together to investigate the unusual underwater activity.
The crew spent several intense weeks working to determine what exactly they were dealing with.
Witness heard "whispers" from the divers who were part of the investigation. They referred to the incident as another "Shag Harbor."
The final outcome of the mission remained elusive and the crew were told they had been studying a natural phenomenon of undetermined origin.
The phenomenon had the uncanny ability to elude detection at will, only to reappear again, this pattern continued for about six weeks.
The Shag Harbor UFO incident was the reported impact of an unknown large object into waters near Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia, a fishing village on the Atlantic coast, on 4 October 1967.
At least eleven people saw a low-flying lit object head towards the harbor. Multiple witnesses reported hearing a whistling sound "like a bomb," then a "whoosh," and finally a loud bang.
Two days after the incident had been observed, a detachment of navy divers from Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic was assembled and for the next three days, they combed the seafloor of the Gulf of Maine off Shag Harbor looking for an object.
The final report said no trace of an object was found but it is suggested that they kept this UFO incident secret.
This face on Mars is small, just a few inches across, however the importance of its discovery is monumental. Faces explain what the alien species looked like. Faces explain to us that they were intelligent enough to create lionesses in artistic form. In this face I see a smile, round cheeks, a nose thats different than humans in that it's three times wider and its eye area is larger. Its has hair or perhaps its skin ridges across its head and scalp area. It has two ears, one of which is visible and is 70% similar to our own. In all this face is about 60% similar to humans, leaving a huge 40% difference. A difference which could be attributed to it possibly being reptilian which would explain how they survived in Mars extreme heat.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Ruins, strange artifacts on other planets, moons, ed ( Fr, EN, NL )
Encounters: Netflix’s Dive into the Enigmatic World of UFOs
Encounters: Netflix’s Dive into the Enigmatic World of UFOs
For ages, humans have gazed into the expansive night sky, wondering about those fleeting, mysterious lights, often dubbed Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs. These evanescent lights have sparked countless debates, tales, and scientific quests. Are they merely misunderstood natural phenomena, man-made aircraft, or something much more profound: a sign of life beyond our planet? Netflix’s latest docuseries, Encounters, offers viewers a deep dive into this intriguing realm.
Journeying to Texas Skies
The inaugural episode, titled “Messengers,” transports us to Stephenville, Texas, in 2008. Residents of this quiet town were startled by anomalous lights that painted their night sky for several nights. Picture this: an immense V-shaped array of lights suddenly morphing into a radiant, color-shifting object. It’s a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie, but for the people of Stephenville, it was an eerie reality. Despite the Air Force attributing these sightings to earthly explanations, Stephenville’s denizens, featured in heartfelt interviews, recollect these bewildering events, painting a tapestry of human experiences amidst the unexplained.
A Welsh Coastal Enigma
The docuseries’ narrative then journeys across the Atlantic to Broad Haven, a picturesque coastal town in Wales (“The Broad Haven Triangle“). Here, in 1977, the skies became a theatre of wonder, with over 450 townspeople reporting sightings of bizarre aerial objects, ranging from cigar to disk-shaped entities. The governmental investigations may have chalked it up to natural causes, but the hearts and minds of Broad Haven’s residents tell a story steeped in both awe and intrigue. The episode offers more than just recounts; it delves into the fabric of the town itself, capturing the profound socio-cultural ripples these sightings left in their wake.
A Nuclear Nightmare’s Silver Lining?
“Light Over Fukushima” brings to fore the harrowing aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Amidst the bleak backdrop of this disaster, many locals reported witnessing enigmatic spheres of light hovering over the reactor ruins. Was this nature’s own light show, a direct consequence of the nuclear event, or were they unearthly visitors drawn to our moment of crisis? Through personal narratives and expert opinions, the episode wrestles with these tough questions.
Innocence Meets the Inexplicable
The final leg of this extraterrestrial odyssey takes us to Zimbabwe, where young students of the Ariel School experienced the unimaginable in 1994. Imagine being in a playground and witnessing an alien craft touch down, only to unveil its otherworldly inhabitants. This episode, “Believers,” delves deep into one of history’s most intensely scrutinized UFO events. Through interviews with these now-grown students and experts, the episode offers a visceral glimpse into this hair-raising encounter.
The Remarkable Ariel School UFO Incident: 60+ Students Saw Aliens Land On The Playground - MHP #222
Encounters is not just a chronicle of unexplained aerial phenomena. It’s a human story – of wonder, fear, skepticism, and hope. Netflix has crafted a series that doesn’t just parade evidence but humanizes each account, allowing the viewer to step into the shoes of those who’ve experienced the enigma first-hand.
Applauded for its meticulous production and balanced approach, Encounters serves as a testament to our undying curiosity and desire to understand our place in the cosmos. Whether a believer, skeptic, or the curious kind, this docuseries promises a journey into the mysteries of the universe that will leave you pondering long after the credits roll.
Almost 1000 UFOs spotted over UK in past two years including 12 in Wiltshire
Almost 1000 UFOs spotted over UK in past two years including 12 in Wiltshire
Nasa has said there are so many UFO sightings they cannot confirm they will be conducting more research into sightings
By
Richard Ault - Chief Feature Writer
Emma Flanagan - Content Editor
Nasa says it can’t explain some UFO sightings as our map reveals almost 1,000 unexplained objects that have been spotted above the UK in the last two-and-a-half years - including 12 in Wiltshire. The space agency has published a report into hundreds of unidentified flying objects, or UAPs - unidentified anomalous phenomena - as it calls them.
Releasing the findings, Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said: “The Nasa independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin. But we don’t know what they are.
“That’s why I’m announcing that Nasa has appointed a Nasa director of UAP research. They are being tasked with developing and overseeing the implementation of Nasa’s vision for UAP research.”
He said the agency wants to “shift the conversation about UAP, from sensationalism to science”, and address some of the stigma around UFO sightings. He added that new science techniques and artificial intelligence (AI) were needed to better understand them.
The Nasa intervention comes as almost 1,000 unexplained objects have been documented in the skies above the UK between January 2021 and May this year by the UFO spotter website UFO Identified. That includes three sightings above Wiltshire in 2021, eight last year, and one between January and May this year.r_
Sightings documented in Wiltshire included:_
Two bright white lights that were seen silently “hovering above Stonehenge, disappearing and reappearing” in August 2021 in footage that was shared on YouTube.
“Two lots of ten fireballs” that seemed to be connected and “moving in patterns after each other at different speeds” over Salisbury in May last year.
And a “flat disc-shaped object” that “ascended rapidly into the air” and “flashed brightly” before it “moved off at high speed” over Tidworth in September 2022.
Just under half of all documented sightings (48%) include photographic or video evidence. A quarter of all sightings (25%) were of a “star-like” object or objects, moving across the sky. The next most common sighting was of an unidentified object shaped like an “orb” (17%), “sphere”, (10%) and “cylinder” (9%).
Of all counties in the UK, more UFOs were spotted in skies of Greater Manchester than anywhere else, with a total of 54 documented sightings. That was followed by Greater London (52), Cheshire (37), and West Sussex (34). When it comes to towns and cities, more UFO activity was seen above Glasgow than anywhere else, with 22 encounters.
But while nearly 1,000 UFO sightings have been recorded in the last two-and-a-half years, Ash Ellis of UFO Identified believes many more were unreported. He said: “Despite progress being made in recent years to de-stigmatise the topic, there is still an air of trepidation when approaching the subject as the fear of ridicule is very prevalent.
“There were almost 500 reported sightings in the UK last year, with likely many times that number going unreported showing that there is a genuine concern around unidentified phenomena being seen across the country.” Now Nasa is hoping more people - and pilots in particular - will feel comfortable reporting sightings.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaks after the release of the latest report on UFOs
(Image: GETTY)
Dr Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at Nasa headquarters in Washington, said: “At Nasa we’re scientists, we love data. We love all data. “And if there is something that needs to be reported, we want people to be able to feel that they can report that .”
It comes as a man who was accused of the "biggest military computer hack of all time" by officials in the United States - and claimed to have found evidence of contact with "non-terrestrial" beings and technology as a result - believes the public will never be told the truth about UFOs, UAPs and aliens.
MilliMobile is a first of its kind battery-free autonomous robot capable of operating on harvested solar and radio frequency power. The MilliMobile prototype has a 1 x1 cm chassis and weighs less than 1.1 g. It can carry payloads 3 times its own weight, and only experiences a 25% reduction in speed when carrying a 1 g payload.
MilliMobile is able to move across a variety of surfaces, including concrete and packed soil.
Image credit: Mark Stone / University of Washington.
Small mobile robots carrying sensors could perform tasks like catching gas leaks or tracking warehouse inventory.
But moving robots demands a lot of energy, and batteries, the typical power source, limit lifetime and raise environmental concerns.
Researchers have explored various alternatives: affixing sensors to insects, keeping charging mats nearby, or powering the robots with lasers.
Each has drawbacks. Insects roam. Chargers limit range. Lasers can burn people’s eyes.
“We challenge the conventional assumption that motion and actuation are beyond the capabilities of battery-free devices and demonstrate completely untethered autonomous operation in realistic indoor and outdoor lighting as well as radio frequency delivery scenarios,” said University of Washington doctoral student Kyle Johnson and colleagues, who developed MilliMobile, a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by surrounding light or radio waves.
Equipped with a solar panel-like energy harvester and four wheels, their robot is about the size of a penny, weighs as much as a raisin and can move about the length of a bus (10 m, or 30 feet) in an hour even on a cloudy day.
MilliMobile can drive on surfaces such as concrete or packed soil and carry three times its own weight in equipment like a camera or sensors.
It uses a light sensor to move automatically toward light sources so it can run indefinitely on harvested power.
“We took inspiration from ‘intermittent computing,’ which breaks complex programs into small steps, so a device with very limited power can work incrementally, as energy is available,” Johnson said.
“With MilliMobile, we applied this concept to motion. We reduced the robot’s size and weight so it takes only a small amount of energy to move.”
“And, similar to an animal taking steps, our robot moves in discrete increments, using small pulses of energy to turn its wheels.”
The researchers tested MilliMobile both indoors and outdoors, in environments such as parks, an indoor hydroponic farm and an office.
Even in very low light situations — for instance, powered only by the lights under a kitchen counter — the robots are still able to inch along, though much slower.
Running continuously, even at that pace, opens new abilities for a swarm of robots deployed in areas where other sensors have trouble generating nuanced data.
These robots are also able to steer themselves, navigating with onboard sensors and tiny computing chips.
To demonstrate this, the team programmed the robots to use their onboard light sensors to move towards a light source.
“Internet of Things sensors are usually fixed in specific locations,” said University of Washington doctoral student Zachary Englhardt.
“Our work crosses domains to create robotic sensors that can sample data at multiple points throughout a space to create a more detailed view of its environment, whether that’s a smart farm where the robots are tracking humidity and soil moisture, or a factory where they’re seeking out electromagnetic noise to find equipment malfunctions.”
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
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![The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula in the search for answers about the supernova remnant’s origins. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) have revealed new details in infrared light. Similar to the Hubble optical wavelength image released in 2005, with Webb the remnant appears to consist of a crisp, cage-like structure of fluffy red-orange filaments of gas that trace doubly ionised sulphur (sulphur III). Within the remnant’s interior, yellow-white and green fluffy ridges form large-scale loop-like structures, which represent areas where dust particles reside. The area is composed of translucent, milky material. This material is emitting synchrotron radiation, which is emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum but becomes particularly vibrant thanks to Webb’s sensitivity and spatial resolution. It is generated by particles accelerated to extremely high speeds as they wind around magnetic field lines. The synchrotron radiation can be traced throughout the majority of the Crab Nebula’s interior. Locate the wisps that follow a ripple-like pattern in the middle. In the centre of this ring-like structure is a bright white dot: a rapidly rotating neutron star. Further out from the core, follow the thin white ribbons of the radiation. The curvy wisps are closely grouped together, following different directions that mimic the structure of the pulsar’s magnetic field. Note how certain gas filaments are bluer in colour. These areas contain singly ionised iron (iron II). [Image description: An oval nebula with a complex structure against a black background. On the oval's exterior lie curtains of glowing red and orange fluffy material. Interior to this outer shell lie large-scale loops of mottled filaments of yellow-white and green, studded with clumps and knots. Translucent thin ribbons of smoky white lie within the remnant’s interior, brightest toward its centre.]](https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Crab-1.jpeg)
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!['None of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities,' according to AARO's unclassified report for fiscal year 2023. In addition to statistics on the typical elevations and locations at which UAP have been reported, the FY2023 AARO reported took pains to note the issue of 'collection bias' and its future plans to better collect space-based and undersea data on UAP. 'The space and maritime domains need to be fully integrated into AARO's processes,' the report stated. Kirkpatrick's UFO office plans to work with the US Navy and the National Intelligence Manager for Military Integration (NIM-MIL) to improve the speed and quality of reporting on undersea UAP or sea-to-air transmedium UAP. 'Collaboration with Space Force, US Space Command, NRO [the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees US spy satellites] and NASA is well underway,' AARO said in the report. In a nod to NASA's own UAP advisory panel, the report made numerous references to the need to better calibrate, or prepare and standardize, military sensors in an effort to obtain the kind of reliable and comparable data needed to investigate UAP. Despite the ostensible openness and promises detailed in AARO's report, many longtime civilian UFO researchers, expressed concern that the office has overseen a retrenchment in transparency on the topic.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/19/20/76766601-12650929-_None_of_these_UAP_reports_have_been_positively_attributed_to_fo-a-168_1697743150886.jpg)
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![On November 7, 2022, one Maryland witness saw what they described as 'a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the 'front'' moving very slowly above their parents' house in Rockville, north of Washington DC. The witness said it was slow 'compared to [...] an aircraft'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/04/22/76179353-12594651-image-a-33_1696455460650.jpg)
