Rendlesham UFO incident: Sculpture to be installed at forest site

The UFO model has been built using galvanised steel and painted black

A 'UFO' has been built to mark the spot where an alleged landing took place in one of the UK's biggest UFO mysteries.

In December 1980, there were reports of phenomena in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk near a United States Air Force base.

The Forestry Commission has created a metal interpretation of a UFO to add to its trail which commemorates the alleged sightings.

The commission said the sculpture was "impartial" and did not seek to answer the mystery.

Olivia English and Nigel Turner visited RAF Woodbridge's East Gate where reported sightings were made

Three logs currently mark the spot of the alleged
landing site in Rendlesham Forest

Olivia English said the symbols on the model were "no
secret code - it's art"

The 'Rendlesham Incident' took place over three nights starting in the early hours of 26 December 1980.

Two US servicemen claimed to have seen lights outside the perimeter fence at RAF Woodbridge.

Since then, many books and internet sites have been filled with conflicting theories about whether it was an alien visitation, a military aircraft, the beam from Orfordness Lighthouse or natural phenomena.

The Forestry Commission opened a UFO Trail in 2005 and placed three logs in a clearing where witnesses claimed a craft had landed and disappeared.

The new UFO will be placed in the same clearing.

The Forestry Commission's UFO Trail leaflet has a
disclaimer about reported UFO sightings

Nigel Turner, recreation manager at Rendlesham Forest, said: "Clearly something happened - there's a party who believe it was something military, there are people who believe it was extraterrestrial activity and we respect all opinions.

"We think it will fit in well, because it offers a goal for people completing the trail and also give an insight into our timber-growing and conservation work."

Olivia English designed the UFO sculpture and said it was based on one of the servicemen's sketches and other descriptions of sightings in the forest.

She said: "The design is really about trying to find a middle ground and remaining impartial and creating an interpretation.

"The symbols on the side of the UFO were originally part of the trail, but we've recycled them to add another dimension. There's no secret code - it's art."

Rendlesham UFO incident: Sculpture to be installed at forest site

September 22, 2014 - A 'UFO' has been built to mark the spot where an alleged landing took place in one of the UK's biggest UFO mysteries.

In December 1980, there were reports of phenomena in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk near a United States Air Force base.

The Forestry Commission has created a metal interpretation of a UFO to add to its trail which commemorates the alleged sightings.

September 22, 2014 - A 'UFO' has been built to mark the spot where an alleged landing took place in one of the UK's biggest UFO mysteries.

In December 1980, there were reports of phenomena in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk near a United States Air Force base.

Two US servicemen claimed to have seen lights outside the perimeter fence at RAF Woodbridge.

Since then, many books and internet sites have been filled with conflicting theories about whether it was an alien visitation, a military aircraft, the beam from Orfordness Lighthouse or natural phenomena.

The Forestry Commission opened a UFO Trail in 2005 and placed three logs in a clearing where witnesses claimed a craft had landed and disappeared.

The new UFO will be placed in the same clearing.

Sources and more information:

• 'UFO' due to appear at forest site

• Sculpture Being Installed to Mark Rendlesham UFO Incident

( via bbc.co.uk )

“At Least 4 Known Alien Species Have Been Visiting Earth For Thousands Of Years” X Canadian Defence Minister Continues To Blow The Whistle

I am well aware that just because somebody (no matter what their ‘position’) says something to be true, does not mean it’s true. Exceptions, however can be made if there is evidence that goes beyond their words and correlates with what they say. At the end of the day, you have to listen to what your heart tells you.

Paul Hellyer was the Canadian Minister of National Defense in the 1960′s during the cold war. He was responsible for combining the Canadian Air Force, Navy and Army into what is known today as the Canadian Forces. He was the highest ranking person (on paper) inside of the Department of Defence for Canada. The Honorable Paul Hellyer  is the highest ranking person among all g8 countries to openly speak about UFOs and extraterrestrials.

He has been speaking about UFOs and extraterrestrials for quite some time now, and he recently made an appearance on RT news stating that there are at least 4 known alien species that have been visiting Earth for thousands of years.

Upon retirement, Hellyer began to blow the whistle on UFOs and extraterrestrials. His testimony is backed up by hundreds of other high ranking military and political personnel all over the world, including official documents released by dozens of governments worldwide that have officially acknowledged the presence of UFOs.

I think it’s also important to point out that the Canadian government recently acknowledged the fact that various federal agencies, including Transport Canada, the RCMP and the Department of National Defence used to track and investigate UFO sightings. (1) They claim to have stopped those programs, but that contradicts the defence minister’s (Hellyer) claims. There is good reason to believe, and a lot of evidence to suggest that some of these UFOs are indeed extraterrestrial space craft (not all military), and the activities of the agencies responsible for these programs goes far beyond just tracking of UFOs, but into contact with various extraterrestrial races, other classified technological developments and more.

Here is some of what Paul Hellyer has to say, for more you can watch the video clip below:

” In one of the cases during the cold war, 1961, there were about 50 UFOs in formation flying South from Russia across Europe. The supreme allied commander was very concerned and was about ready to press the panic button when they turned around and went back over the North Pole. They decided to do an investigation  and they investigated for three years and they decided that with absolute certainty that four different species, at least, have been visiting this planet for thousands of years. There’s been a lot more activity in the past two decades, especially since we invented the atomic bomb. They are very concerned about that and if we will use it again, because the whole cosmos is a unity and it affects not just us but other people in the cosmos. They’re very much afraid that we might start using atomic weapons again and this would be very bad for us, and them also.” – Paul Hellyer

“Many are benign and benevolent, and a few are not. They come from various places, for a long while I only knew about ones that came from different star systems, the Pleadies. There are extraterrestrials that come from Andromeda, and ones that live on one of Saturn’s moon’s.  There is a federation of these people, and they have rules, one of them is that they don’t interfere with our affairs unless they are invited. They have accepted the fact that this is our planet, and we have the right to run it but they are very concerned, they don’t think that we are good stewards of our planet. We are ruining our planet, we’re doing all sorts of things that we shouldn’t be doing, and they don’t like that. They’ve made it clear, and they have given us a warning.” – Paul Hellyer 

“Decades ago, visitors from other planets warned us about the direction we were heading and offered to help. Instead, some of us interpreted their visits as a threat, and decided to shoot first and ask questions after. It is ironic that the US should be fighting monstrously expensive wars, allegedly to bring democracy to those countries, when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy when trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on black projects which both congress and the commander in chief have been kept deliberately in the dark.” – Paul Hellyer

Sources:

(1) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/canadian-government-no-longer-investigating-ufos-1.1324305

Tegen 2050 met een lift naar de ruimte? - HLN

Bron: Belga

© Obayashi.

De Japanse bouwreus Obayashi wil tegen 2050 een ruimtelift bouwen, zo heeft de Australische televisiezender ABC gemeld. Indien het project een succes wordt, zal dit een revolutie in het reizen door de ruimte ontketenen en potentieel de wereldeconomie transformeren.

De ruimtelift zal 96.000 km moeten overbruggen naar een nieuw te bouwen ruimtestation. Door magnetische lineaire motoren aangedreven voertuigen zullen tot dertig mensen en vracht vervoeren tegen een kostprijs die maar een fractie is van die voor raketten, meent Obayashi. De reis zal zeven dagen duren.

Dat fantasie werkelijkheid wordt, heeft te maken met de ontwikkeling van koolstof nanotechnologie. Een grote internationale studie toonde in 2012 aan dat een ruimtelift een haalbare kaart is, maar best via internationale samenwerking te verwezenlijken is. Deskundigen menen dat een ruimtelift het einde kan inluiden van raketten die van op Aarde worden gelanceerd.

De specialisten menen ook dat een ruimtelift de energieproblemen in de wereld kan oplossen door grote hoeveelheden zonne-energie te kunnen leveren of ook een oplossing kan bieden voor het opslaan van nucleair afval. Ook ruimtetoerisme kan erdoor gediend zijn.

Lees ook

• Private ruimtecargo succesvol naar ruimtestation ISS gelanceerd

{http://www.hln.be/}

UFO spotted over Portsmouth – and the MET Office says it ISN’T a cloud

Where did this unknown flying object come from? Mars?(Picture: Apex)

Many Portsmouth residents were surprised, even alarmed, to see what appeared to be a flying saucer over the south coast.

UFO sightings in the United Kingdom have been mostly left to crop circles but now we have our very own spacecraft sighting.

Cynics among us might say that it is only a queerly shaped cloud but Laura Young from The Met Office is left baffled: ‘After looking at the images, I can say the object is nothing to do with the weather.

‘It is not meteorological and is not a cloud.’

South coast resident Johnny Blackwell spoke of what he saw: ‘I don’t believe in UFOs, but when I saw this I didn’t know what it was.’

The question now is, was it coming in peace?

{http://metro.co.uk/}

UFO joins air show in Chisinau, Moldova - The danger of UFOs during air shows!

During an air show in Chisinau, Moldova on September 20, 2014, an onlooker photographed a strange object what looks like a disc-shaped UFO.

Image left: The object was hovering more closer then the low altitude plane.

It is not the first time a UFO is observed during an air show.

It has been found that when a UFO appears during an air show, in many cases this leads to an almost hit or a fatal crash of the stunt plane.

These objects are unknown and could be drones, remote controlled model airplanes or helicopters, birds or even extraterrestrial craft.

1. UFO Fly-bys at Chilean Ceremony.

It was taken by an onlooker in November, 2010 during the changing of the Air Force Command at El Bosque Air Base in Santiago, Chile.

 

2. UFO at Madrid air show

During the Madrid air show in May, 2013, a jet fighter crashes, probably caused by a UFO.

 

Massive Ocean discovered towards the Earths Core!

A reservoir of water three times the volume of all the oceans has been discovered deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The finding may explain where Earth’s seas came from, and lend some interesting evidence to the Hollow Earth Theory.

The water is hidden inside a blue rock called ringwoodite that lies 700 kilometres underground in the mantle, the layer of hot rock between Earth’s surface and its core.  The huge size of the reservoir throws new light on the origin of Earth’s water. Many geologists think water arrived in comets as they struck the planet, but the new discovery supports an alternative idea that the oceans gradually oozed out of the interior of the early Earth.

“It’s good evidence the Earth’s water came from within,” says Steven Jacobsen of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The hidden water could also act as a buffer for the oceans on the surface, explaining why they have stayed the same size for millions of years.

Jacobsen’s team used 2000 seismometers to study the seismic waves generated by more than 500 earthquakes. These waves move throughout Earth’s interior, including the core, and can be detected at the surface. “They make the Earth ring like a bell for days afterwards,” says Jacobsen.

By measuring the speed of the waves at different depths, the team could figure out which types of rocks the waves were passing through. The water layer revealed itself because the waves slowed down, as it takes them longer to get through soggy rock than dry rock.

Jacobsen worked out in advance what would happen to the waves if water-containing ringwoodite was present. He grew ringwoodite in his lab, and exposed samples of it to massive pressures and temperatures matching those at 700 kilometres down.

Sure enough, they found signs of wet ringwoodite in the transition zone 700 kilometres down, which divides the upper and lower regions of the mantle. At that depth, the pressures and temperatures are just right to squeeze the water out of the ringwoodite. “It’s rock with water along the boundaries between the grains, almost as if they’re sweating,” says Jacobsen.

Jacobsen’s finding supports a recent study by Graham Pearson of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Pearson studied a diamond from the transition zone that had been carried to the surface in a volcano, and found that it contained water-bearing ringwoodite, the first strong evidence that there was lots of water in the transition zone (Nature, doi.org/s6h).

“Since our initial report of hydrous ringwoodite, we’ve found another ringwoodite crystal, also containing water, so the evidence is now very strong,” says Pearson.

So far, Jacobsen only has evidence that the watery rock sits beneath the US. He now wants to find out if it wraps around the entire planet.

“We should be grateful for this deep reservoir,” says Jacobsen. “If it wasn’t there, it would be on the surface of the Earth, and mountain tops would be the only land poking out.” 

-As seen on Rise Earth

Discoveries, News

What Happened to the Sunken City of Cuba?

Just over a decade ago, a team of explorers were working on an exploration and survey mission off the western coast of Cuba when their sonar equipment picked up a perplexing series of stone structures lying some 650 metres below the surface.  The structures appeared completely analogous against the barren ‘desert’ of the ocean floor and seemed to show symmetrically organized stones reminiscent of an urban development. A media flurry soon ensued with news sites sporting headlines such as ‘Atlantis Discovered in Cuba’ and ‘Lost City of the Caribbean Found’. However, the finding also attracted the attention of the government, national museum, and national geographic, who all made promises to investigate the strange sonar images. Now, ten years on, the story has disappeared into obscurity. What ever happened to the sunken ‘ruins’ of Cuba? Were they ever fully investigated? And why has the media fallen silent on this unusual discovery?

The discovery was first made in 2001 when Pauline Zalitzki, a marine engineer, and her husband Paul Weinzweig, owners of a Canadian company called Advanced Digital Communications (ADC), were working on a survey mission in conjunction with the Cuban government off the tip of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba. ADC was one of four firms working in a joint venture with President Fidel Castro's government to explore Cuban waters, which hold hundreds of treasure-laden ships from the Spanish colonial era. The team was using advanced sonar equipment to scan a 2 square kilometre area of the sea floor when they noticed a series of symmetrical and geometric stone structures resembling an urban complex.

Map showing location of supposed ancient city discovered by Paul Weinzweig and Pauline Zalitzki. Image source.

Upon studying the sonar images, Zalitzki observed what appeared to be unusual formations of smooth blocks, crests, and geometric shapes. Some of the blocks looked like they were built in pyramid shapes, others were circular. 

In July 2001, they returned to the site with geologist Manuel Iturralde, senior researcher of Cuba's Natural History Museum, this time equipped with a Remotely Operated Vehicle to examine and film the structures. The images revealed large blocks of stone resembling hewn granite, measuring about 8 feet by 10 feet. Some blocks appeared deliberately stacked atop one another, others appeared isolated from the rest. Zalitzki said that the images appeared to reflect the ruins of a submerged city but was reluctant to draw any conclusions without further evidence.

“These are extremely peculiar structures, and they have captured our imagination,” said Iturralde, who has studied countless underwater formations. “But if I had to explain this geologically, I would have a hard time.”

Estimating that it would have taken 50,000 years for such structures to have sunken to the depth at which they were said to be found, Iturralde added "50,000 years ago there wasn't the architectural capacity in any of the cultures we know of to build complex buildings." A specialist in underwater archaeology at Florida State University added "It would be cool if they were right, but it would be real advanced for anything we would see in the New World for that time frame. The structures are out of time and out of place."

In the media storm that followed the announcement of the discovery, news sites were quick to draw parallels with the fabled lost city of Atlantis. However, Zelitsky and Weinzweig were unwilling to make such comparisons.  The story is myth, said Zelitsky. "What we have found is more likely remnants of a local culture," once located on a 100-mile "land bridge" that joined Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula with Cuba.  Iturralde added that there are local legends of the Maya and native Yucatecos that tell of an island inhabited by their ancestors that vanished beneath the waves. Nevertheless, Iturralde does not discount the possibility that the rock formations are merely the result of the wonders of Mother Nature. “Nature is able to create some really unimaginable structures,” he said.

Despite hundreds of media outlets reporting on sunken cities, advanced civilizations, the lost city of Atlantis, and submerged ruins, there are others who are not so willing to accept this point of view.  Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews from the debunking website Bad Archaeology, claimed that the depth of the alleged remains are the biggest problem for the sunken city proponents. During the Pleistocene, which was characterised by a series of ice ages, sea levels dropped significantly, but the maximum drop was around 100 metres.

“At no point during the Ice Age would it have been above sea level unless, of course, the land on which they stand has sunk. This is the claim made for Atlantis: according to Plato’s account, it was destroyed “by violent earthquakes and floods”. However, if we take Plato at his word – as we must if we assume Atlantis to have been an historical place – the violence of its sinking makes it improbable that an entire city could have survived plunging more than 600 m into an abyss,” writes Fitzpatrick-Matthews.

If we assume that he is right and that these stone structures do not reflect an ancient submerged city but are simply products of nature, then surely geologists and other scientists would be quick to jump on the finding and investigate what freakish event of nature caused such peculiar formations.  Strangely, however, there have been no reported follow-up investigations and news outlets have gone deathly silent on the matter. What happened to all the promises from the government, national museum, National Geographic, and other scientists to carry out further surveys?

The quick dismissal of the story has led some to question whether there has been a suppression of information regarding the finding. However, Fitzpatrick-Matthews claims the story simply went cold and that in the end experts were not convinced that Zelitsky had really discovered a sunken city.

Featured image: Reconstructed Image taken from the sonar scan of the sea floor off the coast of Cuba.

References:

Bauza, Vanessa (Oct 27, 2002). "Submerged Cuban Ruins May Be Manmade, Experts Say". Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Retrieved 3 October 2012.

Evans, Marcel (2012). ‘Lost city’ found beneath Cuban waters. Costa Rica Star

Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith. (2012) An underwater city west of Cuba, Bad Archaeology

Handwerk, Brian., New Underwater Finds Raise Questions About Flood Myths, National Geographic News, May 28, 2002.

Lost city' found beneath Cuban waters, BBC News, 7 December 2001.

By April Holloway

- See more at: http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/what-happened-sunken-city-cuba-001883#sthash.XQJJWiVF.dpuf

UFO Sightings nuclear physicist Blows Cover On UFOs! New Update! May 3 2014

Gepubliceerd op 3 mei 2014          

De Melkweg in kaart: 219 miljoen sterren - HLN

Bron: ANP

UPDATE Een internationaal team van sterrenkundigen heeft 219 miljoen sterren in de Melkweg in kaart gebracht, de meest uitgebreide catalogus tot nu toe.

De catalogus is vandaag in het vakblad Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society verschenen. Het team maakte gebruik van de Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) op het Spaanse eiland La Palma. Daarmee kunnen sterren worden gespot die een miljoen keer zwakker schijnen dan met het blote oog te zien is. Het duurde tien jaar om de miljoenen sterren in kaart te brengen.

Sterrenkundigen schatten dat er minstens 100 miljard sterren in de Melkweg zijn. Vanaf de aarde is daar maar een klein deel van te zien. De Melkweg heeft een doorsnede van zo'n 100.000 lichtjaren. Eén lichtjaar is zo'n 10 biljoen kilometer.

De kaart is samengesteld onder leiding van Geert Barentsen van de universiteit van Hertfordshire in het Britse Hatfield.

Lees ook

• Vlieg eens langs de maan van Neptunus

{http://www.hln.be/}

Nasa heeft bedenkingen bij meteorietinslag in Nicaruaga - HLN

Bron: Belga 

© epa.

De Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie Nasa betwijfelt of de krater in Nicaragua het gevolg is van een meteorietinslag dit weekend. Er was geen vuurbal te zien, aldus Bill Cooke, hoofd van de Nasa-afdeling voor meteorieten, maandag. Dit houdt dus de mogelijkheid open dat iets anders de krater in de buurt van de hoofdstad heeft veroorzaakt.

Volgens Nicaraguaanse bronnen sloeg in de nacht van zaterdag op zondag een meteoriet in op een bebost gebied in de buurt van de internationale luchthaven. Deze krachtige inslag veroorzaakte een krater van 12 meter diameter en 5,5 meter diep. 

Lees ook

• Meteoriet veroorzaakt krater in Nicaragua

{http://www.hln.be/}

Monsterlijk zwart gat ontdekt - HLN

Bron: time.com 

© NASA, ESA, STScI-RCC14-41a.

Astronomen hebben met de Hubble-telescoop een monsterlijk groot zwart gat ontdekt in een van de kleinste bekende sterrenstelsels. Dat meldt de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA vandaag.

De NASA ontdekte een van de kleinste en meest compacte sterrenstelsel ooit: 140 miljoen sterren binnen een diameter van 300 lichtjaar. In het midden van dat sterrenstelsel bleek een zwart gat te zitten dat bijna vijf keer zo groot is als dat in de Melkweg.

Een miljoen sterren
"Als je in dit kleine sterrenstelsel zou leven, zou je 's nachts minstens een miljoen sterren kunnen zien met het blote oog", leggen de wetenschappers uit. Ter vergelijk: op aarde zijn er 's nachts zo'n 4.000 sterren zichtbaar.

De nieuwe vondst zou kunnen bewijzen dat 'dwergsterrenstelsels' afgescheurde delen zijn van grotere sterrenstelsels. "We kennen geen enkele andere manier waarop er zo'n groot zwart gat zou kan ontstaan in zo'n klein object", zegt astronoom Anil Seth van de Universiteit van Utah.

Lees ook

• NASA maakt potje van opsporing gevaarlijke planetoïden
• Amerika gaat vanaf 2017 weer mensen de ruimte insturen

{http://www.hln.be/}

Passagier filmt UFO vanuit vliegtuig - HLN

Bron: The Post Online 

video Een Welshman die even door het raam gluurde tijdens zijn terugvlucht van Griekenland merkte een vreemd voorwerp op. Hij zag sterke lichten en legde het verschijnsel vast met zijn smartphone. De man die anoniem wil blijven, zag naar eigen zeggen, nooit eerder in zijn leven zo'n felle lichten.

De 29-jarige uit Cardiff merkte het verschijnsel zo'n twintig minuten voor de landing op toen hij even naar buiten keek. "De lichten waren misschien een paar kilometer verwijderd van het vliegtuig. Het was verder pikkedonker, dus het is lastig te zeggen wat het precies was. De lampen waren heel erg fel, ik heb denk ik nog nooit zo'n fel licht gezien in mijn leven. Het was behoorlijk raar. Ik heb echt geen idee wat het is."

{http://www.hln.be/}

Dit heeft de zoektocht naar de MH370 wél al opgeleverd - HLN

© afp.

MH370 Eerst het slechte nieuws: van de op 8 maart verdwenen Boeing van vlucht MH370 van Malaysia Airlines is er nog steeds geen spoor. Maar de sonar-, radar- en satellietgegevens die het voorbije halfjaar zijn verzameld, hebben wetenschappers wel een berg nieuwe kennis van de Indische Oceaan bezorgd.

Op 22 september zal de zoektocht naar de verdwenen Boeing hervatten. 60.000 tot 70.000 vierkante kilometer bodem van het zuidelijke deel van de Indische Oceaan zal meter per meter onderzocht worden met geavanceerde apparatuur. Dat zal een enorme bijdrage betekenen voor de gegevens waarover de onderzoekers nu al beschikken.

"Het is zeer uitzonderlijk dat zo'n groot gebied onderzocht wordt, en zeker omdat het zo ver van de Australische kust ligt", vertelde dr Stuart Minchin van Geoscience Australia aan Discovery News.

Zoektochten met vliegtuigen, schepen en een geavanceerde onderwaterrobot leverden tot nu toe nog geen fysieke sporen van het verdwenen vliegtuig op. "Maar we vonden wel al zeebergen en vulkanen die nooit eerder in kaart gebracht zijn", zegt Minchin.

Tsunami's
En dat is meer dan een louter wetenschappelijke meevaller. Die nieuwe kennis kan van groot belang zijn bij het voorspellen van zeestromen en tsunami's. Bovendien kan ze een beter begrip opleveren van het ontstaan van de continenten.

"Wetenschappers over de hele wereld zullen bijzonder geïnteresseerd zijn in deze informatie over een vrij onbekend deel van de oceaan", voorspelt Minchin. Geoscience Australia belooft dan ook alle gegevens wereldkundig te maken na afloop van de zoektocht naar de MH370.

Of die zoektocht ook nog een spoor van het vliegtuig zal opleveren, is heel onzeker. Verwacht wordt dat de operatie nog een jaar kan duren, mogelijk zonder resultaat.

Lees ook

• Zoektocht naar MH370 straks hervat
• Indonesische politiechef: "Ik weet wat er met vlucht MH370 is gebeurd"

Bron: news.discovery.com 

{http://www.hln.be/}

"Vuurbal boven VS was geen meteoriet maar Russische spionagesatelliet" - HLN

Bron: AP  Vanuit vijf Amerikaanse staten werd deze maand een 'vuurbal' in de lucht gezien.  © epa.

Een heldere vuurbal die eerder deze maand in de hemel boven de Verenigde Staten voorbij 'flitste', was "zeer waarschijnlijk" een onderdeel van een Russische spionagesatelliet. Dat melden experts aan persbureau AP.

Boven het Rocky Mountains-gebied in de VS was te zien hoe het heldere object uiteenviel en langzaam richting het noorden bewoog. Tientallen inwoners van New Mexico tot Montana maakten een melding van de ongebruikelijke waarneming, die 's avonds op 2 september te zien was in de lucht. Ooggetuigen omschreven het verschijnsel als drie "stenen met gloeiende rode en oranje strepen". "Ze waren kleurrijk en snel, ik heb nog nooit zoiets gezien."

Ging het daadwerkelijk om een meteoriet of een ander hemellichaam? Nee, zeggen experts. "Een meteoriet zou veel te snel opgebrand zijn om vanuit zo"n breed gebied gespot te worden", legt Mike Hankey van de American Meteor Society uit aan AP.

Het was waarschijnlijk een onderdeel van een Russische verkenningssatelliet, die afgelopen mei gelanceerd werd, vertelt Charles Vick, een veiligheidsexpert bij militaire denktank GlobalSecurity.org. Deze satelliet is ontworpen om foto's te nemen en terug naar aarde te sturen.

"Oogje in het zeil"
Volgens John Pike, directeur van GlobalSecurity.org, wil Rusland "vliegtuigen, schepen, tanks, fabrieken, nieuwe voorzieningen van de inlichtingendienst, en dat soort dingen in de gaten houden". De satellieten zijn op zoek naar doelen voor nucleaire wapens, aldus Pike. "Ze zijn naar dezelfde dingen op zoek als onze spionagesatellieten."

Volgens Rusland is er echter niks aan de hand. "Onze satellieten functioneren naar behoren", laat Igor Konashenkov, woordvoerder van het Russische ministerie van Defensie, weten. "Men kan slechts gissen naar de gesteldheid van de vertegenwoordigers van die zogenaamde American Meteor Society toen zij een lichtgevend fenomeen identificeerden als een Russische militaire satelliet."

Geschat wordt dat er momenteel 98 spionagesatellieten in de ruimte zijn, gelanceerd door minstens zes landen, zegt Jonathan McDowell, een astronoom aan het Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 37 daarvan zijn afkomstig van de VS, 30 van China, en slechts 3 van Rusland. "Het grootste deel van die satellieten is oud, en waarschijnlijk de helft is momenteel actief."

Lees ook

• Ariane-draagraket gelanceerd in Frans-Guyana
• Europese satellieten in verkeerde baan 'zijn gezond'

Strange Beings of Light Chasing Trains in Russia?

(Before It's News)

This spectacular video, was recorded in Russia a few months ago, concerns the sighting of a mysterious ball of light chasing a train along the way between Nizhniy Novgorod, Izhevsk.