Comet claim for mysterious Wow signal sparks controversy

Keith Cooper

A controversial claim that the famous ‘Wow!’ signal was produced by comets and not extraterrestrial intelligence has been met with scepticism by radio astronomers and comet experts, sparking a fresh debate about the nature of this mysterious signal.

The saga of the Wow! signal dates back to 1977, when a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) survey being conducted at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University Radio Observatory detected a powerful but unexplained burst of radio waves coming from the general direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The signal was at 1420MHz, which is the frequency of the 21cm wavelength radio waves emitted by neutral hydrogen in space. So the logic goes, any intelligent life out there transmitting signals for us to hear would know that our astronomers will be studying galactic hydrogen at 21cm and therefore be guaranteed to detect their signal. Hence, the Big Ear’s survey was conducted at 1420MHz/21cm.

Now Antonio Paris of St Petersburg College in Florida and the Center for Planetary Science, which is a non-profit research organisation based in the United States, has published new results which he argues proves that the Wow! signal was actually produced by a comet that was in the vicinity at the time. Paris followed up on this comet, 266/P Christensen, and performed radio observations with a dedicated ten-metre radio telescope to test his theory. Writing in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, he confirms that his experiment did indeed detect a signal of 1420MHz from the comet.

However, not everyone is convinced. Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queens University Belfast who specialises in studying comets, dismisses Paris’ conclusion as “rubbish.” Aside from the fact that 1420MHz emission has never been detected from a comet before, Fitzsimmons points out that 266/P Christensen is a fairly quiet comet even at perihelion (its closest point to the Sun, which in Christensen’s case is over twice as far from the Sun as Earth, or 2.3 astronomical units).

“[Paris] has targeted a comet that has little activity when at perihelion,” Fitzsimmons tells Astronomy Now. “When he observed the comet it was over four astronomical units from the Sun, which means it would have been effectively inactive. There would have been no hydrogen coma to detect and therefore he could not have seen the comet.”

Seth Shostak, who is the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, agrees with Fitzsimmons. “I don’t know of any detection of the 21cm line of neutral hydrogen from a comet, and as I used to study galaxies in the neutral hydrogen line, I probably would have heard of that,” he says.

Paris is not troubled by this. “Astronomers have not detected hydrogen emission from comets because there has not been much research specifically on this subject,” he says. “While there has been a handful of studies, I suspect we are the first to build a ten-metre telescope to specifically look at this type of Solar System body.”

Another problem with the comet theory is that on 15 August 1977, the day that the Wow! signal was detected, the comet was in the wrong place. Bob Dixon, who was Director of the Ohio State University Radio Observatory at the time the Wow! signal was detected, points out that 266/P Christensen’s location was RA 18h 32m 15s, Declination –27º 22’, whereas the Wow! signal was either located at RA 19h 25m 31s, Declination –26º 57’, or RA 19h 28m 22s. Either way, 266/P Christensen would have been visible to the Big Ear 55 minutes earlier instead.

A signal that switched off

The uncertainty in the right ascension coordinates comes from the peculiarities of the Big Ear telescope. Rather than a traditional dish-like telescope, the Big Ear was composed of two reflectors stood on their sides, one flat and tilting, the other paraboloidal, either side of an aluminium plane on the ground that was larger than three football fields. The sky would rotate overhead in right ascension and radio waves would bounce off the reflectors and into two ‘feed horns’ that were the telescope’s detectors. Because the two feed horns were separated by 40 arcminutes in angular distance, a radio source passing overhead in the sky would appear in one horn, then disappear for 70 seconds of time, before reappearing in the second horn.

Curiously, the Wow! signal was only detected by one of the feed horns and, because of the way the data was collected and analysed, it was impossible to tell which feed horn that was. This means that the signal either switched itself on or off during those 70 seconds that it was between horns. Either it was a transient signal from some unknown astrophysical phenomenon, or the aliens turned their transmitter on or off during that 70 seconds gap.

Paris admits that this comet theory cannot explain why the signal was only seen in one feed horn. Although comets are constantly moving through the sky, unlike fixed objects such as stars, they do not move fast enough to have moved out of the line of sight of the Big Ear in just 70 seconds.

“The issue with the feed horns is something no one can explain, including me,” says Paris. “There is some data out there to suggest the issue is at the telescope end and not the phenomenon itself.”

Bob Dixon strongly disputes the idea that there was a technical fault. “Our telescope was working perfectly normally at the time and other radio astronomical objects on the same day were observed in both beams [into both horns],” he tells Astronomy Now.

Fact versus folklore

Despite the triple whammy of comets not being known to emit at 1420MHz, the unexplained detection by only one feed horn and the fact that 266/P Christensen was not in the correct location for the Wow! signal, Paris is nevertheless pushing ahead with his theory. He describes his work as a three-stage project. The first stage was the development of his hypothesis, the second stage was his radio observations that he has now published, and his third stage, which he hopes to publish in 2018, is an explanation of a mechanism describing why we would detect such strong neutral hydrogen emission from a comet, particularly one as inactive as 266/P Christensen.

Regarding the criticisms of his theory, the unflappable Paris is not concerned. “I suspect that SETI, who have used the Wow! signal as a source of revenue, are nervous,” he says. However, this is disputed by the fact that Shostak and his fellow scientists in the SETI community have frequently talked down the importance of the Wow! signal, pointing out that their experiments find signals like the Wow! signal, in that they are transient and never seen to repeat, all the time.

This August will see the fortieth anniversary of the Wow! signal, a milestone that will bring this mysterious signal, which has entered SETI folklore, into the media spotlight once again. Part of its enduring allure is the possibility that we will never really find out what it was, whether it was extraterrestrial intelligence or an unknown astrophysical phenomenon.

For now, Paris has work to do to convince other scientists like Seth Shostak that his theory is correct. Says Shostak, “I don’t think the idea that the Wow! signal was due to comets makes much sense.”

{ https://astronomynow.com/ }

The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week

Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.

Before Stonehenge

An aerial view of the site where two massive wooden palisades once stood of the landscape. Arcaheological excavations have revealed that around 3300 B.C., anicent people built huge wooden enclosures, then burnt them down to the ground, near what is now Avebury, England.

Credit: Historic England

A massive, wooden, eyeglass-shaped monument in Avebury, England, that was set alight in ancient ceremonies may be 800 years older than it was thought to be, new research suggests.

Workers in ancient times likely constructed the site first by digging large ditches and then placing oak posts into sockets in the earth, Whittle told Live Science. Then, they used the dug-out earth to backfill and cover the base of the posts and create a huge palisade. [Read more about the strange site.]

Sequencing a Mummy

Scientists sequenced DNA from mummies from the settlement of Abusir el-Meleq, south of Cairo, and were buried between 1380 B.C. and A.D. 425.

Credit: bpk/Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, SMB/Sandra Steiss

For the first time, researchers have successfully sequenced the DNA from Egyptian mummies. The findings reveal that these ancient people were more genetically similar to populations living in the eastern Mediterranean — a region that today includes Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Iraq — than people living in modern-day Egypt.

Worldwide, the remains of thousands of mummies from ancient Egypt have been excavated, but obtaining intact, undamaged DNA from the bodies has proved challenging. [Read more about the mummy DNA.]

Measuring a Star's Mass

This image shows an Einstein ring (middle right), which occurs when a massive object acts like a lens for light coming toward the observer from a background object. This phenomenon is known as gravitational lensing, and recently used for the first time to measure the mass of an individual star.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

The mass of Stein 2051 B, a white dwarf star located about 18 light-years from Earth, has been a subject of some controversy for over a century. Now, a group of astronomers has finally made a precise measurement of the star's mass and settled a 100-year-old debate, using a cosmic phenomenon first predicted by Albert Einstein.

Einstein's theory of general relativity hypothesized that space is flexible rather than fixed, and that massive objects (like stars) create curves in space, sort of like a bowling ball creating a curve on the surface of a mattress. The degree to which an object warps space-time depends on how massive that object is (similarly, a heavier bowling ball puts a deeper imprint on a mattress). [Read more about the experiment in relativity.]

'Thinking' Flora

Plant seeds have miniature "brains" that help them decide when to germinate. Two different regions in the root tip of the embryo release opposing hormones. When the "go" hormone levels outcompete the "stop" hormone levels, the seed germinates.

Credit: George Bassel and Matthew Jackson

Plant seeds may use miniature "brains" to help them decide whether to sprout or stay dormant, new research suggests.

The idea that plants can feel, hear or see is not new; researchers have shown that seedlings arc toward sounds of certain frequencies or hasten their growth when a competing species is planted nearby. And plants can communicate with each other when danger is nearby, according to a 2007 study in the journal Oecologia. [Read more about the plant's brain.]

Older Than We Know

The oldest bones of Homo sapiens were found at the archaeological site of Jebel Irhoud. Here, a view of the site showing the remaining deposits and people excavating them (center). Some 300,000 years ago, this site, which would have been a cave, was occupied by early hominins.

Credit: Shannon McPherron/MPI EVA Leipzig

The oldest known bones of our species, dating back around 300,000 years, have been discovered in a cave in Morocco.

Archaeologists uncovered the human fossils, including a partial skull and a lower jaw, during excavations at the archaeological site of Jebel Irhoud in Morocco that began in 2004. But the site has a much earlier excavation history: Scientists first found some of the remains of these same individuals, along with stone tools, in the 1960s during mining operations. [Read more about the oldest fossils.]

Hunting Snakes

Researchers found that cave-dwelling Cuban boas will oordinate their hunts to increase their chances of catching prey.

Credit: Vladimir Dinets/University of Tennessee

When cave-dwelling Cuban boas fancy a meal, they band together to hunt for bats by concealing themselves along the cave entrance and forming a wall of deadly snakes before launching their coordinated strikes, according to a new study on the rare occurrence of snakes hunting in packs.

And coordination among snakes to catch prey has never been proved, said study author Vladimir Dinets, a professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, who specializes in animal behavior. [Read more about the snake packs.]

Lost Mind of St. John Bosco

Parts of the brain of St. John Bosco are kept in glass behind the altar at the basilica of Castelnuovo, near Turin, Italy.

Credit: Andrea Cherchi

When pilgrims lined up in a church in northern Italy to pray before the relic of St. John Bosco, the revered founder of the Salesian religious order, on Saturday (June 3), they encountered a sign with an unexpected message: "Closed. Under construction."

As pressure mounted over the puzzling sign, the church revealed a shocking truth: Someone had stolen preserved brain bits of a saint. [Read more about the missing aircraft.]

Herbs and Mental Risks

A man in Italy who had developed psychosis — meaning he lost touch with reality — did so after consuming an herbal tea made with St. John's wort, according to a recent report of this case.

The case in Italy involved a 25-year-old man who was admitted to the hospital after two of his friends, who accompanied him to the hospital, told the doctors that he had been acting strangely in the past few days. The man behaved as if he were under the influence of an illegal drug, the friends said. [Read more about the unusual case.]

Instinct vs. Problem Solving

For more than a millennium, scholars have noticed a curious correlation: Atheists tend to be more intelligent than religious people.

But why does this association exist? Dutton set out to find answer, thinking that perhaps it was because nonreligious people were more rational than their religious brethren, and thus better able to reason that there was no God, he wrote. [Read more about differences.]

Novel Approach to Addiction

As heroin-related deaths soar in the United States, a group of researchers said they may be one step closer to developing a vaccine that could block the drug's addictive high.

Heroin produces a high by activating the opioid receptors in the nervous system, triggering feelings of euphoria. The danger is that the drug can also cause the body's systems to become too relaxed, causing a slowdown in breathing. A common cause of death among people who overdose on heroin is respiratory arrest. That is, the person stops breathing and dies. [Read more about the vaccine.]

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

{  https://www.livescience.com/ }

Photographer accidentally captures large UFO over Copper Mountain, Colorado

I was a front-seat passenger riding on HWY 70, a few miles North East from Copper Mountain, Colorado on June 1, 2017

We exited onto exit 190, near the Vail Pass Rest Area to take photos of the snow and the semi-frozen lake (Black Lake).

As we approached Black Lake on the service road, I began snapping photos of the lake. 4 passengers in our vehicle proceeded to exit the vehicle and take additional photos of the snow in the area and also Black Lake.

Once we were on our way back onto Hwy 70, I began to view all of my photos, and to my surprise, I had captured a UFO.

After much review of the photo, I have ruled out that the object captured in my photo could be a smashed bug on the windshield, a light from inside/outside the vehicle, an airplane, or any other reasonable object. We did not hear a sound before, during, or after the photo.

At this time of day (6:25pm) the sun was to my East (left in the photo) and you can clearly see the sun light on the top the UFO and a shadow below the UFO.

While I was snapping the photo, I was only looking at my phone screen and at the Black Lake to ensure I was centered on the lake. The driver was not looking in the direction of the UFO to notice it, and the 2 passengers were looking at their respective phones at the time that I snapped this photo.

So, there was no one that saw the UFO at the moment the photo was taken. The photo was simply taken at the exact moment this UFO was passing over the tree tops and across Black Lake. Mufon case 84246.

Link to original large sized image:

{  http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.be/ }

Earth Faces an Increased Risk of Being Hit by an Asteroid, Astronomers Warn

Credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock

Earth may be threatened by a newly discovered branch of a stream of meteoroids, increasing the risk that the planet will be struck by a meteoroid or asteroid.
 
A team of astronomers from the Czech Academy of Sciences announced the findings on Tuesday after studying the Taurid meteoroid stream. The stream produces a meteor shower that usually has a long period of activity in October and November and produces a low number of meteors. The meteors — light phenomena that are seen when a meteoroid enters the planet’s atmosphere and vaporizes, also referred to as “shooting stars” — occur when Earth’s orbit plows into the stream of debris left behind by Comet Encke.
 
Most of these particles are quite tiny and pose no threat whatsoever, but the Czech astronomers have tracked a new branch of the stream from which particles are intersecting with the planet. The branch includes two asteroids with diameters of between 200 and 300 meters (roughly 650-1000 feet). These asteroids are not themselves on a collision course with Earth, but their identification suggests that there may be other asteroids of this size or larger lurking undiscovered within this stream.
 
As such, the astronomers are urging a concentrated search for more Taurid asteroids, to see if any potentially threatening ones exist.
 
“Since asteroids of sizes of tens to hundreds meters pose a threat to the ground even if they are intrinsically weak, impact hazard increases significantly when the Earth encounters the Taurid new branch every few years,” they write in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. “Further studies leading to [a] better description of this real source of potentially hazardous objects, which can be large enough to cause significant regional or even continental damage on the Earth, are therefore extremely important.”
 
It’s worth noting, however, that no threatening objects have yet been discovered.Though the prospect of continental damage and regional catastrophe coming from space is alarming, more observations will be needed before drawing conclusions based on the Czech team’s research.

RELATED: What to Do With Nukes? Blow Up Dangerous Comets, of Course

NASA is regularly working to anticipate the possible collision of a massive cosmic particle with Earth and assess any potential impact risks. It operates a collision monitoring system called Sentry that routinely scans for asteroids and determines the likelihood of impact over the next 100 years. It also freely catalogs these rocky bodies at the JPL Small-Body Database Browser.
 
The debris stream from Comet Encke is influenced in part by the gravity of Jupiter, a massive gas giant planet that is known to influence the orbits of comets and asteroids in that region of the solar system. As such, from time Jupiter’s gravity can redirect the debris so that more particles hit the Earth.

A bright Taurid fireball is recorded at the NASA All Sky Fireball Network station in Tullahoma, Tennessee, in 2014.

Credit: NASA During one of these “enhanced” Taurid meteor showers in 2015 caused by Encke’s redirection, the astronomers from the Czech Academy of Sciences analyzed 144 Taurid fireballs — meteors that produce a large flash when they hit the atmosphere. Observations were taken from the European Fireball Network.
 
Of the analyzed fireballs, about 113 of them have common characteristics, including sharing approximately the same orbit. The astronomers concluded, based on previous showers, that these fireballs come from a new branch of the Taurid stream being redirected by Jupiter’s gravity.

RELATED: We're Planning to Shoot an Asteroid to See What Happens 

Next, the astronomers analyzed the orbital paths of asteroids 2015 TX24 and 2005 UR. Due to their similarities to the newly discovered path of the Taurid fireballs, the astronomers in turn argued that these two asteroids — each about 200-300 meters in diameter — are also members of the new branch.
 
Analysis of the fireballs suggests that the large asteroids are weak in structure, although at larger sizes they would not break up easily in the Earth’s atmosphere.
 
A few years ago, NASA created a Planetary Defense Coordination Office to bring together the observations of all US networks looking for near-Earth asteroids, and to help come up with plans in the unlikely chance that the Earth is under threat. You can read more about the office’s work at its website. Other countries, such as the European Union, have similar asteroid observation networks in place.

Original article on Seeker.

Editor's Recommendations

• When Space Attacks: The 6 Craziest Meteor Impacts
  • Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End
  • The 7 Strangest Asteroids: Weird Space Rocks in Our Solar System

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

'Burst of light' burns through sky above stunned drivers at notorious UFO hotspot

A DRIVER filmed the moment a gigantic flaming ball fell from the sky in front of him in astonishing footage.

By Zoe Drewett 

The fireball was said to be so big it was visible in skies above Maryland, Washing DC and Virginia, US.

In the clip, filmed on a driver’s dashboard camera, the mysterious sphere lights up the night sky as it rockets past.

Two people inside the car simultaneously gasp and say “wow” as the glowing orb emerges.

It quickly loses its glow, with the sky descending back into darkness.

TWITTER

The bizarre burst of light was thought to be a shooting star but was later determined to be a meteor.

It appears bright because it is burning up as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere.

This fireball or meteor was reported to the American Meteor Society 28 times.

If a fireball or meteor were to reach Earth's surface, it would be called a meteorite.

Small meteors pass through our atmosphere almost every day, but most go undetected.

But UFO hunters believe this isn’t the first time the sky above Maryland has been visited by an unknown object.

There were actually six UFO sightings reported in Maryland in December alone last year, with four more in January 2017 alone.

TWITTER

STUNNED: The drivers couldn't believe their eyes

There were more than 100 UFO sightings clocked over the last year according to the National UFO Reporting Centre.

One of the most widely reported, over picturesque Chesapeake Bay on the US East Coast, was said to be bright burning lights speeding through the sky in a triangular shape.

“It was very bright, pulsating and moving at incredible speed, not an aircraft,” one witness reported.

The clip comes just a day after a similarly shocking sight was spotted in the sky off the coast of England.

A giant fireball said to be brighter than the moon, fell to Earth on the Devon coast, but was so large it could be seen as far away as northern France.

• ‘THIS alien invasion is even STRANGER than Roswell’ claims UFO hunter
• Giant fireball 'brighter than the moon' falls to Earth off British coast
• NASA makes BOMBSHELL alien discovery: This is where life could exist on Mars

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

Curiosity Rover's Trove Of Mineral Data Reveals Secrets Of Mars' 'Ancient Water'

VIDEO: Aliens visiting us from time immemorial? In Egypt, they found evidence!

According to various theories planet Earth extraterrestrial beings visiting for a very long time. And even before the first reported cases of UFO sightings in modern history.

Egyptian hieroglyphics are fascinating, and not without reason called the Cosmic Gods Word, which gave Thoth.

I took the liberty to translate the hieroglyphic writing interesting text: “In the twenty second decade reign, the third month of winter and the sixth day. When studying in the House of Life was seen as an odd fiery disc arrives from the sky and the smell of his bowels. Disk size was equal in length and in width. Making no sound.

Then also he appeared at the house of His Majesty. Our hearts were confused, and we fell on the belly to the ground. Some of us went Majesty to report this event. Our Lord commanded, it is necessary to consult this event scrolls, which are located in the House of Life. His Majesty meditated on all these events that are happening now

After several days, the disks have become more numerous in the sky than ever. They shone in the sky over the brightness of the sun, and spread to all four sides of heaven and remained motionless in the air state.

Our army watched with His Majesty in their midst. It was after the evening when disks rise still higher in the sky towards the south. Fish and a variety of birds raining from the sky. A phenomenon never before known since the foundation of the country. His Majesty meditate incense to be lulled heart of Amun-Re, the God of both countries. It happened that the incident was recorded by His Majesty to the Archives of the House of Life, there to remain registered forever. “

Thus is the translation of the text of the old Egyptian empire that brought Alberto Tulli from Cairo 1933. Tulliho papyrusTulli was head of the Egyptian section of the Vatican Museum. In 1933 he arrived in Cairo, where he had previously stayed many times. Walking street bazaars and antique shops, where they can be appear genuine rarities, which is getting rid of robbers tombs. In one such shop he noticed Tulli papyrus, which was a special text. Certainly he did not understand as we do today. Then the talk about UFOs. Svitek he was impressed and encouraged dealers to trade. However, the vendor demanded an exorbitant sum, therefore, at least Tulli copied the text with hieroglyphs.

{ http://alienonymous.com/ }

Bob Lazar, John Lear & The Secret Space Program

How Earth Would Cope With An Actual Alien Invasion

BY : NIGEL WATSON

When flying saucers visit Earth they are immediately blasted out of the sky by all the military resources we can throw at it – Well, that’s the Hollywood way of dealing with things.

In reality, how would we deal with the prospect of alien visitations? It’s a question that has taunted us for decades, and a range of scenarios run from the plausible to the outright incredible.

On the possibility of direct attack, Professor Stephen Hawking claims ET contact is dangerous, because they ‘may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria’.

The Debate

Theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku warns:

If they are hostile, it would be like Bambi meeting Godzilla if we ever had to fight them…we would present no military challenge to such an advanced civilisation…We would be a pushover for them. Forget all the Hollywood movies.

Ryan Sprague, the author of Somewhere in the Skies notes that so far UFOs don’t seem to represent an alien threat to humanity:

It would appear that we’ve been so aggressively conditioned to believe an invasion would be catastrophic and benevolent beyond comprehension, that any advanced civilisation would come to our planet with an agenda of taking over and using our resources to it’s advantage.

While I can understand this pessimistic view, the decades and decades of possible alien visitation here on the planet already, and the countless UFO sightings throughout the world, would indicate that if they were to do such a thing, they would have done it already.

Could Aliens Even Reach Earth?

UFO sceptic Robert Sheaffer isn’t too concerned about the threat of an alien invasion either, he says:

Well, I would worry about an alien invasion about as much as I would worry about a Zombie Apocalypse. Both are equally implausible.

First, any supposed alien invaders would have to find us. Given that they would be at least several light years away in some other solar system, and probably much farther than that, finding us and learning what earth is like is not so easy.

Second, they need to somehow get here, which is very difficult, even if we assume they have advanced technology, because fundamental physics tells us that they would need insanely large amounts of energy to accelerate space ships to relativistic speeds – and then to decelerate them when they arrive.

Even nuclear fusion power is woefully inefficient compared to what would be needed. If they are bringing along scary armaments and supplies, that’s just more mass to add to their armada.

Protection And The Lack Thereof

Whatever the facts of UFOs as alien invaders, what should we do to protect ourselves other than to have a tin foil hat at the ready?

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and their Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (CUPUOS) is not geared for such possibilities.

UNOOSA director Simonetta Di Pippo tells us:

UNOOSA and COPUOS Member States consider a range of space science and space exploration topics, fields in which the topic of astrobiology sits. However, the Office for Outer Space Affairs has been given no mandate by Member States to consider the question of potential advanced or intelligent extraterrestrial life.

For this reason there is no protocol or process for any contact by extraterrestrial life.

The Threat Of Artificial Intelligence

Michael Michaud author of ‘Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials’ (2007) says we shouldn’t be concerned because as he observes in his book, ‘UFO advocates have not yet proven their thesis that some UFOs are visitors from other worlds. I also said that aliens stepping out of a spacecraft on the Earth may be the least likely form of contact.’

He goes on to wonder, ‘Why would extraterrestrials make such a long journey? If they are capable of interstellar flight, they won't need the Earth's territory or resources.’

Michael thinks, ‘A more likely scenario is a visit by an unmanned interstellar probe equipped with artificial intelligence. Intelligent machines don't need the massive spacecraft required to transport biological beings over vast distances, and they are patient.'

Invisible Defence In The War Of The Worlds

‘Assuming they do somehow get here,’ says Robert Sheaffer ‘presumably it is because they believe that they can live on our Earth, if they can only get rid of us. H.G. Wells was onto something when he had his fictional Martian invaders killed off by earthly microbes. Our bodies consist of not just 'us,' but an entire biome of separate organisms: the bacteria in our gut, microbes and mites living on our skin, etc.

Sheaffer adds:

It is doubtful that our bodies could survive in an entirely alien biosphere with different parasites, different foods, etc. The same problem would apply to any alien beings who might come here.

Sprague agrees that, ‘we simply can't even begin to comprehend their genetic make-up, whether or not they posses any type of progressive knowledge, or even if they harbour emotions, empathy, ethics, or morals.’

A Technological Gamble

Malcolm Robinson founder of Strange Phenomena Investigations (SPI) observes that situations of contact between human civilisations set a disturbing precedent:

We have learned that when any technological superior race gets involved with an inferior race the inferior race usually comes off worse (as the history of this planet has shown). We can only hope that when that day comes, when another technological race meets mankind it will not prove to be disastrous and to our disadvantage.

That is a good reason for not trying to send signals out to alien civilisations in our galaxy, but has the horse already bolted as our planet has already beamed radio messages out to celestial targets since 1962?

Michael Michaud says we shouldn’t worry:

The vast majority of those signals are too weak to reach the distance of the nearest star. As Frank Drake has pointed out, we actually are becoming less detectable because of changes in the way we use radio technology. The powerful one-time message he sent from Arecibo in 1974 was aimed at a distant star cluster, not at nearby stars.

A United Front

Philip Mantle, Veteran UFO researcher, author and publisher at FLYING DISK PRESS , doesn’t think UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin, but says if we were invaded we would cope with the situation and ‘Mankind would hope to pull together as one to stand up to any such invasion.’

Sprague, is equally optimistic:

I believe that factions of the world would unite...and others would separate. Science and religion would be shattered overnight, but would continue.

Our hope would be to benefit and expand our own sciences and core beliefs by finding some way to communicate with this advanced civilisation.

What If We Don't Know We've Been Invaded?

Neuro-psychologist, Gabriel G. De la Torre, professor at the University of Cádiz thinks there is a distinct possibility of aliens visiting, but says:

I am not sure we will be fully conscious about it. The main problem in this topic is it has been approached in a very simplistic way.

I don't think we can be a real problem for Cosmos in any way. It is more probable we may be researched rather than destroyed.

Stealth is a possible approach, however I can not imagine an equal to equal agreement with people of Earth....I don't think we could even understand their strategy.

As to whether they might secretly manipulate humanity, Gabriel says:

I think this could actually happen even without humans noticing...

If they conform to another consciousness state of mind they could try to operate in our belief systems and consciousness in a subtle way until a more physical approach is convenient for both sides of the communication process. This could be a gradual process.

Even in the radio message approach, this may happen. I don't believe they will exchange codes, numbers and pictures in the same way we are trying to do. These messages if they happen anytime will have a deeply rooted message direct to our own consciousness.

Reasons To Be Cheerful

If there is ever any kind of alien contact Malcolm Robinson, hopes it could be positive:

It will be both enlightening and wonderful which may change not just our technology but medicine and the way we look at ourselves in the cosmos. As a researcher into the UFO enigma I look forward with anticipation to that day which I hope will be in my lifetime.

So with bacteria, unity, perhaps a little humility, the prospect of an alien invasion needn't necessarily strike fear into our hearts. It could be the driving force behind bigger and better things.

Ultimately, we just don't know.

{ http://www.unilad.co.uk/ }

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

NASA waarschuwt: "Deze 10 nieuwe asteroïden bedreigen de aarde" - HLN.be

 Bron: NASA, NEOWISE

© thinkstock.

VIDEO Astronomen hebben gewaarschuwd voor een onverklaarbare verhoogde komeetactiviteit in de buurt van onze planeet. In een geanimeerde video die deze week gelanceerd werd, toont Nasa hoe 10 potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïden de aarde bedreigen.

Lees ook

• Net de Batmobiel: NASA onthult Mars rover-prototype dat mensen kan vervoeren
• NASA breekt zich het hoofd over mysterieuze kuil in 'Zwitserse kaas' op Mars
• NASA geeft uitleg over haar spectaculaire nieuwe missie naar de zon

De beelden komen van Neowise, het ruimteagentschap van NASA dat verantwoordelijk is voor het opsporen van asteroïden. Wetenschappers hebben het afgelopen jaar 10 nieuwe potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïden ontdekt, samen met 96 andere kometen. De experts die de gegevens analyseerden spreken van een onverklaarde toename in komeetactiviteit. "Het risico stijgt dat de aarde zal botsen met een asteroïde van de meteorietenregen Taurids", aldus Tsjechische astronomen. 

Zij ontdekten een nieuwe tak van Taurids met minstens twee asteroïden van ongeveer 200 tot 300 meter diameter. De Tsjechische Academie voor Wetenschappen meldt in een persbericht: "Heel waarschijnlijk schuilen in deze tak verschillende asteroïden met een diameter van tientallen meters die we nu niet kunnen zien. Het gevaar op een crash met een asteroïde groeit elke keer dat de planeet aarde deze stroom tegenkomt. Deze nieuwe tak van Taurids beweegt rond de zon en de aarde kruist deze om de paar jaar gedurende een periode van ongeveer drie weken. Tijdens deze periode neemt de kans op een botsing met een groter object aanzienlijk toe."

NASA geeft toe dat deze asteroïden erg kwetsbaar zijn, maar wanneer ze zo groot als deze exemplaren zijn, kunnen ze diep in de atmosfeer binnendringen. Dan wordt de kans op een crash met de aarde reëel. 

'Near Earth Object' (NEO) of 'Aardscheerder' is een komeet of asteroïde die uit koers raakt door de aantrekkingskracht van de planeten in ons zonnesysteem, hierdoor komen ze in de buurt van de aarde. Sinds de oprichting van Neowise in december 2013 werden 693 NEO's gevonden, 114 van hen zijn nieuw. Zo werden al verschillende asteroïden ontdekt die een risico vormen voor onze planeet, dit hangt voornamelijk af van hun grootte en hun baan. Een voorbeeld: de 2015 BN509 die in februari rakelings langs de aarde scheerde. Dat kende toen een goede afloop, maar wetenschappers waarschuwen dat de asteroïde kan terugkomen.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

ENORME UFO VERSCHIJNT  UIT DIMENSIEPORTAAL ( VIDEO )

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

Untold Stories: The day I saw an unidentified flying object

PHOTO: Alan Potter saw an unidentified flying object — but it wasn't this one. (ABC Open: landy6)

RELATED STORY: Do you have a sleepwalking horror story?

 

Alan Potter does not believe in aliens or UFOs.

But he still struggles to explain what he saw one day in August 1969 when he was servicing the radar at Adelaide Airport.

"I worked in the Department of Civil Aviation for 25 years, from 1964 till about 1990," Mr Potter told ABC Radio Adelaide's Mornings program.

"I still don't think I believe in UFOs but I can't explain this."

He was in his final year as an apprentice radio technician.

On that day almost 50 years ago Mr Potter was watching raw data from the radar head at the airport when something unusual happened.

"I was tracking a Fokker Friendship flying from Adelaide to Kingscote on Kangaroo Island," he said.

As the radar slowly turned, Mr Potter said it also pinged a large object near Port Lincoln.

He said this second craft appeared much larger than anything he had seen at that time.

"As the Fokker tracked towards Kangaroo Island, a smaller echo, much smaller than the Fokker, appeared to leave the large echo and fly in a line directly towards the [plane]."

He watched the two signals meet over the skies of Rapid Bay, south of Adelaide, and then saw the smaller object return to the larger one.

Each radar rotation took five seconds to complete.

"With one rotation of the radar antennae, that large echo had moved 70 nautical miles to the north-east," Mr Potter recalled.

"In the next pass it had disappeared off the screen completely."

Mr Potter said at the time he joked that it was a UFO that had sent out a smaller craft to look at the Fokker.

"I thought, 'no, don't be stupid' — but I have no other explanation."

Adelaide was a bit of a hotbed for UFO reports in the late 1960s.

Gawler's The Bunyip newspaper published several articles in 1969 of unexplained sightings and experiences.

Mr Potter's sighting was recorded with the Australian UFO Research Network in 2004.

But no corresponding reports were lodged by passengers or the pilots of the Fokker.

Untold Stories is a regular segment on ABC Radio Adelaide. If you have a tale to tell, email adelaidemornings@abc.net.au

Topics: offbeat, human-interest, adelaide-5000

Reflective UFO moves fast and erratic in Quintana Roo, Mexico 18-May-2017

Here’s one new footage of a bright orb that was flying across the sky above Quintana Roo in Mexico last month.

Witness report: 

I was recently in Quintana Roo Mexico and on 5/18/7 observed what appeared to be a metal object 3 to 5 miles off the coast moving in an erratic manner and not like any known aircraft I’d seen. A vivid reflection is what made me notice the tiny object. I watched the object for roughly 60 to 90 seconds before filming the attached video. I immediately knew it was odd and called to my wife to come and look. Before I could turn the recorder back on it moved upwards and disappeared. I’m usually not out looking for videos to post but wanted others to see what I’d seen and judge for themselves.

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

Former Arizona Governor Says Aliens Came To His State During Phoenix Lights

The Phoenix Lights is undoubtedly one of the most controversial mass UFO sightings in the world that took place 20 years ago. Many witnesses came forward speaking about the Phoenix Lights with credible backgrounds, including the former Governor of Arizona Fife Symington, 71, who was in service from 1990 to 1998.

Mr Symington revealed in a never before seen footage that he was a witness to the one of the biggest ever mass UFO sightings in the world, and he believed it was extra-terrestrial.

The incident remains one of the most puzzling UFO sightings with thousands of witnesses on record. The strange event happened on March 13, 1997, when many had seen large triangular UFOs drifting over Arizona and Phoenix with sizes that varied from a Boeing 747 to multiple football fields.

Mr Symington made the revelation in 2006 in an interview with UFO investigator James Fox, who just released the never before seen footage from the interview to coincide the 20th anniversary of the unusual mass event.

In the recently released footage, Mr Symington states he believes the UFO sighting went all the way up to the Pentagon. He says that they called the Pentagon and thought the latter knew there had been sightings but not talking about it.

According to official Air Force explanation, the UFOs were just flares, which Mr Symington described as a total bunk. Mr Symington notes that he has seen high-altitude flares and there is no way those lights were flares.

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

Creepy Stories and Theories About the Black Knight Satellite - PART I

Black Knight satellite conspiracy theories are so juicy you wanna believe them. From ancient civilizations to alien technology, the source material is too good to be denied. Nikola Tesla is even involved. Everything connected to Tesla is too good to be true, including David Bowie’s portrayal of him in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. Wait, and didn’t Nolan also direct The Dark Knight? Doesn’t that sound a lot like Black Knight? There’s another conspiracy for you right there.

The mythology of the Black Knight satellite is so dense and thorny critics dismissed it as a collection of unrelated tales. But if you look hard enough, it all fits together. So what is the Black Knight satellite? That’s the easy bit to explain – it’s an alien satellite that’s supposedly been orbiting earth for about 13,000 years.

This list takes you through Black Knight satellite theories one by one, connecting missing pieces. Is the Black Knight satellite real? Read through the facts to find out.

It Was Discovered by Nikola Tesla

Photo: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

In 1901, Tesla published an article in Collier’s Weekly detailing his experiments with electrical currents. He claims he experienced unexplained disturbances in electrical signals, and concludes that the source may have been extraterrestrials trying to communicate.

He wrote, “It was some time afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.”

A Norwegian Engineer Heard Its Signal Transmissions

Photo: YLE/Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

In 1927, amateur Norwegian radio operator Jørgen Hals discovered long delayed echoes (LDEs), which are echoes of short-wave transmissions. He couldn’t figure out what was causing the LDEs, and neither could anyone else; scientists still don’t know what causes them. One theory is that these echoes were the same signals Tesla heard—and they were coming from intelligent beings in space.

It Could Be a Bracewell Probe

Photo: NASA/Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

Tesla and Hals both heard radio signals they attributed to intelligent beings from space, but in 1960, Ronald Bracewell took things a step further by publishing a theory on how other life forms might try to communicate with us. According to Bracewell, they would fill a probe or satellite with all the information they wanted to communicate and launch it into space. The probe would then seek civilizations capable of interpreting its messages.

Such a probe is necessary because it can travel great distances, and would need to get close to whichever planet it was trying to communicate with in order to transmit its messages. Were the transmissions Tesla and Hals heard coming from such a satellite?

It Was First Sighted in 1954

Photo: Roswell Proof

In 1954, reports emerged that Dr. Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico spotted two satellites orbiting the Earth. LaPaz denied the claims, but it’s possible the government was trying to cover up the sighting.

There Was a Second Witness

Photo: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

Clyde Tombaugh, famed astronomer who discovered Pluto, was at UNM with Lincoln LaPaz during the supposed Black Satellite sighting. Tombaugh and LaPaz were doing secret research for the military on the existence of alien satellites and the origins of other unexplained phenomena. Tombaugh also denied the satellite reports, but in a much more cryptic manner than his colleague.

A Famed UFOlogist Backed the “Two Satellites” Theory

DAYTON, Ohio — Sputnik I exhibit in the Missile & Space Gallery at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo) Photo: U.S. Air Force/Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

The first satellite released into space, Sputnik 1, was launched by Russia in October 1957. In 1954, three years before Sputnik, retired Marine Corps Major Donald Keyhoe claimed that two satellites were orbiting Earth, and that Secretary of the Air Force Harold Talbott had personally seen one of them. Talbott denied the claims. Keyhoe was a UFO expert who wrote several nonfiction books on the subject and was taken quite seriously as a journalist.

A Sighting in 1960 Was Covered Up

Photo: mjcote6/flickr/CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

In February 1960, several magazines and newspapers reported on a mysterious satellite detected by the US military. No one knew where it came from. In March 1960, Time magazine claimed that the object was a retrorocket from a Discoverer satellite. See, when a satellite returns to Earth, it fires a retrorocket to slow its descent; the retrorocket has a parachute, and is supposed to be picked up by scout planes as it falls.

According to Time, when this particular Discoverer launched its retrorocket in August 1959, it disappeared, and no one noticed it orbiting for five months, even though the Department of Defense (DOD) employed people whose sole responsibility was monitoring objects in space. These DOD employees used a radar detector dubbed “Dark Fence” to help alert them to objects orbiting over the US. Here’s how Time explained the blunder:

“Instead of slowing the recovery capsule and bringing it down, the rocket’s thrust had increased the capsule’s speed and put it in a different and higher orbit, where it circled for five months before the still-inexperienced Dark Fence watchers noticed it. With this experience behind them. the space watchers could be expected to do better the next time a silent, unknown satellite starts criss-crossing the sky.”

With that stellar explanation, it’s no wonder some people believe Time’s story was a cover-up.

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }