The First X-Files: How Britain Investigated UFOs During World War I

Did the Red Baron really shoot down a flying saucer over the battlefields of World War I – and did an ‘Angel’ really save the lives of British troops?

Bizarrely, a team of British intelligence officers were assigned to investigate weird sightings in the skies in World War I – becoming the precursor of UFO investigators both real and fictional.

Most of us think of UFOs and mysterious sightings in the sky as a modern phenomenon – but ‘phantom airships’ became a huge panic in the early years of the Twentieth century, and regularly featured in newspapers.

By the time of World War I, a more scientific approach was needed.

A predecessor to MI5 – Military Observation Department Five (MO5), under the control of Lieutenant Colonel Kell – was assigned the task of classifying sightings in the air.

Amid panic about enemy airships, it was a military necessity to weed out ‘phantom airships’ from real aircraft sightings.

Nigel Watson, author of UFOs of the First World War says, ‘It can be regarded as the first ever official guide to studying UFO reports long before the CIA or any other organisation got with the subject when ‘flying saucer’ sightings were all the rage after WWII.

‘During WW! there were numerous reports of mysterious lights and objects moving about in the skies. These were studied by the Assistant Director of Military Aeronautics, a post held by Lieutenant Colonel W.S. Brancker; the department of Military Training; and by the Brancker and Kell can be regarded as the first Mulder and Scully who studied the flow of UFO-type reports that flowed into their offices.’

Lights in the sky

The reports sent to Brancker and Kell sound eerily like today’s UFO sightings – and came amid widespread panic not only about enemy airships but also more mysterious sightings.

A 1914 telegram from the Chief Constable of Lancashire said, ‘Large red light seen at 8.45pm today passing over Runcorn Bridge Arches. Immediately afterwards, an explosion was heard in Widnes and Runcorn.

The guidelines set out by the war office helped officers of MO5 categorise sightings as of natural origin – or as something more mysterious.

Flying saucers

Various legends about extraterrestrials have circulated about World War I – of which the most astonishing (and implausible) is that German fighter ace the Red Baron shot down a UFO.

Fellow pilots claimed, after the war, that Baron Manfred von Richtofen shot down a flying saucer type craft – from which two inhabitants fled.

Fellow German pilot Peter Waitzrick said that the fighters saw an aircraft like an upside down saucer, ‘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.

‘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.

The story is highly dubious, however – given that Waitzrick didn’t share his story until 80 years after the event, and chose to do so in the U.S. tabloid Weekly World News.

The disappearing soldiers

UFO fans claim that aliens may have ‘abducted’ people from the battlefields of World War I – with a claim of hundreds of men ‘vanishing’ into a cloud during the Gallipoli campaign.

Witnesses claimed to have seen British soldiers marching towards Hill 60 at Sulva Bay in Turkey on August 21, 1915 – before being snatched up by a ‘solid-looking’ cloud.

A statement from a supposed eye-witness published in 1965, said, ‘When they arrived at this cloud they marched straight into it with no hesitation, but no one ever came out to fight. About an hour later this cloud very unobtrusively lifted off the ground until it joined other similar clouds, then they all moved away northwards.’

But it seems likely that this is a hoax. Documents released after the Armistice suggest that 180 bodies found behind enemy lines are those of the ‘missing soldiers’ – and the story of the cloud is a myth.

The ‘Angel’ of Mons

An ‘Angel’ which many British soldiers credited with saving their lives in one of the first, brutal battles of World War I has been seized on by UFO fans as evidence of extraterrestrials…

Many soldiers credited the strange apparitions with saving their lives – and the story became a staple of parish magazines.

The battle had been one of the first in which the British faced the Germans – and despite retreating, only 1,600 lives were lost.

Decades later, debate rages still – some attributing the ‘Angel’ to a short story from the Evening Standard, others to British intelligence.

The popular author, Arthur Machen claimed that this legend was created by his fictional ‘The Bowmen’ story published in The Evening News, 29 September 1914.

In it, British soldiers call on St George for aid, and are helped by ghostly bowmen from the Battle of Agincourt. One fact that lends weight to this theory is that few reports of the incident exist before Machen’s story.

Nigel Watson, author of UFOs of World War 1 says, ‘Even today the legend is swathed in controversy. Theories about it range from it being a myth based on Machen’s story, the product of hallucinations due to stress and exhaustion, real angelic visitations, ghosts, swamp gas, airships or alien UFOs projecting or shaping themselves to the expectations of the witnesses.’

(Images: Rex/Nigel Watson)

Source uk.news.yahoo.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

NASA OPENLY ADMITS ALIEN LIFE EXISTS: GET READY FOR DISCLOSURE

Most people ‘in the know’ realize that NASA is just part of the military industrial complex, but a recent open admission on mainstream news that “there are indications of alien life” is likely the beginning of a bid to get your undivided attention before full-forced disclosure ensues.

{ http://article4science.blogspot.be/ }

NASA ADMITS: SOMEONE TOOK CONTROL OVER SPACE PROBE VOYAGER 2 AND SENT DATA IN AN UNKNOWN LANGUAGE

NASA have revealed that a curious incident in 2010 might be firm evidence that an alien species is attempting to create communication links with humanity. In 2010, Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft powered by human beings to leave the known solar system. According to NASA expert Kevin Baines, at the time that the craft entered interstellar space, it became to send communications to the base on Earth in a language that was totally incomprehensible to the scientists who received it.

{ http://article4science.blogspot.be/ }

Pictured: The mysterious passenger jets that fly from Las Vegas to America's most secret military base... Area 51

• The fleet, nicknamed Janet Airlines, operates from McCarran Airport 
• None of the planes carry logos and you can't buy a ticket for their service
• Conspiracy theorists claim Area 51 in Nevada houses UFO technology 

By Ted Thornhill for MailOnline

A fleet of passenger aircraft is stabled at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport that it's impossible to buy tickets for.

They don't carry any company logos – they're plain white with a red band down the side - and anyone who boards one is sworn to secrecy about where they're going and what they do for a living.

The reason that the aircraft, mostly Boeing 737s, are so shadowy in nature, is because they serve America's most secret military base, Area 51 in Nevada, which conspiracy theorists claim houses UFO technology.

Scroll down for video 

At Las Vegas McCarran International Airport is a fleet of passenger aircraft (pictured) it's impossible to buy tickets for - because they fly to the US's secret Area 51 military base

They are run by the United States Air Force and operate from a private terminal at McCarran nicknamed Gold Coast, according to Flight Club.

The fleet does have a name of sorts – Janet Airlines, because that's the call sign the planes in it use while in civilian airspace.

From Las Vegas they fly north-west to a place that has what's widely regarded as the most restricted airspace in the world, the Area 51 base in the Nevada Test and Training Range.

In fact, Flight Club calls it 'restricted airspace inside restricted airspace'.

It claims that once the Janet aircraft approach this secretive area their call signs change from the likes of 'Janet 210' to 'bones 58'.

Once they touch down, the passengers disembark into a facility that's inspired countless books, TV shows and movies, but about which very little is known.

The Area 51-bound planes are run by the United States Air Force and operate from a private terminal at McCarran nicknamed Gold Coast (pictured)

UFO expert Nick Pope said: 'Area 51 [pictured] exists - it's part of a military testing range in Nevada - and because of the remote and sparsely-populated location, it's where various secret prototype aircraft and drones are developed and test flown'

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Roswell’s Unanswered UFO Questions

Something crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, 68 years ago. The first military authorized press release stated, “RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field) Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch In Roswell Region.” That’s right, the military was the first to indicate it was a flying saucer.

The military later revealed that this wasn’t a simple weather balloon, but an aircraft used for clandestine purposes — part of the Army’s top secret “Project Mogul”— to monitor atomic weapon testing in the old Soviet Union. The military also claimed that crash test dummies may have been mistaken for ETs. But that explanation only stirred the controversy.

The central figure surrounding the events of the 1947 Roswell UFO issue was Maj. Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer for the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell Army Air Field. He was assigned the initial task of going out to the debris field to collect some of the material, described as shiny wreckage, including pieces of rubber, super-resistant tinfoil, wooden sticks and metallic-looking I-beams.

Here’s an excerpt from a 35-year-old interview conducted by this writer with Marcel, when he finally felt comfortable talking about the Roswell case more than 30 years after it happened:

We went out to the scene of where the crash was and started picking up the debris. It’s almost indescribable. It’s not the kind of material I’d ever seen in my life, nor have I seen it since. There were various types of materials which I couldn’t identify. There were little members that looked like they were made of wood, but it wasn’t wood and it had some kind of writing or hieroglyphics that I couldn’t decipher and nobody else could. It was flexible, but you couldn’t break it and you couldn’t burn it.

Also, I found a piece of metal which was about the thickness of the foil in a pack of cigarettes. But the amazing part about it was you could put it on the ground, hit it with a sledge hammer and you couldn’t even put a dent in it. That astounded me and I knew it was nothing from here. I was convinced it was not from anywhere on Earth and I’m still convinced of that.

I had brought a counterintelligence man with me in a staff car plus a pickup truck. We got everything we could into that and I sent the agent back to the base. Then I filled up my car with stuff. By the time I got back home, my wife said, ‘What happened to you? There’s been a bunch of news reporters out here, wanting a picture of you.’ And I said, ‘For what?’ And there had been a public relations officer with them. He said, ‘From what happened, your husband will be very popular by tomorrow morning.’ So that’s how it all started.

What amazed me most of all was the weightlessness of all this material — it weighed nothing. I found one piece of metal — supposedly metal — which was about a foot wide and about two-and-a-half feet long. When I got back to the base, we [Marcel and several enlisted men] brought it all into a briefing room and set up a whole lot of tables there. One of the men said, ‘Let me see if I can put some of those parts together, to see what the thing might have looked like.’ He came back later and said [he tried but couldn’t do it].

I consulted my CO [commanding officer], who said, ‘You better fly the thing to Wright-Patterson Air Field [Ohio]. So, we loaded up the whole thing — which was not a whole lot of material — onto a B-29. We had only picked up one small fraction of what was out there. It was scattered over such an area about three-quarters of a mile long and several hundred feet wide. We’d been there all day, picking up the fragments.

I asked my CO if it was a better idea to stop at Carswell [Air Force Base] at Fort Worth and consult General Ramey and he said, ‘Yes, you better do that.’ When I got to Fort Worth, I talked it over with the general, and he told me, ‘Don’t open your mouth to the press. Put some stuff on the floor and let them take a picture of it.’ But I was careful not to put out anything with detail on it. So they took pictures, and one picture appeared in the papers. (See image below)

Gen. Ramey told news reporters this was nothing but a crashed weather balloon, but I do know this: later on, Ramey wanted to cover his statement up, because he didn’t know, himself, what it was. I went back to Roswell to resume my duties, but what they did at Carswell was to make a mock display with a battered weather balloon and they let the press take pictures of that. The whole thing was a cover-up to begin with and that was the last I heard of it.

I know it was not a weather balloon and I’d swear it on the biggest bible. It wasn’t a missile or any part of an aircraft that we know of.

Source www.huffingtonpost.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

HUMANS WORKING ALONG SIDE ALIENS IN AREA 51, CHILLING STORIES AND STOLEN FOOTAGE!

Bill Uhouse, then a 71 year old man, claimed to have been a Area 51 engineer and revealed that he use to work in collaboration with a Grey Alien at the Area 51 site. Bill Uhouse claimed to have worked with an alien he dubbed “J-Rod” who helped him in understanding how to control the alien vehicle. Bill Uhouse passed away in 2009.

EACH RACE IS THOUSANDS OF YEARS MORE ADVANCED THAN US READ MORE:

Many people in the past have come forward with information and many have a lot of things in common. Here are some of them…

1. There is a massive underground system composed of bases and compounds. These facilities contain labs, workshops for reverse engineering and secure “rooms” for the “Extraterrestrial Biological Entities” or EBEs for short.

2. In relation to number one, these bases were constructed toward the end of the Truman Administration.

3. Multiple humanoid races exist.

4. A race of “Greys”. Three types: Tall or “Large” Greys. Short Greys and Greys the average human height as well.

5. A race of tall “Nordic” Human Extraterrestrials with large eyes.

6. There is even mention of a “Reptilian” race by many as well.

7. Each race is thousands of years more advanced than us. We are basically newborns in the galactic community of intelligence.

8. A treaty was signed between the U.S. and the Greys during the Eisenhower administration and a trade began. We would receive alien technology in exchange for a certain number of humans. The Greys use humans for biological research and possibly attempting to create hybrids to save their dying race

You’ll get chills down your spine once he begins to describe the extraterrestrials: 

Source www.disclose.tv

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

Caltech scientists working on new microscope in search for alien life

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is one of the places scientists are looking for microscopic life.

By Immanuel Jotham

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is one of the places scientists are looking for microscopic life NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via Getty Images

Related topics : NASA

{ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ }

The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts

Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods.

The Sumerian creation myth can be found on a tablet in Nippur, an ancient Mesopotamian city founded in approximately 5000 BC.

The creation of Earth (Enuma Elish) according to the Sumerian tablets begins like this:

When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being,
And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;
Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven,
Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being…

Sumerian mythology claims that, in the beginning, human-like gods ruled over Earth. When they came to the Earth, there was much work to be done and these gods toiled the soil, digging to make it habitable and mining its minerals.

The texts mention that at some point the gods mutinied against their labour.

When the gods like men
Bore the work and suffered the toll
The toil of the gods was great,
The work was heavy, the distress was much.

Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too great. His son Enki, or Ea, proposed to create man to bear the labour, and so, with the help of his half-sister Ninki, he did. A god was put to death, and his body and blood was mixed with clay. From that material the first human being was created, in likeness to the gods.

You have slaughtered a god together
With his personality
I have removed your heavy work
I have imposed your toil on man.
…
In the clay, god and man
Shall be bound,
To a unity brought together;
So that to the end of days
The Flesh and the Soul
Which in a god have ripened –
That soul in a blood-kinship be bound.

This first man was created in Eden, a Sumerian word which means ‘flat terrain’. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Eden is mentioned as the garden of the gods and is located somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Sumerian tablet depicting Enki in the creation myth. (world-myth.com)

Initially human beings were unable to reproduce on their own, but were later modified with the help of Enki and Ninki. Thus, Adapa was created as a fully functional and independent human being. This ‘modification’ was done without the approval of Enki’s brother, Enlil, and a conflict between the gods began. Enlil became the adversary of man, and the Sumerian tablet mentions that men served gods and went through much hardship and suffering.

Adapa, with the help of Enki, ascended to Anu where he failed to answer a question about ‘the bread and water of life’. Opinions vary on the similarities between this creation story and the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Eden.

Featured image: Sumerian chaos monster and sun god. (Wikipedia)

Note: Ancient Sumerian translations were taken from William Bramley’s book, The Gods of Eden.

Source www.ancient-origins.net

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

NASA DISCOVERS HIDDEN PORTALS IN EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD

Our planet has come a long way in scientific breakthroughs and discoveries. Mainstream science is beginning to discover new concepts of reality that have the potential to change our perception about our planet and the extraterrestrial environment that surrounds it forever. Star gates, wormholes, and portals have been the subject of conspiracy theories and theoretical physics for decades, but that is all coming to an end as we continue to grow in our understanding about the true nature of our reality.

In physics, a wormhole was a hypothetical feature of space time that would be a shortcut through space-time. We often wonder how extraterrestrials could travel so far and this could be one of many explanations. Although scientists still don’t really understand what they have found, it does open the mind to many possibilities.

Turning science fiction into science fact seems to happen quite often these days and NASA did it by announcing the discovery of hidden portals in Earth’s magnetic field. NASA calls them X-points or electron diffusion regions. They are places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, which in turn creates an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun’s atmosphere which is 93 million miles away.

NASA used its THEMIS spacecraft, as well as a European Cluster probe, to examine this phenomenon. They found that these portals open and close dozens of times each day. It’s funny, because there is a lot of evidence that points toward the sun being a giant star gate for the ‘gods’ to pass back and forth from other dimensions and universes. The portals that NASA has discovered are usually located tens of thousands of kilometres from Earth and most of them are short-lived; others are giant, vast and sustained.

As far as scientists can determine, these portals aid in the transfer of tons of magnetically charged particles that flow from the Sun causing the northern and southerns lights and geomagnetic storms. They aid in the transfer of the magnetic field from the Sun to the Earth. In 2014, the U.S. space agency will launch a new mission called Magnetospheric Multi scale Mission (MMS) which will include four spacecraft that will circle the Earth to locate and then study these portals. They are located where the Earth and the Sun’s magnetic fields connect and where the unexplained portals are formed.

NASA funded the University of Iowa for this study, and they are still unclear as to what these portals are. All they have done is observed charged particles flowing through them that cause electromagnetic phenomenon in Earth’s atmosphere.

Magnetic portals are invisible, unstable and elusive. they open and close without warming and there are no signposts to guide is in – Dr Scudder, University of Iowa

Mainstream science continues to grow further, but I often get confused between mainstream science, and science that is formed in the black budget world. It seems that information and discovery isn’t information and discovery without the type of ‘proof’ that the human race requires. Given that the human race requires, and has a certain criteria for ‘proof’, which has been taught to us by the academic world, information can easily be suppressed by concealing that ‘proof’. It’s no secret that the department of defence receives trillions of dollars that go unaccounted for and everything developed within the United States Air Force Space Agency remains classified. They are able to classify information for the sake of ‘national security’. Within the past few years, proof has been emerging for a number of phenomenon that would suggest a whole other scientific world that operates separately from mainstream science.

We have the technology to take ET home, anything you can imagine we already have the technology to do, but these technologies are locked up in black budget projects. It would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity

– Ben Rich, Fmr CEO of LockHeed Skunk Works

I use this video a lot in many of my posts, but it is just a profound statement, I love to use it over and over. He is x NASA personnel so it kind of fits in with the article.

Reference:

http://science.nasa.gov

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

ET not responsible for mystery stellar radio signals after all

 Michael Irving 

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which recently picked up strange signals seemingly originating with the red dwarf star, Ross 128 

(Credit: Courtesy of the NAIC- Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF)

According to the Arecibo astronomers, "the signals consisted of broadband quasi-periodic non-polarized pulses with very strong dispersion-like features," and they're unusual enough that the team has since dubbed the observation "The Weird! Signal," in an apparent reference to the 1977 Wow! Signal.

The astronomers put forward the three most likely explanations for the transmission: unusual stellar activity from the red dwarf, emissions from other background objects, or interference from satellite communications orbiting Earth.

Unfortunately, the most mundane of those turned out to be the culprit. The Arecibo team analyzed the data, backed up by observations from SETI using the Green Bank Telescope and the Allen Telescope Array, and has concluded that the Weird! Signal is most likely interference from geostationary satellites. Ross 128 is close to the celestial equator, which happens to be a busy patch of sky locally, and the signals are also within the range of frequencies that these satellites use to communicate.

Astronomers mark the Weird radio signal in the data

(Credit: PHL at UPR Arecibo)

That said, the team admits that the satellite solution leaves a few questions unanswered. Earthly origins don't quite account for the signals' "strong dispersion-like features," although this could be caused by multiple reflections. The researchers plan to continue looking into this scenario, as well as any others that might be a better fit.

Extraterrestrial intelligence was, of course, right at the bottom of the list of likely explanations. Intelligent life may ultimately have been responsible for these weird signals, but once again, it appears the call was coming from inside the house.

Source: Planetary Habitability Laboratory

America spent millions of dollars creating a UFO-style alternative to helicopter

WATCH the once top-secret efforts by the American military to create a UFO-style alternative to the helicopter as revealed in this eye-opening series of images and video.

The video shows the classified Cold War project, which many in the US armed forces thought would be the next big thing in military innovation, going through a series of test flights between June 1 1960 and June 14 the following year. 

The craft, called the Avrocar after the Canadian company that produced it, can be seen hovering a foot or so above the ground as it makes its way around the base, with one pilot at the controls. 

Plans for the craft were first drawn up early in the Cold War, with each side desperate to find the next technological innovation. It was powered by a giant central fan, intended to lift it off the ground and propel it upwards. 

MEDIA DRUM WORLD

And the American military had big plans for the Avrocar, with some staggering projections for its performance. However, the reality of the aircraft fell way below expectations. 

Designers had hoped that the craft would reach speeds of around 300 mph, with a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet and a range of 995 miles. 

But, as can be seen in the video, the craft fell drastically short of the projections. It's maximum speed never reached above 35 mph, with a paltry maximum altitude of three feet and a range of just 79 miles. 

MEDIA DRUM WORLD

The aircraft was re-financed several times by the American military before funding finally ran out in June 1961. At this point, with performance falling way below expectation and no signs of any immediate improvement, the military cancelled the project. 

And, judged against its projections, it's easy to see why. Objectively speaking the Avrocar was a dismal failure, with several aspects of its design unfit for military use. The craft couldn't lift itself more than a few feet off the ground without becoming extremely unstable, and its design made high-speed performance tremendously difficult. Moreover, it emitted far too much sound and heat to mak }e it a suitable combat vehicle. 

In total the US spent an estimated $10 million on the projection which, by today's standards, is actually relatively good value for money. It equates to approximately $100 million in today's money, a drop in the ocean in terms of military expenditure. 

{ http://www.express.co.uk/ }

REAL flying saucers exposed in TOP SECRET footage from the Cold War

INCREDIBLE footage shows real life flying saucers taking flight in a top secret video from the Cold War.

By Henry Holloway 

The UFO-style craft is seen hovering just above the ground as it hurtles along in a series of classified flying tests.

But this is not an alien spacecraft, it is actually a top secret US military project called the Avrocar.

Scientists masterminded the craft during the Cold War – believing it would be the next great military flying machine.

Powered by a huge central fan, the flying disc was believed to be an alternative to a helicopter.

DRUM

“Flying saucers have long been probed as alternative means of air travel.”

Newly revealed videos show the secret aircraft being put through its paces around a base during test flight.

Designers had hoped that the craft would reach speeds of around 300 mph, with a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet and a range of 995 miles.

Avrocar designs fuelled rumours of the links between the US military and the fifties and sixties boom in UFO sightings.

DRUM

DRUM

Washington spent £80 million developing the Avrocar, only for the projection to never really get off the ground.

Russia and the US spent the Cold War at each others throats – each looking for new tech to one-up the other.

Funding for the flying saucer eventually ran dry in June 1961, and the Avrocar project was canned.

Flying saucers have long been probed as alternative means of air travel.

Bizarre theories believe Nazi Germany was the first to experiment with saucer technology – often linked to their “flying wing” the Horten Ho 229.

Conspiracy nuts go as far as to claim the Nazis reached space with their technology.

Designs for the Avrocar were shelved after it was found to only be able to hover around one foot off the ground.

When it travelled at high speeds, it became extremely unstable and it was far too loud to be a combat vehicle.

Daily Star Online revealed a theory that the Soviet Union actually reached the moon first during the Cold War.

Nazi Germany's "Forbidden City" was siezed by Soviets until the end of the Cold War

Mosaic ornamented swimming pool in the centre of the forbidden city

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

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.

Eclipse Apocalypse?

During a total solar eclipse, the moon completely obscures the sun for parts of the Earth. Careful calculations help researchers and the public determine where to go to see the total blackout.

Credit: Miloslav Druckmüller, Peter Aniol, Martin Dietzel, Vojtech Rusin via NASA

One month from today, the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21 will make its way across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina. As the clock ticks down to the big day, the question is: Are you prepared?

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the disk of the sun. While partial solar eclipses are common, with two to five occurring around the world each year, a total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth only about once every 18 months. The last total solar eclipse touched the continental United States in 1979, and the last to cross from ocean to ocean occurred in 1918. [Read more about the necessary preparations.]

Losing a Son As the Father

Cecil the iconic lion and his pride in Hwange National Park in November 2012. Cecil's son, Xanda, was shot and killed on July 7, 2017.

Credit: paula french/Shutterstock

The 6-year-old son of Cecil the Lion was shot and killed on July 7 just outside Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, meeting the same end his father did in 2015, according to news reports.

A private hunter in Zimbabwe reportedly led the hunt that brought down Xanda, though his clients' identities are not known, according to a statement by Lions of Hwange National Park. [Read more about the lost giant.]

Stumbling Block

Jude Sparks poses with the jawbone of a stegamastodon that he discovered while hiking in the desert in Las Cruces with his family.

Credit: Peter Houde

A 9-year-old boy hiking in the Las Cruces desert in New Mexico recently tripped over what is now thought to be a 1.2-million-year-old Stegomastodon skull.

After realizing Jude had tripped on a fossilized tusk, the Sparks contacted Peter Houde, a biology professor at NMSU who is also the curator-in-charge at the university's The Vertebrate Museum. [Read more about the fossils.]

Deadly Love

A stock photo of a man kissing a baby.

Credit: fizkes/Shutterstock

A newborn baby in Iowa died this week from an infection with the virus that causes cold sores, which she likely contracted from a kiss, her doctors say. But how does this happen?

In newborns, catching HSV-1 infection from a kiss is "unusual but not unheard of," said Dr. Otto Ramos, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. [Read more about the serious virus.]

Stony Birthday

The Rosetta Stone has been on display at the British Museum since 1802.

Credit: Vladimir Korostyshevskiy/Shutterstock

Exactly 218 years ago today, on July 19, 1799, French troops in Rosetta, Egypt, uncovered a striking black stone carved with three ancient texts: two Egyptian texts and a Greek one.

The discoverer of the Rosetta Stone was a French military officer, Pierre François Xavier Bouchard, who spotted it while he and his men were demolishing a wall to extend Fort Julien in Rosetta, a port city now known as Rashid. The troops were part of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, in which he (temporarily) conquered the country — and brought a bevy of scientists along who were eager to study what was to them unfamiliar land. [Read more about the discovery.]

Heir Apparent

Salvador Dalí's remains are set to be exhumed in order to collect DNA samples for a paternity claim against the artist's estate.

Credit: Barham/Getty

In a surreal development almost worthy of one of his paintings, Salvador Dalí's grave is scheduled to be opened tomorrow (July 20) in an effort to collect DNA samples that could settle a paternity claim against the artist's estate.

A spokesperson for the Dalí estate told AFP that the exhumation was scheduled to proceed on July 20, but an appeal is being filed against the court's decision. [Read more about the family.]

Cracking Up

Scientists are monitoring new rifts that formed on the Larsen C ice shelf in the wake a major calving event last week.

Credit: Project MIDAS

The trillion-ton iceberg that broke off Antarctica last week will not go quietly into the night.

Satellite images from ESA and the European Union’s Copernicus Program show that the massive iceberg is splintering and a constellation of smaller icebergs are surrounding it. The vagaries of ocean currents and buoyancy of ice will dictate how long the pack of 'bergs travels together. It's possible the smaller chunks could be the first drift north toward warmer waters in the South Atlantic where they would meet their likely demise. [Read more about the iceberg.]

Drone Blaster

The newly developed Laser Weapon System (LaWS) is situated on the USS Ponce, which is deployed to the Persian Gulf.

Credit: John F. Williams/US Navy

The world's first laser weapon — one that can "kill" threatening, airborne drones — is ready for action, according to news sources.

The LaWS laser beam is completely silent and invisible. It's also fast: The laser travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second, or about 300,000 kilometers per second), meaning it's about 50,000 times the speed of an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile, such as the one North Korea is testing, the Navy told CNN. [Read more about the laser.]

A Lost Continent

A map of Zealandia. Scientists aboard the Joides Resolution will visit six sites on this lost continent to take core samples later this summer.

Credit: IODP

Scientists will soon venture to the world's hidden eighth continent, the sunken land of Zealandia.

In February, scientists argued in the journal GSA Today that Earth has a hidden eighth continent, which should be reflected on maps. [Read more about the eighth continent.]

King Tut's Wife

This shot of the Valley of the Kings shows the tomb entrances at Thebes in Egypt.

Credit: mountainpix/Shutterstock

Famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass and his team say they've found evidence of a tomb that could belong to King Tut's wife.

As for whose remains were buried there, Hawass said the tomb could belong to Ankhesenamun, who was the wife of Tutankhamun (reign 1336-1327 B.C.). Ankhesenamunmarried Ay after King Tut died, so it's possible that her tomb is located near Ay's, Hawass said. [Read more about the tomb.]

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Planet Discover Fantasy World Voyager

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Best Space Stories of The Week!

The south pole of Jupiter is seen from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers) in this enhanced color mosaic of images from NASA's JunoCam. Cyclones up to 600 miles wide (1,000 km) are visible.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles SCOTT BOLTON - 3

Juno gets a first look at Jupiter's marvelous poles, the world's largest (current) aircraft goes for a spin, Earth science loses on the proposed NASA budget and two astronauts perform an urgent spacewalk — it's Space.com's top news stories of the week.

Jupiter whirls

The first science results from NASA's Juno probe reveal huge cyclones raging near Jupiter's north and south poles and the workings of is spectacular auroras. Juno is the first spacecraft to get a close look the planet's beautiful and bizarre poles. [Full Story: Mysteries at Jupiter: NASA's Juno Probe Reveals Cyclones, Auroras & Surprises]

Plus: More Jupiter Weirdness: Giant Planet May Have Huge, 'Fuzzy' Core

Sperm survives space

Astronauts kept freeze-dried mouse sperm on the International Space Station for nine months — and when brought back to Earth it gave rise to healthy pups. [Full Story: Freeze-Dried Space Sperm Gives Rise to Healthy Baby Mice]

See also: Space Babies: Study Suggests Humans May Be Able to Have Healthy Offspring in Orbit

Fix it up

After a computer relay box malfunctioned, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer went out for a quickly-planned spacewalk to replace the failed part. (Don't worry, a backup took over in the meantime.) Whitson built the replacement from spare parts aboard the International Space Station. [Full Story: Astronauts Restore Space Station to Full Health in Quick Repair Spacewalk]

Clash of the dwarfs

New research suggests that most of the Milky Way's antimatter could come from the collision of two special kinds of white dwarfs — the Earth-size cores of dead stars. [Full Story: Supernova Face-Off May Solve 40-Year-Old Antimatter Mystery]

Mammoth flier success

A massive blimp-like aircraft called the Airlander 10 successfully flew for 180 minutes and landed, testing its improved landing technology and handling. It's the third test flight for the world's largest aircraft currently flying, which is designed to stay in the air for up to 5 days at a time with people on board. [World's Largest Aircraft Completes Successful Test Flight]

Earth science nix

The White House's official 2018 budget request curtails five NASA Earth-science missions, including the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem satellite; the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 experiment; the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory Pathfinder; the Earth-viewing instruments aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft and, now, the Radiation Budget Experiment. [Full Story: Trump's 2018 Budget Request Axes 5 NASA Earth-Science Missions]

Plus: NASA's Proposed 2018 Budget Could Push Europa Mission to Late 2020s

Summer on Saturn

The Cassini spacecraft has seen Saturn through the seasons as the planet has orbited the sun, watching its dramatic changes. Now, it's finally the planet's solstice and the end of the spacecraft's second extended mission — just in time for its Sept. 15 Grand Finale dive into the planet's atmosphere. [Full Story: Saturn Solstice: Cassini Gets 'Ringside Seat' to Dramatic Seasonal Changes]

Listening in

The world's most sensitive dark matter detector, XENON1T, has gone online deep beneath a mountain in Italy, completing a 30-day science run hunting for the minuscule fireworks that could be caused by a certain type of dark matter ramming into a xenon atom inside the detector. [Full Story: The World's Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector Is Now Up and Running]

It's a Phantom

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Boeing to build the U.S. military's new XS-1 space plane. The plane, called the Phantom Express, is designed to launch to the edge of space to deploy a second stage rocket, which would deposit a satellite in orbit. [Full Story: US Military's XS-1 Space Plane Will Be Built by Boeing (Video)]

Darkness coming

Get ready for the 2017 total solar eclipse, which will cross the continental United States Aug. 21 — less than three months from now. [Full Story: Countdown to Darkness: Total Solar Eclipse Three Months Away]

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. 

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If you've been keeping up with the news in the UK, you might have heard about a morphing UFO appearing at a number of locations across Cornwall last week.

We're telling you guys straight up – this is not aliens, despite some hashtags on the footage.

While it's a little annoying that we're not any closer to an actual aliens, the footage itself is pretty damn cool.

Check out the video of the 'UFO' below, apparently taken last week on the A30 in Cornwall:

There's actually been a bunch of Instagram 'sightings' across Cornwall, including over Roche Rock:

And a twitter video over Fistral Beach:

And this girl who just happened to see it before her hair appointment:

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STEPH  @CocochicBlog

filmed this in truro today before my hair apt..can someone please explain?  #ufocornwall

12:32 AM - 19 Jul 2017

• 6767 Retweets
•  9090 likes

So, we already know it's not aliens, but what is it? A bird murmuration (a special type of flock of starlings)? A really really big insect swarm?

Neither of those things make sense over the timeframe, which had footage being uploaded over a number of days.

Well, as both Twitter and Instagram commenters pointed out, unfortunately it's nothing that cool – instead it's likely to be a giant publicity stunt for the Eden Project, a botanical garden in Cornwall.

Speaking to The Sun Online, a spokesperson for the project said "It's true we have a galaxy of ways to tell the story of space at Eden this summer."

"To coin a phrase…The truth is out there."

Although we don't have much information to go on at this stage, it's assumed that the videos have been doctored using CGI and released to a number of people to share the UFO 'sighting'.

Yeah, we're just as disappointed as you are, but if you want to see some incredible real footage, check out this bird murmuration video taken by Jan van IJken, in the Netherlands:

We're calling it now - nature beats publicity stunts any day.

{ https://www.sciencealert.com/ }

Plane passenger captured glowing TR-3B triangle UFO over Georgia

Is it possible that a plane passenger has photographed the mysterious and secret TR-3B?

Witness states: I was traveling (passenger), north on I-185 in west central Georgia, around 1:30 am.

With my iPhone, I was taking pictures of the clouds illuminated by the moon. I took 40-50 pictures, and saw only the beautiful clouds.

In the morning I was going through the pictures, and was shocked and excited to see some type of craft in two of the pictures.

It's shaped similarly to our stealth bombers, but not exactly. Also, it was glowing, and/or reflecting a bluish white. I have no idea what it was. I've shown the pictures to many people, and like me, they were clueless as to its identity.

Note: The TR-3B doesn't exist officially but the allegations are that these spy crafts are created at top-secret military bases like Area 51, in Nevada, by reverse engineering alien technology.

It uses highly pressured mercury accelerated by nuclear energy to produce plasma that creates a field of anti-gravity around the craft. The plasma generated also reduces radar signature significantly. So it'll be almost invisible on radar and remain undetected.

The image was taken on April 19, 2017 and submitted to Mufon, case nr. 85293.

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NASA: There’s No Evidence of a Mars Civilization Thousands of Years Ago

 

JPL/NASA

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