Over the next several weeks, I’ll be conducting interviews with leading UFO researchers from countries around the world in an effort to paint a picture of global UFOlogy today.

This week, our global UFO trek takes us to New Zealand, and to Suzy Hansen, an author, researcher, experiencer, and former professional educationist. Suzy is the author of The Dual Soul Connection: The Alien Agenda for Human Advancement, with contributions by Dr. Rudy Schild, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics, Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA.

Suzy is also the founding Director of the UFOCUS NZ Research Network (NZ UFO sightings), and coordinator of Communicator Link (advocacy & support for experiencers/abductees). She was instrumental in lobbying for the release of the NZ MoD UFO Files in 2010/11. She has been lecturing internationally for more than 20 years and has featured in numerous interviews, articles and documentaries.

RG: Who have been the defining figures in New Zealand UFOlogy over the past 70 years (for better or for worse), and why?

SH: The most active and prominent researchers in my opinion were Fred and Phyllis Dickeson, Harold Fulton, Harvey Cooke (all gone now), and currently, the Dickeson’s son Bryan and I guess—myself!

The Dickesons were former NZ air force personnel who worked tirelessly to publicise UFO sighting investigation data. They established nationwide discussion groups and published the UFO magazines Satcu and Xenolog. They also hosted well-known UFO personalities to NZ, including author Erich von Daniken and contactee George Adamski.

Bryan Dickeson investigated UFO sightings throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, and spoke at early New Zealand UFO conferences. He is also a trained regression therapist and investigated New Zealand’s first publicised abduction experience. Bryan now resides in Australia and has contributed significantly to Australia’s UFO research too. He has recently digitised some 6,500 New Zealand UFO sightings from his parents’ research material, which will soon be available to the public on UFOCUS NZ’s website.

The late Harold Fulton was also ex-air force and investigated some of New Zealand’s most significant UFO events along with the other researchers I have mentioned. His focus was on aviation sightings and his data was meticulous and scientific.

The late Harvey Cooke was perhaps the “Mr Personality” of UFO research here, and, although he never had a UFO sighting himself, his passion and enthusiasm for the subject was endless. Harvey contributed significantly through TV and radio interviews, organising conferences, and he ran one of the world’s longest-standing UFO groups for 55 years. His memory for names and dates was legendary.

RG: What do you consider to be the most compelling NZ UFO incident on record, and why?

SH: Without a doubt, the Kaikoura Lights sightings of 1978/79 are the most renowned NZ sightings. The two main sightings that occurred in December 1978/79 were captured on film, seen visually by pilots and a film crew onboard one of the flights, and appeared on Wellington Airport radar and the radar of the two Argosy aircraft involved. These anomalous lights were observed by many members of the public as well over a period of weeks.

One of the objects filmed during the Kaikoura Lights incident of 1978/79.

The Kaikoura Lights events effectively divided New Zealand society, as scientific groups and governmental departments carried out an attempted whitewash of the main sightings, attributing ever more ludicrous explanations to the events: it was Venus! It was the lights of squid boats reflected off the bottom of clouds! It was the streetlights of townships reflecting off the breasts of mutton birds flying south! The radar was faulty! (Not true).

In 2007 I was made aware of a piece of 16 mm television news footage by former a TV1 cameraman who had kept the reel concealed for years. It was digitised, and he told me it could settle the debate and silence skeptics for good, because it revealed a large light that split into two lights, both of which disappeared at speed in different directions. The footage was taken at the Clarence River mouth, where many sightings took place near Kaikoura. Unfortunately however, the footage was sold for a five figure sum to a documentary company in the States and has never been revealed to the public.

Dr. Bruce Maccabee, US optical data analyst, carried out an analysis of the film crew’s footage, and considers the Kaikoura sightings to be in the top 10 worldwide.

RG: What is the NZ government’s official stance on UFOs? When was the last time it issued a statement on the subject?

SH: The New Zealand government has generally refrained from making official statements about the UFO subject, with the exception of the Kaikoura Lights sightings, which attracted the attention of Sir Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister at the time. However the MOD UFO files released in 2010/11 revealed that as a result of investigations into the Kaikoura Lights, a number of governmental departments were involved in researching the event, including the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Civil Aviation, Air Traffic Control, the Joint Intelligence Bureau, the Commissioner of Police, the Director of the New Zealand Meteorological Service, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), and the Director of Carter Observatory. Brief statements were made by government departments at this time in 1978/79. Any other official statements concerning the UFO topic have been made by the New Zealand Defence Force, the most recent being when the files were released.

‘The Beehive’ in Wellington, NZ, home to the executive wing of the NZ parliament.

RG: Does the NZ Ministry of Defence have an official UFO investigations unit?

SH: In September 1985, Wing Commander S. B. White, on behalf of Air Vice Marshal Ewan Jamieson, stated that New Zealand’s Ministry of defence has always claimed that it is not specifically charged with any formal responsibility for investigating UFOs, and neither is any other governmental Department, but that the Ministry does however take an active interest in all such reports and, within the limitations of its resources, conducts investigations as necessary.

However, the MOD UFO files revealed that although they did not have a funded UFO investigation unit, an official investigative committee was formed in the early-1970s and was disbanded in 1976. The members of this group included representatives of the Intelligence Service, the RNZAF, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Meteorological Service, Air Traffic Control, the Ministry of Transport and Carter Observatory. The outcome of their investigations suggested that they decided the UFO problem was a scientific matter rather than a threat to defence.

UFOCUS NZ’s archives contain a number of significant sighting events that witnesses state were investigated by the Air Force on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, including witness interviews, investigation of ground markings and other physical details, and photographs of specific areas. The witnesses state they were told by the air force representative that if they went to the media or spoke publicly about the investigations, the Air Force would deny all knowledge of it.  Some witnesses report feeling intimidated.

RG: Has the NZ government shown more or less transparency on the UFO subject than the US, Australian, and British governments?

SH: Officially, the New Zealand government has refrained from involvement in UFO related matters, instead leaving such statements to the Defence Forces, on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

In a letter to me dated 28 April 2009, the New Zealand Chief of Defence Force, Lt Gen Jerry Maeparae stated, “in the longer term, recognising the ongoing public interest in this topic, I should like to see a summary of information held about UFO sightings produced, in much the same way as that which is produced by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence. Given existing constraints however I cannot predict when that objective may be achieved.”

In December 2009, following a further several months of lobbying, I received a follow-up letter from Lt Gen Mateparae, which stated, “I am pleased to be able to inform you that two NZ DEF officers have become that the task of assessing classified files in relation to this topic, with a view of the classification.”

New Zealand is a small country with a population of less than 5 million with limited resources to investigate UFO sightings, and I believe, as evidenced by the Chief of Defence Force’s letters, that the New Zealand Government and Ministry of Defence have largely taken their lead from the US, Australia, and British governments in terms of limited transparency and information. It is important to note that the MOD files released in 2010/11 consisted of only the air force UFO files. There still exist unreleased Navy and Army files, and restricted intelligence files.

RG: Does NZ have a national UFO investigations organisation today, and how many smaller NZ UFO groups are you aware of?

SH: In 2000, after 25 years of independent UFO research, I established the UFO Focus New Zealand Research Network(UFOCUS NZ), a nationwide UFO reporting and investigation network. At present we have a staff of seven investigators throughout the country who gather UFO related information and investigate sightings in their areas. Our staff over the years has included to air-traffic controllers, a pilot, a scientist, and an astronomer. We have a particular interest in aviation sightings, as New Zealand has a rich history of aviation-related UFO sightings, with a number of pilots and air traffic controllers who have been willing to go public on their sightings. As a result of this, in December 2013, we signed a written agreement of cooperation with a Chilean aviation/military UFO investigation group to share data and sighting reports pertaining to aviation sightings, and sightings that occur around the time of seismic/volcanic activity. As previously mentioned, on behalf of UFOCUS NZ, I was instrumental in lobbying the New Zealand Chief of Defence Forces for the release of the New Zealand Air Force MOD UFO files in 2010/11.

From the 1950s through to the mid-90s there were a number of UFO groups throughout New Zealand, formed by some of the early veteran UFO researchers I have mentioned who liked UFOCUS NZ, actively investigated sighting reports. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s there were a significant number of UFO sightings in New Zealand, coinciding with the times of known UFO flaps worldwide. Today, UFOCUS NZ is the only active UFO sighting investigation and research group in New Zealand.

RG: What are the most active regions of NZ for UFO sighting reports (hotspots)?

SH: We receive UFO sighting reports from all around New Zealand, and of course the population distribution plays a part in how many reports we may receive from certain areas. New Zealand is a largely rural society, with large areas that are sparsely populated.

Rural New Zealand.

Having said that, there are certain areas from which we have regularly received reports over the years, including the Central North Island volcanic plateau, the mysterious dome Valley north of Auckland, and the Kaipara Harbour where well-known New Zealand pilot and author Bruce Cathie observed a USO as he flew his DC3 transport plane over the harbour back in 1965. A significant number of UFO sightings were reported beginning just 10 days before the massive Christchurch earthquake in 2011, and continuing through to several weeks after the after-shocks had settled down.

However, the most prolific UFO sightings occurred in the Gisborne/East Cape area of the North island during what came to be known as the ‘Gisborne UFO flap’ of 1977 to 1980, and of course the Kaikoura Light sightings of 1978/79, which occurred over the northern end of the South Island.

Along with aviation sightings, UFOCUS NZ has a particular interest in sightings that occur around the time of seismic and volcanic activity in our country, which have been significant.

RG: Have you personally had any UFO sightings?

SH: Yes, I have had a number of UFO sightings, some of which I have documented in my book, The Dual Soul Connection. At age 8, in 1962, my family and I observed a long bright orange cigar-shaped light over a series of hills some 20 km away.  We watched the light for one and a half hours, during which time it flared and pulsed in the sky before eventually moving off south. It was sighted by hundreds of people that night, and was reported in our national newspaper. This event changed my life and I developed an intense interest in space, stars, and even aviation. My mind was blown by the fact that this was not a natural phenomenon or aircraft, therefore “something” had to be flying it!

Suzy Hansen and her book, ‘The Dual Soul Connection.’

In 1975 I was a young 20-year-old teacher working in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand. While driving home to the city from a rural farming area my friend and I observed an unusual light in the sky which at first we thought was a helicopter or agricultural aircraft. However, the light suddenly “switched off” and reappeared over the hills adjacent to us, before repeating sequence two more times. After a few seconds the light disappeared and, having stopped the car to watch, we felt we could continue our journey; but the light reappeared behind us. It approached our car at speed, a massive light wider than the road, and the last I recall is being blinded by the brilliant light, deafened by a loud noise, and feeling the car lifting off the road before I must have lost consciousness. My next memory is of the car hitting the road again, but now it was no longer in late afternoon sunshine, but in complete darkness. We had lost 90 minutes of time. This incident catapulted me headlong into UFO site investigation and contact research.

From 1978 to 1986 I lived in the Gisborne/East Cape area of the North Island during the time of the Gisborne UFO flap. While fishing at a remote beach on the Cape I observe a large green ball of light rise out of the water and fly over the nearby hills. On another occasion I saw a matte black egg-shaped object flying over a range of hills, and other witnesses reported the same object.

RG: How long have you been involved in the UFO subject; roughly how many cases have you personally investigated; and what conclusions, if any, have you drawn about the underlying nature of UFO phenomena?

SH: This is my 44^th year of research into the UFO and contact phenomena, and there is no sign of the workload lessening, or my interest waning. I have investigated hundreds of sightings and talked with hundreds of witnesses and contactees/abductees/experiencers in New Zealand and worldwide—thousands if you count my internet interviews. Of those sightings investigated, some twenty three or so were in-depth investigations involving sightings of actual craft, and, in some cases, entities/occupants associated with the craft. Now, some people may doubt the validity of those cases, but it is interesting that the witnesses were scientists, medical workers, emergency staff, pilots, along with farmers and truck drivers, who we consider credible witnesses who know their environments well. These are not the kind of people to hoax events or seek notoriety. It is through talking with these high calibre witnesses that one understands the enormity of the subject, the importance of critical thinking in investigation, the potential impact of possible contact in our future, and the extent to which these events changed the witnesses’ lives and worldviews forever.

My own sightings and experiences have led me to recognise there is a long-term agenda at play where UFO sightings are concerned. Although many sightings may be brief and random, those that are more in-depth, as I have described above, confirm my thoughts that just as many sightings and contacts are “by design,” meaning they occurred for a reason or purpose controlled by the occupants of the UFOs and this is evident in the way the events effect many witnesses, and in the prior sightings or paranormal incidents they often divulge to an investigator in the course of interviews. Of course, not all sightings are welcomed by witnesses, but there is much to be learned scientifically, socially, psychologically etc. from their descriptions.

Science is now validating the physics behind the descriptions UFO witnesses and experiencers have recounted for decades, and of course we now know there are plenty of habitable planets out there with similar attributes to Earth. I think it is only a matter of time until we truly understand why we have been observing “intruders” in our planetary airspace for decades, if not centuries and beyond. It could be that “disclosure” will occur under someone else’s timeline and control, not our own. As theoretical physicist Michio Kaku has said, we are not yet a united planetary civilisation, let alone an intergalactic civilisation prepared to meet our cosmic neighbours.

RG: How can NZ UFOlogy better itself?

SH: Well we are constantly working on this, and we continue to remain open-minded, but utilise critical thinking in investigations and research. Don’t be afraid to approach scientists and professionals for assistance and advice, and defer to greater knowledge (UFOCUS NZ utilises the skills of a number of professionals in our investigations). We should always do our homework. Keep abreast of worldwide research and network widely. Keep lobbying the MOD for further UFO files. And maintain a public profile.

For more information about New Zealand UFO research, visit: UFOCUS NZ. Suzy Hansen’s book describing her own personal UFO experiences is available here.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Take one space object with a reflectivity number just slightly higher than charcoal. Notice that it arrived close enough to wake up the rarely-alert asteroid warning system workers on October 31st, the date of a popular worldwide holiday. Stare at pictures of its dark surface long enough to conjure up an image that relates to the holiday. Throw in comments from astronomers that it’s “dead.” Stir it all together in a witch’s kettle and you have the Halloween Death Comet, a skull-ish Near Earth Object discovered days before Halloween in 2015 and returning just days after Halloween this year. Should we eat all of our candy quickly before the Death Comet destroys us the planet?

Do you really need a wild excuse like that to eat all of the candy quickly?

Asteroid 2015 TB145’s distance from Earth in 2015

Asteroid 2015 TB145 was discovered on Oct. 10, 2015 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System). Before its eerie pareidolic skull image was visible, 2015 TB145 was considered to be dangerous NEO because of its size (between 2,050 feet and 2,297 feet or .6 km to .7 km) and its projected close pass to the Earth — 300,000 miles (480.000) or just slightly beyond the orbit of the moon at 1.3 lunar distances. We’re still here, so The Great Pumpkin (NASA’s Halloweenish nickname before its scarier face was seen) didn’t get close enough for a hit. What about this time?

“Although this approach shall not be so favourable, we will be able to obtain new data which could help improve our knowledge of this mass and other similar masses that come close to our planet.”

That’s astronomer-speak for “close enough to justify our funding but not enough to cause a panic.” Pablo Santos-Sanz from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and other astronomers think the more interesting aspect of the asteroid is the fact that it’s NOT an asteroid. Vishnu Reddy, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, explains why.

“We found that the object reflects about six percent of the light it receives from the sun. That is similar to fresh asphalt, and while here on Earth we think that is pretty dark, it is brighter than a typical comet which reflects only 3 to 5 percent of the light. That suggests it could be cometary in origin — but as there is no coma evident, the conclusion is it is a dead comet.”

Comet with coma

“Coma” is that blurry aura seen around comets as they make their tight turn around the Sun. No coma means no more ice – the definition of a dead comet killed by the Sun – but better conditions for imagining the dead comet looks like a revolving skull glaring with its dead eyes at us Earthlings as it passes. (See how easy pareidolia is?)

2015 TB145 or the Death Skull Halloween Comet Asteroid Great Pumpkin will be closest to Earth on November 11th. It’s a safe bet that you will have no more candy to gorge on by then.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Unmarked black helicopters hold a special place in UFO and conspiracy lore. Since the 1960s, mysterious helicopters lacking any identifying markings or color have been reported near the sites of UFO sightings, alien abduction claims, men in black, and even cattle mutilations. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories about the origins of these unidentified aircraft including that they belong to various agencies of some secret shadow government or the UN, that they are demonic in nature, or that they might be shapeshifters.

Of course, US law enforcement agencies such as the DEA, U.S. Marshals, and FBI are known to use black helicopters for surveillance and transportation, so there could be some truth behind alleged black helicopter sightings. There usually is some truth to all conspiracy theories, however small it may be. To add fuel to the black helicopter conspiracy theory fire, an unmarked black helicopter recently appeared flying low over Chicago rooftops, thoroughly freaking out confused Chicagoans below. The helicopter was seen dropping soldiers and equipment onto a roof before flying away.

According to aviation sleuth Tyler Rogoway writing at The War Zone, “the UH-60M Black Hawk photographed and filmed all over Chicago does not appear to belong to the United States Army. The configuration of its antennas is unique and it does not have any Army titles or serials on it.” Rogoway points outthat over the last several years, the Department of Defense has transferred many of its Black Hawk helicopters to other federal agencies, so it’s likely this was some sort of drill or training operation conducted by a federal agency.

However, the Chicago Police Department, Illinois Military Department, and National Guard have all been tight-lipped on the matter and have not given any information about who might have been conducting these exercises or for what purpose. Naturally, that has left the mind of the collective internet to wander to the most conspiratorial It’s perfectly possible – and probable – that this was a drill to offer special forces the opportunity to train in a real urban environment.

Of course, there’s also the chance, however small, that something stranger or perhaps more nefarious just went down in Chicago in broad daylight and plenty of witnesses got it on camera. Given the ubiquity of cameras today, it’s likely harder for Them to hide or disavow operations in public places. If there is a Them, that is.

We all know there is. They don’t even try to hide it anymore. Still, without any more knowledge, all we’re left to do is sit on the internet and spin theories about what we all just saw. 

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

The almighty tussle over whether we should talk to aliens or not

Astronomers can't decide whether messaging ET would bring interstellar chaos or a new era of galactic collaboration. And what would we say?

By MATT REYNOLDS

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credit: David Clapp/Barcroft Images/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

In November 1962, at a radar station overlooking the Black Sea at the western edge of Crimea, humankind sent its first message to extraterrestrials. It consisted of just three Russian words in Morse code, bounced off of Venus and ultimately headed towards HD 131336, a star almost 2,160 light years away. The first word, Mir, can be variously translated as ‘world’ or ‘peace’. The other words, Lenin, and SSSR, (the Latinised Russian acronym for the Soviet Union), were a little less ambiguous.

Unsurprisingly, we have not heard back from any extraterrestrial intelligence just yet. But since the Morse message, a handful of projects have sent messages beyond the confines of Earth. Some are ambitious attempts to condense human knowledge into a message decipherable by ET. The 1974 Arecibo message, composed by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, sent graphics of DNA, humans and the solar system to a star cluster 25,000 light years away. In 1972 the Pioneer 10 spacecraft launched, carrying with it a plaque etched with a schematic of hydrogen and the spacecraft’s trajectory around Jupiter and out of the solar system. Five years later, Voyager 1 carried its own interstellar missive, in the form of a golden record carrying images of humans, maps and music by Bach, Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry.

Other messages, if they are ever intercepted, may leave ET rather underwhelmed about the prospect of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. In 2008, Doritos beamed a 30-second advert towards a solar system in the Ursa Major constellation, just 42 light years away from Earth. Three years earlier, the online classified adverts site Craigslist sent over 100,000 posts into outer space, on the off chance that someone in a far off galaxy was in need of an IKEA Billy bookcase in perfect condition (collection only).

Amongst this hodgepodge of messages, there has never been a sustained, scientific attempt to send a message to aliens. While the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has coalesced around a handful of well-funded and significant projects, such as Breakthrough Listen at the Berkeley SETI Research Centre and the China’s FAST telescope, the scientists and amateur astronomers committed to messaging ET have mostly been left to go it alone. But why has the task of composing a message on behalf of the entire human race fallen to the handful researchers who are determined enough to push ahead with the project under their own steam? The problem, it turns out, is that no one can quite agree on the best way to message ET, or even if we should be doing it at all.

In the summer of 1997, just after finishing his dinner, Seth Shostak got the call that SETI researchers spend their lives waiting for. The SETI Institute, a not-for-profit organisation based in California that explores the origin of life in the Universe, had detected a signal from outer space directed exactly at the Earth. On the other side of the country, in West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, an antenna was picking up a narrow-band signal – the kind that only transmitters can emit – that appeared to be coming from a fixed spot in space.

As Shostak, who is a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, waited for his colleagues to check the signal against the frequency of known Earth satellite, conversation at the Institute turned to “the protocols”. These are a set of principles that set out what should happen if researchers detect a sign of ET from outer space. The protocols, agreed by the International Academy of Astronautics in 1989, are brief – a little over 1,000 words that tell us what to do if we discover that we are no longer alone in the Universe.

There are nine parts to the “Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence”. The first three deal with confirming that the signal is indeed a sign of extraterrestrial life and include sharing data data about the finding with the UN and a long list of arcane-sounding bodies including the International Astronautical Federation, the International Institute of Space Law, Commission 51 of the International Astronomical Union and Commission J of the International Radio Science Union.

The next few points deal with the dissemination of the announcement, which should be made “widely through scientific channels and public media”, although the discoverer has first dibs on make the announcement public. The data, too, should be made available to other scientists in papers and through conferences so that they can verify the findings themselves.

“The most important responsibility that we have as scientists that are engaging in this field is to verify and follow-up on any discovery that we make,” says Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Centre in California. Working out whether we should respond – and deciding what to say if we do respond – is a much bigger question, says Siemion, and one that most scientists just haven’t got around to thinking about yet.

The reason for this is simple, Siemion says. Sending messages across space takes a really, really long time. Even if we found aliens on a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri – the closest star to us apart from the Sun – tomorrow, it’d still take almost four-and-a-half years for a message to reach the Earth and the same time for our return message. There just wouldn’t be any need for us to have a message ready to go, Siemion says.

Which brings us to point eight of the protocols. No response should be sent, it reads, until “appropriate international consultations” have been taken place. In 2010, this section of the protocol was updated to specify the United Nations as the kind of international body that should be consulted before any response is sent. Shostak and his colleagues, however, never got this far. The message they were tracking was actually a telemetry signal from SOHO, a solar research satellite operated by Nasa and the European Space Agency.

Still, the false alarm highlighted one thing – when it comes to messaging ET back, there is no consensus on what we should do. For Siemion, that’s simply a reflection of how young the SETI movement is. Breakthrough Listen, the most comprehensive search for extraterrestrial communications ever, only kicked off in January 2016 after the Israeli-Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner provided $100 million in funding for the scheme. “There is an awful lot of searching left to do,” says Siemion, who is also the principle investigator for the Breakthrough Listen project. “Before we get into the game of transmitting messages we should at least take a few years or perhaps a few decades to do a little bit of listening before we do speaking.”

In 2015, Siemion was one of 28 signatories who warned of the possible dangers involved in messaging extraterrestrial intelligence (METI). Since humans have only just acquired the capability to send interstellar messages, it’s very likely that extraterrestrial civilisations, if they exist, will be much more advanced than we are. “We know nothing of [ET’s] intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether [ET] will be benign or hostile,” wrote the authors of the letter, including Elon Musk. Stephen Hawking, too, has warned of the dangers of contacting an alien civilisation that may be much more advanced that us.

But Doug Vakoch, an astrobiologist who left the SETI Institute to set up METI International – an organisation that focuses on sending messages to outer space – isn’t convinced that messaging ET does pose that much of a risk. Television and radio broadcast already leak signals into space, and any civilisation a few hundred years or so more advanced than us is very likely to be able to detect those signals across interstellar distances, says Vakoch. “It’s not a case of making ourselves known to a civilisation for the first time, if they get our signal they have already detected our leakage.”

For Siemion, this cuts both ways. Since ET can overhear us anyway, why worry about sending a message to say hello? Would-be METI-ists might be better off picking up their phone and calling in to their local radio station, he points out. But there’s always the danger that if we do leave the extraterrestrial messaging down to a handful of renegade enthusiasts, that they might end up sending a message that doesn’t go down well with the aliens. It’s all very well sending Doritos adverts to the stars, but what if ET hates tortilla chips?

There’s also the problem of knowing what to say. The 1974 Arecibo message was remarkable for the amount of information crammed into its 210 bytes. The transmission included the numbers one to ten, the atomic numbers of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus (the components of DNA), the formula for the sugars and bases in DNA nucleotides and a graphic of the double helix structure as well as graphics of a human, the Solar System, and the Arecibo radio telescope itself.

This approach, Vakoch says, might not actually be that useful if we’re trying to start a conversation with ET. “If you try to send them everything in a very condensed message, you may end up getting nothing across,” says Vakoch. For METI International’s 2019 messages, Vakoch is planning on sending messages containing references to the periodic table. The idea being that certain elements, such as hydrogen, are abundant across the Universe so any receiving civilisation is likely to recognise a reference to the chemical signature of those elements.

Another important requirement is making sure that whoever is on the receiving end of the message knows what they’re tuning into, says Jacob Haqq-Misra, a researcher at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. “The basic idea is to define some sort of mathematical language,” he says. Initial messages might establish some basics. One is not equal to zero, but one is equal to one, for example. “And now we've established a common language, we can talk about physics with each other.”

In 2013, Haqq-Misra was involved in a short-lived project called Lone Signal that aimed to use a network of dishes to let people on Earth beam their own messages into space. The project, co-funded by the French cosmetics executive Pierre Fabre and the fashion photographer Greg Kadel fell apart after only transmitting for a short while.

“Their idea was you have this big celebrity launch party and it takes over the world,” Haqq-Misra says. “That was not what happened.” It costs thousands of dollars just to power a radio transmitter for a few hours, and Lone Signal just didn’t have the funds to make it happen. Not long after the glitzy launch party, the money ran out completely. The lack of funding into METI means that Haqq-Misra and many others like him now only dabble in METI alongside full time jobs, often elsewhere in research.

But for people like Haqq-Misra and Vakoch, the pull of METI remains palpable. While researchers are no closer to reaching a consensus on whether we should be messaging ET or not, Vakoch is already thinking about the messages he’ll be helping to send in 2019. The potentials gains from doing so, he says, are just too big to ignore. “This finally holds a mirror up to ourselves by another form of intelligence,” he says. “We just have an opportunity to reflect on ourselves differently.”

Want to know more about the future of space exploration?

• This article is part of our WIRED on Space series. From the global fight over how we handle first contact with aliens to the endless search for dark matter and the inside story of China's top-secret space ambitions, we're taking an in-depth look at humanity's future amongst the stars.
• The unending hunt for Planet Nine, our solar system's hidden world
• The weird history and terrifying future of mutiny in deep space
• Follow the hashtag #WIREDonSpace on Twitter for all of our coverage.

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Examining the decline: Another look at the data on UFO sighting reports

By Cheryl Costa

I have previously reported that UFO sighting reports have been on a steep decline for three years. 2018 is continuing this steep dropoff.

I have previously reported that UFO sighting reports have been on a steep decline for three years. 2018 is continuing this steep dropoff.

Please note that I said “UFO sighting reports” and not sightings. I’ve been getting considerable mail that sightings are still up in North America and in Europe. It just seems that folks aren’t showing an enthusiasm for reporting their recent sightings. One UFO researcher commented, “We see so many, who has time to report them all!”

After my last report about the decline, I observed two things. One was a volume of mansplaining why this decline is occurring. The other was a host of copycat articles being posted, some with the most absurd numbers.

The numbers in this article are a snapshot as of Sept. 20. Keep in mind that people do report sightings years after the event. So a sample I take today might be off by 50 or 100 for a particular year, if I sample three to six months from now.

I’ve come to understand that the UFO sighting report databases are, in a sense, living documents and seem to have a creeping growth. If we were studying farm reports or the census from a particular year, the numbers, for the most part, are solid with a small margin of error. So please keep this in mind when I do a year-end report because the numbers may be slightly different.

Let’s look at an eight-year snapshot of National UFO Reporting Center data. Note that 2017 is displaying a seven-year low for UFO sighting reports. The decline from 2014 to 2015 was 1,788 reports. The decrease from 2015 to 2016 was 1,231 reports. Interestingly, the shrinkage from 2016 to 2017 was only 680 reports. Ordinarily, one might assume that the UFO sighting report deterioration might be leveling out to an average baseline.

Yet if we examine the first eight months of the past six years, including 2018, except for a spike in 2014, we generally see a steady downward trend. Where it will all settle out is anybody’s guess.

But let’s consider some of the possible reasons that have been offered by many readers. Some blamed the announcement of Space Force; sorry, the declines in reports started four years before the announcement.

Others blamed too many people with their heads down and focused on their pads and phones. Maybe.

Quite a few people suggested that the ETs may have run out of interest (or perhaps galactic grant funding) to continue their studies here on Earth. Still others expressed boredom with reporting UFO sightings, especially since Disclosure seems to be stalled. The mood was “Why bother?”

Some suggested that there’s a general apathy in the country given our chaotic political situation. Finally, there are many who wonder if the falloff in UFO sighting reports is the calm before a storm. Who knows?

ON THE ROAD

• Michigan UFO Con-Tact. Sept 20-21
• CNY UFO Club. Sept. 29, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jamesville-Dewitt Community Library, 5110 Jamesville Road, Jamesville, New York
• Greater New England UFO Conference. Oct. 4-5
• UFO MEGA CON. March 24-30. Laughlin, Nevada
• Ozark Mountains UFO Conference. April 12-14. Eureka Springs, Arkansas
• Pine Bush UFO Festival. May 18. Pine Bush, New York

{ https://www.syracusenewtimes.com/ }

Sightings of unidentified flying objects have declined worldwide. This news, reported last week by The Guardian newspaper, should alarm and sadden anyone who has ever gazed in wonder at the sky above.

Two major websites for UFO reports — the National UFO Reporting Center and the Mutual UFO Network — have both registered a steep drop in global sightings. The decline began in 2014, a peak year for UFOs, and by last year the total number of sightings had reached just 55 per cent of the 2014 tally.

{ https://www.thestar.com/ }

This month, the two major online sites for reporting UFOs – the National UFO Reporting Center and the Mutual UFO Network – both documented steep drops in worldwide sightings. The declines started around 2014, when reports were at a peak. They have since reduced drastically to 55% of that year’s combined total, many UFO interest groups have folded, and numerous previously classified government documents have been disclosed.

Do these declines reveal that UFO interest is becoming a blip on the human cultural radar? Perhaps UFO and alien lore is seeming more like a reflection of human culture, tied to the space age, motivated by conquering new existential frontiers.

It might not be a coincidence that the term UFO (unidentified flying object) and some of the phenomena that surrounds it – abductions and impossible technologies – are relatively recent. Before the 1940s, reports of sightings of objects in the sky were extremely rare. Centuries of recorded history give no clear indication of any such activity. Then, at the predawn of the space-age, around the time of the Roswell conspiracy, UFO culture was born, giving rise to everything from Space Invaders to The X-Files.

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Possible answers as to why sightings are decreasing are varied. A key factor, however, may be that more people simply don’t care any more. As we are accustomed to being inundated with wild claims churned out by politicians, media and advertisers, the next report of a UFO is no more believed than the long-range weather forecast.

Before home video, photographs were the staple of UFO evidence. Video evidence, during the height of the 1990s UFO mania, was regarded by many as even more substantial. Amateur footage of glowing objects in the sky, as mysterious as they seemed real, made the cut for appearing on television – they were meant to be taken seriously and they fed an audience hungry for amazement, helped by a healthy dose of conspiracy theorising.

According to the cultural historian Stuart Walton, “Belief in UFOs is definitely in a state of decline, along with much else that could be classed as paranormal. Part of the reason is that the technology for providing documentary evidence of such matters is now widely available to everybody with a smartphone, and such purported evidence as there is on YouTube looks extremely threadbare.”

He adds: “It isn't so much that belief can exist without proof; it's that it must emphatically avoid proof to remain belief. We are in the process, paradoxically, of proving a negative hypothesis with UFOs: there never was any such thing.”

Indeed, indisputable evidence of intelligent life coming to Earth could be the greatest news of all time. Yet, after thousands of anecdotal, photo, and video reports have accrued over decades, what are we to conclude? With the greatest balance of scepticism and “wanting to believe”, all that can confidently be asserted is that some objects, appearing in the sky on film or video, seem unidentifiable.

Furthermore, government disclosure of its own video footage isn’t helping to maintain belief. Joseph Baker, sociology professor at Tennessee State University, says: “It’s actually better for UFOs when ufologists can claim that ‘the powers that be know everything and are hiding it from us’ rather than seeing that the government appears to have basically the same info about UFOs as the public: namely grainy, inconclusive visual evidence.”

No time for aliens: how the MoD tried to prove no one's out there

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Perhaps though, the declines in reported sightings may signify only an end to current trends in ufology. After all, from the 1940s aliens were originally characterised as saviours who could help humans transcend the cold-war paranoia of nuclear annihilation; especially marked at the time, after two world wars. But after events like Watergate and the Vietnam war fuelled distrust in government, UFOs came to be viewed more as a possible threat, and some came to believe their existence was verified in secret military documents.

Sharon Hill, a researcher on the paranormal and pseudoscience, says: “The ideas about UFOs and aliens continue to evolve as we project our social and cultural ideas on them. Since we have no single easy explanation for all these claims regarding the decline in sightings, the future vision of ufology seems rather open-ended. I don't think it's dead, just changing.”

{ https://www.theguardian.com/world/ufos }

UFO Case: Japanese Airlines JAL1628 (November 17, 1986)

{ http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive }

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

{ https://www.history.com/ }

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

Moon Is Stepping Stone, Not Alternative to Mars, NASA Says

"The glory of the moon is that it's only a three-day journey home," Bridenstine added. "So, we can prove all of the technologies, we can reduce all of the risks, we can try all of the different maturations that are necessary to live and work on another world. And we can do it all at the moon, where, if there is a problem, if there is an emergency, we know that we can get people home."

He cited NASA's Apollo 13 mission in 1970, which famously managed to make it safely back to Earth despite experiencing a serious problem on the way to the moon.

Far from delaying a crewed Mars mission, which NASA aims to execute in the 2030s, the current and near-future moon work should "accelerate our path to get to Mars," Bridenstine said.

This reassurance is in keeping with the language of Space Policy Directive 1(SPD 1), which has spurred much of the moon work. SPD 1, which President Donald Trump signed in December of 2017, instructs NASA to return astronauts to the moon as part of a sustainable exploration program that will eventually bring more-distant destinations, such as Mars, within reach. 

And about the current moon work: NASA plans to begin building a small space station in lunar orbit in 2022. This outpost, called the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, could be ready to accommodate astronauts by 2026, NASA officials have said.

NASA Video Appears To Show A Gigantic Object Coming Out Of The Sun

A NASA video shows a gigantic shape emerging from the sun. The event was spotted on helioviewer.org, a website launched by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to give regular people access to images and data from the sun. Archived images go back as far as 15 years.

The video clearly depicts a massive object exiting the sun and moving away quickly. It is shaped like a butterfly and manages to maintain a consistent structure as it moves away from the sun. Whilst some have speculated that it a normal solar ejection of some sort, such as a flare, it does not seem to match any known patterns consistent with a flare or any other usual solar activity.

Is our Sun a stargate?

The object is expansive, estimated to be as much as 100 times the size of Earth. The video has led some to suggest that the sun itself may, in fact, be a portal between dimensions and realities, or perhaps just our own reality and it acts as a “Stargate”. This idea was introduced by a man named Corey Goode. He claims to have been working on classified and secret space programs for many years, and that those programs have been in operation for even longer than his employment- such as the Warden Space Program thought to have begun in the 1980’s.

Darren Perks, an investigative researcher with Huffington post was informed by the Department of Defence that “Solar Warden” was indeed a program but had been shut down. Other theorists have pointed to the findings of Gary Mckinnon who gained access to Air Force Space Command and believes he read information suggesting an extraterrestrial presence in “Solar Warden”.

Whatever the explanation behind the strange butterfly emission is, the video itself is real. Perhaps in the future, more light will be shed on its origin and if it has any connection to alien life outside our solar system.

Take a look at the NASA footage

READ NEXT

• Aliens Are Real, But Humans Will Probably Kill Them All

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

Wow! Asteroid Ryugu's Rubbly Surface Pops in Best-Ever Photo

The region of the Hayabusa2 highest-resolution image (outlined in yellow), seen from afar. Left: A global image of Ryugu. Right: A photo taken on Sept. 21, 2018, from a height of 230 feet (70 meters).

Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST

The $150 million Hayabusa2 mission launched in December 2014 and arrived in orbit around Ryugu in late June of this year. The orbiter also carries another bantam hopper known as MINERVA-II2, an "optional" rover that might be deployed sometime next year. And the mothership will drop down to the surface itself in 2019, snagging samples that will come to Earth in a return capsule in December 2020.

The various data gathered at Ryugu, and analyses of the returned sample, should help researchers better understand the early solar system and the role that carbon-rich rocks like Ryugu may have played in helping life get started on Earth, mission officials have said.

NASA has its own asteroid-sampling mission underway, with many of the same goals. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in orbit around the near-Earth asteroid Bennu on Dec. 31 and return samples of the rock to Earth in September of 2023.

And about all those acronyms: MINERVA stands for "Micro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid"; MASCOT for "Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout"; and OSIRIS-REx for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer."

This spectacular photo shows the view from asteroid Ryugu from the Minerva-II1A rover during a hop after it successfully landed on Sept. 21, 2018. The probe is one of two that landed on Ryugu from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. It's the first time two mobile rovers landed on an asteroid.

Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

The MINERVA-II1B rover captured this view of asteroid Ryugu on Sept. 21, 2018 shortly after separating from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The asteroid appears at lower right.

Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Tobacco Rat‏ @TobaccoRat Sep 23

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WOW!! Check out these new photos fresh from the Minerva-II1A rover that just landed on Ryugu!! #Ryugu #Minerva #Rover #Hayabusa2 #Asteroid #Japan #JAXA #Robots #AsteroidLanding #Amazing #Surface #Successful #Spacecraft #Space #SpaceX @JAXA_en @haya2e_jaxa

 

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• Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+.
• Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.
• Originally published on Space.com.

2010 UFO SIGHTINGS, 2018 DISCLOSURE REVEALS TRASH BAGS TO BLAME

BY ANDREW WHALEN

In 2010 a rash of UFO sightings across Somerset County, New Jersey swamped 911 and mystified locals. The incident remained mysterious for years—another unexplained mass sighting atop the pile of anecdotal evidence cited in defense of the UFO worldview, in which extraterrestrial or extra dimensional craft visit the Earth, for reasons unknown (though people have a lot of theories). But, unlike so many sightings with presumably mundane explanations, the truth of the Somerset UFO has finally been revealed.

In a Reddit thread titled “8 Years ago I caused a UFO panic” a New Jersey resident described how he and a friend, on summer break from college and bored, crafted the UFO out of trash bags.

Inspired by a high school science class “Solar Balloon,” a trash bag balloon floats thanks to the sun warming the air inside the trash bag above the temperature of the ambient air, the duo had ambitions. They scoured area Walmarts and dollar stores for the thinnest black plastic trash bags they could find. “We took a number of them, cut off the bottom ends, and taped them together into a huge balloon which we filled up with a leaf blower,” the UFO designer described on Reddit.

The UFO seen over New Jersey, shortly after launch.

REDDIT

After half an hour, their first balloon began to float and was soon out of reach. They built another and “got funny looks from cars driving by,” until their second attempt was dashed against a tree.

It was only years later that the amateur hot air balloonist stumbled across an article by reporter Stephen Stirling, writing for NJ.com, and discovered their first effort, the runaway balloon, had caused the UFO flap.

“We didn’t mean to let it go,” the balloon’s creator, who prefers to remain anonymous, toldNewsweek. “This wasn’t intentional and we didn’t realize anything had even become of it until years later.”

If put to scrutiny, the vast majority of UFO sightings turn out to have mundane explanations. Even extraordinary cases, like the 2014 footage of a UFO filmed by the Chilean Navy, can be explained, in that case citizen investigators linked the UFO to local flight patterns. But various efforts to systematize UFO sightings—including the United States Air Force’s multi-decade program, Project Blue Book—can only begin to account for the idiosyncratic. Blue Book concluded the vast majority of sightings were aircraft, balloons or astronomical phenomena, such as the planet Venus. A further ten percent were deemed likely hoaxes or “crackpot” cases. Still, about 22% of sightings researched by Project Blue Book remain unidentified. How many of these can be pinned on the bored and the playful?

{ https://www.newsweek.com/ }

NASA geeft nieuwe wending aan speurtocht naar buitenaards leven - HLN.be

Bron: NASA, ScienceAlert, GeekWire

In april lanceerde NASA met TESS de krachtigste telescoop totnogtoe die zal worden ingeschakeld voor de zoektocht naar leefbare planeten buiten ons zonnestelsel. Ook voor de James Webb Space Telescope die in 2021 de Hubble moet vervangen zijn de verwachtingen hooggespannen. Daarnaast werkt ook het Europese agentschap ESA aan de nieuwe ruimtetelescoop CHEOPS en het ruimteobservatorium PLATO, Verwacht wordt dan ook dat het aantal nieuwe ontdekkingen nog verder in een stroomversnelling zal geraken.

Lees ook

NASA deelt 3D-infraroodbeelden van noordpool van Jupiter ter ere van Pepperoni Pizza Day

Momenteel zijn er al 3.779 gekende planeten in ons heelal en de voorbije tien jaar werden nog duizenden andere kandidaten ontdekt. Het is dan ook een logische vraag of er op een van deze planeten (intelligent) leven bestaat.

Technosignaturen

NASA zal zich daarom in de toekomst concentreren op de speurtocht naar ‘technosignaturen’: signalen die het bewijs kunnen zijn van een geavanceerde buitenaardse samenleving. “Technosignaturen zoals bijvoorbeeld radio- of lasergolven, tekenen van massieve bouwwerken of een atmosfeer vol vervuilende chemicaliën kunnen wijzen op intelligent leven”, licht het agentschap toe in een mededeling.

Om de zoektocht naar technosignaturen op te drijven, organiseert NASA vanaf vandaag tot en met woensdag een Technosignatures Workshop in Houston. Daar worden de meest veelbelovende onderzoeksdomeinen in de kijker gezet en geven experts toelichting bij de zoektocht naar exoplaneten, artificiële radiosignalen en andere mogelijk aanwijzingen voor technologisch leven in het universum.

Thomas Zurbuchen, adjunct-bestuurder van NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, deelde gisteren via Twitter al mee verheugd te zijn over de nieuwe onderzoeksplannen van het agentschap.

View image on Twitter

Thomas Zurbuchen

✔@Dr_ThomasZ

I’m excited to announce that #NASA is taking the 1st steps to explore ways to search for life advanced enough to create technosignatures: signs or signals, which if observed, would let us infer the existence of technological life elsewhere in the universe: https://go.nasa.gov/2DvXIFN 

6:02 PM - Sep 25, 2018

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“Over twaalf jaar wonen er mensen op de maan” - HLN.be

Karolien Koolhof

Bron: AD.nl

Uit plannen die de NASA presenteerde aan het Amerikaanse congres, blijkt dat de ruimtevaartorganisatie vanaf volgend jaar de eerste stappen gaat zetten voor het stichten van een maankolonie door voorraden te sturen. In 2020 vliegen er verkenningsrobots richting de maan, om te zoeken naar bruikbare grondstoffen en te beginnen met de kolonie. Vervolgens gaat het nieuwe ruimtestation The Gateway de ruimte in, dat als uitvalsbasis zal dienen. Rond 2030 kunnen mensen vervolgens landen op de maan.

Door het verblijf op de maan hoopt NASA te ontdekken of het voor mensen mogelijk is ver van de aarde te overleven. Daarmee kan het de eerste stap zijn voor bemande kolonies op Mars, een lang gekoesterde wens van onder anderen Elon Musk. NASA weet al wel dat de straling op de maan zo sterk is, dat er speciale kleding nodig is om er te kunnen overleven. Om die reden komen er nieuwe ruimtepakken die beschermen tegen die straling.7

Lees ook

Astronaut Apollo 8 geeft brutaal eerlijk interview: “De maan? Een hoop kraters. Gewoon wat tinten grijs”

Twee uur

De nieuwe missie naar de maan moet ook meer duidelijkheid brengen over de oorsprong en het functioneren van ons zonnestelsel. Armstrong en Aldrin liepen tijdens hun bezoek in 1969 slechts twee uur rond om een aantal metingen te doen en maanstenen te verzamelen. Ook de bezoeken in 1971 en 1972 waren slechts van korte duur. De nieuwe missie kan dus een pak nieuwe informatie opleveren.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }