This Is The Story Of How America Once Thought About Nuking The Moon

Robin Andrews - Senior Contributor -Science

“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the Moon.”

We’ve all heard that clichéd phrase at least once in our lives. Leaving the high frequency at which this go-to motivational platitude is used to one side, it’s hard to deny that the traces of human activity on the bright white sphere in the starry ocean above is anything less than utterly inspirational.

It is, without question, a powerfully positive symbol – a timeless encapsulation of our collective ambition and scientific progress. This point in history wasn’t guaranteed to occur, though. Although there is no limit to the number of alternative timelines anyone could entertain regarding our relationship with the Moon, one in particular stands out.

Just as the Cold War was getting going, Project A119 was born. This covert operation, spearheaded by the US Air Force, never truly got off the ground, and it became little more than a detailed thought experiment. If it did, though, we would have lived in the world where the Apollo space program would be nothing more than a thought lingering in an alternative future.

This is the tale of how, once upon a time, humanity planned to trigger a nuclear explosion on the Moon.

One of two "diamond ring" phases of the 2017 summer Solar Eclipse.

MICHAEL ROUDABUSH/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; CC BY-SA 4.0

A Mushroom Cloud on the Dark Side of the Moon

The 1950s were a decidedly unnerving time. “The latest rumor going the rounds is that the Russians plan to explode a rocket-borne H-bomb on the moon on or about Nov. 7,” the Pittsburgh Press reported on November 1, 1957. “If that’s true – look out! The rocket and its cargo of violence are more likely than not to boomerang.”

The sensational article, which notes that the rumor is being checked out by US intelligence, explains that the aim of such a strike on our pale guardian would be to demonstrate how far Russian missile technology would have come. Indeed, this was a momentous year for the Soviet Union: A month earlier, Sputnik was launched, and just two days after this article was published, Sputnik 2 was also sent into space, complete with Laika the dog.

At the same time, President Eisenhower was handed a review that suggested US defensive capabilities had fallen far behind that of the Soviets, particularly in terms of missile technology. Later that month, Soviet premier Khrushchev dared the US to a shooting match to prove his point. The world was on edge, and rumors of a Soviet nuclear strike on the Moon perhaps didn’t seem so outlandish.

The event never took place, of course, but the US government was still nervous at the mere thought of it. Indubitably, they had fallen behind, and long before the Apollo program would see them stand victorious in front of all of humanity, they decided to take those rumors and see just how plausible such a scheme could be.

Dr Leonard Reiffel, a respected physicist, gained his doctorate from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1953, and his star swiftly rose thereafter. He gained senior positions at NASA, and worked with other such famed scientists, including Enrico Fermi, the mind behind the very first nuclear reactor and someone widely considered to be the architect of the nuclear age. Reiffel also collaborated with several key scientists stolen from the collapsed Third Reich as part of America’s Operation Paperclip.

In 1958, officers from the Air Force approached him and, rather bluntly, asked him how possible it would be to detonate a nuclear device on the Moon. Intrigued by the possibility, he worked in complete secrecy as he attempted to answer this question. In the summer of 1959, Project A119 – as it became known – was summarized in one of the strangest scientific reports in human history.

Entitled A Study of Lunar Research Flights, it weighed the pros against the cons of the first atomic explosion on another world to our own. Describing the benefits of such a detonation as being scientific, military and political, it immediately dives in to the many ripples that such a colossal, surprising splash would cause.

Not only would the world find out just how possible it would be to engage in off-world nuclear warfare, but the political benefits the destruction would bestow were obvious: A lunar mushroom cloud, partly illuminated by sunlight if prominent enough, would send an unparalleled message of strength to the Soviet Union.

The report is a thesis on everything scientists knew about the Moon back in the 1950s, from its magnetic field and its lack of atmosphere, to its geological properties and the possibility of organic matter hiding in pockets up there. Every detail was provided in service to a sole question: would it be possible to show the world that the US Air Force could bring hell to a celestial sphere 384,400 kilometers away from home?

A blast on the dark side was preferred.

NASA

This document doesn’t envisage how the nuclear warhead would have made it to the Moon. Or, rather, it does, but those sections are redacted and still not publically viewable.

Interviews given by Reiffel in 2000 – when this document was finally declassified – reveal nothing concrete about the delivery system either aside from the fact that, per the Guardian, it was technically plausible. It’s most likely that it would have involved an intercontinental ballistic missile of some kind, the type that had just made their debut on the world stage in the late-1950s.

Aside from the mysterious delivery system, it’s also uncertain how the package itself would be tracked from terra firma. Nevertheless, various methods were assessed in the report, which focused heavily on visual monitoring through the use of telescopes – both ground-based, and some floating from balloons.

One option was to use flares made using the vaporization of sodium, something tested out by both superpowers that decade and proven to be intensely incandescent. Reiffel and his team even calculated the requisite amount of sodium required for the delivery vehicle on the Moon to be seen with the naked eye, on both the dark and bright sides.

The way in which the blast would be carried out was also undecided at the time, but again, multiple pathways were explored. The document does suggest that, based on plenty of simulations, three instrument packages assessing the nature of the blast would be placed in arbitrary places on the visible hemisphere of the Moon. The bomb itself would likely explode on the very edge of the dark side of the Moon, the part that just about wobbles into our terrestrial line of sight, so that the fire and fury could be seen back on Earth more clearly.

The warhead could be unleashed above, on, or under the lunar soil. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations suggested that, no matter which option is used, the pressure waves a powerful nuclear explosion would generated would create artificial “earthquakes” on the Moon, rocking an otherwise seismically silent body. If a one-megaton bomb was used, tremors would be detectable anywhere on our planet’s solitary satellite mere moments after the red switch was flicked.

As on Earth, the geology in the explosion’s midst would be immediately vaporized. “we have the picture of the lunar material moving upward as a gaseous piston from the moon… with a considerable fraction of the radioactive material [being] expelled into space.”

The report adds that although the distribution of the irradiated, ejected dust would be somewhat unpredictable, calculations suggested that the volume of radioactive material reaching Earth would be expected to be very low. For that assessment, we can thank a young graduate student named Carl Sagan, recruited by Reiffel as part of the project.

From Earth, scientists could track the development of the blast’s light much in the same way that they track the flickering of the Sun’s corona, its outermost atmospheric extremities. Apt, considering that the Air Force would have been effectively creating an ephemeral new star on the Moon.

It would have been an undoubtedly epochal moment. Much like the hundreds of millions of people that would have sat around television sets watching Neil Armstrong make our species’ first mark on the ancient volcanic soil, recordings of America’s might would have indelibly burned themselves into the public consciousness.

Extinguishing Lunar Life

The legacy of nuclear fires on our pale blue dot are explicitly clear.

When nuclear tests were carried out in the Cold War, they were done so with a near-nonchalant disregard to the environment and the health of others. Surrounded by scientific instruments and recording equipment, the increasingly powerful blasts set the skies ablaze.

Sometimes old battleships were annihilated in atolls, with the wind sweeping radioactive fallout onto fishermen or settlements. On other occasions, soldiers were asked to march toward the mushroom cloud that was rushing up into the azure air – practice for a future where a ground invasion would follow on from a nuclear strike on the enemy’s position.

As time ticked away, the effects of the blast and the resulting radiation became ever clearer. Aside from the clearly dangerous contaminated veils they would leave in their wake, such blasts also led to scientific revelations in fields outside the realm of nuclear physics.

The craters generated by subterranean blasts were curiously similar to a type of volcano – maar-diatremes – whose formation and destruction still eludes volcanologists today. Along similar lines, the document explains that – whether it’s a nuclear or chemical bomb, the subsurface layers of the Moon would be revealed, ending years of scientific debate on the subject.

At the same time, the isotopes forged in such blasts proved to be oddly useful to oceanographers, who used them to provide detailed cartography of the major aquatic currents transporting heat and nutrients all over the planet.

There’s a good chance that, one day, we’ll be officially living in the Anthropocene Epoch, a brand-new unit of geological time created thanks to our irrevocable decisions. Take your pick: plastics littering our oceans, carbon dioxide smothering our atmosphere, species extinction rates – all make good markers denoting when we first left a clearly detectable signature in the sedimentological record.

Committees looking into the matter, however, have decided that the so-called Golden Spike should instead be represented by the spike in plutonium debris those nuclear weapons tests have left laying around. As a result, the Anthropocene would have begun in 1950, or perhaps in the 1960s, depending on which version of “global distribution” wins out in the end.

Symbolically, the 1950 version works even better when you look at the concerns Reiffel et al. had when considering what environmental impact a nuclear detonation on the Moon would engender. Forget the impact of spreading radioactive ash all over the place: Years before the mission to send manned astronauts to the Sea of Tranquility took place, scientists were wondering that delivering a nuke to the Moon would bring with it hazardous organic or biological material from Earth.

By the 1950s, it was thought that Mars and Venus should definitely not be contaminated in any such way. The Moon was considered to be far less hospitable to biology, but nevertheless it remained unclear how correct this notion actually was, particularly with regards to the subsurface.

The report stresses, therefore, that “if such biological contamination of the moon occurred, it would represent an unparalleled scientific disaster, eliminating several possibly very fruitful approached to such problems as the early history of the solar system, the chemical composition of matter in the remote past, the origin of life on earth, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.”

The document does argue, however, that such a concern may be merely academic. “The first moonfall is very likely to be by a Soviet vehicle,” the report notes, implying that the biological contamination issue was out of their hands anyway. “The US propaganda possibilities following a USSR lunar contamination – or vice versa – should not be overlooked,” Reiffel suggests.

The danger of biological – and of course radiological – contamination wasn’t the only obstacle that the document outlined. Reiffel explained that there were so many potential problems with carrying out this plan that it was impossible to actually foresee them all.

One passage, in particular, emphasizes just how much time it would take to even go through the issues that the document touched on: “The enormous effort that would be involved in any controlled experiment on or near the moon demands nothing less than an exhaustive evaluation of suggestions by the many qualified persons who have begun to think about this general problem.”

The document deals heavily in abstractions, but one concern that seemed absolutely concrete to Reiffel was the affect such a blast would have on public opinion. Detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon was expected to garner a hugely negative public reaction: America may demonstrate that it’s more technologically advanced than the Soviet Union, but by assuming the mantle of extraterrestrial vandals.

That of course assumed that the warhead would even make it to the Moon. One thing that’s clear from several high-profile disasters is that spaceflight is incredibly difficult to get right. We do succeed more often than not, but enormous risks are always involved, particularly if such spacecraft have had human payloads. The delivery vehicle in this case wouldn’t involve any such passengers, of course, but a failed launch – perhaps one ending in a high-altitude fireball – would spread radioactive debris over an enormous area.

The risk to public health, for once, took precedent – but perhaps not as much as the risk to public opinion did if the plan was to go awry. “Unless the climate of world opinion were well-prepared in advance, a considerable negative reaction could be stimulated,” the report muses.

“The foremost intent was to impress the world with the prowess of the United States,'” Reiffel said in an interview, per The New York Times. '”It was a P.R. device, without question, in the minds of the people from the Air Force.'”

It just wasn’t worth it in the end. In the coming months, the project was abandoned. The Moon’s pristine, alien environment would remain untouched, aside from a few probes sent by both superpowers crashing down onto its surface.

Thanks to the Outer Space Treaty, which came into force on October 10, 1967, we are unlikely to hear about such a plan ever again. Under terms agreed by both the Soviet Union and the US, among others, it became prohibited to place nuclear weapons – and any weapons of mass destruction – in orbit, on the Moon, or on any other physical body in space.

Fear and Loathing on Planet Earth

A Study of Lunar Research Flights is the only declassified document relating to Project A119. Several others likely exist, based on Reiffel’s comments prior to his recent death, and others have been destroyed. Much about it remains tantalizingly under wraps, and little will change in this respect for many years to come.

The plan’s legacy is one of juxtaposition in the starkest of terms. Driven by fear, there was a chance that humanity could have decided to prove that, for all intents and purposes, it could have killed the Moon. Not long after the plan was shuttered, we chose to land on the lunar surface.

Buzz Aldrin, photographed by Neil Armstrong, who you can spot reflected in Aldrin's visor.

NASA

Project A119 is a microcosm of our species’ ability to be dangerously absurd; an example of what could happen if the darker sides to our imaginations are allowed to run riot, catalyzed by doubts and terrors. Although the antagonizing factors have evolved, plenty of us still remain ruled by such hard to control notions today, just as previous generations were in 1959. That doesn’t mean we have to give into them, though.

So by all means, ponder on those footprints if it gives you a sense of optimism. I’d argue, though, that they become even more powerful when you consider that there was a chance that we almost decided to leave a radioactive crater up there instead.

Robin Andrews

Robin George Andrews is a doctor of experimental volcanology-turned-science journalist. He tends to write about the most extravagant of scientific tales, from eruptions and hurricanes to climate change and diamond-rich meteorites from destroyed alien worlds - but he's always partial to a bit of pop culture science. Apart from Forbes, his work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, The New York Times, The Verge, Atlas Obscura, Gizmodo, WIRED and others. You can get in touch with him at robingeorgeandrews.com.

{ https://www.forbes.com/ }

The US Tried To Detonate A Nuke On The Moon – USAF Colonel Says ‘Someone’ Intervened When We Did

Did the United States try and detonate a nuclear weapon on the Moon? Well, there is a slew of declassified documents that clearly show it was a deep desire for the United States to do so. These documents were heavily classified, and you can be assured that if the United States did, or at least did attempt what they were planning to do, it would remain highly classified and away from public knowledge. A declassified report by the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center from June 1959 shows just how seriously they considered the plan. It was called Project A119, and it outlines the desire of the government to investigate the capability of weapons in space, as well as gain further insight into the space environment and the detonation of nuclear devices within it, hence why they wanted to detonate a nuke on the Moon.

Again, it’s s just one of multiple documents that show a high level of interest with regards to detonating weapons on the Moon. There are even strange documents with regards to supposed bases on the Moon. To complement the disclosed desire is the testimony of a very interesting person, Colonel Ross Dedrickson. Dedrickson was a real whistleblower, meaning his background can be verified, he actually was who he says he was. In the episode below we present multiple documents that show this, including a list from the Air Force registrar as well as a document from the atomic energy commission. He is one of hundreds of high ranking people to discuss and share his experiences with UFOs and what he knows and extraterrestrials. He is one of many who specially worked close with nuclear weapons.

He was assigned to the US Atomic Energy Commission and served with them from 1950-1958. His job dealt with the administration duties at Nevada test sites, Pacific Nuclear Test Areas west of Hawaii, nuclear weapon manufacturing and quality assurance in Albuquerque, and inspection of nuclear and non-nuclear facilities throughout the country.

In our latest episode of The Collective Evolution Show on CETV, founder Joe Martino and I go in deeper into the discussion of the desire of the United States to test nuclear weapons on the Moon for scientific purposes, measurements and such. We also present the video testimony of Ross Dedrickson, which show his claims that yes, the US did attempt transporting nuclear weapons to the Moon, but extraterrestrials destroyed the weapon before it they got there, according to him. We go deep into the connection between nuclear weapons and UFOs and provide more evidence in the form of documentation and witness testimony from more high ranking military personnel , as well as dive deeper into the discussion about possible extraterrestrials and their interest in our nuclear weapons as it seems that, on more than one occasion, they’ve destroyed and or deactivated these weapons of ours.

The clip below is just the introduction, for the full episode and hundreds of other inspiring shows and interviews, you can start a free 7-day trial on CETV today and watch it. We created this platform in an attempt to stay alive and allow us to continue to do what we do as we are experiencing tremendous amounts of censorship from social media platforms

{ https://www.collective-evolution.com/ }

Witnessing an unidentified craft is strange enough, but having different people separated by more than 9,000 miles seeing what looks like the same thing is even more bizarre. That’s exactly what happened when several people noticed a mysterious black craft hovering in the sky above the U.S. state of Georgia in addition to more sightings of what appears to be the same craft approximately 9,000 miles away in Australia.

Javion Hill, 35, posted several photographs on his Facebook page showing a mysterious object in the sky during a rainstorm near Charlotte

On November 18^th, YouTuber MrMBB333 posted the footage to his channel and has already received over 30,000 views. In the video, a black circular object can be seen rocking back and forth in the cloudy sky over Manly, New South Wales, Australia. The YouTube video also shows pictures of what appears to be the exact same object that someone photographed in Johns Creek, Georgia.

MrMBB333 quoted one witness named John S. who saw the mysterious craft, “He said the wind started blowing in a circular motion out of nowhere and then he noticed the object and the wind stopped blowing.”

When the still photo from Georgia was compared side-by-side with the video footage from Australia, there’s no denying that they look very similar and the YouTuber is convinced that both crafts are identical. “See the similarities to the one in Australia? They look almost identical in color, shape and size,” MrMBB333 stated.

He went on to say, “It didn’t have any lights on it but it reminded me of several pictures from North Georgia,” and that it was “definitely not a plane” because it was “riding straight up”. Additionally, he mentioned that the craft looked like “an intelligently-designed structure.”

And it’s not just the YouTuber who believes that they are the same UFO. “It’s most likely the same craft,” one user wrote, adding, “Distance and time is no challenge for them. Another viewer commented, “Wow, thanks for the proof. We are not alone in the universe.”

Not everyone is convinced, however, as one user wrote, “It looks like it’s moving like a balloon,” while another person commented, “It’s a kids’ paddling pool.”

So, is there a reasonable explanation for the objects or are they identical UFOs that were captured by photographic and video evidence over 9,000 miles apart? You can take a look at the footage here and decide for yourself.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Perhaps few lands, ancient or modern, are as attractive as Italy — for its people, rolling landscapes, Mediterranean coast, and rich historical allure. We can add to this list an emerging archaeological phenomenon in Sardinia. On this island off the coast of Italy, lies an ancient site where skeletal remains of giants have been uncovered, defying academic conclusions about the land’s earliest inhabitants.

If you take a ferry, Sardinia is situated five hours west of mainland Italy and is home to a persistent theory that giants may have roamed the land. Travel guides suggest that much of the island’s prehistoric past has been preserved mainly because Sardinia features a relatively unpopulated countryside, and many areas where people once lived have long been abandoned. Human occupation is traceable steadily throughout the Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Calcolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages. 

While early Sardinians left behind significant contributions of ancient pottery and megalithic statues crafted out of large, heavy, and enduring stone, perhaps the most startling finds are those said to be of Sardinian giants and include bone and teeth fragments. The site in question is in Coddu Vecchiu, in a place that locals and archaeologists alike refer to as Tomba dei Giganti — the tomb of the giants. It was constructed during the Bronze Age (3300-700 BC) by the Nuragic civilization as a public tomb, in an area where many were buried.

Located on a hillside peppered with vineyards, the giants’ tombs of Coddu Vecchiu are introduced through the doorway of a central stele (an upright stone slab or column serving as a gravestone), which was believed to serve as a barrier between the physical world and the afterlife. In the stone forecourt of the compound are eleven granite stones, arranged in a semicircle measuring about 40 feet across. 

It has been hypothesized that the semicircular arrangement of the stones may have been an attempt to harness telluric currents of the granite for rejuvenating purposes. Author of Mysterious Places in Italy, Isabella Dalla Vecchia, wrote that telluric energy and magnetic forces flowing under the earth’s crust and is part of what makes planet earth a living organism. Dalla Vecchia wrote, “Man, a creature of Mother Earth, is able to interact with and become very sensitive to these movements. Men absorb them unconsciously in particular situations.” Additionally, she explained, a large stone slab with a small doorway is believed to connect the gravesite with the outside world. The opening symbolizes the union between this world and the afterworld. Offerings were deposited on a large bench at the base of the tomb.

Legends vs. Modern Science

According to legend, Sardinia was once home to a race of giants. Those who support this theory point to the massive size of some of the stones used on the burial grounds. On the other hand, archaeologists argue that only the tombs are giant, but those buried at the site were normal-sized humans. Perhaps equally mysterious aspects of the archaeological site are traces of rituals, the existence of powerful sources of natural energy, and how the megaliths are related to the heavens. Many tombs of giants are oriented toward the Taurus’ constellation and point to the brightest star, Aldebaran. And on the days of the equinoxes, the light of the rising sun enters directly into the tomb corridor through a small opening on the stele.

The Story Unfolds in The New Season of Open Minds

Researchers for Ancient Origins noted that the giants’ graves “may provide us with more questions than answers. While they give an interesting insight into the burial rituals of ancient civilizations, they do not provide much information beyond the physical structure of the tombs and the fact that they were used for burial purposes. With religious and spiritual beliefs far different during ancient times than today, it’s likely ancient burial rituals were very different from what we currently know today. There was likely much focus on safely making it to the afterlife, and ensuring a smooth transition from a physical presence on Earth, to a spiritual presence beyond Earth, and possibly a reincarnation into a new life.” However, Gaia’s preeminent documentary host, Regina Meredith, may have more to offer on this subject.

As part of Evidence of Giants in Sardinia, authors Paola Harris (“UFOs: All The Above…and Beyond”) and Freddy Silva (“The Missing Lands”) look into legendary stories passed along through generations. The show notes, “All across the island we find thousands of stone structures, constructed hundreds of thousands of years ago, by a civilization lost to history…” In the video exposé, Meredith and her team explore ancient ruins that seem obviously too large for average-size human beings, while examining bone remnants of gigantic proportions. Additionally, they explore the forbidden history of the lost giants of Atlantis who may have settled in Sardinia after the great deluge.

Meredith’s interview with lifelong Sardinian resident Luigi Mucas, author of The Giants of Sardinia, has revealed that the people of the island have known about the presence of giants for generations. It is nearly impossible not to be aware of this history simply because bones have been found all over the island by locals going about their lives. As a little boy, Mucas said at family gatherings, there were stories of how his “ancestors came from a line of giants.” Mucas believes, based on the testimonies of generations of family members, that his people came from Atlantis and his people are the remnants of that civilization.

With strong reticence by modern archaeologists to entertain the existence of giants as part of human history on earth, the Tombs of the Giants sites in Sardinia will continue to be a mystery that challenges the mainstream narrative. However, as Paola Harris explains, if you talk to the townspeople who act as firsthand witnesses, regardless of the official story coming from archaeology, “you’ll get the real truth.” And this truth, supported by evidence of bone fragments scattered all over Sardinia, discovered by modern-day inhabitants, is that a race of giants had once roamed this island in the Mediterranean. 

{ https://www.gaia.com/ }

Black Triangle On Sun Does The Impossible, Reversing Its Direction! Nov 2019, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 10 until Nov 21, 2019
Location of sighting: Earths sun
Source: 

• https://helioviewer.org
  

I was looking over Helioviewer and noticed that the black triangle that I reported two months ago is back. This time it has reversed its orbit of the sun. The object was moving from left to right of the screen, but now its moving from right to left! That should be impossible. Its skimming the surface of the sun, actually touching the sun. Its about the size of earths moon. The shape is a black triangle. I am very surprised that NASA has never mentioned this huge object on earths southern region. This is 100% proof that aliens exist and NASA isn't doing its job. Watch the video to see this object as it moves. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Black Triangle On Sun Does The Impossible, Reversing Its Direction! Nov 2019, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 10 until Nov 21, 2019
Location of sighting: Earths sun
Source: 

• https://helioviewer.org
  

I was looking over Helioviewer and noticed that the black triangle that I reported two months ago is back. This time it has reversed its orbit of the sun. The object was moving from left to right of the screen, but now its moving from right to left! That should be impossible. Its skimming the surface of the sun, actually touching the sun. Its about the size of earths moon. The shape is a black triangle. I am very surprised that NASA has never mentioned this huge object on earths southern region. This is 100% proof that aliens exist and NASA isn't doing its job. Watch the video to see this object as it moves. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

It's Still Not Aliens: 'Mars Bug' Claim Could Damage the Search for Life

Images of strange solar system visitor peel away some of ...

Space is both the final frontier and the ultimate mystery. Although from here on Earth, and from our limited ventures off-planet, we have gleaned a large amount of data about the happenings of space even well beyond our solar system, there is much that remains enigmatic and unanswered.

The cosmos still keep a few secrets from us, and every once in awhile, something unusual does turn up which causes us to have to rethink our old conceptions of celestial mechanics. Among the many eccentricities of the night sky observed by astronomers over the centuries have been strange, often hazy illuminations that appear in places where they shouldn’t. Sometimes resembling stars or comets, these objects are set apart from most conventional astronomical observations on account of their peculiar motion and other atypical behaviors.

There is a long history of such observations, despite a modest number of accounts that might be considered genuinely anomalous. As far back as 1612, German astronomer Christopher Scheiner had made numerous observations of Jupiter and its moons. In the sketches of his observations, there is an object in addition to the known moons of Jupiter as recognized today; this object, while included in Scheiner’s drawings, seems to have vanished over the course of the astronomer’s ongoing observations.

According to Scheiner, the object had first appeared bright and star-like, just like the other Jovian satellites, but between March 30 and the first weeks of April, the object began to darken, and eventually faded from view. The object is absent in Scheiner’s later drawings, seemingly indicating that the mysterious Jovian “moon” had vanished.

A similar phenomenon was logged in the first years of the nineteenth century by astronomer Hofrath Huth, who in 1802 described seeing a round star that produced “faint reddish light” in the area of theta and delta Leonis. The object was not stationary either, and although Huth deemed it a “moving star,” its path indicated a retrograde motion as opposed to that of other stars and celestial objects. The object was observed between the first six days of January, the outset of which saw the “star” as slightly smaller than the moons of Jupiter. However, by January 6th the strange backward-moving object had vanished and was not seen again, apart from a single observation the following year by Russian astronomer Cornelius Reissig.

A similar observation of an unusual, nebulous object occurred more than three decades later in May 1835, when Italian astronomer Niccolò Cacciatore observed an unidentified eighth-magnitude star from his observation station in Palermo. He had been observing star 503 of Mayer’s catalog with a Ramsden circle (an early astronomical instrument designed by mathematician Jesse Ramsden to measure the positions of astronomical objects). The first night of observation, the new star had appeared behind star 503, but the following evening it appeared to precede it. After this, the mysterious “star” was never detected again.

The majority of sightings of such objects in the scientific record occurred during or prior to the nineteenth century, after which most similar objects were classified as either likely comets or in a few cases unusual classes of asteroids, such as the Reinmuth object, first observed in April 1932. There have been a few notable instances where star-like objects were seen moving through space more recently; a notable circumstance of this sort involved astronomer Frank Clark who, in September 1956, noticed a star-like object passing near the planet Mars. He was briefly able to track the object, which had a yellowish color. This sighting is noteworthy because it occurred a little more than one year before the USSR launched the first artificial satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957, seemingly ruling out any space objects of manmade origin.

Fleeting though such observations are, their presence in the night skies remains mysterious. “Moving stars” such as these serve as reminders that occasionally there are unusual things seen by astronomers, which, innocuous though they are, defy simple classification or explanation.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Romoser claims that the pictures show evidence of insect-like forms on the Red Planet. “There has been and still is life on Mars,” he stated, adding that the photographs show evidence of living creatures as well as fossilized ones. In fact, he went a step further in claiming that one of the insects appears to be looking directly at the camera.

And apparently they look quite similar to insects found right here on Earth. “There is apparent diversity among the Martian insect-like fauna which display many features similar to Terran insects that are interpreted as advanced groups – for example, the presence of wings, wing flexion, agile gliding/flight, and variously structured leg elements,” he explained.

Did NASA capture photo evidence of life on Mars?

He studied the photographs – most of them were taken by the Curiosity Rover – on the database from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Romoser said that he studied the “dramatic departure from the surroundings, clarity of form, body symmetry, segmentation of body parts, repeating form, skeletal remains, and observation of forms in close proximity to one another.”

He even claimed that the posture, flight, motion, position, and shiny eyes strongly suggested that they were living forms. “Once a clear image of a given form was identified and described, it was useful in facilitating recognition of other less clear, but none-the-less valid, images of the same basic form,” he noted.

He said that Earth insects are identified by having “three body regions, a single pair of antennae, and six legs,” therefore, “On these bases, arthropodan, insect-like forms can be seen in the Mars rover photos.” He added that the Mars images look similar to bumble bees or carpenter bees that live on Earth, and some of the photographs even show the insects in their nests.

Romoser claims that several of the fossilized insects look similar to Earth bees.

In addition to insects, Romoser said that other photos appear to show a fossilized snake-like creature with two front nostrils and beady eyes, as well as an insect in its mouth. You can see here several of the photographs that Romoser analyzed.

A specimen whose head appears to have turned in the direction of the camera, according to William S. Romoser, Ph.D, who has 45 years of experience studying insects and has spent years analysing NASA photographs . Based on the scale provided in the photo from which this was extracted, this individual is estimated to be approximately 20 inches long

In a study put together by Romoser, he discussed 'a putative reptile-like fossil compared to a Terran snake'. The fossil shows the snakes beady eyes, two front nostrils and even an insect in its mouth

Dr. Emeritus William Romoser has spent years studying NASA photographs of the Martian world and claims there are numerous examples of insect-like forms. He claims the images highlight exoskeletons and jointed appendages of these 'living creatures', which are enough evidence to identify these organism as insect-like

He used the database from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of raw images and compiled panoramic mosaics, which had been gathered over many years from different missions to the Red Planet

NASA is getting ready to send a rover to Mars in search of life, but a professor from Ohio University believes we have already have evidence of beings crawling on the red planet

Other images, Romoser claimed, showed 'bees' in their nests and others highlighted fossilized creatures that resembles a snake

As for life on Mars, Romoser said that the evidence is compelling. “The presence of higher metazoan organisms on Mars implies the presence of nutrient/energy sources and processes, food chains and webs, and water as elements functioning in a viable, if extreme, ecological setting sufficient to sustain life,” he noted, adding, “Water on Mars has been reported a number of times, including surface water detected by instrumentation on Viking, Pathfinder, Phoenix, and Curiosity.”

Perhaps NASA will find even more evidence of potential life on Mars when they send a rover back to the Red Planet next year. The mission will be focused on finding evidence of past microbial life on Mars as the rover will collect rock core samples that will be sent back to Earth for analysis. Maybe they’ll bring back one of the alien-insects that Romoser claims they have already captured photo evidence of.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT NASA'S MARS 2020 ROVER?

Nasa's Mars 2020 rover will search for signs of ancient life on Mars in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on our own planet.

The machine will explore an ancient river delta within the Jezero Crater, which was once filled with a 1,600-foot (500-meter) deep lake.

It is believed that the region hosted microbial life some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago.

Nasa's Mars 2020 rover (artist's impression) will search for signs of ancient life on Mars in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on our own planet

The $2.5 billion (£1.95 billion) Mars 2020 is planned to launch in July 2020, and land in February 2021.

Mars 2020 is designed to land inside the crater and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for further analysis.

Nasa says a second mission will need to fly to the planet and return the samples, perhaps by the later 2020s.

This concept art shows the Mars 2020 rover landing on the red planet via NASA's 'sky-crane' system

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

How do extraterrestrials like their coffee? Espresso? Macchito? Con Panna? Quad? With Legs? Double double? If you guessed the last one (a large coffee with two creamer packets and two sugar packets mixed in), you may be closest to the answer. Researchers analyzing two different meteorites have discovered alien sugar on both. Does this mean coffee with cream and sugar came from another planet? You’re not thinking grande enough.

“The extraterrestrial sugar might have contributed to the formation of RNA on the prebiotic Earth which possibly led to the origin of life.”

In a NASA press release, Yoshihiro Furukawa, an associate professor of Earth astrochemistry at Japan’s Tohoku University, explains what he and a team of NASA researchers found when analyzing powdered samples of two different meteorites – NWA 801, found in Morocco, and Murchison, discovered near Murchison, Victoria, Australia. Both are carbon-rich meteorites, but the carbon-based molecules they found using gas chromatography mass spectrometry were still surprising – ribose, arabinose, xylose and other sugars in concentrations ranging from 2.3 to 11 parts per billion in NWA 801 and from 6.7 to 180 parts per billion in Murchison.

Ribose is the most significant of the sugars discovered on the meteorites. Why? Think back to high school biology class where you learned about DNA. The messenger molecule which copies genetic instructions from the DNA molecule and pass them on to the macromolecular machines in every living cell that synthesize proteins is RNA — ribonucleic acid. RNA’s “ribo” is the same as the one in ‘ribose’ and ‘ribosomes’ – the macromolecular protein-creating machines which are the food of life. Is this big news, Yoshihiro?

“Other important building blocks of life have been found in meteorites previously, including amino acids (components of proteins) and nucleobases (components of DNA and RNA), but sugars have been a missing piece among the major building blocks of life. The research provides the first direct evidence of ribose in space and the delivery of the sugar to Earth. The extraterrestrial sugar might have contributed to the formation of RNA on the prebiotic Earth which possibly led to the origin of life.”

So, the ribose isn’t a life form but instead the missing ingredient in the soup churning on Earth that sparks its creation via RNA, which then starts replicating, eventually forming DNA and … well, you can figure out the rest of the plot of this movie. The researchers know what you’re thinking and, yes, they checked to determine if the ribose was actually from Earth and had accidentally contaminated the meteorites. An isotope analysis showed that this ribose was enriched with a heavy version of carbon (13C) at levels far beyond those seen on Earth.

Jason Dworkin, a space biologist and co-author with Furukawa and others of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights the significance of this find and how this ancient molecule impacts modern science.

“It is remarkable that a molecule as fragile as ribose could be detected in such ancient material. These results will help guide our analyses of pristine samples from primitive asteroids Ryugu and Bennu, to be returned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.”

Sugar on an asteroid. Who would have thought life on Earth could have begun that way?

Sugar on an asteroid. It’s also a great title for a song and a cool name for a donut.

I’ll have an Espresso Con Panna and a sugar on an asteroid. With legs.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Crew Members Reveal of Seeing Flying Elongated Egg

Symbolic image

New details have been out about the mysterious episode of a crazy encounter with UFOs in 2004. Crew members who were on board a Navy warship during the encounter have come forward, offering new captivating first-hand accounts.

In November 2004, technicians on a training mission with the Nimitz carrier group about a hundred miles off the coast of Southern California started to notice unusual ghost tracks and clutter on the radars of the ship.

Concerned on the brand new AN/SPY-1B radar system on the Princeton was acting up, the crew recalibrated the advanced device to clear the errors, but the seemingly “false” radar tracks only became stronger, the first sign something rather unusual was taking place.

Princeton radar technician Gary Voorhis said that the tracks were sharper and clearer after they finished all the recalibration and brought their radar system back up. Voorhis said that the UFOs were sometimes at an altitude of 80,000 or 60,000 feet, and other times they were around 30,000 feet going around 100 knots.

Senior Chief Operations Specialist Kevin Day, who was tasked with airspace monitoring around the Princeton, also observed strange radar artifacts from the Combat Information Center of the ship. These bizarre artifacts continued for several days, according to Mr Day.

Voorhis became convinced it was not a radar error as the crew kept tabs on the bizarre signals. He finally caught a glimpse of the UFOs using the ship’s technology to pinpoint the signal and then peering through heavily-magnified binoculars. He is sure he saw something zipping around in the distance.

Day persuaded his superiors to allow an intercept attempt after nearly a week of hide-and-seek with the strange objects. Two F/A-18s were dispatched to investigate. The fighter pilots said they made a visual contact from about a mile away and noticed an elongated egg-liked object that was solid white, smooth, and no edges. However, the objects proved too elusive for the fighter jets, forcing them to withdraw the effort.

A second attempt would make the now-infamous infrared footage, leaked to the public in 2017. It features a pill-shaped object flying in the sky and audio of confused fighter pilots, struggling to identify the craft. The Pentagon only confirmed its authenticity in September 2019 and maintained it was never cleared for release to the general public.

Voorhis said that two men arrived on the Princeton soon after the F/A-18 intercept and asked for data recordings captured during the run-in, which he was ordered to turn over immediately. He revealed that other ship’s recording devices had also been wiped clean.

Another sailor aboard the Princeton, who chose to be unnamed, said that a Blackhawk helicopter landed on their ship and took all their information from the secret rooms. He noted that it was an unspoken rule not to talk about it due to their secret clearances and did not want to jeopardize their careers.

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

The Destruction of Sodom and GomorrahThe Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

‘Fire and Brimstone’ that Destroyed Biblical Sodom Matches Findings of Cosmic Catastrophe 3,700 Years Ago

Analysis of archaeological sites north of the Dead Sea demonstrate that a meteor explosion in the skies 3,700 years ago instantly obliterated a civilization and destroyed once fertile farmland in several settlements in the area of what is now Jordan. This discovery provides another explanation for the sudden desertion of what researchers believe to be the biblical city of Sodom .

The Middle Ghor Event

ScienceNews reports archaeologists have blamed the low-altitude explosion of a meteor for the abandonment of at least five archaeological sites in a 25-kilometer-wide (15.53 mile) circular plain called Middle Ghor in modern day Jordan. Ground surveys suggest 120 smaller settlements may have also been affected by the Bronze Age catastrophe and once fertile farmlands in the area were made barren. Despite the 2,500 years of occupation at the sites before the tragic event, the catastrophe was such that the lands were abandoned for centuries.

A less threatening meteor in the sky. ‘The Meteor of 1860’ by Frederic Edwin Church .

( Public Domain )

Archaeologist Phillip Silvia of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque and his colleagues presented their findings last week at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). The ASOR Abstract states their analysis suggests “[…] a Tunguska like, cosmic airburst event that obliterated civilization including the Middle Bronze Age city state anchored by Tall el Hammam in the Middle Ghor (the 25 km diameter circular plain immediately north of the Dead Sea) ca. 1700 B.C.E., or 3700 years before present (3.7kaBP).”

• Archaeologists Claim to have Discovered the Location of the Biblical City of Sodom
• Ancient Signs in the Sky: Did a Meteorite Change the Course of Christianity 2,000 Years Ago?
• Space Rock Mystery: Where Did the Fukang Meteorite Come From?

Evidence for the Meteor Over the Dead Sea

Their evidence comes primarily from analysis of samples taken over 12 years of excavations by Silvia and others during the Tall el Hammam Excavation Project and at nearby sites. One way researchers found indications of Tall el Hammam’s desertion comes in the form of radiocarbon dating of the stone foundations, which were all that was left when mudbrick buildings unexpectedly disappeared about 3,700 years ago.

Tell el-Hammam; Kafrein Trenches 2.

(APAAME/ CC BY NC ND 2.0 )

The extreme heat of the meteor’s explosion explains the vitrification of the outer layers of pottery from the same time period. Strong winds also sent “tiny, spherical mineral grains that apparently rained down on Tall el-Hammam” according to Silvia . This is the dark ash that was discovered burying the scorched foundations.

Tall el Hammam – The Biblical Sodom?

Tall el Hammam is a fascinating site. In 2015, researchers declared that the archaeological site “matches the description of the area where Sodom was located according to the Bible.” Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University of New Mexico, who has been excavating the site for at least 10 years, explained how they made the link, “It [Sodom] was said to be the largest city east of Kikkar. So, I came to the conclusion that if one wanted to find Sodom, one should seek the largest city that existed in this area during the Bronze Age, in the time of  Abraham. When we explored the region, Tall el-Hammam was an obvious choice, as it was five to ten times larger than the other Bronze Age cities throughout the region, even those found beyond Jordan.”

A comparison of the site’s size and the artifacts unearthed there alongside those discovered at nearby cities led the researchers to assert they have “no doubt that Tall el-Hammam was the ancient city of Sodom.”

And now there’s a strong scientific explanation to accompany the religious one for why the city was suddenly abandoned so long ago.

• The Wold Newton Meteorite: An Extraordinary Stone and the Birth of a Superhero
• Epic Cosmic Battles and the Forces of Creation and Destruction in Belief Systems around the World
• The Real Reason Ancient Indo-Europeans Carried Out Human Sacrifice

Catastrophic Results

In the abstract for their presentation at the ASOR meeting, the researchers call the meteor explosion the “Middle Ghor Event” and explain that it not only wiped out “100% of the Middle Bronze Age cities and towns” in the area, but also sent “a super-heated brine of Dead Sea anhydride salts” over the farm land, making it barren.

Dead Sea salt.

( CC0)

They suspect that the event was so devastating that people did not return to inhabit the region for 600 or 700 years. The discovery of huge iron gates at Tall el Hammam announced the repossession of that key city after centuries of abandonment.

• Top Image: The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah , John Martin , 1852. Source: Public Domain

By Alicia McDermott

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

SpaceX wants to launch 42,000 satellites

To provide the last corner of the earth with Internet - plans, among others, the US company SpaceX. The company of Elon Musk wants to massively increase the number of satellites planned for this purpose. Astronomers are annoyed.

{ https://newsrnd.com/ }

US Boarder Patrol Drone Mistaken For UFO, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Nov 16, 2019
Location of sighting: Yuma, Arizona, USA
News source: 

• https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/mysterious-object-seen-floating-skies-20913523

This UFO was seen way over near Yuma not far from the US boarder which makes me wonder if its a inflatable drone used by US boarder agents. When I searched...I found that such a border drone does exist. Here are the screenshots below. I see the three white fins in the back, the hump in lower middle area and its color all match this Boarder patrol drone photos I found. Sadly I have to say nope, not a UFO this time. But still...very cool video. 
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

News states: 

In the video, the truck driver can be seen standing in the desert next to the road after pulling in his vehicle. Explaining the clip, taken on November 16, he says: “I’m a truck driver, I’m driving back from Yuma, Arizona, and I look up in the sky and I see this thing. “I have no idea what that thing is. “I’ll try to zoom in on it for you here, it’s kind of hard to tell, with the sun, what I’m looking at.” The object appears to be bright white and have three arms set at a 120 degree angle to each other. “What is that?” he asks. The object also looks as if it is longer than it is wide, with an area appearing as if it in shadow. “It’s just floating there,” the truck driver adds.

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }