Look What NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Just Spotted Lurking in the Red Planet’s Arbot Hills
A tiny green dot appearing in an image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captures a historic tale of Red Planet exploration by one of its first Earthling visitors.
That visitor—a robotic rover named Perseverance—has been conducting investigations on Mars since February 18, 2021, and the new aerial images reveal its current location in an area that mission specialists have dubbed “Arbot.”
While Perseverance’s latest appearance reveals little more than a greenish spec on the planet’s rust-colored surface, also visible in the new images are the long path its formidable tires have left in the Martian soil as the robotic explorer has trekked west of its initial landing site.
The new images, captured on June 13, 2026, were taken just one day before Perseverance broke the previous distance record held by a robotic explorer on Mars: NASA’s Opportunity rover.
However, Perseverance completed this phase of its journey in record time compared to its predecessor, which took more than 11 years to traverse a similar distance. Perseverance, by contrast, covered the same distance in less than half that time, with just five years and four months of travel now behind it.
In the image above, NASA’s Perseverance Rover appears in the center of the image as a small, greyish-green reflective spot. Also visible are the impressions left by its all-terrain tires, revealing the robotic rover’s long path over the last several years of Martian exploration
(Image Credit: Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
The images were made possible by the MROs’ High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which also captured surface features in the Arbot area that include ridges and windswept areas along Mars’ rugged exterior.
Built and operated by the University of Arizona, HiRISE captures images with resolutions as fine as about 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel, allowing researchers to distinguish features roughly the size of a kitchen table from orbit. The camera has returned hundreds of thousands of detailed images since the MRO arrived at Mars two decades ago, contributing to a growing data set that has transformed scientists’ understanding of the Red Planet.
Documenting everything from active dust avalanches and shifting dunes to fresh impact craters, the unprecedented resolution its imagery provides has made HiRISE one of the most powerful planetary imaging instruments ever deployed.
Last year, the MRO’s HiRISE camera also successfully captured images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it made its way past Mars during its trip through our Solar System. Although the HiRISE images weren’t the clearest images of the interstellar visitor obtained during its visit, they did help demonstrate just how formidable NASA’s MRO and its suite of instruments are.
Additional details about Perseverance and its mission can be found at NASA’s official web page, and information about the MRO can be found here.
NASA Has a Major Problem Threatening Its Entire Moon Plans
SpaceX / NASA
To get SpaceX’s mammoth Starship all the way to the Moon and back with astronauts on board will require an enormous amount of fuel.
Over a period of eight days, Elon Musk’s space company will need to launch at least 15 of them to fully load a fuel depot in low-Earth orbit. That fuel will then have to be transferred into a separately-launched Human Landing System variant of the spacecraft that astronauts will board before descending to the lunar surface.
Needless to say, SpaceX certainly has its work cut out to have its Starship ready for NASA’s Artemis 4 mission in 2028, the first crewed attempt to land on the Moon since 1972 — let alone dramatically increasing its launch cadence, as it has yet to launch and safely land the rocket.
It gets worse. Now, the space agency’s watchdog says there’s an even bigger problem that could threaten NASA’s ambitious plans. According to a new report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), “NASA’s launch infrastructure is dated and lacks the capacity to meet the growing demands of the Agency and government and commercial partners.”
A major surge in commercial launches has put the launch pads at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia under major strain. And simply building more pads is far easier said than done. Growing “demand for super heavy-lift launch vehicles” is “driving the need for additional launch pads that can accommodate these vehicles, but locations for new launch pads are limited and will require extensive time and resources to develop,” the OIG frets.
Meanwhile, electrical power distribution is “being used beyond its design life and needs to be upgraded,” while the infrastructure for fuel components, like nitrogen and helium, could also “lead to delays.” Even the roadways around Kennedy were “not designed to accommodate the volume, frequency, and weight of modern heavy transport operations.” And declining budgets for maintenance and construction have resulted in lagging infrastructure that exacerbate it all.
The news comes after the Federal Aviation Administration approved SpaceX to launch its Starship from launch complex 39A, from which many Apollo and Space Shuttle program missions launched starting in the 1960s. Musk’s company is hoping to greatly expand the complex for its enormous spacecraft, including the addition of the many necessary structures on top of the launch pad, like towers and fuel tanks.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which NASA has also selected to develop a competing Human Landing Systems spacecraft for the Moon landing, will also need plenty of space and capacity for launching its powerful New Glenn rocket, further complicating matters.
In short, as the OIG notes in its report, NASA and its commercial partners need to make some major changes to ensure that the Artemis Moon program remains on track.
And that certainly doesn’t bode well, considering the development of both New Glenn and Starship are already running into numerous delays and failed test launches.
More on Artemis:
a secret meeting in the Tennessee mountains. We prayed after seeing what these 'humanoid beings' did... the world is not prepared
EXCLUSIVE - I saw unreleased UFO files at a secret meeting in the Tennessee mountains. We prayed after seeing what these 'humanoid beings' did... the world is not prepared
A pastor who claims he was whisked away to a secret UFO disclosure gathering in the Tennessee mountains has revealed chilling new details about the evidence he was shown.
Last month, the Daily Mail first reported that private meeting of intelligence insiders, former military and faith leaders was said to have taken place in February ahead of the government's release of its 'UFO files', a collection of declassified records concerning unidentified flying objects.
One of the supposed attendees, Pastor Joseph Zupetz, has disclosed vivid new details about what he saw, warning that the UFO files released by the Trump administration so far are nothing compared to what is still to come.
Far removed from the grainy, blurry UFO footage previously released by the government, Zupetz said he and five other Christian influencers were shown images of non-human beings that were startlingly clear and sent chills down his spine.
The pastor said the secretive meeting, whose attendees he declined to identify, was organized by 'personnel now working within groups that investigate non-human intelligence issues involving UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) and reverse-engineered craft.'
'I was shown images that some of the people who were presenting to us had on their devices of real entities that they personally took photos of,' Zupetz told the Daily Mail.
'They took images of entities standing in the woods. They were very tall, they had very long appendages, some of them almost looked, and this is a crude way of saying it, almost like humanoid squid-type things.'
Congress recently requested 46 UFO videos from the Department of War, including one that viewers have claimed shows an angel flapping its wings
He claimed that other images featured 'tall, lanky, light beings,' with some completely see-through.
Then, after leaving the two-hour meeting and boarding his flight back to Colorado, he noticed several glowing orbs hovering in the sky in the distance.
He recorded the strange encounter and shared the footage with the Daily Mail.
UAP UFO disclosure
©US DEPARTMENT OF WAR / FBI FILES© IBTimes
Zupetz said that during the flight, the plane was shaken so violently that he and other passengers began to pray.
When they looked back out the window, the orbs were gone from their view.
'We were flying in an aircraft, and we truly had an encounter with six orbs right outside the plane,' he said.
'We began to pray, and it stopped trembling. I thought that was very interesting. Now, maybe it was just turbulence, and we had a psychosomatic episode.'
But, according to the pastor, he is convinced it was demonic and fears the encounter was linked to the meeting he had just attended.
'Here I am, a faith-filled believer, and I'm seeing this, and it's making me question, like, okay, what is this? Is this demons? Is this angels? Is it high-level tech?' the pastor said.
Zupetz was one of several influential faith leaders who claimed to have attended private meetings held in Tennessee in February, where former government officials warned that information expected to be released this year could have profound implications for Christian beliefs.
The Daily Mail could not confirm that the meetings took place. But the evangelist Tony Merkel told us that he helped organize the meeting and was also in attendance.
Pastor Joseph Zuptz says he attended one of three secret meetings between faith leaders and former intelligence officials who believe UFO disclosure will shake the Christian faith
Faith leaders at multiple secret meetings throughout the US were allegedly shown images of real extraterrestrials, including a squid-like being with long limbs (Stock Image)
Merkel said the idea was to bring in key ministers who have a large reach within the Christian community to prepare people of faith for the potential disclosure of aliens.
On June 12, the third tranche of declassified files was released to the public, containing hundreds of pages of documents, images, videos and even audio recordings from NASA space flights.
However, Zupetz has admitted that he and his followers have not been shocked or convinced that extraterrestrial life existed after seeing these initial releases.
To this point, only a handful of videos disclosed by the Pentagon have shown clear footage of alleged UFOs, mostly metallic orbs, flying over the planet in great detail.
However, after attending the meeting in Tennessee, Zupetz and others were convinced the slow drip of UFO content from the government is designed to build a 'normalcy bias,' making strange things seem ordinary, to set up for a potentially Earth-shattering reveal in future.
'They're going to continue to drip these things, drop them slowly, and it's not going to be shock and awe in the beginning. And this is what we were told,' Zupetz explained.
'Eventually, they will bring out an entity, a non-human biologic that they will either have speaking or communicating with, and when they do this, then it's going to be a little more shaking.'
The Pentagon's main UFO investigative unit has claimed that most reports of mysterious phenomena in the sky have been caused by explainable things, including balloons, drones and even bird sightings.
A video released in the first wave of UFO files appeared to show a glowing object resembling an 'eight-pointed star' with uneven arms that has been compared to a craft from biblical times
Despite the ongoing file dumps from the Pentagon and multiple members of Congress saying more evidence of real UFOs exists, the US government has maintained that there is no physical proof that aliens exist.
However, Zupetz and other faith leaders have presented an alternative theory, calling the appearance of strange craft, glowing orbs and non-human figures evidence of 'fallen angel technology.'
The theory argues that UFO sightings that cannot be explained as advanced human technology or natural phenomena may actually be interdimensional beings described in the Bible and the controversial Book of Enoch.
'I believe that they are fallen angel tech, or it is interdimensional abilities afforded to angels, rogue spirits or demonic powers that can manifest and appear,' Zupetz said, referring to the origins of the unexplained phenomena in our skies.
'I believe that is the big false flag thing, and the agenda they'll bring forward is saying, we originally are the ones that [seeded] you here.
'The Bible you read is close, but it's not perfectly accurate, because now we're here to enlighten humanity, raise your consciousness, and bring you higher.'
Zupetz shared images of six orbs that surrounded his plane while leaving the secret meeting in Tennessee
Zupetz said his plane began shaking as the orbs surrounded the aircraft, and only stopped when the passengers began praying
Zupetz said believers who find themselves faced with similar sightings and questioning their faith should speak the name of Jesus during their encounters.
The pastor claimed that genuine good entities would respond positively, while deceptive ones would be triggered negatively.
The pastor also cited Steven Spielberg's latest film, 'Disclosure Day,' and the famed director's comments regarding believers in Jesus as more evidence of an ominous narrative being formed, which aligns with the Bible's darkest chapters.
During a CBS News interview, Spielberg reflected on how confirmation of intelligent life beyond Earth could affect religious faith, saying, 'The movie also takes the position of the church.
'What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God our God only on this planet? Or is God a god for every system where there's civilization and intelligent life, and even developing life?'
Zupetz said: 'When this disclosure happens, it's the narrative attached to it that'll become more and more negative towards Christianity.'
A Dyson sphere in shape of a cube found near Ursa Minor, historical first! UFO UAP Sighting News.
Date of discovery: June 26, 2026
NASA’s Mars rover just found more evidence the planet may have sustained life
NASA’s Mars rover just found more evidence the planet may have sustained life
The stones were found in the same location where the rover previously found potential biosignatures
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover just found further evidence the Red Planet may have supported life billions of years ago.
A pair of Martian mudstones the rover collected from the planet’s Bright Angel rock formation in the Jezero crater have complex carbon, one of the building blocks of life, scientists say.
“Measurements of two mudstones show hundreds of organic detections, making this the most robust organic detection in Jezero crater thus far, and, to our knowledge, the only detection of macromolecular carbon on a natural rock surface on Mars,” the researchers wrote in a new study sharing the findings.
The stones were collected in the same location where the rover previously found evidence of ancient microbial life.
Earlier this year, NASA’s Curiosity rover also found never-before-seen organic molecules that the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said “renewed confirmation that ancient Mars had the right chemistry to support life.”
Curiosity previously found carbon signatures in powdered rock samples it collected on Mars, too. But those were some 2,000 miles away in Mars' Gale Crater.
The researchers explain that understanding the origin of organic carbon in the Mars rocks is crucial to determining if there was life on the planet.
"Carbon is the primary building block for life on Earth, and all living things are made up of complex organic macromolecules," co-lead author Ashley Murphy, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute, told Space.com on Wednesday. "On Earth, [macromolecular carbon] is often found in extremely old rocks and in some cases it is the only organic evidence of past microbial life.”
But they don’t yet know if the carbon in the mudstones was produced by something living or non-living.
The new carbon “could be from meteorites or cosmic dust; abiological processes like hydrothermal reactions; or they could be biological in nature,” planetary scientist Paul Byrne, of Washington University in St. Louis, told Science News.
The researchers used the Perseverance rover’s chemical-analyzing Raman spectrometer instrument to map where carbon was throughout the samples.
“One mudstone’s interior contained organic carbon within a primary silicate-dominated matrix; the other mudstone held organic carbon with secondary carbonate and sulfate minerals. The carbon in both rocks was not too weathered, indicating it may be recently exposed to Mars’ surface – or may be somewhat resistant to radiation and oxidation,” a release from the American Academy of Sciences said.
To understand if samples collected by Perseverance are signs of ancient life, they need to be studied back on Earth. The rover can identify the chemical and mineral makeup of areas on Mars, but it doesn’t have the ability to characterize the organic carbon’s make-up.
The stones are a part of dozens of samples Perseverance has collected to be sent home.
When that could happen is anyone’s guess because NASA’s Mars Sample Return program has been overhauled in favor of two cheaper strategies.
A sky crane or a commercial lander could come to collect the samples. Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said last year that the return would be set in motion as soon 2035 and as late as 2039.
Scans reveal mysterious buried structure near Great Pyramid
©Getty Images
Hidden Giza anomaly: A 2024 survey revealed an L-shaped structure and deeper resistive feature beneath the Western Cemetery near the Great Pyramid.
Advanced scanning tools: Researchers used ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography to map subsurface shapes without excavation.
Unresolved mystery: The anomalies may be archaeological but their purpose and composition remain unknown until further investigation.
References
©NECROPOLIS OF SAQQARA, GIZA, EGYPT -- MARCH 9, 2020: Maxar overview satellite imagery of the Necropolis of Saqqara. Please use: Satellite Image (c) 2022 Maxar Technologies.
References
©Photo by Mohamed El Raai/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images. GIZA, EGYPT - AUGUST 31: Egyptian archeologists and Waseda Universtiy's archeologists research the ruins of 2nd full-size vessel, which is predicted to be belonging to Pharaoh Khufu's era, at Pyramids region in Giza, Egypt on August 31, 2016.
(Photo by Mohamed El Raai/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The newly discovered underground structure is situated on the Giza Plateau, an area that has been extensively studied for decades. Its presence in such a well-documented archaeological zone underscores the potential for significant undiscovered features even in heavily researched sites.
References
©Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images. GIZA, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 7:A general view of the Pyramid of Menkaure at the Giza Pyramids necropolis in Giza on November 7, 2025 in Giza, Egypt.
(Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images)
2024 Archaeological Prospection paper documents Giza anomalies
©Photo by mark peterson/Corbis via Getty Images. Cemetery near Pyramids of Giza
(Photo by mark peterson/Corbis via Getty Images)
References
©Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images. GIZA, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 7: A general view of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at the Giza Pyramids necropolis in Giza on November 7, 2025 in Giza, Egypt.
(Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images)
References
©Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images. (Original Caption) Great Pyramid.
(Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
©Photo by Archive Photos/Archive Photos/Getty Images. A view of the Great Pyramid of Giza Egypt.
(Photo by Archive Photos/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
References
©Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images. UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1754: Sahara Desert (satellite image)
(Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
References
Huge asteroid a MILE wide will zoom past Earth tomorrow – here’s how to spot it
A huge asteroid measuring a mile across will zoom past Earth in an exceptionally close pass tomorrow.
The space rock, measuring twice the size of the Burj Khalifa, will pass so close to Earth that it will be visible with large binoculars or a small telescope.
At its closest point at 12:14 BST on Saturday, the asteroid will pass within 1,590,000 miles (2,560,000 km) of Earth.
While it is a near miss in astronomical terms, that is over six times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
Astronomers say that the asteroid, named 1997 NC1, poses no threat to Earth and there is no chance of a dangerous collision.
However, it will present a rare treat for stargazers, who should be able to see light bouncing off the rock's surface as it whizzes by at 5.6 miles (9 km) per second.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), people in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to see 1997 NC1 as it approaches Earth and passes Earth.
Meanwhile, those in the Southern Hemisphere will get a good look at this alien visitor once it has safely passed Earth's orbit.
A mile-long asteroid will zoom past Earth tomorrow night, passing so close that it will be visible to anyone with a decent pair of binoculars. Pictured: The asteroid 1997 NC1 as seen from the Northolt Branch Observatory, on the night of June 25
A mile-long asteroid will zoom past Earth tomorrow night, passing so close that it will be visible to anyone with a decent pair of binoculars. Pictured: The asteroid's location at 4:00 am BST
Based on the light reflected by 1997 NC1, astronomers estimate that it is between 750 and 1,650 metres across.
However, ESA also suggests that it could prove to be more reflective and smaller than currently thought.
Yet this still makes 1997 NC1 roughly 60 times bigger than the Chelyabinsk meteor, which exploded in the atmosphere over Russia and injured 1,491 people in 2013.
If an object this large were to collide with Earth, it would be considered a 'city killer', with the potential to cause catastrophic damage.
Luckily for us, the world's space agencies have been carefully tracking this object since it was discovered in 1997, and any chance of an impact has been ruled out.
Guy Wells, founder of Northolt Branch Observatories, told the Daily Mail: 'Whilst this is a fairly large near-Earth asteroid, there's absolutely no need for concern.'
What that leaves is an amazing opportunity to learn more about asteroids drifting through the solar system and to see a real extraterrestrial object with your own eyes.
Juan Luis Cano, of the ESA's Planetary Defence Office, says: 'A close approach to Earth by an object this size only occurs every few years.'
The asteroid, named 1997 NC1, will pass within 1,590,000 miles (2,560,000 kilometres) of Earth on Saturday
This will help create a 3D model of the rock, revealing whether it is a loose pile of rubble that would break up in the atmosphere or a more dangerous solid rock.
But the astronomy action isn't limited to the professionals, as anyone with a decent pair of binoculars will be able to see 1997 NC1 as it passes.
Dr Ed Bloomer, Senior Astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich, told the Daily Mail: 'Factoring in the local horizon and sunset, between about 10:30 and 11:30 is the best window of opportunity for UK residents.
'Tonight, as the sun sets, it is near the constellation Bootes towards the West and will race eastwards over the next few hours towards Aquarius before dropping below the horizon.'
However, Dr Bloomer cautions that even a one-mile-long asteroid is quite small in astronomical terms, so it will be 'intrinsically very challenging to see properly.'
To give yourself the best chance, you can use a sky map app such as Stellarium to help track down the moving object.
Additionally, it is always advisable to try to avoid light pollution by heading to a dark, quiet area and give your eyes at least 20 minutes to adjust.
The best way to find the 1997 NC1 will be to use a sky map app such as Stellarium (pictured), which will help to find the moving object
Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Saturday night predicts fairly heavy cloud cover that will make it difficult to see the asteroid
Unfortunately, this space rock's arrival is poorly timed with the phases of the moon, as the moon will be waxing gibbous and approximately 94 per cent illuminated.
This will add a lot of additional light to the sky that will make the faint glow from 1997 NC1 much harder to spot.
Likewise, the weather looks far from ideal for stargazing, with the Met Office forecasting fairly heavy cloud cover settling in over Scotland and the east of England.
However, the passing asteroid will be visible tonight, although not as brightly, when weather conditions look to be clearer.
And if you don't have any equipment, there's no need to miss out.
The Virtual Telescope Project will be livestreaming their observations of 1997 NC1's close encounter from their professional telescopes.
You can find those streams and more information about how to watch by following this link.
There will be two streams while the asteroid is at its brightest, both starting at 23:00 BST tonight and tomorrow night.
China's secretive space plane releases an unidentified object into orbit - and experts say it could be a spy satellite
A secretive Chinese space plane has released an unidentified object into orbit, a US-based surveillance company has revealed.
China's 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft' is one of the China National Space Administration's (CNSA) most closely guarded secrets.
However, this elusive craft has now been spotted releasing something into orbit above Earth.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have remained silent about what this craft's intended purpose might be.
This was spotted by Leo Labs, an American space tracking firm, which detected the appearance of a new object from their radar station in New Zealand.
It posted on X: 'At 02:30 UTC on 22 June 2026, LeoLabs detected an unknown object in the vicinity of the Chinese Shenlong reusable space plane.'
The company added: 'Following additional observations across our global network and analysis via LeoLabs Delta, we have independently catalogued this object and assessed with high confidence that it was released from the Chinese space plane.
'This activity is consistent with sub-satellite deployments conducted by the space plane in previous missions.'
A secretive Chinese space plane has been spotted launching a 'mystery object' into orbit by a US surveillance company
The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on February 6.
As with its previous launches, the objective of the mission was not made public, but the release of this unknown object offers a tantalising clue.
According to Professor Jonathan McDowell, of the Durham University Space Research Centre, this object has now been logged by the American Space Force.
However, what the object is or why it has been deployed remains something of a mystery.
Professor McDowell told the Daily Mail: 'It's hard to say at the moment, it might just be a cubesat (a small satellite commonly used to conduct research), but it could be a very small spy satellite - nothing fancy.
'Previous things ejected from earlier flights of the space plane have not manoeuvred or done anything particularly interesting.'
This suggests that the space plane is more likely to be for 'doing experiments and testing advanced technology', rather than active missions in space.
What will be more revealing, Professor McDowell suggests, is whether the space plane later attempts to collect the satellite with a robot arm.
US-based space tracking firm Leo Labs spotted 'an unknown object in the vicinity of the Chinese Shenlong reusable space plane' on June 22
Even by the standards of the CNSA, the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft is exceptionally secretive, and almost nothing is known about its design or function.
It is believed to be similar to the USA's own secretive space plane, the X-37, or NASA's space shuttle.
However, besides a few digital renders, there are no official images of what the craft might look like.
The best publicly available images of the space plane were taken by amateur astronomer Felix Schöfbänker using a ground-based telescope.
In 2024, a series of images captured by Mr Schöfbänker showed that the space plane was apparently fitted with a pair of solar panels that had not appeared in any of the renderings.
The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft has already completed three prior missions, spending around 500 days in space, and has a track record of unusual behaviour.
In 2024, observers noted that the space plane may have ejected a small satellite or piece of unwanted equipment as it reached the end of its scheduled mission.
Six months earlier, the craft caused alarm when it appeared to release three sub-satellites at once, but these were later found to be leftover debris from launch.
Almost nothing is known about China's 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft', but it is believed to be similar in design to NASA's X-37. Pictured: Digital render of the space plane's design
The best images of the mysterious spacecraft come from amateur astronomer Felix Schöfbänker, who managed to photograph the space plane from a ground-based telescope
More concerningly, observers have noted the space plane making so-called 'rendezvous and proximity operations', in which a craft practices getting as close as possible to another object.
Rendezvous and proximity operations can be used for entirely peaceful means, such as refuelling and repairing damaged satellites.
But there are concerns that the US, China, and Russia are all preparing spacecraft that have the ability to interfere or tamper with adversary satellites.
This could include knocking spy satellites out of orbit, turning communication satellites to face the wrong way, or simply grabbing a spacecraft with a robotic arm.
The US Space Force is almost certainly developing its own rendezvous and proximity operations capability, and even commissioned an illustration of a space plane intercepting a satellite as its first-ever piece of official artwork.
Likewise, two Russian 'inspector' satellites came within ten feet (three metres) of each other in May as the country ramps up its space warfare research.
Professor McDowell suggests that China's investment in this technology could have been prompted by similar research from its American counterparts.
However, for now, it is impossible to say whether the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft has a benign or military application.
There are an estimated 170 million pieces of so-called 'space junk' - left behind after missions that can be as big as spent rocket stages or as small as paint flakes - in orbit alongside some US$700 billion (£555bn) of space infrastructure.
But only 27,000 are tracked, and with the fragments able to travel at speeds above 16,777 mph (27,000kmh), even tiny pieces could seriously damage or destroy satellites.
However, traditional gripping methods don't work in space, as suction cups do not function in a vacuum and temperatures are too cold for substances like tape and glue.
Grippers based around magnets are useless because most of the debris in orbit around Earth is not magnetic.
Around 500,000 pieces of human-made debris (artist's impression) currently orbit our planet, made up of disused satellites, bits of spacecraft and spent rockets
Most proposed solutions, including debris harpoons, either require or cause forceful interaction with the debris, which could push those objects in unintended, unpredictable directions.
Scientists point to two events that have badly worsened the problem of space junk.
The first was in February 2009, when an Iridium telecoms satellite and Kosmos-2251, a Russian military satellite, accidentally collided.
The second was in January 2007, when China tested an anti-satellite weapon on an old Fengyun weather satellite.
Experts also pointed to two sites that have become worryingly cluttered.
One is low Earth orbit which is used by satnav satellites, the ISS, China's manned missions and the Hubble telescope, among others.
The other is in geostationary orbit, and is used by communications, weather and surveillance satellites that must maintain a fixed position relative to Earth.
Lost Christian text hidden for centuries reveals new insight into the Bible's most chilling mystery
Hidden within the pages of an ancient manuscript in a Polish library were lost sermons of a saint who attempted to tackle one of the Bible's most chilling encounters.
The 12th-century Latin texts were written by St Augustine, the theologian whose ideas helped shape Western Christianity and who is often regarded as the most important Christian thinker after the Apostle Paul.
Researchers found that the newly identified sermons focus on King Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor, one of the Bible's most mysterious episodes, in which the dead prophet Samuel appears and foretells the king's death.
The story, recorded in 1 Samuel 28, has troubled Jewish and Christian scholars for centuries because it appears to suggest that a medium successfully summoned a dead prophet.
St Augustine wrestled with that possibility in the newly discovered sermons, questioning whether the figure Saul encountered was truly Samuel or some form of supernatural illusion.
Ultimately, St Augustine argued that the Witch of Endor held no power over the dead. If Samuel genuinely appeared, he believed it was because God allowed it, not because the medium had summoned him through magic.
Professor Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar at the University of Würzburg, said: 'The first was preached during the Sunday service and ends with the theodicy question and the interpretations.
'It was not until the second sermon on the following Wednesday that the options were weighed up.'
Researchers found that the newly identified sermons focus on King Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor, one of the Bible's most mysterious episodes, in which the dead prophet Samuel appears and foretells the king's death
St Augustine lived from 354AD to 430AD. Born in North Africa to a pagan father and a devout Christian mother, Augustine lived a worldly and intellectually restless early life.
He initially rejected Christianity, exploring hedonism and the dualistic religion of Manichaeism before embracing Neoplatonism.
Following a profound spiritual crisis, he converted to Christianity and was baptized in Milan in 387.
The discovery was made in 2024, when Tornau was asked to decipher six sermons written by the saint. He found that two were previously undiscovered.
The newly discovered sermons were focused on the Old Testament story.
'Saul believes himself to be in a hopeless situation shortly before a battle against the Philistines. God does not listen to his prayers. He turns to a witch,' Tornau said in a statement.
At Saul's request, she conjures up the supposed spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel, who predicts his death in battle. According to the Bible, Samuel anointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, at the order of God.
The story has long baffled theologians, raising questions about how a witch could summon the spirit of a prophet.
St Augustine wrestled with that possibility in the newly discovered sermons, questioning whether the figure Saul encountered was truly Samuel or some form of supernatural illusion
Latin scholars have also asked 'How can an omnipotent God allow this or is he not really omnipotent?'
For centuries, theologians have debated whether the apparition was a deception created by the witch or a genuine appearance of Samuel permitted by God to warn Saul of his impending death.
The researchers noted that after St Augustine presented the two sermons, the church audience was to form their own opinion on the biblical passage.
Tornau suggested that this didactic and rhetorical approach is typical of St Augustine, as the saint was known for presenting options for interpretation, omitting a final judgement and allowing the audience to think for themselves.
'The style, humor and content also clearly indicate that the sermons in the manuscripts were actually written by Augustine,' he said.
However, there have been cases where others presented writings attributed to the saint, but were later found to be forgeries.
Tornau and his colleague, Dr Clemens Weidmann of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL), got to work and invited 20 other Latin scholars to verify the authenticity of the text.
Reconstructing the transmission history of the sermons was not an easy feat.
'Firstly, the creation of such a manuscript in the 12th century is unusual. A copy at the beginning of the 8th or 9th century would be more typical,' said Tornau.
Researchers believe the newly discovered sermons survived because a medieval scribe copied them from an older manuscript that has since been lost to history.
'An old catalogue from the monastery mentions a text with the same headings and the same sequence of contents as our manuscript,' Tornau explained.
'It could have served as a model.' However, the researcher noted that he cannot confirm this assumption 100 percent, as the entire library collection was burnt during the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648.
Shocking memo reveals missing UFO-linked scientist was trying to escape a secret Pentagon network before vanishing
New revelations about the missing UFO-linked Air Force general reveal he attempted to leave the Pentagon's secret research programs days before vanishing.
Newly released police reports from New Mexico authorities state that retired Major General William Neil McCasland was attempting to step down from several high-level advisory positions at government-connected research laboratories across the US in the lead-up to his February 27 disappearance.
The new clues were released in a Freedom of Information Act request by Sara Bondink, a self-proclaimed historical researcher and author who has been following the McCasland investigation, revealing previously unseen details about the case.
The information, documented during a March 3 interview, shows communications between the general's wife, Susan Wilkerson, and a member of the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Ghost Unit, which specializes in anti-gang and human trafficking operations.
While Wilkerson had previously claimed on social media that her husband no longer possessed any top-secret clearances with the US government, it was revealed during the interview that he was still an active member of at least four different groups with deep ties to national defense secrets.
In the report, Wilkerson told authorities that McCasland was making a desperate attempt to resign from several and possibly all of these secretive projects over fears the 68-year-old was suffering from severe mental decline.
All of the groups McCasland was reportedly connected to, including Sandia National Laboratories, Riverside Research, the Kirtland Partnership and a University Affiliated Research Center, are involved in high-level research for the Department of War, engaging in projects focused on national security and advanced technology.
McCasland's disappearance has been at the heart of the so-called missing scientist investigation, with the general's career appearing to overlap with several NASA scientists, nuclear lab workers and military personnel who either died or vanished without a trace in recent years.
A new surveillance image shows retired Air Force general William Neil McCasland the day before he vanished without a trace on February 27
McCasland was last seen leaving his New Mexico home without his phone, wearable devices or glasses less than two months ago.
He was only carrying a pistol, and his wife told 911 dispatchers that it appeared he was trying 'not to be found.'
Just days before he vanished, according to the police report, McCasland flew by himself to Washington DC to officially resign from Riverside Research.
The nonprofit provides scientific research, engineering and advisory services on advanced technology projects through contracts with the Pentagon, US intelligence community and the Air Force, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Authorities wrote in their report: 'Upon returning to New Mexico, Neil told Susan that he resigned from the board of Riverside Research because he could not keep up, mentally, with the conversation.'
He was still a paid consultant for Sandia National Laboratories, a major US government-owned research lab that develops advanced technology for national security, including nuclear weapons, before his disappearance.
Sandia primarily works under the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and supports the Air Force research and development work at multiple facilities, including Kirtland Air Force Base.
McCasland was also deeply tied to Kirtland through his work with the Air Force Research Lab.
He had been in charge of AFRL's Phillips Research Site at Kirtland before becoming the research unit's commanding officer from 2011 to 2013.
The veteran officer continued to maintain a key role with the New Mexico base even after retiring, becoming a member of the Kirtland Partnership, a nonprofit working to protect and expand the military research facility and nuclear weapons lab.
William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen around 11am Friday near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office said
The item seen in McCasland's hand on February 26 has been compared to a waterproof first aid kit by viewers on social media
Wilkerson confirmed previously released bodycam recordings, which revealed an anonymous caller to police who claimed General McCasland had a concerning meeting with the Kirtland Partnership and members of the US Space Force on February 26, just hours before he disappeared.
The unidentified female witness who claimed she was at the dinner with McCasland told police: 'I was shocked this morning when I saw the alert because what I noticed Thursday evening [February 26] is that he wasn't his usual self.
'[McCasland] was kind of spacey and quiet and you know that that happens with people.'
'He was the head of Air Force Research Lab to the point the man's names are in the UFO documents that are fixed to be released,' the witness claimed during a phone call with police, obtained by the Law&Crime Network.
'He's in that depth, so he has a very high security clearance.'
According to the interview with Wilkerson, the former general had also attempted with resign from his position with a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) tied to an unnamed school.
UARCs are special, long-term research partnerships between a university and the Pentagon that allow the military to get independent help on advanced science and technology projects that universities are uniquely skilled at providing.
The police report noted that McCasland was attempting to quit his role with UARC due to the same fears of mental decline, however, 'the leadership was trying to convince him otherwise.'
The day before his disappearance, McCasland was seen alert and aware as he exited a local sporting goods store in New Mexico with a mysterious parcel and what appeared to be a portable first aid kit.
Despite his wife's claims of potential mental decline, government officials have revealed that McCasland was still being looked at as a key witness in the ongoing effort to declassify decades-old secrets related to UFOs and extraterrestrials.
In early May, Air Force veteran and UFO whistleblower David Grusch specifically named McCasland as one of the officers who had been in charge of classified programs related to non-human craft recovery and reverse-engineering.
Grusch alleged that the general had not been cooperative with recent efforts by lawmakers looking to interview him over his knowledge of America's suspected contact with extraterrestrials.
The White House has tasked the FBI with investigating McCasland's mysterious disappearance and the disappearances of several other individuals tied to US nuclear secrets in the New Mexico area over the last year.
So far, only one person has been found. The remains of Los Alamos National Lab worker Melissa Casias were discovered in a New Mexico park on May 28.
There has been no sign of McCasland since he vanished four months ago. He reportedly only took a pair of boots and his .38-caliber revolver with him after changing into a set of clothes Wilkerson did not know he owned.
Swarm of orbs Over Islamabad, Pakistan June 2026, UFO UAP Paranormal Alien Sighting News.
Ancient Alien Face, Looks Human In Eye of Hurricane, UFO Sighting News, A sign from aliens.
Baba Vanga's prophecy of 'alien invasion at sporting event' revived by self-styled psychic - 'I saw so much screaming'. UFO UAP Sighting News.
Date of prediction: June 25, 2026
As much as I want a UFO to reveal itself over tomorrows sporting event, I do have to say, why would only one person get the message from aliens? If such a thing was to be announced by aliens it is most likely going to be announced to a large group of individuals that do not know each other and can all relay a similar message to the world. This way, those that do want to be taken, would be at the event. Yes, aliens might want volunteers rather than taking people against their will. So many people would attend this event just to be taken and meet them, I being one of them. I have only met with a plasmoid (energy entity) sphere two meters from me, and as far as I know, I have no new information given to me from it, other than me being allowed to see its true form close up, which is what I asked for. As for the sports game having a mass abduction by a huge UFO tomorrow. I sure hope so, the world really needs so distraction from boring political fights.
"I have to tell you that I dreamed again about aliens invading the soccer field in Miami. And I clearly saw the players being carried off by the first ship that arrived," Bahiana said with tears in her eyes in an Instagram post. She claims that she was inside a spaceship in the dream. Later, the mothership came and took in thousands of people from the field. "I saw so much screaming, so much crying, so many tears, suffering," the self-proclaimed psychic said.Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily
Will something supernatural appear at the Brazil vs. Scotland World Cup Match?
Ancient King Head On Mars With Diamond The size of a Baseball on Its head! June 24, 2026, UFO Sighting News.
New UFO Files Paint a ‘Very Clear’ Picture of Alien Contact, Researcher Claims
The debate over unidentified flying objects, now officially referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), has intensified once again following the release of a new batch of previously classified U.S. government documents. The latest disclosure includes 72 files, six videos, and historical audio recordings, providing fresh material for researchers, skeptics, and believers alike.
While many expected groundbreaking revelations, some UFO experts argue that the newly released files offer something equally significant: a clearer picture of how governments have investigated the phenomenon for decades.
The latest release marks the third major batch of UFO-related documents made available to the public. Among the most discussed materials are several videos captured by civilians that reportedly show unusual aerial phenomena.
One video, recorded using an iPhone 14 Pro Max in July, appears to show two bright objects moving together across the sky. Another video depicts a glowing, plasma-like object hovering above a pond. According to reports, these recordings were examined as part of official investigations into unexplained aerial sightings.
Although the footage does not provide definitive proof of extraterrestrial life, it continues to fuel public interest in one of the most enduring mysteries of modern times.
The release also includes an audio recording from 1962 featuring veteran journalist Walter Cronkite interviewing astronaut Gordon Cooper.
Cooper, one of the original Mercury astronauts, discussed the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and acknowledged that many highly qualified individuals had witnessed aerial objects that lacked a clear explanation.
His comments are particularly noteworthy because Cooper was among the most respected figures in the early U.S. space program. For UFO researchers, historical testimony from astronauts remains an important part of the broader discussion surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena.
According to UFO researcher Joshua Golembeske, the newly released documents may seem ordinary on the surface, but they contain details that support long-standing claims about government interest in UFOs.
Rather than viewing the release as full disclosure, Golembeske describes it as a gradual process of information being revealed to the public.
He points to one particular document, reportedly identified as CIA Document 19, which references an assessment produced by the Australian Department of Defense. The document allegedly suggests that governments have taken UFO reports far more seriously than the public has been led to believe.
Claims within the document reportedly include discussions about military investigations, secret recovery operations, and attempts to study advanced technologies associated with unexplained aerial craft.
While such claims remain controversial and unproven, they continue to attract significant attention from both researchers and the public.
One of the recurring themes in the UFO community is the role of Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force program that investigated UFO sightings between 1952 and 1969.
Officially, the project concluded that most sightings could be explained through conventional means and found no evidence of extraterrestrial visitation. However, some researchers believe the program served a dual purpose: publicly downplaying UFO reports while privately continuing investigations into unexplained cases.
The newly released files have renewed discussion about whether governments have always been more interested in the phenomenon than they publicly admitted.
Among the most intriguing aspects of the latest disclosure are references to glowing, plasma-like phenomena.
Numerous reports in the newly released files describe unusual lights and orb-shaped objects observed by both civilians and military personnel. Similar descriptions have appeared throughout UFO history, including reports of mysterious “green fireballs” observed in the late 1940s.
Some researchers suggest these objects may represent a distinct category of unidentified phenomena. Others argue they could be atmospheric effects, classified military technology, or natural plasma formations that are not yet fully understood.
Regardless of their origin, recurring reports of luminous objects continue to be one of the most consistent elements in UFO investigations worldwide.
Another topic highlighted by researchers is the apparent connection between UFO sightings and nuclear installations.
For decades, military personnel and former officials have reported unusual aerial activity near missile silos, nuclear power plants, and weapons storage facilities. Several well-known cases involve unidentified objects allegedly interfering with military systems or appearing near sensitive strategic locations.
The newly released documents reportedly contain additional references to this pattern, adding fuel to a debate that has persisted since the beginning of the Cold War.
Whether these incidents represent advanced surveillance technology, natural phenomena, or something more exotic remains unknown.
Public interest in UFOs has reached levels not seen in decades. Congressional hearings, whistleblower testimony, military encounters, and government reports have transformed what was once considered a fringe topic into a mainstream discussion.
Many advocates argue that greater transparency is necessary to understand the true nature of the phenomenon. Others caution that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that many questions remain unanswered.
The latest document release is unlikely to settle the debate. Instead, it appears to be another chapter in a story that continues to evolve.
Whether the recent files represent meaningful disclosure or simply another incremental release depends largely on one’s perspective.
For believers, the documents reinforce decades of testimony suggesting that governments know more than they have publicly admitted. For skeptics, the files remain far from proving the existence of extraterrestrial visitors.
What is clear is that official interest in unidentified aerial phenomena has not disappeared. As more information becomes available and public curiosity continues to grow, the mystery surrounding UFOs may become one of the defining scientific and cultural questions of the 21st century.
For now, the newly released files offer more questions than answers—but they ensure that the conversation about UFOs, UAPs, and the possibility of alien contact is far from over.
World's oldest known asteroid impact: Crater in Western Australia was created when a space rock smashed into Earth 3 BILLION years ago, study reveals
The world's oldest recorded asteroid impact has been discovered, revealing new evidence of Earth's violent history.
Scientists have long suspected that the North Pole Dome in Western Australia's Pilbara region was the site of an ancient catastrophe.
Now, researchers have uncovered the first rock–solid evidence that provides an exact date for the impact.
Using advanced mineral dating techniques, they show that the crater was formed when a space rock smashed into Earth 3.02 billion years ago.
While billions of years of erosion have wiped away much of the evidence, this impact was substantial enough to leave a lasting legacy on Earth.
Lead author Professor Chris Kirkland told the Daily Mail that this meteor could have been a 'kilometre–scale' object, although its precise size is impossible to determine.
He said: 'At North Pole Dome, the impact appears to have generated a long–lived fractured system that was later reused by fluids.
'On the early Earth, that kind of process could have influenced chemical exchange between rocks and an early ocean, causing mineral alteration and potentially modifying the environments available for microbial life.'
Scientists have revealed that the North Pole Dome in Western Australia's Pilbara region (pictured) is the oldest asteroid impact crater on Earth
Although scientists believe space rocks have battered Earth throughout most of its history, evidence of these ancient impacts is nearly impossible to trace.
Big enough asteroid impacts cause geological changes in the surrounding rocks, but billions of years of heat, pressure, and fluid movements obscure or reset these changes.
This is why scientists have previously found it so difficult to pin down the exact age of the North Pole Dome crater.
However, Professor Kirkland and his team have now been able to track down a 'mineral clock', left behind in the damaged rocks.
The key piece of evidence was zircon, an extraordinarily resilient mineral that can hold its shape for billions of years.
When the researchers took samples from the rocks around North Pole Dome, they found that some zircon crystals had strange branching or 'skeletal' shapes.
Professor Kirkland believes that these are 'impact–modified crystals' formed when old zircon in the rocks was disrupted and partially recrystallised by the intense heat of an impact.
Critically, they were also able to date the formation of these crystals to an event around three billion years ago.
Scientists uncovered tiny zircon crystals in the rock, which were disturbed and reset by a massive asteroid collision
Since there isn't anything else in the geological history that could explain the crystal's dramatic transformation, they are very likely to be the signature of a meteor impact.
The team then analysed a second mineral, apatite, which formed as hot fluids moved through the shock–damaged rocks – also producing a similar age estimate.
'The agreement between two different mineral systems gives us confidence that we are seeing the signature of a single major event — a meteorite impact,' says Professor Kirkland.
This is an exciting discovery for geologists since it dates the crater back to the 'Archean aeon', a time when the planet's earliest continents were forming.
The moon's surface, which provides a much more stable record, suggests that the inner solar system was heavily bombarded by meteors around this time.
Although the theory is not universally accepted, some geologists believe that this could have been part of a cataclysmic event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment.
According to this theory, a sudden change in the orbits of the giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – destabilised the asteroid belt and sent thousands of rocks flying in Earth's direction.
These impacts could have helped to shape Earth's early crust, creating basins, melting rocks, building deep fractures, and driving hydrothermal systems.
Scientists say that the rocks around North Pole Dome (pictured) would have been formed when Earth's first continents were just being created
However, scientists have struggled to find any evidence on Earth of craters dating back to this period.
'Earth must also have experienced that bombardment, but most of the evidence has been destroyed,' explains Professor Kirkland.
'That is why the North Pole Dome discovery is so important.
'At 3 billion years, it is the oldest recognised impact structure on Earth and one of the very few windows into how impacts affected the Archean Earth.'
Around 66 million years ago non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half the world's species were obliterated.
This mass extinction paved the way for the rise of mammals and the appearance of humans.
The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
The asteroid slammed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico.
The collision released a huge dust and soot cloud that triggered global climate change, wiping out 75 per cent of all animal and plant species.
Researchers claim that the soot necessary for such a global catastrophe could only have come from a direct impact on rocks in shallow water around Mexico, which are especially rich in hydrocarbons.
Within 10 hours of the impact, a massive tsunami waved ripped through the Gulf coast, experts believe.
Around 66 million years ago non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half the world's species were obliterated. The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event
(stock image)
This caused earthquakes and landslides in areas as far as Argentina.
While investigating the event researchers found small particles of rock and other debris that was shot into the air when the asteroid crashed.
Called spherules, these small particles covered the planet with a thick layer of soot.
Experts explain that losing the light from the sun caused a complete collapse in the aquatic system.
This is because the phytoplankton base of almost all aquatic food chains would have been eliminated.
It's believed that the more than 180 million years of evolution that brought the world to the Cretaceous point was destroyed in less than the lifetime of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is about 20 to 30 years.
'These don't occur naturally': Radio signals linked to alien life may be passing Earth by undetected, new study hints
New research suggests that alien radio signals may be transformed by plasma from their home stars — and scientists on Earth could be overlooking prime evidence of alien intelligence.
Humans have been searching the stars for alien radio signals for decades — and so far, E.T. has not phoned home. But that doesn’t mean intelligent life isn’t out there, a new study hints. Rather, something else could be interfering: according to the research, space weather surrounding alien planets could be preventing us from detecting technological signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
The findings, published March 5 in The Astrophysical Journal, offer a potential answer to the Fermi paradox: Given the size of the universe, there are many potentially habitable planets that could support life, and yet we have not detected technosignatures from any of them — so, "Where is everyone?" physicist Enrico Fermi famously posited in 1950.
In the new study, researchers found that space weather caused by a planet's star could broaden hypothetical technosignals, dissipating their power over a larger range of frequencies and making them more difficult to detect.
"If a signal gets broadened by its own star's environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it's there, potentially helping explain some of the radio silence we've seen in technosignature searches," Vishal Gajjar, an astronomer at the SETI Institute and first author of the paper, said in a statement.
One way astronomers search for alien life is by looking for very narrowband signals, which are sharp spikes in the power of a radio emission. This spike usually only covers a few hertz.
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"These don't occur naturally," Evan Keane, an astronomer at Trinity College Dublin who was not involved in the research, told Live Science. "So, if you see something very narrowband, you know that it is from something of interest." Astronomers would, for example, be able to easily detect some narrowband technosignatures on Mars, coming from the Mars rovers. But they have not observed any such signals from a clearly non-human origin.
The new research argues that astronomers may have been looking for the wrong signal shape. In the new study, the researchers found that alien signals could be distorted by stellar space weather surrounding their home stars, which could explain why they have not been detected.
Space weather refers to changes in the space environment caused by charged particles, radiation and giant lumps of plasma called coronal mass ejections emitted by the sun. Other stars also generate space weather in their vicinity.
Gajjar and SETI colleague Grayce Brown investigated how space weather has historically impacted communications between Earth and spacecraft such as Mariner IV, which flew by Mars in the 1960s, and the Viking probes, which launched in 1977 for a voyage through the solar system and beyond. They created one of the largest collections of signal broadening examples and used that information to determine how other sunlike stars would affect the environment around their exoplanets. From this, the team calculated what would happen to a hypothetical alien narrowband signal that originated on one of them.
A planet’s radio signal may begin as a sharp tone (left, white) but can be spread out by the star’s plasma winds into a wider, fainter signal (right, green). The new study suggests radio astronomers may be missing signals by mostly looking for the sharp white shape instead of the broader green one.
(Image credit: Vishal Gajjar)
Then, they turned their attention to M dwarf stars, the most common type in the Milky Way. These stars account for three out of four stars in our galaxy, and some have been around since the early universe. That gives them a lot of time to have developed technologically advanced life, according to the paper.
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There are no actual measurements of space weather around these stars, so Gajjar and Brown modeled what might happen to a narrowband technosignal that emerged from exoplanets and had to travel through interplanetary plasma. They found that hypothetical narrowband signals from these exoplanets were more likely to be smeared by space weather, making them even harder to detect.
In the paper, the authors propose a framework to estimate how much broadening would happen to a signal, given its frequency and the type of star its exoplanet was orbiting.
This new framework doesn’t totally answer Fermi’s infamous question, but it does give us a potential reason for the silence. The Fermi paradox "is not solely evidence for the absence of transmitters, but also a reflection of our detection limitations arising from a mismatch between the assumed signal morphology" and shape, the researchers wrote.
Michael Garrett, an astrophysicist at the University of Manchester in the U.K. who was not involved in the study, welcomed the research.
"It is a solid contribution that SETI researchers and signal-processing teams should pay attention to," he told Live Science. "One of the strengths of the paper is that it's grounded in real measurements too, drawing on decades of spacecraft observations."
However, he emphasized that the paper focused on narrowband radio signals, which was only one way of potentially detecting an alien civilization. By contrast, Garrett's work explores the possible combined radio leakage from a technological civilization across a large range of frequencies.
Andrew Siemion, director of Breakthrough Listen Oxford Hub in the U.K. who was not involved in the research but collaborates with the SETI Institute, said this is the first paper to explore the space around exoplanets and its impact on detectability.
"The work offers a very concrete mechanism through which a candidate signal might ultimately be validated as having a likely origin with a distant planetary system," he told Live Science.
The authors recommended that future searches, especially with sensitive next-generation telescopes such as SKA-Low, take note of signal broadening when searching for civilizations beyond Earth.
NASA satellite captures wave of warm water hundreds of miles long that signals a devastatingly strong El NiñoA massive wave of warm water is making its way across the Pacific Ocean as the newly declared El Niño gets into full swing, satellite images show.
The band, called a Kelvin wave, marks a swell of higher-than-average sea levels that stretches hundreds of miles along the equator. The anomaly is caused by warmer waters linked to El Niño — the warm phase of a natural climate pattern whose current iteration could become one of the strongest ever recorded.
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite captured the deviations from average sea surface height on June 8. Red areas indicate higher sea surfaces than usual, while blue areas mark areas with lower surface heights.
Developed and launched in 2020 by NASA and the European Space Agency and operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich measures changes in sea surface height down to fractions of an inch every 10 days.
The data complements measurements of sea surface temperature that have shown Pacific waters warming at unpreceded rates over the past several months, leading scientists to declare the start of a new El Niño on June 11. When ocean water warms, it expands and takes up more space. That translates to an increase in the height of the water relative to the satellite and the center of Earth, which is then picked up by the satellite's sensitive equipment. At some points along the equator, sea surfaces are now more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) higher than usual.
Kelvin waves like this one form when winds in the western Pacific near the equator weaken and temporarily reverse, blowing from west to east instead of east to west. That lets warm water gradually build up in the east, deepening the layer of warm surface waters and preventing colder waters from rising from below. The wave has now reached the western coast of South America.
NASA had already observed a few other Kelvin waves this year, suggesting an El Niño event was soon to follow. In January, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich detected one near Micronesia that dissipated around mid-February. Another emerged in March and elevated sea levels near Peru by mid-May.
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Changes in sea surface temperature or height can alter atmospheric circulation patterns and affect the weather. El Niño often increases rainfall in the southwestern U.S., Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, while rainfall in the western Pacific tends to decrease. The most recent El Niño, which lasted from June 2023 to April 2024, boosted global mean temperatures that made 2024 the hottest year on record and the first to breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming limit — a guardrail set by the Paris Agreement beyond which the effects of climate change become more and more catastrophic.
The June 8 conditions in the western Pacific were similar to those that occurred 1997 during a particularly strong El Niño, according to a statement from NASA. 2026 has seen fewer Kelvin waves so far than 1997, but this year's El Niño is still ramping up.
Een fotoanalyse van MUFON: Communiceert deze groene bol? Een forensische beeldanalyse van een virale bewering over een UAP door Seth H. Feinstein, fotoanalist bij MUFON.
8 januari 2026 Samenvatting
Een afbeelding van een groene bol, afkomstig uit een viraal filmpje op sociale media dat aan Chris Bledsoe wordt toegeschreven, leidde tot wijdverspreide speculatie dat het object interne letters of symbolen bevatte en een communicerende, niet-menselijke intelligentie vertegenwoordigde. Dit artikel presenteert een forensische beeldanalyse van het stilstaande beeld van de groene bol met behulp van gevestigde digitale forensische technieken, waaronder kanaalisolatie, randdetectie, HSV-analyse en principale componentenanalyse (PCA). De resultaten wijzen erop dat de waargenomen structuren consistent zijn met artefacten van computerfotografie, compressie-effecten en perceptuele illusies, in plaats van een fysiek object of communicatief signaal. Deze casus laat zien hoe beeldverwerkingsprocessen van smartphones en compressie op sociale media overtuigende, maar misleidende visuele anomalieën kunnen produceren.
Achtergrond van de zaak
In december 2025 begon een afbeelding van een groene bol te circuleren op sociale media, na een bericht van Chris Bledsoe. Hij beschreef de afbeelding als een stilbeeld uit 4K-video-opnamen die waren gemaakt tijdens een World Forum-evenement in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. In het bericht werd gesuggereerd dat de bol letters of symbolen bevatte en een vorm van communicatie impliceerde.
Volgens beschikbare verklaringen bestaat er meer dan 20 GB aan videogegevens in hoge resolutie, naar verluidt opgenomen met een Apple iPhone Pro. Er waren echter alleen gecomprimeerde versies van de beelden beschikbaar voor analyse, die op sociale media werden gedeeld. Metadata ontbrak in de geanalyseerde bestanden, omdat sociale mediaplatformen standaard EXIF- en tijdsinformatie verwijderen tijdens het uploaden. Hierdoor konden de datum, tijd en precieze opnameparameters niet onafhankelijk worden geverifieerd.
Opvallend is dat de vermeende belettering tot nu toe slechts in vier geïdentificeerde frames voorkomt.
Visueel bewijsmateriaal beoordeeld
Er werden drie verwante visuele bronnen onderzocht:
Analytische methoden
De stilstaande afbeelding van de groene bol werd geïmporteerd in GIMP en Forensically beta voor forensische analyse. De volgende processen werden toegepast:
Elke methode werd gekozen om te bepalen of de waargenomen interne structuren fysieke randen, oppervlakken of coherente geometrie vertegenwoordigen, of dat ze producten zijn van digitale verwerking.
Resultaten
Door de rode, groene en blauwe kanalen te isoleren, bleek dat de waargenomen structuur vrijwel uitsluitend in het groene kanaal aanwezig was. Bij versterking van de rode en blauwe kanalen kwamen geen overeenkomstige structurele details naar voren. Dit gedrag wijst op een door de sensor gestuurde kanaaloverleving in plaats van een object dat van nature groen licht uitzendt.
Bij alle Sobel-, gradiënt- en standaardranddetectiealgoritmen bleef de buitenste grens van het object consistent en vormde een vloeiend cirkelvormig profiel. De interne "letters" leverden echter bij geen enkel algoritme stabiele randen op. Dit wijst erop dat de interne vormen geen fysieke randgeometrie hebben en geen solide of op oppervlakken gebaseerde kenmerken zijn.
Bij HSV-randdetectie ontstond een verspreid veld van willekeurige witte pixels in plaats van doorlopende randlijnen. In forensische analyses duidt dit patroon op chromatische ruis en artefacten door beeldverbetering, en niet op een fysieke structuur. Dergelijke resultaten worden routinematig gebruikt om vaste objecten, oppervlakken en vaartuigen uit te sluiten.
Hoofdcomponentenanalyse (PCA)
PCA-component 3 onthulde vierkante en trapvormige patronen die consistent waren met macroblokken van videocodecs en digitale zoomartefacten. De analyse benadrukte kunstmatige segmentatie die leek op organische membranen, een bekende perceptuele illusie veroorzaakt door overmatige verscherping, ruisinteractie en scheiding van eigenvectoren.
Deze effecten worden vaak waargenomen bij de analyse van:
Overwegingen bij computerfotografie
De camera die naar verluidt werd gebruikt, was een Apple iPhone Pro. Apple's workflow voor computergestuurde fotografie geeft prioriteit aan esthetische helderheid boven wetenschappelijke nauwkeurigheid, vooral bij weinig licht. Bekende processen zijn onder andere:
Bij het filmen van geïsoleerde, heldere objecten tegen een donkere hemel introduceren deze processen vaak kunstmatige kleurverschuivingen, interne structuren en geometrische patronen. Groene bollen, plasma-achtige sferen en 'gestructureerde' lichten zijn bijzonder veelvoorkomende resultaten.
Groene bollen zijn een bekend en herhaalbaar resultaat van:
Ze vormen op zichzelf geen bewijs van gestructureerde vaartuigen, energievelden of communicatie. Een gedegen forensische analyse is essentieel voordat buitengewone verklaringen worden toegekend aan visueel aantrekkelijke beelden.
Atmosferische en sensoreffecten
Verstrooiing in de atmosfeer, inclusief Rayleigh-verstrooiing, draagt bij aan:
Sensorblooming was ook duidelijk zichtbaar, waarbij intens licht in aangrenzende pixels lekt, wat halo's en mistachtige structuren veroorzaakt. Het stapelen van frames met lange belichtingstijd versterkt deze effecten nog verder, vooral in combinatie met beweging en compressie.
Discussie: Communiceert de bol?
Het verschijnen van interne symbolen of letters kan het best worden verklaard door pareidolie – de menselijke neiging om betekenisvolle patronen te zien in willekeurige of ambigue gegevens – versterkt door AI-gestuurde beeldverbetering. Het feit dat de "letters" slechts in vier frames voorkomen, ondersteunt sterk een algoritmische oorsprong in plaats van opzettelijke signalering.
Er zijn geen forensische aanwijzingen die de aanwezigheid van:
In plaats daarvan leiden alle analytische resultaten tot een onjuiste interpretatie.
Conclusie
De afbeelding van de groene bol komt het meest overeen met een verre puntlichtbron – zoals een heldere ster, planeet of vliegtuiglicht – die door extreme digitale zoom, computergestuurde verbetering van beelden bij weinig licht, atmosferische effecten en videocompressie als afwijkend wordt weergegeven. Hoewel het object visueel aantrekkelijk is, vertegenwoordigt het geen communicerende entiteit of gestructureerd UAP.
Deze zaak onderstreept de cruciale noodzaak van forensische beeldanalyse bij onderzoek naar UAP's en laat zien hoe moderne smartphonecamera's onbedoeld buitengewone beelden kunnen produceren uit ogenschijnlijk gewone bronnen.
Over de auteur
