Mysterious interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS could be three times OLDER than Earth, study reveals
Scientists have revealed the age of the mysterious interstellar comet, 3I/ATLAS, for the first time.
The strange object sparked fears of an alien invasion when it whizzed through our solar system at the end of the last year.
Thankfully, NASA soon confirmed that it was simply a comet.
'We want very much to find signs of life in the universe... but 3I/ATLAS is a comet,' Amit Kshatriya, a senior NASA official, said at the time.
While 3I/ATLAS is definitely a comet, its composition and age have remained unclear.
Now, astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to solve these mysteries.
According to their observations, 3I/ATLAS likely originated in the outskirts of an old star system, and is around three times older than Earth.
'The field of interstellar objects is still very new, and we do not really know what to expect. Every time a new one is discovered, we have new surprises,' said Cyrielle Opitom, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh.
Scientists have revealed the age of the mysterious interstellar comet, 3I/ATLAS, for the first time
3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever discovered, after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov, which were spotted in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
The composition of the first two interstellar objects was difficult to determine, as they were too faint.
However, thanks to 3I/ATLAS' unprecedented brightness, scientists were able to determine its composition – and therefore age.
The team measured the ratios of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in cyanide molecules present in the gas around the comet, which are known to be good indicators of a comet's origin.
'Unlike comets from our Solar System, this interstellar visitor carries unusually high carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios,' explained Aravind Krishnakumar, a researcher at the University of Liège and co–author on the new study.
According to the analysis, the comet likely formed in the outer regions of an old, 'low–metallicity' star.
As the name suggests, this is a type of star with few elements heavier than helium, that is thought to have formed when the universe was much younger – and less chemically rich – than it is now.
For this reason, the team suggests that 3I/ATLAS originated around a star much older than the sun.
The team measured the ratios of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in cyanide molecules present in the gas around the comet – known to be a good indicator of a comet's origin
'3I/ATLAS is a really exciting opportunity to probe the composition of another planetary system, one that formed long before our Sun and Solar System even existed,' said co–author Rosemary Dorsey, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
3I/ATLAS is now moving away from the sun, meaning it is getting progressively fainter.
Unfortunately, this means that opportunities to view the comet with the VLT are also nearing their end.
However, the European Southern Observatory is currently working on an even bigger telescope, appropriately named the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which could provide further viewing opportunities in the future.
July #13 MUFON eNewsletter - JUNE 2026 sightings report
July #13 MUFON eNewsletter - JUNE 2026 sightings report
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Ancient 'lost world' discovered off the US West coast rewrites story of first Americans who arrived 13,000 years ago
A remote 'lost world' off California's coast could rewrite the story of the first Americans.
Hidden among the Channel Islands are 13,000-year-old human remains, ancient settlements and evidence suggesting some of the continent's earliest inhabitants may have arrived by boat rather than crossing an inland ice corridor.
If correct, the theory would overturn decades of conventional thinking that the first Americans crossed a land bridge from Siberia and traveled south through an ice-free corridor in western Canada.
Instead, it suggests Ice Age humans reached North America thousands of years ago by following a coastal 'kelp highway,' using boats to move along the Pacific shoreline and settle places like the Channel Islands.
The islands have also yielded the bones of pygmy mammoths and remarkably preserved archaeological sites that offer an unprecedented glimpse into Ice Age life. Scientists have described the chain of islands as a place where ancient landscapes and human history have been frozen in time.
Researchers said the evidence points to a forgotten maritime migration that could fundamentally change our understanding of America's earliest people. And they believe many of the answers may still be waiting to be uncovered.
The Channel Islands have been studied by scientists and archaeologists for more than a century, with some of their most important discoveries, including the remains of Arlington Springs Man, emerging during excavations in the mid-20th century.
Now, a new documentary released on June 30 on the YouTube channel Timeline is bringing fresh attention to these discoveries and the mysteries that still lie beneath the islands and surrounding waters.
The eight California Channel Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California, stretching from Point Conception near Santa Barbara to south of Los Angeles. Pictured is Santa Cruz, one of the islands
Not all archaeologists agree that the Channel Islands provide definitive proof of a maritime migration.
While many researchers now accept that people were present in the Americas before the Clovis culture, experts continue to debate exactly when the first settlers arrived and whether they traveled by sea, by land, or through a combination of routes.
The eight California Channel Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California, stretching from Point Conception near Santa Barbara to south of Los Angeles.
Author Frederic Caire Chiles, who has a PhD in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara, said in the film: 'They are the trace of a vanished world.'
The four northern islands – San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa – were not always where they are today.
Geologists say they were once located much farther south, near present-day San Diego, before tectonic forces slowly carried them north and rotated them by around 110 degrees.
The islands have become a treasure trove for archaeologists because their ancient deposits have remained remarkably undisturbed, preserving evidence erased elsewhere by rising seas and thousands of years of human activity.
Among the most significant discoveries is Arlington Springs Man, human remains found on Santa Rosa Island and eventually dated to at least 13,000 years old.
Pictured is the site where the Arlington Springs Man was discovered
Bones of a man were uncovered 37 feet below waterlaid sand, mud and gravel sediments in 1959.
Dr Thomas Stafford, a geologist and radiocarbon dating expert, said that after testing the remains in 2001, the bones were the oldest dated human skeletal remains in North America.
The discovery was particularly important because the remains are roughly the same age as the Clovis culture, long considered the first people to inhabit the Americas.
But unlike the Clovis sites found inland, Arlington Springs Man was discovered on an offshore island, suggesting some of North America's earliest inhabitants may already have been skilled seafarers.
The Clovis people, known for their distinctive fluted spear points, were once thought to have entered North America through an ice-free corridor in Canada.
The Channel Islands discovery raised the possibility that another group may have reached the continent by boat, following the Pacific coastline instead.
The islands have also yielded the bones of pygmy mammoths and remarkably preserved archaeological sites that offer an unprecedented glimpse into Ice Age life
Five of the islands have been established as a national park
But the Channel Islands presented a puzzle. People living on an offshore island 13,000 years ago would have needed boats to get there, suggesting seafaring technology existed much earlier than previously believed.
Some researchers have argued that the ice-free corridor may not have been fully open or ecologically viable when the first people reached the islands, raising the possibility that they arrived by sea instead.
Researchers call this the 'kelp highway' hypothesis. Dr John Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, said: 'All the way from Japan to Baja California, there are kelp forest ecosystems that have very similar suites of animals.
'This connects with the whole idea of a coastal migration, an ancient coastal migration where people would have been using watercraft and going around glaciers when they encountered them and working their way down until they came to California.'
'People showed up on this island 13,000 years ago or thereabouts and evolved through time into the group we know as the Chumash.'
The Chumash ancestral homeland spans California's central and southern coast and includes the four northern Channel Islands.
During the Ice Age, mammoths roamed what was once a single larger island made up of today's northern Channel Islands before evolving into dwarf versions known as pygmy mammoths.
Pictured is a view from across Santa Rosa Island
The species vanished around the same period humans appeared on the islands, fueling speculation that some of North America's earliest inhabitants may have encountered, and perhaps hunted, the miniature elephants.
For thousands of years, the islands became the homeland of the ancestors of the Chumash people, who developed sophisticated maritime communities and traded shell bead money with mainland groups.
The islands were forever changed after Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European to reach California in 1542.
'This was the furthest projection of Europe into a world that they knew nothing about,' one historian explained.
Disease, colonization and social upheaval eventually devastated Indigenous communities and led to the abandonment of the islands.
One of the most remarkable stories to emerge from this period is that of the 'Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island,' later immortalized in the novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. She survived alone on the island for about 18 years before being rescued in 1853.
Today, scientists believe the islands still hold countless secrets beneath their rugged landscapes and surrounding waters.
During the Ice Age, sea levels were hundreds of feet lower, meaning areas that are now underwater were once dry land that may have been inhabited by some of America's earliest people.
Scientists develop diving suits for cyborg cockroach swarms – and it could enable them to explore Mars
Once again proving that mad scientists aren't just a Hollywood invention, researchers have built diving suits for their cyborg cockroach swarms.
The tiny 3D-printed suits will allow insects remotely controlled with electrical implants to survive without oxygen for up to three hours.
Scientists sent these robo-bugs crawling underwater and through tunnels filled with suffocating CO2 with no ill effects.
In the future, their suits could even be adapted to survive the harsh conditions of space and enable creepy crawlies to explore the surface of Mars.
For now, however, scientists say that cyborg insects could be an invaluable team during search and rescue operations.
While that sounds far-fetched, 10 augmented roaches were used to help search for survivors as part of Operation Lionheart following the 2025 Myanmar earthquake.
Equipped with their own little oxygen tanks, the researchers say that these robot bugs will be able to delve into even more inaccessible locations.
Lead researcher Professor Hirotaka Sato, of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, says: 'By expanding the operating parameters of our cyborg insects to include underwater travel, we believe they can enhance search-and-rescue efforts.'
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have created miniature diving suits to allow cyborg cockroaches to explore underwater ruins
While their search and rescue aims are already ambitious, the researchers want to prepare their cyborgs to explore even more dangerous environments.
Professor Sato told the New Scientist: 'The ultimate goal is to [take this technology to] space.
'It’s kind of one step, one big step, towards space suits for cyborg insects. Exploration over the Mars surface, for example.'
While robots are often seen as the future of space exploration, cyborgs are far more energy efficient, cheaper to make, and can survive for longer without power.
However, space agencies are likely to object to using living organisms over fears that they might contaminate alien planets with biological materials.
That could lead to a 'false positive' in later searches for signs of life, something that is a major ambition for Mars exploration.
The research team now plan to test the diving suits in the sorts of environments cockroaches might encounter out in space.
That includes very low or high temperatures, airless vacuums, and intense radiation exposure.
The cyborg cockroaches (pictured) have tiny electrodes implanted in their bodies that allow scientists to remotely steer them through small electrical signals
In 2021, Professor Sato and his co-researchers first demonstrated that they could transform Madagascar hissing cockroaches into tiny cyborgs by fitting them with electric backpacks.
These allowed the cockroaches to be remotely controlled by applying an electrical current to sensory organs known as cerci.
When current is applied to the left or right cerci, the roach rotates in that direction, allowing scientists to steer their cyborg creations with a surprising level of accuracy.
Later, in 2024, Professor Sato developed the concept further by driving a swarm of 20 cyborg insects that coordinated to avoid obstacles and each other.
Although it might sound mad, hijacking an insect is actually a pretty sensible solution for a search and rescue operation.
The electronic components are only telling the cockroach where to go, while the insect's own muscles do all the heavy lifting.
That means cyborgs use very little power compared to robots of a similar size, allowing them to work for longer without refuelling while carrying a smaller battery.
Cockroaches are also incredibly tough, come with their own fuel supply, and have reflexes that let them move over rough terrain and dodge obstacles far better than any robot.
The only problem is that, unlike robots, cyborgs are still powered by the insect's own respiratory system and can't operate in areas without oxygen.
Cockroaches, like many other insects, don't breathe through their lungs, but rather through tiny holes called spiracles.
If these get blocked by water or gases like CO2, the cyborgs soon collapse and stop responding to commands.
'This is important because real disaster sites can be challenging after heavy rain or flooding, blocking access routes in the rubble, drains and narrow gaps,' says Professor Sato.
The solution, naturally, was to build tiny diving suits for the army of swarming cyborg cockroaches.
Professor Sato says: 'Our new insect diving suit works like the oxygen tank used by human divers.'
Where this differentiates from diving tanks used by humans is that the cockroach doesn't have a pressurised tank of air.
Instead, the researchers used a small amount of dilute hydrogen peroxide and a sponge coated with a catalyst, which constantly produces a steady supply of oxygen.
The diving suit protects the insect's breathing holes and contains a small oxygen generator that provides them with up to three hours of air
For now, the cockroaches are intended for use in underwater search and rescue operations, but they could have a role exploring distant planets in the future
Also, because the flexible shell would get in the way of the bug's legs, the suit uses four small tubes to carry air to the spiracles on its thorax.
Co-author Professor Shinjiro Umezu, of Waseda University, says: 'The key engineering challenge was to build a system that was small, light and flexible enough for the insect to wear while still producing enough oxygen for long-duration underwater movement.
'This allows the insect to retain its natural mobility while being protected from an environment that it cannot normally survive in.'
Fitted with their new suits, the cyborgs were able to walk underwater for up to three hours at a time at a depth up to 50 centimetres and make their way through tunnels filled with CO2.
Remarkably, being underwater barely slowed the land-dwelling insects down, dropping the suit-wearing cyborgs' speed from 87.5 millimetres per second to 78.4 millimetres per second.
And the roaches showed no adverse reactions to having explored such unnatural environments, with all five insects that were monitored after wearing the suits still healthy three days later.
This could allow swarms of robot cockroaches to make their way through rubble, collapsed buildings, and flooded areas after natural disasters.
In November 2014, researchers at North Carolina State University fitted cockroaches with electrical backpacks complete with tiny microphones capable of detecting faint sounds.
The idea is that cyborg cockroaches, or ‘biobots’, could enter crumpled buildings hit by earthquakes, for example, and help emergency workers find survivors.
‘In a collapsed building, sound is the best way to find survivors,’ said Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University.
North Carolina State University researchers have developed technology that allows cockroaches (pictured) to pick up sounds with small microphones and seek out the source of the sound. They could be used in emergency situations to detect survivors
‘The goal is to use the biobots with high-resolution microphones to differentiate between sounds that matter - like people calling for help - from sounds that don't matter - like a leaking pipe.
‘Once we've identified sounds that matter, we can use the biobots equipped with microphone arrays to zero-in on where those sounds are coming from.’
The ‘backpacks’ control the robo-roach's movements because they are wired to the insect’s cerci - sensory organs that cockroaches usually use to feel if their abdomens brush against something.
By electrically stimulating the cerci, cockroaches can be prompted to move in a certain direction.
In fact, they have been programmed to seek out sound.
One type of 'backpack' is equipped with an array of three directional microphones to detect the direction of the sound and steer the biobot in the right direction towards it.
Another type is fitted with a single microphone to capture sound from any direction, which can be wirelessly transmitted, perhaps in the future to emergency workers.
They ‘worked well’ in lab tests and the experts have developed technology that can be used as an ‘invisible fence’ to keep the biobots in a certain area such as a disaster area, the researchers announced at the IEEE Sensors 2014 conference in Valencia, Spain.
Hidden for 1,600 years: Incredible lost city discovered beneath Egypt's desert with ancient church, coins and homes still intact
A remarkably well preserved 1,600-year-old city complete with a church, watchtowers and bustling streets has been unearthed beneath Egypt’s Western Desert.
Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a sprawling Byzantine-era settlement at the Dakhla Oasis.
Here, they unearthed homes with vaulted roofs, bread ovens, kitchens and stone mills that offer a rare glimpse into everyday life during the 4th century.
They also found around 200 inscribed pottery fragments recording commercial transactions, letters and a selection of coins.
The carefully planned settlement features broad north-south streets intersected by east-west roads to create public squares, while two watchtowers and a heavily fortified building protected its outskirts.
At its centre stands a basilica church overlooking one of the city’s main streets.
Experts say the discovery provides one of the clearest pictures yet of life in Egypt's remote oases during the Byzantine Empire.
The city, located in Egypt's western province of New Valley in the Western Desert, is on UNESCO's Tentative List, a step away from being added to the agency's World Heritage List.
Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a sprawling Byzantine-era settlement at the Dakhla Oasis
They unearthed homes with vaulted roofs, bread ovens, kitchens and stone mills that offer a rare glimpse into everyday life during the 4th century
They also found around 200 inscribed pottery fragments recording commercial transactions, letters and a selection of coins
Mahmoud Massoud, Director General of Dakhla Antiquities and head of the excavation mission, said the settlement contained all the architectural components of a fully functioning community.
Excavations also yielded a rich assemblage of artefacts reflecting everyday life and economic activity including domestic pottery, bottles used to store oils and perfumes, oil lamps and stone implements for grinding grain.
‘One of the excavation’s most significant discoveries is a collection of nearly 200 inscribed ostraca (pottery fragments used as writing material) bearing texts in both Coptic and Greek,’ Diaa Zahran, head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector, said.
The inscriptions record commercial transactions, correspondence and other details of daily life, offering an exceptional documentary record of the city’s inhabitants.
The discovery was one of two major archaeological finds announced by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
In a separate excavation at Marina el-Alamein, around 60 miles west of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, archaeologists uncovered 18 ancient tombs, including a huge 8ft-long granite sarcophagus containing human remains.
They also found a damaged plaster sphinx and several bodies buried with thin gold foils placed inside their mouths.
This funerary practice, known as the ‘golden tongue’, was believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to help the dead speak in the afterlife.
The team uncovered bronze coins bearing the portraits of Byzantine emperors and gold coins dating to the reign of Roman emperor Constantius II, who ruled between AD337 and AD361
Experts say the discovery provides one of the clearest pictures yet of life in Egypt's remote oases during the Byzantine Empire
In a separate excavation at Marina el-Alamein, around 60 miles west of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, archaeologists uncovered 18 ancient tombs
Although Egypt is best known for its pharaohs and pyramids, it also spent more than 250 years as part of the Byzantine Empire.
During this period, from the late fourth to the mid-seventh century AD, Christianity became the dominant religion, towns expanded across the country and Egypt served as one of the empire's richest provinces.
The newly uncovered settlement dates to this era, offering a rare snapshot of life at a time when Roman traditions, Christian beliefs and Egyptian culture overlapped.
Earlier this year archaeologists uncovered one of the Great Pyramid’s secrets – revealing how the ancient tomb has managed to withstand earthquakes for 4,600 years.
Since it was built, the magnificent structure has experienced significant tremors with magnitudes of up to 6.8. Earthquakes of this size are capable of causing significant damage to buildings within 155 miles (250km) of their epicentre.
However the Great Pyramid, built for Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu, has suffered no major deterioration internally or externally.
Back in May experts finally worked out why – and it's all thanks to remarkable engineering techniques that the ancient Egyptians used.
This included building the structure on hard limestone bedrock, a symmetrical pyramid shape, a rigid overall design and creating pressure–relieving cavities above the King's Chamber.
Look: Japan’s Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Just Had a Close Encounter with the Mysterious Asteroid ‘Torifune’
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft completed its flyby of the asteroid Torifune over the weekend, according to a statement issued by Japan’s space agency.
The intrepid Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) probe’s visit marks one of the closest approaches a spacecraft has ever made to a distant asteroid, and follows Hayabusa2’s successful 2020 mission to return samples from the asteroid Ryugu.
Information obtained during the flyby, which occurred on Sunday, may help to provide new insights into both the composition of these ancient space rocks drifting through our solar system, as well as how to defend our planet if one large enough to pose a significant risk were ever to make its way here.
At approximately 6:30 p.m. Japan Standard Time on Sunday, Hayabusa2 passed the asteroid while traveling at speeds approaching 5 kilometers per second.
The recent achievement comprises part of the probe’s extended mission, which will include a future visit to the small asteroid 1998 KY26, which is expected to occur in 2031.
Over the weekend, the spacecraft’s flyby of Torifune helped to showcase Hayabusa2’s orbital guidance systems, as well as its ability to monitor asteroids and collect data to aid in the protection against potentially dangerous near-Earth objects (NEOs) before they become a threat, the Japanese Times reported.
Fortunately, asteroids with life-threatening potential only reach the Earth every few hundred years on average, and none currently being monitored by space agencies around the world are believed to represent any imminent threat.
One of the most difficult aspects of flybys like the one on Sunday involves the speeds at which spacecraft are moving, which can make avoiding a collision with the asteroid complicated. This is partly because of their dark coloration, which prevents visual confirmation of their location until just days before the flyby occurs, leaving only a small window for planning and preparation.
In a statement, Japan’s space agency said that these difficulties mean “that the flyby operation is similar to orbit-inducing technologies used to collide a spacecraft with an asteroid.”
If such technologies were to be used for planetary defense in the future, such a direct collision would be the goal, thereby aiming to set any potentially dangerous NEOs off course and keep Earth out of their line of fire.
In addition to the probe’s 2031 visit to 1998 KY26, JAXA officials say that additional opportunities for future reconnaissance will be likely, and that Sunday’s flyby served as an important dress rehearsal in that regard.
Additionally, data obtained from the flyby will be useful in helping JAXA officials and other space agencies around the world to know what to expect should a planetary defense effort become a requirement at any time in the future.
Once Hayabusa2 reaches 1998 KY26 in the early 2030s, it will mark the first time a spacecraft has engaged in close-range explorations of such an asteroid, which is currently estimated to be approximately 30 meters in diameter.
Additional details about the Hayabusa2 mission can be found at JAXA’s website.
Whistleblower claims NASA erased UFOs and Moon Structures from photos
NASA’s Curiosity Rover is Investigating Unusual Polygon Structures That Look Like a “Giant Martian Honeycomb”
An unusual discovery on the Red Planet has revealed an odd-looking series of polygon-shaped structures, documented in new images obtained by NASA’s Curiosity Rover.
The curious features were discovered after Curiosity was dispatched to an area of interest on the Martian terrain initially identified from orbital imagery obtained by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Upon its arrival at the area, which the satellite imagery had conveyed as appearing light in coloration and apparently smooth-surfaced, Curiosity discovered something vastly different.
Writing at NASA’s Curiosity blog, Senior Research Scientist William Farrand of the Space Science Institute described the area in question as being “covered with polygonal structures like the top of a giant Martian honeycomb.”
Above: Unusual polygon-shaped structures discovered in the unit currently under exploration by NASA’s Curiosity rover
(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Polygonal structures are a frequent occurrence in nature, as evidenced by the Curiosity team’s likening them to a “honeycomb” in appearance. Similar polygon-shaped features are often seen in geology, such as the famous Giant’s Causeway on Northern Ireland’s Antrim Coast, which consists of close to 40,000 interlocking basalt columns that bear a similar appearance to the features recently discovered on Mars by Curiosity.
This is also not the first time such features have been observed by Curiosity. Last May, NASA revealed similar discoveries of structural features resembling honeycomb or “waffle” patterns.
It remains unclear whether all the darker-colored stones discovered by Curiosity are possible fragments from a meteorite or if their appearance is due to other factors that remain undetermined.
“Further investigations should help in answering this question,” Farrand added.
On Monday, June 29, 2026, Curiosity continued its investigations of these unusual features with its APXS and MAHLI instruments, with further plans to conduct additional viewing of an area the Curiosity team has dubbed the Miraflores butte, which features a small knob-like prominence.
Recent imagery obtained by Curiosity of the knob at Miraflores butte
(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Additional viewing was planned for the nearby Cordillera mesa as well, although much of the rover’s work has remained focused on the unique polygon-shaped structures.
“After driving further towards the upper boundary of the light-toned, polygon-covered unit, the three-sol Friday plan included APXS and MAHLI measurements of another polygon ridge and one of the dark-toned cobbles,” Farrand’s update at the Curiosity blog noted.
This particular cobble, which the Curiosity team has dubbed “Cortadera,” was studied using the rover’s ChemCam instrument, which was also used in observations of the aforementioned features, and others in the nearby Martian terrain.
In the days ahead, Curiosity is expected to traverse another area where dark-colored materials are present based on previous orbital reconnaissance, which may provide additional clues about their origins, and the intriguing features in the area where the rover’s current investigations are focused.
Additional details can be found at NASA’s Curiosity blog.
Mysterious 'space balls' that washed up on an Australian beach are likely pressure vessels from a rocket, experts confirm
Six mysterious metal balls that washed up on an Australian beach this weekend are from a space launch vehicle, experts have confirmed.
On Friday, emergency services were alerted to the strange discovery of three bizarre spheres on Forrest Beach in Queensland.
A fourth was found on Saturday and two more on Sunday, prompting a 50-metre exclusion zone and urgent warnings to members of the public not to approach or touch the ‘potentially hazardous objects’.
The Australian Space Agency (ASA) has now revealed the unusual spheres are likely from a ‘foreign rocket body’ that had recently re-entered the atmosphere after being in orbit.
The objects are probably pressurised vessels used to store rocket fuel or gases and are among the most common pieces of space debris to survive re-entry, experts revealed.
‘The recovered objects appear to be pressure vessels from a space launch vehicle,’ the ASA said in a statement.
‘The Agency has identified the likely source. The objects’ location and characteristics are consistent with debris from a foreign rocket body that recently re-entered the atmosphere from orbit.
‘The Agency is continuing to engage with international authorities to formally confirm the launch vehicle and launching state. Queensland emergency responders have assessed and recovered the objects and determined them to be safe.’
On Friday, emergency services were alerted to the strange discovery of three bizarre spheres on Forrest Beach in Queensland
This prompted a 50-metre exclusion zone and urgent warnings to members of the public not to approach or touch the ‘potentially hazardous objects’
Pressure vessels on a space launch vehicle are specialised, highly engineered containers designed to hold liquid gases at extreme pressures.
Their primary functions include storing cryogenic propellants such as liquid oxygen and holding pressurant gases such as helium to feed the engines.
More than 36,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10cm are currently tracked in orbit by international agencies, while millions of smaller fragments also circle the Earth.
Most eventually burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere, but dense components such as pressure vessels can sometimes survive the fiery descent because they are designed to withstand enormous internal pressures.
Their spherical shape and thick metal walls also help them endure the extreme temperatures experienced as spacecraft plunge back through Earth's atmosphere.
Flinders University Associate Professor Alice Gorman is a space archaeologist who researches space junk and orbital debris.
She said the spherical pressure vessels were one of the most commonly discovered pieces of space junk and are nicknamed 'space balls'.
‘This is a classic example of what is known as “space balls”,’ she told ABC News. ‘Many rockets and spacecraft have liquid fuel systems that involve fuels under high pressure that are in these pressure vessels made of robust material.’
The spheres are likely pressurised vessels used to store rocket fuel or gases, and are among the most common pieces of space debris to survive re-entry
The ASA has warned that further potentially hazardous debris may be found.
‘Never touch, move, or recover suspected space debris and assume it to be hazardous — move away and contact emergency services,’ it said.
This is not the first time that mysterious objects have been spotted on Australia's shoreline.
In 2023, India confirmed that a giant metal dome that washed up on a Western Australian beach near Perth was from one of its rockets.
A spherical object similar to those discovered this weekend was also found in remote grassland in Namibia, southern Africa, in 2011.
Experts at the time said they believed it was most likely a fuel tank or bladder tank containing hydrazine - a highly volatile propellant - from an unmanned rocket.
What is Varginha UFO incident? Brazil’s ‘alien case’ back in spotlight amid Pentagon files release
The skies turned black, the rain came down in sheets, and suddenly, a quiet Brazilian town found itself at the center of one of the world’s strangest mysteries. Nearly three decades later, the so-called Varginha UFO incident is making headlines again, with campaigners and lawmakers demanding the release of hidden files that could finally reveal what really happened. Was it a close encounter with something not of this Earth, or one of the biggest misunderstandings ever blown out of proportion?
The story begins on January 20, 1996, in the city of Varginha, Brazil. That afternoon, three young women reported seeing a bizarre creature crouching near a wall in a vacant lot. They described it as humanoid, with a large head, red eyes, and strange skin marked with vein-like patterns. Terrified, they ran home and told their family they had seen something chilling. “I’ve seen the devil,” one of them reportedly said, and from that moment, the story exploded.
As news spread, the claims grew wilder, and residents began reporting sightings of unidentified flying objects in the skies above Varginha. Some said multiple creatures had been spotted. Others claimed the Brazilian military had moved in to capture them. Soon, the rumours took an even darker turn. There were reports of strange animal deaths at a local zoo, animals found mysteriously dead under unexplained circumstances.
Stories also emerged about a police officer who allegedly fell ill and died after coming into contact with one of the creatures. To believers, it all pointed to one thing that something extraordinary had landed in Varginha.
The case quickly earned a nickname “Brazil’s Roswell.” Like the infamous 1947 UFO incident in the United States, Varginha became a magnet for conspiracy theories, UFO hunters, and media frenzy. Ufologists claimed the Brazilian military had secretly captured extraterrestrial beings and transported them away, possibly with foreign assistance. Some even alleged the creatures were taken to hospitals before being removed under tight security.
Years later, an official investigation by the Brazilian military poured cold water on the alien narrative. According to their findings, the “creature” seen by the young women was likely a local man, dirty, crouching, and caught in heavy rain, mistaken for something otherworldly. The increased military presence was routine operations, and the supposed UFO activity was probably misinterpretations. Authorities concluded there was no evidence of extraterrestrial involvement. Many also argued that the entire incident was a case of mass hysteria amplified by sensational media coverage.
Despite official denials, many in Varginha, and beyond, remain unconvinced. Some witnesses still insist they saw something truly unexplainable. “It really was something unique,” one local recalled years later, describing the eerie events that unfolded during that stormy January, as reported by The Guardian. Others claim there was a cover-up, arguing that key evidence was hidden and witnesses silenced.
Fast forward to today, and the Varginha incident is no longer just a local legend; it’s part of a global debate. Campaigners and lawmakers, particularly in the United States, are pushing for the release of classified UFO (or UAP) files. The Varginha case has become a key focus in this movement. Whistleblowers and officials argue that governments may be withholding critical information about unexplained aerial phenomena, and possibly even non-human encounters. “This information belongs to the American people. They own it. And they deserve the truth,” GOP Representative Eric Burlison said. That demand has reignited interest in long-forgotten cases like Varginha, raising fresh questions about what governments really know.
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Declassified Pentagon UFO files detail mysterious 1947 incident in NH
The Pentagon released over a hundred newly declassified files related to UFOs (now officially referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP) on last month, including a handful of pages and memos about mysterious, flaming metal fragments that landed in a field in West Rindge in 1947, and the classified investigation that followed. This is the story NHPR has pieced together from the incident summary sheet and official communications and memos from the Boston FBI Field Office to the director of the FBI.
At 3 p.m. on July 7, 1947, retiree Charles N. Tasker was sitting on Earl Whitehead’s porch in West Rindge, N.H., when he observed “little curls of smoke, which on inspection disclosed small burned spots about one and one-half inches in diameter on the green lawn,” according to a now-declassified report from the FBI.
Nearby, on Route 202, “several little blazes had started” in the long dry grass on both sides of the road, creating a circle about 200 feet in diameter that seemed to be caused by small metallic fragments.
Tasker called the local fire department to extinguish the small fires while a fellow observer, a “Mr. Appel,” gave the metallic fragments to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study, where Dr. John W. Bunker, dean of the graduate school, led the research team and reported the findings to the Boston FBI field office.
The first step in studying the metallic fragments was to identify what they were made of. Using a spectrograph, which studies light waves to determine the material composition of objects, scientists at MIT found that the metallic fragments were ordinary iron that had been “subjected to terrific heat,” causing scales to form and thus creating cast iron.
Investigators scrambled for answers thinking could it be debris from a passing train? However, further testing ruled that out. What about an aircraft? Some experts speculated the fragments might have come from a jet engine component. Others pushed back, arguing that anything falling from high altitude would have cooled long before reaching the ground.
Then came a more unsettling theory, what if it were fragments from early rocket experiments. One MIT professor even noted similarities to V-2 missile components tested in the aftermath of World War II, but the numbers didn’t add up. Those rockets were launched thousands of miles away, and their materials didn’t match the cast iron composition found in West Rindge.
Just weeks earlier, America had been gripped by its first wave of UFO sightings, what the press dubbed “flying saucers.” Handwritten notes in the FBI memos even referenced “FLYING DISCS,” hinting at the growing speculation. Was this West Rindge incident just a coincidence, or something more? Modern experts remain divided.
Some, like UFO researcher Mutual UFO Network representatives, believe the fragments could still be linked to extraterrestrial activity, though they stop short of calling it proof. Others, including physicists, dismiss both rocket and alien theories, pointing out that cast iron is an unusual material for advanced technology. Meteorites theory also falters, as such objects don’t land hot enough to start fires.
Given that Tasker found the metal pieces in the grass about 700 feet from a railroad track, the researchers hypothesized that the fragments could be from the liner of a smokestack or another part of a steam engine. However, further testing ruled out that theory.
If not a train . . . then a plane?
One metallurgist at MIT speculated that the fragments could be the lining from a jet turbo plane.
But another scientist was unsure the fragments were from an airplane because if they came from something at high altitude, most of the heat would have dissipated by the time they reached the ground, meaning they wouldn’t have been able to start the fires in the grass that Tasker observed.
And yet, if the iron fragments had originally been part of a larger object that fell a great height, this large iron object could have retained enough heat to start a fire, and probably would have smashed into smaller pieces upon striking the ground.
The scientists attempted to reconstruct this hypothetical larger object from the metallic fragments, finding that they had most likely been part of a single hollow cylinder that was 8 inches in diameter, 3/16 of an inch thick, and made using machinery.
Professor J. Francis Reintjes, an assistant professor in electrical engineering at MIT (referred to as “Rentges” in the reports), thought the metallic fragments looked similar to the lining of V-2 missiles he had observed in New Mexico.
In the late 1940s, the US had been adapting and testing the V-2 missiles designed by Nazi Germany in World War II to study space and the Earth’s atmosphere. The MIT scientists thought that cast-iron cylinders of that size had been used during the research. However, the theory wasn’t definitive enough to “conclude to the exclusion of all other possibilities,” according to the final memo written to the director of the FBI.
Even 80 years ago, extraterrestrial theories floated around.
The American UFO craze had begun on June 24, 1947, when the first “flying saucer” observation was made in the Pacific Northwest. By June 25, the press had picked up an amateur pilot’s report of some “unidentified flying object” that was then referred to as both a “flying saucer” and “flying disk.”
The incident report in West Rindge is from just a few weeks later in July, with the memos to the director of the FBI from later that month. In those memos, there are several handwritten notes, with “FLYING DISCS” written on both.
But how does this theory hold up today?
“I think it’s great that these documents came out; I don’t know if they are the smoking gun that we wanted them to be,” said Michael Panicello, the New England regional director of the Mutual UFO Network.
Panicello, like the scientist Reintjes at MIT, wondered if the metal was space debris from the V-2 rocket research happening in New Mexico.
But Panicello said this doesn’t rule out the possibility that the fragments could be a sign of extraterrestrial life.
“I’m not trying to be a debunker. I’m definitely not. I believe in aliens,” Panicello said. “But . . . it’s kind of hard to jump right to the UFO alien connection when you can’t truly rule out man-made objects.”
At least one scientist thinks it is unlikely the fragments came from man-made rockets or objects launched into space, simply because of the material of which they are made.
“There would be very little reason to make any sort of space object out of iron because its strength-to-weight ratio just is not as good as something like aluminum, which is practically what all spacecraft are primarily made out of these days,” said James Clemmons, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Hampshire.
Clemmons also found it peculiar that these metal fragments were made of cast iron, as it is not considered very strong.
“To me, cast iron is a very crude thing, and the idea that crude things go into space purposefully is also kind of odd,” Clemmons said.
The V-2 launches took place at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Jenn Jett, a Museum Specialist at the White Sands Missile Range Museum in New Mexico, said via email that “V-2s being launched at White Sands typically landed within the White Sands boundary within a distance of 100 miles,” with the rare exception of landings in other parts of New Mexico and Juarez, Mexico.
Considering New Hampshire is over 2,000 miles from New Mexico, it would appear there is no way for any rocket debris to get anywhere close.
Furthermore, V-2 rockets were made primarily of steel. While steel’s main ingredient is, in fact, iron, the initial scientists determined the metal was cast iron, which Clemmons said is very different.
“I would expect that the MIT scientists could distinguish between steel and iron,” Clemmons said.
So if these metal fragments are not from the classified V-2 rockets, nor from the nearby railroad, what could they be?
According to NASA, more than 50,000 meteorites have been found on Earth. While most meteorites are stony, metal meteorites made of iron do occasionally reach the ground.
However, Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at MIT, said the written accounts were “not consistent with meteorites.”
“(Meteorites) do not arrive ‘hot’ when they land and would not spark a fire,” Binzel said. “While there are iron meteorites, their metal composition is distinctive, and the early analysis would have immediately declared the fragments as meteorites.”
The final memo to the director of the FBI in the recently released files stated that “unless advised to the contrary by August 15, 1947, the Boston Office will destroy these specimens. In the interim they will be transmitted to the Bureau on specific Bureau instructions.”
NHPR contacted the Boston Field Office of the FBI to confirm whether the metal fragments had been destroyed. In response, the Boston Field Office said, “At this point in time, we haven’t been able to locate any records responsive to your request.”
This isn’t New Hampshire’s only potential connection with extraterrestrials. In 1961, Portsmouth, N.H., residents Betty and Barney Hill famously had one of the first alleged UFO abduction encounters in the country, and Exeter, N.H., has an annual UFO festival revolving around a famed 1965 incident nearby.
As for the mystery metal from West Rindge, theories about rocket debris and meteorites have come up short of solid evidence. For now, no one can conclusively determine the origins of the cast-iron fragments near Route 202. This unidentified anomalous phenomenon remains a mystery.
Perhaps the most unsettling detail of all is what happened next. According to official memos, the fragments were scheduled for destruction in August 1947, unless further instructions were given. Today, no confirmed record of the material exists, even inquiries to the FBI have turned up nothing.
Nearly 80 years later, the West Rindge incident remains unsolved.
NASA accused of erasing UFOs from photographs before public release
A former NASA contractor with top-secret security clearance accused the US space agency of quietly removing evidence of alien life from photos before sharing them with the public.
Stunning allegations made by Donna Hare, who illustrated graphics for the agency, have resurfaced, alleging she was told that NASA photo lab technicians airbrush images of UFOs from satellite images.
Hare, who worked for NASA contractor Philco Ford Aerospace from 1967 to 1981, said she learned from a friend working in the photo lab that the space agency has had a plan in place to keep proof of extraterrestrial encounters hidden for decades.
She claimed in multiple interviews that in 1970 or 1971, while working in the restricted photo lab at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, a lab technician showed her an image depicting a round white object with sharply defined edges hovering above a field of pine trees.
Hare, who died in 2021, claimed she had never seen an object like this before and asked the NASA worker if it was a UFO, to which the photo lab tech replied: 'I can't tell you that.'
'I knew he meant was "it was" but he couldn't tell me so I said "what are you going to do with this information" and he said "well, we always have to airbrush them out before we sell them to the public,"' she said.
The claims resurfaced online this year after NASA took sharp criticism for the poor photography of interstellar space object 3i/ATLAS, which some in the scientific community suggested may have been a piece of alien technology passing Earth.
Both NASA and the US government have maintained that there has never been any proof that UFOs and alien life exist in the cosmos or have visited Earth.
Former NASA contractor Donna Hare (Pictured) repeatedly claimed NASA photo lab technicians airbrushed evidence of UFOs from satellite pictures
Unidentified objects have been seen in countless photographs over the last 80 years, but physical proof of UFOs has never been presented
Hare first shared her story publicly in May 2001 at the Disclosure Project press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC.
While she continued to give interviews over the next two decades, the original photo, the technician's name or any official statement regarding NASA's airbrushing policy has never been revealed.
The Daily Mail has reached out to NASA for comment on the claims but has not received a response.
During her testimony, Hare became the next in a growing list of Americans to claim NASA astronauts told them aliens were real.
Hare alleged that a NASA worker who worked with returning astronauts during their time in medical quarantine told her that almost every Apollo astronaut claimed they had seen alien craft on the moon.
'This particular man was in quarantine with them and was part of their debriefing. He said that a lot of them talked about their experience and seeing these craft follow them. I believe there were three on the moon when they landed,' Hare recalled during her interview with the Disclosure Project.
The former contractor claimed that the astronauts were told to keep quiet in the interest of national security. They also allegedly signed papers promising not to speak under penalty of imprisonment.
However, some Apollo astronauts did eventually go public with claims that they witnessed extraterrestrial activity while in space and during their test flights for the space program.
NASA pilot Edgar Mitchell (Pictured) was the sixth man to walk on the moon in 1971. The NASA astronaut publicly stated he believed he had seen extraterrestrial craft in flight
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail last year, the wife of one Apollo astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, revealed the secrets her husband shared before he died.
Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon in 1971, reportedly told his former wife, Anita: 'There were UFOs out there, because so many of the pilots and astronauts had seen something.'
'I remember Gordy [Project Mercury astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr.] telling us at a dinner party in our house that he had seen something,' Mrs Mitchell said.
'He said, "Listen, we have nothing that goes that fast and goes that high," she recalled.
Mitchell, a former US Navy Captain, had also stated publicly before his death that he believed that UFOs were real, that extraterrestrials had visited Earth and that governments worldwide were lying about what they knew.
A documentary called The Age of Disclosure, released in November, allegedly detailed the 80-year global cover-up of alien life and the technology humans have created using pieces of UFOs.
Filmmaker and director Dan Farah spent four years secretly interviewing high-level members of the US government and military regarding the existence of extraterrestrials.
His film debuted a month before the White House would order the Pentagon to begin publicly disclosing all files that have been kept classified regarding UFO encounters and the search for extraterrestrial beings.
As of July 2026, three tranches of files have been released by the Pentagon, including hundreds of pages of files and audio recordings from NASA and the Apollo missions.
No files have confirmed the accounts of Hare, and no images have been released that suggest the space agency doctored satellite photos to remove alien craft.
However, the files did contain several images from the moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s, which featured strange and unexplainable lights and shapes in space.
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A Mysterious Circular Structure Buried Under the North Sea Has Revealed New Evidence of an Ancient Cataclysmic Event
More than two decades have passed since geologists first identified an unusual circular structure buried beneath the North Sea, and now scientists say new evidence could finally solve the mystery.
New research has confirmed that the feature, known as the Silverpit Crater, was likely formed by an asteroid impact as much as 46 million years ago. The discovery ends years of speculation about the mysterious feature’s origins, much of which debated whether the circular structure had been caused by volcanic activity or shifting underground salt deposits.
The research was led by researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and published in Nature Communications.
Combining high-resolution seismic imaging, microscopic analysis of rock samples, and computer simulations, the team behind the new study says their assessment offers the strongest evidence yet that Silverpit represents one of Earth’s relatively rare ancient impact features that have survived throughout time.
The three-kilometer feature, which lies approximately 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the floor of the southern North Sea, and close to 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast, has long perplexed geologists. Several larger concentric ringlike structures encircle the primary feature, comprising about 12 miles, and since its discovery in 2002, geologists have remained divided over what might have caused it.
“We were exceptionally lucky to find these,” according to Nicholson, who called the team’s work “a real ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ effort.”
“These prove the impact crater hypothesis beyond doubt, because they have a fabric that can only be created by extreme shock pressures,” Nicholson said, making them among the strongest lines of evidence available to researchers for confirming ancient impact sites.
By reconstructing the ancient impact event that shaped the Silverpit feature, the team now believes that an asteroid roughly 160 meters wide struck the North Sea at a low angle after approaching from the west. The resulting collision produced the main crater, while launching massive volumes of stone and seawater to levels of up to 1.5 kilometers—the resulting tsunami would have exceeded 100 meters in height.
This ancient impact is still dwarfed when compared to the likes of Mexico’s Chicxulub Crater, which was created by an asteroid that struck our planet 66 million years ago, now widely believed to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. While smaller by comparison, the Silverpit impact would still have unleashed enormous destructive energy across the surrounding region.
The team’s work also adds to the accumulation of impact features known to scientists, which are relatively rare, despite thousands of asteroids reaching the surface of our world over the last several billion years. However, over such long periods, other geological processes such as erosion, plate tectonics, and volcanic activity have erased most of the remaining evidence of these collisions.
Presently, there are only around 200 impact craters that are known to exist on land, and another few dozen that have been detected beneath Earth’s oceans.
Altogether, while the mystery of Silverpit has now been solved, the new research does more than merely settle a debate: it allows seismologists a deeper look at how asteroid impacts reshape planetary surfaces.
Such knowledge, while improving scientists’ understanding of Earth’s past, could also help provide potentially crucial data for future planetary defense efforts by helping scientists refine models of future impact hazards.
The team’s recent study, “Multiple lines of evidence for a hypervelocity impact origin for the Silverpit Crater,” appeared in Nature Communications.
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The single question thats on every UFO researches mind 24/7 is...will the US gov release all the files, photo, videos of the alien spacecraft and its occupants that crashed as Roswell, New Mexico? Its the single most famous case on the face of the Earth and its the deal breaker. If this case is released in its entirely...the world will forever be changed and forever know the truth. That the US gov has had alien bodies and technology since 1947. What this means...1st, it 100% explains how the US has remained a world power. 2nd, it 100% explains how the US had access to seveal alien bodies to research and possibly even a live alien caught at the crash...which helped the US gov. 3rd, giving the US gov alien tech that not only can travel from planet to plane in mere minutes, but...can also allow the most dangerous weapon on the planet to fall into American hands...time travel. Most alien spacecraft are not just capable of traveling in space, but also in atmosphere, oceans as well as through time.
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