‘There Has Been A Massive Cover Up’ When It Comes To UFO Disclosure By The US Government, Claims Dr. Phil

by Douglas Charles

Dr. Phil McGraw read the Pentagon’s recently released UFO files before the public and claims that after doing so, he believes there has been a huge cover-up by the United States government.

Why was Dr. Phil given access to the Pentagon’s UFO files before the general public? According to NewsNation, while the administration was weighing disclosure, it sought a trusted voice rather than an astrophysicist to gauge how the public might react to the files. He is also part of the Religious Liberty Commission that President Donald Trump established.

“I think we have to look at what’s going on with all of this in different pieces,” McGraw said on Reality Check with Ross Coulthart. “What are we going to disclose to the American public, but once we tell them what we tell them, what are we going to do with reaction?”

He also stated that he believes the government’s excuse of being scared to reveal information to the public because it’s “too shocking” is not true, and he finds it patronizing to the public.

“I have sat with people, and I’ve seen them deal with difficult situations time and again,” McGraw said. “I think we are very resilient as the human race.”

As for the UFO files themselves, Dr. Phil claims the imagery released so far is intentionally grainy, that far better gun camera video and radar tracks exist and that Reps. Tim Burchett and Anna Paulina Luna are helping him press for their release.

“There are two things that have jumped out at me as I’ve gone through all of this, and certainly in the one that we had the opportunity to dig into before it became public, two things,” Dr. Phil said. “Number one, there has been a massive cover up. And two, there’s no question there are unexplained phenomena happening in our atmosphere here.”

Is the US government hiding anti-gravity UFO technology?

Dr. Phil McGraw’s observations come as Oliver Stone’s son Sean also claims that the government is hiding anti-gravity UFO technology.

“If we’re working with anti-gravity propulsion, say goodbye to oil and gas, that whole industry is gone,” Sean Stone told The Scoop. “And that’s a big reason why some people speculate that the UFO thing has been so suppressed. It’s like, well, once we understand that like you don’t need propulsion from a jet blasting off, you know, jet fuel and stuff, man, that’s that’s like how much of your world economy just got destroyed, you know, by that, you know, your oil and gas industry, you’re talking what, trillions of dollars, you know, globally, right? I mean, it’s huge.”

President Trump orders the cancellation of non-disclosure agreements

In related news, President Donald Trump has ordered federal agencies to cancel non-disclosure agreements with former government employees and contractors who have cooperated with the United States government in investigations into UFOs.

“President Trump recently directed the Department of War and the intelligence community to allow former government employees or contractors, that have relevant information about the disclosure of UAP, to come forward to meet with designated government representatives — AARO [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office] or the President’s UAP taskforce, ‘PURSUE’ — and have their prior NDAs abrogated,” Fox News reports a senior administration official said.

{ https://brobible.com/category/culture/ }

Evidence Mounts That Martian Intelligent Life Was Silica Based, Not Carbon Based. UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of discovery: July 23, 2026 (Taiwan time 12hr ahead of USA)

Location of discovery: Mars, Spirit Rover SOL 725

Source photo: 

• https://areo.info/mer/spirit/725/tn/2P190724883EFFAMFHP2544L5M1_L2L5L5L7L7.jpg.html

 

We talked about this subject many times earlier. A stone foot, possibly even petrified from an alien weapon or even never truly broke down in the environment because...life does not necessarily have to build its bodies on Mars the same way life on Earth does. Many scientists and myself have proposed that there could be intelligent life forms made not from carbon like humans, but silica based skeletal tissues. Many organisms already use silica as a structural material like Diatoms, Radiolarians, and some sponges. Imagine if Martians intelligent life evolved to suse silica throughout much of their bodies. They may be bipedal and have two arms and a head, but the similarities end there. The tissue of the Martian would have living cells embedded in a silica matrix. Flexible organic proteins reinforced with microscopic glass fibers. Silica bones extending throughout the body. Thus...after death, only the organic portions would decay, leaving much of the body's framework which would already be mineral (silica), making it resemble stone almost immediately. Also, silica life forms would thrive in ultra hot high pressure environments avoid of oxygen and water...Mars. Below I have inclued several feet some with shoes broken...petrified...in other NASA photos that I have posted over the years. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Juno takes temperature of Jupiter's fiery moon Io

by NASA? edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan

Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, these findings break new observational ground for both fiery and icy worlds beyond our planet.

Io's extreme volcanism is powered by tidal heating. The moon is constantly stretched and squeezed by Jupiter's immense gravity as it travels in a slightly elliptical orbit, generating internal heat output many times greater than Earth's. Until now, virtually everything known about that heat came from infrared observations, which sense only the temperature of the surface. The latest findings are based on data collected by the spacecraft's Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument.

"The Juno Microwave Radiometer directly observed Io's heat output by looking below the surface," said Scott Bolton, study co-author and Juno's principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "The surprising discovery that we could see below a rocky moon's surface has important implications for studying Earth's volcanoes. Juno has taught us that if we look with an MWR-type instrument near a volcano on Earth, we might see a similar signature in the subsurface temperature gradient, providing new information on how terrestrial volcanoes work."

How Juno looked underground

Juno's Microwave Radiometer was designed by Bolton to peer beneath Jupiter's cloud tops to investigate the dynamics and composition of the gas giant's deep atmosphere. The MWR's six microwave antennas serve as a single instrument, simultaneously detecting microwaves at a wide range of wavelengths, from about half an inch to 20 inches (1.3 to 51 centimeters). During the mission's extended phase, the MWR instrument has provided the opportunity to observe three of the planet's Galilean moons: Ganymede, Europa and Io.

"The technique is novel in that each wavelength explores different depths, providing a new way to characterize the deep atmosphere of giant planets and the subsurface crusts of icy and rocky moons," said Bolton. "At Ganymede and Europa, we explored tens of miles below the surface, assuming their ice shells were mostly pure water, but the ability to probe volcanic rock on Io was an unexpected discovery."

During flybys on Dec. 30, 2023, and Feb. 3, 2024, the solar-powered Juno spacecraft came within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the moon's surface.

Two explanations for the heat

"The instrument measured Io's thermal emission at depths ranging from a few inches to tens of feet. Everywhere we looked, we found the temperature rising by more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit just several feet into the surface—a gradient far steeper than solar heating alone can explain," said Shannon Brown, the paper's lead author at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The data suggest two possible explanations. First, heat could be rising steadily through a conductive crust. While this background heat flow—measured at 1 to 3 watts per square meter—is relatively gentle on a local scale (roughly equivalent to a small nightlight glowing under every square yard), across the entire moon it represents a release of energy up to 30 times Earth's average. Alternatively, the signal could be coming from cooling lava flows, capped by roughly 30 to 35 feet (9 to 11 meters) of solidified crust, that cover about 10% of the moon's surface at any given time.

"Io provides a unique window into how tidal heating works throughout the cosmos, a fundamental process that provides energy and heat to worlds that are far from their parent star," said Bolton. "This process can not only create the most volcanic body in the solar system, in the case of Io, but also fuel the subsurface oceans on the moons of giant planets, such as Europa and Ganymede. Until this point, we could only observe the heat escaping at the surface or through eruptions. Now we can characterize how the heat is moving from the interior toward the surface."

A surprisingly plain-like surface

Another major insight gained from the two flybys is just how smooth Io is. Before the recent findings, the moon was known for its tall mountains, but the MWR indicates that apart from this visible topography, the surface features expansive smooth patches that stretch for 60 miles (100 kilometers) or more. Because Juno flew by overlapping regions of Io at different angles, the team was able to map how the surface reflects microwaves, much like an airline passenger might see the ocean flash with sunlight only at specific angles.

"Away from its mountains, the surface is more like the Great Plains of North America, and even though Io is a rocky body, the surface material has a very low density—more like pumice or fluffy volcanic ash than solid rock," said Brown.

Publication details

• Shannon Brown et al, Io Sub‐Surface Temperature Profile Observed by the Juno Microwave Radiometer, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (2026). DOI: 10.1029/2025je009622

{ https://phys.org/space-news/ }

NASA's most famous astronauts secretly claimed that they encountered an alien presence on the moon and were told to keep it quiet for decades.

Physicist Maaneli Derakhshani told the American Alchemy podcast that multiple Apollo missions allegedly captured photos of UFOs around the moon during the 1960s and 1970s, only to have those images altered before the public saw them.

Derakhshani, who researches lunar and Martian surface anomalies, detailed instances where famous NASA photos taken by astronauts on the surface of the moon had been clearly altered when compared to public copies of the same images.

The scientist said: 'One scan from the Lunar and Planetary Institute - this is an archive that NASA has managed since the 1970s - and it's an Apollo 14 photograph with Ed Mitchell standing on the lunar surface.'

'You see his long shadow stretched out and... essentially the lunar sky is completely black in this version. You zoom in everywhere, it's completely black,' Derakhshani revealed.

'However, if you look at the "March to the moon" version of that same frame, which is managed by Johnson Space Center and Arizona State University, there is a blue orb in the lunar sky very clearly. It's very obvious above Mitchell.'

Derakhshani and podcast host Jesse Michels also noted that several astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, the first human on the moon, have reportedly claimed they received telepathic messages from extraterrestrials warning them not to return.

The bombshell whistleblower stories come as NASA prepares to land on the lunar surface by 2028 – ending a nearly six-decade absence which has sparked unproven conspiracy theories as to why the US never returned to the moon.

    

Physicist Maaneli Derakhshani claimed on the American Alchemy podcast that NASA photos from the moon have been altered to erase signs of UFOs

Physicist Maaneli Derakhshani (left) and American Alchemy host Jesse Michels (right) discussed the many claims of an alien cover-up involving NASA astronauts and the moon

During the final moon mission, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt took many photos while visiting the lunar surface in 1972.

However, Derakhshani revealed on the podcast that one famous frame showed three solid blue lights in the black sky above a lunar hill. When brightened, the area between the lights gets brighter, suggesting they might be attached to a larger object.

NASA’s own description of this image during the first batch of declassified UFO files released in May noted that a 'special investigation' had been opened because experts examining it believed the lights may be part of a large physical object in space.

The scientist noted that other photos from the same mission captured blue metallic-looking streaks in space, but when zoomed in and brightened, the streaks resembled insectoid-like objects with faint trails from an alleged engine.

Skeptics, including astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, have claimed that the images were only displaying cosmic rays, but Derakhshani called the odds of this statistically improbable, as the objects were solid round lights – not gaseous streaks or lens flares.

Despite releasing tranches of photos and hours of audio recordings from the Apollo moon missions as part of the Trump Administration's UFO disclosure campaign, NASA and the Pentagon continue to deny that proof of alien life has been found.

Derakhshani added that the altered pictures and other sightings were not definitive proof of aliens, but said the patterns are hard to explain as natural geology, camera glitches or ordinary space debris.

However, the strongest evidence of a NASA cover-up may come from the alleged confession of an actual NASA astronaut who claimed he was ordered to destroy potential proof of UFO sightings near the moon.

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest slightly to the right of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features highlighted areas above the horizon in which unidentified phenomena are visible

'There's also Ken Johnston Sr, who was one of the pilots who trained the NASA astronauts and was a backup astronaut for the Apollo missions if I remember correctly,' Derakhshani said in the July 20 episode on YouTube.

'He says he was told to destroy a bunch of first-generation or early-generation Apollo negatives because they had some anomalies on them and they're not supposed to be there, and they don't want to release them publicly and he actually saved some of them and put some of his copies online.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to NASA for comment. 

Michels then brought up the alleged confessions of astronauts Cernan and Armstrong, who both reportedly mentioned having similar experiences during their lunar flights involving a warning received from extraterrestrials.

'There are all these apocryphal stories of Neil Armstrong telling similar stories in Washington, DC, saying, "We were told not to come back to the moon,"' the host said.

Michels referenced a previous interview with Steve Colbern, a lab analyst who participated in surgeries to remove alleged alien implants from people, who also claimed Armstrong was overheard at a party for high-level political guests repeating this warning.

Meanwhile, Cernan reportedly told his friend and Japanese NASA museum curator Josen Takano that during the trip to the moon, he received some type of telepathic message, saying: 'We don’t really want you here.'

The next mission scheduled to circle the moon, Artemis III, is expected to take place at some point in 2027. The following mission, a year later, Artemis IV, is expected to be the first lunar landing since the Apollo program.

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Humanoid robots have performed surgery on live animals for the very first time in an astonishing new breakthrough.

As part of a pre-clinical trial, two humanoid robots were remotely operated by surgeons to perform keyhole surgery on pigs.

In one operation, a teleoperated robot was assisted by a human to remove a pig's gallbladder.

Meanwhile, a first-of-its-kind operation saw two robots working side by side in a robot-robot team.

The Unitree G1 robots, nicknamed Surgie, were fitted with specialised adapters so they could hold surgical tools but were otherwise unmodified.

The researchers say Surgie is just as precise as a conventional surgical robot, but only costs a fraction of the price and is far easier to set up and use.

And with a growing shortfall of skilled surgeons to meet patients' needs, the researchers say the bots could one day be used to operate on humans.

Senior author Professor Michael Yip, of UC San Diego, says: 'You can imagine these robots being deployed in remote communities where staffing is challenging, or in austere environments like search and rescue scenarios.'

Humanoid robots have performed surgery on live animals for the very first time in an astonishing new breakthrough

The Unitree G1 robots were fitted with specialised adapters to hold surgical tools and remotely controlled by a human operator 

The researchers began by testing the robots' capacity for fine motor skills, having them handle inanimate objects and standard surgical equipment.

Once the team was satisfied, the robots graduated to performing real surgical procedures on anaesthetised pigs.

According to a report published in the journal Nature, both operations were completed successfully.

At one point there was some minor bleeding, but the robots were able to quickly stem the flow.

In fact, the researchers say that they were 'surprised' at just how well the robots functioned.

Controlling the movements of a humanoid felt more natural than moving the arms of a large surgical robot, especially for people not trained on those specialised systems.

This raises the possibility that humanoid robots could soon be a key part of surgical teams working on real human patients.  

Professor Yip says: 'Remotely operated and autonomous humanoid robots have real potential for amplifying access to critical surgeries to which patients would otherwise not have access.'

In one surgery, a humanoid robot was assisted by a human while it performed a gallbladder removal on an anaesthetised pig 

+5

View gallery

The researchers say that these humanoid robots are cheaper, lighter, and easier to control than traditional robotic surgical systems 

Surgeons already use specialised robotic surgery systems equipped with three or four robotic arms to operate on patients.

The problem is that these systems can weigh up to 800kg (1,800lb), require a large team to set up, and take up a lot of space in the operating room, which usually needs to be retrofitted to accommodate it.

By contrast, Surgie is just five feet (1.5m) tall and weighs just 27kg (60lb), even with its specialised adapters fitted.

This makes these compact humanoids a perfect option for situations where cumbersome traditional robots just aren't feasible.

Co-author Dr Shanglei Liu, a surgeon at UC San Diego, says: 'It's a fraction of the cost and it takes a fraction of the space in an operating room. So it’s easy to deploy, anywhere from rural areas to the battlefield, and even to space.'

However, the robots are far from perfect, and the researchers say there are still a few problems that need ironing out.

Most notably, Surgie had to be recalibrated multiple times throughout the operation; this took up valuable time and meant the surgery took a lot longer than expected.

Similarly, the latency, a delay between the operator's input and the robot's output, will need to be reduced before the bots are fully practical.

In the future, robots like these could be used to treat humans in areas where large surgical teams and specialised robots aren't feasible 

Yet the team are extremely optimistic that these issues are solvable in the near future, pointing out that the first robotic keyhole surgery took six hours to complete a task that now takes 30 minutes.

Even if Surgie isn't quite ready to put a human under the knife, the researchers say that it could have a bright future as an assistant.

Since the humanoid bots can walk about and perform most tasks that a human can do, they would be perfect for fetching tools and cleaning up after an operation.

Professor Yip adds: 'Many communities struggle with adequate staffing on the surgical team, which means patients are not being treated.

'Our goal is an operating theatre of the future, where humanoid robots and humans work side by side as an integrated team to deliver procedures to those in need.'

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Orb shape-shifts to become balloon, to relax watchers, July 10, 2026, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of sighting: July 10, 2026

Location of sighting: Lake Oswego, Oregon, USA

Source: NUFORC

 

Guys, bear with me on this one...you wont like what I have to say...but its 100% accurate. Plasmoid UFOs or energy entities as I call them...can shapeshift and change into any living or non living thing they want...and they do this sometimes if they think they want to see who is talking to them, and let them see it, but without knowing who they really are. This is something UFO researchers might protest against, however I have experienced such things first hand, and my son saw it hovering around me circling 7 times over me (red star balloon with string...just out of my reach) and hid in the tree, then after I asked it to come back out, it did and circled me a few more times and then flew off over the roof of the neighbors...this was at night in Bountiful, Utah last year in my back yard. I called it, it came, it was intelligent, and behaved nothing like a balloon!

 

Here we have just such an occurrence. This plasmoid UFO is faking a string, however it doesn't have a string but instead a glowing light of plasma not shooting from it, but an extension of itself. Plasmoids are sensitive to your emotions...if you panic, they panic, if you are amazed, they feel you feelings too. Telepathic remember? So yes, they do the balloon shapeshift to get close, let you see them...which gives you what you wanted, and to read your thoughts. So next time, continue talking to it if its a balloon, it may respond by showing you its true self...if it trusts you. 

 

Believe it or not...

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily - Now in Taiwan

 

Eyewitness states: 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Bipedal Alien 8 inches tall standing on Mars watching rover in NASA photo, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of discovery: July 22, 2026

Location of discovery: Mars Perseverance 1912

Source Photo: 

• https://gigapan.com/gigapans/239306

Based on all the past discoveries I made on Mars using NASA photo, I now believe that Mars had more than one species and that these species may have been brutal enemies. One such species is seen in the screenshot above, which shows a living white entity, bipedal, standing and watch as the rover passes it. Its no more than 8 inches tall at most and fits the entrances to the structures I found near it, which were also about 8-10 inches tall. Unlike other structures I reported a few weeks ago, which had entrances of 2-2.5 meters high. I also found some large faces carved in stone, maybe the smaller species or perhaps faces of the larger species. 

 

From the faces found on Mars in the past by me and other researchers, I find that there are at least four or more different species that once lived on Mars together. Not advanced like us perhaps, but held back in technology due to their bitter rivalries with each other. 

 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

The skull above is about 1 foot in size.

 

The entrances in the building below are only about 8-10 inches high.

The golden statue, only 8 inches tall, below has an alien face on it, a body, and a throne-like chair.

The head statue below, fallen on its side with its top cut wide open is about 1 meter from chin to forehead cut area. 

The foot below is about 1.5 feet from toe to heel, a foot of a larger species. 

The doorway below is only about 7 inches tall and 7 inches wide. 

The face carved in stone below shows two eyes, a huge wide nose, mouth, chin and a big forehead with lots of hair. But was it made by the tiny 8 inch tall species? I think yes.

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Don't think it could never happen, but the possibility of a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is far from unimaginable. If such an event were to occur, it could cripple the technological backbone of modern civilization. Power grids, communications, transportation, and financial systems could all be severely disrupted, leaving millions without essential services. In the aftermath, widespread confusion, shortages, and social unrest could follow as governments struggle to restore critical infrastructure. 

This report of 'Redacted' examines the effects of a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP), an intense burst of electromagnetic energy generated when a nuclear weapon is detonated between approximately 30 and 400 kilometers (20–250 miles) above Earth's surface. 

Unlike a nuclear explosion at ground level, a high-altitude detonation produces little direct blast or thermal damage. Instead, its primary effect is the creation of a powerful electromagnetic pulse capable of disrupting or permanently damaging electrical and electronic systems across an enormous area. 

When a nuclear weapon detonates at high altitude, it generates three distinct electromagnetic pulse components: 

• E1 – Fast Pulse: Lasting only a few billionths of a second, the E1 pulse is the most destructive to modern electronics. It can disable computers, communication networks, vehicles equipped with sensitive electronics, and the control systems that operate electrical power grids. 

• E2 – Intermediate Pulse: The E2 pulse is comparable to a powerful lightning strike. Although it can damage electronic equipment, many systems already incorporate lightning protection, making this component generally less destructive than E1. 

• E3 – Slow Pulse: The E3 pulse lasts from several seconds to a few minutes. It disturbs Earth's magnetic field and induces powerful electrical currents in long conductors such as power lines, pipelines, railway systems, and undersea cables. These currents can severely damage high-voltage transformers and other critical infrastructure.  

A large-scale high-altitude EMP could: 

Disable significant portions of the electrical grid. Disrupt internet, cellular, and radio communications. Interfere with GPS navigation and satellite operations. Damage satellites through radiation and electromagnetic effects. Interrupt banking and financial transactions. Disrupt transportation systems that depend on electronic controls. Severely impact emergency services, water distribution, fuel supplies, and food logistics. 

The most well-known demonstration of an EMP occurred during the Starfish Prime nuclear test on July 9, 1962. The United States detonated a 1.4-megaton nuclear device approximately 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the Pacific Ocean. 

Although the explosion occurred far above the Earth, its electromagnetic effects were detected roughly 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) away in Hawaii. Streetlights failed, burglar alarms were triggered, communication systems experienced disruptions, and several satellites in orbit were damaged or suffered shortened operational lifespans. 

Conclusion:

A high-altitude EMP is fundamentally different from a conventional nuclear attack. Rather than destroying cities through blast and heat, its strategic purpose is to disable the electronic infrastructure upon which modern society depends. While the immediate physical destruction on the ground may be limited, the cascading failure of electrical, communication, transportation, and financial systems could create widespread disruption across an entire region.

  

RELATED

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

Cosmic gymnastics: Study reveals how our Milky Way once underwent a dramatic FLIP

• READ MORE: Scientists detect SUGAR in the centre of the Milky Way

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

While the Milky Way might look calm and stable today, scientists say a grand display of cosmic gymnastics once turned our galaxy upside down.

Researchers have discovered that the Milky Way once underwent a dramatic 'major disc flip'.

At some point in the distant past, the vast stellar disc changed orientation by more than 90 degrees – dragging our solar system along for the ride.

According to the results of a new study, this likely happened after a violent head–on collision with another drifting galaxy.

About 10 to 11 billion years ago, the Milky Way smashed into a massive dwarf galaxy known as Gaia–Sausage–Enceladus, or the Gaia Sausage for short.

We already know this impact knocked billions of stars into looping sausage–shaped paths, but researchers now say it may have also flipped our galaxy.

Lead author Dr Kirill Batrakov, of Durham University, says: 'We already know that the Milky Way had a massive head–on collision.

'So, we think that the Milky Way disc likely flipped in the past.'

Scientists say the Milky Way underwent a dramatic 'disc flip' in the distant past. These pictures show a simulation of a Milky Way–like galaxy undergoing a similar flip, starting from the oldest image (z=3.4) to its final position (z=0)

This revelation about our galaxy's past transformations actually emerged from the quest to solve one of the Milky Way's greatest puzzles.

The majority of the stars in our galaxy are located in the flat spiral disk, a region about 120,000 light–years in diameter and 1,000 light–years thick.

This is surrounded by the sparsely populated stellar halo, an enormous region roughly 300,000 light–years across, but extending over a million light–years in diameter at its absolute outer limits.

This is largely made up of stars that have been pulled into the Milky Way from other galaxies over time through galactic mergers.

What makes the Milky Way's stellar halo so unusual is that it rotates incredibly slowly compared to other galaxies.

The European Space Agency's Gaia mission found that it could take up to a billion years for a star in this outermost region to make its way around the galactic core.

Until now, researchers have had no idea why this would be the case.

In their paper, presented this week at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham, researchers analysed the simulated evolution of 25 Milky Way–like galaxies.

Scientists think that this ancient flip could explain why the stellar halo, the outermost disc of the galaxy, rotates so slowly. Pictured: An artist's impression of the Milky Way seen from above 

The flip may have been caused by a collision between the Milky Way and a dwarf galaxy called Gaia–Sausage–Enceladus between 10 and 11 billion years ago. Pictured: Artists' impression of the collision with the simulated positions and motions of the stars in Gaia–Enceladus shown with yellow arrows

The scientists followed these simulated galaxies' evolution over billions of years and watched how they changed.

They discovered that the galaxies with the slowest stellar halos had two things in common: they had all had a head–on collision with another galaxy, and they had all undergone a major disc flip.

The fact that the Milky Way has both a glacial stellar halo and a head–on collision in its ancient past, therefore, makes it likely that the galaxy also underwent a disc flip.

This means that the galaxy we recognise today might have looked and behaved dramatically differently several billion years ago.

'A disc flip also means most of the Milky Way's stars once moved on very different trajectories than they do today – possibly even our own Sun,' says Dr Batrakov.

'Meaning our "stable" spot in the galaxy might not have been so stable for the Solar System's whole lifetime.'

Since we live inside the Milky Way, we can study its workings better than any other galaxy in the cosmos, making it the perfect laboratory for testing ideas about galaxy evolution.

With this extra knowledge about our own galaxy's history, scientists can start to make more sense of the baffling variety of cosmic structures out in the universe.

These images show the evolution of a Milky Way–like galaxy that did not have a collision with another galaxy and, therefore, did not experience a disc flip

Dr Batrakov adds: 'Finding that its disc flipped adds a new chapter to that story, one we must account for when placing the Milky Way in a broader context of other galaxies.

'What excites me the most is that this complex history can be reconstructed just from present–day observations.'

The researchers also found that the Milky Way's stellar halo is closely linked to the rotation of the invisible, but critical, dark matter halo.

This hidden disc of undetectable matter makes up the majority of the mass in the galaxy and holds the structure together like a gravitational glue.

That means understanding the origin of our own slow–moving stellar halo could help shed light on one of science's greatest mysteries.

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

The new study, which appeared in the journal Limnology and Oceanography, argues that widespread aquatic deoxygenation—reduced levels of dissolved oxygen in oceans and coastal waters, lakes, rivers, and streams—is increasingly becoming a problem, and one that influences nine other crucial environmental processes.

These processes are all included in what is known as the Planetary Boundaries framework, a science-based tool that outlines the requirements of a safe operating space for humanity. Introduced in 2009 by Earth system scientists led by Johan Rockström, this framework identifies nine critical environmental processes that regulate Earth’s stability.

Specifically, the nine planetary boundaries outlined in this framework are climate change, biosphere integrity, land use changes, biogeochemical flow of nutrients, ocean acidification, freshwater changes, atmospheric aerosol loading, stratospheric ozone depletion, and pollution.

Now, the Scripps researchers behind the recent study say they believe dissolved oxygen levels should also be formally included in this framework.

Aquatic Deoxygenation is a Growing Concern

Erica Ferrer, a Scripps Oceanography alumna and current postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and lead author of the new study, says that her team’s work “is designed to elevate the profile of aquatic deoxygenation as a global threat and show that it does not operate in isolation.”

“The health and stability of our planet depends on the health and stability of aquatic ecosystems, which need oxygen to function normally,” Ferrer said.

Driving this growing problem, the new research says, is the excessive influx of nutrient pollution into water bodies, as well as anthropogenic warming, and changes occurring in natural ventilation systems within deep ocean waters.

With depleting oxygen levels scientists are seeing, longer-term changes to chemical and biological processes that regulate our planet’s climate are expected to occur. The decline, Ferrer and her colleagues argue, is also likely to impact a diverse range of aquatic organisms and ecosystems.

Even ocean mammals that acquire air at the surface are likely to be impacted, since deoxygenation can either cause the relocation or outright depletion of the organisms that make up their diets. This, in addition to causing severe damage to habitats and alterations to the food webs they depend on.

Ferrer and her colleague, study co-author and Scripps biological oceanographer Lisa Levin, are hopeful that their findings will encourage a deeper level of engagement on the potential ramifications of aquatic oxygen loss, and how other environmental challenges outlined in the planetary boundaries framework can act as multipliers, rather than separate existential concerns.

“Adding aquatic deoxygenation to the Planetary Boundaries framework will help us understand its impacts on Earth system stability,” Ferrer said in a statement, adding that mitigation of ocean deoxygenation impacts “represents a critical component of maintaining biodiversity and climate.”

Levin, Ferrer, and their colleagues’ study, “Abundant interactions and feedbacks between aquatic deoxygenation and the other planetary boundaries suggest ‘unsafe’ levels of oxygen loss with far‐reaching impacts,” appeared in the journal Limnology and Oceanography on June 30, 2026.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

Casimir Werk Saw a UFO in 1905 and Then the Mystery Got Even Deeper

By Greg Hand

James Herbert’s model airships. Including the one seen by Casimir Werk, were constructed of paper and filled with hot air from a paraffin lamp. From "Cincinnati Post," August 23, 1905

Casimir Werk, grandson of the millionaire soap maker and vintner for whom Werk Road is named, saw a UFO one balmy Sunday evening in 1905. The unidentified flying object was soon revealed as an identified flying object but yielded an even bigger mystery.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer [August 28, 1905] Werk watched an unidentified object he believed might be an airship explode while it flew westward on the previous evening:

“Mr. Werk was standing in front of his parents’ home on La Feuille avenue, Westwood, about 6 o’clock, when he saw a peculiar formation in the sky. He secured field glasses and soon had them focused upon the object which he believes to have been an airship. He claims it was about 100 feet long and shaped like a projectile.”

While following the flying object with his binoculars, Werk watched it rock up and down like a ship tossed by waves in the ocean. It then burst into flame, the entire structure consumed, and fell from the sky, lost in the evening haze. The Enquirer was unable to locate anyone else who saw the thing, nor anyone who found any wreckage:

“The police knew nothing of the doings up above the sky line of Cincinnati, nor did the Coroner receive any report of the mangled remains of an airship operator being found within the limits of the county.”

Apparently, neither Werk nor the Enquirer reporter had read the previous Wednesday’s Cincinnati Post [August 23,1905], containing a lengthy feature about a teenage boy in Camp Washington and his attempts to build an airship capable of carrying passengers.

“Undaunted by poverty, working alone on a principle he believes will ultimately succeed, even beyond his fondest dreams; toiling only in spare hours, because he had to earn a living, James Herbert, scarcely more than 18, of 3067 Colerain-av., is building an airship, which he thinks will fly.”

The Post described how young Herbert constructed large balloons out of paper, filled them with air heated by a paraffin-fueled burner, and directed their flight by a spring-powered propeller.

On Sunday, the very day Werk saw his mystery airship, the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune [August 27, 1905] published its own profile of young James Herbert and claimed the young inventor was inspired by a contest sponsored by the newspaper:

“James started in several years ago when a children’s contest was on in The Commercial Tribune and his drawing of an airship model and ideas of the same were accepted by The Commercial Tribune and printed with his photo.”

Herbert, according to this report, had already launched several airship models of rather impressive size:

“A few days ago one twenty feet long and seven feet in diameter was sent up from an empty lot near Herbert’s home. Its weight was fifteen pounds, and its lifting power an additional fifteen pounds. It came to earth near a large building in Lick Run, the gas having given out. It was made of heavy tissue paper.”

James Herbert prepares one of his large model airships for launch.

From "Cincinnati Post," August 23, 1905

A Camp Washington resident informed the Enquirer [August 29, 1905] that Werk’s mystery airship was among the experimental flights of young Herbert. The Cincinnati Times-Star [August 29, 1905] calmed a very much relieved Werk by proving he had not been hallucinating:

“‘That’s exactly it,’ said Casimir Werk, jun., of Westwood, when the airship he saw Sunday evening was described to him Tuesday by a Times-Star reporter. ‘Yes, sir, that is just what I saw Sunday evening. No, I have not heard from young Herbert, the inventor. I never heard of him before.’”

The Times-Star interviewed James Herbert’s father, who expressed a frustrated resignation about his son’s aeronautical obsession:

“‘I’m down on this airship business. I don’t take any stock in it and pay little attention to this thing of trying to fly around in the air like birds.’ Such is the opinion of George Herbert, father of Jas. Herbert, the Colerain avenue lad who is bent on building a craft with which to navigate the upper air.”

The Enquirer chided the skeptics who refused to believe Casimir Werk:

“Those who saw fit to twit Mr. Werk yesterday for having seen what they did not will now have to back water.”

With that, James Herbert, boy inventor, fades from the annals of history. Only one additional newspaper story, printed in the Enquirer [September 2, 1905], references James Herbert’s airships, but doesn’t mention him by name, identifying him only as “the young Cumminsville inventor.” That story describes two bright lights floating high above League Park—later to be rebuilt as Crosley Field—at 7:30 p.m., either remaining quite steady or traveling against a “stiff breeze.” Among the witnesses was Cincinnati Police Lieutenant John W. Scahill, who asserted that the lights were attached to a controlled aircraft and not to a kite or balloon. (The Reds were in Chicago that day, losing 3-2.)

Here is the mystery: There is no record of a James Herbert living on Colerain Avenue anywhere near this time. The censuses of 1900 and 1910 record no one by that name at all. None of the city directories from that time list a James Herbert on or near Colerain Avenue. The census and city directories do record several George Herberts, but none of them live on Colerain Avenue and none have a son named James. Additionally, the Sanborn Insurance Map for 1904 shows 3067 Colerain as a vacant lot.

The Commercial Tribune claims that James Herbert got his start in aircraft design by entering a children’s contest “seven years ago” with his portrait and a picture of an airship printed in the newspaper. In fact, the Commercial Tribune did sponsor a contest, “What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Flying Machine?”, in April 1899, six years previous. The winning entries were published on April 16 and April 23, with occasional late entries appearing later in the year. None were submitted by anyone named James Herbert.

It’s unlikely the newspapers got James Herbert’s name wrong. Miraculously, for that time, three newspapers spelled his name identically. Two newspapers cited the same address. The mystery deepens. Whatever became of Cincinnati’s airship inventor, James Herbert?

It’s not like Cincinnatians had never seen an airship, as motorized balloons were called back then. Even as James Herbert was enjoying his 15 minutes of fame, the Hamilton County Fair announced that either Roy Knabenshue or Leo Stevens, two competing dirigible pilots, would fly around the Carthage Fairgrounds that September.

{ https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/ }

Trump directs agencies to waive NDAs for former employees involved in UFO investigations: report

The nondisclosure agreements have proved an impediment to government investigations into UAPs, also known as UFOs, and the directive is intended to ease this source of reluctance.

By Kevin Killough

President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to waive the nondisclosure agreements that former government employees and contractors signed while they were working on investigations involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), also known as UFOs. 

The directives were given to the Department of War and the intelligence community, Fox News reported, citing unnamed sources. 

The order asks that the agencies allow former government employees and contractors who have relevant information about UAPs to come forward to meet with representatives of Trump's UAP taskforce, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Any NDAs they signed would be waived under the order. 

A senior administration official stressed that the directive is not a "declassification directive" and only allows employees and contractors to come forward through government channels. 

The NDAs have proved an impediment to government investigations into UAPs, and the directive is intended to ease this source of reluctance. 

{ https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies }

800 Million Years Ago, a Catastrophic Asteroid Breakup Rained Fire on the Inner Solar System

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

Time traveler claiming to be from the year 2045 delivers alarming predictions for the next four years

• MORE: Strange detail in 1977 Elvis concert photo fuels wild time-travel theories 

By CHRIS MELORE, US DEPUTY SCIENCE EDITOR

A man claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2045 says the world will gain definitive proof that aliens exist, cash will be extinct and the US will no longer be a country within the next four years.

Calling himself Adam Archon, the mysterious man claimed the technology to travel in time will become publicly accessible in 2028, the same year he said extraterrestrials land on Earth and end decades of secrecy by governments worldwide.

Archon, who claimed he was born on December 6, 2019, without any proof, recorded his supposed knowledge of the future during a March 2019 video which recently resurfaced online amid the public release of classified UFO files by the Pentagon.

While allegedly connected to an active lie detector machine, Archon said: 'Yes, it is true that aliens did land on Earth in August 2028. In fact, we have known of the existence of aliens before 2028, but it isn't until 2028 that it becomes public knowledge.'

Archon, whose face was blurred and voice altered during the interview with the YouTube channel Apex TV, said he had traveled back to a time before he was born to experience history in-person, which he claimed was a common practice in the future.

'Time travel was released to the public in 2028, but it was invented in 1981. It was just kept secret until they released it publicly,' he claimed.

Moreover, Archon claimed that most UFO sightings today were actually the craft used by time travelers from the future to go back in time to visit historical events.

According to the ten-minute interview, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times, Archon was telling the truth, with Apex TV claiming every answer registered as truthful on the lie detector test.

A man calling himself Adam Archon alleged in 2019 that he was a time traveler from the year 2045

Archon claimed that current UFO sightings were actually time travel capsules containing humans from the future

Archon also mentioned the public will start getting an implanted chip called 'The One' in their right hand in February 2029.

The device allegedly lets users pay for items, boosts brain function and improves health. This system will supposedly replace all global currencies, making cash extinct.

This technology has existed for the last decade, with people having the ability to get a small microchip implanted in their hand so they can pay for things such as coffee or groceries just by waving their hand near a scanner typically used for credit cards.

According to the self-proclaimed time traveler, who did not show any physical proof he was from the future in his interview, this new system of digital money would debut right before the third chilling world event - the end of the US government.

Archon claimed that in 2030, the US would no longer be an independent nation and would instead become part of a new world government that splits up the globe by continent - with the US becoming part of 'District 3.'

The new world order, he said, was also said to be run by an AI program named The Light that will be released in 2033.

Archon claimed it was built into every electronic device, allowing anyone to talk to it and ask it anything. However, a group of ten government officials monitored all of The Light's decisions to make sure it was ruling ethically.

By 2045, Archon said scientists developed the technology to clone dinosaurs, creating a real-life 'Jurassic Park' where the public can visit prehistoric creatures.

'You can see T-rexes, Triceratops, velociraptors. If they existed, you can see them. People can go and visit things in the past, like to go visit the dinosaurs or major world events.'

   

Skeptics have claimed that Archon's January 2019 video was 'rehearsed' and fake, noting the time difference in the supposed three-minute speech

A self-proclaimed time traveler from 2045 has claimed that scientists developed the ability to clone and recreate dinosaurs (artist's impression)

While the March 25, 2019, video claimed that Archon was telling the truth, multiple pieces of his story did not add up and would be impossible under US laws.

In a separate video posted in January 2019, Archon started by claiming that there would be a documented increase in the number of UFO sightings worldwide that same year. While that did actually happen, his information about 2020 was way off.

'In 2020, there will be a robot released to the public that causes a lot of controversy,' he said in the three-minute video that did not involve a lie detector.

There has been no clear evidence that a robot was released that caused major controversy in the US or worldwide. 

Archon also failed to mention anything about the coming Covid-19 pandemic or anything for the following seven years.

Viewers of his January video claimed that Archon's statement was suspicious since the clock seen next to him showed nearly 15 minutes of real time passing despite the clip only being three minutes long.

One skeptic said: 'Does anyone else see that the video is 3:36 minutes long but the clock in the back moves a good 15 minutes? That means this was rehearsed and they had to cut out the mistakes.'

Meanwhile, Archon's shocking claim about the final president in US history would seem to be completely implausible.

'Yolanda Renee King does become, and she is in fact noted as the greatest president of the United States, yes I can confirm,' Archon claimed while taking the lie detector test.

King, 18, is the only grandchild of Martin Luther King Jr and is already known for being an author and activist, specifically against gun violence.

However, Archon's timeline with King becoming president could not come true if the US were no longer an independent nation by 2030.

King will turn 35 years old in 2043, the age at which an American citizen can legally run for office under current US law. The next presidential election would not be until 2044.

Scientists have stated that time travel into the past is not only possible; the math to make it happen actually aligns with Einstein's famed theory of general relativity - which says that space and time are linked together as 'spacetime,' and gravity is the result of massive objects like planets and stars curving this spacetime.

Despite the theory of time travel appearing to be plausible, there has been no concrete evidence that humans can regularly move backward through time, or have a craft capable of doing that.

Meanwhile, the US government has repeatedly stated that no physical proof of extraterrestrials or UFOs has ever been presented.

Archon had claimed in the video that the aliens who make contact with humans in 2028 'do not come from space.'

'I cannot elaborate on where they come from because of the possibility of a paradox,' he alleged.

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

 By Morgan Phillips Fox News

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to waive prior nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for former government employees and contractors cooperating with unidentified anomalous phenomena investigations, Fox News Digital has learned.

"President Trump recently directed the Department of War and the intelligence community to allow former government employees or contractors, that have relevant information about the disclosure of UAP, to come forward to meet with designated government representatives — AARO or the President’s UAP taskforce, ‘PURSUE’ — and have their prior NDAs abrogated," a senior administration official said, with AARO referring to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon office established to investigate UFOs and other unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

Another senior administration official emphasized the move was not a "declassification directive" and only allowed employees to come forward through government channels.

Officials say years of congressional inquiries, whistleblower allegations and newly declassified records have raised questions about whether additional witnesses have remained silent because they believed prior nondisclosure agreements prevented them from cooperating with government investigations.

Newly released infrared footage from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command shows an object officials described as resembling a six-pointed star over the Yellow Sea Jan. 1, 2025.  

(Department of War )

• NEW TRUMP UFO FILE DUMP INCLUDES MILITARY FOOTAGE OF MYSTERIOUS STAR-SHAPED OBJECT

• UFO WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS BILLIONS IN SECRET SPENDING HIDDEN FROM CONGRESS

"People who believe that they have information have expressed reluctance in coming forward," the official said. "We are eliminating that source of reluctance."

Like other government employees and defense contractors with access to classified information or sensitive national security programs, many witnesses would have signed nondisclosure agreements as a condition of receiving security clearances or access to restricted information. Those agreements generally prohibit unauthorized disclosure of classified or otherwise protected information and typically remain in effect even after an individual leaves government service.

Former officials and contractors who disclose protected information without authorization risk losing security clearances, facing civil penalties or, in some circumstances, criminal prosecution if classified information is improperly disclosed.

Under the new process, former government employees and contractors who believe they possess relevant UAP information would first meet with designated officials at the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) or the president's UAP task force, PURSUE, who hold the appropriate security clearances. During those authorized discussions, any applicable nondisclosure agreements could be waived, allowing witnesses to share information without fear of violating prior agreements.

Information provided through the process would be reviewed through the administration's existing declassification procedures.

"Any information that is received that sheds light on the UAP mystery will ultimately be made public," the official said.

The official said the administration does not know whether potential witnesses actually possess significant new information, but wants to remove any perceived legal barriers so investigators can determine whether previously undisclosed information exists.

"You don't know what you don't know," the official said.

The official said the focus is on incidents that remain unexplained, rather than known foreign technology, classified U.S. programs or natural phenomena.

The latest directive builds on the Trump administration's broader effort to declassify decades of government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. Previous releases have included FBI and Pentagon records describing unexplained sightings reported by military personnel, law enforcement and astronauts, including accounts of glowing "mother orbs" that witnesses said released smaller objects near a sensitive U.S. national security site, mysterious orange spheres observed during military operations, and Apollo-era transcripts in which astronauts described unexplained lights and "jagged, angular fragments" drifting outside their spacecraft.

The latest tranche of UAP records included expanded details and imagery from a 2015 incident involving an unidentified object over the Pantex nuclear weapons facility in Texas, along with newly declassified infrared footage showing a mysterious six-pointed star-shaped object tracked by a U.S. military sensor over the Yellow Sea on Jan. 1, 2025.

The official said the next tranche of files will be made available "very soon."

The directive follows years of complaints from some lawmakers and whistleblowers that former officials with firsthand knowledge were reluctant to come forward because of secrecy obligations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in 2023 that multiple individuals with firsthand knowledge had approached the committee but were hesitant to speak publicly because of potential repercussions.

"Some of these people still work in the government and frankly, a lot of them are very fearful — fearful of their jobs, fearful of their clearances, fearful of their career, and some, frankly, are fearful of harm coming to them," he said on News Nation in June 2023.

"Grant immunity to anyone who has already come forward, and everyone who will come forward. Open the door and let them speak," Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., demanded during a June 9 press conference on Capitol Hill.

Public interest in UAPs accelerated in 2017 after The New York Times revealed the Pentagon had quietly operated a secret program to investigate unexplained aerial encounters and published Navy cockpit videos showing objects exhibiting unusual flight characteristics.

Since then, Congress has held multiple bipartisan hearings on the issue, lawmakers have pressed intelligence agencies for greater transparency, and former intelligence officer David Grusch's allegations that the government had concealed information about UAP programs renewed calls for additional disclosure, despite the government's denial of his central claims.

During the same event, former Air Force intelligence officer Grusch renewed his allegations that secret UAP programs had operated outside normal congressional oversight, calling it "a real fraud, waste and abuse issue" and claiming his investigation uncovered "slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities."

The Pentagon has disputed Grusch's central claims, and AARO has said its investigations found no verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology or credible evidence that the government has secretly recovered or reverse-engineered craft of non-human origin.

{ https://www.foxnews.com/category/science/air-and-space/ufos }

Deep-Sea Coral Reef Spotted in the 1960s was Considered Dead

According to a statement announcing the unexpected discovery, previous historical surveys of the area had indicated a possible reef more than 50 meters below the water’s surface. When a 1960s survey detected the unusual feature, they suspected it was a coral reef that was likely dead.

When team leader Gérard Zinzindohoué and colleagues studied the features, they suspected that the team from the 60s may have provided them with a golden scientific opportunity. Although the feature’s depth ruled out a typical shallow-water coral reef, the researchers note that it could be an entirely different kind of reef structure, known as a mesophotic coral ecosystem, that can inhabit such depths.

The examined region may be part of a much larger system stretching nearly 25 miles parallel to Benin.

“A mesophotic coral ecosystem lives deeper than the usual shallow coral reefs, in zones where light is much more limited,” Zinzindohoué explained. “Unlike typical shallow reefs, it does not always form a single continuous reef structure. Instead, it can appear as patchy or scattered coral communities spread across the seafloor.”

Instead of using mid-twentieth-century technology to settle the debate, the team turned to the National Geographic Exploration Technology Lab, which provided access to its Deep-Sea Camera System.

A Deep Sea Camera System from National Geographic’s Exploration Technology Lab resurfaces after capturing footage of the coral reef.

Credit: Ghislain Adjahouisso

“We Could Actually See the Sea Floor”

Following the path set out by the 1960s survey, the team used the underwater camera to map the seafloor with sonar. After several passes, the team covered a total of 11.5 kilometers. Zinzindohoué highlighted the difficulty of the effort, noting that it was “not an easy field campaign.”

“It was a mix of long days at sea, technical problems, and a lot of uncertainty,” the researcher explained. “But then we saw structures on the sonar that looked like they could be reef signatures, which gave us hope that we were close.”

The closer the team drove the Deep-Sea Explorer’s cameras, the more the shockingly unexpected scene began to unfold.

“That was a big moment for us, because suddenly we could actually see the seafloor,” Zinzindohoué said.

Instead of the dark, lifeless structure anticipated by the original survey team, the new team found a healthy reef containing eight distinct types of coral. The system was also actively supporting eight fish species, with the camera capturing them feeding and sheltering among the corals. The species identified by the team include golden African snappers, blackbar soldierfish, Guinean angelfish, West African goatfish, the Monrovia doctorfish, three-banded butterflyfish, and two distinct species of damselfish.

“I still remember seeing those first images,” Zinzindohoué recalled of the vibrant ecosystem lying directly in front of the cameras. “It was a mix of excitement and disbelief, because after all this time thinking about this reef, suddenly there was something real in front of us.”

More Research Needed to Determine if the Coral Reef Was Ever Dead

When discussing the discovery’s significance, Zinzindohoué said that to the team’s knowledge, “this is the first confirmed record of a living mesophotic coral ecosystem on the Gulf of Guinea continental shelf.”

Although the cameras captured a complex ecosystem, the researchers said that the reef does not appear to be a continuous barrier. Instead, the deep-sea environment consists of several patches of coral that occupy rocky seabed areas most suitable for their survival. Still, they add that further surveys may identify more reefs in the same area.

Footage from the National Geographic Exploration Technology Lab’s Deep Sea Camera System captures a sea floor rich with marine life.

Credit: Gérard Zinzindohoué/IRHOB

“I think what we found is probably not an exception,” Zinzindohoué said. “It is more likely a reflection of how little we still know about coastal regions in West Africa and elsewhere. If we were able to find this reef again after 60 years, how many others are still undocumented or simply forgotten?”

Since the team was unable to sample the corals directly, they were unable to confirm the species identification with genetic analysis. The team was also hesitant to condemn the original 1960s survey, noting that it is impossible to tell, without more data, whether the corals were dead at the time and have since rebounded.

“This is still an initial exploration,” Zinzindohoué said. “The historical reports suggested that this could be a continuous coral reef barrier extending roughly 40 kilometers parallel to the coast. We only surveyed a small section of this area, and we had a limited number of visual transects.”

Although there are no immediate plans for a return expedition, the research leader said the only thing holding them back from learning more about these ecosystems, which are “still poorly known in this part of the world,” is adequate financial support.

Mesophotic coral reefs live at deeper depths than typical, shallower coral.

Credit: Gérard Zinzindohoué

“If I had all the grant money in the world, the first thing I would do is return to the site with a proper scientific diving and sampling program,” he said, before adding that “every additional piece of information matters.”

“I do believe there are more coral systems out there that we have not yet documented,” he said. “But we should not assume they are everywhere. Each discovery needs to be confirmed. Without going back into the field, we are really just guessing.”

On a personal note, the team leader said the most exciting part is understanding the reef’s history and the lessons that can be gleaned from this underexplored region.

“It feels like we have only just started to read an archive that has been there for a very long time.”

The study “First evidence of live mesophotic coral reefs on the Benin continental shelf” was published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

• Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

NASA's Perseverance Rover Uncovers Evidence of 4 Billion Year Old Impacts

NASA's Perseverance rover continues to explore the rim of the Jezero Crater, an impact basin in Mars' northern hemisphere that once supported a lake. In so doing, the rover's mission team continues to reveal more about the Red Planet's past, when liquid water once flowed across its surface. In addition, the rover has made several findings that are leading to a better understanding among scientists of the planet's geological history and the forces that shaped its surface.

In a study that appeared earlier this week in the *Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets*, a team led by researchers from Imperial College London announced that they had uncovered an ancient feature formed by repeated asteroid impacts. This 75-meter (245-foot) thick stack of layered bedrock, known as the “Broom Point member” by the rover’s science team, likely formed over 3.9 billion years ago. This makes it some of the oldest terrain ever examined by the Martian rover and a window into the Solar System’s Late Heavy Bombardment Era.

US-SPACE-AEROSPACE-NASA-MARS

A full scale model of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is displayed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on February 16, 2021 in Pasadena, California. The Mars exploration rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life and collect rock samples for future return to Earth to study the red planet's geology and climate, paving the way for human exploration. Perseverance also carries the experimental Ingenuity Mars Helicopter - which will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

This period, which occurred between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago, was one of the most dynamic and chaotic in the history of the Solar System. As the name suggests, it was characterized by a higher-than-normal rate of asteroid and comet impacts on celestial bodies in the inner Solar System, including Earth, the Moon, and Mars. After leaving the Jezero Crater in late 2024, Perseverance began exploring the western rim and surrounding environment using its suite of scientific instruments.

*NASA’s Perseverance rover captured its own tracks descending from the rim of Jezero Crater.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS*

Said Ken Farley, Perseverance's deputy project scientist at Caltech, in a NASA-JPL press release:

Since leaving Jezero, Perseverance has been exploring a brand-new frontier, both geographically and geologically — a chapter of Martian time that predates the crater itself. On Earth, our earliest geologic history has been fundamentally broken up, deformed, and erased by plate tectonics. Because Mars lacks plate tectonics to recycle its crust, this ancient record remains intact, giving us a rare glimpse into a geological time period that doesn’t exist on our own planet.

The data gathered at Broom Point revealed six distinct rock types, arranged in layers between angular fragments (breccias) and fine-grained rock dust. Fragments within the breccias further showed evidence of cavities formed by gas bubbles, indicating they were once molten. Another key indicator was the dark glass beads found within the layers, which form in the presence of volcanism or high-energy impacts. The largest of these were comparable to those found in ejecta caused by the ancient Chicxulub asteroid's impact on Earth (which led to the Dinosaurs' extinction).

The repeated appearance of these rock types in layered form also indicates that the high-energy impact events happened repeatedly in this region. As Farley notes, some of the rock layers have a near-vertical tilt (more than 80 degrees), far too steep to have been caused by the same impact that created Jezero Crater around the same time. Said Alex Jones, a Ph.D. student in planetary geology at ICL and lead author of the paper:

The different rock layers are a record of variable-sized impacts occurring at different distances from where this rock sequence was accumulating. Some large impacts took place very far away, some small impacts nearby. Their debris all ended up landing here, constructing this thick section of rock.

*This orbital map shows the path NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took from its 2021 landing site in Jezero Crater to the “Broom Point” location in mid-2025.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MRO/HIRISE/UA/ICL*

The layered formation of the rock may also suggest interactions with water or ice, while some appear to have formed from rapid debris flows. On Earth, these flows can occur when molten rock comes into contact with water or ice, instantly transforming them into steam. The team theorizes that a massive asteroid impact and the presence of water or ice shaped the landscape billions of years ago. The impact came first and formed the 1,900-km (1,200-mi) wide Isidis Basin, one of the planet's largest impact basins.

This was likely followed by a second asteroid impact that formed the Jezero Crater, fracturing and uplifting the already-tilted rocks into the formation found there today. Along with impact basins found elsewhere on Mars, the Moon, and Mercury, these craters and related features are helping scientists construct a timeline of the Solar System's geological history.

Further Reading: 

• NASA

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }