Artist’s illustration of a crewed habitat on the surface of Mars

A Year in 158 Square Meters

Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer entered the Mars Dune Alpha habitat on October 19, 2025, and emerged on October 31, 2026—a total of 378 days. The habitat was 3D-printed at NASA’s Johnson  Space Center and, according to NASA, covers 158 square meters, or approximately 40 square meters per person.

Members of the second CHAPEA mission—Ross Elder, Matthew Montgomery, Ellen Ellis, and James Spicer—shortly before entering isolation, on October 8, 2025.

Credit: NASA

Commander Ross Elder serves as a U.S. Air Force test pilot. U.S. Space Force Colonel Ellen Ellis oversaw medical matters, engineer Matthew Montgomery handled science, and flight engineer James Spicer previously built satellite communications networks.

Delayed Communications

Communications with Earth provided the closest approximation to an actual mission. Under the program’s scenario, an exchange of messages with mission control could take up to 44 minutes. Radio signals travel between Earth and Mars in 3–22 minutes each way, depending on the planets’ positions, so a Martian crew will not be able to hold a live conversation with Earth.

NASA CHAPEA-2

Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche said such delays require patience and independence—qualities astronauts millions of kilometers from home cannot do without. In May, communications stopped entirely, and the crew operated without mission control for two weeks, simulating the period when Mars passes behind the Sun. The real Mars reaches this position approximately once every 26 months, interrupting communications with spacecraft near it for about two weeks each time.

Gardening, Robots, and Breakdowns

The crew also maintained the habitat, exercised, operated robots, and ventured into a separate sand-covered area simulating the Martian surface. According to Reuters, they grew plants in simulated Martian soil.

This room simulates the surface of Mars, where participants will go to grow various crops.

Credit: NASA

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Asteroid Ryugu.

Source: JAXA

These molecules—adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil—are essential components of DNA and RNA. The discovery suggests that the chemical ingredients necessary for life to emerge were scattered throughout the Solar System early in its history.

What Are Nitrogenous Bases?

Nitrogenous bases fall into two groups: purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine, and uracil). Combined with sugars and phosphates, they form nucleotides—the building blocks of genetic material. Without these compounds, the storage, replication, and evolution of genetic information would be impossible.

A container holding a sample from asteroid Ryugu.

Photo: JAXA

The approximately 4.5-billion-year-old Ryugu samples were delivered to Earth in 2020 by Hayabusa2, a mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The spacecraft returned a total of 5.4 grams of material.

In 2023, scientists reported detecting one of the bases—uracil—in these samples. Now, using extraction with water and hydrochloric acid under ultraclean laboratory conditions, Japanese researchers have confirmed the presence of all five nucleobases in approximately equal proportions.

Comparison with Other Celestial Bodies

The Ryugu findings echo earlier studies of the Murchison meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1969, and the Orgueil meteorite, which fell in France in 1864. However, meteorites that pass through Earth’s atmosphere and come into contact with its surface always carry a risk of terrestrial contamination.

Asteroid Bennu.

Illustration:  Space Engine

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The Charlton Crater: Did a UFO land in Wiltshire in 1963?

In July 1963, an orange light was seen over Wiltshire and a mysterious crater appeared in a farmer’s field. Here’s the story of the Charlton Crater.

Have aliens been secretly visiting the UK? You’d certainly suspect so, given the high number of UFO sightings in this part of the world. Often, though, when a Brit does claim to have had an extraterrestrial encounter, one important thing is conspicuous by its absence: physical evidence.

Sure, many people claim to have seen strange lights in the sky or even ran into creatures thought too freakish to be of this earth. Still, it can often be difficult to simply take these accounts at face value. We need something else, something tangible enough to make the story feel real.

That’s why the tale of the Charlton Crater stands out so much in British UFO lore. In July 1963, farmer Roy Blanchard was shocked to find a mysterious crater in his potato field in Wiltshire. Even the police and military struggled to explain it. As the Sky HISTORY series Britain’s X-Files investigates the mystery, we ask: Has anyone come up with a truly convincing theory?

Read more about Mysteries

What happened at the Rendlesham Forest Incident, Britain's answer to Roswell?

A jaw-dropping find on a remote farm

In July 1963, a policeman saw a peculiar streak of orange light in the sky above Charlton, Wiltshire. He wasn’t the only local that month to suspect something very strange was afoot. Leonard ‘Len’ Joliffe, a dairyman employed at Charlton’s Manor Farm, was minding his own business when he thought he heard an explosion.

Len’s brother Gordon Joliffe relayed the story when interviewed for Channel 5 documentary The British UFO Files in 2004. ‘He was on his way to work at 6 o’clock in the morning because he was a milker, he worked for Mr Blanchard,’ Gordon explained. Len was reportedly on his bike when he heard ‘this great big bang in the morning, after the huge light in the sky came down’.

Within hours, another of the farmworkers, Reginald Alexander, had stumbled upon a huge, unfamiliar crater where potatoes and barley were usually grown. He called his boss Roy Blanchard to the site. Soon, journalists, scientific investigators and even bomb disposal experts would also be at the scene. What they saw was so extraordinary that it would become known to history as the Charlton Crater.

Read more about Mysteries

The Todmorden UFO mystery: Close encounters in West Yorkshire

How large was the Charlton Crater?

Reports have slightly differed over the years, but ufologist Waveney Girvan provided his own dimensions in an article for Flying Saucer Review in autumn 1963. ‘The marks comprised a saucer-shaped depression or crater eight feet in diameter and about four inches in depth. In the centre of this depression there was found a three feet deep hole variously described as from five inches to one foot in diameter.’

Especially strangely, four other, slot-like marks – each ‘four feet long and one foot wide’, according to Girvan – ran out from this central hole. It was like a giant bicycle wheel, complete with spokes, had been pressed into the soil from above. Yes, the soil was bare. There was no sign of crushed potato or flattened barley in the crater itself. It was as if the crops at the impact site had been miraculously vaporised.

Read more about Mysteries

Crop circles: Have aliens left their mark (literally) on British farmland?

What caused the Charlton Crater?

Given how heavily Britain was bombed during World War II, could it be that the crater resulted from an unexploded wartime bomb finally going off? Could there still have been some other dormant explosives lying beneath the soil? The British Army feared so, and sent its bomb disposal unit to investigate. In the event, the team did not find any bombs, or even scorch marks suggesting that an explosion had taken place.

Could the Charlton Crater have been caused by a meteorite? The astronomer Patrick Moore was a forthright proponent of this theory. What looked like a fused piece of metal was found in the crater, seemingly backing up this argument. However, the British Museum analysed the metallic debris and discerned it to be just ordinary ironstone, commonplace in the Wiltshire area.

So, what exactly was it that landed on Roy Blanchard’s farm that fateful morning? The farmer himself was stumped for easy answers, but did suggest a rather eye-opening one. He reflected: ‘The thing was heavy enough to crush rocks and stone to powder. Yet it came down gently. We heard no crash and whatever power it uses produces no heat or noise. I believe that we have received a visit from a spaceship from another world.’

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{ https://www.history.co.uk/ }

Former US Army Sniper Claims Soldier Was Allegedly Killed Fighting Reptilian Beings Near Area 51, His Death Covered Up as Training Accident

Former Army sniper Nick Betts shared the account during a December 2025 episode of the Liberty Risk podcast. Betts said he learned about the incident from a man who claimed to have participated in the operation while serving in a military squadron based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He did not witness the alleged confrontation himself, but claimed that something happened the following morning that made him believe the man was telling the truth.

Betts explained that he had been traveling through Eastern Europe with a small group filming a documentary about the war in Ukraine. Among his companions was a friend who had served in an Army Ranger battalion, along with several other men who had military or security backgrounds. The group had traveled through seven countries, sharing accommodations, meals, and long journeys. According to Betts, everyone had developed a good relationship, and there had been no serious disagreements during the trip.

Nick Betts

After visiting a refugee camp in Poland, they eventually stopped at a hotel. Betts and his Ranger friend were in their room downloading footage and transferring files onto hard drives when another member of the group arrived carrying four bottles of wine. The conversation began casually, but his Ranger friend, who was interested in paranormal subjects and extraterrestrial life, asked the visitor whether he knew anything about aliens.

The man appeared reluctant to discuss the subject. Betts recalled that he initially refused, but after further questioning, he agreed to share an experience from his military career. Before saying anything, however, he asked both men to hand over their mobile phones. He then placed the phones inside the room’s microwave oven, apparently believing its metal enclosure would prevent the devices from receiving or transmitting electronic signals.

Betts explained that the man was attempting to use the microwave as a makeshift Faraday cage. Although a household microwave is not necessarily a reliable way to prevent electronic surveillance, the precaution was unusual enough to get his attention. The visitor then began describing what he claimed was a classified military deployment that had taken place several years earlier.

According to the man’s account, he had been serving in a squadron at Fort Bragg when his unit was assigned to quick-reaction force duty. Such personnel are expected to remain ready for emergency deployments, sometimes with very little notice. He claimed that he was relaxing at a bar with fellow servicemen when they suddenly received orders to return to base, collect their equipment, and board an aircraft.

What bothered the soldiers was the absence of a normal briefing. They were reportedly given no destination, no explanation of the emergency, and no information about the operation they were being sent to carry out. The man told Betts that this was highly unusual, even for personnel accustomed to classified assignments.

After flying for several hours, the aircraft reportedly landed somewhere extremely hot. Two men approached the arriving soldiers outside a hangar and escorted them into a secure briefing room known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF. It was there that they were allegedly informed they had arrived at Area 51, the restricted military installation in Nevada associated with decades of secret aircraft testing and UFO speculation.

The soldiers were then told that security personnel at an underground installation several miles away had suddenly stopped making their regular radio checks. A quick-reaction team had already been dispatched to investigate, but the military had lost contact with those personnel as well. With both the original security team and the first response group apparently missing, another team was needed to enter the facility and determine what had happened.

The soldiers from Fort Bragg reportedly requested a map of the installation, including its entrances, exits, and internal layout. They also wanted to check the sights on their firearms before beginning the operation. However, they were informed that their regular weapons would not be necessary.

Nick Betts via Instagram

Instead, the men were allegedly issued unfamiliar weapons that did not use conventional magazines. Betts described them as high-energy weapons, although he could not explain precisely how they functioned or what technology they used. The source apparently gave no technical specifications that could identify the devices. Nevertheless, he claimed the soldiers were instructed to carry these weapons into the installation rather than rely on their usual firearms.

The team reportedly boarded a Black Hawk helicopter and traveled to the underground site’s entrance. Once inside, the soldiers descended through a tunnel before reaching a long hallway with a T-shaped intersection. The man remembered a strong smell resembling sewage or an old sewer system. As they moved farther into the structure, the passage eventually curved around in a horseshoe shape.

The source said the team was advancing through this section when the soldier positioned on the outside left of the formation was suddenly struck directly in the chest. The weapon used against him was reportedly similar to the unfamiliar equipment the soldiers had received before entering the facility. The impact allegedly killed him, and the remaining personnel immediately returned fire.

According to Betts, the attacker was described as a bipedal creature with a mildly reptilian appearance. It had recognizable fingers, walked upright, and was capable of handling the same type of weapon issued to the American soldiers. The team was reportedly told that three such beings were inside the facility, and the surviving soldiers eventually killed all three.

Betts said the description reminded him of the underground military facility depicted in the 1996 film Independence Day. The man reportedly claimed that even his previous experience inside highly secure government buildings had not prepared him for what he saw there.

Betts could not identify the creatures beyond the description supplied by his source. He did not know their origin, what they were doing inside the facility, or whether the military had encountered them before. The source also never gave him an exact number of soldiers involved in the operation. When asked about the team size during the podcast, Betts guessed that approximately six men had participated, but acknowledged that this was only his estimate.

The soldier’s body was then reportedly cremated almost immediately. According to the story, fellow servicemen objected because the deceased soldier was Catholic and they believed cremation went against his personal religious wishes. Although Catholic teaching permits cremation under certain conditions, the objection described by Betts concerned the wishes of the individual soldier. His colleagues were allegedly given little opportunity to challenge the decision.

The source further claimed that the soldier’s death was officially recorded as a training accident. If true, this would mean that the circumstances of his death were concealed not only from the public but potentially from his family. However, Betts did not identify the deceased soldier, provide a date for the operation, or produce a death record supporting the claim.

Before leaving the installation, the surviving soldiers were reportedly required to complete additional security procedures. Betts said they signed documents, had photographs taken of their identification cards, and underwent biometric screening involving their hands and irises. He did not explain whether these procedures were related to ordinary classified-program security, contamination concerns, or something else.

While the alleged operation was extraordinary, Betts admitted that the man telling the story had been drinking wine. He said the man was drunk but did not appear incoherent or incapable of recalling details. At the time, Betts and his Ranger friend were unsure what to make of the account. They had just heard a story involving secret underground facilities, unfamiliar weapons, dead American soldiers, and reptilian-looking creatures, but they had no way to check whether any of it had happened.

The following morning, according to Betts, the group was scheduled to meet in the hotel lobby at approximately 6 a.m. As Betts was heading downstairs, he encountered an older member of the team who had not been present during the previous night’s discussion.

Betts had been told that this older man served in the same squadron as the original storyteller and had participated in the alleged operation. Believing it was simply an unusual story shared among friends, Betts casually mentioned that their companion had suggested the older man knew something about aliens.

The reaction, he claimed, was immediate. The man stopped, grabbed Betts by the neck, and slammed him against a wall. He angrily warned Betts never to discuss the subject again and demanded to know who had told him about it. Betts said he was shocked because the same man had been friendly with him throughout their trip, and there had been no previous hostility between them.

Later that morning, Betts reportedly saw the two men arguing. The person who had originally shared the story then confronted Betts and demanded that he leave the country. According to Betts, neither man would speak to him afterward. He was eventually told to pack his belongings, and the documentary assignment came to an abrupt end.

Betts recalled going back to his hotel room, covering himself with bedsheets and pillows, and calling his wife to tell her he would be returning home earlier than expected. He said the incident cost him several weeks of paid work. He and his Ranger friend were subsequently taken to another location, which Betts described as a black site, before being driven to an airport and flown home from Poland.

On the flight, Betts asked his Ranger friend what he thought about everything that had happened. His friend reportedly advised him to stop discussing the subject. Betts said he might have dismissed the original story as something invented during a night of drinking if the older man had not reacted so aggressively the following morning.

There was another unexpected detail. Betts claimed that the man who threatened him later contacted him through Signal after he returned to the United States, apparently behaving as though their confrontation had never happened. During the podcast, Betts also admitted feeling nervous about discussing the incident publicly because the people involved could potentially recognize the circumstances, even though he had not named them.

Read also:

• Amy Eskridge Claimed Secret Space Program Members Thanked Her for a Machine She Never Built
• Woman Claims She Saw a LIVE Alien After UFO Crash, Then Military Men Tried to Erase Her Memory
• Grant Morrison Said ‘Aliens’ Took Him Outside Space-Time And Showed Him What Humans Really Are

This story became more interesting because of separate claims made by former US intelligence officer David Grusch. In July 2023, Grusch testified before Congress about allegations involving secret UAP retrieval and reverse-engineering programs. He said his knowledge came from interviews with people he believed were directly involved in those activities, although he had not personally witnessed the recovery of a non-human spacecraft.

Grusch made further claims during an August 2026 appearance on The Dr. Phil Podcast. He said he had personally viewed photographs and videos allegedly showing recovered craft and deceased non-human occupants. According to Grusch, the material had been shown to him by individuals associated with retrieval operations, although he had not personally handled the alleged vehicles or bodies.

Grusch also claimed that some non-human occupants had been recovered alive. He said he knew individuals who had experienced direct interactions with living beings during what he described as detention situations. When asked whether communication with these beings was possible, Grusch said some people reported experiencing a form of consciousness-based communication, something he acknowledged most people would describe as telepathy. He made clear that he had never personally experienced such communication himself.

During the same interview, Grusch estimated that more than 25 but fewer than 100 unusual vehicles had been recovered, while suggesting that some material may have ended up outside normal government control through private defense contractors. He also claimed to know historical locations where documentation, recovered materials, and alleged non-human bodies had been stored. None of this physical evidence was publicly presented during the interview.

It is also important that Betts’s podcast was published in December 2025, nearly ten months before Grusch’s September 2026 interview. This establishes that Betts publicly told his version first, but it does not prove that the accounts are independent of earlier UFO stories or that the men were describing the same event.

Reptilian-looking beings have appeared in other discussions surrounding UAP. In May 2025, theoretical physicist and former Pentagon contractor Dr. Eric W. Davis spoke at a public briefing attended by lawmakers and referred to reports of beings with reptilian appearances among several other alleged types. His comments concerned descriptions he said had come from sources, not biological specimens or physical evidence he presented for independent examination.

Disclaimer: David Grusch did not identify the incident described by Nick Betts as the same event, and neither account has been independently verified.

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Humanity receives mysterious 'mega-laser' signal from unknown source in deep space

• READ MORE: NASA astronaut says humanity is 'living a lie' after spending 178 days in space 

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Humanity has received a mysterious signal, described as a 'mega-laser' beam, from a violently merging galaxy more than 8 billion light-years away.

The signal, deemed the most distant hydroxyl megamaser ever detected, was intercepted by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, which features 64 antennas.

A hydroxyl megamaser is a giant natural laser in space. When galaxies full of gas collide, molecules called hydroxyl smash together and release very strong radio waves. 

These waves behave like a laser, but instead of visible light, they produce radio signals that astronomers can detect with telescopes.

Because these signals are extremely bright, they can be seen from very far across the universe. 

In this case, the object is so powerful that scientists said it may actually be a 'gigamaser,' which is even stronger than a megamaser. 

The system, called HATLAS J142935.3–002836, is so far away that we are seeing it as it looked more than 8 billion years ago, when the universe was less than half its current age. 

Dr Thato Manamela, SARAO-funded postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pretoria and lead author of the new study, said: 'This system is truly extraordinary. We are seeing the radio equivalent of a laser halfway across the universe.' 

Humanity has received a mysterious signal, described as a 'mega-laser' beam, from a violently merging galaxy more than 8 billion light-years away 

Manamela added that as the radio waves traveled toward Earth, they were also strengthened by a separate galaxy positioned directly along the line of sight. 

'This galaxy acts as a lens, the way a water droplet on a window pane would, because its mass curves the local space-time,' he said.

'So we have a radio laser passing through a cosmic telescope before being detected by the powerful MeerKAT radio telescope – all together enabling a wonderfully serendipitous discovery.' 

The radio signal contained four separate components, meaning it is coming from multiple regions within the galaxy system. 

At least two of these areas appear to be strongly magnified by gravitational lensing, which makes the signal more than ten times brighter than it would normally appear. 

In this case, a massive foreground galaxy sits between Earth and the distant system. 

Its gravity bends space-time and acts like a cosmic magnifying glass, boosting the brightness of the radio emission. 

This amplification allowed the signal to be detected by the MeerKAT radio telescope even though the source is over 8 billion light-years away. 

Pictured is the galaxy system where astronomers said is the source of the signal

The signal, deemed the most distant hydroxyl megamaser ever detected, was intercepted using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa (PICTURED), which consists of 64 antennas

Normally, signals from objects this far away are too weak for telescopes to detect. 

But the powerful radio signal coming from HATLAS J142935.3–002836 was boosted by a rare effect called gravitational lensing, a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein.

Gravitational lensing happens when a massive object, such as a galaxy, sits between Earth and a distant source. 

Its strong gravity bends space-time, which changes the path of the light or radio waves traveling through it. 

This makes the distant signal appear brighter and magnified, allowing telescopes like the MeerKAT radio telescope to detect it even from billions of light-years away.

From Earth, this effect can sometimes create a ring-shaped halo of light around the foreground object, called an Einstein ring, named after the famed physicist. 

The same effect also magnifies the distant source, in this case a radio or microwave signal, making it much easier for astronomers to study objects that would normally be too faint to detect. 

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Scientists detect mysterious radio signal in search of alien life

• READ MORE: I saw unreleased UFO files at a secret meeting in the Tennessee mountains. We prayed after seeing what these 'humanoid beings' did... the world is not prepared

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Scientists searching for alien life have picked up a mysterious radio signal.

A Chinese-led team detected it while testing new software on existing data from China’s FAST telescope, the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope.

The signal surfaced in observations of K2-155, a star system about 238 light-years from Earth that hosts three ‘super-Earths,’ including one near its star’s habitable zone

Named NBS 260108, it appeared as a steady radio tone concentrated around a single frequency.

Such narrowly focused signals are a key target in the search for alien technology, because natural cosmic processes rarely produce them while artificial transmitters often do.

The signal stood out because it appeared only in the telescope beam aimed at K2-155, with no corresponding detection in the other 18 beams.

Its frequency also shifted steadily over time, a pattern scientists examine when searching for transmissions from distant technology.

The researchers described the search as addressing ‘one of humanity’s oldest scientific questions - whether intelligent life exists beyond Earth.’

The signal (pictured) surfaced in observations of K2-155, a star system about 238 light-years from Earth that hosts three ‘super-Earths,’ including one near its star’s habitable zone

But spotting an unusual signal and establishing its source are separate challenges.

‘Candidate generation and candidate interpretation should remain separate,’ they wrote.

In other words, software can identify something worth investigating without establishing what produced it.

The team says future improvements could involve comparing the original recordings from all 19 telescope beams to help determine a signal’s position and motion.

Those additional checks could give researchers stronger evidence for distinguishing transmissions arriving from space from interference generated by human technology or equipment.

FAST’s enormous collecting surface makes it especially sensitive to faint radio signals. 

Built into a natural basin in southwestern China, its dish measures roughly 1,640 feet across and covers an area equivalent to about 30 soccer fields. 

That vast surface gathers weak radio waves from space, allowing researchers to detect signals that smaller telescopes might miss. 

A Chinese-led team detected it while testing new software on existing data from China’s FAST telescope, the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope

The new study, published in The Astronomical Journal, tested the software on FAST observations of 33 planetary systems collected in 2021.

Super-Earths are planets larger than Earth but smaller than ice giants such as Neptune and Uranus.

K2-155 was an intriguing target because its outer planet, K2-155d, lies near the star’s habitable zone, where conditions could allow liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface.

The planet is approximately 1.6 times Earth’s radius and completes an orbit around its star roughly every 40.7 days.

‘This system’s habitable-zone super-Earth made it an intriguing SETI [the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] target,’ the team wrote, referring to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

One light-year is approximately 5.88 trillion miles - the distance light travels in one year.

Rather than searching for biological clues, the researchers focused on radio transmissions that could indicate technology developed by an advanced civilization.

A distant transmitter’s motion relative to Earth can cause its signal’s frequency to shift over time, creating a drifting track in telescope data.

The signal gradually shifted to a lower radio frequency, like a station slowly moving down the dial. 

Its appearance in only one of FAST’s 19 receiver beams initially made it worth examining. That beam was aimed at K2-155, while the other 18 showed no corresponding detection.

On the researchers’ charts, it formed a thin, slightly slanted streak against the surrounding background. That streak traced how the signal’s frequency changed over time.

FAST recorded it through the receiver beam pointed at K2-155. The telescope’s other 18 beams, which monitored neighboring patches of sky simultaneously, showed no corresponding detection.

The signal also had a distinctive response in the telescope’s two polarization channels, which measure different orientations of radio waves.

It appeared strongly in the channel called YY but was absent from the other, XX. In YY, its signal-to-noise ratio was approximately 23, a measurement of how clearly it stood above the background noise. When the two channels were combined, that measurement was approximately 15.

The observation was part of a September 10, 2021, sequence that also included the stars K2-18, GJ-9066 and Ross 128.

Researchers found other narrow radio features at nearby frequencies during those observations, although their characteristics differed.

 The K2-18 feature was very weak, the GJ-9066 feature barely shifted in frequency, and the Ross 128 feature appeared at a slightly different frequency.

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North Atlantic's 'cold blob' may contain climate nuance

by Adam Smeltz, Pennsylvania State University  - edited by Robert Egan

The 965,000-square-mile area in the North Atlantic Ocean south and southeast of Greenland, the so-called cold blob, cooled by as much as 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century as other ocean waters warmed.  

Credit: NASA.

Climate observers have long tied the strength of a major ocean current to water temperatures in the so-called "cold blob" in the North Atlantic Ocean. The 965,000-square-mile (2.5 million square kilometers) area south and southeast of Greenland cooled by as much as 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century as other ocean waters warmed.

Some indicators signal that a sustained decline in water volumes in the current, known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), is a persistent cause of the blob's lower temperatures. The current's degradation began decades ago, a shift likely influenced by climate change that could reduce oceans' absorption of carbon dioxide and heat, according to a team led by researchers in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

But they cautioned that the link between AMOC and surface temperatures in the blob, also called the North Atlantic warming hole, is more irregular and complex than previously thought.

As published in the journal Nature Communications, the team found that the diminishing ocean current may impact the North Atlantic climate differently over time, with disparate phases in the relationship between AMOC strength and blob temperatures, said corresponding author Laifang Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science. The work builds on their finding in 2025 that radiation from the atmosphere helps depress water temperatures.

"With more field data and study, researchers can reduce uncertainty in models that anticipate temperatures and climate patterns in the North Atlantic," Li said, explaining that sustained ocean temperature readings via satellite and related monitoring would benefit this work. "If we can forecast better when these ocean temperatures will reach key thresholds, that will create a clearer picture of the time frame available to develop technology and mitigation policies addressing climate change."

Testing the cold blob connection

Climate researchers regard AMOC as a core piece of ocean circulation and heat transfer—a conveyor belt that moves warm surface water to the north and cold, more dense water to the south in the deep ocean. When the current slows down, the North Atlantic just south of Greenland and Iceland can cool as regions elsewhere warm up.

Common thinking—that a weaker AMOC drives the cold blob—implies the connection between ocean current and North Atlantic surface temperatures is constant over time, according to the researchers. But the assumption is shaky in part because AMOC observations stretch back only about two decades, limiting historical analyses, Li said.

To explore how other factors interact with water temperatures and ocean currents, the researchers made simulations that incorporated a variety of influences, such as greenhouse gases at different concentrations, and climate conditions representing past and present environments. The team analyzed simulations representing a large number of scenarios spanning decades to account for several phenomena: heat transfer within the ocean; heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere; and heat radiated from the air, including the effects of low clouds.

AMOC–North Atlantic SST relationship in model simulations.

Credit: Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-76149-4

Three phases of ocean cooling

The evaluation found that AMOC's cooling effect on ocean surface water splits into three phases. In simulations where the ocean current weakened from its greatest strength, surface temperatures slipped modestly. When the current weakened from a midrange strength, the surface temperature drop roughly tripled, with the cold blob growing to cover the subpolar basin.

But when the ocean current loses steam beginning from an already diminished state, the cooling effect fades and the cold blob shifts northeast toward Iceland and the Norwegian Sea, the analysis showed. The researchers pointed to variable impacts of heat radiation to and from the atmosphere, as well as reflections from low clouds, as contributing factors.

Once the ocean current weakens enough, the ocean will absorb more heat from the atmosphere and likely approach its capacity to buffer climate change, said Yifei Fan, lead author on the paper and doctoral candidate in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science.

"Climate models predict the ocean current will trend toward a weaker state in the future," Fan said. "This is concerning: If we cross the threshold into a new phase of ocean current behavior, how the North Atlantic uptakes heat will diverge from the AMOC patterns we know now. It would mean more uncertainty in the ocean surface temperatures, ocean currents and effects on climate and weather."

An uncertain timeline for the cold blob

In particular, modeling suggested AMOC will decline from its higher-strength phase today to its lowest-strength phase by the year 2100. Timing of the cold blob's most significant temperature shift could be as late as 2067, or it could have been as early as 2021, the researchers said.

Simulations also suggested earlier peaks in ocean temperature change would correspond to an earlier disappearance of the cool patch. The researchers emphasized that ocean temperatures alone don't prove ocean current activity, and that variation in those temperatures doesn't necessarily signal a collapse of AMOC. Some predictions suggest the current's prolonged demise could lead to chillier winters in North America and Europe.

"We're not saying that AMOC will vanish. We're setting a foundation to understand nuanced interactions among ocean surface temperatures, ocean currents and other environmental forces," Li said. "More study and sustained Earth system monitoring will inform more revealing assessments of changes in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system, such as the points when the ocean absorbs heat from the atmosphere and then releases that heat."

Future research should narrow predictions for the cold blob and help scientists forecast ice conditions in Greenland, which influence oceanic and atmospheric activity, according to Fan.

"By reducing the range of scenarios, we can establish higher confidence and less ambiguity in predicting North Atlantic climate change," Fan said.

RELATED

{ https://phys.org/ }

Cosmic rays could scar the heart, raising risks for Mars-bound astronauts, rat study hints

Rats that were exposed to radiation similar to what Mars-bound astronauts might face showed higher levels of scar tissue in their hearts, indicating they were more vulnerable to heart failure.

By Helena Kudiabor Edited byLaura Mondragón, Brandon Specktor

Exposure to space radiation may increase astronauts' risk of a dangerous heart condition, a new study in rats hints.

The research, published Sept. 30 in the journal PLOS One, found that rats exposed to levels of radiation similar to what an astronaut might experience on a long-term trip to Mars developed more scar tissue around the small blood vessels of their hearts than rats that were not exposed to this radiation. This scar tissue is indicative of a condition known as cardiac fibrosis, which is known to increase the risk of heart failure.

This scar tissue was observed nearly a year after the rats were first exposed to the radiation.

But since this study was in rats, it cannot definitively say whether this effect will play out in humans. For example, given that humans have a longer life expectancy than rats (80 years versus 2 to 4 years), the effects seen in rats may take around 30 years to show up in humans. However, the study authors say the research highlights the importance of following astronauts' health long after they return to Earth.

"The message that we try to convey … is that the follow-up time is really important," study co-author John Baker, a professor of surgery in the Radiation Bioscience Laboratory at the Medical College of Wisconsin, told Live Science. "When astronauts come back to the Earth, they expect ‪—‬ and we expect ‪—‬ that they're going to live for a long time. I think we have to be wary that they could well develop at least some type of cardiac disease."

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How space radiation affects the heart

The link between exposure to radiation and cardiac issues has been well documented. However, "no astronaut has ever been exposed to galactic cosmic radiation for long periods of time," Baker said, which makes it difficult to determine exactly how space radiation affects the heart.

Although Baker and his team previously pinpointed cardiac issues among rats exposed to radiation, this new study utilized NASA's Simulated Galactic Cosmic Ray Simulation (SimGCRSim). This new simulator provides a more precise comparison of the levels of space radiation an astronaut might experience while exploring deep space for more than a year.

During the study, the researchers exposed rats to several minutes of radiation proportionate to their size, similar to what they might experience on a trip to Mars and back (a roughly 18-month round trip, with current technology). Some of the rats' hind legs were suspended, to "simulate conditions of weightlessness," Baker said.

After 360 days, the rats that were exposed to cosmic radiation developed twice as much scar tissue around the heart's small blood vessels than unexposed rats. This buildup of scar tissue means "the heart can't relax to the point when it needs to," thereby increasing the risk of heart failure, Baker said.

This effect was not seen in the rats who were exposed only to simulated weightlessness, confirming "it was only the radiation that produced the damaging effect on the heart," Baker said. However, long-term testing revealed that this group of rats had lower levels of key immune cells, suggesting that microgravity also may affect aspects of long-term health. (Numerous studies have shown various short-term health impacts related to microgravity.)

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This study "is a very valuable contribution to space biology," Rupak Pathak, an associate professor of pharmaceutical science at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences who was not involved in the study but holds a doctorate in radiation biology, told Live Science. While rats and humans have clear differences, "they share more than 90% of genetic information," he said, as well as very similar cardiac systems.

Given that the study authors were able to expose the rats to radiation only once, Pathak would like to see further experiments exploring whether chronic radiation exposure affects the function of the heart and other vital organs.

Baker and his colleagues hope that future experiments can be used to help NASA implement safeguards for astronauts on long-term missions, such as providing astronauts heart medications or improving shielding for the spacecraft.

"The more we know before we start, then the better NASA is going to be at working out what types of countermeasures can be developed," said Baker.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration }

Will disclosure come from the sea? Newly released Catalina Island files raise UAP questions about alien life

UFO researcher and filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee believes newly released UAP files documenting unexplained sightings over California's Catalina Island could support the theory that answers about alien activity may lie beneath the ocean rather than in the skies.

UFO investigator Mark Christopher Lee

UFO researcher and filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee believes alien disclosure could come from what has been lurking under the sea.

Lee has highlighted recently released Department of War files from PURSUE Release 07 that document a cluster of UAP reports over Catalina Island, California, between 1949 and 1955.

Lee, who has made a series of documentary films about alien life, including The Rendlesham UFO: The British Roswell and The King of UFOs, argues these historical cases, combined with long-standing USO activity off the California coast, strengthen the case that meaningful disclosure may ultimately emerge from the ocean rather than the sky alone.

The Release 07 documents include Air Intelligence Information Reports and unresolved case files detailing silver "flying saucers" observed by Boy Scouts near Camp Fox in 1952, described as moving faster than a conventional jet before climbing and apparently disintegrating; a 1953 sighting of a round purplish-white object that remained stationary before heading northwest towards Los Angeles; and an earlier report of multiple objects seen singly over the island in 1949. The reports remain unexplained, although the 1953 file lists Jupiter as a possible explanation and the 1949 report states there was insufficient data for evaluation.

He said: "These Catalina files aren’t isolated curiosities. They sit in one of the most active stretches of water for USO reports on the planet. While the public focuses on the recent silent black triangle sightings, the older Catalina material points to something that has been operating in and around the ocean for decades. We’ve spent seventy years looking up. The real answers may be under the waves.”

Lee drew a direct connection to the ongoing work of retired US Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, former acting NOAA Administrator and Oceanographer of the Navy.

Gallaudet has publicly argued that some UAP activity involves transmedium craft operating in both air and water and has testified about the seriousness of the phenomenon. He has also described proprietary high-resolution bathymetric surveys in the Atlantic that a research team believes contain features corresponding to Plato's account of Atlantis. However, the location and underlying data have not been made public, and there has been no independent confirmation that the features are linked to Atlantis.

Lee continued: "Gallaudet brings institutional credibility to what many of us have argued for years: the ocean is not a side note in the UAP question - it may be central. If his team is mapping sites that align with ancient descriptions while the government is releasing decades-old Catalina reports that never got properly investigated, the two threads are pointing in the same direction. Disclosure might not arrive as a press conference about the sky. It might arrive when we finally start looking seriously at what’s under the water.”

Lee noted that previous AARO historical reviews found no confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial technology, and that the Catalina cases, like other unresolved UAP reports, remain subjects of uncertainty. AARO's 2024 historical report found no evidence that any US government investigation or official review had confirmed a UAP sighting represented extraterrestrial technology, while noting that many reports remained unresolved.

He has called for independent oceanographic and archival follow-up on the Catalina cluster, greater attention to USO data, and transparency around any government or private surveys of anomalous underwater features.

• The full PURSUE Release 07 files are available at war.gov/UFO.

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{ https://bangpremier.com/feeds/top-stories/MzQ0LDM0NQ== }

A visual representation of an unidentified flying object released by the FBI on Oct. 23, 2026, with a red circle annotation by Gizmodo

© FBI

Earlier this year, federal agents somewhere in the western U.S. observed a mysterious triangular aircraft hovering over an unnamed site that’s sensitive to national security, according to new documents released by the Pentagon. The matte black craft was completely silent and zipped around as fast as a fighter jet, according to a witness, who described it as “resembling a delta wing drone.”

The craft was estimated to be somewhere between 13 and 15 feet in wingspan with a 6-9 foot fuselage length, according to the Department of Defense document made public Friday. The vertical thickness of the craft was estimated to be, at most, just one or two feet, according to the Department of Defense.

“The unidentified craft maintained a completely fixed horizontal alignment [which] did not tilt, sway, or wobble during the controlled vertical ascent of approximately ten seconds,” the DOD report explains. “It climbed to an altitude of an estimated 200 to 300 feet above the local ridge line. Upon reaching this altitude, the craft instantaneously arrested all vertical motion and entered a stable hover for an estimated twenty seconds.”

The craft then “transitioned from a zero-velocity state directly into high-speed horizontal flight,” and managed to execute “a fluid banking maneuver and terrain-hugging descent into a canyon drainage in approximately two to three seconds.” The report notes that once the craft was banking, its “silhouette appeared to flatten and present as a more triangle.”

The FBI report on the incident includes nine images, which feature landscape photos and a black triangle that moves when they’re viewed together as though part of a flipbook. The report doesn’t indicate whether the images are authentic photos or artistic renditions.

Gizmodo ran the images through SynthID.com, which is used to detect invisible watermarks when an image is made with AI image tools from OpenAI and Google. The images did not contain the SynthID watermark, though they could have been made with a different company’s tools or made with basic Photoshop-style editing software.

“The two primary witnesses reported no physiological effects,” the report explains. “There were no reports of (but not limited to) disorientation, nausea, headache, dermal sensation, visual disturbance, memory gap, or other anomalous sensory phenomena. No anomalous odors were noted. No electromagnetic interference, signal degradation, or anomalous sensor readings were recorded on personal or agency equipment.”

The newly released reports are part of periodic Pentagon releases related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), more commonly known historically as UFOs. The first releases were broadly hyped, but they’ve rendered very few answers about the central question: Are these aircraft otherworldly or simply high-tech advancements from near-peer geopolitical adversaries like China?

RELATED

{ https://gizmodo.com/tech/transportation }

Steven Spielberg Thinks UFOs Might Just Be Humans Travelling Back From 500,000 Years In The Future

In his 2023 interview with Stephen Colbert, the filmmaker considered future humans returning to study their own history

Steven Spielberg discussed UFOs, extraterrestrial life and the possibility of future human visitors during the 2023 TV interview with Stephen Colbert

PHOTO Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Steven Spielberg speculated in a 2023 interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show that UFOs could be humans travelling back from 500,000 years in the future to study their own history.

The conversation addressed reports of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, in North American skies. The filmmaker expressed fascination with the sightings and concern about what he regarded as a lack of transparency surrounding them, calling for closer examination of what was happening.

At the time of the interview, Spielberg told Colbert he had never seen a UFO himself. His future humans theory was an imaginative possibility, rather than a claim that he had identified the objects or established evidence of time travel.

Steven Spielberg Imagines Visitors Studying Their Own Past

The filmmaker's suggestion recast the visitors as anthropologists. Instead of arriving from a distant civilisation elsewhere in the universe, they might be human descendants returning to examine the lives of earlier generations.

He imagined people from '500,000 years in the future' documenting the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century. In that scenario, objects recorded by military cameras would be connected to an investigation of humanity's own past.

'And they know something we don't quite know, yet, that has occurred, and they're trying to track the last hundred years of our history?' he told Colbert.

The proposed reason for returning was historical research. Spielberg's speculation also raised the possibility that those visitors would have knowledge unavailable to the people whose lives they were documenting.

Colbert drew attention to the optimistic implication of that explanation. Under Spielberg's theory, he observed, 'we survive'.

Spielberg qualified that optimism with the suggestion that 'a certain percentage of us survive that allows these other generations to flourish'.

Steven Spielberg Considers Life Beyond Earth

The director of E.T. and Close Encounters also expressed a broader conviction that intelligent life exists beyond Earth. He presented that belief alongside a difficulty he saw in explaining how visitors could cross the distances involved.

'I don't believe we're alone in the universe. I think it's mathematically impossible that we are the only intelligent species in the cosmos. I think that's totally impossible'.

He described a visit from 400 million light-years away as seemingly impossible outside films, unless travellers could find a way to reach Earth through wormholes. Both the distance and the proposed means of crossing it formed part of his speculation.

Spielberg qualified his authority on the subject, telling Colbert, 'I'm not an astrophysicist'.

He approached the discussion as a filmmaker employing his imagination and as someone curious about UFOs. His interest extended beyond the objects themselves to questions about what information had been disclosed.

'I think what has been coming up recently is fascinating, just absolutely fascinating', Spielberg told Colbert.

He called for extraordinary due diligence over the sightings and criticised what he regarded as secrecy surrounding them. Those comments expressed his concerns about disclosure, rather than establishing an explanation for the phenomena.

Steven Spielberg Favours Curiosity Over an Alien Attack

Colbert also framed the discussion through two of Spielberg's films, questioning whether an encounter with extraterrestrial visitors would more closely resemble E.T. or War of the Worlds.

Spielberg favoured the less hostile possibility. His reasoning concerned the motives he imagined for a civilisation capable of reaching Earth, rather than any established account of alien visitors.

'I believe that if any extraterrestrial civilisation has journeyed all the way here its because of curiosity and science and its not about aggression'.

He extended that reasoning to the restraint he imagined such visitors would have exercised.

'And the fact they've been this patient with us and haven't turned the Earth into a burnt-out cinder is extraordinary – you have to applaud them'.

{ https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/world }

Democrats Reportedly Prepare UFO Disclosure Committee Because Whistleblowers Do Not 'Trust Another President'

Indiana Congressman Andre Carson says a key historical UAP report has been delayed for almost two years, though the proposed panel remains conditional and its scope is unclear

Indiana congressman Andre Carson has questioned delayed UAP records, as Democrats reportedly consider a select committee if they win the US House 

PHOTO US Congress/Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Democrats are weighing the creation of a UFO disclosure committee in the US House of Representatives if they regain control in the midterm elections, amid claims a key Pentagon report on historical sightings has been held back for almost two years.

Indiana congressman Andre Carson is leading the reported push, arguing that federal records on unidentified anomalous phenomena are overdue for release.

Carson chaired a congressional hearing on unidentified flying objects in 2022. He now argues that efforts to obtain information about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, have fallen short of requirements already established by Congress. The proposal remains conditional rather than a formally announced committee.

UFO Disclosure Push Focuses on a Delayed Pentagon Report

Carson has singled out a historical records report from the Department of Defense's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which handles UAP reporting and investigations. He claims the document has been delayed for almost two years, despite legislative requirements intended to improve scrutiny of the subject.

'Unfortunately, the current administration has not been fully transparent on UAP and has slow walked several of the statutory requirements Congress established for UAP disclosure. For example, the Department of Defense's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office was established to receive, analyze, and resolve UAP reporting — but it has delayed the release of a key historical UAP record report for almost two years.'

The Indiana Democrat told the Post that the material should address historical sightings, the way incidents were examined and the possible involvement of classified programmes. One question is whether relevant activities were properly communicated to lawmakers, rather than remaining outside congressional oversight.

He described its intended scope as including 'how incidents were investigated, the role of classified programs, and whether relevant activities were appropriately disclosed to Congress.'

Carson did not identify the report by title or specify the deadlines he believes officials missed. Those omissions leave the precise document and the timing of its expected release unclear.

UFO Disclosure Plans Could Sharpen Party Rivalry

Although the proposed panel would depend on Democrats taking control of the House, interest in UAP records is not confined to one party. President Donald Trump has also directed federal agencies, including NASA, to identify and release government files relating to UFOs.

The Post cited unnamed Republican insiders who fear a Democratic select committee could take political credit for disclosures that might otherwise be associated with the Trump administration. Their concern relates to which political figures would oversee and announce any release, not proof that the records contain evidence of extraterrestrial activity.

A caucus and a select committee would also be different initiatives. The reported proposal includes both, but the available account does not establish their membership, formal powers or a schedule for setting them up.

UFO Disclosure Concerns Extend to the Next President

David Grusch, who has appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast, has raised a different concern about the timing. He fears a future president may be less willing to allow the release of information, expressing the view, 'I don't trust another president'.

That is distinct from Carson's stated objection to delays under the current administration. Neither concern establishes what any unreleased document contains, or whether a change in congressional control would compel its publication.

Rogan also questioned the timing of UFO disclosures in May, suggesting that renewed attention to the subject could distract from criticism surrounding the Iran War. His suspicion was not presented with evidence linking any disclosure decision to military events.

For now, Carson's proposed congressional effort depends on an electoral outcome, while the historical report at the centre of his complaint has not been identified by name or accompanied by a confirmed publication date.

{ https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/world }

Democrats plan UFO disclosure committee as Trump trust wanes

Locked in a big game of disclosure chess.

Blue and red chess pieces locked in UAP disclosure checkmate.

Image by Cybernews.

Marcus Walsh  - Journalist

Key takeaways

1. Democrats have drafted a plan for a House UAP committee if they regain Congress.
2. Andre Carson says the current administration has delayed legal requirements for UAP disclosure.
3. David Grusch argues UFO disclosure should not depend on one president.
4. Reddit users questioned whether either party would deliver faster UFO transparency.

A UFO flying through the cosmos.

Image by Cybernews.

{ https://cybernews.com/ }

Number of mysterious drones flying over defence bases rises as authorities in the dark

Yashee Sharma

Authorities are in the dark about who is behind the major jump in the number of unidentified drones flying over Australian Defence Force bases in what has been described as a national security threat.

Defence officials told a Senate committee the reports of unidentified drone sightings over bases have risen from 19 in 2022-23 to 204 in 2025-26.

Classic Hornets take of at Williamtown RAAF base for operation in 2014. Several unidentified drones breached the base’s airspace earlier this year.

Ryan Osland

These added to a total of about 420 sightings over the past four financial years.

In the financial year to date, which started on July 1, there has already been 42 reports.

Asked how many of the incidents were just “a silly teenager” and how many were foreign interference or espionage, the defence officials were unable to say.

“I can say we’re working really closely on the motivations,” the official said.

“We haven’t identified particular high-end concerns but we are very concerned that this is a growing challenge.”

Australian Strategic Policy Institute defence expert Malcolm Davis said the rising number of unidentified drones was “absolutely” a national security threat.

“The risk is there’s not so much some amateur flying a drone over a base creating an incident,” he said.

“It’s the possibility that you could have a foreign adversary or a terrorist organisation utilising drones to actually attack one of our bases.”

The Williamtown RAAF Base, home to fighter jets and aircraft about 30km north of Newcastle in NSW, made headlines after unidentified drones were found to have breached the restricted airspace on two separate occasions in July and August.

Defence personnel did not shoot the drones down and investigations are still ongoing to determine their origins.

Defence officials flagged the current legal framework was “not straightforward” about their powers in responding to these incidents.

Davis said the incident showed how easy it could have been to damage aircraft and infrastructure and pointed to Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb.

The covert military operation had caused damage to multimillion-dollar Russian military assets after cheap drones were unleashed in a surprise attack in July 2025.

“Drones are cheap. They can be armed with explosives. They can do real damage,” Davis said.

At the time of the Williamtown base incident, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was “unsafe and dangerous” to have drones around defence airspace.

While small and relatively cheap, drones can cause significant damage and have become a defining feature of the war in Ukraine. 

AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

“It makes no sense for that to occur,” he said.

Legislation to grant defence members the ability to shoot down any unidentified drones was introduced in October.

Shadow defence minister James Paterson said it should not have taken so many months of pressure for the federal government to finally act and bring forward those reforms.

“The Coalition has been raising the alarm on drone attacks on our major defence infrastructure for many months, particularly our RAAF bases,” he said.

Australia will spend a record $425 billion over the next decade to overhaul the defence force.

About $22 billion has been spent on counter-drone technology and $7 billion on counter-drone investment over the decade.

Davis called on the federal government to fast-track its investment into counter-drone defences.

“At the , I think that we’re only just starting to wake up to this threat and the government is moving way too slowly to remomentspond to this threat,” he said.

“We don’t have 10 years to think about a capability solution and then buy it. We’ve got to get this in place within 12 months.”

In a statement, an Australian government spokesperson said “modern threats demand modern laws”.

“Protecting Defence personnel, critical infrastructure and sensitive capabilities has never been more important.

“The legislation builds on the Albanese government’s previous regulatory changes and provides Defence with enduring authority to respond to drone incursions.

“Defence must be able to protect its people, bases and capabilities against a range of rapidly evolving threats.”

US SECURITY ALERT | Unidentified Drones Detected Over US Army Base Near Top Officials’ Residence

{ https://www.nine.com.au/topic/defence-5w8 }

Ariyuanhas & Adrieiuous — The Alleged Pleiadian Prisoner Photographs — United States — 1972

Ariyuanhas & Adrieiuous — United States — 1972

In 2010, YouTube user startraveler2000 uploaded a video titled “real human aliens” showing a series of photographs said to depict two human-looking extraterrestrials named Ariyuanhas and Adrieiuous.

The pair were described as a woman and her son from the Pleiades who had allegedly been taken into United States military custody in 1972.

The photographs were describeed as being taken by a military intake specialist.

Ariyuanhas was identified as the adult woman shown throughout the photographs. According to the account, she was between 78 and 100 years old in Earth years, although she appeared to be approximately 30.

She was described as having very light blue eyes, large pupils and slightly pointed ears. Material associated with the case identified her as a scientist and gave her origin as the Pleiades constellation.

The story stated that Ariyuanhas and her son had arrived on Earth after their spacecraft made an emergency landing while they were searching for Adrieiuous’ father. The pair were allegedly intercepted by the United States military and taken to a secret facility, where they were held separately.

During her confinement, Ariyuanhas reportedly stopped speaking and eating, although she continued to drink water. She allegedly did not request to see her son because the two were capable of communicating telepathically.

The inscribed text box reads:

SPECIES: HUMAN/CELEST
GENDER: FEMALE
STATS: 7FT-3IN/143LBS/BLUE EYES/
AGE: 78-100
LOCATION: BLOCK 9, CELL 16, BLK-SPY
ORIGIN: PLEIADES CONSTELLATION
THREAT LEVEL: NON THREATENING
LANGUAGE: NON VERBAL COMM
TITLE: SCIENCE
DATE OF CUSTODY: 05121972
CRAFT: MURCURY/STA-ELECT/DISK
REG NUMBER: 5127209016

The Arm Markings

One of the most distinctive elements in the surviving material is a series of dark markings visible across Ariyuanhas’ left forearm.

According to the accompanying account, the symbols represented a constellation of stars.

Adrieiuous

Adrieiuous was identified as Ariyuanhas’ son and appears separately in the surviving photographs.

He was described as being between 19 and 28 years old, despite physically resembling a boy of approximately eight to ten. Unlike his mother, Adrieiuous reportedly spoke with guards, ate food and participated in testing.

The story claimed that an intelligence test produced a score of approximately 210.

The pair were said to have remained in custody for approximately two years before eventually being permitted to leave in their spacecraft.

The inscribed text box reads:

SPECIES: HUMAN/CELEST
GENDER: MALE
STATS: 5FT-11IN, 89LBS, BLUE EYES
AGE: 19-28
LOCATION: BLOCK 9, CELL 15, BLK SPY

Detention Information

A custody date of 05.12.1972 was associated with the case. The surviving material does not establish whether this was intended as May 12 or December 5, 1972.

A later summary of the same account listed Ariyuanhas as approximately 2.22 meters tall, with blue eyes and an apparent age in her early thirties, while Adrieiuous was listed as approximately 1.56 meters tall and physically resembling an eight- to ten-year-old child. The same summary repeated the claim that the two had been held separately and communicated telepathically.

Provenance

The earliest source currently located for the photographs is the YouTube video “real human aliens,” uploaded by startraveler2000.

No identified photographer, original negatives, military archive, authenticated detention records or earlier publication of the photographs has been located.

The identities of the people shown in the photographs remain unverified.

{ https://alienarchivist.substack.com/ }

Steven Greer’s CE-5 Alien Photographs — Andromedan Ambassador “Bijou,” the Light Being, the Mt. Shasta Being & the Healer — 2009–2017

Steven Greer

Steven M. Greer is an American physician and UFO researcher who founded the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) in 1990. He later established the Disclosure Project, focused on testimony concerning UFOs and alleged extraterrestrial activity.

Greer also developed the CE-5 contact protocols, intended to facilitate human-initiated contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. During CSETI and CE-5 expeditions, Greer and members of his groups have produced several photographs claimed to show extraterrestrial beings.

Bijou — November 17, 2009

During a CSETI expedition at Joshua Tree National Park, California, on November 17, 2009, CSETI member Raven Nabulsi photographed an area beside the group’s chairs at approximately 11:31 p.m.

CSETI released the photograph publicly in 2010, describing the figure as an extraterrestrial being encountered during the contact event.

The original account did not identify the figure as Bijou or describe it as Andromedan. Greer later presented the same figure as “Bijou,” an ambassador from the Andromeda Galaxy.

The Light Being — February 2010

In February 2010, CSETI member Emery Smith photographed a small luminous humanoid-shaped figure during a contact event at Boca Grande, Florida. The image became known as the “Light Being” and was also catalogued in Greer’s archive as a “Crystalline ET.”

The photograph was subsequently included among the CE-5 and extraterrestrial photographs presented through Greer’s organization.

The Mt. Shasta Being — 2011

Another alleged entity photograph was presented by Greer from a CE-5 event at Mt. Shasta, California, in 2011.

Greer later displayed the photograph while discussing alleged extraterrestrial contact during CE-5 events.

The surviving presentation identifies the location and year as Mt. Shasta, California — 2011. The photographer is not identified in the source material currently located.

The Healer — May 2017

A third alleged entity was photographed by David Marconi, the screenwriter and director known for writing Enemy of the State, during a CE-5 expedition near Oracle, Arizona, held from May 23–29, 2017.

According to Greer, Marconi had a Nikon camera mounted on a tripod when the group noticed what appeared to be a red orb near an older man seated in the contact circle. Greer asked Marconi to photograph the area.

Greer described the figure as having a large head, a beak-like nose and mouth, and what appeared to be a feathery garment. He said members of the group had heard the entity moving behind them despite not seeing it with the naked eye.

Greer referred to the entity as “The Healer,” stating that it had allegedly appeared during other encounters. He also claimed that the older man photographed beside it had suffered severe hearing loss since his youth and awoke the following morning with his hearing restored

Sources

• Steven Greer — Joshua Tree, November 17, 2009
• Steven Greer — CSETI Contact with ET Being, June 2010
• Steven Greer — Light Being, Boca Grande, February 2010
• CE5 Podcast — Raven Nabulsi
• Steven Greer interview — The Healer account

{ https://alienarchivist.substack.com/ }

Salt on Ceres.

Source: phys.org

The Mystery of Salt Deposits on the Dwarf Planet

Two researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) may have brought us closer to understanding the connection between water-ice activity on Ceres and its surface salt deposits. In findings published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the scientists presented evidence that previous estimates of the amount of salt in deposits observed by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which explored Ceres from 2015 to 2018, may have been inaccurate. The study is reported by phys.org.

Ceres is perhaps one of the most overlooked and underappreciated planetary bodies in the Solar System. This may be because, although Ceres has the same dwarf-planet status as Pluto, it is mostly regarded as an asteroid because it lies in the main asteroid belt. Yet Ceres is not only the largest object in the main asteroid belt; it also accounts for 25–30% of the belt’s total mass.

Although this has yet to gain recognition, Ceres has a layered interior, like most rocky worlds, including Pluto. Its surface also shows signs of past water-ice activity, known as cryovolcanism, in the form of several “bright spots”—highly reflective salt deposits. But what can these deposits tell scientists about Ceres’s formation and evolution?

Ceres Has More Salt Deposits Than It Appears

For the study, the scientists combined Dawn spacecraft data with a series of computer models to investigate the evolution of water-ice and salt deposits on Ceres’s surface. Their main goal was to bridge a longstanding gap between observations of these surface deposits and the processes actually taking place. Specifically, the study focused on how salt deposits form as water ice turns directly into vapor—a process scientifically known as sublimation—and whether Dawn’s data provide accurate estimates of the amounts of water ice and salt.

The researchers ultimately concluded that salt deposits may be concealed beneath layers of water ice with which they are mixed. The amount of salt could be 30–50% greater than previously estimated. They also found that landslides expose larger areas of surface ice, which then sublimates, leaving behind the bright, salty patches observed by Dawn. Some of the water-ice deposits detected by the spacecraft may therefore have been recently exposed by landslides.

A Model of Salty-Ice Segregation on Ceres

We've even seen some crazy ideas that the spots are actually electricity:

Or maybe they're just good old fashioned aliens:

NASA officials admit they have no idea what the spots are. Guesses have ranged from volcanoes to ice plumes to salt deposits. In the meantime NASA put together a poll where you can vote on what you think the weird bright spots are.

Soon, though, Dawn will get some real answers.

The strange bright spots on Ceres.  

NASA

Last year astronomers at the European Space Agency peered at Ceres with the Herschel telescope and determined that the planet is actually surrounded by a thin layer of water vapor. That means that Ceres may hold ice water beneath its surface, and lends some support to the idea that those weird bright spots are actually light reflecting off ice plumes.

{https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

Today, this massive feature, known as the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC), is better understood thanks to decades of study by NASA, as well as its international partners like the European Space Agency and its Mars Express spacecraft.

Yet much about the cloud remains mysterious. Although researchers have learned more about its unusual behavior, recent findings suggest that the conditions responsible for its formation may differ significantly from those involved in conventional cloud formation.

Mystery at Arsia Mons

Appearing over Arsia Mons, one of the Red Planet’s massive volcanoes, the unusual cloud is typically seen during the Martian spring and summer seasons and is most prominent in the morning hours.

The cloud mainly consists of water ice crystals, which the warm seasonal winds carry across long distances, resulting in a lengthy cloud that stretches more than 900 miles across the planet’s surface.

Still, many questions remain about how this remarkable feature develops. On Earth, water vapor typically condenses or freezes onto microscopic airborne particles, including dust, allowing cloud droplets and ice crystals to form.

However, the Martian atmosphere is extremely thin, and conditions at the high altitudes where the Arsia Mons cloud forms may not provide enough dust particles to support the same process. Because of this, it remains unclear whether similar processes that lead to cloud formation on Earth could be occurring on Mars, or if something entirely different causes the massive Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud to form.

Possible Answers to a Longstanding Mystery

Based on recent research, scientists now believe the Arsia Mons cloud could form, resulting from a process that does not rely on dust particles, which would normally be responsible for similar formations when they occur on Earth.

If this is correct, it potentially reveals previously unrecognized aspects of cloud formation in planetary atmospheres—a phenomenon that might gain additional confirmation from future observations of cloud formation in planetary atmospheres that are thinner than Earth’s.

Ultimately, unraveling the mystery of the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud could help scientists refine their understanding of atmospheric processes not only on Mars, but potentially here on Earth as well.

• 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.co

Scientists have explained the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, a recurring 1,800 km plume that forms each Martian morning during the southern summer. Using Mars Express Orbiter data and atmospheric modeling, they found it results from homogeneous nucleation of ice crystals in super-saturated water vapor interacting with volcanic slopes. The discovery advances understanding of Martian weather and water movement, offering insights for future exploration.

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