The Reigate UFO Incident – Classified Films And Radar Confirmation

Written by: Marcus Lowth  Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes 

Although it is little spoken of today, in March 1988 came a UFO sighting that not only had multiple witnesses but was confirmed on the radar systems at Gatwick Airport. Furthermore, motorway security CCTV cameras would capture almost forty minutes of the incident on video. It would appear to UFO investigators that video evidence of alien crafts was finally at hand.

However, the film was quickly classified, and perhaps would have remained secret had it not been for the leaking of several still frames from the footage by one of the UFO Investigators involved with the case. Just what did happen that evening over the M25 just outside of London? And did the incident share a connection to the several other UFO sightings of the early months of 1988?

It certainly seems that whatever did take place that evening in the south of England, it was of apparent importance to those in high-ranking positions. And, as we will examine shortly, continues to remain so even today.

“An Ominous Presence That Shouldn’t Have Been There!”

On the evening of 4^th March 1988, at a little after 9 pm, call after call would come into the emergency switchboard operators regarding strange and mysterious lights hovering in the sky over the M25 motorway, near Reigate, London.

Three police officers would respond to one of the calls – that of Joe Clarke. When they did, far from expecting to discover anything of significance, one would ask upon arriving “where are the little green men?”. However, they would see the strange objects with their own eyes shortly after.

Clarke had first noticed the objects at just after 7pm after going into his garden. His wife and daughter had actually told him an hour previously of “two parallel lights approaching” but he paid little attention. He telephoned several relatives around different areas of London and they too could all see the strange anomalies.

He would go on to tell the 10^th March edition of the Reigate and Redhill newspaper:

It was so strange. It was an ominous presence because it was something that should not have been there!

Clarke would estimate the object to be around 100 to 200 feet across and at an altitude of around 2,000 feet.

The police would begin to request reports from local airports, most notably, Heathrow and Gatwick. Unbelievably, radar controllers at the latter would claim they did indeed have “something strange on the screen we can’t account for”. Further requests for reports of other sightings would reveal that residents as far as Watford and Wimbledon had also made reports.

The Clarke family would continue to watch the strange objects for around an hour after the officers left. The mysterious glowing objects then calmly left. That the incident had multiple witnesses was not lost on UFO investigators. Nor was the video footage.

Refusal By Police To Release Footage Of UFOs!

In fact, according to reports quickly circulating in the local press at the time, the whole incident was indeed captured on the motorway security cameras. However, Hertfordshire police, while not denying the incident, were quick to state they would not release the footage to the public.

Chief Inspector, Chris Partridge would state to the 10^th March edition of the Watford and West Herts Review newspaper that:

There were several bright lights seen in the sky which we have not been able to explan…Two light were moving and two were stationary. We had a police car in the area and we trained a camera into the sky. But the tapes will stay in our record. We have made every effort to find out what it was, but haven’t come up with anything. And it didn’t cause any difficulties in the area!

This would frustrate UFO investigators who had picked up on the case. It would also create an air of suspicion due to the refusal to release would could be evidence of intelligence behind the UFO phenomena.

According to Gordon Creighton, (at the time) editor of Flying Saucer Review magazine, the police and, in turn, the government have many such sightings but have “a policy” of withholding them from the public. As we will see shortly, several photographs would eventually find their way into the public arena. Albeit, through unofficial channels.

However, rather than go away, another witness would come forward with their account of the incident. And furthermore, other sightings would also later come to light.

The Carpenders Park Witness – “I Have Never Seen Anything Like It!”

In the Carpenders Park area of Watford, 54-year-old, Daphne Knapp, would report witnessing a “long object”, perhaps 20 meters, hovering in the sky on the evening of 4^th March. What’s more, the incident occurred within the same time-frame as the one witnessed by the Clarke family.

She would recall how it had a low humming sound as it came closer to her

Knapp would also speak to the Watford and West Herts Review newspaper, in their 17^th March edition:

(I) saw this shining green object coming down towards me just in front of the houses…It was flat-bottomed with two red lights on the rear end, there were not flashing like an aircraft’s lights. I have never seen anything like it and I wish I had had a film in my camera!

When UFO researchers went to interview Knapp, they would find her to be a largely credible witness. And what’s more, she would offer her information with accuracy and confidence. She would describe the craft as “boat-like”, even down to how it “sailed” through the air above her. Creighton would go on to state he found her statement to be “one of the most convincing” he had ever heard.

However, despite the two separate witnesses, both of whom gave detailed reports, not to mention the police presence at one of the sightings and the security camera footage to boot, the whole case was about to be dealt a blow in terms of further investigation.

An Effort To Shape Public Opinion Via The Local Press Media?

While the Watford and West Herts Review newspaper had treated the story with respect, not sensationalizing, but certainly not dismissing the accounts, another local newspaper, one perceived, rightly or wrongly to be better or more “senior” of the two main papers, the Watford Observer would immediately dismiss the claims as “pie in the sky”.

Some UFO researchers remain suspicious of just why their editors and/or owners were so apparently eager to take this stance. Even a quick look at their wording, according to some, is evidence of a downplaying of the incident.

For example, in one of their reports referring to the police video, they claimed that “the video which had captured the light” remained unreleased. Instead of three lights, or even several lights, it has now suddenly changed to a single light.

Ultimately, the same publication would less than a week later declare that the incident – again described as the light was “simply a planet – probably Venus”. According to them, the whole incident was done with and explained. Whether this angle taken by the newspaper was a purposeful one at the request of a third party, while pure speculation, is open to debate for some.

One such researcher, the aforementioned Gordon Creighton, wrote several letters to the newspaper pointing out that he not only had witnessed the video tape for himself, but he had several still-frames of them, and in short highlighting the inaccuracies of their reporting. They didn’t respond. You can see a close-up of one of those pictures below.

An “Impeccable Record” For “Obeying Instructions” On UFO Dismissal?

Perhaps Creighton is correct in his assertion of the shaping of public opinion about potential sightings. For example, and particularly if there is substantial UFO activity in the region in question, Creighton offers that it would be “interesting” to investigate the Watford Observer’s apparent “impeccable record” in their “obeying of instructions” and so playing down and dismissing UFO activity reports.

Creighton would go on to highlight a case that took place in the same area six years later in late-December 1993. According to the UFO investigator, that evening on 28^th December, a “professional lady in the medical field” and her fiancé witnessed a large, spherical craft hovering in the air. In fact, it appeared to be directly above the NATO headquarters.

The couple would make several reports to the newspaper in question. However, not only did they not publish her account, they wouldn’t even do an investigation into the sighting.

They would, though, run a story shortly after her account about a “local couple who saw one of Richard Branson’s little airships” flying over Rickmansworth. And how they thought it was “a UFO”. Without even acknowledging the witnesses sighting, or her professional background (which would lend credibility to the incident), they managed to dismiss the incident to the point that any other residents who may have witnessed something strange that evening, will pay it no further attention.

This notion will likely border on the ridiculous for some. The power of local press, however, particularly at the time is further reaching than we might think. Particularly in the London boroughs and regions. There is certainly no proof of “arrangements” with unknown parties to take such a stance. It isn’t, however, that much of a stretch of the imagination to think it possible.

Disturbing Developments

There were, however, too many witnesses to the incident for this account to remain completely buried away. Multiple people would contact such publications as Flying Saucer Review to report their accounts of the incident.

Through these accounts, a timeline would show that after hovering close to Gatwick Airport for several hours, the lights (numbers vary with sightings reporting between three and six lights) calmly moving away in the direction of Watford. This would match the account of Daphne Knapp of the “boat-like” craft traveling over her.

The story would soon find its way into the Surrey Mirror Reigate and Redhill under the headline:

MYSTERY IN THE SKY – UFO SIGHTING CONFIRMED BY GATWICK RADAR!

However, almost a decade later, Creighton would perform a review of sorts of the case. He would make some remarkable if chilling discoveries. For example, the writer of the Surrey Mirror article (Christine Milne) had according to the paper when Creighton attempted to speak with her “left them years ago”. And they had “no idea where she is now”.

Perhaps even stranger, he would discover much the same when he made attempts to track down Joe Clarke. Clarke was caretaker at East Surrey College School of Art at the time of the sighting. However, the college would respond simply by stating “he no longer worked for them”. They would, though, promise to forward on his details to their former employee.

Several months went by, finally prompting Creighton to send a follow-up letter to the principal of the college. Again, a wait of several months would follow. Until finally, one morning, a letter from the college arrived with the UFO investigator.

Despite their initial statement, the college claimed “they can find no trace of Mr. Joe Clarke ever having been employed by East Surrey College”.

Why The Need To Cover-Up A “Non-Sighting” Incident?

Given the above, it would certainly appear that the Reigate sighting is important. It also appears the incident was downplayed and even ignored as much as possible by official channels. This, to some, raised suspicions of some kind of inside knowledge.

Might these craft be of a terrestrial origin in the form of top-secret military aircraft? Would that, for example, explain the secrecy? Or is it more likely, if this was the case, that such channels would simply state it was military concern?

So, if it isn’t a military aircraft, are we then to assume that the craft was extraterrestrial in origin? And if so, should we accept that the police are also aware of this? Are they perhaps under instruction to dismiss such cases for fear of causing public panic? Or might there be more involvement between such authorities and these mysterious visitors than most of us dare even imagine?

It might be easy, despite the multiple witnesses and even the radar confirmation, to simply dismiss the incident as a strange, albeit unexplained anomaly. If, that is, it wasn’t for several other similar sightings in the United Kingdom throughout the early months of 1988.

Other Early-1988 Sightings With Police Witnesses

One of the first sightings would unfold (relatively) nearby. In the district of Kensington shortly before midnight on the 2^nd January. A young girl claimed to see a strange object hovering over the family’s garden. A report to police would result in an officer attending the property. Much like the incident in March, the officer would witness the object for himself.

So shocked was the officer he would request back-up to also view the sighting. In total, seven more police officers would arrive at the Kensington home. And all would see the strange object. The sighting appeared in both regional and national newspapers.

At the end of the month on the 31^st January, a police officer would witness a “bright stationary UFO” hovering over Manchester Airport just after 6 am. Less than a week later on 6^th February, following a report from the public, five police officers would witness a “green, yellow, and blue” flashing UFO hovering over Telford town center.

Just after 9 pm on the 16^th February, two police officers would even go on the record. They would witness a strange object in the skies over Staffordshire. Stuart Griffiths and Michael Powell would report the sighting to their superiors. Who, in turn, would report to the Ministry of Defense.

Griffiths would state about the incident:

There were red and green lights all around its circumference. Which were either flashing on and off, or the whole thing was spinning!

Incidentally, and a detail that surfaces in multiple close encounter UFO sightings, was that Griffiths would also state the strange craft was completely silent. Furthermore, on the same evening and at the same time, two other police officers, Steve Goodwin and Roger Clarke, would also witness what would appear to be the same object.

Sightings Further North During The Same Period!

The London skies would certainly appear to take the brunt of the sightings during the first few months of 1988. However, several sightings, also with police as the main witnesses, would occur further north around Manchester, Sheffield, and Stockport.

For example, in January, police officers, David Tingle and Chris Thompson were driving back from patrols around the Derbyshire Peak District. It was just before midnight when the two officers witnessed a bright object in the night skies for around thirty seconds. It would soon come to light that several members of the public would also witness the glowing craft.

Several weeks later in early-February, in the Ecclesfield area of Sheffield, two police officers would witness a “bright red V-shaped object” cut through the night skies above. One of the officers, Susan Jackson, would exit her police vehicle in order to view the strange craft clearer. She would state:

I had the car engine running but could still hear it whirring above. It had rows and rows of flashing red lights all around it!

At a different location, and aware of the sighting due to the police radio networks, another officer, John Boam, would also witness the same-shaped object. It would hover for thirty seconds before moving away from his location.

Around the same time as the Ecclesfield sighting, on the 1^st February, at just after 6 am, police officers, Ian Walmsley and Chris Evans, witnessed a “spinning UFO” hovering over Cheadle in Stockport. The officers would report the sighting to the Manchester Police Headquarters. However, the response was it was merely a “Tristar aircraft”. The officers, at least privately, would reject this explanation. They would state they had “never seen anything like it before”.

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10-02-2019 om 22:04 geschreven door peter

The Zamora Incident – UFO Landing At Socorro – A Case Study

Written by: Marcus Lowth  Estimated Reading Time: 17 minutes

Despite more “rational” explanations, as well as alleged debunkers suggesting the sighting was a hoax to attract visitors to an otherwise sleepy area of New Mexico, the apparent UFO landing witnessed by police officer, Lonnie Zamora remains one of the most credible encounters on record. And one that still holds much fascination with UFO researchers and investigators, even today over fifty years later.

There is certainly an abundance of information available on the case. Three separate agencies would investigate it, including the US Army and the FBI, as well as the US Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigators. In fact, such was, and still is, the mystery surrounding the incident, that one of the Blue Book investigators and previously skeptical of such reports, J Allen Hynek would completely alter his thinking on the issue.

To many UFO researchers, the Zamora incident is not only one of the most credible, but it could prove to be one of the most important. Both in terms of the details available at the scene itself. And in how the various groups and organizations would react in the aftermath of the encounter.

When we compare it with other similar cases, it might ultimately offer a clue into just what the agenda and the end goal of the UFO phenomena really is. As well as how important it is that we pay attention to such incidents and the clues and messages they contain.

High Speed Chase Turns Into An Otherworldly Encounter

At a little after 5:45 pm on the evening of 24^th April 1964, police officer, Sergeant Lonnie Zamora was speeding down the highway that cut through the sandy terrain of Socorro, New Mexico, in pursuit of another vehicle traveling much faster than the speed limit.

Then, with the speeding car still a considerable distance in front of him, he heard “a roar and saw a flame” in the sky between half a mile and a mile away.

Wondering whether an aircraft had come to the ground, or even if a storage shack of dynamite might have exploded, Zamora would abandon his pursuit of the speeding vehicle and make his way to the sound of the explosion. As he did, he could see a “bluish-orange” flame descending, calmly to the ground.

He would further describe the flame as “funnel-like” but as he was driving at the time, his full attention was divided between the bizarre landing object and the oncoming road ever-rushing towards him. As he was heading towards the scene, he realized that the noise was still audible. That it was “a roar” as opposed to a blast.

This noise would last around ten more seconds and would change from a high pitch to low.

As the object came lower, Zamora approached a steep hill which his vehicle struggled to negotiate. So much so, in fact, that it took the officer three attempts to overcome the climb. By this time, the speeding vehicle was long gone in the distance. The noise had also now stopped. He would continue on at an urgent but leisurely pace for several more seconds.

Then, he saw a shiny object to the side of the road around 200 yards ahead of him.

“They Were Small Adults Or Large Kids!”

At first, Zamora believed the object in front was an overturned car. He could see “two people” stood next to it as if examining the vehicle and their surroundings. One of the people appeared to notice his approaching vehicle. Each of them donned white coveralls. He didn’t notice anything strange at the time other than their size.

He would state later, “they were (either) small adults or large kids”. As he continued to approach, a little slower now, he began to get the feeling the car wasn’t an overturned car at all. He would later describe it as an “O” shape or “like an egg” and of a whitish aluminum color.

He further noticed a strange marking or insignia on the side of the craft. We will come to this seemingly strange logo of sorts later. It would appear it is of certain importance.

He would radio a quick report of his location and situation to the dispatch desk. Then, he brought the police car to a stop and began to exit the vehicle. Almost as soon as he had left the car, the roar returned and at the same time a blue flame shot out of the underside of the craft.

He at first feared an explosion and he flung himself to the ground. He would make his way to the back of his patrol car, all the while keeping the scene in front of him in sight.

The roar began to grow louder and louder, rising in frequency at the same time. Then, the object began to rise into the air directly upwards. As it began to ascend, he could once again see the blue flame with the orange tinge to it on the underside of the craft.

Take-Off!

As the craft continued to rise, Zamora could clearly see it was “oval in shape”. What’s more, he could still clearly see red colored insignia or symbol on the side of the craft. The exterior had the look of something remarkable smooth and there was no visible doors or windows.

Zamora began to back away slightly, keeping the car between himself and the rising craft. Then, at around an altitude of twenty feet, the craft stopped its upwards progression and hovered for several seconds.

Panic began to rise in Zamora. Fearing another roar of sound, or even flames, he temporarily covered his face with his arms for several seconds. When he looked again, the craft was again moving in a straight line, away from him. This time, much faster. He would later state that:

(The object was) possibly 10 to 15 feet from the ground. And it cleared the dynamite shack by about three feet… (It was) traveling very fast. It seemed to rise up and take off immediately across country!

Coming back to his senses, Zamora rushed back to the car and radioed a message to the operator at the police desk, Nep Lopez. He told him to “look out of the window” to see if could “see an object” overhead. He kept the rapidly decreasing craft in sight as it moved over the Six Mile Canyon Mountain region.

Almost as soon as the craft was no longer in view, another police officer who had heard Zamora’s radio calls, Sergeant Sam Chavez arrived at the location. He would comment how his colleague looked as “white as a plate”. However, by the time he examined the area where Zamora claimed the strange object was, he was intrigued with the strange markings, to say the least.

Artist’s Impression

The Press! The UFO Organizations! And The US Military!

Both Zamora and Chavez would go to investigate the area that was now “burning brush”. Smoke was rising from the apparent burning area. However, there were no flames, nor any materials that appeared to be on fire.

Chavez also spotted what appeared to be eight distinct imprints. Four of the indentions were larger and rectangular, while the remaining four were smaller and round in shape. Zamora later claimed he had noticed any legs at the time the object was on the ground.

The incident would take only a matter of hours to reach the press. It would take only days for the previously sleepy town of Socorro to become the center of the attention for the UFO world. UFO researchers and investigators would descend on the area. As would various reporters from such news agencies as United Press International and Associated Press.

Furthermore, groups such as APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research Organization) and NICAP (National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena) would also send teams to the area. Further still, the US Air Force would send representatives of their Project Blue Book to perform an “official” investigation.

One of the first at the location was NICAP investigator, Ray Stanford. Perhaps because of this, Stanford would appear to have spoken to several corroborating witnesses before the story truly exploded.

He would discover a potential witness who happened to be driving through the state at the time of the sighting (who we will come to shortly), as well as unearthing a report made to a television station in Albuquerque, which perhaps began to help for a timeline of sorts.

At 5:30 pm, the Albuquerque resident rang to state that an “oval object”, flying a very low altitude and relative slowly for its size, was heading towards the town of Socorro.

More Witnesses, And A Second Landing!

There were also several witnesses who claimed to clearly remember hearing a “loud roar” at around the same time that Zamora claimed. Several of them would even state to hearing the second roar that Zamora claimed occurred as he left his car.

Stanford would also learn from the Socorro police records that three separate members of the public had made reports to the dispatch desk of a bright glowing object rising in the sky. These reports would have been received before the incident had received any publicity.

Perhaps one of the most interesting was a report from the La Madera region of New Mexico. And what’s more, the FBI would see fit to investigate. On the same day as the Zamora incident a UFO was reported in the region, with military aircraft ruled out, the object remained a mystery.

Then, two days later on the 26^th April at just after 1 am, a local resident would go out to see what was disturbing his horses when he witnessed something “shaped like a butane tank” landing on the ground nearby.

When it eventually took off again, the witness recalled seeing a “blue-white” flame on the underside of the craft. He would also discover for large indentions on the ground, along with several smaller, rounder ones. Furthermore, a burned circular patch of ground clearly marked the landing site for some time afterward.

You can view a copy of that report below.

Obvious That Something Was There!

It was obvious to all officers at the scene that the indentions were freshly made and not a preexisting mark. Furthermore, they were made as though an object of significant weight had landed in the area at an angle.

Although Zamora was the only police officer to witness the actual craft itself, several others – including Chavez – could more than testify to the authenticity of the situation. As well as, in Chavez’ case, to Zamora himself, who would claim that his fellow officer was in “a state of shock”.

All would claim how the ground, in places, was still hot and smoldering when they arrived. Even the FBI report would note how there were “four irregularly shaped smoldering areas” at the location Zamora claimed the incident took place.

Chavez would also perform an immediate and thorough search of the area. He could find no tire tracks, aside from the ones left by Zamora’s vehicle. Nor were there any other tracks leading to the landing site.

Before we move on to look at the official military investigation, let’s go back to one of the “out-of-town tourists” who were driving in the area that Stanford identified upon arriving in the area.

The Mystery Tourists – “The Aircraft Fly Low Around Here!”

The owner of Whitting Brothers Service Station near to the location of the apparent landing, Opel Grinder, would go on the record as part of the US Air Force investigation. While he didn’t witness the incident himself, he did know of a pair of gentlemen who were passing through the state who did.

He would claim that the vehicle had pulled up just after the loud boom. The gentleman who came to pay for their goods would quip to Grinder of how low the aircraft “fly around here”. At the time Grinder uninterestingly replied that a lot of helicopters regularly flew in the area. The gentleman would state back that “it was a funny looking helicopter – if that’s what it was”.

Furthermore, it would appear that the mystery vehicle had passed Zamora’s police car, even commentating to Grinder about it.

Follow-up investigation would eventually reveal the mystery men to be Larry Kratzner, who had spoken to Grinder, and his friend, Paul Kies. Both were from Dubuque, Iowa, which is where they were returning to at the time.

UFO researcher, Ralph DeGraw would conduct interviews with the two men in 1978. And while he noticed some discrepancies compared to the account of Zamora, and even with each other’s statements – after all, it was fourteen years previously and an event they were heading away from – there were also some intriguing close matching offerings.

Kratzner, for example, would state:

(I saw) a cloud of black smoke coming from the ground ahead of them and to the right…(I could see) a round saucer or egg-shaped object ascending vertically from the black smoke!

He would claim also that he could see several “windows” in the side of the object. Perhaps most interestingly, though, was the “red Z” marked on the side facing him.

The Military Investigation (And Cover-Up?) Begins

The United States military first officially arrived to interview Zamora on the 25^th April when Army Captain Richard T. Holder, who was at the time the most senior officer available at the nearby White Sands base, arrived along with Arthur Byrnes of the FBI.

During the course of the interview, Zamora would state his belief that he had witnessed a secret experimental craft. Holder, however, would quickly dismiss this notion. In fact, he would seemingly go out of his way to state to the press the military had “no object that would compare to the object described” by Zamora.

Almost immediately following the interview, in the dark and using flashlights, no less, Holder and Byrnes would make their way to the alleged landing location. They would quickly cordon the area off while taking samples and examining the blackened areas of the brush.

While there is no proof, in his 1968 book ‘Fight for UFO Science’, researcher, James E. McDonald, would claim that a sample of “fused sand” was discreetly removed by the military. He would claim that a contact with the Las Vegas Public Health Service (some sources name her as Mary Mayes) who works as a radiological chemist, was also involved at the Socorro site that evening.

During her work, on behalf of the US military she discovered the solid glass-like area “right under the landing site”. Most of the samples she would take would prove to be sap. However, there were several unidentified and unknown organic materials.

Ultimately, he writes:

Shortly after she finished her work, Air Force personnel came and took all her notes and materials and told her she wasn’t to talk about it anymore!

They also, removed any remaining evidence of the heat-induced sand-glass. Interestingly or not, these analysis reports remain classified.

Allen Hynek – “The Air Force Doesn’t Know What Science Is!”

The main investigator of Project Blue Book – whether purposely or not on the part of the Pentagon – would not arrive in Socorro until four days after the incident on the 28^th April. He would quickly realize there was an apparent conflict of interests between discovering the truth of the affair, and the Air Force’s angle of investigation.

Zamora and Chavez, according to Hynek “were very anti-Air Force”. This largely due to their apparent blunt accusations that the whole incident was a hoax. In fact, so angry was Zamora at this suggestion, he initially wouldn’t speak to Hynek.

It was around this stage that Hynek began to not only suspect that there might be something to the UFO phenomenon after all, but that the military and, ultimately, the Pentagon and the United States government, despite their public rhetoric, were not interested in finding out the truth. And even less interested in sharing it with the general public.

Perhaps most damning of all, and certainly an indication of Hynek’s feelings towards the Air Force’s attitude to facts and evidence, he would write in his notes that “the Air Force doesn’t know what science is”. Of the alleged landing in Socorro, Hynek would state:

I think this case may be the Rosetta Stone (of UFO cases) …There’s never been a strong case with so unimpeachable a witness!

The military, which perhaps indicates how sensitive they believed the incident to be, would attempt to offer that what Zamora had seen was merely an experimental government craft. However, with clear descriptions in the public domain, there was no (known) craft available. And besides, Holder had already stated as much publicly.

Again, in the words of Hynek, the Air Force were “in a bit of a spot” over the apparent UFO landing at Socorro.

 “They Don’t Want Me To Say Anything About The Markings!”

We mentioned earlier that we would return to the claims of an insignia, logo, or symbol on the side of the craft. We know that Zamora quickly sketched this as the craft rose into the air.

Shortly after the encounter, Zamora would give numerous details to the press and media who had descended upon the area. One of these would take place on the following day on the 25^th April to KSRC Radio in Socorro. In it he would state to Walter Shrode:

No sir I couldn’t tell you that (because) they don’t want me to say anything about the markings!

To this, Shrode would immediately state that:

If we run into an area that they don’t want you to talk about then you just say so!

Whereas there very well may be security reasons for such an order, it is a strange one, nonetheless. And furthermore, talk of such an insignia must have already been swirling in the background of the media rush for Shrode to question Zamora on it in the first place.

In fact, Zamora himself had mentioned them the previous day. And produced a sketch of them, to boot. He described it as:

…a crescent with a vertical arrow pointed upward inside the crescent and a horizontal bar beneath that!

Shrode would also clearly state during the 12-minute that many residents of Socorro were convinced that something had landed that day. And while Zamora would stop short of saying the object was “something from outer space” he was clear it was “something he had not seen before”.

You can see a copy of Zamora’s sketch of the mystery insignia below.

The Further Discreet Revelations Of Allen Hynek

Whether it is of consequence or not, the aforementioned Ray Stanford would speak with Louis Reidel, who was the publisher of the El Defensor Chieftain newspaper. Reidel would inform him of a strange set of tracks that were almost “hoof-like”.

Furthermore, they appeared to follow a pattern of walking. And further still, they appeared on the side of the craft that Zamora claimed to have witnessed the two white-clothed figures standing. Reidel, fully aware of how outlandish this statement was, would decide to leave it out of his newspaper’s report of the incident.

What is perhaps interesting, though, is that one of the main Project Blue Book investigators, Allen Hyneck, during an interview with Walter Shrode on KSRC Radio on 29^th July 1964 – around three months after the incident – would elude to the tracks also.

He would assure the listeners that he appeared as an “independent investigator” and so would comment openly about the case. After stating his belief that Zamora had “a most interesting and significant experience” he would matter-of-factly state:

“I am particularly interested in the tracks that were left and the analysis of the samples of the materials of those tracks!”

Hynek would also go on to confirm the presence of the mysterious marking on the side of the craft. He would state that upon looking at the sketches Zamora produced of it, the insignia reminded them of a cattle-brand symbol.

Persistent Attempts To Write Off The Case As A Hoax!

Whether through legitimate debate or through other darker influential means, the accusations that the encounter was nothing more than a hoax would continue to surface. However, each accusation has either been refuted or deemed drastically unlikely by those most likely to know.

For example, respected Harvard astronomer, Donald Menzel would propose that Zamora himself was a victim of a hoax. He would claim that several high school students purposely wanted to trick Zamora, and so set up a “complex prank”.

Incidentally, when Hynek would suggest to many of the locals he spoke with, it was an idea that was universally dismissed. In fact, to most who knew Zamora and the general youth of Socorro at the time, the idea was preposterous.

Renowned UFO skeptic, Philip Klass would perhaps show his preconceived bias when he not once, but twice attempted to “debunk” Zamora.

Initially, he would state that Zamora had witnessed “ball lightning”. However, this itself was proven to be impossible in this instance. However, instead of looking at the sighting with a more open mind, Klass simply intensified his attack on the main witness.

He would state that, along with the mayor of Socorro at the time, Holm Bursum Jr., Zamora had invented the entire episode so as put Socorro on the map and to “attract tourism” to the area. He would even claim that Bursum was the owner of the land where the encounter took place. This was later proven to be entirely false.

The pair would state Klass’ claims to be “ridiculous”. What’s more, several other self-confessed skeptics, while still having their own explanations, would do likewise. Perhaps the final nail in the Klass hoax claims was the fact that a tourist attraction at the site never went ahead as Klass claimed it would.

Claims Of “Strong Winds” Don’t Hold Water!

There were further attempts to pass the incident off by some as a weather or hot air balloon that had become a victim of the wind. However, this certainly doesn’t explain the loud roars heard by Zamora and several residents of Socorro. Nor does it explain the flames that Zamora saw. Or the smoke that the “mystery tourists” would report.

Zamora had spoken of seeing what he thought was dust flying about near the object. He wasn’t sure if this was the wind or whether the dust was a consequence of the landing. Indeed, Zamora himself would recall that the winds were blowing particularly hard that evening.

However, research since the claims that wind might have been responsible for dragging a balloon has shown a key detail.

All reports would state that the object was moving into the west-southwest direction. However, this would mean the object would have been moving into the oncoming wind. Obviously, this would completely dismantle the notion that a light moving craft was simply at the mercy of the wind.

Furthermore, the object would, according to Zamora, rise straight upwards. And then, furthermore, would hover for several seconds in the air. Not movements at all consistent with an object that was relying on the strength of the wind for direction and, indeed power.

So, with all of these attempts to prove the case to be anything but a mysterious nuts-and-bolts craft we have to ask ourselves, why? What was so special about this case, at this time, that would evoke such a response? And furthermore, when the actions of the Air Force and their apparent transparent UFO investigative operation, Project Blue Book, would come to light, these attempts would look suspicious in the extreme.

A Tale Of Two Reports!

The Air Force, it would eventually come to light, would prepare two reports regarding the events in Socorro on 24^th April 1964. The first, for public consumption, would suggest that the report highlighted obvious errors throughout the investigation. All of which, incidentally, were true. How discreetly purposeful those errors might have been, at least at a higher level of the Air Force is perhaps open to debate.

The report would state how there were several witnesses who were simply not spoken to. While inadequate documentation and photographs of the landing site was another obvious error. Ultimately, the Air Force could draw “no conclusion” from the report. Furthermore, the investigation would remain open.

However, a second report, prepared by Major Hector Quintanilla, the director of Project Blue Book, and held back from the public arena until well into the 2000s, would go to the CIA. And, as you might imagine, the language, content, tone, and even the facts, were at odds with the Air Force report given to the general populace.

For example, they would state that there was “no doubt” that Zamora witnessed something that evening. And furthermore, unlike what the public would hear, “there was no question” regarding his reliability as a witness. They would state:

He is puzzled by what he saw. And frankly, so are we!

This secretive report would go on to state that the incident in Socorro was the “best-documented case on record”. And what’s more, despite their best efforts, they had no idea what the vehicle was, or what exactly scare Zamora so much about the encounter.

Connections To The Gary Wilcox “Fertilizer Case”?

Recently we examined the encounter of Gary Wilcox and ‘The Fertilizer Case’ that took place on the same day as the Zamora incident but on the other side of the country in Newark Valley, New York. What’s more, the details offered by Wilcox, both of the craft and the occupants are almost identical.

Although he didn’t recall an insignia, the description of the craft was the same oval shape as that witnessed by Zamora. As were the descriptions and activities of the two occupants, who on this occasion would obtain fertilizer from the witness.

Many people were skeptical of the Wilcox incident. However, he would turn down several large sums of money to tell his story. Certainly not the aspirations of a hoaxer. And furthermore, he would report his encounter almost immediately after it occurred.

While it perhaps can’t be proven that he didn’t know of the Zamora incident, it is highly unlikely that he did. Or that he planned to emulate it in his description. For example, would he not include the insignia if his goal was to match the craft Zamora described?

One further interesting detail that Wilcox described was how a circular patch of land remained behind following the departure of the UFO from his farm. This circular patch would test higher than normal for radiation. And what’s more, nothing would grow there for years after.

These details can be found in numerous landing cases, even down to the apparent collecting of organic samples. If we accept there is likely a connection between the Wilcox case and the Zamora incident, then how many other landing cases might also share connections? And what is the purpose of these landings? For the most part, they would at least appear to be non-confrontational.

A West Coast Wave In April 1964?

While the Fertilizer case shares obvious and direct links to the Zamora incident, not least they occurred within hours of each other, there were several other noticeable sightings in the western states of the United States in the weeks leading up to and after the apparent landing in Socorro.

For example, shortly before noon on the 10^th April in Merced, California NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) would pick up “between 6 and 12” anomalous objects overhead. Radar would confirm that a dozen objects were indeed airborne over Merced at altitudes between 60,000 and 90,000 feet. F-106 jets were scrambles from Castle Air Force Base. However, no successful intercepts were achieved.

A week later, this time at just after 7:20 am at Fallon Air Force Base in Nevada, their radar would pick up two strange objects, seemingly flying in stacked formation. They remained visible for just over an hour before disappearing.

Only two days following the Zamora in Las Vegas, Nevada witnessed around twelve bright, sliver objects moving through the sky in a southern direction. However, after thirty seconds or so, the objects changed course in unison and began to move towards the north.

At noon on the 28^th April, back in New Mexico, in Albuquerque, 10-year-old, Sharon Stull and 8-year-old Robin Stull witnessed an “egg-shaped object” hovering near their school, Lowell Elementary. Bizarrely, while Robin ran away, Sharon remained and witnessed the object “bounce up and down” in the sky several times before leaving.

She would later receive medical attention for “infra-red” burns to her face.  The physician who treated her would claim that he believed Sharon’s story to be authentic. And what’s more, he believed her burns to be a result of the UFO.

“Why In The World Were They So Interested?”

It would appear that something of significance occurred on the 24^th April 1964. Whether that significance was merely that Zamora’s encounter attracted such widespread and unwanted attention is perhaps open to debate.

Was there some kind of organic reconnaissance mission taking place throughout the United States in the opening months of 1964? And if so, by who, and for what purpose? And just what did the military and the Pentagon know of this speculative alien operation? Was their interest an indirect one? Or might they have had more active involvement with these mystery visitors?

It would certainly appear that some very high-ranking, and perhaps shadowy figures in the United States government placed the incident in Socorro at the top of their immediate priority list.

Even the US Army representative, Captain Holder, who remember was a young man at the time and only sent there as other higher-ranking officers were simply away from the White Sands base, appears to have known little as to what the situation was.

Following his investigation, for example, he was shocked and nervous of having to give his report to an extremely high-ranking Colonel at the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the people who advise the President of the United States. And what’s more, rather than prepare the report in writing, he had to give it immediately over a secured phone line.

Perhaps the question Holder would ask himself often over the years is one we should all ask. Considering their high-ranking position, and considering the official government stance that UFOs were the product of overactive imaginations, “why in the world were they so interested?”

Why, indeed?

Check out the video below. It looks at the Zamora incident in a little further.

{ https://www.ufoinsight.com/ }

10-02-2019 om 21:35 geschreven door peter

Video – UFO Chased and Destroyed the Russian Meteor!

Footage of what appears to be a UFO shooting down the meteor that crashed in Russia. “They” are protecting us, and this planet. The meteorite that crashed on Russia was hit by an unidentified flying object causing it to explode and shatter over the Urals, it has been claimed.

{ https://www.etupdates.com/ }

10-02-2019 om 21:02 geschreven door peter

NASA wants to send humans to Venus – here’s why that’s a brilliant idea

Popular science fiction of the early 20th century depicted Venus as some kind of wonderland of pleasantly warm temperatures, forests, swamps and even dinosaurs. In 1950, the Hayden Planetarium at the American Natural History Museum were soliciting reservations for the first space tourism mission, well before the modern era of Blue Origins, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. All you had to do was supply your address and tick the box for your preferred destination, which included Venus.

Today, Venus is unlikely to be a dream destination for aspiring space tourists. As revealed by numerous missions in the last few decades, rather than being a paradise, the planet is a hellish world of infernal temperatures, a corrosive toxic atmosphere and crushing pressures at the surface. Despite this, NASA is currently working on a conceptual manned mission to Venus, named the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept – (HAVOC).

But how is such a mission even possible? Temperatures on the planet’s surface (about 460°C) are in fact hotter than Mercury, even though Venus is roughly double the distance from the sun. This is higher than the melting point of many metals including bismuth and lead, which may even fall as “snow” onto the higher mountain peaks. The surface is a barren rocky landscape consisting of vast plains of basaltic rock dotted with volcanic features, and several continent-scale mountainous regions.

It is also geologically young, having undergone catastrophic resurfacing events. Such extreme events are caused by the build up of heat below the surface, eventually causing it to melt, release heat and re-solidify. Certainly a scary prospect for any visitors.

Hovering in the atmosphere Luckily, the idea behind

NASA’s new mission is not to land people on the inhospitable surface, but to use the dense atmosphere as a base for exploration. No actual date for a HAVOC type mission has been publicly announced yet. This mission is a long term plan and will rely on small test missions to be successful first. Such a mission is actually possible, right now, with current technology. The plan is to use airships which can stay aloft in the upper atmosphere for extended periods of time.

As surprising as it may seem, the upper atmosphere of Venus is the most Earth-like location in the solar system. Between altitudes of 50km and 60km, the pressure and temperature can be compared to regions of the Earth’s lower atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure in the Venusian atmosphere at 55km is about half that of the pressure at sea level on Earth. In fact you would be fine without a pressure suit, as this is roughly equivalent to the air pressure you would encounter at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Nor would you need to insulate yourself as the temperature here ranges between 20°C and 30°C.

The atmosphere above this altitude is also dense enough to protect astronauts from ionising radiation from space. The closer proximity of the sun provides an even greater abundance of available solar radiation than on Earth, which can be used to generate power (approximately 1.4 times greater).

The conceptual airship would float around the planet, being blown by the wind. It could, usefully, be filled with a breathable gas mixture such as oxygen and nitrogen, providing buoyancy. This is possible because breathable air is less dense than the Venusian atmosphere and, as result, would be a lifting gas.

The Venusian atmosphere is comprised of 97% carbon dioxide, about 3% nitrogen and trace amounts of other gases. It famously contains a sprinkling of sulphuric acid which forms dense clouds and is a major contributor to its visible brightness when viewed from Earth. In fact the planet reflects some 75% of the light that falls onto it from the sun. This highly reflective cloud layer exists between 45km and 65km, with a haze of sulphuric acid droplets underneath down to about 30km. As such, an airship design would need to be resistant to the corrosive effect of this acid.

Luckily we already have the technology required to overcome the problem of acidity. Several commercially available materials, including teflon and a number of plastics, have a high acidic resistance and could be used for the outer envelope of the airship. Considering all these factors, conceivably you could go for a walk on a platform outside the airship, carrying only your air supply and wearing a chemical hazard suit.

Life on Venus?

The surface of Venus has been mapped from orbit by radar on the US Magellan mission. However, only a few locations on the surface have ever been visited, by the series of Venera missions of Soviet probes in the late 1970s. These probes returned the first – and so far only – images of the Venusian surface. Certainly surface conditions seem utterly inhospitable to any kind of life.

The upper atmosphere is a different story however. Certain kinds of extremophile organisms already exist on Earth which could withstand the conditions in the atmosphere at the altitude at which HAVOC would fly. Species such as Acidianus infernus can be found in highly acidic volcanic lakes in Iceland and Italy. Airborne microbes have also been found to exist in Earth’s clouds. None of this proves that life exists in the Venusian atmosphere, but it is a possibility that could be investigated by a mission like HAVOC.

The current climatic conditions and composition of the atmosphere are the result of a runaway greenhouse effect (an extreme greenhouse effect that cannot be reversed), which transformed the planet from a hospitable Earth-like “twin” world in its early history. While we do not currently expect Earth to undergo a similarly extreme scenario, it does demonstrate that dramatic changes to a planetary climate can happen when certain physical conditions arise.

By testing our current climate models using the extremes seen on Venus we can more accurately determine how various climate forcing effects can lead to dramatic changes. Venus therefore provides us with a means to test the extremes of our current climate modelling, with all the inherent implications for the ecological health of our own planet.

We still know relatively little about Venus, despite it being our nearest planetary neighbour. Ultimately, learning how two very similar planets can have such different pasts will help us understand the evolution of the solar system and perhaps even that of other star systems.

Attribution:The Conversation

{https://www.etupdates.com/ }

10-02-2019 om 20:42 geschreven door peter

Chinese satellite snaps rare photo of moon's far side with Earth in the background

Eye-popping image evokes other iconic space photos, including the famous "Earthrise" portrait taken during the Apollo 8 mission.

China's LongJiang-2 satellite captured this rare view of the moon's far side, with Earth appearing tiny in the background.

CAMRAS/MingChuan Wei (HIT), CAMRAS, DK5LA

{ https://www.nbcnews.com/mach }

10-02-2019 om 20:24 geschreven door peter

“Ditmaal gaan we om te blijven”: NASA wil terug naar maan en er permanente aanwezigheid uitbouwen - HLN.be

Bron: OZY

Bridenstine maakte de ambitieuze plannen bekend in een opiniestuk op nieuwssite OZY. Hij zegt daarin dat hij van president Donald Trump en het Amerikaanse Congres een mandaat kreeg, en roept “de beste en slimste koppen van de Amerikaanse industrie” op om te helpen bij het ontwerpen en ontwikkelen van maanlanders”.

“Als een levenslange fan van NASA ben ik verheugd opnieuw te mogen praten over de landing van mensen op de maan”, aldus Bridenstine. “Dat betekent niet dat we hetzelfde gaan doen als wat we 50 jaar geleden al deden. We gaan naar de maan met innovatieve technologieën en systemen, om meer locaties op het oppervlak te onderzoeken dan we ooit voor mogelijk hielden”, legt de NASA-baas uit.

“Meer dan twee derde van de Amerikanen waren nog niet geboren toen de zes succesvolle maanlandingen plaatsvonden, inclusief mezelf. Velen moesten erover lezen in geschiedenisboeken of verhalen horen van oudere familieleden. In tegenstelling tot de Apollo-missies gaan we ditmaal om te blijven”, aldus Bridenstine nog.

Volgens Bridenstine kan de uitbouw van de plannen volgende week al van start gaan, wanneer partners uit de industrie worden uitgenodigd op het hoofdkwartier van NASA. Bridenstine zegt ook dat de NASA al contracten heeft met negen verschillende bedrijven om vracht naar de maan te brengen.

Laatste landing in 1972

Na Neil Armstrong en Buzz Aldrin, die op 20 juli 1969 landden, zetten nog tien mensen voet op de maan. De laatste maanlanding dateert al van 1972. Op 7 december van dat jaar steeg de bemanning van Apollo 17 op voor een vlucht van 12 dagen. Astronauten Harrison Schmitt en Eugene Cernan verbleven toen drie dagen op de maan.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

10-02-2019 om 19:47 geschreven door peter

WIJ LEVEN IN EEN BUITENAARDSE COMPUTERSIMULATIE

Het universum waarin wij leven wordt gekenmerkt door entropie, alles verliest steeds meer energie en alles gaat richting wanorde en naar een einde. 

Als we “dood” gaan komen we via een tunnel van licht terecht in een tweelingdimensie, waar alles precies omgekeerd is en alles steeds meer energie krijgt en “jonger” wordt.

Eigenlijk heeft de doorsnee mens geen flauw benul in wat voor wereld wij eigenlijk leven. 

Velen denken dat er een God is die deze wereld heeft geschapen, al dan niet in zeven dagen, en dat wij daar verder ons hoofd niet over hoeven breken, omdat dit het terrein is van hogere machten. 

Maar, natuurlijk zijn er altijd mensen die daar juist wel heel diep over nadenken en dan komen er hele verrassende zaken tevoorschijn. Wetenschappers raken er steeds meer van overtuigd dat ons universum echt niet het enige is en dat er vele parallelle universa zijn. 

Zijn deze universa dan geschapen door God of Goden of zijn het misschien buitenaardsen die ze hebben gecreëerd als een soort experiment? Een experiment waar wij, gevangen in ons 3D lichaam, deel van uit maken? 

Er zijn talloze aanwijzing dat dit inderdaad het geval is en ben je nieuwsgierig hoe zoiets dan zou werken, dan raden wij je aan om de onderstaande video te kijken, waarin Linda Moulton Howe een fascinerend verhaal vertelt over de verschillende mogelijkheden voor het type universum waarin wij leven. 

In de video komen naast verschillende theorieën ook een aantal “real life” ervaringen aan bod, zoals een man die vertelt hoe hij via een deur ergens in Peru, in een andere dimensie terechtkwam. 

Het is het verhaal van Jerry Wills en een plaats in Peru die ze deur van Arama Muru noemen. De lokale bevolking noemt het “de deur naar het land van de Goden en onsterfelijk leven” en via die deur kun je inderdaad in een andere dimensie terechtkomen. 

In de video het verhaal horen van Jerry Wills die er via onderstaande deur in slaagde om niet alleen in een andere dimensie terecht te komen, maar ook om weer terug te keren en met antwoorden.

Ook komt in de video het fascinerende verhaal van Paul aan bod. Een jongeman van begin 30 die in de buurt van New York woont en een succesvol eigen bedrijf heeft. Na het vieren van 32e verjaardag met zijn ouders en zuster met haar man, rijdt het gezelschap ’s avonds net buiten New York als ze een aantal vreemde lichten aan de hemel ontdekken. 

Paul voelt op een gegeven hoe hij uit zijn lichaam treedt en als het ware wordt geteleporteerd naar het ruimteschip wat daar hangt, terwijl zijn fysieke lichaam op de stoel in de auto blijft. 

Alhoewel doodsbang, krijgt Paul daar een aantal fascinerende feiten te horen van de Gray Aliens die hem hebben ontvoerd. Te horen is eigenlijk niet het goede woord, want alle berichten worden telepathisch doorgegeven. 

Een Gray Alien laat hem een 3D scherm zien en wijst hem op een groep van 10 universa, gekoppeld in vijf paren van twee en vertelt hem dat hij, Paul, afkomstig is uit één van die 10 universa. 

Ons universum is gekoppeld aan een ander universum, eentje waar alles precies omgekeerd is ten opzichte van bij ons. Wanneer wij biologisch/fysiek doodgaan, komen we via een tunnel in dat andere universum terecht (redactie: is de deur in Peru een van die tunnels?). De Grays lieten Paul via dat 3D scherm zien hoe het eruit zag in dat universum dat is gekoppeld aan het onze en waar we allemaal ooit naartoe zullen gaan. 

Hij zag een witte hemel met zwarte sterren en andere hemellichamen en kleuren die hij niet kende, maar die er fantastisch mooi uit zagen. 

Waar in ons universum de energie steeds minder wordt en uiteindelijk alles kapotgaat, breekt en waar alles chaos wordt, zo is het daar precies andersom. In plaats van steeds minder krijg je steeds meer energie, in plaats van ouder wordt je steeds jonger en er gaat nooit iets kapot. Dit gaat door tot het moment dat je weer klaar bent om weer geboren te worden in dit universum en dan begint alles weer af te lopen. (redactie: in die zin leven we dus, zoals sommigen het noemen, inderdaad in een matrix gevangenis)

Wie nu de grote architect(en) is/zijn zijn achter dit alles is niet duidelijk. Eerder hebben wij al een artikel geschreven over hoe God misschien een IT specialist was die zijn eigen wereld heeft geprogrammeerd waar wij in rond lopen. De entiteit die wij God noemen lijkt in ieder geval degene te zijn die dit allemaal geprogrammeerd heeft. Op z'n minst knap te noemen en sadistisch ook (vinden wij).

Kijk en luister naar Linda Moulton Howe die je meeneemt op een fascinerende reis. Het is een video waar je je aandacht goed bij moet houden om het te kunnen volgen.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

10-02-2019 om 19:09 geschreven door peter

One of the most beloved yet puzzling books everyone reads in high school English class is The Little Prince by French writer, poet and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The little prince with the golden hair came from the house-sized asteroid “B 612” where he tended to plants and three tiny volcanoes. While English teachers focus on the puzzling ending and force students to write endless essays on whether the Little Prince survived or died, science and astronomy teachers should have borrowed the book on the day they discussed gravity and asked their students to determine what would really have happened to the Little Prince on his little asteroid – would he have lived or floated off into space. Researchers planning to mine asteroids for the expected treasure troves of rare and precious minerals it’s believed they hold (the plot for thriller movies rather than English class novels) have the answer, which is why (spoiler alert) they’re planning to build a space station INSIDE an asteroid.

“In this study we present how to estimate the necessary spin rate assuming a cylindrical space station inside a mined asteroid and discuss the implications arising from substantial material stress given the required rotation rate. We estimate the required material strength using two relatively simple analytical models and apply them to fictitious, yet realistic rocky near-Earth asteroids.”

Thomas Maindl, an astronomer at the University of Vienna, led the study which was published but not yet peer-reviewed in arXiv. The need for an internal rather than surface asteroid station stems from the ideas that asteroids have insufficient gravity to hold a mining station and even if one did, the lack of an atmosphere and magnetic field would expose workers to deadly radiation. The math behind the proposal certainly makes it feasible – Maindl estimates that a solid stone asteroid at least a few hundred meters in diameter rotating at a very fast rate of one to three times per minute would create sufficient sub-surface gravity to allow miners and mining tools to safely hammer out minerals in a gravity similar to Mars or about one-third that of Earth. The asteroid would need to be larger than the Little Prince’s house-sixed B 612 to keep it together as the space for the station was drilled out and the severe hammering caused asteroid-quakes far stronger than B 612’s little volcanic eruptions.

The proposal makes sense but, as David Letterman liked to ask, will it float?

“The border between science and science fiction here is sort of blurry.”

That’s not exactly a vote of confidence, Dr Maindl. Spacecrafts that have landed on asteroids to date are often tiny rovers designed for bouncing in extremely low gravity. That’s how Osiris-Rex is expected to pick up rocks and dust on Bennu later this year before returning to Earth. But that’s not the kind of mining the greedy minds of industry have in mind as they learn more about the mineral riches many asteroids hold. While Maindl estimates that it could be decades before a mission to build a space mining operation inside an asteroid takes place. Big business will no doubt push for much sooner. Who needs space hotels when there’s gold and diamonds to be dug up?

What would the Little Prince say?

“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-02-2019 om 18:11 geschreven door peter

Numerous eyewitnesses in Flintshire county, Wales reported seeing a strange blue flash on the morning of Thursday, February 7. Welsh social media channels were inundated with posts and pictures of the event taken from dash cameras and cellphones along with a wide range of speculation about what could have caused the event. While industrial causes are suspected, some Flintshire residents aren’t so sure.

The flash occurred around 6:30 am and momentarily lit up a large portion of the early morning sky with a mysterious blue glow. A police officer based in Hawarden, Flintshire caught the glow on his cash cam, posting it to Twitter. As speculation began to veer into the “ALIENS!” direction, a spokesperson for the Hawarden Police helicopter team suggested the anomalous flash could have been the result of ball lightning.

Ball lightning is one of the most mysterious natural phenomena reported throughout history.

WHAT CAUSES BALL LIGHTNING? 

Researchers from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, have proposed that the bright glow of lightning balls is created when microwaves become trapped inside a plasma bubble.

'At the tip of a lightning stroke reaching the ground, a relativistic electron bunch can be produced, which in turn excites intense microwave radiation,' the scientists said in a research paper published in Scientific Reports.

'The latter ionizes the local air and the radiation pressure evacuates the resulting plasma, forming a spherical plasma bubble that stably traps the radiation.'

Microwaves trapped inside the continue to generate plasma for a moments to maintain the bright flashes seen during ball lightning, they added.

The fireball eventually fades away as the radiation held within the bubble starts to dissipate - and when microwaves leak out, the lightning balls can dramatically explode.

Ball lightning is a little understood atmospheric electrical phenomenon often cited as an explanation for UFO or ghost sightings. There have been hundreds of eyewitness accounts and anecdotal reports over the centuries of fast-moving, luminous balls of electricity travelling along electrical conduits, down the sails of ships, running along the ground, in submarines or airplane cockpits, or even flying straight through people’s houses with no explanation. Ball lightning has even been reported to explode and leave behind a sulfur smell. Ball lightning is suspected to be behind the reports of “foo fighters” pilots witnessed during World War II.

“Sacré bleu! Un globe de feu!”

While the blue flash in Wales very well could have been caused by ball lightning, it would have had to have been a very large occurrence in order to light up such a large area of the early morning sky. According to local news reports, a high-voltage power line was severed by a fallen tree not far from where most of the reports of the blue flash came in. There are many accounts of ball lightning occurring in the vicinity of electrical infrastructure, so it may be that the two events are related. Unfortunately, most instances of ball lightning only last for a few seconds and rarely leave behind any physical evidence. Was this blue flash merely an electrical explosion due to a fallen line, or could it have indeed been one of the rarest natural phenomena on Earth? This one will likely remain a mystery.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-02-2019 om 18:04 geschreven door peter

Late in 2018, a series of anomalies appeared on weather radar systems over the US states of Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Florida, and Indiana. The anomalies were eventually blamed on a new experimental type of chaff, an aircraft countermeasure designed to mask aircraft activity over a given area and generally confuse enemy radar systems.

While that explanation may have been sufficient for that week’s news cycle, many aviation experts noted that chaff usually doesn’t linger in place as these mysterious clouds seemed to. Were these anomalies indeed the product of chaff testing, or was military activity merely a convenient scapegoat as has been alleged in many other anomalies aerial phenomena?

A pair of B-1B Lancers deploy chaff and flares during a military exercise.

The mystery deepened this week as similar radar anomalies were reported in Australia and again blamed on chaff. Many Sydney residents were startled when they saw weather radar displaying what appeared to be ominous rain clouds heading their way when a glance outside revealed crystal blue skies. Australian Broadcasting Corporation meteorologist Graham Creed quickly explained the radar anomaly on social media, stating that like in the American radar anomalies, this was the product of chaff:

It’s the Williamtown RAAF base and they’re putting what’s known as chaff in the atmosphere. The idea of it is that it hides what they’re doing underneath it. They’re doing manoeuvres with their aircraft. They drop this chaff and it spreads out and then it creates an echo so you can’t see individual movements.

The Williamtown RAAF base and Australian Department of Defence were contacted by the ABC but did not comment on the anomaly. What was the RAAF hiding, and from whom?

Chaff canisters

Like in the case of last year’s radar anomalies in America, I’m left to wonder why experimental aircraft technology would be tested near densely populated areas where weather radar systems are so common. If you wanted to hide experimental aircraft tests, why not do it somewhere more secretive? Or was that the point: to determine how well civilian radar systems can be fooled? To what end?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-02-2019 om 17:53 geschreven door peter

Long Dark UFO Seen Over California Hills Two Day Ago, Feb 8, 2019, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Feb 8, 2019
Location of sighting: Lampoc, California, USA
Source: MUFON

This cigar shaped UFO was seen a few days ago over Lampoc, California hills. The UFO is very close to Vandanburg Air Force Base, so this could be a military craft or even a blimp. From this distance its really hard to tell, but if we use what we see...the details...then it tells us what its not. You see, the object is flying over the hill top and as you see there is a tall power line pole, not the usual pole, but the giant size all steel type...and this flying object is below the electical wire level and would have been insane for any blimp pilot to fly into those wires. So...its not a blimp. UFOs however are often seen above mountain ridges like this and also often seen along electrical and phone power lines...like this. So, I would conclude it really is a UFO...an unidentified flying object. But we need close up video of this craft from a different angle to be 100% sure. 
Scott C. Waring

Eyewitness states: 

Witness large object hovering and then moving along the horizon above a mountain or hill.

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

10-02-2019 om 17:30 geschreven door peter

Ancient Jar Found On Earth Moon At The Feet Of Buzz Aldrin In NASA Photo, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Feb 10, 2019

Location of discovery: Earths moon, Apollo 11 mission.

Source photo: 

• https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/AS11-40-5964HR.jpg

 I was checking out the NASA Apollo 11 archives when I noticed a jar shaped object in a few photos. Four or five photos contained this object. The artefact is an ancient jar of unknown origins at the feet of Buzz Aldrin. The ancient jar is very similar to the ancient Aztec jar in the photo next to it.  The shape and the size would be almost equal, but the age of the jar on the moon seems to be in the tens of thousands of years. The astronaut even stepped on it, but the tread marks on his boots made no impression on it due to the jars hardness. 

 

I believe we are opening up an entirely new era of archeology. An era of scientists that will search for, discover and record ancient alien artefacts off world, on moons and planets in our own solar system.

Scott C. Waring

 

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

10-02-2019 om 17:21 geschreven door peter

{ https://mysteriousthing.com/ }

10-02-2019 om 01:17 geschreven door peter

The Milky Way showing off.

Paul Stewart

Sometimes it might seem like life on Earth has taken a few bizarre twists and turns in the last few years, but if it helps you feel better, it’s not just us. In reality, the entire galaxy is bent out of shape—literally. Astronomers have created a new 3D map of the Milky Way galaxy, and in a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, illustrate that the galaxy as a whole has a warped structure, progressively twisting out into a spiral.

This isn’t exactly the biggest surprise. For decades, astronomers have observed a twisting pattern of hydrogen gas out in the far reaches of the galaxy. But since that gas layer extends so far out, it was never really clear whether individual stellar bodies in the galaxy were exhibiting the same kind of warping, and whether there was a consistent warp throughout the Milky Way.

This new 3D map wasn’t even intended to trace the galaxy’s warp. “Most science is serendipitous,” says Richard de Grijs, an astronomer based at Macquarie University in Sydney, and a coauthor of the new study. It was his former graduate student, lead author Xiaodian Chen, now at the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences, who had previously compiled a large collection of observations of over 50,000 stars in the galaxy, particularly in infrared. Chen decided to use observations of the Cepheids—a class of young, bright, pulsating stars—to attempt to outline the shape of the Milky Way.

The Cepheids are particularly useful for any astronomical investigation requiring you to trace distance through outer space. They show period changes in brightness over time, and measuring the cycles in those brightness can basically tell you the distance between two points down to an incredibly accurate scale. And since dust and gas doesn’t absorb much of the light on longer wavelengths, astronomers use infrared to look at those cycles.

Ultimately, the team ended up with 1,339 Cepheid observations made with NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, covering most of the Milky Way. “We knew their positions in the sky, and their distances—that means you have a three-dimensional distribution,” says de Grijs. “By simply plotting that with respect to the distance of the sun, we could see the shape of the Milky Way as constrained by the Cepheids.”

Because we don’t have a telescope sitting outside of the Milky Way, we have to figure out its shape from inside of itself; de Grijs and team analogizes this method as being akin to trying to figure out the shape of Australia from a garden in Sydney, or the shape of China from a park in Beijing. It’s much easier to determine the shape of almost anything if you can look at it from the outside.

Typically, the warped shape of a galaxy is caused by instabilities on the disk’s edge, where the galaxy’s gravitational forces are weaker and objects are more prone to bending and twisting. It’s a common phenomenon for spiral galaxies.

And while the warping of the galaxy isn’t a new revelation, Elena D’Onghia, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved with the study, thinks it’s interesting how the team took advantage of the Cepheids in creating the new galactic map that can characterize the warp at a rather high accuracy.

D’Onghia does note, however, that the origin of the warp still needs a more detailed explanation, especially since the hydrogen gas still seems to twist more rigorously then the stars do. “It could be due to torques exerted by a large satellite galaxy like the Large Magellanic Cloud, or the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy that impacted the Milky Way disk not long ago,” she says. “It could be by torques exerted by the inner disk, as the authors claim. [They] do not really explore the different ways to generate the warp as compared to the data.”

Still, there are some larger astronomical questions the findings ought to help resolve, especially when it comes to dark matter. About 85 percent of the universe is thought to be made of dark matter. We can’t directly observe it, but its presence is implied because it gravitationally affects the movements of other celestial structures whirring around through outer space. “We know we need it to explain the motions of the stars in the Milky Way,” says de Grijs. Understanding the shape of the Milky Way means we can get a better handle on where that dark matter is located in the galaxy.

The findings also ought to help the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, which is tasked with making observations of approximately one billion astronomical objects (about one percent of the Milky Way galaxy). The new map could give the Gaia project a benchmark with which to compare measurements as they come in.

And let’s not forget that Chen’s catalog of 50,000 is ripe for more thorough analysis to unveil more mysteries of the Milky Way. “There’s a lot more we can do with this and continue to explore what’s in the data,” says de Grijs.

{ https://www.popsci.com/ }

10-02-2019 om 01:05 geschreven door peter

The truth is out there! Scientist who investigated UFOs for 20 years for the government coined the phrase Close Encounters of the Third Kind - and had a cameo in Spielberg’s hit film - turned from skeptic to believer, inspiring a new TV show

• In the late 1940s, reports of 'flying saucers' flooded in from throughout the U.S.
• In 1948, the air force was tasked with looking into the reports to calm the public
• They brought on accomplished astronomer Dr J. Allen Hynek, who for nearly 20 years looked into the UFO reports and called for them to be scientifically studied
• Hynek initially thought the sightings were a fad but eventually changed his mind 
• He coined the phrase ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' had a cameo in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 hit movie, and later said he saw UFOs on two occasions 
• A new scripted TV show, 'Project Blue Book,' takes a fictionalized look at his life 

By DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Forty-five years before the catchphrase, The Truth is Out There, was on the tip of many tongues, a man searched for scientific explanations for the inexplicable lights and objects that streaked and whizzed and zoomed across the night sky.

Dr J. Allen Hynek was no Fox Mulder but rather the real deal: an accomplished astronomer the United States government tasked to help figure out what was happening in the skies after World War II.

Dr J. Allen Hyenk, pictured, was an accomplished astronomer who consulted for years on the U.S. Air Force's project to investigate UFO reports. In the late 1940s, reports flooded in from around the country

In the late 1940s, ‘flying saucer’ reports flooded in from across the country and the air force had no idea what to do with them. Hynek, a professor, was asked to consult for the air force’s Project Sign, which was to investigate them.

Initially, the man of science pegged the sightings as a fad, a manifestation of a country suffering from the aftereffects of the war and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But as the unidentified flying object reports continued unabated, Hynek went from labeling them ‘sheer nonsense’ to calling for the phenomenon to be scientifically studied to declaring that he saw UFOs twice. In the process, he satisfied neither side of the UFO debate.

An encouraging father of five children, Hynek would become a celebrity of sorts, found the Center for UFO Studies, write several books, and coin the phrase ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ complete with a cameo in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 hit movie of the same name.

‘He was this very straight-laced, by-the-book scientist and astronomer who, you know, only believed what he could see,’ Mark O’Connell, author of ‘The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs,’ told DailyMail.com.

A new scripted TV series, ‘Project Blue Book,’ on HISTORY takes a fictionalized look at Hynek, his life, his investigations into UFOs during the early 1950s, a time period gripped by the Cold War and nuclear war fears, and the question that we are still wrestling with today: are we alone in the universe.

When Dr J. Allen Hynek, pictured, first heard about 'flying saucers' in 1948, he said he thought 'they were sheer nonsense, as any scientist would have.’ That year, the U.S. Air Force started Project Sign, which was to investigate the unidentified flying object reports that were coming in from around the country, according to Mark O’Connell's book ‘The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs.' Above, Hynek is at a press conference in 1966 where he said the flying saucer looked more like a 'chicken feeder'

At first, Dr J. Allen Hynek thought the sightings, which started pouring in during the late 1940s, were a fad. He thought they were a nervous public reaction to Pearl Harbor coupled with what was then a current worry about Soviet bombers attacking the United States, Mark O’Connell, author of ‘The Close Encounters Man,' told DailyMail.com. But Hynek started to change his mind after the reports continued unabated. Above, a newspaper clipping from 1947 about a 'mysterious object' that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico that the U.S. Air Force said was a weather balloon

Hynek, a professor, looked through unidentified flying object reports for the U.S. Air Force in 1948 and 1949, and then went back to teaching and ‘and kind of forgot about it,’ author O’Connell told DailyMail.com. But around two years later, the air force approached him again to consult on their UFO investigative project. ‘So he’s very surprised after a couple of years that the craze hasn’t faded away,’ O’Connell said. Above, a shot of an unidentified flying object taken in 1966

Born May 1, 1910 in Chicago, Hynek was just five days old when Halley’s Comet passed by the Earth – a celestial moment that would be repeated toward the end of his life when he died at aged 75 on April 27, 1986.

As a young boy, he battled a bout of scarlet fever, was restricted to bed for several weeks, and spent his time reading everything he could, including ‘Elements of Astronomy,’ according to O’Connell’s 2017 book.

The die was cast, and a telescope given to him at aged 10 sealed his pursuit of astronomy. In 1932, Hynek graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and married his first wife, Martha Alexander. After getting his PhD in astrophysics, he started teaching at Ohio State University in Columbus three years later.

Strange sky sightings seeped into the public consciousness during World War II when pilots described seeing unusual lights and objects on missions – dubbing them ‘foo fighters’ – around 1944. (There were other stories and tales before then, of course.) But the dam broke after a private pilot and businessman Kenneth Arnold recounted that he saw nine ‘bright saucer-like objects’ race by at 1,200 miles per hour in June 1947, according to news reports at the time.

For almost 20 years, Dr J. Allen Hynek consulted for the U.S. Air Force's project to investigate UFO sightings. Afterwards, Hynek found the Center for UFO Studies and wrote several books. In his 1972 book, ‘The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry,’ Hynek detailed what he termed ‘close encounters:’ the first was a person seeing a UFO but from a distance; the second was UFOs ‘physical effect on the environment,’ such as crop circles; and the third was a person interacting ‘with beings that appear with the UFOs.’ Above, Hynek in his cameo during Steven Spielberg’s smash hit ‘Close Encounters of Third Kind,’ released in late 1977

A movie poster for ‘Close Encounters of Third Kind.' Hynek wrote director Steven Spielberg after he had heard the upcoming film and its title. Spielberg wrote the astronomer back, paid Hynek $1,000 to use his phrase and hired him as a technical advisor for the film at $500 a day, according to Mark O’Connell's book ‘The Close Encounters Man.' Hynek would have a cameo in the hit 1977 film

‘All summer long reports kept coming from every corner of the country… The trouble was there was not a soul on earth who knew what to do with them,’ O’Connell wrote.

‘”Confusion” was the watchword for the flying saucer phenomenon in those early days.’

In 1948, the government set up Project Sign, which would later be called Grudge and then Blue Book, to investigate the reports. It was headquartered at an air force base near Dayton, Ohio, which is not so far from Columbus, and O’Connell wrote that the air force ‘needed a professional astronomer to validate’ its conclusions. Enter Hynek.

By then, Hynek’s first marriage to Martha Alexander had ended in 1939 in divorce. He married Mimi Curtis in 1942, and they would stay together until his death in 1986, and have five children together – Scott, Roxane, Joel, Paul and Ross.

In his 1972 book, ‘The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry,’ Dr J. Allen Hynek detailed what he termed ‘close encounters:’ the first was a person seeing a UFO but from a distance; the second was UFOs ‘physical effect on the environment,’ such as crop circles; and the third was a person interacting ‘with beings that appear with the UFOs.’ When Hynek heard about Steven Spielberg's upcoming film and its title, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' he wrote the director, according Mark O’Connell's book ‘The Close Encounters Man.' Hynek worked as a technical advisor on the movie, which was released in late 1977, and he is seen above in front of his trailer on the set

‘Our dad is known in some circles especially now for his work with UFOs, but first and foremost he was a scientist and an astronomer. One of the things that I think that he inculcated in us was just this love of science and learning about the world,’ Paul Hynek, who worked as a consultant on the TV show with his brother Joel, told DailyMail.com.

‘Our dinner table if it was not interrupted by phone calls from people reporting UFOs and whatnot, it was about ideas.’  

Joel Hynek added: ‘One of the things my father instilled in all of us was this love of science and the idea that everyone should keep an open mind to whatever’s out there.’

Initially, Hynek buttressed the government’s findings and conclusions.

‘In 1948, when I first heard of the (flying saucers), I thought they were sheer nonsense, as any scientist would have,’ Hynek wrote, according to O’Connell’s book.

‘Most of the early reports were quite vague: “I went into the bathroom for a drink of water and looked out of the window and saw a bright light in the sky. It was moving up and down and sideways. When I looked again, it was gone.” ‘ 

Strange sky sightings seeped into the public consciousness during World War II when pilots described seeing unusual lights and objects on missions – dubbing them ‘foo fighters’ – around 1944. (There were other stories and tales before then, of course.) But the dam broke after a private pilot and businessman Kenneth Arnold recounted that he saw nine ‘bright saucer-like objects’ race by at 1,200 miles per hour in June 1947, according to news reports at the time. Above, Kenneth Arnold, center, looks at a photo of an unidentified flying object in 1947. To his left is E.J. Smith, and Ralph E. Stevens is to Arnold's right

In 1947, there was a sighting near Roswell, New Mexico - an event that lingered in the public's mind. The U.S. Air Force said that what was seen was a weather balloon that crashed. The next year, the air force started Project Sign, which was to investigate the sightings, and brought on Dr J. Allen Hynek to consult. Above, the air force's Brig. General Roger M. Ramey, left, and Col. Thomas J. Dubose, right, look at the metallic fragments found by a farmer near Roswell, New Mexico

After initially dismissing the UFO sightings as 'sheer nonsense,' Dr J. Allen Hyenk, center, would change his mind about the reports. The first time Hynek consulted for the air force in 1948, author Mark O’Connell said: ‘They just plopped a pile of case reports on a desk in front of him and said please go through all of these and tell us which ones are just misidentifications of astronomical objects.’ Hynek was able to explain away 80 percent of the reports, but not the other 20 percent, but he thought that with 'enough time and resources they could probably explain away those 20 percent also,’ O’Connell said. Above, Hynek, center, in 1956

After World War II, people saw things in the sky that they couldn't explain. Dr J. Allen Hynek, who investigated the sightings with the U.S. Air Force for years, was often a source of information for the public, and took part in press conferences, such as the one above in 1966. The photograph he is holding was reportedly taken in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hynek said the sighting was swamp gas - an explanation that did not satisfy many at the time

Hynek thought the sightings were a nervous public reaction to Pearl Harbor coupled with what was then a current worry about Soviet bombers attacking the United States, O’Connell explained.

‘So of course they’re looking up in the sky and seeing things and getting nervous about what they see if it’s something that they can’t identify and they can’t explain,’ he told DailyMail.com.

The first time Hynek consulted for the air force in 1948, O’Connell said: ‘They just plopped a pile of case reports on a desk in front of him and said please go through all of these and tell us which ones are just misidentifications of astronomical objects.’

‘And Hynek thought, okay, easy work, he went through them all. He was able to explain away about 80 percent of them and the other 20 percent didn’t really bother him. He thought with enough time and resources they could probably explain away those 20 percent also.’

In 1932, Hynek graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and married his first wife, Martha Alexander. After getting his PhD in astrophysics, he started teaching at Ohio State University in Columbus three years later. By 1948, Hynek’s first marriage to Martha Alexander had ended in 1939 in divorce. He married Mimi Curtis in 1942, and they would stay together until his death in 1986, and have five children together – Scott, Roxane, Joel, Paul and Ross. Above, a photo of the family taken at the Hynek home in Evanston, Illinois in 1960. From left, Roxane, Mimi, Joel, Dr J. Allen Hynek, who is holding the cup, and Scott

Hynek and his wife, Mimi, had five children, shown above from left, Ross, Paul, Joel, Roxane, and Scott. The photo was taken at the Hynek family cabin in Ontario, Canada in 1973. Two of Hynek's children - Paul and Joel Hynek - worked as consultants for a new scripted TV show, 'Project Blue Book,' on HISTORY, that fictionalizes their father's life in the early 1950s. Paul Hynek told DailyMail.com: ‘Our dad is known in some circles especially now for his work with UFOs, but first and foremost he was a scientist and an astronomer. One of the things that I think that he inculcated in us was just this love of science and learning about the world’

After UFO sightings persisted, Dr J. Allen Hynek, pictured, started to call for the phenomenon to be scientifically studied. His son, Joel Hynek told DailyMail.com: ‘One of the things my father instilled in all of us was this love of science and the idea that everyone should keep an open mind to whatever’s out there.’ Hynek, above, is on the set of Steven Spielberg's hit film, 'Close Encounters of The Third Kind,' which was released in late 1977

Dr J. Allen Hynek started to change his mind about unidentified flying object reports after they continued unabated. ‘For several years I was saying there was nothing to it… I thought the whole thing was a fad, a craze – and would pass from the scene as fads invariably do. Back in 1948, when I first started, I would have taken just about any bet that by 1952 the whole matter would be forgotten. It was the persistence of the phenomenon, not in the United States, but over the world, that finally grabbed my attention,’ Hynek said, according Mark O’Connell's book ‘The Close Encounters Man.' Above, two photos showing possible UFO sightings

David O'Leary, the show’s creator, said that the real Project Blue Book looked at over 12,000 UFO reports and roughly 700 of those remain unexplained. Since childhood, he has had a fascination with the question of whether humans are alone in the universe.

‘I personally don’t think that you can look at that the question honestly without examining the UFO phenomenon,’ O'Leary, who conceived of the TV show as the ‘real life X-Files set in the time of Mad Men,’ told DailyMail.com.

‘I also became fascinated with, you know, America’s very strange and mysterious history with this phenomenon and, of course one of the big big pieces of that is the fact that we really did openly investigate unidentified flying objects in our skies officially though the U.S. Air Force.’

‘The show is a piece of entertainment but my goal always was for it to also spark curiosity, towards educating people about these real life cases and about this era.’

In the show, which airs on Tuesdays at 10pm Eastern time, Hynek and Quinn crisscross the country – from Fargo, North Dakota to Flatwoods, West Virginia to Lubbock, Texas – to investigate. Each episode is based on a real case or a collection of real incidents. In the series’ second episode, the pair looks into the Flatwoods monster, where a mother and her two young children insist they saw a spaceship and an alien creature. To quell panic in the town, Hynek puts the sighting down to an owl.

It took the real Hynek longer to come around. O’Connell said that after working for the air force in 1948 and 1949, he went back to teaching ‘and kind of forgot about it.’

But around two years later, the air force approached Hynek to consult again.

‘So he’s very surprised after a couple of years that the craze hasn’t faded away,’ O’Connell said.

‘He starts looking through this new batch of UFO reports and, surprise, there are still 20 percent that he can’t explain. So for him that 20 percent consistency that was a trend, that was something that piqued his interest and he wanted to find out more. And that was when he started to change his mind about UFOs.’

Hynek started to push for UFOs to be handled scientifically.

‘For several years I was saying there was nothing to it… I thought the whole thing was a fad, a craze – and would pass from the scene as fads invariably do. Back in 1948, when I first started, I would have taken just about any bet that by 1952 the whole matter would be forgotten. It was the persistence of the phenomenon, not in the United States, but over the world, that finally grabbed my attention,’ Hynek said, according to the book.

‘… It appears, indeed, that the flying saucer along with the automobile is here to stay.’

Hynek's sons, Paul, left, and Joel, right, worked as consultants on a new scripted TV show, 'Project Blue Book,' on HISTORY, and are seen above at its premiere in January. Both told DailyMail.com that their father instilled in them a love of science and keeping an open mind. Joel said that their father was in an awkward position when it came to UFOs and ‘he tried to be several things to different groups:’ the air force wanted him to find an explanation for what people saw in the sky while those that believed in UFOs and extraterrestrials wanted Hynek to come out and support that hypothesis

Above, the cast of 'Project Blue Book,' a new scripted TV series that takes a fictionalized look at Dr J. Allen Hynek, his life, his investigations into UFOs during the early 1950s, a time period gripped by the Cold War and nuclear war fears, and the question that we are still wrestling with today: are we alone in the universe. From left, Laura Mennell as Mimi Hynek, Aidan Gillen as Dr J. Allen Hynek, Neal McDonough as General James Harding, Michael Harney as General Hugh Valentine, Michael Malarkey as Captain Michael Quinn, and Ksenia Solo as Susie Miller

David O'Leary, the show’s creator, said that the real Project Blue Book looked at over 12,000 UFO reports and roughly 700 of those remain unexplained. Since childhood, he has had a fascination with the question of whether humans are alone in the universe. ‘I personally don’t think that you can look at that the question honestly without examining the UFO phenomenon,’ O'Leary, who conceived of the TV show as the ‘real life X-Files set in the time of Mad Men,’ told DailyMail.com. Above, Aidan Gillen portraying Dr J. Allen Hynek in Episode 104: Operation Paperclip

The new series, which premiered in January, has ten episodes and David O'Leary, the show’s creator, said that he looks at the show like a ten-hour movie. O'Leary told DailyMail.com: ‘The show is a piece of entertainment but my goal always was for it to also spark curiosity, towards educating people about these real life cases and about this era.’ Above, Laura Mennell as Mimi Hynek and Aidan Gillen as Dr J. Allen Hynek. The real couple married in 1942, and they would stay together until Hynek's death in 1986, and have five children together – Scott, Roxane, Joel, Paul and Ross

After the government shut down Project Blue Book in 1969, Hynek, who was then teaching at Northwestern University, launched the Center for UFO Studies in 1973 and penned books. In his 1972 book, ‘The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry,’ Hynek detailed what he termed ‘close encounters:’ the first was a person seeing a UFO but from a distance; the second was UFOs ‘physical effect on the environment,’ such as crop circles; and the third was a person interacting ‘with beings that appear with the UFOs.’

It was the last gradation that inspired director Steven Spielberg’s smash hit ‘Close Encounters of Third Kind,’ released in late 1977. By then, Hynek was a popular author who also had cachet within the scientific community.

O’Connell pointed out in his book that Hynek wrote Spielberg after he had heard about the director’s upcoming film and its title. Spielberg wrote the astronomer back, paid Hynek $1,000 to use his phrase and hired him as a technical advisor for the film at $500 a day, according to the book.

‘While on set, Hynek got to talking with Spielberg about making a “Hitchcok-type” cameo in the movie,’ O’Connell wrote, ‘and Spielberg loved the idea so much that he filmed a whole sequence with Hynek interacting with the childlike aliens who have emerged from the “mothership.” ‘

Paul and Joel Hynek fondly recalled their father’s brush with celebrity after the film came out.

‘All of my friends thought it was extra cool to have dad in the big Hollywood movie,’ Paul said.

Paul Hynek noted that while his father did think there was something to UFOs, he was not completely sold on the idea of extraterrestrials, and had other theories about them, ‘more likely something like interdimensional travel or something even perhaps more exotic.’

‘I think one of the biggest misconceptions of my father is that he went from a, you know, confirmed skeptic of the bunkum of flying saucers to a dedicated believer in extraterrestrials having visited us,’ he said.

Their father, Joel noted, was in an awkward position when it came to UFOs and ‘he tried to be several things to different groups:’ the air force wanted him to find an explanation for what people saw in the sky while those that believed in UFOs and extraterrestrials wanted Hynek to come out and support that hypothesis.

‘He walked a fine line there to keep the whole alive, if you will,’ Joel said.

By 1981, the man who had dismissed UFOs as ‘sheer nonsense,’ said in a radio interview that he had seen them twice.

‘I have seen, on two occasions, two things which satisfy the definition of UFO,’ Hynek said, according to the book. ‘It was obviously an object, it was flying, and has remained unidentified to this day. But I’ve never had a close encounter, that is never anything really close-by that I could say, ‘My gosh, this is really something!’

‘…I feel somewhat left out.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

10-02-2019 om 00:45 geschreven door peter

Japan Will Land a Spacecraft on Asteroid Ryugu This Month to Snag a Sample

A Japanese asteroid probe will snag samples of its target space rock later this month, if all goes according to plan.

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which has been studying the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) near-Earth asteroid Ryugu up close since last June, will make its first sample-grabbing dive just two weeks from now.

"The touchdown operation to collect a sample from Ryugu will be between February 20th-22nd. Hayabusa2 is scheduled to begin the descent from February 21 and touch down on the surface of Ryugu around 8 a.m. on February 22 (JST). It is the pinnacle of the mission!" Hayabusa2 team members said via Twitter Wednesday (Feb. 6). [Japan's Hayabusa2 Asteroid Mission in Pictures]

Japan Standard Time is 14 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time, so the touchdown will take place on the night of Feb. 21 for folks in North and South America (and around midnight for people throughout Europe).

This month's operation was originally scheduled to take place in October, but mission team members delayed the activity to give themselves more time to take stock of Ryugu's unexpectedly complex and rugged surface.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

09-02-2019 om 23:51 geschreven door peter

The hottest 5 years on record: 2016, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2014

BY MIHAI ANDREI

Officially, 2018 has been the 4th hottest year on record, fulfilling a dreadful pattern: the past five years have been the hottest since mankind started recording global temperatures in 1880. This is no coincidence — it’s a clear exemplification of the warming trend our planet is experiencing, and that we are causing.

Global average annual temperature anomalies from NASA’s global Land-Ocean Temperature Index data set (1951-1980 base period).

Graph and highlight credits: Logic of Science.

“The key message is that the planet is warming,” Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, told reporters at a news conference. “And our understanding of why those trends are occurring is also very robust. It’s because of the greenhouse gases that we[‘ve] put into the atmosphere over the last 100 years.

Both NOAA and NASA have confirmed that 2018 was the 4th hottest year on record. They also double-checked their data with other external and independent groups, further confirming the results: last year, global land- and ocean-surface temperatures were 1.42 degrees Fahrenheit (0.79 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average.

The warming wasn’t uniform, however. In North America, temperatures were closer to the century average, but the difference was more than made up for in other parts of the world.

Yet even without elevated temperatures, the effects of climate change were visible in the US. It was the third wettest year on record — yet at the same time, drought ravaged parts of the country. There were also much more extreme weather events than normal, something which is increasingly attributed to climate change.

Researchers also warned that the climate change and the damage will pale in comparison to what we will experience in the future, especially if we continue to spew carbon at the rate we currently are.

The data in case is extremely reliable, and climate scientists have gone to great lengths to avoid any potential uncertainties. For instances, they factored in how different methodologies for data acquisition and processing may have changed over the years and factored in the “urban heat island” effect” in which cities are warmer than the surrounding environment. Nowadays, agencies collect most of the data from rural areas — which is also controlled for.

Overall, you could hardly imagine more convincing data to show that climate change is happening. So one can only wonder — for those people who don’t “believe” in climate change (although believing in a scientific reality doesn’t really mean anything), what would it take to convince them? Would that even be possible? Or is it a “hoax” or a “liberal conspiracy” no matter what the evidence says?

Now is a really good time to remember that science is non-partisan, and the science says we’re causing a lot of trouble for ourselves and the rest of the planet. It’s time to reduce emissions and start cleaning up after ourselves.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

09-02-2019 om 23:26 geschreven door peter

Europe’s Mars rover named “Rosalind Franklin” in honor of DNA pioneer

 BY MIHAI ANDREI

Artistic depiction of the ExoMars rover.

Image credits: ESA.

In July 2018, the UK space agency announced a competition to name the rover, which is scheduled to launch in 2020 as part of the ongoing ExoMars mission. Over 36,000 people from all over the European Union sent their proposals and suggestions. Apparently, the ESA learned from the previous “Boaty McBoatFace” experience and instead of choosing the most popular suggestion, they had a team of experts select from the proposals.

The ESA has a long tradition of naming its missions after famous researchers, and this was no exception. British astronaut Tim Peake announced the decision: the rover will be named Rosalind Franklin.

Rosalind was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer who contributed to unraveling the double helix structure of our DNA. However, her contribution was ignored and even denied in subsequent years. This is a well-deserved recognition of her contribution.

“This name reminds us that it is in the human genes to explore. Science is in our DNA, and in everything we do at ESA. Rosalind the rover captures this spirit and carries us all to the forefront of space exploration,” says ESA Director General Jan Woerner.

Rosalind herself was much enamored with space exploration, although unfortunately, she did not get to witness to much of it.

“In the last year of Rosalind’s life, I remember visiting her in hospital on the day when she was excited by the news of the [Soviet Sputnik satellite] – the very beginning of space exploration,” Franklin’s sister, Jenifer Glynn, said according to the BBC. ”She could never have imagined that over 60 years later there would be a rover sent to Mars bearing her name, but somehow that makes this project even more special.”

The new ExoMars rover will be the first of its kind, being able to combine the capability to roam around Mars and to study its subsurface. The mission is being run by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s Roscosmos. ExoMars was originally supposed to have three parts: an orbiter, this rover, and a lander, named Schiaparelli after an Italian astronomer. However, Schiaparelli crashed into Mars, a disaster that was likely caused by a software bug.

If everything goes according to plan, the mission will launch in 2020, and Rosalind Franklin will land on Mars in 2021, offering us a new understanding of the geological processes on the Red Planet.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

09-02-2019 om 23:12 geschreven door peter

Found! Fastest-Orbiting Asteroid Zips Around Sun in Just 165 Days

09-02-2019 om 22:40 geschreven door peter

SpaceX, Boeing (and NASA) Push Back 1st Test Launches of Private Spaceships

SpaceX's new astronaut taxi won't make its inaugural trip to the International Space Station (ISS) this month after all.

SpaceX and Boeing are developing commercial space capsules — called Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner, respectively — to carry NASA astronauts to and from the orbiting lab.

SpaceX had been targeting Feb. 23 for Crew Dragon's shakeout cruise to the ISS, an uncrewed flight called Demo-1. Starliner was scheduled to perform a similar mission in March. But launch dates for both flights have just been pushed to the right, NASA announced today (Feb. 6). [Crew Dragon and Starliner: A Look at the Upcoming Astronaut Taxis]

"The agency now is targeting March 2 for launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon on its uncrewed Demo-1 test flight. Boeing's uncrewed Orbital Flight Test is targeted for launch no earlier than April," NASA officials wrote in the status update.

"These adjustments allow for completion of necessary hardware testing, data verification, remaining NASA and provider reviews, as well as training of flight controllers and mission managers," they added.

The next big box to check after these demonstration flights will be tests of the private vehicles' emergency escape systems, which would get the capsules away from danger if a problem arose during launch. Boeing plans to run this test in May, and SpaceX will perform its version in June.

Then will come huge milestones — crewed test flights to the ISS. Astronauts haven't launched to orbit from American soil since July 2011, when NASA retired its space shuttle fleet. Since then, the space agency has been dependent on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to perform this taxi service.

Crew Dragon's crew-carrying demonstration is currently scheduled for July, and Starliner's for no earlier than August, according to the new NASA update. Operational flights will begin sometime thereafter, assuming everything goes well.

The latest delay is far from the first for the commercial-crew program. When NASA inked its big multibillion-dollar deals with SpaceX and Boeing in 2014, for example, agency officials said they expected Crew Dragon and Starliner to be in operation by 2017.

"There still are many critical steps to complete before launch, and, while we eagerly are anticipating these launches, we will step through our test flight preparations and readiness reviews," Kathy Lueders, NASA's commercial crew program manager, said in today's update. "We are excited about seeing the hardware we have followed through development, integration, and ground testing move into flight."

• Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published in November 2018 by Grand Central Publishing.
• Follow him on Twitter@michaeldwall.
• Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
• Originally published on Space.com.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

09-02-2019 om 22:22 geschreven door peter