Look What NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Just Spotted Lurking in the Red Planet’s Arbot Hills
A tiny green dot appearing in an image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captures a historic tale of Red Planet exploration by one of its first Earthling visitors.
That visitor—a robotic rover named Perseverance—has been conducting investigations on Mars since February 18, 2021, and the new aerial images reveal its current location in an area that mission specialists have dubbed “Arbot.”
While Perseverance’s latest appearance reveals little more than a greenish spec on the planet’s rust-colored surface, also visible in the new images are the long path its formidable tires have left in the Martian soil as the robotic explorer has trekked west of its initial landing site.
The new images, captured on June 13, 2026, were taken just one day before Perseverance broke the previous distance record held by a robotic explorer on Mars: NASA’s Opportunity rover.
However, Perseverance completed this phase of its journey in record time compared to its predecessor, which took more than 11 years to traverse a similar distance. Perseverance, by contrast, covered the same distance in less than half that time, with just five years and four months of travel now behind it.
In the image above, NASA’s Perseverance Rover appears in the center of the image as a small, greyish-green reflective spot. Also visible are the impressions left by its all-terrain tires, revealing the robotic rover’s long path over the last several years of Martian exploration
(Image Credit: Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
The images were made possible by the MROs’ High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which also captured surface features in the Arbot area that include ridges and windswept areas along Mars’ rugged exterior.
Built and operated by the University of Arizona, HiRISE captures images with resolutions as fine as about 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel, allowing researchers to distinguish features roughly the size of a kitchen table from orbit. The camera has returned hundreds of thousands of detailed images since the MRO arrived at Mars two decades ago, contributing to a growing data set that has transformed scientists’ understanding of the Red Planet.
Documenting everything from active dust avalanches and shifting dunes to fresh impact craters, the unprecedented resolution its imagery provides has made HiRISE one of the most powerful planetary imaging instruments ever deployed.
Last year, the MRO’s HiRISE camera also successfully captured images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it made its way past Mars during its trip through our Solar System. Although the HiRISE images weren’t the clearest images of the interstellar visitor obtained during its visit, they did help demonstrate just how formidable NASA’s MRO and its suite of instruments are.
Additional details about Perseverance and its mission can be found at NASA’s official web page, and information about the MRO can be found here.
Archaeologists stumble upon ancient Mexican ruins unlike anything seen before
COATEPEC, June 20 — Mexican archaeologists unearthed ancient ruins with signs of Mayan culture as well as “never before seen” characteristics in the eastern state of Veracruz.
President Claudia Sheinbaum called the discovery “very relevant” during her morning press conference yesterday, saying her government would allocate resources for the investigation and restoration of the site.
The site includes a circular stone platform unlike any other unearthed in that part of Mexico.
Researchers also discovered a monolith depicting a figure with potential Mayan features, the National Institute of Archaeology and History (INAH) said.
“It’s a unique, unprecedented finding,” said Lino Espinoza Garcia, an archaeologist for the INAH and one of the coordinators for the Campo Viejo site near the town of Coatepec.
Dating back to the Early Classic period between 200 and 600 AD, the pre-Hispanic ruins include a flagstone and limestone platform adorned with almost squared lines or figures as well as the circular stones.
These attributes have never been recorded in this region of Mexico, the INAH said in a statement.
It’s “a very particular structure,” said Alberto Vazquez, the other archaeologist responsible for the site.
“We don’t have any records so far of a correlation with other (ancient) sites.”
The monolith stands 1.88m (6.16 feet) high, 1.47m (4.82 feet) wide at its broadest point and 68cm (2.23 feet) at the narrowest.
The stone depicts a scene of a symbolic character, according to experts.
“They are two characters who are requesting something, they have a bowl and are receiving something, we think it’s a liquid. Obviously, in that context, it’s a divine liquid, we think it would be water,” Espinoza detailed.
The archaeologist believes the image could reflect the era of a great drought in the region, which could explain why two members of the elite, one of them with Mayan traits, are depicted receiving the fluid from a divine entity. — AFP
“We Don’t Have Any Records So Far”: Archaeologists Discover Ancient ‘Monolith’ in Mexico Unlike Anything Previously Seen
Archaeologists in Mexico report “a unique, unprecedented” discovery in the country’s state of Veracruz, including a monolith bearing unique features and pre-Hispanic ruins unlike others found in the region.
The ancient ruins are believed to display motifs that archaeologists have linked to early Maya culture, according to recent reporting by Agence France-Presse.
The monolithic sculpture, which stands taller than six feet and features an engraving that depicts a pair of individuals engaged in what may be a ritual activity, was accompanied by a large stone platform positioned nearby, and is believed to date to between A.D. 200 and 600. This falls within the Maya Early Classic period, a foundational era of the ancient civilization during which the proliferation of its hieroglyphic writing and calendar systems occurred, as well as the onset of massive stone pyramid construction.
Alberto Vazquez, one of the principal archaeologists at the site, called the discovery “a very particular structure,” adding that archaeologists in Mexico presently “don’t have any records so far of a correlation with other sites.”
The site layout during recent excavations, which shows the position of the monolith in-situ
(Image Credit: INAH)
Monumental construction was a hallmark of the Maya Early Classic period, an era that was also partially defined by the widespread use of sculpted stone stelae and altars that often bore historical significance related to political events.
These stelae and altars preserved a record of events from the period using the Maya Long Count calendar, as rulership governed by hereditary dynasties was believed to leverage religious ceremonies to help legitimize their positions in power.
Several aspects of the recent discovery align with such known components of Early Classic period structures, although some elements about the site remain outliers, such as the circular stone platform, which bears little resemblance to others found throughout Mexico.
The most intriguing component of the site is its monolith, which stands slightly taller than six feet and is under five feet across at its broadest point. The sculpture also features a pair of individuals that researchers say is likely related to symbolism associated with the period in question.
An artistic rendering of the imagery depicted on the monolith, which features two individuals receiving what archaeologists interpret as a “divine liquid”
(Image Credit: Lino Espinoza)
Lino Espinoza Garcia, an archaeologist with Mexico’s National Institute of Archaeology and History (INAH), described the imagery on the monolith as depicting “two characters who are requesting something,” adding that the individuals “have a bowl and are receiving something.”
“[W]e think it’s a liquid,” said Garcia, who also serves as a coordinator at the nearby Campo Viejo site near Coatepec, Mexico. “Obviously, in that context, it’s a divine liquid, we think it would be water.”
Additional discoveries at the site include a flagstone and a large platform made of limestone, which features a series of square-lined patterns, which INAH archaeologists say are unlike those found at nearby sites.
One possible interpretation of the discovery is that the figures depicted with a possible “divine liquid” may document a period of drought that struck the region, which could account for the depiction of two individuals receiving water from a God or other divine figure. Garcia and his colleagues also suggest the two recipients of the liquid may have been members of the ruling class from the period.
During a press conference last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the discovery “very relevant” and added that investigations would continue with support from her administration.
For Garcia and others, the monolith and its surrounding features offer a unique look at features unlike those they have worked with in the past and may help to deepen our understanding of ancient cultural and political dynamics in Mexico’s pre-Hispanic past.
“It’s a unique, unprecedented finding,” Garcia said.
Nun warns that aliens are 'fallen angels' invading Earth to cast doubt on the existence of God
by Liam Randall / News Reporter
A Catholic nun has warned that alleged alien encounters are actually demons
(Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)
A Catholic nun has dropped a bombshell claim about UFOs, warning that alleged alien encounters are actually a sinister invasion by "fallen angels." Mother Miriam claims that the spooky phenomena people see in the skies are rooted in a dark spiritual realm, rather than coming from distant planets.
Speaking out on her podcast after a listener asked if ETs were real or spiritual, she didn't hold back. Mother Miriam said: "I think sooner look at the demonic side than the extraterrestrial."
While the Catholic Church doesn't have an official stance on aliens, the holy woman believes the truth is far more terrifying.
Mother Miriam claims that the spooky phenomena people see in the skies are rooted in a dark spiritual realm(
Image: @MotherMiriamHighlights/Youtube)
Channelling the teachings of medieval theologian St Thomas Aquinas, she argued that angels are the original extraterrestrials because they come from another world.
She said: "The Catholic position, there is such a thing as extraterrestrial intelligence. These creatures really are from another world, the spiritual world. They're what we call angels."
But she warned that not all of these cosmic beings come in peace. "Some of these angels are ministers of light. Others are ministers of deception and destruction," she said in a YouTube video.
Mother Miriam argued that angels are the original extraterrestrials because they come from another world
(Image: Getty Images)
Mother Miriam, who was born Rosalind Moss in Brooklyn before converting and leading a monastery in Oklahoma, believes these entities are playing a dangerous game with humanity.
She claims their ultimate goal is to steer people away from God, using UFO obsession as the perfect smoke screen.
She said: "They do all they can to deceive human beings and draw them into a belief system without God, without faith, and without the necessary graces for their salvation."
She added that if these forces "can get people wrapped up in theories of alien visitations and extraterrestrial visitors to Earth, if they can get them absorbed and fascinated by any number of paranormal phenomena and distracted from God, they will have succeeded in their diabolical mission to deceive and to destroy."
The nun claims we are right in the thick of a supernatural battle for the universe.
She said: "These extraterrestrial forces are involved in a great cosmic war. And human beings are a part of a conflict. Once that is understood, all that remains is for you to decide on which side you plan to do battle."
Mother Miriam isn't alone in her wild theories. US Vice President JD Vance previously made headlines on a podcast by suggesting UFOs are actually "demons."
TV host Tucker Carlson has also pushed the theory that celestial phenomena are demonic entities. Even movie legend Steven Spielberg previously admitted that finding real aliens could rock humanity to its core.
Speaking ahead of the release of his film Disclosure Day, he said: "What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God our God only on this planet? Or is God a god for every system where there's civilisation and intelligent life, and even developing life?"
Despite her terrifying warnings, Mother Miriam hasn't completely ruled out the idea of actual aliens existing.
She said: "It's possible there are other planets. The church is not definitive on that. If we find out one day that there is truly life on other planets, well, we'll know then. But so far, our Lord hasn't shown us that."
Strange formation in NASA's Mars photo fuels claims of extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet
A strangely shaped object photographed on the Martian surface has reignited bizarre theories about extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet.
The picture, captured by NASA's Opportunity rover in 2014, recently resurfaced online after social media users claimed the object resembles an 'alien gun.'
Scott C Waring, a Martian researcher from 'UFO Sighting Daily,' suggested the 'gun' is evidence of why NASA sent a rover to Mars to retrieve alien technology.
'Alien gun on Mars photos, only one still exists, others deleted by NASA,' Waring shared on X on Tuesday.
The image was first circulated by Waring in 2016, writing in a blog post that the supposed weapon was 'about one foot long.'
'I have to admit... It's incredible,' he shared. 'The exact location of the gun is at SOL 3773, which is between Mt Edgecumbe and Wdowiak Ridge.'
NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars on January 25, 2004, touching down in a small impact crater known as Eagle Crater on the Meridiani Planum.
However, the robot fell silent in June 2018 during a severe, planet-wide dust storm that blocked sunlight from reaching its panels. After spending months attempting to re-establish contact, NASA officially declared the mission complete in February 2019.
The picture, captured by NASA's Opportunity rover in 2014, recently resurfaced online after social media users claimed the object resembles an ' alien gun.'
However, it seems the UFO researchers' claims are nothing more than a case of pareidolia, a psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items.
While Waring is sure Opportunity spotted a gun on the Martian landscape, others believe otherwise.
One X user commented: 'I'm not an expert, but I believe this is a rock....'
While another joked: 'Why would aliens have guns designed for human hands and fingers? lol.'
Waring has been sharing bizarrely shaped rocks on the Red Planet for about a decade now, with one in 2016 that he claimed was a shoe.
'While looking through some Mars rover photos, I found a lone shoe on the edge of the crater,' he wrote on his website.
‘This is probably a shoe of a species that was at war long ago, the shoe being the lone evidence that the person had ever existed.’
The discovery was spotted on August 24, 2016, however, the original photo from the Opportunity was taken in 2013.
The image was first circulated by Warning in 2016, writing in a blog post that the supposed weapon was 'about one foot long'
Waring has been sharing bizarrely shaped rocks on the Red Planet for about a decade now, with one in 2016 that he claimed was a shoe
The NASA image shows a cluster of rocks spread out on the dusty planet, and the lone shoe can be seen to the right among the rubble, which may also just be another rock.
However, Waring is sure this ‘shoe’ is all that is left of a soldier who lost their life on the battlefield.
‘How many times on a battlefield or at a catastrophic event have we seen photos in the newspaper of the shoes of victims…alone…evidence of how hard they were hit, how fast they were taken from us? Well, this is such evidence,’ he wrote.
The chilling visions of hell that a doctor says reveal we're living in God's simulation
A doctor who studies near-death experiences says that there is now a strange overlap between the Christian vision of hell and the theory that the world is a giant simulation.
Dr Orson Wedgwood is a New Zealand-based scientist and author who works in healthcare research. He told the Daily Mail that dark experiences involving visions of the afterlife often have many things in common, such as a stench, dark figures described as demons and violence.
According to Wedgwood, these similarities point to hell-like near-death experiences being more than just hallucinations: they could be real experiences that occur within a God-created 'simulation,' serving as warnings for those who have rejected God.
In Wedgwood's view, as a scientist and devout Christian, NDEs are directly connected to the controversial simulation theory because the simulation’s purpose is to sort out souls based on their life choices.
The doctor said: 'We are in a created environment, or a “simulation” in which we are being tested. Our consciousness, how we behave, and the experiences we have are real, but the rest is not.'
'The simulation is designed to sort us into those who will be with God after the simulation is over versus those who won’t, all in a safe environment where we can’t do any damage.'
The simulation theory suggests that what humans perceive as reality is actually a computer-generated 'video game' of some sort - a premise which was depicted in the blockbuster film series The Matrix.
Believers have claimed that humans are unknowingly being fed this simulated consciousness either for their own good or for nefarious means, with the world's first trillionaire, Elon Musk, suggesting a creator being of the universe runs the simulation.
Pictured: A common depiction of hell, inhabited by demons and fiery landscapes (Stock Image
In December, Musk appeared on The Katie Miller Podcast and speculated that our world could be an 'alien Netflix series,' saying that the purpose of life would therefore be to keep humanity excited to increase our 'ratings' and prevent our creator from turning the computer off.
As for the link between this theory and the claims of many who said they saw a vision of hell instead of heaven, Wedgwood claimed that those who do not show interest in God either lose the eternal part of themselves and die or find themselves in a dark place.
'Most of this is in line with the Bible, and it is also somewhat in line with simulation theory expounded by people like Elon Musk who have concluded that life is not a random act of nature,' Wedgwood explained.
However, the NDE researcher noted that human souls in this alleged simulation can still be rescued if they find themselves in a hellish realm, but only if they call out to God.
'One of the ones that I heard about years and years ago, and it resonated because I’m a Christian, was Ian McCormack; he was a New Zealander who was surfing.'
In 1982, McCormack had been stung by a jellyfish and claimed he descended into hell, saying: 'I could feel the evil; it was all around me.'
McCormack said he had a vision of his mother, who told him to cry out to God and he would hear and forgive the surfer.
He was reported as saying: 'I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a radiant light and delivered out of the kingdom of darkness.'
In the blockbuster movie The Matrix, protagonist Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, discovered the human race lives in a simulated reality hundreds of years from now (Pictured)
Dr Orson Wedgwood (Pictured) is a medical scientist who works in healthcare research and says that ‘dark’ near-death experiences often have many things in common
Wedgwood said the feeling of hopelessness is typical in NDEs involving visions of hell, which are also among the rarest sorts of near-death experiences reported.
Studies have suggested that only 14 percent of patients claiming they had an out-of-body experience said it was negative. Of those, around half featured demonic imagery in a realm they suspected was hell.
However, a study published in 2019 in the journal Memory, which compared positive and negative near-death experiences (NDEs), claimed there is little difference between these events and that they basically display the same type of brain activity, just with varying emotional tones.
Study authors said this helps explain why some people come back from the brink of death with terrifying stories that feel just as vivid and life-changing as the peaceful ones.
Wedgwood’s book, ‘Near Death Experience and AWARE studies: Proof Of The Soul and God?’ explored the controversial world of negative near-death experiences, including some truly horrifying testimonials.
In one account by a 42-year-old woman, cited in a 2019 study, she described entities surrounding her as she neared death.
'I am beginning to distinguish forms in this incredibly thick fog. Human, bestial, monstrous. I am swimming in a stinking stench filled with horrible and furtive creatures and I am feeling overwhelmed with pain,' the woman recalled.
Wedgwood said his research has revealed that people who have such experiences often become acutely aware that they are in hell, adding that scientific research often dismisses such experiences as not genuine NDEs.
'Many colleagues I've worked with over the years, PhDs, doctors, and many of them will agree, perhaps more privately than publicly, that they cannot provide explanations of the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and where consciousness comes from,' the doctor said.
'A lot of them now are adopting this simulation theory that we're living in a simulation, and this is like serious PhDs.'
Catch me if you can! Inside NASA's daring plan to save a space telescope from plunging back to Earth
3 is preparing to launch a daring mission to save a precious space telescope from plunging back to Earth.
The Swift Observatory - NASA's 'multitool' for studying the cosmos - was launched in 2004 but has been falling rapidly due to intense solar weather.
To save it, the space agency has hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the tumbling telescope back into a stable orbit.
And the ambitious 'high-risk, high-reward mission' could blast off as soon as tomorrow.
The $30 million (£22.7 million) salvage operation will launch a fridge-sized robot into orbit, docking with Swift and gently carrying it out into space.
The rescue robot, dubbed Link, sports three arms just over three feet (one metre) in length that end in two finger-like pinchers resembling the hands of a Lego minifigure.
Once these arms grab hold of Swift, Link will spend several months raising its altitude from a dangerously low 224 miles (360 km) to a more stable 373 miles (600 km) above Earth.
If all goes according to plan, this could extend Swift's lifetime by at least a year and pave the way for a mission to save the Hubble Space Telescope in the future.
The Swift Observatory is a critical instrument because, as its name suggests, it is able to turn quickly and catch fleeting events like supernova explosions.
However, in 2024, the sun reached the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, triggering a period of intense space weather that was far more severe than expected.
This space weather caused Earth's atmosphere to slightly expand, increasing the drag on satellites and pulling them back down to Earth.
Soon it became clear that, unless something was done almost immediately, Swift could burn up in the atmosphere by the end of 2026.
Nicky Fox, NASA's science mission chief, told The Associated Press: 'If we let Swift re-enter, we would lose that telescope. We would lose a lot of capability.
'We don't currently have the budget to build another one to replace that.'
In September last year, NASA hired Katalyst Space Technologies to find a way to preserve Swift into the future.
But to save the observatory, they needed to start boosting its orbit before it hit the point of no return at 185 miles (300 km) above Earth.
The $30 million (£22.7 million) salvage operation will launch a fridge-sized robot (pictured) into orbit, docking with Swift and gently carrying it out into space
The Swift Observatory was launched in 2004, but intense space weather has degraded its orbit and it could crash back to Earth by the end of this year unless action is taken
NASA hired the US-based startup Katalyst Space Technologies to design a spacecraft (pictured) that could push Swift back into a stable orbit before it passed a point of no return
With Swift expected to pass that critical altitude in November, there was less than a year to design, build, and launch the new robot.
However, against all odds, Link is now ready to launch and attempt to save NASA's precious space telescope.
Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA's astrophysics director, says: 'I have to be honest. No one thought it was going to be possible. No one thought we would get as far as we've already gotten today.'
The robot will be launched from an atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket strapped to the belly of a plane.
Once the plane reaches around 40,000 feet (12,190 metres), the rocket will detach and free-fall for a few seconds before firing its three-stage motors and taking Link into orbit within 10 minutes.
The spacecraft will need to travel for about a month to rendezvous with Swift and catch it, and a few more months to gently push it back into orbit.
That means Swift could be back at full operational capacity by September, extending the observatory's lifetime by years.
While the mission is not without its risks and success is not guaranteed, the potential savings for NASA make this risky task worth the danger.
The robot, dubbed Link (pictured), is now ready to launch and will soon be on its way to rendezvous with Swift
Link will be launched on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket that will be taken to 40,000 feet strapped to the belly of a plane (pictured)
Swift originally cost $250 million (£189.2 million), and with NASA's science mission budget having been slashed by 47 per cent, there simply isn't the money to replace it.
Mr Domagal-Goldman says: 'This is a high-risk, high-reward mission. We have much to gain by attempting this boost, which is more affordable than trying to replace Swift’s capabilities.'
This will also be an important test for Katalyst Space Technologies' ability to salvage and preserve doomed spacecraft.
Those are capabilities that may soon be needed to save the Hubble Space Telescope, which has also been affected by the intense solar weather.
The 36-year-old telescope was serviced five times during the shuttle era, with spacewalking astronauts making repairs and fixing a critical optical issue in the main mirror.
However, the ageing observatory is now slipping out of its stable orbit and could need to be boosted in 2028 to remain operational.
Any lessons learned while moving Swift this year could be key to ensuring that this critical piece of technology isn't damaged in the process.
Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst, says: 'Swift wasn't designed to be serviced. By demonstrating we can quickly and cost-effectively extend its lifetime, we're creating a blueprint for servicing spacecraft that were never designed for on-orbit maintenance.
The Hubble telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, via the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
It is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889.
He is arguably most famous for discovering that the universe is expanding and the rate at which is does so - now coined the Hubble constant.
The Hubble telescope is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889 (pictured)
Hubble has made more than 1.5 million observations since its mission began in 1990 and helped publish some 18,000 scientific papers.
It circles the Earth at a speed of about 17,000mph (27,300kph) in low Earth orbit at about 340 miles in altitude.
Hubble has the pointing accuracy of .007 arc seconds, which is like being able to shine a laser beam focused on Franklin D. Roosevelt's head on a dime roughly 200 miles (320km) away.
The Hubble telescope is named after Edwin Hubble who was responsible for coming up with the Hubble constant and is one of the greatest astronomers of all-time
Hubble's primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5 inches) across and in total is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long - the length of a large school bus.
Hubble's launch and deployment in April 1990 marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope.
Thanks to five servicing missions and more than 25 years of operation, our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same.
Catholic nun issues chilling warning about aliens amid religious conflict
A Catholic nun has issued a chilling warning about aliens, suggesting that many alleged extraterrestrial encounters may have a far more sinister explanation.
Responding to a question from a listener named Connor, Mother Miriam said she leans toward the belief that the UFO phenomenon is rooted in the spiritual realm rather than in visitors from distant planets.
'I think sooner look at the demonic side than the extraterrestrial,' Mother Miriam said during a recent discussion on her podcast.
Connor had written to the nun asking whether she believed alleged alien encounters were the result of classic extraterrestrial visitors or something more spiritual in nature.
The Catholic Church has never taken an official position on the existence of extraterrestrial life, leaving the question open to scientific inquiry and personal speculation.
However, Mother Miriam said she believes the 'best explanation' for many UFO sightings and alleged alien encounters may be the work of fallen angels.
Citing the teachings of St Thomas Aquinas, she noted that the medieval theologian described angels as extraterrestrial beings because they originate from another world, the spiritual realm.
'The Catholic position, there is such a thing as extraterrestrial intelligence,' she said. 'These creatures really are from another world, the spiritual world. They're what we call angels.'
Vice President JD Vance also made headlines after stating on a conservative podcast that he believes UFOs and unexplained aerial phenomena are actually 'demons' rather than extraterrestrial aliens.
Prominent conservative political commentator and television host Tucker Carlson has also discussed his belief on his shows and podcasts that celestial phenomena or aliens may actually be spiritual, demonic entities.
The idea that aliens may exist has also created religious conflict, as even Steven Spielberg suggested the confirmation could shake people's faith.
''What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God our God only on this planet?' he said in an interview leading up to the release of his film Disclosure Day.
'Or is God a god for every system where there's civilization and intelligent life, and even developing life?'
According to Mother Miriam, not all of these spiritual beings are benevolent.
'Some of these angels are ministers of light. Others are ministers of deception and destruction,' she said in a YouTube video.
Mother Miriam, born as Rosalind Moss, was raised in a Jewish home in Brooklyn, New York, but converted to Catholicism as an adult.
Mother Miriam said she leans toward the belief that the UFO phenomenon is rooted in the spiritual realm rather than in visitors from distant planets
She served as the head of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel's Hope monastery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
She warned that fallen angels work to deceive humanity and distract people from God and faith.
'They do all they can to deceive human beings and draw them into a belief system without God, without faith, and without the necessary graces for their salvation,' she said.
Mother Miriam suggested that an obsession with UFOs, extraterrestrial visitors and paranormal phenomena could serve as a spiritual distraction.
'If they can get people wrapped up in theories of alien visitations and extraterrestrial visitors to Earth, if they can get them absorbed and fascinated by any number of paranormal phenomena and distracted from God, they will have succeeded in their diabolical mission to deceive and to destroy,' she said.
The nun went on to describe what she called a 'great cosmic war' involving these spiritual forces and humanity itself.
'These extraterrestrial forces are involved in a great cosmic war. And human beings are a part of a conflict,' she said.
'Once that is understood, all that remains is for you to decide on which side you plan to do battle.'
Despite her comments, Mother Miriam acknowledged that the possibility of life on other planets cannot be entirely ruled out.
'It's possible there are other planets,' she said. 'The church is not definitive on that.'
She added that if humanity one day discovers genuine extraterrestrial life, then believers will have to grapple with that reality.
'If we find out one day that there is truly life on other planets, well, we'll know then,' she said. 'But so far, our Lord hasn't shown us that.'
The remarks come at a time of renewed public fascination with UFOs and alleged non-human intelligence, fueled by congressional hearings, declassified government documents and a growing number of military encounters with unexplained objects in the sky.
De Noord-Atlantische koudevlek: toeval of teken van een groter klimaatprobleem?
©The Daily Digest
Afbeelding: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio/Goddard Space Flight Center
Een belangrijk raadsel dat opgelost moet worden
In de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan, ten zuiden van IJsland en Groenland, is een raadselachtige 'koude zone' ontstaan. In dit uitgestrekte zeegebied daalt de temperatuur continu, wat in contrast staat met de algehele opwarming van de oceaan.
©The Daily Digest
Snel afkoelingsproces
Volgens CNN zeggen experts dat dit belangrijke Atlantische gebied al meer dan een eeuw aan het afkoelen is, in die mate dat de temperatuur van het water volgens de beschikbare gegevens sinds 1900 met ongeveer één graad Celsius is gedaald.
©The Daily Digest
Twee theorieën over wat er gaande is
In deze context wordt er binnen de wetenschap gedebatteerd over twee theorieën over de mogelijke oorzaak van deze 'koude plek'. Enerzijds zou het te wijten kunnen zijn aan warmteverlies van het oceaanoppervlak als gevolg van veranderingen in wind en bewolking; anderzijds aan de verzwakking van het systeem dat de oceaanstromingen in de Atlantische Oceaan transporteert.
©The Daily Digest
Cruciaal kantelpunt in het klimaat
Nieuw onderzoek, waarover CNN bericht, neigt nu naar de tweede optie om dit mysterie te verklaren. Het suggereert tevens dat het een teken zou kunnen zijn dat we op het punt staan een alarmerend kantelpunt in het klimaat te bereiken, met catastrofale gevolgen voor de toekomst.
©The Daily Digest
Atlantische Meridionale Omwentelingscirculatie
De studie verwijst naar het cruciale systeem van oceaanstromingen, de AMOC (Atlantische Meridionale Omwentelingscirculatie), dat volgens experts functioneert als een gigantische transportband die warm water vanuit de tropen naar het noordelijk halfrond voert, waar het afkoelt, zinkt en weer naar het zuiden terugkeert.
©The Daily Digest
Vingerafdruk van veranderingen in de AMOC
Gezien het bestaan van de AMOC kan de 'koude zone' die we vandaag de dag in de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan zien, volgens de auteurs van de studie worden beschouwd als een vingerafdruk waarop de veranderingen binnen het systeem te zien zijn, aangezien het daar is waar de meeste waterkwaliteit die het met zich meebrengt, aankomt.
©The Daily Digest
Opwarming van de aarde en zoet water
Naast dit onderzoek hebben talrijke andere studies al gewaarschuwd voor de verzwakking van de AMOC. De reden hiervoor is dat door het smeltende ijs als gevolg van de opwarming van de aarde een enorme hoeveelheid zoet water de oceaan instroomt, waardoor het evenwicht tussen zoutgehalte en warmte verstoord raakt en de werking van dit stromingssysteem wordt beïnvloed.
©The Daily Digest
Ineenstorten in het aangezicht van de toekomst
Deze verzwakking zal blijven toenemen totdat het klimaatkantelpunt is bereikt waar wetenschappers naar verwijzen, wat onvermijdelijk zou leiden tot de ineenstorting van de AMOC, iets wat, benadrukken zij, al in deze eeuw zou kunnen gebeuren.
©The Daily Digest
Wereldwijde catastrofe
En wat zou er gebeuren in geval van een ineenstorting? De gevolgen zouden verwoestend zijn en een wereldwijde catastrofe veroorzaken, die zich zou manifesteren in een aanzienlijke stijging van de zeespiegel aan de oostkust van de Verenigde Staten of langdurige droogtes in Afrika als gevolg van de verstoring van de moesson, en bovendien het Europese continent in een permanente ijskoude winter zou storten.
©The Daily Digest
Afkoeling zowel aan de oppervlakte als op grotere diepte
Een van de ontdekkingen van deze recente studie naar de 'koude zone' in de Noord-Atlantische Oceaan, die de neiging versterkt om te denken dat het probleem ligt in de verzwakking van de AMOC, is dat de afkoeling van het water niet alleen aan de oppervlakte plaatsvond, maar ook in de diepte van de oceaan.
©The Daily Digest
Gegevens uit veldmetingen versus klimaatmodellen
Om dit te analyseren, vergeleek het team van wetenschappers dat bij het onderzoek betrokken was, de daadwerkelijke gegevens over de oceaanwarmte, verkregen via satellietonderzoek en met specifieke instrumenten die uit het water waren gehaald, met de gebruikelijke klimaatmodellen. Op basis hiervan konden ze de verandering in de trend van dit uitgestrekte watergebied in de Atlantische Oceaan waarnemen.
©The Daily Digest
Invloed van AMOC
Volgens de auteur van de studie, Stefan Rahmstorf, hoogleraar natuurkunde en oceanografie aan de Universiteit van Potsdam (Duitsland), is de AMOC duidelijk de boosdoener achter de afkoeling van deze watermassa, omdat deze, zoals hij aan CNN vertelde, "het transport van oceanische warmte beïnvloedt".
©The Daily Digest
Afbeelding: Wikipedia
Het zwakste punt in 1000 jaar
Rahmstorf benadrukte verder dat, afgezien van deze 'koude plek', ze al voldoende bewijs hadden uit talrijke eerdere studies die wezen op de verzwakking van de AMOC, in die mate dat, zo benadrukte hij, deze zich momenteel op het zwakste punt in 1000 jaar zou kunnen bevinden.
©The Daily Digest
Heeft niets te maken met atmosferische omstandigheden
Onderzoeker René van Westen van de Universiteit Utrecht (Nederland) benadrukte ook dat de resultaten van Rahmstorfs onderzoek het idee versterken dat de afkoeling van deze enorme watermassa niet wordt beïnvloed door atmosferische omstandigheden, hoewel is aangetoond dat deze wel degelijk via die weg kan plaatsvinden.
©The Daily Digest
Gebieden waar wind en bewolking weinig invloed hebben
Van Westen verwijst in dit geval naar de bijzonderheid dat het diepe water in dit specifieke gebied ook afkoelt, ondanks het feit dat elementen zoals wind of wolken hier weinig invloed hebben.
©The Daily Digest
Eenvoudige benaderingen?
Andere deskundigen, zoals David Thornally, hoogleraar oceaan- en klimaatwetenschappen aan University College London, wijzen erop dat het nog te vroeg is om definitieve uitspraken over deze kwesties te doen. Hoewel hij erkent dat de studie het bewijs voor een verband tussen de 'koude zone' en de AMOC versterkt, stelt hij dat de gegevens slechts benaderingen zijn en geen absolute waarheid weergeven.
©The Daily Digest
De noodzaak van verder onderzoek
In een gesprek met CNN waarschuwde Thornally dat er onder wetenschappers nog steeds veel onzekerheid bestaat over wat er met deze massa koud water zou kunnen gebeuren, en benadrukte hij de noodzaak van verder onderzoek: "Ik denk niet dat (deze studie) het laatste woord over dit onderwerp is", verklaarde hij.
©The Daily Digest
Er zijn nog steeds problemen die opgelost moeten worden
In dezelfde trant maakte Jonathan Baker, klimaatwetenschapper bij het Britse meteorologische instituut Met Office, duidelijk dat verder onderzoek naar dit onderwerp nodig is: "Deze studie levert aanvullend bewijs voor de bijdrage van de AMOC aan de koude luchtmassa, maar lost de kwestie niet definitief op", vertelde hij aan CNN.
{ The Daily Digest }
Top 10: Which Asteroids Impacted Earth Following the Extinction of the Dinosaurs?
Sixty-five million years ago, a colossal asteroid impacted the region near the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The scientific community continues to debate whether this event led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Nevertheless, it is certain that, subsequent to this event, the Earth persisted in being impacted by extraterrestrial objects.
Asteroids persisted in striking Earth even after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Source: www.newscientist.com
June 30 is observed globally as Asteroid Day. This occasion typically marks the peak of public interest in asteroid-related developments. During this period, scientists actively disseminate the latest discoveries in this domain to interested parties.
However, the primary concern for many individuals pertains to whether an asteroid impact on Earth 65 million years ago genuinely resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs, and whether a similar outcome may befall humanity.
Scientists have long debated the answer to the first part of the question over several decades. The Chicxulub crater, located on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, is an established geological feature. It measures approximately 180 km in diameter and 20 km in depth. Nevertheless, the asteroid responsible for its formation was merely 10 km in diameter.
It is widely acknowledged that the crater’s estimated age of 66 million years closely corresponds to the period during which many large groups of animals, including the non-avian dinosaurs, became extinct on our planet.
The Chicxulub crater immediately following its formation.
Source: www.skyatnightmagazine.com
However, there is no consensus on whether this was the primary — let alone the sole — cause of such a significant extinction event. This issue is intricately linked to the question of the extent to which collisions with large asteroids contributed to shaping the contemporary biosphere of our planet.
In fact, the Chicxulub asteroid was not the largest asteroid to have impacted our planet. Researchers have identified craters that are substantially larger; however, they have been unable to establish a connection between these craters and any mass extinctions.
Furthermore, even after the extinction of the dinosaurs, asteroids continued to impact the Earth. The craters resulting from these impacts are indeed remarkable. Below are the ten largest such craters.
The largest crater formed on Earth following the extinction of the dinosaurs is Popigai. It is situated in northern russia, near the border between krasnoyarsk krai and Yakutia. Studies have demonstrated that this structure, approximately 100 kilometers in diameter, was formed roughly 35.7 million years ago. The asteroid responsible for its formation was comparable in size to the Chicxulub asteroid — approximately 8 kilometers in diameter.
Popigai impact structure.
Source: www.smithsonianmag.com
Interestingly, there are also efforts to associate the Popigai event with a significant mass extinction of species on our planet. This is referred to as the Eocene-Oligocene extinction event, which is considerably less recognized than the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
That said, there exists a considerably more plausible candidate for the cause of its extinction: a cooling trend. The climate experienced a significant decrease in temperature and dryness. In certain regions, glaciation commenced; in others, ecosystems underwent transformations. Furthermore, this event transpired more than one and a half million years subsequent to the formation of Popigai, specifically between 33.9 and 33.4 million years ago.
The second-largest impact crater resulting from a collision between Earth and an asteroid during the Cenozoic Era is Karakul. This crater, with a diameter of 52 km, is situated in one of the highest-altitude regions on our planet — the Pamir Mountains.
Within the crater lies a lake measuring 25 km in diameter. It is the largest lake in Tajikistan and is situated at an elevation of 3,960 meters. However, there exist some discrepancies concerning its age. Certain studies estimate the crater’s age at 23 to 25 million years, whereas others suggest an age of 2.6 to 5.3 million years. Consequently, it is quite plausible that this feature represents the most recent of all those listed herein.
Karakul lake.
Source: Wikipedia
The third-largest impact structure of the Cenozoic is Montagnais. This impact crater, measuring 45 km in diameter, is situated on the seafloor — specifically, on the Atlantic Ocean shelf near the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
The age of the crater has been estimated at approximately 50.5 million years. Nonetheless, despite its size, it remains challenging to associate it with any significant event in the history of Earth’s biosphere. During that period, the Eocene epoch was ongoing, and mammals were gradually increasing in size.
Another significant crater is situated in proximity to the most populous cities along the eastern coast of the United States. This impact structure represents the formation of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, which serves as the estuary of the Susquehanna River.
The Chesapeake Bay impact crater.
Source: Wikipedia
Approximately 35.5 million years ago, an asteroid measuring several kilometers in diameter impacted this region at a velocity of 17.8 km/s. This impact resulted in the formation of a crater with a diameter of 38 km. Notably, this event transpired merely a few hundred thousand years subsequent to the Popigai asteroid impact.
This has prompted numerous scientists to hypothesize that multiple asteroid impacts could have potentially initiated climate change processes, resulting in mass extinction. However, once again, over a million years elapsed between these events and the subsequent alterations within the biosphere.
For an extended period, the Hiawatha crater remained concealed from scientists beneath the glacier bearing the same name in Greenland. It was not until 2016, through the use of aerial photography, that researchers were able to ascertain that an impact structure measuring 31 km in diameter was concealed beneath the ice mass.
The topography of the Hiawatha crater is concealed beneath the Greenland ice sheet.
Source: Wikipedia
The crater is estimated to be 58 million years old. This period corresponds to the Paleogene epoch, specifically its initial phase. During this time, mammals were commencing significant growth, displacing large flightless birds from their predominant ecological roles. The asteroid impact did not have a discernible effect on the biosphere.
Mistastin is a crater measuring 28 km in diameter situated in eastern Canada. It bears similarities to Karakul, as it contains a lake at its center that measures 16 km in diameter and has a depth of 338 meters. This geological formation was created approximately 36.4 million years ago during the late Eocene epoch.
The Kamensk crater is situated in the rostov region of russia, in proximity to the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky. It possesses a diameter of 25 kilometers and is estimated to be 49 million years old. At the moment of impact, the energy released by the asteroid was still well beyond the levels of the most powerful nuclear detonations. Nevertheless, no evidence of its influence on the planet’s biosphere has been discovered.
One of the largest craters to form on Earth following the extinction of the dinosaurs is situated in Ukraine. It is a depression located near the village of Bovtyshka in the Kirovohrad Oblast.
Boltysh crater.
Source: uain.press
The crater is enveloped by a substantial deposit of sedimentary rock; however, its characteristic features remain discernible. It measures 24 km in diameter, with its floor situated 600 meters beneath the adjacent terrain. At its core, there exists an elevation with a diameter of 6 km and a height reaching up to 550 meters.
The age of the Boltysh crater is estimated at 65.39 million years ago. This indicates that the asteroid responsible for its formation impacted Earth approximately a few hundred thousand years subsequent to the Chicxulub event. Consequently, at the time of this impact, the remaining dinosaurs may still have been inhabiting the Earth.
The Haughton crater is situated on the expansive Arctic island of Devon, which is part of Canada. The crater measures 23 km in diameter, and the asteroid responsible for its formation was approximately 2 km across. The geological structure is estimated to be between 31 and 32 million years old. It was formed subsequent to the most significant mass extinction event of the Cenozoic Era, occurring during the predominantly dry and cool Oligocene period on Earth.
Location of the Haughton impact crater.
Source: Wikipedia
The smallest among the significant craters formed following the extinction of the dinosaurs is situated in the Spanish province of Almería. Nonetheless, ascertaining its precise dimensions presents considerable challenges. The crater itself has a diameter of merely 4 km; however, the ring structures encircling it extend between 20 and 22 km in diameter.
It is also quite possible that this is the youngest among all ten largest craters (assuming Karakul is indeed 25 million years old). It was formed at a time when hominid primates were already inhabiting the planet.
NBC News: Catching Up with Whistleblowers on Secret Government UFO ProgramsNBC News correspondent Gadi Schwartz reports from the Disclosure Forum and speaks with Leslie Kean, Luis Elizondo, and Christopher Mellon about UAP transparency, declassified records, and the modern disclosure movement.
Christopher K. Mellon - Chairman of the Board
News correspondent Gadi Schwartz reported from Washington, D.C. following the Disclosure Forum 2026 national security panel, which he moderated in the Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building. The segment captured the central message from the day: unidentified anomalous phenomena are being treated seriously by lawmakers, national security professionals, journalists, and former government officials, even as major questions remain unresolved.
The report includes moments from the national security discussion, including references to recurring UAP incidents near sensitive military areas, alleged radar interference, and reports of anomalous health effects. Participants emphasized that the issue remains unsettled, but that the public record has expanded substantially through declassified documents, official videos, and congressional attention.
Schwartz also sat down with three figures closely associated with the modern public UAP disclosure movement: journalist Leslie Kean, former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon. Their work helped bring public attention to the Pentagon's secret UAP-related programs through the 2017 New York Times reporting that reshaped the national conversation.
In the conversation, the group reflected on how far the issue has moved since that first reporting. Elizondo described the early period as frightening and said the public now has thousands of pages of declassified reports and a growing body of video to examine. Mellon said that some individuals may have direct experience that gives them first hand insight, while the larger institutional question is whether government agencies have been able to process and acknowledge the information they hold.
The segment returned repeatedly to the question of evidence quality. Elizondo said there are efforts underway to compel agencies to strip sensitive metadata from videos and release more of what certain officials have already seen. Kean noted that the more sophisticated or compelling a video is, the harder it can be to declassify.
The report also touched on NASA material released through recent government file drops, including Apollo-era photographs and audio records that renewed questions about what additional historical records may exist. The discussion did not present those materials as a final answer. Instead, it underscored the need for better data, clearer context, and a more serious public process for reviewing official records.
The NBC News segment matters because it connects three strands of the current public conversation: the Disclosure Forum's national security discussion, the journalists and officials who helped bring the issue into the mainstream, and the continuing demand for higher quality evidence from government agencies.
No one in the segment claims the issue is resolved. The through line is more modest and more important: the public record is growing, the government has more information than has been released, and the next phase of disclosure will depend on whether agencies provide data that scientists, Congress, and the public can actually evaluate.
Black Disk Seen Near Mercury mission while in orbit, 1961, UFO UAP Sighting News.
US military stumped by UFO sightings over bases: Ex-defense official(NewsNation) — Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) disclosure advocate Christopher Mellon says a large part of the discussion about UFOs hinges on incursions over American military bases and the possibility that adversaries are using drones or another tech to surveil the U.S.
“I’m sorry to say these kind of incursions have been happening at bases all over the United States and overseas. It isn’t as widely known as it ought to be,” Mellon, a former senior official in the Defense Department, told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Thursday.
He estimates hundreds of incidents occur annually that baffle military leaders. In one series of events, Mellon said, UAP violated airspace over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for 17 days straight, prompting officials to move a squadron of jets.
“If the air combat command at Langley can’t control its own airspace, then you wonder how effectively they could protect Washington,” he noted.
Mellon was the keynote speaker Thursday at a UFO public disclosure forum, in which he said, “Some objects were deliberately trying to provoke us. It’s happened with our navy ships at sea.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (D-Fla.) says credible people want the public to know about recovered, non-human spacecraft and biologics, but they are worried about retribution, so she’s working to get them immunity.
“We know there have been credible whistleblowers … but they are worried about losing their clearances,” she said.
She will provide a list to Congress of people who should be granted immunity.
Mellon says it’s only a matter of time until the public gets the full disclosure.
In some cases, the unidentified objects could be drones, and in some cases, they could be more advanced technology, Mellon says. It’s been going on for decades, dating back to World War II. “It was not as much in our face as we’ve been experiencing lately,” he says.
The Pentagon, which has released some files tied to UAPs at the direction of President Trump, is seemingly mystified.
{ https://thehill.com/policy/defense/ }The U.S. Air Force once paid CU Boulder to study UFOs. Here’s what it found.
Richard Sigismond, shown here in 1983, was a Boulder resident who believed that UFOs are piloted by extraterrestrials.
Carnegie Library for Local History/Daily Camera Collection
In 1966, the U.S. Air Force funded a study at the University of Colorado Boulder to determine whether unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were extraterrestrial. CU astrophysicist Dr. Edward U. Condon studied reports of flying saucers and other mysterious airborne objects and declared them largely unfounded. A few years later, Boulder resident and social psychologist Richard Sigismond refuted Condon’s conclusions.
UFOs now are called unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). They face new scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as the general public. Now is a good time to look up — and look back — to see how Boulder fits into this “twilight zone” mystery.
For centuries, people have questioned unidentified objects seen in the sky. Nearly a century ago, in 1938, announcer Orson Welles caused a nationwide panic when he breathlessly interrupted his own radio show with descriptions of creatures emerging from an alien spacecraft on a farm in New Jersey. Although he prefaced his show with a statement that the following program was science fiction, his “War of the Worlds” episode caused panic among many listeners who believed that alien invaders had even taken over the streets of New York City.
It wasn’t until July 8, 1947, however, that the Daily Camera published multiple reports of “mysterious flying discs” in Boulder County. The objects were said to have been very bright and to move erratically. Some had pulsating red lights.
Prompting the reports was a questionable (and later refuted) report that personnel from the Roswell Army Airfield, in Roswell, New Mexico, had captured a “flying saucer” on a local ranch. Like Welles’ radio show, the “news” was splashed all over the country.
The day of the “capture” in Roswell, a Boulder newspaper writer stated, “The first report of a ‘flying disc’ over Boulder was made today. Mrs. Ernestine Pettengill, of 1354 Arapahoe, and a friend, Mrs. Ruth Bradley of Los Angeles, were walking near 15th and Grove streets at 10:30 Monday night when they saw one of the mysterious objects which have aroused nationwide curiosity.”
According to Mrs. Pettengill’s description, the object was “blue in the center and white around the edge. It was round, flat, and quite bright.” She then added, “I had been very skeptical of the talk about flying discs until I saw one myself.”
The local press, for years, continued to publish similar accounts. In 1960, Boulder County resident Ray Hawks was driving a tractor in Left Hand Canyon and watched a “flying saucer” hover for about 15 minutes. Hawks claimed that his tractor suddenly didn’t work, and the “saucer” made an “off-beat humming noise and exuded a kind of bluish smoke.”
He then told a newspaper writer, “I thought the reports of these strange aircraft were a lot of hogwash. I know better now. I was really shaken by this experience.”
In 1966, the U.S. Air Force commissioned a formal investigation headed by astrophysicist Dr. Edward U. Condon at the University of Colorado, in Boulder. The study’s purpose was to produce an unbiased scientific investigation into the possibility that unidentified flying objects may be of extraterrestrial origin.
Look magazine came out with two articles critical of Condon’s research. The first writer, in 1967, stated, “The UFO conflict long since has escalated into a religious war, with ‘believers’ on one side and ‘nonbelievers’ on the other, and Heaven help the agnostics like Dr. Condon, who say they don’t know what to believe and try to find out through logic and inquiry.”
Condon’s $500,000 “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects” was released in 1968. “Our general conclusion,” he stated, “is that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to science knowledge.” Another Look magazine article in 1968 called the study a “fiasco” and claimed that it was not objective.
Watching Condon’s study unfold was Boulder resident Richard Sigismond, who stated in a 1985 interview with the Daily Camera that he was a social scientist, a ufologist, and a senior investigator with CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies). He explained that his job was to “seek intelligent life — elsewhere.” He traveled (at his own expense) to sighting locations and often hypnotized individuals who claimed to have been abducted by aliens.
Sigismond said he had examined cattle mutilations, listened to traumatized witnesses and personally experienced two “close encounters,” but he had never met an extraterrestrial. Of that possibility, he told his interviewer, “I cannot help but feel that I would be in awe of them, respectful of their advances in physics that we haven’t quite yet dreamed of.” He died in 2018 at the age of 89.
Today, the controversy continues, with new sightings still being reported, and “little green men” perpetuated in pop culture. Perhaps a new generation of “believers” and “nonbelievers” will come up with some answers. Some would say that the answer is still up in the air.
Graffiti Wall at Mauerpark in Berlin, Germany, plays on the image of “little green men.” 2020.
Wikimedia, public domain
Garnets are found in a Martian meteorite
Garnets are found in a Martian meteorite
On Earth, garnet is best known as the bright red birthstone for January—widely used in jewelry since the Bronze Age and highly valued by the ancient Egyptians. A team of scientists has now identified a new type of rock containing garnet within a fragment of a meteorite originating from Mars.
Garnet crystal. Source: Wikipedia
Although garnet is relatively common on Earth, its existence on Mars had previously only been hypothesized, with rare microscopic inclusions found in Martian meteorites formed during their ejection from the planet. This is the first time the mineral has been identified in a rock that may have formed directly within the Martian crust.
Mars has been the target of numerous exploration missions since the 1960s, using orbiters, landers, and rovers. While the search for signs of past life has driven much of this effort, it is the planet’s inorganic components—its rocks and minerals—that preserve a record of its 4.5-billion-year history.
Minerals and rocks form through complex interactions between the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and even biological activity. Detailed analysis of newly discovered rocks and minerals can help scientists understand how the planet’s geological processes, climate, and potential habitability have evolved over time.
Garnets are a group of minerals that share the same crystal structure but have a wide range of chemical compositions. Some of the most common varieties in this group include almandine and pyrope (deep red January birthstones), as well as andradite and grossular.
The rock identified by researchers contains the garnet variety andradite. It can occur in different colors, but is most commonly yellow or green. It has also been used as a gemstone, sometimes referred to as “demantoid.” On Earth, andradite garnets are typically found in metamorphic rocks known as skarns, which form through intense heating and fluid–rock interaction.
Metamorphic environments on Earth are widespread and diverse due to active plate tectonics, which subjects rocks to extreme pressure and temperature during mountain-building and subduction processes. Mars, by contrast, lacks plate tectonics, and therefore the extent and nature of Martian metamorphism remain largely speculative and limited.
The garnet-bearing fragment of rock that was discovered may indicate a previously unknown metamorphic process on Mars, challenging our current understanding of the range of geological conditions on the Red Planet. It could also have formed in a new type of igneous rock, crystallizing from lava or magma that has never been observed on Mars before. However, despite these exciting possibilities, many uncertainties regarding the origin and formation of the garnet still remain.
The meteorite containing andradite garnet, known as NWA 8171, was found in the Sahara Desert in northwestern Africa (NWA) in 2013.
Several pieces of this meteorite are now housed in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, including the fragment analyzed by scientists. NWA 8171 is one of 18 Martian meteorites that all originate from the same impact event. The most famous of these is NWA 7034, informally known as “Black Beauty.”
All 18 paired fragments have been confirmed as Martian based on matching trapped noble gases with the Martian atmosphere, as well as their mineral chemistry and overall oxygen isotopic compositions. Oxygen isotopic signatures act like unique planetary fingerprints and are widely used to determine the origin of planetary materials.
NWA 8171 also belongs to a class of meteorites known as Martian polymict regolith breccias. In essence, these meteorites are composed of a mixture of different rock fragments that were broken apart and reassembled on or near the surface of Mars as a result of ancient impact events.
Although it has been confirmed that NWA 8171 originates from Mars, determining whether the garnet-bearing fragment also formed on Mars is more challenging. However, the evidence for a Martian origin is fairly strong and includes:
However, as mentioned above, NWA 8171 is composed of a mixture of rock components, likely assembled on or near the surface of ancient Mars as a result of meteorite impacts. Some of these components could technically include preserved fragments of exotic “non-Martian” meteorites originating elsewhere.
Because of these complexities and the novelty of this garnet-rich rock type, it will likely be necessary to measure oxygen isotopes directly within the fragment to confirm its origin. This type of analysis is destructive, so it has been avoided while other investigations are ongoing.
Regardless of its origin, the discovery of garnet in this meteorite sample will provide new insights into geological processes on Mars and/or into meteorite impacts and material transport within the inner Solar System.
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Look What NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Just Spotted Lurking in the Red Planet’s Arbot Hills
A tiny green dot appearing in an image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captures a historic tale of Red Planet exploration by one of its first Earthling visitors.
That visitor—a robotic rover named Perseverance—has been conducting investigations on Mars since February 18, 2021, and the new aerial images reveal its current location in an area that mission specialists have dubbed “Arbot.”
While Perseverance’s latest appearance reveals little more than a greenish spec on the planet’s rust-colored surface, also visible in the new images are the long path its formidable tires have left in the Martian soil as the robotic explorer has trekked west of its initial landing site.
The new images, captured on June 13, 2026, were taken just one day before Perseverance broke the previous distance record held by a robotic explorer on Mars: NASA’s Opportunity rover.
However, Perseverance completed this phase of its journey in record time compared to its predecessor, which took more than 11 years to traverse a similar distance. Perseverance, by contrast, covered the same distance in less than half that time, with just five years and four months of travel now behind it.
In the image above, NASA’s Perseverance Rover appears in the center of the image as a small, greyish-green reflective spot. Also visible are the impressions left by its all-terrain tires, revealing the robotic rover’s long path over the last several years of Martian exploration
(Image Credit: Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
The images were made possible by the MROs’ High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which also captured surface features in the Arbot area that include ridges and windswept areas along Mars’ rugged exterior.
Built and operated by the University of Arizona, HiRISE captures images with resolutions as fine as about 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel, allowing researchers to distinguish features roughly the size of a kitchen table from orbit. The camera has returned hundreds of thousands of detailed images since the MRO arrived at Mars two decades ago, contributing to a growing data set that has transformed scientists’ understanding of the Red Planet.
Documenting everything from active dust avalanches and shifting dunes to fresh impact craters, the unprecedented resolution its imagery provides has made HiRISE one of the most powerful planetary imaging instruments ever deployed.
Last year, the MRO’s HiRISE camera also successfully captured images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it made its way past Mars during its trip through our Solar System. Although the HiRISE images weren’t the clearest images of the interstellar visitor obtained during its visit, they did help demonstrate just how formidable NASA’s MRO and its suite of instruments are.
Additional details about Perseverance and its mission can be found at NASA’s official web page, and information about the MRO can be found here.
NASA Has a Major Problem Threatening Its Entire Moon Plans
SpaceX / NASA
To get SpaceX’s mammoth Starship all the way to the Moon and back with astronauts on board will require an enormous amount of fuel.
Over a period of eight days, Elon Musk’s space company will need to launch at least 15 of them to fully load a fuel depot in low-Earth orbit. That fuel will then have to be transferred into a separately-launched Human Landing System variant of the spacecraft that astronauts will board before descending to the lunar surface.
Needless to say, SpaceX certainly has its work cut out to have its Starship ready for NASA’s Artemis 4 mission in 2028, the first crewed attempt to land on the Moon since 1972 — let alone dramatically increasing its launch cadence, as it has yet to launch and safely land the rocket.
It gets worse. Now, the space agency’s watchdog says there’s an even bigger problem that could threaten NASA’s ambitious plans. According to a new report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), “NASA’s launch infrastructure is dated and lacks the capacity to meet the growing demands of the Agency and government and commercial partners.”
A major surge in commercial launches has put the launch pads at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia under major strain. And simply building more pads is far easier said than done. Growing “demand for super heavy-lift launch vehicles” is “driving the need for additional launch pads that can accommodate these vehicles, but locations for new launch pads are limited and will require extensive time and resources to develop,” the OIG frets.
Meanwhile, electrical power distribution is “being used beyond its design life and needs to be upgraded,” while the infrastructure for fuel components, like nitrogen and helium, could also “lead to delays.” Even the roadways around Kennedy were “not designed to accommodate the volume, frequency, and weight of modern heavy transport operations.” And declining budgets for maintenance and construction have resulted in lagging infrastructure that exacerbate it all.
The news comes after the Federal Aviation Administration approved SpaceX to launch its Starship from launch complex 39A, from which many Apollo and Space Shuttle program missions launched starting in the 1960s. Musk’s company is hoping to greatly expand the complex for its enormous spacecraft, including the addition of the many necessary structures on top of the launch pad, like towers and fuel tanks.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which NASA has also selected to develop a competing Human Landing Systems spacecraft for the Moon landing, will also need plenty of space and capacity for launching its powerful New Glenn rocket, further complicating matters.
In short, as the OIG notes in its report, NASA and its commercial partners need to make some major changes to ensure that the Artemis Moon program remains on track.
And that certainly doesn’t bode well, considering the development of both New Glenn and Starship are already running into numerous delays and failed test launches.
More on Artemis:
a secret meeting in the Tennessee mountains. We prayed after seeing what these 'humanoid beings' did... the world is not prepared
EXCLUSIVE - I saw unreleased UFO files at a secret meeting in the Tennessee mountains. We prayed after seeing what these 'humanoid beings' did... the world is not prepared
A pastor who claims he was whisked away to a secret UFO disclosure gathering in the Tennessee mountains has revealed chilling new details about the evidence he was shown.
Last month, the Daily Mail first reported that private meeting of intelligence insiders, former military and faith leaders was said to have taken place in February ahead of the government's release of its 'UFO files', a collection of declassified records concerning unidentified flying objects.
One of the supposed attendees, Pastor Joseph Zupetz, has disclosed vivid new details about what he saw, warning that the UFO files released by the Trump administration so far are nothing compared to what is still to come.
Far removed from the grainy, blurry UFO footage previously released by the government, Zupetz said he and five other Christian influencers were shown images of non-human beings that were startlingly clear and sent chills down his spine.
The pastor said the secretive meeting, whose attendees he declined to identify, was organized by 'personnel now working within groups that investigate non-human intelligence issues involving UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) and reverse-engineered craft.'
'I was shown images that some of the people who were presenting to us had on their devices of real entities that they personally took photos of,' Zupetz told the Daily Mail.
'They took images of entities standing in the woods. They were very tall, they had very long appendages, some of them almost looked, and this is a crude way of saying it, almost like humanoid squid-type things.'
Congress recently requested 46 UFO videos from the Department of War, including one that viewers have claimed shows an angel flapping its wings
He claimed that other images featured 'tall, lanky, light beings,' with some completely see-through.
Then, after leaving the two-hour meeting and boarding his flight back to Colorado, he noticed several glowing orbs hovering in the sky in the distance.
He recorded the strange encounter and shared the footage with the Daily Mail.
UAP UFO disclosure
©US DEPARTMENT OF WAR / FBI FILES© IBTimes
Zupetz said that during the flight, the plane was shaken so violently that he and other passengers began to pray.
When they looked back out the window, the orbs were gone from their view.
'We were flying in an aircraft, and we truly had an encounter with six orbs right outside the plane,' he said.
'We began to pray, and it stopped trembling. I thought that was very interesting. Now, maybe it was just turbulence, and we had a psychosomatic episode.'
But, according to the pastor, he is convinced it was demonic and fears the encounter was linked to the meeting he had just attended.
'Here I am, a faith-filled believer, and I'm seeing this, and it's making me question, like, okay, what is this? Is this demons? Is this angels? Is it high-level tech?' the pastor said.
Zupetz was one of several influential faith leaders who claimed to have attended private meetings held in Tennessee in February, where former government officials warned that information expected to be released this year could have profound implications for Christian beliefs.
The Daily Mail could not confirm that the meetings took place. But the evangelist Tony Merkel told us that he helped organize the meeting and was also in attendance.
Pastor Joseph Zuptz says he attended one of three secret meetings between faith leaders and former intelligence officials who believe UFO disclosure will shake the Christian faith
Faith leaders at multiple secret meetings throughout the US were allegedly shown images of real extraterrestrials, including a squid-like being with long limbs (Stock Image)
Merkel said the idea was to bring in key ministers who have a large reach within the Christian community to prepare people of faith for the potential disclosure of aliens.
On June 12, the third tranche of declassified files was released to the public, containing hundreds of pages of documents, images, videos and even audio recordings from NASA space flights.
However, Zupetz has admitted that he and his followers have not been shocked or convinced that extraterrestrial life existed after seeing these initial releases.
To this point, only a handful of videos disclosed by the Pentagon have shown clear footage of alleged UFOs, mostly metallic orbs, flying over the planet in great detail.
However, after attending the meeting in Tennessee, Zupetz and others were convinced the slow drip of UFO content from the government is designed to build a 'normalcy bias,' making strange things seem ordinary, to set up for a potentially Earth-shattering reveal in future.
'They're going to continue to drip these things, drop them slowly, and it's not going to be shock and awe in the beginning. And this is what we were told,' Zupetz explained.
'Eventually, they will bring out an entity, a non-human biologic that they will either have speaking or communicating with, and when they do this, then it's going to be a little more shaking.'
The Pentagon's main UFO investigative unit has claimed that most reports of mysterious phenomena in the sky have been caused by explainable things, including balloons, drones and even bird sightings.
A video released in the first wave of UFO files appeared to show a glowing object resembling an 'eight-pointed star' with uneven arms that has been compared to a craft from biblical times
Despite the ongoing file dumps from the Pentagon and multiple members of Congress saying more evidence of real UFOs exists, the US government has maintained that there is no physical proof that aliens exist.
However, Zupetz and other faith leaders have presented an alternative theory, calling the appearance of strange craft, glowing orbs and non-human figures evidence of 'fallen angel technology.'
The theory argues that UFO sightings that cannot be explained as advanced human technology or natural phenomena may actually be interdimensional beings described in the Bible and the controversial Book of Enoch.
'I believe that they are fallen angel tech, or it is interdimensional abilities afforded to angels, rogue spirits or demonic powers that can manifest and appear,' Zupetz said, referring to the origins of the unexplained phenomena in our skies.
'I believe that is the big false flag thing, and the agenda they'll bring forward is saying, we originally are the ones that [seeded] you here.
'The Bible you read is close, but it's not perfectly accurate, because now we're here to enlighten humanity, raise your consciousness, and bring you higher.'
Zupetz shared images of six orbs that surrounded his plane while leaving the secret meeting in Tennessee
Zupetz said his plane began shaking as the orbs surrounded the aircraft, and only stopped when the passengers began praying
Zupetz said believers who find themselves faced with similar sightings and questioning their faith should speak the name of Jesus during their encounters.
The pastor claimed that genuine good entities would respond positively, while deceptive ones would be triggered negatively.
The pastor also cited Steven Spielberg's latest film, 'Disclosure Day,' and the famed director's comments regarding believers in Jesus as more evidence of an ominous narrative being formed, which aligns with the Bible's darkest chapters.
During a CBS News interview, Spielberg reflected on how confirmation of intelligent life beyond Earth could affect religious faith, saying, 'The movie also takes the position of the church.
'What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God our God only on this planet? Or is God a god for every system where there's civilization and intelligent life, and even developing life?'
Zupetz said: 'When this disclosure happens, it's the narrative attached to it that'll become more and more negative towards Christianity.'
A Dyson sphere in shape of a cube found near Ursa Minor, historical first! UFO UAP Sighting News.
Date of discovery: June 26, 2026
NASA’s Mars rover just found more evidence the planet may have sustained life
NASA’s Mars rover just found more evidence the planet may have sustained life
The stones were found in the same location where the rover previously found potential biosignatures
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover just found further evidence the Red Planet may have supported life billions of years ago.
A pair of Martian mudstones the rover collected from the planet’s Bright Angel rock formation in the Jezero crater have complex carbon, one of the building blocks of life, scientists say.
“Measurements of two mudstones show hundreds of organic detections, making this the most robust organic detection in Jezero crater thus far, and, to our knowledge, the only detection of macromolecular carbon on a natural rock surface on Mars,” the researchers wrote in a new study sharing the findings.
The stones were collected in the same location where the rover previously found evidence of ancient microbial life.
Earlier this year, NASA’s Curiosity rover also found never-before-seen organic molecules that the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said “renewed confirmation that ancient Mars had the right chemistry to support life.”
Curiosity previously found carbon signatures in powdered rock samples it collected on Mars, too. But those were some 2,000 miles away in Mars' Gale Crater.
The researchers explain that understanding the origin of organic carbon in the Mars rocks is crucial to determining if there was life on the planet.
"Carbon is the primary building block for life on Earth, and all living things are made up of complex organic macromolecules," co-lead author Ashley Murphy, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute, told Space.com on Wednesday. "On Earth, [macromolecular carbon] is often found in extremely old rocks and in some cases it is the only organic evidence of past microbial life.”
But they don’t yet know if the carbon in the mudstones was produced by something living or non-living.
The new carbon “could be from meteorites or cosmic dust; abiological processes like hydrothermal reactions; or they could be biological in nature,” planetary scientist Paul Byrne, of Washington University in St. Louis, told Science News.
The researchers used the Perseverance rover’s chemical-analyzing Raman spectrometer instrument to map where carbon was throughout the samples.
“One mudstone’s interior contained organic carbon within a primary silicate-dominated matrix; the other mudstone held organic carbon with secondary carbonate and sulfate minerals. The carbon in both rocks was not too weathered, indicating it may be recently exposed to Mars’ surface – or may be somewhat resistant to radiation and oxidation,” a release from the American Academy of Sciences said.
To understand if samples collected by Perseverance are signs of ancient life, they need to be studied back on Earth. The rover can identify the chemical and mineral makeup of areas on Mars, but it doesn’t have the ability to characterize the organic carbon’s make-up.
The stones are a part of dozens of samples Perseverance has collected to be sent home.
When that could happen is anyone’s guess because NASA’s Mars Sample Return program has been overhauled in favor of two cheaper strategies.
A sky crane or a commercial lander could come to collect the samples. Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said last year that the return would be set in motion as soon 2035 and as late as 2039.
Scans reveal mysterious buried structure near Great Pyramid
©Getty Images
Hidden Giza anomaly: A 2024 survey revealed an L-shaped structure and deeper resistive feature beneath the Western Cemetery near the Great Pyramid.
Advanced scanning tools: Researchers used ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography to map subsurface shapes without excavation.
Unresolved mystery: The anomalies may be archaeological but their purpose and composition remain unknown until further investigation.
References
©NECROPOLIS OF SAQQARA, GIZA, EGYPT -- MARCH 9, 2020: Maxar overview satellite imagery of the Necropolis of Saqqara. Please use: Satellite Image (c) 2022 Maxar Technologies.
References
©Photo by Mohamed El Raai/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images. GIZA, EGYPT - AUGUST 31: Egyptian archeologists and Waseda Universtiy's archeologists research the ruins of 2nd full-size vessel, which is predicted to be belonging to Pharaoh Khufu's era, at Pyramids region in Giza, Egypt on August 31, 2016.
(Photo by Mohamed El Raai/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The newly discovered underground structure is situated on the Giza Plateau, an area that has been extensively studied for decades. Its presence in such a well-documented archaeological zone underscores the potential for significant undiscovered features even in heavily researched sites.
References
©Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images. GIZA, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 7:A general view of the Pyramid of Menkaure at the Giza Pyramids necropolis in Giza on November 7, 2025 in Giza, Egypt.
(Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images)
2024 Archaeological Prospection paper documents Giza anomalies
©Photo by mark peterson/Corbis via Getty Images. Cemetery near Pyramids of Giza
(Photo by mark peterson/Corbis via Getty Images)
References
©Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images. GIZA, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 7: A general view of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at the Giza Pyramids necropolis in Giza on November 7, 2025 in Giza, Egypt.
(Photo by Ali Moustafa/Getty Images)
References
©Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images. (Original Caption) Great Pyramid.
(Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
©Photo by Archive Photos/Archive Photos/Getty Images. A view of the Great Pyramid of Giza Egypt.
(Photo by Archive Photos/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
References
©Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images. UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1754: Sahara Desert (satellite image)
(Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
References
Huge asteroid a MILE wide will zoom past Earth tomorrow – here’s how to spot it
A huge asteroid measuring a mile across will zoom past Earth in an exceptionally close pass tomorrow.
The space rock, measuring twice the size of the Burj Khalifa, will pass so close to Earth that it will be visible with large binoculars or a small telescope.
At its closest point at 12:14 BST on Saturday, the asteroid will pass within 1,590,000 miles (2,560,000 km) of Earth.
While it is a near miss in astronomical terms, that is over six times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
Astronomers say that the asteroid, named 1997 NC1, poses no threat to Earth and there is no chance of a dangerous collision.
However, it will present a rare treat for stargazers, who should be able to see light bouncing off the rock's surface as it whizzes by at 5.6 miles (9 km) per second.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), people in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to see 1997 NC1 as it approaches Earth and passes Earth.
Meanwhile, those in the Southern Hemisphere will get a good look at this alien visitor once it has safely passed Earth's orbit.
A mile-long asteroid will zoom past Earth tomorrow night, passing so close that it will be visible to anyone with a decent pair of binoculars. Pictured: The asteroid 1997 NC1 as seen from the Northolt Branch Observatory, on the night of June 25
A mile-long asteroid will zoom past Earth tomorrow night, passing so close that it will be visible to anyone with a decent pair of binoculars. Pictured: The asteroid's location at 4:00 am BST
Based on the light reflected by 1997 NC1, astronomers estimate that it is between 750 and 1,650 metres across.
However, ESA also suggests that it could prove to be more reflective and smaller than currently thought.
Yet this still makes 1997 NC1 roughly 60 times bigger than the Chelyabinsk meteor, which exploded in the atmosphere over Russia and injured 1,491 people in 2013.
If an object this large were to collide with Earth, it would be considered a 'city killer', with the potential to cause catastrophic damage.
Luckily for us, the world's space agencies have been carefully tracking this object since it was discovered in 1997, and any chance of an impact has been ruled out.
Guy Wells, founder of Northolt Branch Observatories, told the Daily Mail: 'Whilst this is a fairly large near-Earth asteroid, there's absolutely no need for concern.'
What that leaves is an amazing opportunity to learn more about asteroids drifting through the solar system and to see a real extraterrestrial object with your own eyes.
Juan Luis Cano, of the ESA's Planetary Defence Office, says: 'A close approach to Earth by an object this size only occurs every few years.'
The asteroid, named 1997 NC1, will pass within 1,590,000 miles (2,560,000 kilometres) of Earth on Saturday
This will help create a 3D model of the rock, revealing whether it is a loose pile of rubble that would break up in the atmosphere or a more dangerous solid rock.
But the astronomy action isn't limited to the professionals, as anyone with a decent pair of binoculars will be able to see 1997 NC1 as it passes.
Dr Ed Bloomer, Senior Astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich, told the Daily Mail: 'Factoring in the local horizon and sunset, between about 10:30 and 11:30 is the best window of opportunity for UK residents.
'Tonight, as the sun sets, it is near the constellation Bootes towards the West and will race eastwards over the next few hours towards Aquarius before dropping below the horizon.'
However, Dr Bloomer cautions that even a one-mile-long asteroid is quite small in astronomical terms, so it will be 'intrinsically very challenging to see properly.'
To give yourself the best chance, you can use a sky map app such as Stellarium to help track down the moving object.
Additionally, it is always advisable to try to avoid light pollution by heading to a dark, quiet area and give your eyes at least 20 minutes to adjust.
The best way to find the 1997 NC1 will be to use a sky map app such as Stellarium (pictured), which will help to find the moving object
Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Saturday night predicts fairly heavy cloud cover that will make it difficult to see the asteroid
Unfortunately, this space rock's arrival is poorly timed with the phases of the moon, as the moon will be waxing gibbous and approximately 94 per cent illuminated.
This will add a lot of additional light to the sky that will make the faint glow from 1997 NC1 much harder to spot.
Likewise, the weather looks far from ideal for stargazing, with the Met Office forecasting fairly heavy cloud cover settling in over Scotland and the east of England.
However, the passing asteroid will be visible tonight, although not as brightly, when weather conditions look to be clearer.
And if you don't have any equipment, there's no need to miss out.
The Virtual Telescope Project will be livestreaming their observations of 1997 NC1's close encounter from their professional telescopes.
You can find those streams and more information about how to watch by following this link.
There will be two streams while the asteroid is at its brightest, both starting at 23:00 BST tonight and tomorrow night.
China's secretive space plane releases an unidentified object into orbit - and experts say it could be a spy satellite
A secretive Chinese space plane has released an unidentified object into orbit, a US-based surveillance company has revealed.
China's 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft' is one of the China National Space Administration's (CNSA) most closely guarded secrets.
However, this elusive craft has now been spotted releasing something into orbit above Earth.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have remained silent about what this craft's intended purpose might be.
This was spotted by Leo Labs, an American space tracking firm, which detected the appearance of a new object from their radar station in New Zealand.
It posted on X: 'At 02:30 UTC on 22 June 2026, LeoLabs detected an unknown object in the vicinity of the Chinese Shenlong reusable space plane.'
The company added: 'Following additional observations across our global network and analysis via LeoLabs Delta, we have independently catalogued this object and assessed with high confidence that it was released from the Chinese space plane.
'This activity is consistent with sub-satellite deployments conducted by the space plane in previous missions.'
A secretive Chinese space plane has been spotted launching a 'mystery object' into orbit by a US surveillance company
The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on February 6.
As with its previous launches, the objective of the mission was not made public, but the release of this unknown object offers a tantalising clue.
According to Professor Jonathan McDowell, of the Durham University Space Research Centre, this object has now been logged by the American Space Force.
However, what the object is or why it has been deployed remains something of a mystery.
Professor McDowell told the Daily Mail: 'It's hard to say at the moment, it might just be a cubesat (a small satellite commonly used to conduct research), but it could be a very small spy satellite - nothing fancy.
'Previous things ejected from earlier flights of the space plane have not manoeuvred or done anything particularly interesting.'
This suggests that the space plane is more likely to be for 'doing experiments and testing advanced technology', rather than active missions in space.
What will be more revealing, Professor McDowell suggests, is whether the space plane later attempts to collect the satellite with a robot arm.
US-based space tracking firm Leo Labs spotted 'an unknown object in the vicinity of the Chinese Shenlong reusable space plane' on June 22
Even by the standards of the CNSA, the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft is exceptionally secretive, and almost nothing is known about its design or function.
It is believed to be similar to the USA's own secretive space plane, the X-37, or NASA's space shuttle.
However, besides a few digital renders, there are no official images of what the craft might look like.
The best publicly available images of the space plane were taken by amateur astronomer Felix Schöfbänker using a ground-based telescope.
In 2024, a series of images captured by Mr Schöfbänker showed that the space plane was apparently fitted with a pair of solar panels that had not appeared in any of the renderings.
The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft has already completed three prior missions, spending around 500 days in space, and has a track record of unusual behaviour.
In 2024, observers noted that the space plane may have ejected a small satellite or piece of unwanted equipment as it reached the end of its scheduled mission.
Six months earlier, the craft caused alarm when it appeared to release three sub-satellites at once, but these were later found to be leftover debris from launch.
Almost nothing is known about China's 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft', but it is believed to be similar in design to NASA's X-37. Pictured: Digital render of the space plane's design
The best images of the mysterious spacecraft come from amateur astronomer Felix Schöfbänker, who managed to photograph the space plane from a ground-based telescope
More concerningly, observers have noted the space plane making so-called 'rendezvous and proximity operations', in which a craft practices getting as close as possible to another object.
Rendezvous and proximity operations can be used for entirely peaceful means, such as refuelling and repairing damaged satellites.
But there are concerns that the US, China, and Russia are all preparing spacecraft that have the ability to interfere or tamper with adversary satellites.
This could include knocking spy satellites out of orbit, turning communication satellites to face the wrong way, or simply grabbing a spacecraft with a robotic arm.
The US Space Force is almost certainly developing its own rendezvous and proximity operations capability, and even commissioned an illustration of a space plane intercepting a satellite as its first-ever piece of official artwork.
Likewise, two Russian 'inspector' satellites came within ten feet (three metres) of each other in May as the country ramps up its space warfare research.
Professor McDowell suggests that China's investment in this technology could have been prompted by similar research from its American counterparts.
However, for now, it is impossible to say whether the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft has a benign or military application.
There are an estimated 170 million pieces of so-called 'space junk' - left behind after missions that can be as big as spent rocket stages or as small as paint flakes - in orbit alongside some US$700 billion (£555bn) of space infrastructure.
But only 27,000 are tracked, and with the fragments able to travel at speeds above 16,777 mph (27,000kmh), even tiny pieces could seriously damage or destroy satellites.
However, traditional gripping methods don't work in space, as suction cups do not function in a vacuum and temperatures are too cold for substances like tape and glue.
Grippers based around magnets are useless because most of the debris in orbit around Earth is not magnetic.
Around 500,000 pieces of human-made debris (artist's impression) currently orbit our planet, made up of disused satellites, bits of spacecraft and spent rockets
Most proposed solutions, including debris harpoons, either require or cause forceful interaction with the debris, which could push those objects in unintended, unpredictable directions.
Scientists point to two events that have badly worsened the problem of space junk.
The first was in February 2009, when an Iridium telecoms satellite and Kosmos-2251, a Russian military satellite, accidentally collided.
The second was in January 2007, when China tested an anti-satellite weapon on an old Fengyun weather satellite.
Experts also pointed to two sites that have become worryingly cluttered.
One is low Earth orbit which is used by satnav satellites, the ISS, China's manned missions and the Hubble telescope, among others.
The other is in geostationary orbit, and is used by communications, weather and surveillance satellites that must maintain a fixed position relative to Earth.
Lost Christian text hidden for centuries reveals new insight into the Bible's most chilling mystery
Hidden within the pages of an ancient manuscript in a Polish library were lost sermons of a saint who attempted to tackle one of the Bible's most chilling encounters.
The 12th-century Latin texts were written by St Augustine, the theologian whose ideas helped shape Western Christianity and who is often regarded as the most important Christian thinker after the Apostle Paul.
Researchers found that the newly identified sermons focus on King Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor, one of the Bible's most mysterious episodes, in which the dead prophet Samuel appears and foretells the king's death.
The story, recorded in 1 Samuel 28, has troubled Jewish and Christian scholars for centuries because it appears to suggest that a medium successfully summoned a dead prophet.
St Augustine wrestled with that possibility in the newly discovered sermons, questioning whether the figure Saul encountered was truly Samuel or some form of supernatural illusion.
Ultimately, St Augustine argued that the Witch of Endor held no power over the dead. If Samuel genuinely appeared, he believed it was because God allowed it, not because the medium had summoned him through magic.
Professor Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar at the University of Würzburg, said: 'The first was preached during the Sunday service and ends with the theodicy question and the interpretations.
'It was not until the second sermon on the following Wednesday that the options were weighed up.'
Researchers found that the newly identified sermons focus on King Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor, one of the Bible's most mysterious episodes, in which the dead prophet Samuel appears and foretells the king's death
St Augustine lived from 354AD to 430AD. Born in North Africa to a pagan father and a devout Christian mother, Augustine lived a worldly and intellectually restless early life.
He initially rejected Christianity, exploring hedonism and the dualistic religion of Manichaeism before embracing Neoplatonism.
Following a profound spiritual crisis, he converted to Christianity and was baptized in Milan in 387.
The discovery was made in 2024, when Tornau was asked to decipher six sermons written by the saint. He found that two were previously undiscovered.
The newly discovered sermons were focused on the Old Testament story.
'Saul believes himself to be in a hopeless situation shortly before a battle against the Philistines. God does not listen to his prayers. He turns to a witch,' Tornau said in a statement.
At Saul's request, she conjures up the supposed spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel, who predicts his death in battle. According to the Bible, Samuel anointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, at the order of God.
The story has long baffled theologians, raising questions about how a witch could summon the spirit of a prophet.
St Augustine wrestled with that possibility in the newly discovered sermons, questioning whether the figure Saul encountered was truly Samuel or some form of supernatural illusion
Latin scholars have also asked 'How can an omnipotent God allow this or is he not really omnipotent?'
For centuries, theologians have debated whether the apparition was a deception created by the witch or a genuine appearance of Samuel permitted by God to warn Saul of his impending death.
The researchers noted that after St Augustine presented the two sermons, the church audience was to form their own opinion on the biblical passage.
Tornau suggested that this didactic and rhetorical approach is typical of St Augustine, as the saint was known for presenting options for interpretation, omitting a final judgement and allowing the audience to think for themselves.
'The style, humor and content also clearly indicate that the sermons in the manuscripts were actually written by Augustine,' he said.
However, there have been cases where others presented writings attributed to the saint, but were later found to be forgeries.
Tornau and his colleague, Dr Clemens Weidmann of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL), got to work and invited 20 other Latin scholars to verify the authenticity of the text.
Reconstructing the transmission history of the sermons was not an easy feat.
'Firstly, the creation of such a manuscript in the 12th century is unusual. A copy at the beginning of the 8th or 9th century would be more typical,' said Tornau.
Researchers believe the newly discovered sermons survived because a medieval scribe copied them from an older manuscript that has since been lost to history.
'An old catalogue from the monastery mentions a text with the same headings and the same sequence of contents as our manuscript,' Tornau explained.
'It could have served as a model.' However, the researcher noted that he cannot confirm this assumption 100 percent, as the entire library collection was burnt during the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648.
Shocking memo reveals missing UFO-linked scientist was trying to escape a secret Pentagon network before vanishing
New revelations about the missing UFO-linked Air Force general reveal he attempted to leave the Pentagon's secret research programs days before vanishing.
Newly released police reports from New Mexico authorities state that retired Major General William Neil McCasland was attempting to step down from several high-level advisory positions at government-connected research laboratories across the US in the lead-up to his February 27 disappearance.
The new clues were released in a Freedom of Information Act request by Sara Bondink, a self-proclaimed historical researcher and author who has been following the McCasland investigation, revealing previously unseen details about the case.
The information, documented during a March 3 interview, shows communications between the general's wife, Susan Wilkerson, and a member of the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Ghost Unit, which specializes in anti-gang and human trafficking operations.
While Wilkerson had previously claimed on social media that her husband no longer possessed any top-secret clearances with the US government, it was revealed during the interview that he was still an active member of at least four different groups with deep ties to national defense secrets.
In the report, Wilkerson told authorities that McCasland was making a desperate attempt to resign from several and possibly all of these secretive projects over fears the 68-year-old was suffering from severe mental decline.
All of the groups McCasland was reportedly connected to, including Sandia National Laboratories, Riverside Research, the Kirtland Partnership and a University Affiliated Research Center, are involved in high-level research for the Department of War, engaging in projects focused on national security and advanced technology.
McCasland's disappearance has been at the heart of the so-called missing scientist investigation, with the general's career appearing to overlap with several NASA scientists, nuclear lab workers and military personnel who either died or vanished without a trace in recent years.
A new surveillance image shows retired Air Force general William Neil McCasland the day before he vanished without a trace on February 27
McCasland was last seen leaving his New Mexico home without his phone, wearable devices or glasses less than two months ago.
He was only carrying a pistol, and his wife told 911 dispatchers that it appeared he was trying 'not to be found.'
Just days before he vanished, according to the police report, McCasland flew by himself to Washington DC to officially resign from Riverside Research.
The nonprofit provides scientific research, engineering and advisory services on advanced technology projects through contracts with the Pentagon, US intelligence community and the Air Force, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Authorities wrote in their report: 'Upon returning to New Mexico, Neil told Susan that he resigned from the board of Riverside Research because he could not keep up, mentally, with the conversation.'
He was still a paid consultant for Sandia National Laboratories, a major US government-owned research lab that develops advanced technology for national security, including nuclear weapons, before his disappearance.
Sandia primarily works under the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and supports the Air Force research and development work at multiple facilities, including Kirtland Air Force Base.
McCasland was also deeply tied to Kirtland through his work with the Air Force Research Lab.
He had been in charge of AFRL's Phillips Research Site at Kirtland before becoming the research unit's commanding officer from 2011 to 2013.
The veteran officer continued to maintain a key role with the New Mexico base even after retiring, becoming a member of the Kirtland Partnership, a nonprofit working to protect and expand the military research facility and nuclear weapons lab.
William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen around 11am Friday near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office said
The item seen in McCasland's hand on February 26 has been compared to a waterproof first aid kit by viewers on social media
Wilkerson confirmed previously released bodycam recordings, which revealed an anonymous caller to police who claimed General McCasland had a concerning meeting with the Kirtland Partnership and members of the US Space Force on February 26, just hours before he disappeared.
The unidentified female witness who claimed she was at the dinner with McCasland told police: 'I was shocked this morning when I saw the alert because what I noticed Thursday evening [February 26] is that he wasn't his usual self.
'[McCasland] was kind of spacey and quiet and you know that that happens with people.'
'He was the head of Air Force Research Lab to the point the man's names are in the UFO documents that are fixed to be released,' the witness claimed during a phone call with police, obtained by the Law&Crime Network.
'He's in that depth, so he has a very high security clearance.'
According to the interview with Wilkerson, the former general had also attempted with resign from his position with a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) tied to an unnamed school.
UARCs are special, long-term research partnerships between a university and the Pentagon that allow the military to get independent help on advanced science and technology projects that universities are uniquely skilled at providing.
The police report noted that McCasland was attempting to quit his role with UARC due to the same fears of mental decline, however, 'the leadership was trying to convince him otherwise.'
The day before his disappearance, McCasland was seen alert and aware as he exited a local sporting goods store in New Mexico with a mysterious parcel and what appeared to be a portable first aid kit.
Despite his wife's claims of potential mental decline, government officials have revealed that McCasland was still being looked at as a key witness in the ongoing effort to declassify decades-old secrets related to UFOs and extraterrestrials.
In early May, Air Force veteran and UFO whistleblower David Grusch specifically named McCasland as one of the officers who had been in charge of classified programs related to non-human craft recovery and reverse-engineering.
Grusch alleged that the general had not been cooperative with recent efforts by lawmakers looking to interview him over his knowledge of America's suspected contact with extraterrestrials.
The White House has tasked the FBI with investigating McCasland's mysterious disappearance and the disappearances of several other individuals tied to US nuclear secrets in the New Mexico area over the last year.
So far, only one person has been found. The remains of Los Alamos National Lab worker Melissa Casias were discovered in a New Mexico park on May 28.
There has been no sign of McCasland since he vanished four months ago. He reportedly only took a pair of boots and his .38-caliber revolver with him after changing into a set of clothes Wilkerson did not know he owned.
Swarm of orbs Over Islamabad, Pakistan June 2026, UFO UAP Paranormal Alien Sighting News.
Ancient Alien Face, Looks Human In Eye of Hurricane, UFO Sighting News, A sign from aliens.
Baba Vanga's prophecy of 'alien invasion at sporting event' revived by self-styled psychic - 'I saw so much screaming'. UFO UAP Sighting News.
Date of prediction: June 25, 2026
As much as I want a UFO to reveal itself over tomorrows sporting event, I do have to say, why would only one person get the message from aliens? If such a thing was to be announced by aliens it is most likely going to be announced to a large group of individuals that do not know each other and can all relay a similar message to the world. This way, those that do want to be taken, would be at the event. Yes, aliens might want volunteers rather than taking people against their will. So many people would attend this event just to be taken and meet them, I being one of them. I have only met with a plasmoid (energy entity) sphere two meters from me, and as far as I know, I have no new information given to me from it, other than me being allowed to see its true form close up, which is what I asked for. As for the sports game having a mass abduction by a huge UFO tomorrow. I sure hope so, the world really needs so distraction from boring political fights.
"I have to tell you that I dreamed again about aliens invading the soccer field in Miami. And I clearly saw the players being carried off by the first ship that arrived," Bahiana said with tears in her eyes in an Instagram post. She claims that she was inside a spaceship in the dream. Later, the mothership came and took in thousands of people from the field. "I saw so much screaming, so much crying, so many tears, suffering," the self-proclaimed psychic said.Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily
Will something supernatural appear at the Brazil vs. Scotland World Cup Match?
Ancient King Head On Mars With Diamond The size of a Baseball on Its head! June 24, 2026, UFO Sighting News.
New UFO Files Paint a ‘Very Clear’ Picture of Alien Contact, Researcher Claims
The debate over unidentified flying objects, now officially referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), has intensified once again following the release of a new batch of previously classified U.S. government documents. The latest disclosure includes 72 files, six videos, and historical audio recordings, providing fresh material for researchers, skeptics, and believers alike.
While many expected groundbreaking revelations, some UFO experts argue that the newly released files offer something equally significant: a clearer picture of how governments have investigated the phenomenon for decades.
The latest release marks the third major batch of UFO-related documents made available to the public. Among the most discussed materials are several videos captured by civilians that reportedly show unusual aerial phenomena.
One video, recorded using an iPhone 14 Pro Max in July, appears to show two bright objects moving together across the sky. Another video depicts a glowing, plasma-like object hovering above a pond. According to reports, these recordings were examined as part of official investigations into unexplained aerial sightings.
Although the footage does not provide definitive proof of extraterrestrial life, it continues to fuel public interest in one of the most enduring mysteries of modern times.
The release also includes an audio recording from 1962 featuring veteran journalist Walter Cronkite interviewing astronaut Gordon Cooper.
Cooper, one of the original Mercury astronauts, discussed the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and acknowledged that many highly qualified individuals had witnessed aerial objects that lacked a clear explanation.
His comments are particularly noteworthy because Cooper was among the most respected figures in the early U.S. space program. For UFO researchers, historical testimony from astronauts remains an important part of the broader discussion surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena.
According to UFO researcher Joshua Golembeske, the newly released documents may seem ordinary on the surface, but they contain details that support long-standing claims about government interest in UFOs.
Rather than viewing the release as full disclosure, Golembeske describes it as a gradual process of information being revealed to the public.
He points to one particular document, reportedly identified as CIA Document 19, which references an assessment produced by the Australian Department of Defense. The document allegedly suggests that governments have taken UFO reports far more seriously than the public has been led to believe.
Claims within the document reportedly include discussions about military investigations, secret recovery operations, and attempts to study advanced technologies associated with unexplained aerial craft.
While such claims remain controversial and unproven, they continue to attract significant attention from both researchers and the public.
One of the recurring themes in the UFO community is the role of Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force program that investigated UFO sightings between 1952 and 1969.
Officially, the project concluded that most sightings could be explained through conventional means and found no evidence of extraterrestrial visitation. However, some researchers believe the program served a dual purpose: publicly downplaying UFO reports while privately continuing investigations into unexplained cases.
The newly released files have renewed discussion about whether governments have always been more interested in the phenomenon than they publicly admitted.
Among the most intriguing aspects of the latest disclosure are references to glowing, plasma-like phenomena.
Numerous reports in the newly released files describe unusual lights and orb-shaped objects observed by both civilians and military personnel. Similar descriptions have appeared throughout UFO history, including reports of mysterious “green fireballs” observed in the late 1940s.
Some researchers suggest these objects may represent a distinct category of unidentified phenomena. Others argue they could be atmospheric effects, classified military technology, or natural plasma formations that are not yet fully understood.
Regardless of their origin, recurring reports of luminous objects continue to be one of the most consistent elements in UFO investigations worldwide.
Another topic highlighted by researchers is the apparent connection between UFO sightings and nuclear installations.
For decades, military personnel and former officials have reported unusual aerial activity near missile silos, nuclear power plants, and weapons storage facilities. Several well-known cases involve unidentified objects allegedly interfering with military systems or appearing near sensitive strategic locations.
The newly released documents reportedly contain additional references to this pattern, adding fuel to a debate that has persisted since the beginning of the Cold War.
Whether these incidents represent advanced surveillance technology, natural phenomena, or something more exotic remains unknown.
Public interest in UFOs has reached levels not seen in decades. Congressional hearings, whistleblower testimony, military encounters, and government reports have transformed what was once considered a fringe topic into a mainstream discussion.
Many advocates argue that greater transparency is necessary to understand the true nature of the phenomenon. Others caution that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that many questions remain unanswered.
The latest document release is unlikely to settle the debate. Instead, it appears to be another chapter in a story that continues to evolve.
Whether the recent files represent meaningful disclosure or simply another incremental release depends largely on one’s perspective.
For believers, the documents reinforce decades of testimony suggesting that governments know more than they have publicly admitted. For skeptics, the files remain far from proving the existence of extraterrestrial visitors.
What is clear is that official interest in unidentified aerial phenomena has not disappeared. As more information becomes available and public curiosity continues to grow, the mystery surrounding UFOs may become one of the defining scientific and cultural questions of the 21st century.
For now, the newly released files offer more questions than answers—but they ensure that the conversation about UFOs, UAPs, and the possibility of alien contact is far from over.
World's oldest known asteroid impact: Crater in Western Australia was created when a space rock smashed into Earth 3 BILLION years ago, study reveals
The world's oldest recorded asteroid impact has been discovered, revealing new evidence of Earth's violent history.
Scientists have long suspected that the North Pole Dome in Western Australia's Pilbara region was the site of an ancient catastrophe.
Now, researchers have uncovered the first rock–solid evidence that provides an exact date for the impact.
Using advanced mineral dating techniques, they show that the crater was formed when a space rock smashed into Earth 3.02 billion years ago.
While billions of years of erosion have wiped away much of the evidence, this impact was substantial enough to leave a lasting legacy on Earth.
Lead author Professor Chris Kirkland told the Daily Mail that this meteor could have been a 'kilometre–scale' object, although its precise size is impossible to determine.
He said: 'At North Pole Dome, the impact appears to have generated a long–lived fractured system that was later reused by fluids.
'On the early Earth, that kind of process could have influenced chemical exchange between rocks and an early ocean, causing mineral alteration and potentially modifying the environments available for microbial life.'
Scientists have revealed that the North Pole Dome in Western Australia's Pilbara region (pictured) is the oldest asteroid impact crater on Earth
Although scientists believe space rocks have battered Earth throughout most of its history, evidence of these ancient impacts is nearly impossible to trace.
Big enough asteroid impacts cause geological changes in the surrounding rocks, but billions of years of heat, pressure, and fluid movements obscure or reset these changes.
This is why scientists have previously found it so difficult to pin down the exact age of the North Pole Dome crater.
However, Professor Kirkland and his team have now been able to track down a 'mineral clock', left behind in the damaged rocks.
The key piece of evidence was zircon, an extraordinarily resilient mineral that can hold its shape for billions of years.
When the researchers took samples from the rocks around North Pole Dome, they found that some zircon crystals had strange branching or 'skeletal' shapes.
Professor Kirkland believes that these are 'impact–modified crystals' formed when old zircon in the rocks was disrupted and partially recrystallised by the intense heat of an impact.
Critically, they were also able to date the formation of these crystals to an event around three billion years ago.
Scientists uncovered tiny zircon crystals in the rock, which were disturbed and reset by a massive asteroid collision
Since there isn't anything else in the geological history that could explain the crystal's dramatic transformation, they are very likely to be the signature of a meteor impact.
The team then analysed a second mineral, apatite, which formed as hot fluids moved through the shock–damaged rocks – also producing a similar age estimate.
'The agreement between two different mineral systems gives us confidence that we are seeing the signature of a single major event — a meteorite impact,' says Professor Kirkland.
This is an exciting discovery for geologists since it dates the crater back to the 'Archean aeon', a time when the planet's earliest continents were forming.
The moon's surface, which provides a much more stable record, suggests that the inner solar system was heavily bombarded by meteors around this time.
Although the theory is not universally accepted, some geologists believe that this could have been part of a cataclysmic event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment.
According to this theory, a sudden change in the orbits of the giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – destabilised the asteroid belt and sent thousands of rocks flying in Earth's direction.
These impacts could have helped to shape Earth's early crust, creating basins, melting rocks, building deep fractures, and driving hydrothermal systems.
Scientists say that the rocks around North Pole Dome (pictured) would have been formed when Earth's first continents were just being created
However, scientists have struggled to find any evidence on Earth of craters dating back to this period.
'Earth must also have experienced that bombardment, but most of the evidence has been destroyed,' explains Professor Kirkland.
'That is why the North Pole Dome discovery is so important.
'At 3 billion years, it is the oldest recognised impact structure on Earth and one of the very few windows into how impacts affected the Archean Earth.'
Around 66 million years ago non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half the world's species were obliterated.
This mass extinction paved the way for the rise of mammals and the appearance of humans.
The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
The asteroid slammed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico.
The collision released a huge dust and soot cloud that triggered global climate change, wiping out 75 per cent of all animal and plant species.
Researchers claim that the soot necessary for such a global catastrophe could only have come from a direct impact on rocks in shallow water around Mexico, which are especially rich in hydrocarbons.
Within 10 hours of the impact, a massive tsunami waved ripped through the Gulf coast, experts believe.
Around 66 million years ago non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half the world's species were obliterated. The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event
(stock image)
This caused earthquakes and landslides in areas as far as Argentina.
While investigating the event researchers found small particles of rock and other debris that was shot into the air when the asteroid crashed.
Called spherules, these small particles covered the planet with a thick layer of soot.
Experts explain that losing the light from the sun caused a complete collapse in the aquatic system.
This is because the phytoplankton base of almost all aquatic food chains would have been eliminated.
It's believed that the more than 180 million years of evolution that brought the world to the Cretaceous point was destroyed in less than the lifetime of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is about 20 to 30 years.
'These don't occur naturally': Radio signals linked to alien life may be passing Earth by undetected, new study hints
New research suggests that alien radio signals may be transformed by plasma from their home stars — and scientists on Earth could be overlooking prime evidence of alien intelligence.
Humans have been searching the stars for alien radio signals for decades — and so far, E.T. has not phoned home. But that doesn’t mean intelligent life isn’t out there, a new study hints. Rather, something else could be interfering: according to the research, space weather surrounding alien planets could be preventing us from detecting technological signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
The findings, published March 5 in The Astrophysical Journal, offer a potential answer to the Fermi paradox: Given the size of the universe, there are many potentially habitable planets that could support life, and yet we have not detected technosignatures from any of them — so, "Where is everyone?" physicist Enrico Fermi famously posited in 1950.
In the new study, researchers found that space weather caused by a planet's star could broaden hypothetical technosignals, dissipating their power over a larger range of frequencies and making them more difficult to detect.
"If a signal gets broadened by its own star's environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it's there, potentially helping explain some of the radio silence we've seen in technosignature searches," Vishal Gajjar, an astronomer at the SETI Institute and first author of the paper, said in a statement.
One way astronomers search for alien life is by looking for very narrowband signals, which are sharp spikes in the power of a radio emission. This spike usually only covers a few hertz.
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"These don't occur naturally," Evan Keane, an astronomer at Trinity College Dublin who was not involved in the research, told Live Science. "So, if you see something very narrowband, you know that it is from something of interest." Astronomers would, for example, be able to easily detect some narrowband technosignatures on Mars, coming from the Mars rovers. But they have not observed any such signals from a clearly non-human origin.
The new research argues that astronomers may have been looking for the wrong signal shape. In the new study, the researchers found that alien signals could be distorted by stellar space weather surrounding their home stars, which could explain why they have not been detected.
Space weather refers to changes in the space environment caused by charged particles, radiation and giant lumps of plasma called coronal mass ejections emitted by the sun. Other stars also generate space weather in their vicinity.
Gajjar and SETI colleague Grayce Brown investigated how space weather has historically impacted communications between Earth and spacecraft such as Mariner IV, which flew by Mars in the 1960s, and the Viking probes, which launched in 1977 for a voyage through the solar system and beyond. They created one of the largest collections of signal broadening examples and used that information to determine how other sunlike stars would affect the environment around their exoplanets. From this, the team calculated what would happen to a hypothetical alien narrowband signal that originated on one of them.
A planet’s radio signal may begin as a sharp tone (left, white) but can be spread out by the star’s plasma winds into a wider, fainter signal (right, green). The new study suggests radio astronomers may be missing signals by mostly looking for the sharp white shape instead of the broader green one.
(Image credit: Vishal Gajjar)
Then, they turned their attention to M dwarf stars, the most common type in the Milky Way. These stars account for three out of four stars in our galaxy, and some have been around since the early universe. That gives them a lot of time to have developed technologically advanced life, according to the paper.
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There are no actual measurements of space weather around these stars, so Gajjar and Brown modeled what might happen to a narrowband technosignal that emerged from exoplanets and had to travel through interplanetary plasma. They found that hypothetical narrowband signals from these exoplanets were more likely to be smeared by space weather, making them even harder to detect.
In the paper, the authors propose a framework to estimate how much broadening would happen to a signal, given its frequency and the type of star its exoplanet was orbiting.
This new framework doesn’t totally answer Fermi’s infamous question, but it does give us a potential reason for the silence. The Fermi paradox "is not solely evidence for the absence of transmitters, but also a reflection of our detection limitations arising from a mismatch between the assumed signal morphology" and shape, the researchers wrote.
Michael Garrett, an astrophysicist at the University of Manchester in the U.K. who was not involved in the study, welcomed the research.
"It is a solid contribution that SETI researchers and signal-processing teams should pay attention to," he told Live Science. "One of the strengths of the paper is that it's grounded in real measurements too, drawing on decades of spacecraft observations."
However, he emphasized that the paper focused on narrowband radio signals, which was only one way of potentially detecting an alien civilization. By contrast, Garrett's work explores the possible combined radio leakage from a technological civilization across a large range of frequencies.
Andrew Siemion, director of Breakthrough Listen Oxford Hub in the U.K. who was not involved in the research but collaborates with the SETI Institute, said this is the first paper to explore the space around exoplanets and its impact on detectability.
"The work offers a very concrete mechanism through which a candidate signal might ultimately be validated as having a likely origin with a distant planetary system," he told Live Science.
The authors recommended that future searches, especially with sensitive next-generation telescopes such as SKA-Low, take note of signal broadening when searching for civilizations beyond Earth.
NASA satellite captures wave of warm water hundreds of miles long that signals a devastatingly strong El NiñoA massive wave of warm water is making its way across the Pacific Ocean as the newly declared El Niño gets into full swing, satellite images show.
The band, called a Kelvin wave, marks a swell of higher-than-average sea levels that stretches hundreds of miles along the equator. The anomaly is caused by warmer waters linked to El Niño — the warm phase of a natural climate pattern whose current iteration could become one of the strongest ever recorded.
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite captured the deviations from average sea surface height on June 8. Red areas indicate higher sea surfaces than usual, while blue areas mark areas with lower surface heights.
Developed and launched in 2020 by NASA and the European Space Agency and operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich measures changes in sea surface height down to fractions of an inch every 10 days.
The data complements measurements of sea surface temperature that have shown Pacific waters warming at unpreceded rates over the past several months, leading scientists to declare the start of a new El Niño on June 11. When ocean water warms, it expands and takes up more space. That translates to an increase in the height of the water relative to the satellite and the center of Earth, which is then picked up by the satellite's sensitive equipment. At some points along the equator, sea surfaces are now more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) higher than usual.
Kelvin waves like this one form when winds in the western Pacific near the equator weaken and temporarily reverse, blowing from west to east instead of east to west. That lets warm water gradually build up in the east, deepening the layer of warm surface waters and preventing colder waters from rising from below. The wave has now reached the western coast of South America.
NASA had already observed a few other Kelvin waves this year, suggesting an El Niño event was soon to follow. In January, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich detected one near Micronesia that dissipated around mid-February. Another emerged in March and elevated sea levels near Peru by mid-May.
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Changes in sea surface temperature or height can alter atmospheric circulation patterns and affect the weather. El Niño often increases rainfall in the southwestern U.S., Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, while rainfall in the western Pacific tends to decrease. The most recent El Niño, which lasted from June 2023 to April 2024, boosted global mean temperatures that made 2024 the hottest year on record and the first to breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming limit — a guardrail set by the Paris Agreement beyond which the effects of climate change become more and more catastrophic.
The June 8 conditions in the western Pacific were similar to those that occurred 1997 during a particularly strong El Niño, according to a statement from NASA. 2026 has seen fewer Kelvin waves so far than 1997, but this year's El Niño is still ramping up.
Een fotoanalyse van MUFON: Communiceert deze groene bol? Een forensische beeldanalyse van een virale bewering over een UAP door Seth H. Feinstein, fotoanalist bij MUFON.
8 januari 2026 Samenvatting
Een afbeelding van een groene bol, afkomstig uit een viraal filmpje op sociale media dat aan Chris Bledsoe wordt toegeschreven, leidde tot wijdverspreide speculatie dat het object interne letters of symbolen bevatte en een communicerende, niet-menselijke intelligentie vertegenwoordigde. Dit artikel presenteert een forensische beeldanalyse van het stilstaande beeld van de groene bol met behulp van gevestigde digitale forensische technieken, waaronder kanaalisolatie, randdetectie, HSV-analyse en principale componentenanalyse (PCA). De resultaten wijzen erop dat de waargenomen structuren consistent zijn met artefacten van computerfotografie, compressie-effecten en perceptuele illusies, in plaats van een fysiek object of communicatief signaal. Deze casus laat zien hoe beeldverwerkingsprocessen van smartphones en compressie op sociale media overtuigende, maar misleidende visuele anomalieën kunnen produceren.
Achtergrond van de zaak
In december 2025 begon een afbeelding van een groene bol te circuleren op sociale media, na een bericht van Chris Bledsoe. Hij beschreef de afbeelding als een stilbeeld uit 4K-video-opnamen die waren gemaakt tijdens een World Forum-evenement in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. In het bericht werd gesuggereerd dat de bol letters of symbolen bevatte en een vorm van communicatie impliceerde.
Volgens beschikbare verklaringen bestaat er meer dan 20 GB aan videogegevens in hoge resolutie, naar verluidt opgenomen met een Apple iPhone Pro. Er waren echter alleen gecomprimeerde versies van de beelden beschikbaar voor analyse, die op sociale media werden gedeeld. Metadata ontbrak in de geanalyseerde bestanden, omdat sociale mediaplatformen standaard EXIF- en tijdsinformatie verwijderen tijdens het uploaden. Hierdoor konden de datum, tijd en precieze opnameparameters niet onafhankelijk worden geverifieerd.
Opvallend is dat de vermeende belettering tot nu toe slechts in vier geïdentificeerde frames voorkomt.
Visueel bewijsmateriaal beoordeeld
Er werden drie verwante visuele bronnen onderzocht:
Analytische methoden
De stilstaande afbeelding van de groene bol werd geïmporteerd in GIMP en Forensically beta voor forensische analyse. De volgende processen werden toegepast:
Elke methode werd gekozen om te bepalen of de waargenomen interne structuren fysieke randen, oppervlakken of coherente geometrie vertegenwoordigen, of dat ze producten zijn van digitale verwerking.
Resultaten
Door de rode, groene en blauwe kanalen te isoleren, bleek dat de waargenomen structuur vrijwel uitsluitend in het groene kanaal aanwezig was. Bij versterking van de rode en blauwe kanalen kwamen geen overeenkomstige structurele details naar voren. Dit gedrag wijst op een door de sensor gestuurde kanaaloverleving in plaats van een object dat van nature groen licht uitzendt.
Bij alle Sobel-, gradiënt- en standaardranddetectiealgoritmen bleef de buitenste grens van het object consistent en vormde een vloeiend cirkelvormig profiel. De interne "letters" leverden echter bij geen enkel algoritme stabiele randen op. Dit wijst erop dat de interne vormen geen fysieke randgeometrie hebben en geen solide of op oppervlakken gebaseerde kenmerken zijn.
Bij HSV-randdetectie ontstond een verspreid veld van willekeurige witte pixels in plaats van doorlopende randlijnen. In forensische analyses duidt dit patroon op chromatische ruis en artefacten door beeldverbetering, en niet op een fysieke structuur. Dergelijke resultaten worden routinematig gebruikt om vaste objecten, oppervlakken en vaartuigen uit te sluiten.
Hoofdcomponentenanalyse (PCA)
PCA-component 3 onthulde vierkante en trapvormige patronen die consistent waren met macroblokken van videocodecs en digitale zoomartefacten. De analyse benadrukte kunstmatige segmentatie die leek op organische membranen, een bekende perceptuele illusie veroorzaakt door overmatige verscherping, ruisinteractie en scheiding van eigenvectoren.
Deze effecten worden vaak waargenomen bij de analyse van:
Overwegingen bij computerfotografie
De camera die naar verluidt werd gebruikt, was een Apple iPhone Pro. Apple's workflow voor computergestuurde fotografie geeft prioriteit aan esthetische helderheid boven wetenschappelijke nauwkeurigheid, vooral bij weinig licht. Bekende processen zijn onder andere:
Bij het filmen van geïsoleerde, heldere objecten tegen een donkere hemel introduceren deze processen vaak kunstmatige kleurverschuivingen, interne structuren en geometrische patronen. Groene bollen, plasma-achtige sferen en 'gestructureerde' lichten zijn bijzonder veelvoorkomende resultaten.
Groene bollen zijn een bekend en herhaalbaar resultaat van:
Ze vormen op zichzelf geen bewijs van gestructureerde vaartuigen, energievelden of communicatie. Een gedegen forensische analyse is essentieel voordat buitengewone verklaringen worden toegekend aan visueel aantrekkelijke beelden.
Atmosferische en sensoreffecten
Verstrooiing in de atmosfeer, inclusief Rayleigh-verstrooiing, draagt bij aan:
Sensorblooming was ook duidelijk zichtbaar, waarbij intens licht in aangrenzende pixels lekt, wat halo's en mistachtige structuren veroorzaakt. Het stapelen van frames met lange belichtingstijd versterkt deze effecten nog verder, vooral in combinatie met beweging en compressie.
Discussie: Communiceert de bol?
Het verschijnen van interne symbolen of letters kan het best worden verklaard door pareidolie – de menselijke neiging om betekenisvolle patronen te zien in willekeurige of ambigue gegevens – versterkt door AI-gestuurde beeldverbetering. Het feit dat de "letters" slechts in vier frames voorkomen, ondersteunt sterk een algoritmische oorsprong in plaats van opzettelijke signalering.
Er zijn geen forensische aanwijzingen die de aanwezigheid van:
In plaats daarvan leiden alle analytische resultaten tot een onjuiste interpretatie.
Conclusie
De afbeelding van de groene bol komt het meest overeen met een verre puntlichtbron – zoals een heldere ster, planeet of vliegtuiglicht – die door extreme digitale zoom, computergestuurde verbetering van beelden bij weinig licht, atmosferische effecten en videocompressie als afwijkend wordt weergegeven. Hoewel het object visueel aantrekkelijk is, vertegenwoordigt het geen communicerende entiteit of gestructureerd UAP.
Deze zaak onderstreept de cruciale noodzaak van forensische beeldanalyse bij onderzoek naar UAP's en laat zien hoe moderne smartphonecamera's onbedoeld buitengewone beelden kunnen produceren uit ogenschijnlijk gewone bronnen.
Over de auteur
The McMinnville, Oregon UFO Festival
Dean Fassnidge, State Director, MUFON Oregon
The McMinnville, Oregon UFO Festival began in 2000 to commemorate an important event in local UFO history, the Trent farm photos. It is celebrated each year around the date of the sighting with parades, social events, and scientific presentations.
Speakers this year included Dr. Matthew Szydagis, Dr. Rebecca Charbonneau (SETI), Kelly
Chase, Jason Martell (Ancient Aliens), George Knapp, and Jeremy Corbell.
A little background history. It can be argued that the first documented UFO case in Oregon history is known as the Trent Sighting, occurring on May 11, 1950, above the Trent family farm located between McMinnville and Sheridan, Oregon.
Evelyn Trent observed a disc-shaped object maneuvering in the sky above their farm.
She alerted her husband, Paul, and they saw an object and estimated it to be about 20 to 30 feet in diameter. Paul went back into the house, grabbed his Kodak camera, and took two photographs before the object flew off to the west. Immediately, they alerted their in-laws, who lived next to the property, and their father-in-law observed the object as well.
Paul Trent initially thought it was a secret military aircraft and kept the sighting to himself. He finished his roll of film, containing previously taken pictures around the farm, including pictures of his family’s Mother’s Day picnic celebration.
This action in itself indirectly bolsters the legitimacy of the event, and that there was no intent to fabricate the images – they were in the middle of the film roll.
A month later, while talking with his banker, Frank Wortman, and encouraged by his brother Ralph, he mentioned the sighting and his photographs. Mr. Wortman was excited and displayed the photos in his bank’s window in McMinnville.
Shortly thereafter, local reporter Bill Powell convinced Trent to loan him the negatives and ran an article in the McMinnville Telephone-Register newspaper.
On June 9 and 10, 1950, The Oregonian published the photographs. On June 12, the story aired on national news broadcasts, followed by reprints of the photographs in the June 26 issue of Life magazine. The Trents were even flown to New York to appear on the television show,
We The People.
Following this national exposure, an investigator from Project Blue Book came to the
farm to interview the Trents, in addition to investigators from the FBI.
In 1969, as we know, the Air Force’s Condon Commission published a report, claiming an exhaustive UFO study and easily dismissing many accounts. However, it was stated that the Trent photographs were “difficult to explain conventionally” and concluded that the photographs were genuine. Following the conclusion of the Condon report, the negatives were returned to UPI, and in 1970, they were sent back to the
News-Register (formerly the Telephone Register) in McMinnville. When they arrived back at the paper, 20 years later, the negatives had been tampered with considerably.
Someone had cropped the negatives, trimming down the edges and reducing their overall size so that parts of the original image were missing. Despite ongoing attempts by Philip Klass and others to debunk the photos, in 1975, Dr. Bruce Maccabee of MUFON, a renowned optical-photo analyst, made an intensive study of the negatives and concluded that they were not the result of some kind of trickery.
Interesting Side Note:
In 1999, a longtime resident of McMinnville saw the pictures and articles commemorating the Trent UFO sighting at the newly opened Hotel Oregon. Wishing to remain anonymous, she validated the sighting by telling her story. On May 11, 1950, she and a group of her fellow Linfield College students heard stories of a recent UFO encounter nearby. They went to the area of the present site of the McMinnville airport and saw dozens of cars pulled off the road, presently on Three Mile Lane. Following the direction people were looking, they too observed a “steel gray, metal saucer” floating just above tree level.
Their encounter went unreported.
Lawmaker UFO Talk with Private Contractor
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., is broadening his inquiry into alleged UAP-related government secrecy by turning to private defense contractors, specifically MIT Lincoln Laboratory. In a social media post, Burlison said he had sent a letter seeking a classified 1952 briefing video described as a “flying saucer talk,” adding that the laboratory’s attorneys responded quickly and indicated they would comply within 30 days. The move comes as lawmakers continue pressing for transparency around alleged secret UFO-related programs they believe may sit outside traditional Pentagon records.
Burlison framed the effort as part of a larger strategy to follow information wherever it may be stored. “Congressional letters carry weight. We’re going to keep sending them,” he said, signaling that the inquiry is likely to continue beyond this single request. The congressman’s comments reflect a growing frustration among some lawmakers that key records may not be held directly by federal agencies but instead by outside entities that work with the government under classified arrangements.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory is not a typical contractor. Founded in 1951 to help build the SAGE air defense network, it is one of the country’s oldest Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs). These centers occupy a unique position in the defense ecosystem: they are funded by the government, work on long-term national security projects, and can access classified and proprietary information that many commercial contractors cannot legally see. Over decades, Lincoln Lab has been involved in sensitive work ranging from ballistic missile defense to electronic warfare.
That structure is central to Burlison’s argument. In his view, if lawmakers want to understand whether hidden programs exist, they must examine the network of nonprofit research institutions and laboratories that operate one step removed from the executive branch. He said his investigation is following “the trail into RAND, MITRE, Aerospace Corp, MIT Lincoln Labs, and the Northrop Grummans of the world,” underscoring his belief that information may be dispersed across multiple private-sector institutions rather than stored in a single government archive.
The latest move also fits into a broader wave of congressional scrutiny sparked by testimony from David Grusch, the former intelligence officer whose allegations of secret UFO-retrieval and reverse-engineering programs helped drive a series of hearings. Grusch has argued that private contractors may be used to shield sensitive programs from congressional oversight, making it harder for lawmakers to verify what the government knows about UAPs or how taxpayer money may be spent.
That view has found support among some members of Congress. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the most vocal advocates for disclosure, has repeatedly said the Defense Department appears to silo information in ways that frustrate oversight. He compared the dynamic to the secrecy surrounding World War II-era efforts such as the Manhattan Project, noting that large numbers of people may work on a program without knowing its true purpose. For advocates of disclosure, the issue is therefore not only whether UFO programs exist, but who controls the records and who can be asked to account for them.
The Pentagon has consistently denied claims that it is hiding evidence of recovered UFO craft or covert retrieval programs, and officials have maintained that many UAP reports are explainable through conventional means, incomplete data, or misidentification. Still, Burlison’s request suggests lawmakers are not limiting themselves to government agencies alone. By targeting a federally funded laboratory with long-standing classified access, he is testing whether records tied to historical UAP claims may exist outside normal public-facing channels.
If Lincoln Laboratory does provide a response within the stated 30-day window, it could become another data point in a growing congressional record that includes hearings, whistleblower testimony, and requests to defense-linked institutions. For now, Burlison’s outreach illustrates how the UAP debate has shifted from speculation about sightings to a more concrete fight over where information is kept, who controls it, and whether Congress can get access to it.
New Horizons is heading beyond the Solar System
The New Horizons spacecraft could cross the boundary of the heliosphere in as little as three years — or it may take as long as fourteen. That range comes from new forecasts built by combining solar-wind prediction methods with numerical models of the heliosphere.
Modeling the structure of the heliosphere and its interaction with the interstellar medium. Solar-wind data and pressure forecasts help predict when New Horizons will encounter the termination shock on its way toward interstellar space.
Credit: NASA / IBEX / Adler Planetarium / SwRI
Researchers at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Texas used existing numerical simulations to reconstruct the structure of the heliosphere and its interaction with the interstellar medium. They added solar-wind data and forecasts of its pressure to the models. This made it possible to estimate the position of the termination shock — the first plasma boundary the spacecraft will encounter beyond Pluto’s orbit.
The heliosphere does not have a static boundary. It constantly expands and contracts in response to changes in solar activity. During solar maximum, the stronger solar wind expands it; during solar minimum, it shrinks. This dynamic behavior is what makes forecasting so difficult and produces such a wide range of possible timelines.
Two scientific papers by Dr. Jonathan Gasser of SwRI describe the forecasting method. The first, published in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Space Research, focuses directly on predicting when the spacecraft will cross the termination shock. The second, published in The Astrophysical Journal, examines long-term variations in the global heliosphere based on solar-wind forecasts.
According to the team’s estimates, New Horizons will reach the boundary no earlier than 2029 and no later than 2040. The spacecraft may cross it not just once, but several times, if the heliosphere contracts and then expands again as New Horizons continues its journey. New Horizons will become only the third spacecraft in history to cross this boundary. The first two were Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.
Scientists do not agree on the exact shape of the heliosphere. Some models depict it as comet-like, with a rounded nose and an elongated tail. Other calculations suggest a croissant-like shape. The distance to the boundary in any given direction depends on which model is closer to reality.
That is why researchers emphasize the need for direct measurements. As New Horizons approaches the termination shock, the team will need to prepare in advance to collect and downlink data from this region. New Horizons has already completed historic flybys of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth. Now it is approaching the forward region of the heliosphere.
Did Gravitational Tides Cause Earth's Extinctions?
Life on Earth took a long evolutionary journey that eventually created us, the purportedly intelligent species that dominates the planet. But there was no grand plan or design, only happenstance, nature, and luck. Life on Earth suffered multiple extinctions, but got up, dusted itself off, and continued on its long march to complexity.
The Chicxulub impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and set the stage for the ascension of mammals grabs plenty of headlines. But there may have been more subtle events that also led to extinctions. Gravitational tides generated by the flybys of planetary mass objects or dwarf planets may have played a role.
That's according to a new paper by Daniele Fargion, a research professor from Rome University and the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte in Naples. It's a conference proceedings paper titled "Mass Extinctions by Gravitational Tides" and it was presented at the 'Multi-frequency Behaviour of High Energy Cosmic Sources' conference in Palermo, June 2025. It's currently available at arxiv.org.
Fargion points out that there's ample evidence for a population of dwarf planet sized objects in the outer Solar System, of which Pluto may be the most well-known member. There could be thousands of tens of thousands of these objects on elliptical orbits. Gravitational perturbations could send some of these objects into the inner Solar System, where collisions like the one between Earth and Theia created the Moon. But far more likely than head-on collisions are flybys.
"Such passages may have left strong tidal signatures: giant waves, large volcanic episodes, sea regressions, coherent meteor showers, and major climatic perturbations," Fargion writes. "These mechanisms could have contributed to several major biological mass extinctions over the past 600 million years, as suggested by peculiar correlations in the geological record."
Fargion explains that Earth's major mass extinctions correlate in time with huge changes in the planetary climate, meteoric impacts, and enormous volcanic eruptions. Correlation is one thing, but finding the definitive links between them is more difficult. "The reason for that is not clear. Meteoritic impacts alone, volcanic eruptions alone or sea regressions alone could not have caused all the major mass extinctions," he writes.
While there's plenty of evidence, including the iridium anomaly, that an impact wiped out the dinosaurs and created a mass extinction about 64 million years ago, the causes of other mass extinctions aren't so clear.
The largest known extinction occurred 251 million years ago, and pinpointing its cause continues to be difficult. "But, neither an iridium anomaly, nor a large meteoritic crater have been dated back to the Permian/Triassic (P/T) mass extinction, 251 𝑀 𝑦 ago, which was the largest known extinction in the history of life, where global species extinction ranged between 80% to 95%," the author explains.
"Here we suggest that tidal effects of planetary-mass objects which pass near Earth could have caused all of these and can explain the complex geological records of the major biological mass extinctions," Fargion explains.
There are many anomalies in the inner Solar System that can be attributed to flybys of, collisions with, or captures of planetary mass objects from the outer Solar System. Uranus is tilted on its side, and that could be from a collision. Triton, Neptune's largest moon, appears to be a captured Kuiper Belt Object. And the Late Heavy Bombardment may have been caused by perturbations from a planetary mass flyby. The Solar System also features several retrograde orbit moons, a feature which still waits for an explanation.
*The author says that collisions with planetary mass objects could've created the off-axis spins of the planets. Multiple collisions may have been responsible. Image Credit: Fargion 2026. PoS*
It's unreasonable to think that Earth was unaffected by similar events.
"Passage of such objects near Earth could have generated on it gigantic tidal waves, large volcanic eruptions and drastic changes in global climate and sea level," writes Fargion. "Moreover, upon crossing the asteroids and Kuiper belts these planetary mass objects could have diverted large meteorites and asteroids into a collision course with Earth. Thus visits of distant planets may be the common cause for the various catastrophes that were jointly responsible for the major biological mass extinctions."
Some evidence for past flybys can be seen in the Earth-Moon system, according to the author. "Fossil corals show that the rate of decrease in the number of diurnal rings during annual cycles, i.e. the rate of decrease in the number of days in a year, has changed suddenly into a slower rate at the end Devonian," Fargion writes. "Since the lengthening of the day is due to slowing of the rotation of Earth by the well understood Moon’s tidal forces, it implies that at the end Devonian the moon-Earth distance increased suddenly by a significant fraction."
A collision couldn't do that because it's so sudden and would create an instantaneous change. But a flyby could. "Such an increase could have been induced by a tidal pull in a nearby passage of a visiting planet/moon," Fargion explains. That tidal pull could also generate global tsunamis, and generate powerful tides that lasted years. It would also deform the crust and generate tidal heating in the planet's interior, which could have triggered massive volcanic eruptions.
These events were all a long time ago, and it's challenging to estimate how many flybys there were and how massive the objects were. "A reliable estimate of the masses and the flux of the visiting planets/planetesimals is not possible yet," writes Fargion.
But Jupiter may provide a way to understand. Jupiter is slightly tilted on its axis, and also seems to have an unaccounted for energy source that helps it have such a high surface temperature. Fargion calculates that Jupiter has suffered 16 collisions with objects of 0.5 Earth masses in its history. "Similar estimates for other planets, although yielding the correct order of magnitude for the tilts of their spins, are less reliable because the inferred number of accreted planets is too small," Fargion explains. "We note, however that the past dwarf planet population, four billion years ago, could be more heavier than present one, which is mostly dominated by lighter Moon-like dwarf planet mass."
The Solar System's history is a puzzle, and Earth's history is likewise puzzling. Ongoing discoveries of massive objects in the outer Solar System show that they're a part of the puzzle, too. If they visited the inner Solar System, they could've triggered extinctions. And if it happened in the past, it could happen again in the future.
*These are some of the planetary mass objects in our Solar System. During flybys, objects with this much mass could've triggered extinctions on Earth.
Image Credit: Fargion 2026. PoS*
"The consequent lessons for us humans, to overcome such an eventual extinctions are: deep sky inspection to seek weakest far dwarf planet sources, once found, alert the incoming events as soon as possible," the author writes. If it's asteroid sized, try to divert it.
But if it's larger than an asteroid and is a planetary mass object, then we need to prepare differently. The main danger, according to Fargion, would be from massive tidal waves that swept around the planet and persisted for years. In this case, there's only one thing we can do.
"A prevention might be also to organize, on the top of mountains chains (at 2-3 km altitude), secure refuge for human and life for surviving such (rare but not, impossible) events," Fargion writes.
The author also entertains the idea that flybys like this could help explain the Fermi Paradox. "The tidal mass extinction, its rate and form, may also explain the famous Fermi Paradox: Where is everybody, or, why they are not yet here? The answer could be, that life is unstable and short," the author writes.
"Astrophysical tidal extinctions could more rarely cancel any advanced civilization, making a life reset toward a lower, primordial, silent level," Fargion concludes.
Scientists Warn Extraterrestrial Encounters Could Endanger Earth—a Quarantine Facility on the Moon May Be Our Last Line of Defense
During future space missions, humans may finally encounter extraterrestrial life forms, settling the age-old question of whether we are alone in the cosmos. But what if alien biology is so different from that of Earthlings that its presence could become a potential global hazard?
This is the concern raised by researchers Frederick I. Moxley and Anthony Ricciardi in a new study, which argues that in an era of sample return missions and space missions that are carrying humans and our robotic probes farther into the cosmos than ever before, we need to be prepared to enact measures to protect our planet against the unforeseen consequences of any potential alien encounters the future may hold.
“The advancement of space exploration into an era of sample return missions from Mars, asteroids, and icy moons raises the potential for biological contamination either to or from Earth,” the authors write in their recent study, published in the journal Ambio. Given the potential for such contamination, Moxley and Ricciardi approach the question of alien contact from the perspective of past examples where invasive species on Earth have caused major disturbances to the environments they encounter.
“We consider the possibility that extraterrestrial organisms introduced to Earth could behave analogously to invasive species by destabilizing ecosystems or interacting unpredictably with their new environment,” the authors write, pointing to the multitude of examples known to science, many of which involve the introduction of microbial organisms into new environments—often with devastating consequences.
In many cases, such organisms not only can survive in new environments, but can often adapt with remarkable speed, even in some of the most extreme environments.
This, the authors say, challenges the idea that extraterrestrial life might not even be capable of surviving on Earth, as expressed by some past research.
“The plausibility of encountering extraterrestrial life warrants stringent planetary protection measures grounded in biosafety and biosecurity principles,” the authors warn.
So how do they suggest protecting Earth against such potentially catastrophic events involving future encounters with extraterrestrials?
According to Moxley and Ricciardi, building a quarantine facility on the Moon could serve as Earth’s last line of defense against any unintended alien invasions that could radically disrupt Earth’s fragile ecosystems.
“Due to its proximity, natural isolation, and apparent lack of a biosphere, the Moon can serve as a secure site for biocontainment of extraterrestrial samples,” the authors write. In their study, they examine historical instances where biological invasions have led to catastrophic environmental changes and argue that constructing a biocontainment facility on the Moon “should form the cornerstone of modern astrobiological risk mitigation strategies.”
What the researchers propose falls in line with current plans NASA has for a permanent lunar base, which is one of the many ambitious efforts under its Artemis Mission. Such a lunar outpost, which will serve as the official Artemis Base Camp, is planned for construction near the Moon’s South Pole.
At a cost of close to $30 billion, the effort will help to facilitate an ongoing human presence on the Moon by as soon as 2028, according to current mission timelines, and will serve as a science hub in support of future lunar exploration.
For Moxley and Ricciardi, incorporating a quarantine facility within our future lunar infrastructure that can house any extraterrestrial life forms we may encounter could prove to be vital. Ultimately, having such a facility may play the important role of shielding Earth against unintentional contamination by a potentially invasive alien species.
The team’s recent paper, “Protecting earth from extraterrestrial contamination: The case for a lunar biocontainment facility,” was published in Ambio.
Missing scientist found dead after 11 months took two shocking items with her that cast doubt on suicide theory
The case of a missing nuclear lab employee who was found dead nearly a year after vanishing has taken a troubling turn, with new details raising questions about the suicide theory.
Melissa Casias, 53, a former administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), disappeared from her home in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, on June 26, 2025.
Her skeletal remains, along with a reported gunshot wound to the head, were discovered in New Mexico's Carson National Forest on May 28, lying next to a handgun that her family insists did not belong to the wife and mother.
Now, new details about her final moments have been released, revealing Casias took her toothbrush and thyroid medication before walking out the door of her Ranchos de Taos home for the last time.
Los Angeles Magazine contributor Lauren Conlin, who has been following Casias' case closely and first reported on the items, told NewsNation that they are 'things that might indicate you're planning to stay alive.'
Morgan Wright, founder and CEO of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, also said that there are key aspects of Casias' disappearance and the discovery of her remains that do not add up.
'You don't get slumped up on a tree,' said Wright.
'Most of the time, in every crime scene I've worked on, there are skeletonized remains, and there's no connective tissue left. Everything's on the ground in pieces.'
The final image of Melissa Casias alive came from a surveillance camera near State Road 518 in New Mexico, approximately three miles from her home
Although Casias' remains have been in the custody of authorities since June 1, the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator has yet to announce an official cause of death.
Earlier this month, authorities told the Daily Mail that an initial CT scan of the remains did not reveal any projectiles in the skull, meaning no bullet was recovered alongside the skull fragments found in the woods.
Police have not publicly confirmed that Casias suffered a gunshot wound to the head.
Those details were first disclosed to the Daily Mail by Arizona-based investigator Thomas McNally, who had been working on the case on behalf of Casias' parents, Joe and Joanne Mondragon.
The absence of a recovered bullet has raised questions among independent investigators.
Wright said the type of ammunition allegedly used could be a key factor, telling NewsNation that some bullets expand upon impact and are often recovered from a body, while others are more likely to pass completely through.
He argued that determining the type of ammunition involved could help investigators understand why no projectile was found.
Casias vanished after dropping off her husband, Mark, another LANL employee, at the facility that morning, approximately 70 miles from their home.
Melissa Casias worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a long-running nuclear research facility, before disappearing on June 26, 2025
Melissa Casias (Left) pictured with her husband Mark Casias
She then claimed she had to return home after forgetting the badge needed to access the nuclear lab.
According to Mark, Casias had the security badge with her when she dropped him off that morning, as she would have needed the badge to get past the security checkpoints to drop him off.
When Casias arrived in Ranchos de Taos, the couple's daughter, Sierra, reportedly told investigators that her mother visited the teen's place of work to drop off a sandwich and then said she planned to work from home after forgetting the badge.
Despite what Casias reportedly told both her daughter and husband, she returned home to drop off her work and personal phones, which the family would later find inside the house, wiped clean of all data.
Surveillance cameras last spotted Casias walking alone eastward on State Road 518, roughly three miles from her home around 2.20pm local time.
Melissa Casias (Left) pictured with her daughter, Sierra. Her daughter is believed to be the last family member is see Casias alive on June 26, 2025
Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told the Daily Mail in March he was concerned her disappearance was part of a much larger pattern involving individuals who had access to top secret government research.
Swecker explained that Casias's work at LANL may have made her a target for abduction, since an administrative assistant often has access to the same sensitive files their supervisors have.
'In a classified lab, or just a high clearance lab, they would basically be in the know on what's going on,' Swecker said. 'And it wouldn't be the first time their administrative assistant has been targeted.'
However, the woman's family and private investigators have disputed how much access Casias really had, claiming that the LANL employee lost her security clearance due to financial troubles she and her husband were having.
Scientists found the optimal robot body, and it has 20 legs — watch it scale walls and move through trees
A sea-urchin-like robot could offer a new blueprint for making more versatile robots, research suggests.
A weird 20-legged machine could change how scientists think about the ideal robot form.
For decades, roboticists have been inspired by the natural world, building machines that resemble humans, dogs, insects and even horses. But new research suggests that the most useful robot body may look less like a human and more like a sea urchin.
The robot has no front or back. Its 20 telescoping legs, each costing $300, radiate from a central body, with a depth camera at each leg tip, leading the researchers to name it Argus, after the all-seeing monster of Greek mythology. This design results in a machine that can move in any direction, stabilize itself after being pushed, cross rough terrain, carry a 10-pound (4.5 kilograms) payload and even climb up walls.
"Watching Argus move is unlike watching any other robot we've worked with," Jiaxun Liu, a doctoral student in Duke's General Robotics Lab and co-author of the study, said in a statement. "The first time we saw it navigate among trees and rough terrain, even under heavy collisions [when someone pushed it], we knew this was something different."
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The team arrived at Argus' design after running more than 1,500 simulations of different robot shapes. Instead of asking what animal the robot should resemble, the researchers focused on how symmetrical a machine could be in all directions — a mathematical concept called dynamic isotropy.
The dynamic isotropy score ranges from 0 to 1 and measures how evenly a robot can accelerate its body, or center of mass, in every direction. A score of 1 means a robot can react or move nearly identically in all directions.
"When a robot can accelerate equally well in every direction, it stops needing to face the world in any particular way," Boyuan Chen, director of Duke's General Robotics Lab and co-author of the study, said in the statement. "Forward and backward become the same. Left and right become the same. The whole problem of robot control changes character."
According to the researchers, most robots today — including advanced four-legged robots, humanoids and conventional drones — score below 0.6, meaning they're better at moving or reacting in some directions than others. With its 20 legs, Argus scored a 0.91, close to the theoretical maximum.
To achieve this high score, the team arranged Argus' body around a shape called a regular dodecahedron, a three-dimensional form with 12 pentagonal faces. The arrangement gives the robot a nearly uniform field of view and allows it to move without needing to orient itself the way a conventional robot would.
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Chen said that based on these findings, robots don't need to imitate humans or dogs to boost their agility, and instead are designed from deeper mathematical principles.
To test whether Argus' design was truly optimal, the team took the robot out on the Duke campus, where it rolled across concrete, grass, dense foliage, soft sand, wet surfaces and bark. It handled obstacles up to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) tall, kept moving even after three of its legs were broken, and pushed a 3-foot (1 meter) cube while rolling.
Argus, the 20-legged robot, rolls across a sandy beach.
Argus is a proof of concept and not the final answer on the optimal robot design, the researchers wrote in the study. Its broader importance may be in how it was designed rather than where or how it can be used in real-world scenarios — it could be a mathematical way to compare different robot bodies and design new form factors from scratch.
"It shows that designing for dynamic symmetry isn't just a theoretical curiosity," Boxi Xia, a postdoctoral researcher at Duke's General Robotics Lab and co-author of the study, said in the statement. "It produces a robot you can deploy in the wild, on uneven ground and in clutter, even in low-gravity settings. It changes what's possible."
Article Sources
Science Robotics, 11(114). https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.aec1725
Humans May Soon Be Able to Regrow Body Parts—Including Fingers and Limbs—Thanks to a Groundbreaking Serum
The key to regeneration has been inside you all along, new research suggests.
Imagine losing a finger in a kitchen mishap or an entire limb in an accident. Instead of learning to adapt to a prosthetic, your doctor prescribes you a serum. A few months later, your bone, muscle, nerves, and skin have perfectly knit themselves back together. Your limb is entirely regrown.
It sounds like pure science fiction, but scientists are currently working to unlock the secrets of limb regeneration in mammals, drawing inspiration from salamanders. Axolotls, a type of salamander, can take roughly 40 to 50 days to regrow lost limbs, which is a flash compared to humans and other mammals who lack the ability all together. But a new treatment could change that shortcoming.
In a recent study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Texas A&M University used a specially-formulated serum that encouraged mice to form a blastema—the temporary cellular structure that helps organisms like axolotls regenerate structures.
Hw were they able to do this? According to study author Ken Muneoka, PhD, professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology at Texas A&M, he and his team amputated part of a mouse’s finger. From there, researchers followed three steps to regrow the digit:
So, could someone who is born with, say, an underdeveloped limb be able to grow a new one using this treatment—or does the human body lack the blueprint? According to Muneoka, it depends on the reason for the underdeveloped limb.
“The human body uses the ‘blueprint’ to form the limb in the embryo, and we found evidence that this ‘blueprint’ is re-utilized when regeneration is stimulated by our treatment,” Muneoka says. In other words, someone whose limb was underdeveloped because of external factors in vivo, such as alcohol or drug exposure, might see better results than someone whose underdeveloped limb was caused by a genetic modification—or a damaged blueprint. “If the ‘blueprint’ is intact, then the expectation is that the regeneration should be possible,” he says. The amount of time this would take isn’t yet known.
If this treatment has the potential to regrow human limbs, what else could it do? Could it eventually be used to regrow more complex structures, like organs? There are studies—such as one published in Nature Genetics and another in PNAS—that show lung formation and limb formation share similar genetic requirements, according to Muneoka. There’s also research in salamanders that show that two proteins that are important for limb regeneration are also important for regeneration of other structures, such as gills.
“This suggests that the regenerative process may have universal characteristics, which gives us hope that our strategy for stimulating digit regeneration could have broad application,” Muneoka says. “We believe that our study outlines a general strategy for enhancing regenerative capabilities in humans. The specific details for this strategy will likely differ between organ systems, and that needs to be determined empirically.”
The tricky part, Muneoka says, is that organ regeneration requires time that may not be possible if the organ’s use is required to stay alive. So depending on the extent of the organ’s damage, a transplant from a donor may still be necessary.
Regeneration of body parts is unlikely to lead to immortality, though, according to Muneoka. “If individuals could regenerate organs throughout their lives, it would improve the quality of life, and it may enhance lifespan,” he says. But he points to a 2021 mouse study that he worked on, which found that blastema formation and the quality of the regenerative response declines with age.
So while we won’t be able to live forever or sprout a new pair of lungs overnight, the blueprint for human regeneration is already coded inside us—an exciting step forward for what’s possible when it comes to human healing.
Archaeologists Found an ‘Anomaly’ Near the Pyramids That May Reveal an Ancient PortalExperts Find 'Anomaly' Near the Great Pyramids
Nick Brundle Photography - Getty Images
Ground-penetrating radar has enabled archaeologists to identify hidden structures beneath the surface. A new study conducted by Japanese and Egyptian researchers has revealed an L-shaped structure accompanied by a nearby anomaly next to the Great Pyramids of Giza. While the precise nature of the anomaly is unknown, the researchers speculate that the L-shaped feature could potentially be an entrance to a deeper structure.
In archaeology, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has transformed the way sites are studied. This geophysical technique sends radar pulses into the ground to create subsurface images. Similar methods have previously uncovered Viking longships in Norway, revealed lost civilizations within the Amazon rainforest, and even mapped entire Roman cities without any excavation.
Once again, GPR has yielded discoveries near one of the world’s most thoroughly explored sites—the Great Pyramids of Giza. The research team, led by Motoyuki Sato of Tohoku University, combined GPR with electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), a method that uses variations in electrical resistance to map underground features. Using these techniques, they detected what they describe as an “L-shaped anomaly” in the western cemetery close to the pyramids.
Darren Orf
In the world of archeology, few tools have revolutionized the field as much as ground-penetrating radar (GPR). This geophysical technique uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. Similar techniques have uncovered Viking longships in Norway, revealed lost civilizations in the Amazonian jungle, and even entire Roman cities without ever putting a shovel into dirt.
In 2024, GPR once again delivered near one of the most well-excavated sites in the world—the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Researchers led by Tohoku University's Motoyuki Sato used GPR, along with electrical resistivity tomography, or ERT, to survey a "blank" patch of the Western Cemetery, the elite burial zone west of the Great Pyramid. The scans showed an L-shaped structure near the surface, with a deeper anomaly below it.
GPR sends radar pulses into the ground. ERT maps how strongly buried materials resist electrical current. Together, the methods gave the team a look at shapes and contrasts below the sand without opening the ground.
According to the team's research paper, published in the journal Archeological Prospection, the structure is roughly 6.5 feet from the surface, measures 33 feet in length, and was backfilled after construction.
"The Western Cemetery at Giza is known as an important burial place of members of the royal family and high-class officers," the paper reads. "In the initial survey by GPR and ERT we found an anomaly in the north of the survey site. The area of the anomaly could be established approximately, but the structure and the location were unclear."
Below the L-shaped feature, the team reported a deeper anomaly 16 to 33 feet underground and described it as "highly electrically resistive." That could mean a few things. The paper pointed to two possibilities: a mixture of sand and gravel, or sparse spacing with air voids. The cemetery around it is packed with mastabas, the flat-roofed tombs associated with elite burials at Giza. This particular patch drew less attention because it did not have the kind of visible surface architecture that usually pulls archaeologists in.
Later research and heritage-science literature treats the 2024 paper as an example of integrated GPR/ERT work in Egypt, but the Western Cemetery anomaly has not been upgraded into a solved archaeological case.
So, what exactly could this L-shape structure and its lower anomaly represent? Speaking with Live Science, Sato said the structure is likely not natural, as the shape is too sharp.
"It may have been an entrance to the deeper structure," Sato and his colleagues wrote in the paper. But "may" is doing real work here. The scan doesn't identify what is below the L-shaped feature, and the researchers didn't claim they had found a tomb. "From the survey results, we cannot determine the material causing the anomaly," they wrote, "but it may be a large subsurface archaeological structure."
The paper called for excavation to establish the anomaly's purpose. Until that happens publicly, the cleanest version of the story is that something unusual showed up in the scans beside the Great Pyramid, and archaeologists still don't know exactly what it is.
This Western Cemetery study is separate from viral claims about enormous hidden structures beneath the Pyramid of Khafre, which Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass publicly rejected in 2025. The GPR/ERT study near the Great Pyramid is peer-reviewed and real—but it's also unresolved.
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