Close Encounters: Why UFOs Are Having a Moment

When the unassuming turn of phrase “unidentified flying object” was coined in the 1940s, it was intended to suggest that the objects in question were nothing more mysterious than a rogue weather balloon or an unfamiliar aircraft. UFOs have since become synonymous with aliens, from cartoon flying saucers, to abduction stories, to X-Files-style conspiracy theories – in the popular imagination their mystery has been solved, UFOs equal aliens, whether you’re a true believer or not. This unshakable association came to be despite the diligent work Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a scientist who became convinced that we truly could not identify some objects in our skies, and kept pushing throughout his life for a scientific explanation, while keeping open every possibility, some of them way further out there than little green men.

Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs, a new book by Mark O’Connell, serves as a biography for both the modern UFO phenomenon and for Hynek, an astronomer and professor at Northwestern University who died over 30 years ago, but whose ideas make him one of the most surprising scientific figures of the 20th century. The book reveals an academic committed to rigorous, methodical study, but whose deep intellectual curiosity also harbored a mystical side, intrigued by Rudolf Steiner’s concept of “supersensible knowledge” and the idea of a universe composed of many dimensions. By the time of his death in 1986, he was much more interested in the idea that UFOs might be evidence of interdimensional overlap or proof of a Jungian collective conscience, than the comparatively quotidian concept that they are vehicles carrying visitors from faraway planets.

Hynek’s struggle to properly inform the public through a dedication to the scientific method, while also embracing the very edges of what is possible strikes a chord today, in an era rife with deep mistrust of the government and of mainstream science. Conspiracy theories have moved from the fringe since we stopped agreeing on what constitutes a basic scientific fact, and there are more than a few big ones involving the coming alien takeover and of course, NASA, which sits at the intersection of science, government and outer space.

Just last week a NASA spokesperson told The Daily Beast, in all seriousness, that the agency does not have child slaves laboring on Mars, in response to an InfoWars segment claiming otherwise. The Disclosure movement believes that governments around the world have already been in contact with alien intelligence and have suppressed this information from the public, and no, Trump would not be tweeting about it because the President is kept out of the loop in this scenario, says O’Connell. This is deep state stuff. Even the ever-pragmatic Hillary Clinton vowed to release classified information on UFOs and aliens while being interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel last year during her campaign. The unknown and how we go about knowing it is very much on our minds as a culture.

Though he would be dismayed to see that the orthodoxy of personal belief in the face of scientific evidence to the contrary has persevered, even flourished in the 21st century, Hynek would certainly find our present appetite for conspiracy and for polarized debate familiar, from climate change deniers and anti-vaxxers to the Disclosure crowd. Over his long career he learned that “It’s very, very easy to disappoint people by telling them the truth,” O’Connell tells Rolling Stone. “Everyone wants to believe that the next case is the big one, the one that finally proves that these are spaceships from another world and unfortunately, up to now that’s never been the case, but the hope just doesn’t die.”

Born a few days before Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet in 1910, Hynek died just a few months after traveling through the comet’s wake again in 1986. He spent the interceding years as an astronomer who changed the field of celestial imaging by developing a high-altitude telescope and video telescope, founded the Corralitos Observatory in New Mexico, led a team that devised the first tracking system for satellites before there were any man-made objects in orbit, and reassured a nervous American public after the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, which put him on the cover of Life magazine.

Hynek was also one of the first scientists to evaluate UFO sightings for the U.S. Air Force, working on a series of classified projects in the 1950s and 1960s. Though he started out a skeptic, he went on to found the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, landing a cameo in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 hit, Close Encounters of the Third Kind after contacting the director when he learned that the film’s working title was drawn from his work.

Even more than 30 years after his death, Hynek remains a controversial figure in UFOlogy, mainly because of his refusal to choose a side. O’Connell, a screenwriter and UFO history expert who writes the blog High Strangeness, has already had some of Hynek’s legacy rub off on his own reputation, which he takes as a sign that he is following in Hynek’s footsteps as an unbiased, open-minded researcher, rather than writing for one camp or another.

“Just based on what little some people know about the book and the interviews I’ve been doing, I already have some UFO establishment figures accusing me of being a skeptic, which is really dirty word in UFO circles,” he says. “The labeling has already begun.”

Hynek proved to be a thorn in the government’s side when it came to investigating UFO reports, refusing to dismiss the unexplainable as the product of mass hysteria or unreliable witness testimony. Indeed, a great number of the seminal 20th century sightings that convinced Hynek that UFOs were worth further study involved highly credible witnesses, including airline and military pilots, law enforcement officers and Delbert Newhouse, a navy photographer who caught such an object on film in the Utah desert in 1952. Hynek though, refused to say that the strangeness of UFOs and UFO sightings proved they were alien spacecraft, which made him unpopular on the other side of the debate as well. An intellectual independent, he ended up sandwiched between the government, which demanded mundane explanations for sometimes fantastic sightings, and a public convinced that aliens walked among them.

“The inability for ambiguity to exist is a powerful force in UFO research,” O’Connell says. “You have to go one way or the other, there’s no middle ground.”

Throughout the heyday of UFO sightings, significant incidents, including reported contact with alien entities and their aircraft, frequently popped up in clusters, referred to as “flaps” by Hynek. Though the last flap occurred after Close Encounters of the Third Kind debuted in 1977, UFOs are having a moment right now, too. This year Spielberg’s film celebrates its 40th anniversary, and the 1947 sighting of “flying saucers” over the Cascade mountains in the Pacific Northwest by pilot Kevin Arnold, which is widely noted as the beginning of the modern UFO phenomenon, marks 70 years of celestial intrigue. The History Channel just picked up a scripted series about Project Blue Book, the UFO investigation project that Hynek led for the government in the 1950s and 60, with Robert Zemeckis as executive producer. And of course, there’s the matter of NASA’s secret slaves on Mars. Are we headed for a new flap?

O’Connell is not so sure. “You would think that this amazing advance in technology, in photo imaging would have delivered us with the perfect UFO photo by now,” he says. “You would think that but it hasn’t happened and it’s hard to decide exactly why. You can definitely argue that there are more people watching the sky with cameras in hand than ever before in human history.”

What he’s most interested in, beyond seeing Martin Freeman cast as Hynek – though he was amused by the thought of David Duchovny donning the professor’s signature goatee – is an embrace of Hynek’s balance of rigor and open-minded curiosity. Like Hynek himself, O’Connell wants to reposition the conversation about UFOs, as well as an agreement to adhere to the scientific method itself, back into the mainstream and plumb what might be possible, rather than single-mindedly trying to prove, or disprove the existence of aliens.

He finds some of Hynek’s heady combination of scientific rigor and mysticism in the work of quantum physics and astronomers who are working on exoplanets right now. “Both of those fields involve, in my opinion, leaps of faith, leaps of intuition,” he says. “We’ve shifted very dramatically from this idea that life on other planets must be exceedingly rare to this space where now where we’re talking in terms of life in the universe being unbelievably abundant because we keep on finding all these goldilocks planets with our high powered space telescopes. Those are the two areas where I see that same kind of thinking that same kind of approach to science coming back to the way that Hynek saw things.”

Source www.rollingstone.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

Nasa releases recording of strange ‘space music’ heard by Apollo 10 astronauts

The three men, Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan, recorded the sounds and transmitted them to mission control in Houston

“You hear that? That whistling sound?” asks Cernan, describing it as “outer-space-type music.”

They asked one another: “Who’s gonna believe it? Nobody.”

One of the astronauts can be heard saying: “Shall we tell them about it?”

His colleague responds: “I don’t know. We ought to think about it”.

Nasa claims the sounds could not have been alien music.

An engineer from the US space agency said the noises likely came from interference caused by radios that were close to each other in the lunar module and the command module.

But astronaut Al Worden, who flew on Apollo 15, disputes that explanation. He said: “Logic tells me that if there was something recorded on there, then there’s something there.”

Michael Collins, the pilot of Apollo 11, who became the first person to fly around the far side of the Moon by himself while Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were walking on the surface, said he too heard “an eerie woo-woo sound”

He accepted the explanation of radio interference. In fact, he’d been warned in advance, he wrote in his book, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys.

“Had I not been warned about it, it would have scared the hell out of me,” he wrote.

“Fortunately the radio technicians (rather than the UFO fans) had a ready explanation for it: it was interference between the LM’s and Command Module’s VHF radios.”

A transcript of the conversation between the astronauts was released in 2008, but it is only now that the audio has been made public.

Source www.telegraph.co.uk

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

US and RAF jets scrambled to 130ft UFO ‘covered in 20 flashing lights’ above Med

US and RAF fighter jets were scrambled to a massive UFO covered with flashing lights above the Mediterranean, according to top secret files.

By David Trayner 

GETTY

A US spy plane reported encountering a 130ft flying object with 20 flashing lights near Cyprus.

Two US Navy F-14 fighters and an RAF Phantom were sent to aid the US Air Force RC-135.

WIKIPEDIA

The American spy plane crew said the UFO turned away and flew off in the direction of the African coast.

Britain and the US launched investigations into the close encounter – but it has never been explained.

“It was larger than an RC-135”

RAF

The shocking 90-minute incident was part of a stash of confidential UFO files released by the British Ministry of Defence and reported by journalist and transparency campaigner Dr David Clarke, on his blog.

It happened on October 19, 1982 – but has never been publicly known until now.

Last month, the same set of British X-files revealed the RAF watched a UFO on its radar for seven hours – but were told be commanders not to engage it.

Interestingly, film, tapes and transcripts of the US crew’s distress call have not been released.

GETTY

The RC-135 was monitoring Soviet military activity it encountered the “big object”.

It was picked up on the plane’s advanced radar as it approached from the south.

The unidentified flying object circled around the spy plane, according to its crew.

The RAF Troodos radar base on Cyprus as “larger than [an] RC-135”.

RC-135 are 136ft long and have a wingspan of 130ft.

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

‘Military jet’ spotted ‘chasing UFOs’ in startling video

ALIEN hunters believe footage has revealed a military jet chasing two UFOs.

By Peter Truman 

Behind it appears to be a plane with its wing lights blinking as it follows the stage two lights.

The clip was shot with night-vision goggles which highlighted the bizarre UFO chase.

It was taken in Joshua Tree, California before being analysed on alien hunter website Open Minds.

YOUTUBE/MUFON

UFO witness

A witness told the site: “Suddenly clearing the top of the hill and right over our heads, came a very fast military jet chasing a faster, large, red-glowing light.

“The military jet had both red and white blinking strobe lights and glowing afterburners and was very loud as it flew directly above our heads.

“The large red light had no blinking lights and no sound at all."

They added: “After extensive review of the footage, I am nearly certain it shows two UFOs (fast moving lights), flying in perfect, locked tandem with one another.

“It appears you can see stars between them in the background, suggesting that these are two separate objects.”

The clip was shot in May this year but was reported to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.

California MUFON Chief Investigator Earl Grey Anderson is now reportedly investigating the sighting.

• Swarm of EIGHT ‘alien ships’ fly in formation over startled viewers in baffling video
• Bodies of FIVE alien-beings discovered at ancient Peru site
• Fears of alien INVASION as mysterious red lights illuminate night sky in startling video

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

SPECTACULAIRE UFO-WAARNEMING BOVEN BRAZILIË ( VIDEO )

Een inwoner van de Braziliaanse stad Fortaleza stapt enkele dagen geleden naar buiten en ziet een heel vreemd object in de lucht. 

Het is lang en sigaarvormig, glinstert in het zonlicht en volgens de getuige leek het te gloeien. 

Je kijkt zeker verbaasd wanneer je naar buiten loopt om een uur of drie ’s middags en je ziet een object boven je hoofd dat er uit ziet zoals op de volgende afbeelding.

Het ziet er zo spectaculair uit dat je al snel geneigd bent te denken dat je hier weer met één van de vele nepfilmpjes op Youtube te maken hebt. 

En misschien is dat ook wel zo, maar deze video heeft alle kenmerken van een echte opname. 

Belangrijk is te kijken naar waar een dergelijke opname vandaan komt en dan blijkt het afkomstig van een bijna niet gebruikt Youtubekanaal van iemand waar vier jaar geleden voor het laatst een video op is geplaatst. 

De getuige omschrijft duidelijk waar en wanneer deze opname is gemaakt. 

“Ik heb dit object gefilmd in de middag van 13 juli 2017 toen ik rond 15.00 uur mijn huis verliet. Toen ik dit vreemde object zag besloot ik het te gaan filmen omdat het er erg vreemd uit zag en mijn richting op kwam. Ik vond het heel erg vreemd, het leek bijna doorzichtig, grijsachtig en het gloeide behoorlijk”.

Alhoewel de persoon dit zou kunnen faken of de opname ergens anders vandaan halen, lijkt het er gezien het bovenstaande niet op. 

Nog voordat we de kans kregen het artikel te publiceren met de bewegende beelden van dit object is de video razendsnel offline gehaald. Gelukkig hebben wij het bestand, maar dan gebeurt er nog iets merkwaardigs. Wanneer wij dit willen uploaden wordt het geweigerd door Youtube, terwijl er met het formaat en technisch gezien helemaal niets mis mee is.

Dus, wie de bewegende beelden wil zien, stuur ons een mail en dan krijg je het bestand zoals dat origineel op Youtube stond totdat het razendsnel weer werd weggehaald.

Dat dit soort schepen voor komen is bekend. 

Het zal dan ook absoluut geen toeval zijn dat dit type eerder werd gefilmd in Brazilië zoals te zien is op de volgende opname uit 2011: 

 
In de volgende korte video over dit type UFO’s zie je onder andere opnames van de Russische luchtmacht waarbij deze bezig zijn een dergelijk schip te achtervolgen. Op het moment dat deze in de gaten krijgt dat de vliegtuigen in de buurt komen, versnelt het plots en is het verdwenen. 

 
En dan met dit type is er uiteraard nog de connectie met de ruimteschepen van de Duitsers, zoals we schreven in een eerder artikel: 

De Duiters hadden een project in de jaren '43-'45 van de vorige eeuw onder de naam Andromedagerät. De Andromeda was een groot sigaarvormig ruimteschip, met binnenin ruimtes waar zich kleinere vliegende schotels bevonden. 

Of dit ruimteschip ooit daadwerkelijk heeft gevlogen is niet zeker, alhoewel er wel enkele foto's zijn waarop dit schip vliegend is afgebeeld, zoals de volgende. 

WE zijn inmiddels ongeveer 65 jaar verder sinds het Andromeda ruimteschip is ontworpen. Als de Nazi's ten tijde van de mislukte expeditie van admiraal Byrd al de beschikking hadden over vliegende schotels die geluidloos uit de zee opstegen, en ook toen al beschikten over in ieder geval het ontwerp van de Andromeda dan is het niet onlogisch om aan te nemen dat nu, zoveel jaren later, zij in staat zouden zijn om kunstmatige wolken te creëren met daarin verborgen een moderne versie van de Andromeda. 

{http://www.niburu.co/ }

A dog owner in Scotland got a shock when, while helping her dog give birth, one of the puppies came out bright green. Not ripe yet? Was the pooch’s mama seeing an Irish setter? An alien dog? Has anyone spotted Marvin the Martian’s best friend K-9 in the neighborhood?

“It was all hands on deck but then as the puppies started to arrive, we noticed that one of the puppies had green fur. We couldn’t believe it.”

Louise Sutherland of Golspie in the Highlands pulled the green puppy out of Rio, her golden retriever who was delivering her second litter. Eight of the nine puppies survived (seven males, one female) but this was the only pea-colored one. Louise decided to give the others away but keep the green guy, giving him the hue-appropriate moniker Forest (was Lief taken?), even though she had no idea why he was green. Is this what happens when dogs eat grass and don’t barf it back up?

Louise, Rio and the green puppy (Daily Mail)

After photos of Forest, Rio and Louise were posted by the media on the Internet, the answer came in … Biliverdin. No, that’s not a planet of horny green dogs. Biliverdin is a bile pigment found in the placenta of dogs. It’s a green-colored waste product from the breakdown of hemoglobin and can mix with amniotic fluid from the placenta to turn light-colored puppies, like golden retrievers, green. It’s extremely rare – a random sampling found only three occurrences worldwide.

Dogs aren’t the only animals with biliverdin. High concentrations of it are found in blue or green eggshells – we’re looking at you, robins. This is apparently a good thing in birds as the biliverdin is produced by a gland rather than a random breakdown in hemoglobin. In fact, the bile plays a role in the greening of green-scaled fish, green butterflies, the tobacco hornworm and other greenish creatures.

Before you breathe a sigh of relief that only dogs can have green babies, humans also have biliverdin and you’ve probably seen yours. When a human bumps into an inanimate object, the bruise often has a green hue before turning yellow – that’s green biliverdin from the breakdown of hemoglodin before it itself breaks down into the yellowish bilirubin.

Before you have a breakdown, there’s no chance of having green human babies, at least not from biliverdin. The 12th century Green Children of Woolpit, a brother and sister who were said to be green, were probably victims of chlorosis, a condition caused by a diet deficient in iron that gave their skin a greenish tint that would eventually disappear with better food.

Which brings us back to Forest. There’s no need for kids in the neighborhood to yell “Run, Forest, run!” when they see UFOs shining spotlights on local doghouses. Forest’s green color faded quickly and he’s now just as golden as his mom and siblings.

That “whoosh” you hear is K-9 breathing a sigh of relief.

Tags

alien, biology, Bizarre, cryptid, Cryptozoology, dog, Green Children of Woolpit, green dog, modern mysteries

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

NASA SCIENTISTS JUST 'CREATED' THIS OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD PLUTO FLYBY VIDEO

To celebrate the two-year anniversary of NASA's New Horizon probe arriving at Pluto, the space agency has released a breathtaking video showcasing the notoriously distant planet.

The remarkable presentation, culled from data obtained during the 2015 study of Pluto, provides viewers with the perspective of flying over the planet from around 8,000 miles above its surface.

While there are no signs of UFOs or alien bases, the footage is still pretty awesome when one considers that Pluto, at its furthest point, sits an astounding 4.6 billion miles away from the Earth.  

As such, the video constitutes what is probably the only view of Pluto that many of us will have in our lifetimes, since it's highly unlikely that humans will make their way out to the planet anytime soon.

That said, based on the barren and seemingly unforgiving landscape of the planet, we're not sure anyone would really want to visit the faraway world anyway.

NASA said:

"Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system – from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself."  

RELATED ARTICLES

• MIT Students Urge NASA To Analyze Huge Asteroid Apophis Before 2029 Flyby
• Strange 'Haloes' on Pluto Puzzle NASA Scientists

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

UFO HUNTERS CLAIM SATURN'S MOON IAPETUS IS AN ‘ALIEN DEATH STAR’!

One of the most notorious science fiction films of all time appeared in the 70s with a plot not like any other.

The movie 'Star Wars' was a hit back in the day, and still is considered an important film franchise spawing several sequels and prequels, TV shows, video games and countless merchandise. In the movie we witness a terrifying war against the Empire who have the upper hand in the galactic dominance with their incredible and over powered space fleet. But the most terrifying weapon they hold is the moon sized space station called 'The Death Star'.

Now imagine if this existed in real life!  

Well, conspiracy theorists claim it does. Saturn's moon 'Iapetus' is said to be an extraterrestrial artificial mega structure and that movie makers tried to warn us that it was there, long before we had actual pictures of it.

It closely resembles the 'Death Star' from Star Wars and scientists don't know how this moon was formed as it stands out among the other Saturn's moons. Another peculiar thing about Iapetus is the ridge that stretches along it's center, making UFO hunters claim that it was weilded together.

Watch the following video to know more!  

Originally published by:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/829007/ALIEN-DEATH-STAR-satun-moon-iapetus

RELATED ARTICLES

• Alien Monolith Found on Saturn's Moon Iapetus?
• Alien structures and monolith were photographed on Iapetus,  

{ http://www.disclose.tv }

PAUL HELLYER, FORMER CANADIAN MOD, TALKS 9/11, THE BANKING CABAL, AND ROSWELL UFO

Paul Hellyer, once the Canadian Defense Minister claims 'The Cabal is out to get Trump!'

At the recent Alien Cosmic Expo Paul Hellyer spills the beans on the wicked conspiracy of the Cabal e.g. high finance groups, around the world including 9/11 and other forms of abject terrorism, as well as about the Roswell UFO case.

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

Strange white Orbs emerging from a tree in Heaton Park Manchester, UK filmed by Drone

On July 8, 2017 a drone enthusiast who was flying his drone above Heaton Park in Manchester, UK caught some strange white Orbs moving at high speed around the park.

He filmed various parts of the park but the orbs are only on the one short bit of footage that shows a number of white orbs emerging from a tree.

The drone enthusiast still don't has a clue what the shapes are, but maybe these white spheres are so-called tree spirits?

According to ancient folklore these tree spirits are benign and they live in the trees as long as the tree does. Only when they are very disturbed by something or for example people cut down the tree then they leave the tree.

Given these orbs flying through the air at high speed I have the idea that he has filmed something extraordinary.

The video shows the event in normal speed and slow motion.

  

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

Several UFOs filmed from plane over Toluca, Mexico

The pilot of a small plane, while preparing for landing at Toluca, Mexico on July 8, 2017 was left baffled when he observed several strange objects passing his plane.

More and more mid-air UFO encounters are reported and it is known that pilots have done evasive maneuvers to get out of the way.

And although it is not entirely clear whether these objects are UFOs or drones, I’m convinced there’s a potential threat posed by nearby unidentified flying object to commercial and private airplanes.

  

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

Shining Disc Caught On Video Flying Around Toronto Harbourfront

A video showing an unknown white shining disk has made the rounds online, particularly among UFO communities. A couple at Toronto’s Harbourfront was in the city to join the celebration of Canada Day.

The video shows an apparent round object with the transparent or dark centre. The object in question appears and disappears many times in the video. It looks like a disk with a cut in the middle that seems like a vinyl record.

The reporting witness said that he and girlfriend were in the area to celebrate Canada Day on Sunday, July 2, 2017. He just reportedly happened to look at the sky and saw the white shining disk. In the background of the video, the boyfriend asks her girlfriend about what she thinks of the disk. The girlfriend first thought it was a kite or a drone, but soon started to realise that it wasn’t.

The couple further noticed the bright shininess of the disk as it moved in a circular motion. The reporting witness said that when the object disappeared in the clouds for good, a black helicopter appeared as if it was following the mysterious object.

Drones have appendages holding the rotors, especially the quad-copter variety. However, the object in the video does not have visible rotors. Balloons are often used during celebrations and fly with the wind, but they won’t disappear and appear like the object in the video.

{  http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

A Plane Passenger Flying Around Havasu City In Arizona Captures A UFO On Video

A shining bright light had caught the attention of an aeroplane passenger flying on the 5th of July 2017. The witness, who flies weekly, found the strange light from his corner vision while passing the sky above Lake Havasu in Havasu City, Arizona.

He recorded the bizarre aerial thing on video. The witness describes the light as having a non-reflective gold shine. It was apparently moving in a northwesterly direction. The witness estimated that they were moving at around 484 mph ground speed at approximately 29000 in altitude.

Havasu City has its share of UFO sightings as dozens of witnesses reported their bizarre experience throughout the years.

Videos such as this one are often dismissed as a reflection of light from inside the aircraft. However, many argue on this particular video that the strange light does not appear to be a reflection and in fact moving on its own below the aircraft.

{  http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

American Submarine Captures A UFO

Many people find it hard to trust alleged UFO sightings as much as they want to believe. Photographic evidence of UFO sightings is usually too small and grainy. Clear images are often debunked as hoaxes too.

However, the following story features somewhat believable images. These images may not depict UFOs very well, but the truth may be even more unusual than many would think.

In 1971, an American Navy submarine USS Trepang was on a voyage in the Arctic Ocean to test its weapons under the ice caps.

An anonymous source claims that Klika saw a strange object flying overhead while looking through the periscope. What he did see would be 40 years before it was answered.

The French publication Top Secret printed images in an article in 2015 claiming that an unnamed source provided the photograph.

Beyond the photos, only a little information was provided, but some were officially marked “not to be released” and “Unauthorized Disclosure Subject.” Despite the markings that seem to be warnings, the publication printed 11 pictures; each one shows an apparent massive object hovering above and possibly crashing into the water.

The article of the images says that they are showing a triangular-shaped UFO without a doubt.

{  http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

THE AVELEY ALIEN ABDUCTION: UFOS ABOVE OUR ESSEX COUNTRY LANES

[The following information is sourced largely from renowned British Ufologist Andrew Collins’s report – The Aveley Abduction – compiled January 1978, along with other supporting online sources. At the time Collins called The Aveley Abduction “probably the most important British case ever” and it still gets heralded today as such by those in UFO research communities]

On late Sunday evening October 27^th 1974, a run of the mill Essex family were driving a route between Harold Hill and Aveley to see relatives. The Avis family, consisting of John, aged 32, his wife, Elaine, aged 28, and their three children: Kevin, aged 10, Karen, aged 11, and Stuart, aged 7, were on Hacton Lane about one mile out from Hornchurch with, for them, the roads noticeably quiet even for a Sunday night.

Elaine recalled the car jerking violently as the mist curled around the car

At a point in the journey, it was Kevin, the only one of the children awake, who asked his parents about a light he could see above the country lane houses. Collins reports, “Glancing round, both John and Elaine saw, at an angle of about 25 degrees – 30 degrees above the skyline, an oval-shaped, pale blue iridescent light, like a big star, over the top of the houses to their left”.

The family remembered the “big star” seemed to be travelling in the same direction as the car, stopping and starting as it moved. The light seemed to “stay with them” but for periods where rows of trees on the country lanes would obscure the view, at which times in the early stages they would relax, thinking it may have gone. At first, John and Elaine thought it might be a helicopter light, but it was not long before the family began referring to it as a UFO.

The Avis family cleared the last of the houses, venturing into open countryside, eventually passing the White Hart pub. They were approaching country lanes near Upminster at about 30mph when they had a “terrible feeling that something was wrong”. Suddenly, the engine and tyres went silent and the only sound that could be heard was from their radio.

Then, as they went through a bend on Aveley Road, they could see, no more than 30 yards in front of them and covering the whole road, a thick mist, or fog, described as “dense green and banked about 8-9 feet high”.

Just as the mist was seen by the Avis family, the radio started crackling and smoking, causing John to pull out its wires. Then they were engulfed by the fog, still travelling around 30mph. Elaine recalled the car jerking violently as the mist curled around the car.

With two children asleep and Kevin awake, John and Elaine recall it was “very light” inside the fog and that they “felt very cold”. A tingling sensation was felt, and there was dead silence. They recall being in the mist for “what seemed like a second or two” before they were out. There was a jolt described as “like a car going over a hump back bridge” and the “mist” was gone.

Elaine remembered asking “is everybody there?” with herself and John both feeling very nervous and frightened, although no ill effects were remembered and the two children aside from Kevin still asleep. The couple don’t recall talking a large amount about what had happened and the situation instead provoked a “let’s just get home” atmosphere. The couple expected it to be around 10:20pm when they arrived home, but it was 1am, leaving around three hours the couple could not account for.

The family reported unnerving incidents around the family home after the encounter including an object levitating

There were noticeable changes in the family following the incident, Collins reports. Before Christmas that year John had a nervous breakdown and stopped working, before later taking on a job working with mentally handicapped people, something he had wanted to do for years.

The job “fell into his lap”, a different direction from his usual carpentry and construction work; he would also begin writing poems about life. Elaine started attending college and reportedly grew in confidence. Additionally, John & Elaine stopped eating meat and became far more health conscious in their nutrition, with the taste of meat/fish now making them ill. And whereas before the incident they would “enjoy a good drink”, the couple would now not touch a drop of alcohol.

The couple reportedly also became very environmentally conscious, with John also quitting his “60 to 70 a day” smoking habit. Kevin’s reading age at school reportedly was “well beyond his years” whereas prior to the incident it had been reported as “backwards of his age”. The family reported unnerving incidents around the family home after the encounter including an object levitating, “clicking noises” and the sound of “Morse code”, and young Kevin reportedly seeing a strange figure beside his bed on one occasion, similar in looks to that of a clown.

When questioned by Collins, both John & Elaine would admit to strange dreams in which creatures would examine them on long tables and other visions of that ilk. At this point, Collins sought hypnotist Leonard Wilder to query the couple’s subconscious and see if these dreams were masking real abduction memories. John was first to agree to hypnosis while Elaine declined preferring to try and move on and “forget it” instead. It was decided hypnotising Kevin was not an option due to his age and the impression any memories may leave.

John, the first under hypnosis, began to remember that as the car entered the mist, he found himself in a big room with tall “peaceful” beings, in one-piece colourless suits. John recalled that they had pink eyes and communicated by telepathy. They put him on a table and ran a bar like instrument over his body. He asked where they came from; they showed him “a map but not a map”, and gave an explanation of which he could only remember “Phobos”. They travel, he was told, almost instantaneously. They explained how but he could not understand. A small being was present at the table; it had fur-like covering and made chirping sounds; it served the tall beings. Leonard Wilder remarked to Andrew Collins that John was an excellent subject for hypnosis, and a second session was arranged.

In the second session John remembered that when the car entered the mist, a white beam cut through it, and lifted the car. The next thing he knew was that they were in a very large room. Here, an “examiner,” “smaller than us,” with big eyes and a mouth “not like ours” examined him.

The tall beings had no visible mouths. John understood that their propulsion system used a magnetic “vortex”, though he had begun to mutter somewhat incoherently his responses at this point. He encountered only three of the tall beings, and only one communicated with him.

When John was asked the reason for the beings visit to earth, he replied, “No visit. They are here always.” Asked where they came from, he said “There was no need for them to say,” and that they have no need to return home; “they have more than one base,” he said.

After being brought out of hypnosis, he said that at this point he felt prevented from saying anything more (following questioning surrounding the beings origin). My understanding is that the sessions were stopped there as memories came flooding back naturally outside of hypnosis. Collins reports to have kept in touch with the family and that John & Elaine would later separate with the former moving to Scotland to live with a new partner.

The case is spoken of frequently in UFO circles and if you wish to know more of what happened, or Elaine’s account –check this link of the original report:

Source www.wafflemag.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

10 Bizarre Claims Of Alien/Human Hybrids

Of all the alien claims and theories out there, the ones that speak of an alien/human hybrid agenda might be the most outlandish. However, many people do make these claims to the world, and although they themselves sometimes note how crazy they sound, they insist that what they’re saying is real. While it is hard for even the most enthusiastic ufologist or alien researcher to take these statements entirely seriously, they are still very interesting ideas.

10 The Body In The Car

In July 2015, the story of a supposed alien hybrid government agent, who had been found decomposing in a car, appeared on several online media outlets. The man, who was eventually identified as Jeffrey Alan Lash, was found with over a thousand guns, as well as other weapons such as knives, machetes, and a bow and arrows. He also had seven tons of ammunition and cash amounting to $230,000.

In addition to the car he was discovered in—which was designed to be able to drive underwater, no less—he also owned 14 other vehicles.

His fiance, Catherine Nebron, made the off-the-wall announcement of his otherworldly origin through her attorney shortly after his death. She stated that Lash had confided in her several weeks before he died that he was working undercover for several unnamed government agencies. He had left Catherine with instructions to leave his body in the car when he died, and that “government agencies” would come to retrieve it.

Initial background checks on Lash didn’t uncover any sign of criminal activity on his part, and investigators didn’t suspect that he had been the victim of foul play. According to Nebron, he had begun to experience difficulty breathing, but he’d refused to let her call for medical assistance in the hours before his death.

9 Born In A Petri Dish

It wasn’t until Cynthia Crawford was in her ’30s that her father revealed to her that she was the result of a top-secret government program. She was, her father informed her, an alien/human hybrid created in a petri dish, and that as well as carrying human DNA, she had the DNA of two different alien races as part of her genetic makeup.

She claimed that she had encountered what she believed to be alien abductions many times throughout her life—which included medical procedures and impregnation—but that she now realized these experiences were more likely part of the program.

She was told by her father that, as a child, she was taken in the middle of the night to an underground military facility. There, she was regularly tested and examined by government agents there. Despite the many doubters to her story, no DNA testing has been volunteered by Crawford to confirm her claims. She is a regular speaker at numerous UFO and alien seminars across the United States.

8 Miguel Mendonca’s Proof Of Alien Hybrids

Miguel Mendonca is a leading expert on green energy and renewable power sources. He is also convinced that aliens are in the process of helping humans evolve into “higher beings” by implanting their DNA into pregnant women around the Earth.

Mendonca, from Bristol, England, co-authored the book Meet The Hybrids: The Lives and Missions of ET Ambassadors On Earth with respected and experienced UFO researcher, Barbara Lamb. In the book, he claims to have met several alien hybrids, all of whom state they are involved in a mission that will improve the human race.

Mendonca claims that DNA testing would be of little use to help prove his claims, as only human DNA would be detected and anything else would simply be ignored. He also stated that the hybrids themselves are against their DNA being taken for fear that governments would use it to create super soldiers that would be utilized by the military.

Mendonca stated that he went into the project with an open mind, but that he can “feel” the energy of the hybrids when he speaks with them and is convinced of their authenticity. He also states that he is very much an “academic” and has to be “sure of his facts.”

He believes this is why there are so many UFO sightings and that the hybrid agenda is the reason “they” are coming to Earth.

7 Celtic Genes

According to Hilary Porter, who says she has been abducted many times herself by aliens, extraterrestrials are specifically targeting people of Celtic descent in order to install an alien hybrid program. Porter is an experienced ufologist who is a regular speaker at UFO seminars. She even believes that one stretch of road in particular, between Swansea and Cardiff in Wales, is a “hot-spot” for UFO activity. Not only this, she says that the government is fully aware of what is happening, but they are “powerless to stop it.”

Porter believes that aliens are targeting people of Celtic descent as they feel their genes are better suited for creating a human/alien hybrid race, which she says is their ultimate goal.

Porter has conducted extensive research for over four decades which has led her to conclude that the alien hybrid agenda is very real. She also states that this agenda is not for the good of mankind, as many who make similar claims say it is. She says that although she and others have recalled pleasant memories from their experiences, this is nothing more than a “cover” or false memory implanted by the aliens themselves in order to hide the horrific events.

6 Jujuolui Kuita: Star Being

Author and ufologist Jujuolui Kuita claims to have had extraterrestrial experiences since she was five years old, and has since “awakened to her ET identity.” In 2010, she published the book We Are Among You Already, which told of how aliens were “incarnating” and creating alien/human hybrids right here on Earth. She also founded the East Bay UFO contact group the same year.

Kuita states that she is a star being who chose to “incarnate” on Earth as a human being (some are said to choose to do so as animals). According to Kuita, Mother Earth sent out a signal for help into the cosmos many decades ago. She further claims that she originates from the planet Faqui, which she says is in the Andromeda galaxy, and that her people are called Fajans.

Kuita believes her mission is to assist in awakening other star beings and ultimately raise the vibration of planet Earth, which she says is being monitored by countless beings throughout the cosmos.

5 The Indigo Children

There are claims of Indigo Children or Star Children—extremely intelligent and highly sensitive children—all over the world. While these are most likely just normal children who happen to have extremely high intelligence for their young ages, some claim that they are the result of genetic engineering. Two cases in particular appear to stand out

Jason Andrews’s first alien experience occurred on his fourth birthday in Kent, England, in 1987. As a violent storm proceeded to sweep over the area, Jason apparently began to mutter a series of numbers, seemingly in a trance-like state. As the storm took hold, the house the Andrews family lived in began to shake until Jason turned to his parents and calmly stated to them, “They are waiting for me—I have to go!”

The four-year-old boy then went to exit the property before his father wrestled him away from the front door. As suddenly as it had begun, the shaking of the house and the storm ceased, and Jason returned to his normal self. The family appeared to forget about the incident until eight years later, when Jason informed them that since that day, he had been abducted by strange beings that would come into his room and take him to some kind of operating table. His mother, Ann Andrews, along with UFO researcher and author Jean Ritchie, came to the conclusion that Jason was an Indigo Child, and this was the reason that the aliens had an interest in him. Jason himself, now in his thirties, states that he does have certain psychic and spiritual abilities.

Nikki Pattillo claims that her daughter, Maddy, is also an Indigo Child who has claimed several times to her that “her home is in the sky.” Pattillo claims Maddy has developed and shown otherworldly abilities, and she firmly believes that the girl carries alien DNA within her body. Pattillo wrote a book about her experiences titled Children of the Stars and stated that her daughter and many other alleged Star Children are the incarnation of spirits that have been sent to Earth from all over the universe for the benefit of the human race.

4 Hybrid Children And Alien Fathers

In January 2016, a story circulated the Internet regarding two young ladies who claimed they were mothers to multiple alien hybrid children. Bridget Neilson from Sedona and Aluna Verse from Los Angeles both claimed to be just two of many women who were part of the Hybridization Program.

Bridget claims to have 10 alien-hybrid children, while Aluna says that she has three otherworldly offspring. They claim that at the moment, their children are in a state of “suspended” childhood and live with their fathers onboard huge space ships. They hope that one day they can set up a community somewhere far from the city for themselves and other mothers of hybrid children. This they believe will allow their cosmic children to feel safe enough to visit them on Earth.

The aim of the hybridization program, according to Bridget, is to create a “super being” with the best of the genes from humans and aliens alike. Bridget claims to be in regular contact with all 10 of her children and says that hundreds of women around the world are mothers to hybrid children but simply do not realize it.

3 David Jacobs

David Jacobs taught American history for over 30 years at Temple University. He also recently made the claim that aliens had likely been abducting human beings for centuries in order to create alien/human hybrids who not only walk among us right now but are poised to take over the world. Jacobs is now the director at the International Centre for Abduction Research and has conducted interviews and studies of over 150 abductees.

He has also released several well-written and well-received books to make his argument to the wider public—all of which have been published by respected publishers.

He states that abductees, albeit under hypnosis, more often than not recall the exact same obscure details. They all speak of either human-like or insect-like aliens that appear to have a “need” to breed. Many female abductees frequently speak of being impregnated before having the fetus removed surgically, and then being forced to nurse the infant. He also reports that at the time of the alleged abductions, the person is usually genuinely physically missing, with many loved ones reporting the person missing before they suddenly reappear again.

Jacobs said recently that his work will either be “an interesting but nonessential footnote” or that it will prove to be “the most important thing that’s ever happened to humankind.” He says that he suspects that the aliens’ actions are for their benefit and not for ours.

2 Hybrids Created By Reptilians

Alien abductee and UFO researcher James Bartley recently made available online an interview he had conducted with a fellow abductee who had been sent to him by experienced researcher Barbara Bartholic. In the transcript, the abductee is referred to as “PR” to protect his identity.

PR told of his close-up experience with alien/human hybrids, who he said are a creation of the reptilians. Their main goal was to harvest the life force from humans.

Following the interview with PR, Bartley concluded that there are three types of alien hybrids on Earth. There are alien abductees who have had their genetic makeup altered by their abductors. There are “half-grey half-human” alien hybrids that are, according to Bartley, mostly present during abductions. And then there are hybrids that appear for the most part as normal human beings. It is this last type of hybrids that the reptilians have placed in positions of power around the world. Coincidentally or not, this last claim of hybrids is very much in line with author David Icke, who has made similar claims of reptilian hybrid aliens for the last two decades.

1 Eddie Page And The Secret Experiment

After years of confusion that included being arrested as a defector during a tour of Vietnam when he went missing for 11 days, a broken first marriage, and discovering he was adopted, Eddie Page finally discovered the truth about his existence. He was the product of a top-secret government experiment to produce an alien hybrid.

According to Page, his father is actually an alien from the Pleiades star system. He even claims that his official military documents state that he is “not of human origin.” Page states that during 1953 to 1955, there were experiments carried out on US citizens by aliens in exchange for providing alien technology to the US government.

He made the discoveries after he agreed to be hypnotically regressed. He recalled that the missing days he experienced in Vietnam were due to him being wounded on the mission he was on and consequently being taken by aliens and “patched up” before being returned to Earth—800 kilometers (500 mi) away from where he should have been. The rest of his unit died, and he has no doubt he would have died also if it hadn’t have been for their intervention.

Page further discovered that he was one of 32 clones who were part of the experiment—a total of 21 female clones and 11 (including Page) male clones. According to his research, only eight of those clones still alive, of which he is the only male.

Despite Page producing alleged medical records that he states shows his blood group is unidentified, as well as the fact that he has an extra vertebra and rib, the vast majority of people are skeptical of his claims, to say the least.

Source listverse.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

Alien Encounters – Lost Disney UFO Documentary

UFO hunter nexus r/UFOs have turned up a Disney documentary about UFOs and aliens that was originally used to promote the “ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter” experience (The Wikipedia page describes the attraction, hilariously, as “theater-in-the-round”) that anchored Disney World’s Tomorrowland from 1994 to 2003. 

While numerous UFO sites are running the Disney documentary as a “lost” film, it has been available on YouTube for several years. Nevertheless, the “lost” Disney UFO documentary is a fascinating glimpse into both mainstream reportage on alien visitation and the modern UFO conspiracy mindset, which views the documentary as existing in a continuum of “disclosure” material designed to prime humans for the eventual reveal of extraterrestrial contact.

You can watch the Disney UFO documentary Alien Encounters: From New Tomorrowland, complete with Mickey Mouse, right here:

Redditor AnotherPint does a nice job characterizing the conspiracy mindset as it relates to this “lost” Disney UFO documentary:

“According to lore, the doc, which weirdly treats UFOs and aliens as virtually established fact, was shown once, without warning, on a few isolated small-market TV stations in quieter parts of the US, then stowed away.

The conspiracists’ view is that this was part of a covert government-Disney collaboration to test public reaction to UFO disclosure. But there is no evidence of this. It was merely a tie-in promotion for a new Disney World attraction.”

It was at a 1979 MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) Symposium when the alien disclosure theories surrounding Walt Disney first exploded into the conspiracist consciousness. 

Some say it was just propaganda to promote the new attraction Tomorrowland. Here’s the IMDb but with little info except a couple reviews. One of which from someone who claimed to work there at the time.

“As someone who worked at Disney/Magic Kingdom/Tomorrowland in the 90’s, I know, without a shadow of doubt (and the reason is was only shown once) is that the ENTIRE THING was a publicity stunt to bring attention to the new ride Alien Encounters. 

If you look at all the younger people being interviewed? They’re all wearing the exact costume that cast members from Alien Encounter wore. Some of the younger, no-name ‘witnesses’ were actually cast members from Opening Crew.

The ENTIRE thing – every second of it – was publicity for the new attraction. 

The only reason it can’t be found now, is because Disney maintains control of it and it’s locked up in their archives. It was only shown in 5 cities, because they were target cities. 

Remember War of the Worlds? Take heed.”

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

WHAT IS THE FERMI PARADOX? THE STRANGE MYSTERY OF WHY WE CAN’T FIND E.T.

SHOCK CLAIM: Saturn’s huge moon Iapetus is an ‘ALIEN DEATH STAR’

SATURN’S mysterious moon Iapetus is an alien ‘death star’ created by an intelligent extra-terrestrial civilisation, according to conspiracy theorists.

Scientists are still baffled by how Iapetus – the third largest of Saturn’s 62 moons – formed, as it does not seem to show similar formation patterns to the other ringed planet’s lunar satellites such as Titan and Rhea.

An image taken by Nasa’s unmanned Cassini spacecraft in 2004 shows a line that stretched around the entire moon, leading to theories that it was once two metallic structures that had been welded together.

The shape of the moon is eerily similar to that of the Death Star in Star Wars with some suggesting that movie makers have been slowly feeding the public information.

Conspiracy theory channel SecureTeam10 said in a video: “There’ some very prominent researchers out there who have theorised that Iapetus is a constructed object, it’s artificial.

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YOUTUBE

“We go back to Hollywood drip feeding us bits of truth.

“We didn’t even have close up images of Iapetus, supposedly, when the Star Wars films came out in the 70s.

GETTY

“Yet decades later we finally have some great close-up image and it’s identical to this fictional artificial weapon that is disguised as a planet in the Star War films.”

The huge ridge along the centre of the moon is 16,000 kilometres long and 20 kilometres high – almost double the size of Earth’s largest mountain Mount Everest.

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

This, according to the narrator of the video, is proof that it has been pieced together.

The video continues: “It looks as if there were two separate pieces and it’s almost as if they were welded together.

“There is a large welding mark wrapping around the crater as if they were two separate pieces that were cut down the middle and connected together.”

However, astronomers say that the most likely explanation for the giant ridge is that the moon expanded very quickly in its early days, causing ice to collect at the centre.

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{ http://www.express.co.uk/ }

{ http://www.sciencealert.com/ }

‘UFOs hiding the rings of Saturn’ Former Nasa chief blows cover

ONE of Nasa’s former top engineers has claimed that there are alien spaceships hiding in Saturn’s rings.

Aviation mechanic unable to identify sphere-shaped object

An Ohio witness at Mahoning County reported watching and photographing a sphere-shaped object crossing the sky, according to testimony in Case 84308 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

Witness image.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness stepped outside at 10:07 p.m. on June 10, 2017, when the incident occurred.

“Went out to grab my cell phone charger out of scooter glove box and saw this object or objects hauling ass across the sky,” the witness stated. “Only had a little bit of time to snap a picture and a bit of video, but appeared to be more than one before I lost sight when the line of trees got in the way.”

Witness image close-up.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness has an aviation background.

“Worked on F-16s and have enough knowledge of planes and helicopters to know it wasn’t a plane and it wasn’t arching like falling space objects.”

The witness provided two images and one short video clip with the report, which was filed on June 10, 2017. Mahoning County, Ohio, has a population of 238,823.

Mahoning County, Ohio, has a population of 238,823.

(Credit: Google)

Ohio MUFON Field Investigator Joseph Pavlansky investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week

Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.

Teleportation Records

Chinese scientists have just shattered a record in teleportation. No, they haven't beamed anyone up to a spaceship. Rather, they sent a packet of information from Tibet to a satellite in orbit, up to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

Experiments like this have been done before, but Howard Wiseman, director of the Center for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, told Live Science in an email that this one expands the possibilities for the technology. [Read more about the big jump.]

A Big Break

The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission detected the huge chunk of ice that broke off Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf on July 12, 2017.

Credit: ESA

One of the largest icebergs ever recorded, packing about a trillion tons of ice or enough to fill up two Lake Eries, has just split off from Antarctica, in a much anticipated, though not celebrated, calving event.

The iceberg was expected, though scientists didn't know when the crack in the ice sheet would finally release the floating chunk. The rift in the Larsen C ice shelf — the fourth-largest shelf in Antarctica — has been around for decades. [Read more about the giant iceberg.]

Nasty Mess

A truck filled with slime eels, or hagfish, recently overturned on an Oregon highway, covering the entire roadway in slimy goo.

Credit: Oregon State Police via Twitter

A truck carrying a bunch of slime eels recently crashed on the highway in Oregon, releasing a mind-boggling amount of slime and forcing the highway to close.

It turns out that the creatures aren't truly eels at all, but are hagfish, or primitive, bottom-dwelling fish that use their slime to fend off predators, several experts said. [Read more about the slimy situation.]

Super-Sized Super Soaker

Mark Rober with the colossal Super Soaker

Credit: Mark Rober/YouTube

If you're going to challenge someone to a water gun fight this summer, it's best you don't take up arms against Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer who has created the world's largest Super Soaker.

The Super Soaker that Rober made with his friends works in a slightly different manner. It would be too cumbersome and difficult to pump up a 7-foot-long pistol, so instead, they installed two tanks — one with high-pressure nitrogen gas and the other with water — in the gun's handle. [Read more about the big gun.]

Water Bears are Tough

An extreme close-up of a tiny tardigrade, also known as a "water bear." A new study suggests the tiny eight-legged creatures could be the last survivors of Earth, outliving humanity.

Credit: University of Oxford

The eight-legged micro-animal called a tardigrade could survive nearly all the way until the death of the sun, a new study suggests — long after humans are history.

Tardigrades, which are usually less than a millimeter long (0.04 inches), are nearly indestructible, some of the most resilient forms of life on Earth. They can survive for up to 30 years without eating, and can be frozen, boiled, squished under intense pressure, and exposed to the vacuum and radiation of space without ill effect. [Read more about the extremophiles.]

Surprisingly Big

A still image from a movie that was stored in bacterial DNA. The image on the left is the original, and the image on the right is reconstructed from the data stored in DNA.

Credit: National Institute of Mental Health

If you thought flash drives were small, wait until you see this: Researchers have encoded the data to make a short video into the DNA molecules of bacteria. They also were able to retrieve the information from the genetic code and play back the movie.

Although it may seem like this project would have very limited applications to real life, researchers say they have goals far beyond the scope of the current study. [Read more about the movie.]

Flea Market FindA World-War II era German Enigma 1 machine recently sold at auction for about $51,000.

Credit: Heimsoeth & Rinke

A German cryptography machine found at a flea market recently fetched $51,000 at auction.

Enigma machines were special encryption machines that were used by the Germans during World War II to send secure messages to their forces. While the initial code was cracked by Polish mathematicians on the eve of World War II, that didn't get them very far. [Read more about the rare machine.]

Finding Amelia

The 1935 Japanese photo book "Umi no seimeisen : Waga nannyou no sugata" has the same photo uncovered by the History channel.

Credit: National Diet Library Digital Collections

It's not her.

History channel researchers had claimed the image showed Earhart after she had been taken hostage as a suspected spy by the Japanese, who had a military presence in the Marshall Islands, where the photo was taken. [Read more about the photo.]

Beer and Birthdays

Scientists found a cache of letters written in ink on wafer-thin slices of wood.

Credit: The Vindolanda Trust

A cache of secret letters has been unearthed near the site of an ancient Roman fort in the United Kingdom.

The trove of Roman letters was in surprisingly pristine condition, thanks to the oxygen-free, or anaerobic, conditions in which they were buried. As a result, bacteria that normally degrade such items over time have not had a chance to attack the artifacts. [Read more about the birthday wishes.]

Early Animals, Special Powers

Frond-like rangeomorphs were among the first nonmicroscopic life-forms on Earth. These weird animals could be anywhere from a few centimeters to 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall.

Credit: Sarah Collins/University of Cambridge

Some of Earth's first large animals were shape-shifters, new research suggests.

Now, new measurements of these frondy fossils suggest that these animals, called rangeomorphs, were able to adjust their body size in response to changing ocean conditions. This shape-shifting ability may have enabled them to grow very large, very quickly. [Read more about the shape-shifters.]

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

{https://www.livescience.com/ }

See Juno Probe's Amazing Up-Close Views of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (Photos)

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this raw image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot during a close flyby on July 10, 2017.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

You can now feast your eyes on the first up-close photos of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot ever taken.

On Monday night (July 10), NASA's Juno spacecraft zoomed just 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) above the mammoth storm's cloud tops — closer than any probe had gotten before.

"For generations, people from all over the world and all walks of life have marveled over the Great Red Spot," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement before the flyby. "Now we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal."

The images that the probe's JunoCam instrument snapped during the close encounter have come down to Earth, NASA announced today (July 12), and the agency is urging anyone who's interested to have a go at processing the photos. You can do so on the mission's JunoCam page.

Another raw photo of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot captured on July 10, 2017, by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

The Great Red Spot has been swirling for centuries; astronomers have been monitoring it since 1830, NASA officials said. The storm is about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) wide, making it considerably bigger than the entire Earth. (Earth's diameter is about 7,900 miles, or 12,700 km).

But the Great Red Spot used to be even bigger; the storm has been shrinking for decades, though the rate at which this is occurring has slowed recently.

Another raw JunoCam image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot captured during Juno’s July 10 flyby, which brought the probe within 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) of the storm’s cloud tops.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Juno launched in August 2011 on a $1.1 billion mission to investigate Jupiter's composition, interior structure, formation and evolutionary history. The probe reached Jupiter on July 4 of last year, settling into a highly elliptical orbit that takes 53.5 Earth days to complete.

Juno collects most of its data during its closest passes by the solar system's largest planet. The Great Red Spot photos were taken during the latest such encounter — the sixth science flyby Juno has performed. (The spacecraft has actually performed seven close flybys, if you count the one that occurred during its orbital arrival, when Juno's science instruments were off.)

Juno's mission is scheduled to run through at least February 2018.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Editor's Recommendations

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{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

MEXICAANSE PILOOT KOMT UFO'S TEGEN TIJDENS LANDING ( VIDEO )

Of er steeds meer UFO’s voor komen of dat ze zich vaker in de buurt van vliegtuigen begeven, is niet helemaal duidelijk, maar ze worden steeds vaker dichtbij vliegtuigen gesignaleerd. 

Ongeveer een week geleden is een piloot van een klein vliegtuig bezig met de voorbereiding voor een landing in de Mexicaanse plaats Toluca wanneer er meerdere vreemde objecten langs zijn cockpitraam vliegen. 

Wanneer je als piloot in een vliegtuig zit en er vliegen onbekende objecten rakelings langs je cockpitraam, dan zit je toch niet echt lekker ontspannen in je stoel. 

Zo zagen die objecten eruit die deze vlieger in Mexico langs zag komen.

Hierna volgen de beelden en als je goed kijkt, zie je meerdere objecten langs het raam van de cockpit vliegen op hele kleine afstand van het vliegtuig. 

 

Wat we niet weten is of deze piloot de volgende dag is gebeld door Marcel Hulspas namens de Stichting Skepsis om hem te vertellen dat hij discolichten heeft gezien. 

Enkele dagen later gebeurt er iets vergelijkbaars, maar nu met een drone in de Engelse stad Manchester. 

De man vliegt met zijn drone boven het Heaton Park met daaraan een camera gemonteerd die opnames maakt. 

Dan zijn er dingen te zien zoals op de volgende afbeelding.

En net zoals met het vliegtuig in Mexico zie je ook hierna in de bewegende beelden diverse objecten langs de drone schieten. 

Voor zover ons bekend heeft nog niemand een verklaring gevonden voor deze vreemde objecten. 

 

Naast vliegende objecten die worden gefilmd vanuit vliegtuig of drone zien we ook regelmatig opnames van UFO’s bij vliegtuigen die vanaf de grond worden gefilmd. 

Enkele dagen geleden filmden en fotografeerden meerdere mensen in Londen UFO's in de buurt van de aanvliegroutes naar vliegvelden en nu is er een vergelijkbare opname uit Slovakije.

Hierna de bewegende beelden en het betreft hier meerdere UFO’s die zich in de buurt van een passagierstoestel ophouden. 

 

Mocht iemand een verklaring hebben voor wat hier allemaal gebeurt, dan horen we dat graag.

Maar, ook in ons land gebeurt wel het nodige zoals het volgende op 11 juli 2017 in Vianen zo tegen middernacht:

fel oranje (het leek vlammend) bollen die in rechte formatie met dezelfde snelheid en dezelfde afstand van elkaar vlogen van richting oost naar west. 

Vanuit arm lengte gezien hadden ze ongeveer de grote van een stuiver.(zie filmpje). 
Ze vlogen op grote hoogte, althans zo leek het en verplaatsten zich sneller dan een vliegtuig zo leek het. 
Ik heb een aantal jaar geleden deze bollen ook al een keer gezien, alleen waren dat er meer (6 stuks in formatie) alleen deze vlogen dynamisch.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

“Nobody has proven that it is a fraud. We are going to present preliminary evidence that will determine in the eyes of the media, that these are true specimen. And if there are still doubts that this is real, the obligation of Peruvians and the whole world is to preserve these bodies to find a true answer.”

If those three-fingered humanoid mummies allegedly discovered and revealed to the public in Peru over the past two months could count off for roll call, they’d need two hands. At a press conference this week in Lima, mummy spokesperson and journalist Jaime Maussan announced that there are now five confirmed bodies so far – bodies that he and Gaia.com, his partners in the recovery, are calling “The Mummies of Nazca.” Which will they run out of first – mummies or fingers?

During the press conference, Maussan presented a number of X-rays of what he claimed were skeletons inside the mummies which resemble plaster statues more than the more familiar cloth-wrapped mummies of Egypt and movies. As in previous teaser videos for the pay-to-view series from Gaia.com on the mummies, he claims they are over 1,700 years old, which is also the speculated age of the famous Nazca lines, conveniently connecting the two without actually proving it.

Jaime Maussan (Ruptly)

This is the first time that anyone involved with the mummies has revealed how many have been found, possible relationships between them and what species they resemble.

“Apparently the body of a baby with the same characteristics according to the first analysis could be related. However, now it is necessary to perform a DNA test to be able to determine the relationship between the two. Those are two bodies and there are three of which seem to have characteristics that are closer to reptiles than to humans. That is, we have five bodies.”

Five bodies, at least one a baby, and three that look like reptiles. This has Reptilian fans sweaty, while the elongated skulls have the grey believers salivating. No one can explain the tree-fingered hands and three-toed feet, which has prompted some to declare this a new species among aliens as well as humanoids. That body count of five doesn’t seem to include the headless mini-mummy revealed earlier this week, unless that’s the baby.

One thing that has remained the same in all of these teaser videos is some variation of this statement:

“… now it is necessary to perform a DNA test …”

The rest of us knew that from day one. What are they waiting for … other than all four episodes of the series to run first?

Stay tuned and be grateful you can count to 7 without removing your shoes.

Tags

• alien 
• Bizarre mummy 
• Nazca lines 
• Paranormal 
• Peru 
• Reptilians

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Are these ancient rock drawing PROOF that aliens visited Earth?

ANCIENT rock art in could prove aliens once visited Earth, according to conspiracy theorists.

The Secret History of Flying Saucers – Part Two

'They're living organisms of some sort'

Asteroids may have been giant mudballs in the early solar system

Hayabusa 2 will collect samples from an asteroid

Akihiro Ikeshita/JAXA

By Sam Wong

Before there were asteroids, there were giant mudballs hurtling around the solar system.

The most common type of asteroid, called carbonaceous asteroids, may have delivered water and organic molecules to Earth, and could even be the precursors of rocky planets. They are thought to have formed from ice, dust and mineral grains called chondrules in the disc of dense gas and dust that birthed our solar system.

But not much is known about their history, and they have some unexplained characteristics. These rocks appear to have been altered at relatively low and uniform temperatures, so they must have had some way to lose heat from within. Some have proposed that water flowing inside the early asteroids cooled them down, but soluble elements don’t appear to have been moved around, as would be expected if water had been present.

Modelling early asteroids as mud makes more sense, says Philip Bland at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and his collaborator Bryan Travis at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

Muddy mixture

When the ice, dust and chondrules came together, they wouldn’t have been compacted under pressure into rock straight away, says Bland. Instead, the ice would have been melted by decaying radioactive atoms present among the dust and gas, turning the mixture into a sludgy mud.

Their model shows that these mudball asteroids likely formed from dusty material left over after the sun’s formation, and that convection would take place, allowing the interior to lose heat easily. Soluble and insoluble elements would be mixed together, preserving the primitive chemistry of the asteroid. “It turns out that that explains many more features of interest than if it’s a rock,” says Bland.

The mud would have turned to rock later on, perhaps aided by gravitational pressure once the asteroid got big enough, or by impacts with other objects.

“I think it’s a very exciting idea,” says Tom Davison at Imperial College London. “From the way they’ve presented it, it’s almost inevitable that this would happen in at least some bodies.”

Matching our meteorites

Sara Russell at the Natural History Museum in London says the mudball model aligns well with what is found in meteorites. “We see from our meteorite collection that chondrules within a single sample are the same size as each other,” she says. That’s difficult to explain without this model, she says.

Two space missions are currently en route to asteroids formed in the early universe that could be former mudballs: NASA’s Osiris-Rex and Japan’s Hayabusa 2 (depicted above). Both of these will map the asteroids in detail and return a sample to Earth, potentially allowing us to test this idea.

Understanding how asteroids formed will help us explain how organic chemistry evolved in the solar system, and could even help in the search for life elsewhere, says Bland. “It will help us make more sophisticated models of where we can look for habitable worlds around other stars,” he says.

Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1602514

More on these topics:

• asteroids
• solar system

{https://www.newscientist.com/ }

The best way to detect aliens may be by finding their footprints

Sign of life: Mars rover tracks

NASA/JPL-Caltech

By Mika McKinnon

To detect traces of alien life, try to find their footsteps. The first signs of life on another planet may not be a complex signal captured by an antenna or images of a scampering creature on an alien horizon, but a track left in long-dried mud.

On Earth, palaeontologists study traces left behind when an organism interacts with its environment. A team led by Andrea Baucon at the University of Modena, Italy, suggests that astrobiologists should follow suit and search not just for living and fossilised creatures, but also the traces they may have left behind.

“You have a heck of a lot more chance of finding the trace of an organism than you do the actual organism itself,” says Lisa Buckley, a palaeontologist at Peace Region Palaeontology

Research Centre in British Columbia, Canada. “One animal will leave countless traces in its lifetime, but it’s only ever going to leave one body fossil.”

Expanded search

Baucon says the odds of finding alien life would be increased by hunting for footprints, infilled burrows, excrement or other signs that something living disturbed the sediments of Mars, Saturn’s moon Titan or other solid surfaces in the solar system.

Traces mean that evidence of soft-bodied organisms – which lack a skeleton that can mineralise into fossil – can also be preserved, expanding the types of creatures found in the geological record.

Furthermore, they could reveal the behaviour of extraterrestrial life forms. On Earth, fossilised footprints show the gait of long-extinct dinosaurs and burrows indicate the habits of clams. Traces on other planets could provide hints about how alien organisms interact with their environments.

Traces of life

Baucon and his team tested the concept by hunting for signs of life in high-resolution photography of the solid bodies within our solar system. They didn’t find aliens, but they did discover traces of life: human boot prints on the moon and rover trails meandering over Mars. However, trace fossils won’t always be as easy to identify as solid footprints in lunar dust.

“Just because an organism leaves the trace, doesn’t mean that all traces are beautifully preserved and easily recognisable,” says Buckley. “Unless you actually find the animal dead in its tracks or you actually see the animal making the trace, you can never be 100 per cent sure that specific animal made that trace.”

The only evidence of soft-bodied organisms may be trace fossils

Auscape/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

It can also be hard to tell if traces are marks left by a life form or merely the relic of a purely geological process. A simpler organism is more likely to leave a simpler trace that can be confused with something that is not biological, like a squiggle or a crack in the rock, says Buckley.

Geological processes like metamorphism, weathering or erosion can also alter the rock, obscuring or altering traces. Definitively identifying traces is challenging enough on Earth without factoring in the many unknowns of an alien environment.

These techniques could open up new ways to discover alien life – if we can spot traces when we find them, that is. Would we recognise a footprint if we had never seen a creature with legs?

Journal reference: Earth-Science Reviews, DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.05.009

More on these topics:

• alien life
• astrobiology

{ https://www.newscientist.com/ }

Forget Mars: Humans may live here one day

By Linda Hervieux

NASA image shows the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.  (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

Move over, Mars: Titan could be the best place for a human colony. As far as extraterrestrial bodies go, Saturn's largest moon is surprisingly like Earth, with a dense atmosphere that could shield delicate earthlings from radiation, reports New Scientist.

Titan's candidacy as a settlement isn't new, but a fresh analysis shows the yellow moon has valuable energy sources that could power a settlement.

Per Science Alert, Amanda Hendrix and Yuk Yung write that once propulsion issues of getting there are tackled, Titan is the "optimal location in the solar system for an off-Earth human settlement." Some 808 million miles away, self-sustainability on Titan is key.

Robots and even humans could one day make nuclear power by using radioactive decay there. The scientists say solar power could come from a US-sized solar farm, even though Titan is nearly 10 times farther from the sun than Earth is.

Titan's strong winds could also be put to use, if humans learn to build strong-enough turbines. Powerful tides created by Saturn's pull could be harnessed for hydropower, though little rain adds complications.

Titan could even be a crash pad on the road to more-distant exploration; ample methane-laced lakes may be mined for rocket fuel. "As a resource for long-term, solar-system-wide civilization, Titan would be a pivotal place," a Johns Hopkins University researcher tells New Scientist.

Researchers concede, however, that there are many unknowns, including Titan's geology. And, they say, Earth's own technology will have to improve before it can be exported.

(Mars is more toxic than previously thought.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Forget Mars: Humans May Live Here One Day

{ http://www.foxnews.com/index.html }

There's A Compelling Reason Scientists Think We've Never Found Aliens, And It Suggests Humans Are Already Going Extinct

The International Space Station  AP

Unchecked climate change would eventually lead to widespread devastation on Earth.

Rising seas would inundate coastal cities like Miami, searing heat would increase human mortality, and acidic oceans would become inhospitable to fish and coral, leaving behind little but rubbery masses of jellyfish.

These consequences of human activity could be the thing that prevents our civilization from advancing much further. In a particularly extreme scenario, it could even wind up wiping us from the face of the Earth.

That may sound unlikely, but it's the answer some scientists are giving to a perplexing question: Why haven't we encountered intelligent alien life?

The Fermi paradox
We live in a galaxy with between 100 billion and 400 billion stars, each potentially surrounded by planets. Until recently, we thought there were about 200 billion such galaxies in our observable universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars and trillions of planets — but new NASA research indicates there are probably at least 10 times as many.

Even if habitable planets are rare and life is exceedingly unlikely to arise, those mind-boggling numbers suggest there should still be other intelligent life somewhere in the universe. If just 0.1% of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy harbored life, there would still be a million planets with life.

So, as the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked of our alien neighbors, "Where are they?"

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg looking down on Earth through windows in the ISS. NASA

Why haven't we heard from aliens or found any evidence of their existence? That question is known as the Fermi paradox, and there are several potential answers (most are fairly disconcerting).

One hypothesis is that before intelligent life manages to spread beyond its original planet to other nearby planets, it runs into a sort of "Great Filter."

As the philosopher Nick Bostrom explains, this idea suggests there are several "evolutionary transitions or steps" that life on an Earth-like planet has to achieve before it can communicate with civilizations in other star systems. But an obstacle or barrier may make it impossible for an intelligent species like ours to get through all those steps. That would explain why we haven't heard from or seen any other life.

Bostrom writes:

"You start with billions and billions of potential germination points for life, and you end up with a sum total of zero extraterrestrial civilizations that we can observe. The Great Filter must therefore be powerful enough — which is to say, the critical steps must be improbable enough — that even with many billions of rolls of the dice, one ends up with nothing: no aliens, no spacecraft, no signals, at least none that we can detect in our neck of the woods."

Humans' Great Filter
Climate change caused by the development of advanced civilization could very well be that filter in our case. David Wallace-Wells suggested this possibility in a recent feature for New York magazine:

"In a universe that is many billions of years old, with star systems separated as much by time as by space, civilizations might emerge and develop and burn themselves up simply too fast to ever find one another.

"Peter Ward, a charismatic paleontologist among those responsible for discovering that the planet's mass extinctions were caused by greenhouse gas, calls this the 'Great Filter': 'Civilizations rise, but there's an environmental filter that causes them to die off again and disappear fairly quickly,' he told me. 'If you look at planet Earth, the filtering we've had in the past has been in these mass extinctions.'

"The mass extinction we are now living through has only just begun; so much more dying is coming."

Scientists are currently debating whether we are now in the midst of the Earth's sixth mass-extinction event or approaching it. Either way, the situation is dire — the existential risks posed by a worst-case climate-change scenario are real.

If those risks become serious enough to act as humans' Great Filter, it may be too late for us to communicate with anyone else in our universe.

Read the original article on Tech Insider. Copyright 2017.

Read next: Scientists are questioning the idea that the human lifespan has a limit

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Bodies of FIVE alien-beings discovered at ancient Peru site

IN BIZARRE footage a UFO expert claims the mummified remains of five “alien” bodies were discovered near ancient artwork.

By Zoe Drewett

During a press conference held in Lima, Peru, UFO enthusiasts and journalists discussed the alleged discovery of alien remains near the ancient Nazca Lines.

Mexican Ufologist Jaime Maussan claimed that a total of five bodies have been discovered in the past two months and said the remains possess qualities “closer to reptiles than humans”.

He said the bodies are over 1,700 years old, the same date the Nazca Lines – huge etching of figures carved into the Earth only visible from the air – are believed to have been created.

Maussan included X-rays of the mummified remains to dispute claims made after the initial discovery in June that they had been faked and made from plaster cast.

“Nobody has proven that it is a fraud. We are going to present preliminary evidence that will determine in the eyes of the media, that these are true specimen,” he said.

“If there are still doubts that this is real, the obligation of Peruvians and the whole world is to preserve these bodies to find a true answer.”

YOUTUBE

The well-preserved “alien” remains unveiled last month allegedly measured 5ft 6ins tall, had three long fingers and an elongated skull.

Conspiracy theorist Maussan has long been criticised for “hyping up” the existence of aliens on Earth with dubious evidence.

British UFO author Nigel Watson slammed the extraterrestrial evidence as “a plaster cast model” describing it as “110% fake” in The New York Post.

And one dedicated debunker in Peru claims the discovered creatures’ hands are made of a mixture of bones, including children’s bones.

YOUTUBE

Those at the conference reportedly forked out a staggering £232 for the privilege of attending and seeing the “aliens” up close, leading to more criticism of the theory.

However conspiracy theorists in Georgia might agree with Maussan.

They say a painting that hands on the wall of the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral shows a crowd of people surrounding the Son of God as he is nailed to the cross – as well as what appears to be UFOs.

They claim the “flying saucers” are evidence extraterrestrials have visited Earth.

• Alien spaceship? Huge ‘flying saucer’ filmed hovering over town baffles internet
• ‘Aliens watched the crucifixion of Jesus – this PROVES it’ Bizarre biblical claims emerge
• NASA makes HUGE announcement about manned mission to Mars

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

On Tuesday, NASA’s Juno spacecraft zipped by Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and, for 12 minutes, it stared down into the ancient, roiling storm.

By Wednesday afternoon, Juno had transmitted the clearest digital images yet of the Great Red Spot, which were then captured by NASA’s 230-foot wide Deep Space Network antennas, enabling the space agency to release humanity’s closest ever view of the crimson mystery.

NASA scientists don’t have time to immediately process all the photos themselves, so the space agency made the raw images available for anyone to process and share with curious Earthlings everywhere. Space fanatic and graphic designer Jason Major just processed and tweeted out an image of the Great Red Spot, shown below; hundreds more images are rolling in and being uploaded by NASA.

Juno passed just 5,600 miles above the Great Red Spot, shooting the storm with JunoCam’s wide field of view to create long panorama-like images. When the spacecraft neared Jupiter’s equator, JunoCam boasted an impressive resolution of nearly two miles (really, three kilometers) per pixel, and about 30 miles per pixel (50 kilometers) when shooting images over the poles.

View image on Twitter

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Before Juno, the best shots of Jupiter came from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which passed by the gas giant nearly 40 years ago, in 1979.

NASA scientists have yet to comment on the storm, but it’s certain that they’re scouring the images as they drop down into the agency’s Deep Space Network satellite dishes, strategically spread out around the globe in California, Spain, and Australia, to ensure that they don’t miss any incoming storm data.

It’s unknown if the storm’s baffling behavior will be cleared up, along with colliding systems around Jupiter’s south polar region and elsewhere. At the very least, JunoCam has given us an opportunity to look into the eye of the Great Red Spot, a curiosity that humans have been watching from afar for nearly 200 years.

A close-up of the Great Red Spot, shot by the JunoCam, captured on Earth by NASA, and processed by citizen-scientist Sean Doran. Photos via Sean Doran

Written by Mark Kaufman

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Is this ‘smoke vortex’ a sign of alien life?

By Linda Massarella

Modal Trigger

Weather experts have been left baffled by a solid black ring which appeared in the sky -- but a former UFO investigator claims it's a Smoke Vortex.SWNS.com

Alien hunters say a fresh sighting of​ a mysterious black ring in the sky shows earthlings may not be alone in the galaxy.

The latest “smoke vortex” – believed by some to be a Unidentified Flying Object — was seen by Kimberley Robinson, who was driving in Yorkshire, England Sunday with her boyfriend.

The 22-year-old captured a photo of the strange black mark on her camera’s phone.

“We hadn’t ever seen anything like this before,” she told a local reporter after uploading the photo to social media. “We have looked into it and no one knows what it is.”

The photo shows ​what appears to be ​a giant ​black ​smoke ring, but local fire authorities said there had been no reports of fire in the area.

A similar black ring was spotted hovering over Disneyland in California last year and in 2015, footage emerged of a 320 feet-wide ring of smoke floating over Kazakhstan​​.

Modal Trigger SWNS.com

Nigel Watson, the author of “UFOs of the first World War,” said he believes the rings are being made by flying objects from another planet.

“Smoke rings in the sky like this one look very spooky and unusual,” he told the MailOnline.

Prominent UFO blogger Scott C Waring said he’s convinced the these marks are made by a type of extra-terrestrial space craft.

“Ring UFOs are super rare, but they have been seen,” he said about the Disneyland sighting.

He said it “causes the family to worry about an alien invasion.”

Alien theories aside, the recent Yorkshire sighting may have been caused by a nearby World War II battle re-enactment – complete with pyrotechnics – that was staged in the area earlier in the day.

“We had our WWI re-enactment on the Saturday and our WWII one on the Sunday, and that plume is actually from the WWII battle,” Sarah Clarke, an organizer for the Yorkshire Wartime Experience, told Express.co.uk.

• ALIENS ,  
• ENGLAND ,  
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• PLANETS ,  
• SCIENCE ,  
• UFOS ,  
• WTF

Ian Purcell captured this object on video as it traversed the sky above Shawnigan Lake.

(Ian Purcell image)

VIDEO: UFO spotted near Shawnigan Lake

Witness took 10-minute video of object

ROBERT BARRON

In the 13 years Ian Purcell has lived in his home near Shawnigan Lake, he said he has never seen an object like he saw in the sky on June 27.

Purcell said he grabbed his video camera and began recording what appeared to be some sort of silver flying machine that was coming from the east before it arced around and started heading back in the direction from whence it came.

Purcell filmed the object’s progress across the sky for almost 10 minutes and then posted it on YouTube.

The video can be viewed here

or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGZeecQoDUE

“It’s a very clear view of some sort of very odd ship with many engines clearly visible,” he said.

“It was definitely not from this Earth.”

Purcell said he lives about 45 kilometres from Victoria Airport and has watched thousands of planes at various distances over the years.

He said that whatever the object was, it would have to be at least the size of a large jet liner, based on reference points and distance, and had at least six engines that he could see.

“I could see different lights that looked like jets appearing and disappearing and at the nose, too,” Purcell said. “This is some of the best footage I have ever seen on a clearly visible UFO. I’m definitely going to keep my video camera nearby and fully charged from now on.”

Jon Willis, an associate professor from the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria, said that after viewing a segment of the video, he believes the object is most likely man made.

“However, as an astronomer, my main expertise in these cases is being able to confirm that what is being observed is not a common celestial misidentification, like the moon, Venus, or a solar effect such as a parhelion (sun dog),” he said.

“Beyond that, I would caution that my expertise is very limited; no better than any other member of the public.”

Commenters on the YouTube video have suggested several explanations, including that it could be a large silver inflatable balloon that got loose.

{ http://www.ladysmithchronicle.com/ }

Cloverdale UAP Project: Investigating the “Spooklights” UFO phenomenon in Alabama

Posted by: Richard Hoffman 

Most ufologists are keenly aware of the frequent reports of what people often refer to as “orbs” which lacks much clarity. The term is often used to describe objects that turn out to be everything from Chinese lanterns, to ball plasma, and even navigation lights on aircraft. The term is also used to describe lens flares created from pointing cameras towards a bright light source, an out of focus light, and is also a dust particle that floats in front of a camera with a bright light seen in ghost investigations.

There exists another class of objects that science has yet to fully explain which seem to be a naturally recurring phenomena that are seen in certain geographic areas with increased frequencies (almost nightly) than the objects previously mentioned. In 1973, Piedmont, Missouri experienced a rash of sightings of luminous phenomena and documented by Dr. Harley Rutledge in his book, Project Identification. Dr. Rutledge had a team conduct a field study over a period of years, capturing scientific data, video and photographic evidence in the hopes of learning more about its nature. His summary report of these lights are consistent with other observations in other areas.

Missouri was not the only location that experienced this phenomena in 1973. In Cloverdale, Alabama, a small town located in the northwestern part of Alabama, similar lights were being seen almost nightly and appeared to be balls of luminous lights of varying colors. Residents saw these objects so frequently that they just ignore them – “it’s those dang lights again”. The Cloverdale phenomena continues to appear even today. Wyatt Cox, a former native of the area, now residing in South Carolina has documented and classified many hundreds of sightings that him a friend observed in his book, Spooklights, The Amazing Cloverdale, Alabama Spooklight Mystery.

Wyatt has done an excellent job in creating a classification system for the variations seen (e.g., colors tend to be blue, yellow/orange, white). The lights vary in size, speed and duration based on the colors noted. White lights are generally seen during warmer months, where yellow/orange lights tend to be seen during cooler months (October through April). The Spooklights, now referred to as “Earthlights” by Wyatt, tend to be 8 foot in diameter (the blue and white ones are 2-4 feet in diameter), travel in straight line paths (east to west or reversed), and can be at ground level and rise to altitudes of several thousand feet. They move at 20 mph, but can also stop and then proceed in their path. The lights can go out and then come back on as they proceed on their path and they generally disappear by fading out.

Wyatt Cox

Every serious UFO researcher and field investigator needs to get a copy of the books mentioned here along with the works of William Corliss on Luminous Phenomena. Corliss has done an excellent job of categorizing, referencing and even illustrating the myriads of types of luminous phenomena observed on the earth. Both Corliss as well as Cox see these objects as naturally occurring phenomena, not alien spacecraft. They are very similar to the lights in Hessdalen, Norway, the Marfa Lights, the Paulding Lights, Crossett Lights, Gurdon Lights and dozens of other areas around the globe and it this author’s opinion that it can explain a vast number of UFO sightings even outside of these geographic areas reported by witnesses as “orbs”.

One of many time-lapsed photos of an Earthlight.

Similar to the field study conducted by Dr. Rutledge, a scientific field investigation is being planned for the Cloverdale area this fall. We are seeking to secure the best equipment possible (spectroscopes, gravimeters, magnetometers, cameras capturing images in multiple parts of the EM spectrum, and other data collection tools) along with trained users of that equipment to see what we can learn. Plans include the possible use of a drone to see if we can get close-ups of the lights, equipped with sensors. The outcome will be to deliver a report on our findings and sharing our data collected. We have already begun collecting geological data, earthquake zone data, and weather data for the area.

For further information or interest in the study, please contact this author by writing him at ufoxprt@gmail.com.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

Witness allegedly captures military UFO chase video

A California witness at Landers reported that a group of people at a UFO conference watched and videotaped a military jet “chasing” two lights sources that may have been two independent objects, according to testimony in Case 84123 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

Witness illustration.

(Credit: MUFON)

The sighting occurred about 10 p.m. on May 21, 2017, at the conference in Joshua Tree, CA, that included one participant shooting video with night vision goggles.

“Luckily one of my participants caught this and many of our other sightings (from all three nights no less), with his black-and-white night vision video camera,” the witness stated. “His additional footage of some of the other incredible sightings will be posted at a future date once they are compiled.”

The witness described the event.

“At just before 10 p.m. (did not note exact time), some of my participants and I saw a large, amber-colored light low to the horizon just behind Giant Rock from where my whole group of about 50-plus people were gathered and using 15 pair of night vision goggles. A contingency of about 20 of us ran to get a better view of it. To the naked eye it appeared to be a large, orangish (amber) light, that, quoting some of the 20 people; ‘flew like a bumble bee.’”

Image from witness video allegedly showing a UFO on left and military aircraft on right.

(Credit: MUFON)

One of the guests had a good look.

“One guest came running with a pair of the goggles in hand and got a good look at it. She said that through the goggles it looked like ‘a large diamond-shaped UFO.’ She drew a picture of it, attached here. This object then flew behind a small hill right behind the entire Sky Watch larger group. As those of us who ran off walked back to join the others, three military jets flew over in the direction of the object now gone from sight behind the hill. Some of us commented that if they were following it, meaning the jets, they were a few minutes too late.”

The group then heard the sound of a low flying jet from behind the hill.

“Suddenly clearing the top of the hill and right over our heads, came a very fast military jet chasing a faster, large, red-glowing light. The military jet had both red and white blinking strobe lights and glowing afterburners and was very loud as it flew directly above our heads. The large red light had no blinking lights and no sound at all. It became clear to all 50-plus witnesses, this was no jet. Those folks present who looked with the aid of the goggles said they were seeing either two lights, or one object with two light sources on it.”

Image from witness video shows UFO.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness reviewed the video.

“After extensive review of the footage, I am nearly certain it shows two UFOs (fast moving lights), flying in perfect, locked tandem with one another. It appears you can see stars between them in the background, suggesting that these are two separate objects. As is usually the case, this footage, while incredible, does not do the sighting justice. The video is in black-and-white night vision, not full-color, naked-eye vision, and does not have any sound, so you are unable to hear the palatable excitement of 50-plus witnesses screaming and cheering.”

California MUFON Chief Investigator Earl Grey Anderson is investigating. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

NASA bekent: we hebben het geld niet om mensen op Mars te zetten

Caroline Kraaijvanger

En daarom is er dus nog geen datum geprikt voor die allereerste bemande Marslanding.

Dat de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie droomt van een bemande Marsmissie is geen geheim. Maar wanneer die dan precies plaats moest vinden? Dat bleef eigenlijk altijd een beetje vaag. Je zou je dan ook bijna af gaan vragen of NASA het eigenlijk wel kan: mensen op Mars zetten.

Met dit budget gaat het niet
Tijdens een bijeenkomst van het American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics kwam Bill Gerstenmaier, dé man als het gaat om de bemande ruimtevaart binnen NASA, met een ontnuchterende reactie op dat vraagstuk. Nee. NASA kan met de huidige budgetten geen mensen op Mars zetten.

Verrassend
Misschien komt dat een beetje als een verrassing. Want NASA heeft ons lang voorgespiegeld dat een bemande missie naar Mars prima mogelijk was. Als het budget jaar na jaar – in lijn met de inflatie – een beetje bleef stijgen en het gloednieuwe Space Launch System en ruimtevaartuig Orion in gebruik zouden worden genomen, gold: the sky is the limit. Dan moesten we mensen op Mars kunnen zetten en weer heelhuids terug kunnen brengen.

Landen
Maar Gerstenmaier zet nu dus een streep door die optimistische beweringen. Hij doet dat in reactie op een heel redelijke vraag die tijdens de bijeenkomst van het American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics vanuit het publiek komt: Waarom heeft NASA nog geen datum geprikt om mensen op Mars te zetten? “Ik kan daarvoor geen datum prikken en de reden is dat we – met het beschreven budget dat dus grofweg elk jaar 2% stijgt – geen oppervlaktesystemen voor Mars kunnen bouwen,” aldus Gerstenmaier. Het is met deze budgetten dus prima mogelijk om Orion en SLS af te maken en uiteindelijk naar Mars te vliegen. Maar de atmosfeer van Mars binnengaan, afdalen in die atmosfeer en vervolgens heelhuids op het oppervlak van de rode planeet landen: dat is – met het voorgespiegelde budget – een brug te ver.

Marsrover Curiosity op het oppervlak van Mars.

Afbeelding: NASA.

Marsrovers zijn anders
Misschien vraag je je af waarom dat zo lastig is: NASA heeft in het verleden toch al verscheidene Marsrovers heelhuids laten landen? Correct. Maar dat is niets in vergelijking met het laten landen van een bemande ruimtesonde, legt Gerstenmaier uit. “Als je kijkt naar de rovers die op Mars geland zijn, dan zie je dat ze grofweg 1 metrische ton wegen.” Een bemande lander zou ongeveer 20 keer meer wegen. “En dat is de minimale massa die we op het oppervlak van Mars moeten kunnen zetten.” En NASA weet nog niet hoe dat moet. Natuurlijk kun je dat uitvogelen, maar: dat kost geld. En dat geld is er dus niet. En daarom is het lastig om een datum te prikken voor een bemande landing op Mars.

Moeten we de rode planeet dan voorlopig maar helemaal uit ons hoofd zetten? Zeer zeker niet. Want het krap zittende NASA is niet de enige die droomt van een missie naar Mars. Ook bijvoorbeeld SpaceX en Blue Origin zien zo’n bemande Marsmissie wel zitten. En Elon Musk (SpaceX) durfde daar eerder wel al een voorzichtige datum voor te prikken: ergens in 2025 zou het moeten gaan gebeuren.

Bronmateriaal:

"AIAA"
De afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel is gemaakt door NASA / John Frassanito and Associates

{  https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Moon Express wil in 2020 al materialen van de maan gaan halen

Caroline Kraaijvanger

Het bedrijf ziet de maan als het achtste continent dat – in navolging van de zeven op aarde – zo snel mogelijk moet worden uitgebuit.

Moon Express is voornemens nog dit jaar een lander op de maan te zetten en zo de Google Lunar X Prize in de wacht te slepen. Maar terwijl de voorbereidingen voor die allereerste private maanlanding nog in volle gang zijn, kijkt het bedrijf ook alvast verder. Want Moon Express is niet van plan om het bij die ene landing te laten.

De lander die de zuidpool van de maan ergens tussen 2017 en 2020 moet gaan verkennen.

Naar de zuidpool
Dat blijkt uit de nieuwe plannen die het bedrijf op de site bekend heeft gemaakt. Kort nadat de eerste commerciële maanlander voet op de maan heeft gezet, wil Moon Express de allereerste commerciële expeditie naar de zuidpool van de maan opzetten. Tijdens deze expeditie zal opnieuw een lander voet op de maan zetten. Die lander moet onder meer uitzoeken welke waardevolle mineralen de zuidpool van de maan herbergt.

In 2020 wil Moon Express materiaal van het maanoppervlak halen en naar de aarde brengen.

Sample return
In 2020 is het dan vervolgens tijd voor het echte werk. Tijdens deze derde expeditie zal wat materiaal van het oppervlak van de maan worden gehaald en naar de aarde worden gebracht. Het belooft de allereerste commerciële sample return mission te worden. En als die missie volgens plan verloopt, lijkt niets Moon Express nog in de weg te staan om ook de kostbare grondstoffen die de maan herbergt naar de aarde te halen.

Moon Express heeft er nooit een geheim van gemaakt dat het erop uit is om elementen die op aarde schaars (en dus duur) zijn van de maan te halen en op aarde te gaan verkopen. Maar dat het bedrijf dat al zo snel wil gaan doen, is verrassend. Het is tenslotte zo 2020. Maar laten we niet teveel op de zaken vooruit lopen. Eerst maar eens zien of het bedrijf er later dit jaar in slaagt om die lander heelhuids op de maan te krijgen. Overigens is Moon Express natuurlijk niet het enige bedrijf dat dit jaar nog naar de maan wil. Er zijn nog vijf teams in de race voor de Google Lunar X Prize. Lees er hier alles over!

Bronmateriaal:

"Expeditions" - Moon Express

{  https://www.scientias.nl/ }

While UFOs may be the most democratic of all unexplained mysteries –it can be experienced by both rich men or poor, illiterates or academicians, in developed countries or the 3rd World– UFO witnesses on the other hand are not regarded in such egalitarian terms; some are given more credibility than others depending on either their physical or mental aptitudes, training and professional career. For better or for worse, what one does for a living and how many years one spent inside a class room, determines whether others will take seriously your testimony of an encounter with something extraordinary.

Such is the case with police officers. Overall we consider them to be of above average moral integrity because we entrust them with the enforcement of the Law for the safekeeping of civilian citizens, hence their word can determine whether a suspect goes to jail or not. They have to be fit to fulfill their duties, have received instruction in firearm use and observation; but above all they have to be psychologically prepared to face any kind of situation, and be willing to put their lives at risk on a regular basis.

When a cop admits he or she saw a UFO, we inevitably pay closer attention.

There are many classic cases in the UFO archives involving one or several police officers as the main witnesses: The Lonnie Zamora case of 1964, The Herbert Schirmer abduction of 1967, the Exeter incident of 1965, or when deputy sheriff Dale Spaur and his partner Wilbur Neff chased a UFO from Ohio to Pennsylvania –the latter serving as inspiration for that famous scene in the first act of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind.

The story I’m about to share with you, fellow Coppertops, also involves a police member –a military police, no less!– but is not widely known in the English-speaking UFO circles. And yet it is so unique and steep in high strangeness, it almost makes the aforementioned examples sound too… conventional.

But before we get down to business, there’s another thing that distinguishes UFO encounters involving police officers, which we shouldn’t forget to mention: Cops tend to have more to lose when they go on the record with a UFO encounter. Their reputations and/or personal lives tend to be perennially marred by that one episode, no matter how many years pass –as was the case with several of the witnesses in the cases previously mentioned.

J.J. Benítez. Spanish UFO hunter extraordinaire

Which is why when Spanish UFOlogist (and my long-time hero) Juan José Benítez met with a member of the Civil Guard –the military force in charge of police duties in Spain– on a local café in his home town of Barbate during the summer of 1980, he was asked absolute discretion and never to reveal his real name or rank without permission. The guard was accompanied by a partner of his, who was also a long-time friend of Benítez and had arranged the meeting with the seasoned investigator, so he could hear a first-hand account of what could very well be one of the most confounding cases in his long UFOlogical career.

The event, the witness told Benítez –who included it in his book ‘The Tip of the Iceberg’– had happened in July of 1974. The man was 24 years old at the time and lived in the city of Jerez de la Frontera –one of the municipalities in the province of Cádiz. He hadn’t joined the Civil Guard yet, and worked instead at an auto-repair shop; he was a motorcycle enthusiast and loved to cruise in his Puch mini-cross through the local country roads and highways, which he knew like the back of his hand.

That night, like many others, the young Jerezano went to the neighborhood of San Juan de Dios to see his girlfriend. The weather was warm and pleasant, so the couple went walking to a nearby field, not too far from the National Road IV, to probably do the kind of things young people in love like to do away from prying eyes, on a nice summer’s eve.

Map of Jerez de la Frontera, where the encounter took place.

At around 11:30 pm the couple noticed a strange light behind some cinder blocks nearby. It was round and amber in hue, like the color of a traffic light, and it slowly flew directly overhead at an altitude of around a thousand feet in complete silence. The astonished youngsters observed in amazement how the luminous object crossed the road, and seemed to land on top of a low hill some 1.8 miles away (3 kilometers).

“I didn’t think it twice,” said the guard to Benítez. With a fierce determination to find out what was it they had just witnessed, he took his girlfriend back to her home and then sped on his motorcycle toward the hill; but before reaching it and without any warning, the light disappeared.

Unfazed, the young motorist continued his trek to the hill. There, at its base he found a moped parked at a ditch. Suddenly he saw two male teenagers frantically running downhill toward him; they were the owners of the moped, and excitedly told him they had just witnessed a round apparatus with a dome on top, through which they had managed to observe two ‘shadows’ inside.

“I asked them to accompany me to the top, but they flat-out refused.” The terrified teens fled to Jerez as fast as their little moped permitted it.

Puch mini-cross motorcycle, similar to the one owned by the witness

Tenaciously, the young man rode his bike to the summit at full throttle. He reached the top and everything was in complete darkness, the night only disturbed by the nervous barking of dogs from a nearby shack. He searched around and saw that the orangish light was again airborne, flying slowly away towards the crossing of the roads to Sanlúcar and Trebujena. The man felt anger, thinking he had just missed the landed object for a matter of seconds.

Fortunately for our intrepid chaser, the light took ground once more on the steepest side of another nearby hill, some one and a quarter miles away from where he was. The game, as Sherlock Holmes might say, was still afoot.

Not taking the light out of his sight he charged toward the second hill, both his bike and his heart at full speed. But when he was no more than 650 feet away, the tricksterish luminescence faded away once more; whether it had disappeared or it just ‘shut down’ he couldn’t say. The motorized UFO hunter slowed down and felt outplayed in this bizarre cat-and-mouse situation. It was then when he first took notice of two most peculiar details: Not only was the entire zone enveloped in an eerie blanket of utter silence –“as heavy as lead,” the witness explained to Benítez– but also during the following minutes he never managed to see any type of vehicle transit in both directions, something totally uncommon on these heavily-transited highways.

It was as if someone had pushed a cosmic PAUSE button on the entire region of Jerez.

Fed up and on the brink of giving up, the motorcyclist gave the pursue one final shot. He rode in the direction of Trebujena, where there was a slope which he could use as a vantage point to better scout the whole area. With any luck, he thought, he might be able to track the elusive light one last time –which by now he was convinced it was no conventional aircraft.

But without any warning and before he could reach the slope a moving truck appeared heading directly in front of him. Its color was blue and had big red lights on the top of its cabin, a seemingly mundane vehicle –despite the fact it was the first one he had spotted in quite a while– if not for one small yet disturbing detail: When it crossed to his left, the guard explained to Benítez, he realized the truck did not make any noise whatsoever!

He didn’t even feel the expected rush of wind produced by its wake!

“It can’t be!” he thought to himself as he abruptly put on the brakes and changed direction, now in pursuit of the silent truck, which continued its unperturbed trajectory toward Jerez. It moved at an approximate speed of 37 miles per hour (60 km/hr) which made catching up with it easy enough, and the motorist began tailing it and keeping a close distance of no more than 165 feet.

The chase now continued through a zone of steep loops in the highway, and no sooner than the young motorist emerged from a left curve, he astonishingly realized the phantom vehicle had vanished from his sight; “something materially impossible,” he was adamant in his exposition to Benítez, “because at that point the curve gave way to a narrow, straight line of more than half a mile in length.” There was simply no place in which the truck could have pulled over without being spotted by the young man, nor an alternative road or detour it could have taken to lose sight of its biking pursuer.

The disappearance of the “ghost truck” was the last straw for the intrepid UFO hunter, and the totality of the strangeness he had experienced so far began to take its toll on his nerves. He decided to call it a night and return to Jerez, but the very moment he switched his motorcycle’s high beam, the road ahead was illuminated by a different source…

There, in front of him, was the amber light he had recklessly pursued like a motorized Ahab in hunt of and otherworldly white whale, shining all across the entire width of the lonely highway. He now could distinctly perceive a shiny-looking dome  on top of it, which looked to him “like the glass in a bathroom” –perhaps because it was not entirely opaque. He knew it was the same object which had previously terrified the two teenagers in the moped.

Without knowing why, the witness began to make light signals to the object, switching from the low beam to high beam of his bike. But the object was unresponsive to the improvised communications attempt.

Just to make sure he wasn’t suffering from some sort of hallucination, the civil guard confessed to Benítez 6 years after his close encounter, he reached out and touched the escape pipe of his minicross. The throbs from the burned flesh in his right hand confirmed what his mind was frantically trying to reject: This wasn’t a dream.

This was REAL.

Maybe it was the burning pain what managed to rekindle the young man’s indomitable spirit. Maybe, if true, this is the account of the bravest UFO witness who’s ever lived to tell his tale. Whatever the case, the motorist knew he had no choice but to finish what he’d started. So, in a final push of courage, he revved his faithful bike and sped toward the flying saucer at full speed. Don Quixote couldn’t have felt more proud of this modern giant slayer mounting his mechanized Rocinante.

“But no sooner had I started to run in the direction of the object,” the guard told Benítez, “when in the blink of an eye the amber-like light, the domed object and all of that ‘turned off’, disappearing from my sight. And in their place appeared the lights of two automobiles!”

J.J. Benítez was just as incredulous as you might be by now, my dear Coppertops. He kept pushing the Civil Guard into explaining and re-explaining this last point of his incredible story. No, the police officer insisted, there hadn’t been any perceived lapse between the ‘dematerialization’ of the UFO and the ‘materialization’ of those two cars, parked one in front of the other on the right side of the highway with their headlights on. It had all happened completely simultaneously.

Confused, but still as curious and brave as ever, the young motorist slowly approached the parked vehicles, which appeared to him as big sedans (Mercedes or Dodge, he couldn’t really say) of a gray, shiny color –“almost as if they had just been car-washed.”

Not knowing what drove him to do it, he told Benítez, the witness stopped his bike near the driver’s door of the first sedan, which had its window down. Something told him these were no ordinary automobiles, despite the seemingly flawless disguise. He peered inside the car, which didn’t have any inner lights on, and saw that behind the wheel was a man with silvery hair who seemed to be around 50 years of age, and yet looked tall and athletic behind his impeccable ashen-gray suit, complete with a white shirt and a dark tie.

The driver wasn’t alone in the car. Next to him and on one of the back seats were two more individuals, and directly behind him was a tall, younger woman with long blond hair, dressed in a tailor suit which left her neck exposed. Despite the lack of light our young witness could tell she was very beautiful, aside from her serious expression.

The second car was no more than 3 feet away from the first, and although the young man was certain there was someone inside, it was too dark to tell.

“Buenas noches,” the middle-aged driver greeted the young motorist. “Please, where is the direction of the National Road IV?”, he proceeded to ask in impeccable Spanish without any hint of a strange accent. His eyes and appearance looked completely normal, and yet the witness felt there was just something odd in the features of these ‘lost tourists’ he couldn’t quite put his finger on –“their faces weren’t national nor foreign… they were just strange.”

The other three passengers never opened their mouths.

The young motorist started to explain to the driver how to get to the road he asked for. After a few minutes he realized that, even with the directions he was providing, finding the National Road IV at this ungodly hour of the night would be no easy task –this was, after all, during the ‘dark ages’ before Google Maps and Waze. Incidentally, during his brief inspection of the car’s interior the witness didn’t see any maps which the ‘tourists’ could use to orient themselves; so he diligently offered to escort the two cars to the road.

“Very well,” was the only thing the silver-haired man uttered as a way to thank the young Good Samaritan. The motorcycle ran ahead and the cars made a u-turn and followed behind. The roles had now been absurdly switched: The previous pursuer was now leading the ‘materialized’ cars into the city of Jerez, which were just as devoid of any normal sound as the blue moving truck preceding them, or the amber flying saucer which had started the whole thing.

The young motorist kept riding while keeping a close watch of the sedans with his rear-view mirror. The three vehicles crossed under a bridge –again, no sound coming from the cars bounced off of it– and once they entered the city and reached the zoo, the witness slowed down and stopped. The two sedans did the same.

The witness turned and reached the first vehicle, again from the side of the driver’s window, to talk to the silver-haired conductor. “Now you just follow straight ahead, and turn to the first right…” he started to explain to the elderly man in the gray suit. “Very well, thank you” was his stark reply, without letting finish the motorcyclist’s indications. Not once did he offer any smile or sign of appreciation for the young man’s service.

Either the young man now felt some sort of responsibility toward these ‘tourists’ –despite their obvious lack of cordiality– who could still find it hard to reach the National Road IV, or maybe something in the back of his mind deduced this was just a big ruse. “Do you want me to take you directly to the road?” he offered.

“No, thank you!” said the driver with great conviction.

“Hey, it’s no trouble at all…”

“No. THANK. YOU!” the man repeated. The tone of his voice and the force in his stare were crystal clear.

The young motorist bid them good night, turned 180 degrees on his bike and rode back home. The two cars moved through the street he had indicated them, and he lost them out of his sight, never to see them again.

Benítez had been listening to the Civil Guard’s astounding account, refraining from interrupting him too much, and only making a few occasional clarifying questions. The two officers –the witness and his partner– had gone uncomfortably quiet and so had he, sitting on that little café in the small coastal town where he had lived most of his life, when he wasn’t chasing after those elusive flying saucers all over the globe. He didn’t know what to make of the young man’s tale, other than he felt he was being totally sincere in his recollections –the fact that he rejected any kind of publicity being evidence of it.

Finally, Benítez ventured one final question, and he urged the witness to think carefully before he replied:

“When you approached those two cars for the first time, saw the occupants and spoke with the driver… did you note or perceive any special sensation?”

It didn’t take long for the military man to answer: “Yes. I felt they were expecting me.” [Emphasis mine]

***********

Officers of the Spanish Civil Guard wearing their traditional uniform

Benítez concluded that first interview, and in subsequent days he contacted the witness again to fill in a few minor details. The officer added that soon after the strange incident he’d lived that summer of 1974, he started to complain from a strange ‘pressure’ in his temples. He went to see a doctor but it was simply diagnosed as a ‘nervousness.’ He lost his job at the auto repair shop, and enrolled in the Civil Guard two years later, where he’d had a very good career.

As it’s his custom, Benítez accompanied the guard to the place where the event took place, to take notes and make measurements. One detail lacking in the account made by the seasoned investigator in his book ‘The Tip of the Iceberg’, is any mention of possible burn marks or physical traces left by the UFO during its multiple landings. After 6 years the chances that any mark left by the object could still be found in the highway’s tarmac are very slim –after all, transited roads coming in and out of a city have to be regularly repaired and maintained. But what about the two hills where the ‘light’ took ground during the first stage’s of the chase?

Either it was something omitted by the witness in his testimony, or there simply wasn’t any physical evidence to be found.

One little thing Benítez does mention, however, might be more revealing than any sample of scorched material: When he parked his car –a small Renault 18 he owned at the time– in the same spot where the witness saw the gray sedans for the first time,  and he tried to turn to reconstruct the exact itinerary followed by the cars as they were escorted by the motorcycle to the city, he was forced to back up at the edge in order not to hit the ditch, because the road was not wide enough for a complete u-turn.

And yet, the witness did not recollect seeing the two cars make the same corrective maneuver from his rear-view mirror. Something simply impossible considering the length of the sedans –or at least as possible as two big combustion-engined vehicles from the mid-1970s being able to cruise without emitting ANY sound…

***********

Borderlands is the name of a book written by Mike Dash, dealing with all sorts of high-strangeness cases he’s investigated, like the one we’ve just discussed  –the book has been commented by Ben and Aaron on past MU episodes.

Borderlands is also the name of a popular video game series, in which players are free to explore an alien planet and embark on different adventures at their leisure. There are several ways to move around the planet: Walking, which is slow and boring (not to mention dangerous); Teleporting, which you can only do once you find one of the few ‘Fast Travel’ terminals scattered across the game field; or, if you feel like cruising around the landscape, there’s always the option to ‘Catch-A-Ride’, which is the name of stations that instantly materialize a fully-customized four-wheel vehicle for you.

Catch a riiiiiiiide?

What makes the ‘Catch-A-Ride’ particularly fun is because it lets you customize your vehicle in many different ways; changed your mind about the paint color or think you want to trade the machine gun for a rocket launcher? No problem! You push the station button and your ride is switched in the blink of an eye.

For a videogame player, there’s nothing special about watching a full vehicle appear out of thin air. It’s what you expect from a make-believe cybernetic universe in which you can move around strange worlds, shoot guns, die and reborn as many times as you want. Just 1’s and 0’s running through the game’s code, right?

But what happens when similar capabilities are observed in what we think is the ‘real world’? Is it a hint that all of us are nothing but synthetic characters embedded in a universal sandbox for the benefit of god-like users?

If the story of the anonymous Civil Guard is true –and to be fair, there seems to be no further circumstantial evidence to corroborate it– then it is disturbing because of its encompassing implications. During all this time ‘conventional’ UFOlogists –read ‘nuts-and-bolters’— have operated under the assumption they are dealing with a tangible phenomenon; something, however exotic or foreign, that has nevertheless defined properties like a given mass or occupying a finite space. Something that could be measured, if having the luck of being at the right place and the right time.

What our young motorized hero claimed to have witnessed throws that out of the window though, because it seems to implicate a power capable of assuming whatever shape it suits it best: From a bonafide flying saucer to a large moving truck, and then even ‘splicing’ into two separate vehicles. We can only assume those ‘morphing’ abilities can also be applied to whatever possible intelligences control that power.

The ‘simulation’ was not 100% perfect though, as hinted by the lack of sound emitted by the multiple manifestations of the phenomenon. One wonders what would have happened if our intrepid UFO chaser would have dared to reach out and grab the arm of that mysterious ‘man in gray’ driving the mirage car…

Does this denote a limit to the phenomenon’s reach, the same a video game has to limit the ‘polygon count’ of every synthetic model generated in its cyber-space? Or perhaps it simply didn’t care to create a flawless deception to fool just one stubborn kid on a bike…

Or maybe the ‘flaw’ was also part of the ruse all along, to keep luring the witness into that absurd cat-and-mouse chase. Because surely a power capable of manipulating its shape could also make itself invisible to the human eye –the way the light ‘shut down’ just as the motorcyclist was about to catch on with it.

Whatever the case, the story of the ‘morphing flying saucer’ coaxes us to reframe our assumptions –see what I did there?– about what exactly we are dealing with, even if we’re still so far away to understand its true motives.

…Maybe that will increase the thrill of the game.

Tags

close encounters police simulation Spain ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

New Research at Easter Island Suggests Rapa Nui Civilization Weren’t Victims of Ecocide

Perhaps no place on Earth has held quite as much mystery and intrigue as the famous Rapa Nui, formerly (and still popularly) known as Easter Island, in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. A world heritage site since 1995, its unique location and appearance, thanks in part to archaeological remains in the form of the “moai” statues found on the island, have contributed to the wonder and appeal it has instilled in our minds in modern times.

There have long been a number of mysteries about the remote island, and the origins of the people who first settled it. Recognized as a territory of Chile today, it is believed that Polynesian settlers were likely the first to have arrived on the island, who once represented a thriving culture known today as the Rapa Nui civilization, who lived well despite the island’s isolated location in the pacific.

It has long been suspected that the downfall of the Rapa Nui resulted from the destruction of natural resources over time, which led to deforestation and extinction of indigenous species, as a result of overpopulation the likes of which affected other ancient cultures, including the Mayan Civilization. While numbering only in the thousands by the time of its discovery in the early 1700s by Europeans, the island once had an estimated population of 15,000.

However, despite the prevalence of what many have called the “ecocide” theory of Easter Island’s historic past, new evidence suggests that human influence on the environment and depletion of natural resources may not have caused the widespread population decline as once thought.

Researchers at Birmingham University, in cooperation with State University in New York have found evidence from recent soil analysis that suggests the Rapa Nui were far more skilled at improving soil fertility and improving environmental conditions than once thought, which, in addition to a large degree of subsistence off of marine resources, counters the traditional narrative involving environmental decline.

Carl Lipo, a Professor of Anthropology at Binghamton University, commented on this in a university press release:

”One of the resources that they supposedly used up was trees that were growing on the island. Those trees provided canoes and, as a result of the lack of canoes, they could no longer fish. So they started to rely more and more on land food. As they relied on land food, productivity went down because of soil erosion, which led to crop failures…Painting the picture of this sort of catastrophe. That’s the traditional narrative.”

Analysis of samples from the island involved carbon and nitrogen isotopes, as well as certain amino acid and isotopic analyses which studied collagen present in the samples. This helped determine which had origins in terrestrial sources, versus those from the surrounding ocean. The samples included human, animal, and plant remains retrieved from multiple archaeological sites on the island.

Popular Archaeology reports that, “Results of carbon and nitrogen analyses independently show that around half the protein in diets from the humans measured came from marine sources; markedly higher than previous estimates. These findings point to concerted efforts to manipulate agricultural soils, and suggest the prehistoric Rapa Nui population had extensive knowledge of how to overcome poor soil fertility, improve environmental conditions, and create a sustainable food supply.”

“That supports the argument we’ve made in our previous work,” Lipo says, “that these people came up with am ingenious strategy in enriching the soils by adding bedrock to the surface and inside the soil to create, essentially, fertilizer to support their populations, and that forest loss really isn’t a catastrophe as previously described.”

Earlier studies at Birmingham University carried out by Lipo have similarly addressed the idea that the islanders, as resources declined, waged war against one another, effectively destroying the Rapa Nui civilization. Earlier this year, the university reported that an analysis of artifacts found at Easter Island determined that they were general purpose tools, rather than spearpoints as once believed.

“When you can compare [the tools] to European weapons or weapons found anywhere around the world when there are actually objects used for warfare, they’re very systematic in their shape.” Lipo argued that such tools “have to do their job really well. Not doing well is risking death.”

“We found that when you look at the shape of these things, they just don’t look like weapons at all.”

The ongoing research into Easter Island, its history, and mysterious decline can be read about at Birmingham University’s website.

Moai image (top of article) by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen. 

Tags

ancient mysteries easter island ecocide

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A group of people attending a UFO conference in Washington State say they spotted a large opening near the top of Mt Adams and some claim it’s an opening for alien spaceships to depart and enter. With the history of UFO and orb sightings in this area, anything is possible. But an alien hangar?

The discovery occurred at the 2017 ECETI (Enlightened Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence) conference held annually at the ECETI Ranch in Trout Lake, Washington. The ranch was founded as a mountain retreat in 1986 by James Gilliland, an author, teacher, ufologist and spiritual counselor. After a near-death experience, Gilliland left the business world to help other embark on their own spiritual journeys.

Mt. Adams would seem to be an ideal place for a spiritual retreat … and more. The dormant volcano, along with Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, form the “smoking mountains” that appear in many Native American legends. It also played a part in the famous 1947 UFO sighting when pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed he saw nine UFOs fly past Mount Rainier at an estimated 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/hr) before disappearing at Mt. Adams. Since then, there’s been speculation that Mt. Adams is hiding a secret spaceship base.

Gilliland believes there’s a dimensional portal in the vicinity, has seen thousands of UFO – including one he boarded – and says he’s  encountered aliens. However, the apparent opening in Mt. Adams was found not by him but by Jimmy Church, a paranormal radio and television host (Fade to Black) who was participating in the conference. In his video, he shows before (June 29th) and after (June 30th) images of Mt. Adams and points out when the hole appeared and seemingly stayed open while over 150 people were said to have seen the 500 by 150 foot dark spot.

What did they see? The media reports and the Fade to Black YouTube video scream “UFO hangar door” because … well, it’s Mt. Adams. It certainly looks more like a hole or a cave opening than a shadow, but not much like a door for sophisticated spacecraft flown by an advanced civilization. James Gilliland does not seem to have anything to say about it in the video, but he has many of his own videos and corroborating witnesses of what he says are UFOs passing through the “interdimensional door” to a base. Church’s video also show a UFO but it wasn’t using the hole.

The most frequent comment about the video is “Send in the drones!”, which seems like a reasonable suggestion since the spot is so clearly identified … unless the hole closes up. Of course, someone could also climb up and knock.

Is this the smoking gun in the smoking mountain that will prove the existence of an alien UFO base … or just smoke? Church, Gilliland and ECETI have a year to find something whole about the hole for the 2018 conference.

Tags

alien Kenneth Arnold Mt. Adams Paranormal ufo UFO base UFO hangar

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Merkwaardig: wetenschappers teleporteren voor het eerst object de ruimte in - HLN.be 

Bron: Time

Een Stargate uit de gelijknamige sciencefictionserie. 

© RV.

Chinese wetenschappers hebben met succes een object vanop Aarde de ruimte in geteleporteerd, meldt de MIT Technology Review. De doorbraak plaveit de weg voor meer ambitieuze en futuristische projecten. 'Beam me up, Scotty!'

Concreet gaat het om een fotondeeltje dat naar een satelliet werd gezonden die op een kleine 500 kilometer afstand in een baan om de Aarde draait. De techniek die de wetenschappers gebruikten heet 'kwantumverstrengeling',  een "vreemd fenomeen, dat optreedt wanneer twee kwantumobjecten, zoals fotondeeltjes, op hetzelfde moment en punt in de ruimte ontstaan en zo dezelfde existentie delen", aldus het blad van MIT.

Een jaar geleden slaagden wetenschappers er voor het eerst in een object te teleporteren buiten een labosetting. "In het verleden waren experimenten met teleportatie beperkt tot afstanden van zo'n 100 kilometer", zeggen de onderzoekers aan het MIT-blad.

Lees ook

• Hoe ver zitten we nog van de technologie uit 'Star Trek'?

Grote gevolgen

Het onderzoek betekent een doorbraak op de weg naar meer ambitieuze doeleinden. "We slaagden erin de eerste verbinding te leggen voor betrouwbare kwantumteleportatie over een lange afstand. Dat is een essentiële stap in de richting van een kwantuminternet op wereldschaal", aldus de onderzoekers.

Volgens het MIT-blad toont de verwezenlijking bovendien dat China een overduidelijke dominantie en pionierspositie tentoonspreidt in het onderzoeksgebied, die tot voor kort nog op het conto van Europese en Amerikaanse onderzoekers werd geschreven. "Hoe het Westen hierop zal reageren, is een belangrijke kwestie", stelt het blad. 

Voor een kwantumverstrengeling-voor-dummies uitleg kan u bij onderstaand filmpje terecht.

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NASA formeel: "Landen van mensen op Mars nog niet mogelijk" - HLN.be

Bron: Ars Technica

© epa.

RUIMTEVAART De NASA is al lange tijd bezig met plannen om mensen te landen op Mars, maar dat blijkt op dit moment niet mogelijk te zijn, zegt de ruimtevaartorganisatie.

NASA kondigde aan dat het op dit moment niet betaalbaar is om mensen te landen op de rode planeet. Wel blijft het wellicht mogelijk om astronauten naar Mars te laten vliegen, maar landen is een heel andere zaak, zo klinkt het.

"Ik kan geen datum plakken op wanneer mensen Mars zullen kunnen betreden", aldus William Gerstenmaier, NASA's hoofd van de menselijke ruimtevaart, aan Ars Technica. De mededeling is opvallend omdat de ruimtevaartorganisatie in het verleden nogal geheimzinnig en vaag communiceerde over dit onderwerp.

"Met de huidige budgetsituatie, inclusief de verhoging van zo'n twee procent, hebben we geen oppervlaktesystemen beschikbaar voor Mars", aldus nog Gerstenmaier. Volgens het NASA-hoofd is het dalen, landen en toetreden tot de planeet "een grote uitdaging". 

Het Space Launch System en het Orion ruimtetuig, die naar verwachting een toekomstige Mars-landing mogelijk maakten, bleken heel duur om te bouwen. Als gevolg daarvan kon NASA nog niet eens landingsvoertuigen bouwen die op Mars zouden landen.

Lees ook

• NASA onthult beelden van grote rode vlek op Jupiter
• 'Do not touch' op NASA-materiaal: daar móest VS-vicepresident Mike Pence toch eens aankomen
• Anonymous stelt dat NASA bewijzen heeft van buitenaards leven - maar is het wel al zover?

Commerciële samenwerking met SpaceX?

Veel alternatieven om de kosten te drukken zijn er niet. Er is wel de optie om veel meer te vertrouwen op gedeeltelijk of volledig herbruikbare lancering en in-space transportsystemen die worden gebouwd door bedrijven zoals SpaceX, Blue Origin en United Launch Alliance. Politiek gezien is tot op heden elke afhankelijkheid van commerciële bedrijven voor diepe ruimteverkenning echter not done in het Amerikaanse congres. 

Maar dat kan misschien veranderen nu vicepresident Mike Pence de deur op een kier houdt voor commerciële partnerschappen binnen de NASA. "Het is een feit dat de Amerikaanse bedrijven pioniers zijn wat ruimtevaart betreft", liet Pence zich al ontvallen. 

NASA zelf houdt intussen de deur open voor nieuwe missies op de maan. "Als we erachter komen dat er water op de maan is, en we willen uitgebreidere operaties op de maan doen om dit te verkennen, hebben we de mogelijkheid om met Deep Space Gateway een uitgebreid maanoppervlakprogramma te ondersteunen," zegt NASA-hoofd Gerstenmaier. "Als we ons meer willen concentreren op Mars, kunnen we dat wel behouden", besluit hij.

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Kesha says she saw UFOs in the desert and it inspired a song on her new album

File photo: In this May 22, 2016, file photo, Kesha arrives at the Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

UFO sightings have surged in recent years, according to data from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), which tracks such sightings.

The first recorded sighting was in 1905, but by 2010, there were nearly 105,000 reported sightings, including 45,000 in 2010 alone. Since then, there have been no less than 300 reported sightings per month. July 2014 saw 1,103 sightings, the highest number ever recorded.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Fox News]