The Object That Could Solve the Amelia Earhart Mystery Is About to Be Uncovered

Their target is known as the Taraia Object, an unusual shape seen in satellite images beside the Taraia Peninsula on Nikumaroro, a tiny coral island in the Republic of Kiribati. Researchers behind the expedition believe there is a possibility the object could be wreckage from Earhart’s missing Lockheed Electra 10E, but nobody has physically examined it closely enough to know what it actually is.

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That could change within weeks. Purdue University, Purdue Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute are supporting an expedition scheduled to leave Tarawa, Kiribati, on 7 October. After a voyage of roughly six days across the Pacific, the team plans to enter Nikumaroro’s lagoon and investigate the object directly.

Rather than relying on another satellite photograph, researchers intend to remove the sediment covering the anomaly using a hydraulic dredge. Once enough of it has been exposed, they hope to determine whether they are looking at natural material, vegetation, debris or pieces of an aircraft that disappeared in 1937.

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished on 2 July 1937 while flying from Lae, New Guinea, towards Howland Island during Earhart’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Their specially modified twin-engine Lockheed Electra had already completed approximately 22,000 miles of the journey when they set out across one of its most difficult stretches.

Radio contact with the US Coast Guard cutter Itasca deteriorated as Earhart approached the area around Howland. At 7:42am local time, she reported that fuel was running low and that she could not see the ship. Her final confirmed transmission was received at approximately 8:43am, when she reported flying along a navigational line running 157 to 337 degrees.

Earhart, Noonan and the aircraft were never seen again. A huge US Navy and Coast Guard search followed, but no confirmed wreckage was recovered and the mystery has remained unresolved ever since.

One theory suggests Earhart never reached Howland and crashed into the Pacific after exhausting her fuel. Another proposes that she and Noonan continued southeast along the navigational line mentioned in her final transmission and reached what was then Gardner Island, now known as Nikumaroro.

That second possibility has been investigated for decades by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, better known as TIGHAR. Researchers have conducted repeated expeditions to the island and examined radio records, photographs, archaeological material and possible evidence that Earhart and Noonan survived there for at least some period after their disappearance.

Nikumaroro sits around 350 nautical miles southeast of Howland Island and has a broad reef flat where an aircraft could potentially have landed during favourable tide conditions. US Navy aircraft searching the Phoenix Islands flew over Gardner Island only days after Earhart disappeared and reported signs of recent habitation, although nobody on the search aircraft reported seeing Earhart, Noonan or the Electra.

Various objects discovered during later archaeological work have added to the mystery, including fragments and personal items dating broadly to the period. Human bones were also recovered on Nikumaroro in 1940, although the original remains were subsequently lost and attempts to associate historical measurements of them with Earhart have remained disputed.

None of those discoveries has provided the piece of evidence researchers have sought for almost nine decades: an identifiable part of Earhart’s aircraft.

Attention shifted towards the lagoon after California resident Michael Ashmore noticed an unusual shape in satellite imagery in 2020. The feature was lying in shallow water alongside the Taraia Peninsula, east of the Tatiman Passage that connects Nikumaroro’s lagoon with the Pacific.

Researchers subsequently began collecting older satellite images, aerial photographs, drone footage and video of the same location. According to the Archaeological Legacy Institute, the anomaly can be followed across multiple satellite images obtained between 2009 and 2026, although its visibility changes considerably from one image to another.

One of the most intriguing details emerged when researchers examined imagery from immediately after Tropical Cyclone Pam passed through the wider region in March 2015. The object became particularly visible in satellite photographs taken shortly afterwards, leading the team to suggest that storm-driven water may have stripped sediment from something that had previously been buried on the lagoon floor.

Images from 2015 and 2016 show the feature more clearly, while later photographs suggest it became increasingly covered again. Researchers say a new commercial satellite image obtained in April 2026 still shows a darker area at the same position, although its outline is now less distinct.

Older material has also been examined. The expedition team says aerial photographs taken by the New Zealand military in 1938 appear to show something at roughly the same location. Drone footage recorded during a 2017 visit also captured the anomaly from several directions without researchers realising its potential significance at the time.

A separate piece of video recorded during a TIGHAR helicopter flight in 2001 shows a bright reflection from beneath the water in the same general area. Supporters of the new expedition believe that reflection could have come from exposed metal, although it cannot identify what produced it.

Researchers behind the project argue that the visible dimensions of the Taraia Object are compatible with part of a Lockheed Electra fuselage and tail section. They have also proposed a possible route by which wreckage could have moved from the reef into the lagoon through Tatiman Passage after an aircraft landed on Nikumaroro.

It remains a hypothesis, and there is a significant counterargument.

TIGHAR itself examined the Taraia Object after Ashmore brought the satellite image to its attention in 2020 and reached a very different conclusion. Its researchers suggested the feature looked more like a fallen coconut palm or log deposited in the lagoon after severe storm damage. TIGHAR also noted that members had searched the Taraia shoreline using metal detectors during an expedition in 2001.

That disagreement is exactly why the October expedition could be important. Researchers will no longer be arguing solely over what a shape resembles in a satellite photograph. They intend to go to the location and uncover it.

Current plans call for the expedition team to travel from Tarawa aboard the LC Marin Mainiku. Once at Nikumaroro, smaller boats will have to be moved across the reef and through Tatiman Passage before researchers can begin work inside the lagoon. Access trails across the heavily vegetated island will also have to be reopened.

Remote sensing, sonar and other survey equipment can be used to refine the target before investigators begin gently removing sediment. A hydraulic dredge will then expose enough of the object for the team to examine its material and construction directly.

Aircraft aluminium alone would not automatically identify Earhart’s Electra. Investigators would need to look for characteristics consistent with a Lockheed Model 10E, including the shape of any surviving components, construction techniques and rivet patterns. Any identifiable serial numbers or manufacturer markings would be considerably stronger evidence if preserved.

Finding wood, coral, rock or the remains of a tree would bring this particular theory to a rapid end. Finding aircraft wreckage would begin a much larger investigation rather than finish one, because researchers would then need to establish its type, age and identity.

If the object can be identified as part of Earhart’s Electra, organisers plan to return in 2027 for a full archaeological excavation. That phase would expose and document the wreckage properly before any decision was made about whether recovery was possible. Purdue has a particularly strong connection to the aircraft because Purdue Research Foundation helped finance Earhart’s Electra, which she referred to as her flying laboratory.

Previous searches around Nikumaroro have shown how difficult the mystery is to resolve. In 2019, Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard led an extensive National Geographic-backed underwater search around the island. His team visually examined the steep underwater slopes surrounding Nikumaroro down to around 750 metres without finding the aircraft.

That search concentrated heavily on the possibility that wreckage had been swept from the reef into deep water. The Taraia theory proposes almost the opposite direction, suggesting material could instead have travelled through the reef passage and become trapped within the shallow lagoon.

For almost nine decades, Amelia Earhart’s disappearance has produced theories ranging from plausible navigation scenarios to elaborate conspiracies. Thousands of kilometres of ocean have been searched, dozens of supposed clues have been investigated and several apparent discoveries have eventually led nowhere.

October’s expedition has a much narrower objective. A specific object exists at a specific location beneath the lagoon, and researchers intend to uncover it and determine what it is.

If it is a tree, another Amelia Earhart theory can be crossed off the list. If aluminium, aircraft structure and matching construction details begin emerging from beneath the sediment, one of aviation’s longest-running mysteries could enter a completely different phase.

For the first time since the Taraia Object was recognised in satellite imagery, researchers are preparing to stop looking at it from above and physically expose what has been hidden beneath the lagoon.

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Behold: Video of “First-Ever” Human Versus Robot MMA Fight

The Milky Way Galaxy. Source: www.futura-sciences.com

The terrifying world beyond the Solar System

People are apprehensive about phenomena that are vast and mysterious, and in this regard, nothing compares with the expanse of space. Regardless of how extensively scientists explain the events occurring around us, people will continue to fear the unknown.

Although concerns regarding the Solar System are relatively minor — after all, anyone can observe the movement of the planets, and scientists speak with considerable confidence about the possibility of predicting the motion of celestial bodies — beyond its boundaries lies something mysterious known as the Galaxy. In the imagination of many people, it resembles the edges of old geographical maps, where, alongside the outlines of distant shores, one might find inscriptions reading “dragons live here.”

Our scientific understanding of the Galaxy remains in its infancy. Although the band of the Milky Way had been visible in the night sky since before the advent of writing, and Aristarchus of Samos proposed as early as the third century B.C. that the stars were distant suns, the question of the structure of what lay beyond the orbit of Saturn — the outermost planet, as it was then believed — was regarded as absurd for two thousand years. Only the sphere of the fixed stars was thought to exist.

The Milky Way in the sky. Source: Wikipedia

It was only after Galileo Galilei used a telescope to distinguish individual stars in the Milky Way that the idea that the Galaxy (a word that for a long time was a complete synonym for the Milky Way) — is, in fact, something of which the Solar System is a small part — began to take root in the minds of both astronomers and the general public.

The size of the Galaxy

The primary reason it took so long to recognize clearly that a vast universe exists beyond the Solar System was that, for an extended period, astronomers lacked a frame of reference for determining the distance between Earth and the stars.

As early as the third century B.C., Aristarchus of Samos recognized that if Earth follows a cyclical orbit around the Sun, this motion must be accompanied by apparent shifts in the positions of the stars, as occurs with any distant objects. This phenomenon is known as annual parallax. Based on its magnitude, it could be used not only to demonstrate the validity of the heliocentric model of our solar system but also to determine the distances to the stars.

Annual parallax. Source: itu.physics.uiowa.edu

However, no parallax was detected. Astronomers understood that this was attributable to the immense distances of the stars relative to the radius of Earth’s orbit. Nevertheless, this finding cast serious doubt on all of their calculations, including the estimate of the Galaxy’s size made by William and Caroline Herschel in 1785.

Incidentally, prominent astronomers of the time underestimated its size by a factor of 13 to 15. Although they correctly determined that its shape resembled a lens or disk, they estimated its dimensions at only 6,000 to 7,000 light-years, whereas it is, in fact, closer to 100,000 light-years across. This discrepancy resulted from their limited understanding of the matter present in interstellar space, which strongly absorbs light from the most distant stars.

However, during the 1830s, the application of photography ultimately enabled the measurement of annual parallax. Humanity thereby recognized that, although light requires only eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth, it would take years or even decades to reach the nearest stars.

William Herschel’s map of the galaxy. Source: Wikipedia

People often perceive this as yet another alarming fact; however, it also means that nothing lies between them and us — certainly nothing dangerous. Even if something terrifying is moving from them toward us, it cannot reach us faster than the speed of light. Consequently, in one way or another, we have years, if not decades, to prepare for our encounter with it.

People may also be intimidated by the sheer number of stars visible to us; however, this abundance means that the stars have virtually nowhere to conceal themselves from observation. Despite the presence of interstellar gas and dust, space remains transparent, as there is no horizon. Consequently, we can observe every star, at least in the vicinity of the Sun, and determine the direction in which each is moving.

One might raise the following objection: if annual parallax exists, how can we be certain that the observed movements of the stars are not entirely attributable to it? The amount of displacement produced by the Earth’s motion around the Sun, however, is known. Accordingly, any movement exceeding that amount must result from the stars’ own motion.

The Milky Way Galaxy

That is precisely why scientists possess knowledge not only of the positions of an extraordinary number of stars, but also of their physical characteristics and velocity vectors. Collectively, these stars constitute the Galaxy, resembling a vortex of matter revolving around its center.

Visualization of data from the Tycho-2 Catalogue. Source: Wikipedia

The number of stars in the Milky Way known to humanity is staggering. Even catalogues published in the late nineteenth century listed several tens of thousands of stars. The Tycho-2 Catalogue, published in the early twenty-first century, already contained 2.5 million stars. However, the third data release from the Gaia space telescope contains information on 1.8 billion stars. Although this represents less than 1% of all the stars in the Milky Way, it enables us to understand how at least the region of the galaxy containing the Solar System rotates.

The Galaxy consists not only of stars but also of nebulae. Further information about these vast clouds of interstellar gas is available in this article; in brief, several hundred such nebulae have already been identified. All of these celestial bodies orbit a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

It is an extraordinary object with a mass equivalent to 4.3 million solar masses. However, it is located 27,000 light-years away from Earth — so distant that even the photons originating there began their journey when humanity was struggling to survive during the Ice Age.

The Gaia Space Telescope. Source: Wikipedia

Hidden monsters

Our understanding of the Milky Way is far removed from the notion that “we know nothing about it.” In fact, scientists possess such an extensive body of information that it surpasses the wildest imaginings of the cartographers who once created maps of unexplored lands inhabited by extraordinary monsters. No individual can fully comprehend the entirety of this data.

But this raises a question: since this represents less than 1% of the Galaxy, have scientists overlooked something important right here in our neighborhood? Perhaps these monsters are lurking right outside the Solar System’s doorstep? And the answer to that question is no. The fact is that most of the stars in the Gaia Catalogue are, in fact, the ones closest to us.

The Gaia Catalogue contains 331,312 stars located no farther from the Sun than 100 parsecs, or 330 light-years. Consequently, nearly all of these stars are observable, making it extremely difficult for any nearby object to remain undetected. Moreover, these objects move through space at speeds significantly lower than the speed of light.

Stars around the Sun

This indicates that we are not at risk of an event such as a collision between the Sun and another star or a close stellar passage. Scientists can determine this with precision because the motion vectors of nearby stars are known, and none of them would produce such consequences — particularly on timescales extending beyond humanity’s recorded history.

However, certain objects in space are considerably more formidable than ordinary stars, including pulsars and stellar-mass black holes. The nearest neutron stars — which emit intense and highly frequent bursts of radiation — are located approximately 200–700 light-years from Earth. Consequently, they pose no immediate threat to us. Moreover, they travel through space at speeds comparable to those of ordinary stars, and none is expected to approach Earth within the next several million years.

Even more distant is the nearest known black hole, which is located within a binary system. This is well established because, through accretion, such objects emit substantial amounts of radiation; consequently, we would certainly have detected anything similar if it were located closer.

Pulsar. Source: www.space.com

It is worth noting, however, that individual neutron stars — and particularly black holes — are virtually undetectable because they emit little or no radiation. Nevertheless, scientists are confident that no such objects exist within a radius of 20–30 light-years of Earth.

Because they interact with both interstellar matter and the radiation emitted by objects situated behind them, scientists should, in principle, be able to observe gravitational lensing and at least some thermal radiation, in addition to radio signals. All of these phenomena should also exhibit a significant annual parallax, indicating that the source is located very nearby.

This is particularly evident because astronomers have already discovered objects near the Sun that were previously undetectable. These objects are brown dwarfs — slightly larger than Jupiter but possessing masses several dozen times greater.

Black hole. Source: www.wired.com

By galactic standards, they emit extremely little radiation, yet scientists were eventually able to detect them thanks to the WISE infrared sky survey. Interestingly, they were discovered at distances of both 10 and 20 light-years from Earth, but Proxima Centauri has not been dethroned as the star closest to us. This means there simply aren’t any closer ones.

That is precisely why scientists can state with confidence that, at least, the portion of the Galaxy nearest to us will remain safe for the next several thousand years. Accordingly, space is not as intimidating as it may initially appear.

• Posted in Articles, Questions

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Warp Drives, Wormholes and UFOs: What’s Inside the Pentagon’s Latest UAP Files

It isn’t exactly the “X-Files,” but on Friday the Pentagon released a sixth batch of documents on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), more commonly known as UFOs. The latest data dump included dozens of documents detailing a military program that commissioned studies of science-fiction technologies, including warp drives and wormholes. The recent files also include details on injuries that researchers had linked to possible encounters with unknown craft.

“Today, the Department of War is publishing the sixth release of declassified and historical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The collection continues to be housed on WAR.GOV/UFO, and the Department will release additional files on a rolling basis,” said Secretary of War for Public Affairs and Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell.

The files, which included 67 items from the Pentagon and four from local law enforcement in Colorado, consisted of 55 PDF documents, 15 video clips and an audio file. Sixty-four of the files, which were written between 1952 and 2025, contain redactions.

Sixth Tranche of Records

The documents were released more than six months after President Donald Trump ordered their release. The first tranche of records was released on May 8, 2026, and the sixth and newest batch was released last Friday, September 18, 2026. It is unclear how many unreleased documents remain.

The new records are part of the ongoing disclosure effort under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) and are hosted on the government’s UAP portal.

“This is an unprecedented, historic undertaking that requires coordination between dozens of agencies and the review of tens of millions of records, many existing only on paper, spanning many decades. Given the scope of this task, the Department of War will be releasing new materials on a rolling basis as they are discovered and declassified, with tranches posted every few weeks,” the Pentagon had explained.

The oldest of the files was a Project Blue Book investigation and assessment of an incident near Tremonton, Utah, on July 2, 1952.

“The file describes the Air Force’s assessment of the principal witness, Delbert C. Newhouse, a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer specializing in photography, as honest and reliable, and as an expert with more than 1,000 hours of aerial-photography experience. Newhouse reported observing 12 to 14 reflective objects and recorded the event on color motion-picture film using a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera,” the document explained.

A video clip of the incident is also among the newly released files.

Among the newest files is a 2025 report from United States Central Command (CENTCOM) that detailed the sighting of “six small spherical objects, grouped,” which were seen “frequently changing direction” at 480 mph. Another video from 2023 appears to show circular objects flying over the Yellow Sea, spotted by an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military vessel.

Secret Weapons Programs

The documents don’t provide any definitive evidence that extraterrestrial life or alien spacecraft exist, but do contain reports, videos, and sensor data of objects moving in unusual ways or at high speeds that analysts could not immediately identify. The documents do attribute some sightings to mundane explanations, such as weather balloons, drones, debris, camera optical artifacts, or sensor limitations.

One document in particular addresses the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, which the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) established in 2008 to study aerospace threats.

“One aspect of the future threat environment involves advanced aerospace weapon system applications. The objective of this program is to understand the physics and engineering of these applications as they apply to the foreign threat out to the far term, i.e., from now through the year 2050. Primary focus is on breakthrough technologies and applications that create discontinuities in currently evolving technology trends,” the document explained.

The document also included 37 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) that discussed a range of advanced technologies, including warp drives, traversable wormholes, antigravity, negative-mass propulsion, invisibility cloaking, and spintronics.

However, as CBS News reported, all 37 documents had been publicly available for years through the DIA’s Freedom of Information Act releases.

“Friday’s versions include some details the agency had previously withheld, like the names of the agency offices that produced the documents,” CBS News reported.

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Disclosure Day: Why We Never Get Tired of First Contact

Steven Spielberg has spent more than half a century asking us to look to the skies. With Disclosure Day, he’s done it again. So why, after decades of UFOs, alien visitors and ominous objects hovering over major cities, are we still obsessed with first contact?

By Rachael Harper

Image Credit: © 2026 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

There are some things science fiction simply refuses to give up. Time travel. Artificial intelligence becoming worryingly self-aware. Well-dressed government guys being suspiciously secretive. And aliens. Especially aliens arriving on Earth.

By this point, you’d think we might have seen every possible variation. Extraterrestrials have come in peace, come to invade, come to make friends, come to fall in love with us, come to destroy civilisation and, occasionally, come to hide in somebody’s shed.

Yet put one unexplained light in the sky and we’re interested all over again. Steven Spielberg certainly is.

With Disclosure Day, the filmmaker returns to extraterrestrial territory with a story involving UFOs, government secrecy and the rather significant possibility that humanity is not alone. Of course, this is familiar ground for Spielberg, but then he has been thinking about what might be up there since he was a child.

“I remember one summer, my dad took me out to look at the annual Perseid meteor shower when we were living in New Jersey,” Spielberg says. “Overnight, I developed a real curiosity about what is happening up there in the stars, on some planet orbiting in any number of countless solar systems, and if one of them might have a civilisation that was advanced enough to travel the universe.”

That curiosity clearly stuck. At 17, he directed Firelight, a feature-length Super 8 film about scientists investigating UFO sightings. “My first UFO movie,” Spielberg nods.

Not, as it turned out, his last.

Spielberg keeps looking up

Spielberg has returned to alien life repeatedly throughout his career, but crucially, he hasn’t always found the same thing waiting for him.

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind treated contact with something beyond our world with awe. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial brought the alien into the family home. War Of The Worlds took one look at all that optimism and decided perhaps we shouldn’t rush to put out the welcome mat.

What links them isn’t really aliens. It’s curiosity.

First-contact stories allow filmmakers to ask one of the biggest questions imaginable: what if we’re not alone? And then use the answer to talk about absolutely anything they like. Fear. Faith. Politics. Communication. Vegas. Paranoia. Family. Humanity’s place in the universe. And, in the case of Disclosure Day, truth.

Spielberg himself draws an important distinction between this film and Close Encounters. “During Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I would say to myself: ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of this turned out to be true?’” Spielberg says. “Almost 50 years later, I’m now thinking: ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful for us to actually know that all of this is true?’”

That small shift, from wondering to knowing, is basically the entire reason the first-contact movie still has life in it. There is always another question. And we always want to find out the answers.

Spielberg certainly isn’t alone in his fascination. Our appetite for first contact has long since escaped the cinema screen and developed a slightly unruly life of its own. Entire documentaries, podcasts and television series are devoted to UFO sightings, alleged encounters and the eternal question of what governments might know but aren’t telling us.

Indeed, Area 51 has become such a powerful piece of pop-culture mythology that, in 2019, a joke Facebook event encouraging people to “Storm Area 51” spiralled into a genuine global phenomenon, with millions expressing interest in going to Nevada to, as the meme put it, “see them aliens”. Whether you believe any of it or think the little green men are having a good laugh at our expense, the fascination is revealing. We don’t merely enjoy stories about discovering extraterrestrial life. A surprisingly large number of us really, really want those stories to be true.

First contact… except somebody got there before us

On the surface, Disclosure Day arrives with plenty of the furniture you’d expect from the ‘first contact’ genre. There are mysterious events. Secretive military organisations. Hidden knowledge. Advanced technology. People who know far more than they’re willing to say. So far, so gloriously UFO movie.

But Disclosure Day flips one of first contact’s most familiar ideas. Normally, the alien arrival is the event. You know what we mean; the ship appears, the signal comes through, somebody drops a coffee mug in a control room in slow motion. Humanity suddenly discovers something is out there.

Here, however, the more troubling possibility is that contact is old news. Someone already knows. And they haven’t told us. How rude.

That turns the classic first-contact movie into a conspiracy thriller. Emily Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild and Josh O’Connor’s Daniel Kellner find themselves connected to decades of secrecy, while Colin Firth’s Noah Scanlon heads WARDEX, an organisation built around the belief that some truths may simply be too dangerous to share.

It is still a story about aliens. But it’s also a story about information. Who controls it? Who decides when the public is ready? And what happens when something capable of rewriting humanity’s understanding of itself can no longer be kept secret?

Suddenly the question isn’t “Are they here?” It’s “Who knew they were here?” Which, frankly, feels like a much more stressful conversation.

The age of disclosure

That idea has a particularly contemporary origin. Spielberg’s interest in UFOs was reignited by the renewed public discussion around UAPs and reports of government investigations into unexplained phenomena.

“That article blew up my interest again in the whole UFO/UAP phenomenon,” Spielberg says of the 2017 New York Times report on a previously undisclosed Pentagon programme.

“I wasn’t alone. When that story came out, it grabbed the attention of people who never believed in UFOs to begin with, and so many more of us who have always believed that something’s been going on that we just simply haven’t been told. I think people’s questions about what’s going on—in our skies; in our world; with reality itself—has reached a critical mass of complete fascination. Are we alone or not? And if the government knows, why haven’t we been told? And that is what got me wondering if maybe it was time for another story in my canon of extraterrestrial stories that I have been involved in throughout my whole career.”

And there, really, is the hook. First contact has always been about the unknown. Disclosure Day is about what happens when the unknown becomes information.

That feels particularly potent in an era when humanity has never had greater access to information while simultaneously seeming less capable of agreeing on any of it.

If incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial life appeared tomorrow, would everybody accept it? Of course not. Within minutes somebody would call it fake, somebody else would have a 47-part online thread explaining why they predicted it in 2009, there would probably be a TikTok dance, and someone would almost certainly be selling commemorative T-shirts.

The truth is out there. Now what?

That makes Disclosure Day both comfortably familiar and slightly unusual as a first-contact movie. It gives us UFO lore, secret programmes and the tantalising possibility of recovered extraterrestrial technology (all dependable ingredients in the ‘first contact’ genre cupboard) while shifting the real conflict towards our ability to process the truth.

Spielberg puts it most clearly himself: “Disclosure Day is a movie about misinformation and the challenge of finding truth in a culture when powerful people have tools to blur the lines of fact and fiction, of what is real and unreal, in service of protecting and advancing their agendas,” he says. “It’s a movie that also asks questions about what we do with truth that expands our understanding of the universe in a way that challenges the beliefs that give us meaning, including religion. The X-Files taught us that the truth is out there, but what happens when we find it? Can we accept it? Do we reject it? Will it bring us together or divide us further?

“Ultimately, though, I think Disclosure Day is a story about empathy as an extraordinary resource, and how it needs to be shared globally, with the entire world, not hoarded for self-interest or reserved for those closest to us.”

And that is why filmmakers keep making first-contact movies. The aliens can change. The spaceships can change. The threat can change. But the really interesting thing is always us.

How would we react? What would we believe? Would we unite, panic or immediately start arguing?

Spielberg has been asking versions of those questions since Firelight. Nearly 50 years after Close Encounters, he is still fascinated by the possibility that something might be waiting beyond our world.

Only now, the question has evolved. For years, first-contact movies have asked what happens when aliens finally arrive. Disclosure Day asks something potentially much more awkward: What happens when we discover they arrived a long time ago, and somebody forgot to mention it?

• Disclosure Day is out on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now. 

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By CHRIS MELORE, US DEPUTY SCIENCE EDITOR

The CIA has been accused of gaining secret access to the DNA information of millions of people as the intelligence agency allegedly searches for alien life on Earth.

Jason Reza Jorjani, a philosophy PhD and science fiction writer, recently claimed that he spoke with a retired US Army sergeant who served as a 'psychic spy' and knew of the government's secret program to hunt down individuals with extraterrestrial DNA.

Jorjani said on the American Alchemy podcast that the CIA, the nation's premier foreign intelligence agency, has a backdoor program that allows it to search through genetic testing companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com.

According to the author, the purpose is to look for individuals who have DNA ancestry tied to a race of aliens known as the Nordics, who allegedly look like extremely tall humans from Scandinavia, with blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin.

Despite the Trump Administration releasing multiple batches of previously classified reports on UFOs and the search for alien life, the Pentagon has maintained for years that there has been no proof aliens exist.

Jorjani claimed the source of his information was Army veteran Lyn Buchanan, who has publicly stated that he was trained as a remote viewer - the CIA's secret program to have 'psychic spies' perceive information about distant objects, events or people.

Buchanan has also claimed in podcast interviews that the government was actively looking for people whose DNA did not fit into the standard patterns of human ancestry and has been listed as 'other' or 'unknown unidentifiable.'

Jorjani claimed that Buchanan told him about an extraordinary incident where he was contacted by a group of Nordics who said they were aware of the CIA's efforts to track down alien-human hybrids and had requested his help.

An alleged alien race known as the Nordics is said to have human-like features (stock image)

A former Army remote viewer has allegedly claimed that the CIA has access to popular DNA testing sites 23andMe and Ancestry, and has been hunting for alien DNA online

Jorjani said: 'They live in like small towns in the [Colorado] Rockies and they pass because they look like tall Scandinavian people.'

Although Jorjani did not reveal the date and location of the incident, he claimed that Buchanan was approached by three Nordics in a diner who explained that members of this alien race had traveled to Earth in order to escape their own world's 'tyrannical' government.

The author added that the Nordics had allegedly intermarried with humans and given birth to hybrid offspring for generations. Their only goal on Earth now was to live in a free society and protect their children and grandchildren. 

'So he said, "Look, we know that Kit Green at the CIA has some program to access the 23andMe and like whatever, Ancestry.com, databases through some backdoor and that they are screening whoever signs up for these services for a specific genetic variance from the normal Homo sapiens population which the CIA knows to be the genetic marker of these Nordics,"' Jorjani claimed during the November episode.

Christopher 'Kit' Green was a CIA scientist for 20 years and publicly admitted to working on the remote viewing program before officially leaving the agency in 1985.

The author did not clarify how Green was involved in the CIA's alleged access to these DNA databases since he reportedly left the intelligence community decades before both companies were founded.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Green, 23andMe and Ancestry for comment regarding the claims of DNA surveillance.

In a separate interview in 2023, Buchanan seemed to confirm part of what Jorjani said, adding that he would never participate in a DNA test from 23andMe because of the information he possessed.

Jason Reza Jorjani (above) is a philosophy PhD and science fiction writer who claimed he spoke with Lyn Buchanan, a former Army remote viewer

A category of DNA is allegedly listed at 'other,' meaning its origins are unknown (stock image)

Buchanan told the Through A Glass Darkly podcast: 'There is a wedge on the pie chart, you know Germanic, African and all this. There's a wedge called "other," which means unknown unidentifiable and there are, from what I found out, there are government people who are looking into that wedge.'

Ancestry.com has claimed that they have 'the world’s largest consumer DNA network' with more than 30 million people in their database.

Meanwhile, 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March last year due to financial difficulties, a major data breach in 2023 and declining demand. 

The company was acquired by TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit public benefit corporation, last July. More than 15 million people have reportedly used the DNA service.

According to Jorjani, the alleged part-human descendants of the Nordics do not even know they have alien DNA.

'They said, "Look, our children, especially our grandchildren, have no idea where they're from. We tell them stories about how like their grandparents are from Sweden or whatever, and they don't know,"' Jorjani said regarding Buchanan's encounter. 

'You know, we just want them to have lives of peace and liberty here in America. But the CIA wants to hunt them down.'

The claims that the US government is allegedly aware of alien-human hybrids living on Earth have been stunningly supported by UFO whistleblowers and even members of Congress.

Missouri congressman Eric Burlison has stated that President Trump was told about the alleged existence of at least four alien species humans secretly know about.

Moreover, Burlison and retired US Air Force Major David Grusch have confirmed that Trump was 'fully briefed' on the Nordics creating alien-human hybrids.

During an X space interview on June 27 last year, Burlison added that Grusch was the intelligence officer who briefed the president on 'crossbreeds living in the world' but noted that Grusch did not have an answer when asked how humans would be able to tell if someone was an alien hybrid.

Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz also recently claimed that the US has secretly been running 'forced breeding programs' to create alien-human hybrids.

The controversial conservative firebrand added that a member of the US military described this program to him in detail, saying there were six to 12 secret facilities around the country engaged in abducting humans to mate with extraterrestrials.

Is the CIA is secretly monitoring consumer DNA results? | Do It Live!

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Former U.S. Army ‘Psychic Spy’ Claims CIA Uses 23andMe and Ancestry to Hunt for ‘Alien DNA’

At Mount Hayes, Buchanan claimed earlier viewers had perceived humans and non-human beings working together at what appeared to be an intelligence-gathering installation inside the mountain. When Buchanan later viewed the site, he said the equipment appeared to have become automated, with little need for personnel to remain there.

His description of Mount Ziel was different. Buchanan said he interpreted the Australian location as something resembling a “port of entry,” where supposedly friendly extraterrestrial groups could arrive before traveling elsewhere. He claimed that while viewing the location, he sensed that whatever intelligence occupied it was aware of his presence but allowed him to continue examining the facility.

The Strange Story Behind The DNA Chart Marked “Other”

Buchanan recounts an encounter he says happened in El Paso, Texas. According to him, he had stopped at a restaurant and was returning to his vehicle when two men approached him. He emphasized that they looked human. The men apparently already knew who he was and asked whether he could discover who inside the U.S. government was interested in what they described as the wedge of a DNA chart marked “other.”

Buchanan said he initially had no idea what they meant. He said that he contacted investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe, whom he knew personally, because he thought she might have information about people in government examining unusual DNA.

Buchanan says the two men subsequently gave him was far stranger. They allegedly claimed that extraterrestrials had removed humans from Earth centuries ago and used them as slaves on another planet. After hundreds of generations away from Earth, they said, the descendants’ DNA had changed as they adapted to that other environment.

According to Buchanan’s retelling, some of these humans were eventually brought back to Earth to perform work connected with alleged extraterrestrial bases. A number of them supposedly escaped. The two men claimed they were among those escapees and had no interest in political power, intelligence work or influencing governments; Buchanan said they simply described themselves as people who wanted to remain free and were afraid that genetic testing could identify them.

Read also:

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When Michels asked whether the men were physiologically indistinguishable from ordinary humans, Buchanan replied that the two individuals he met appeared human. He also stopped short of presenting the story as something he could prove, telling Michels that he did not know whether what they told him was true.

How 23andMe And Ancestry Entered The Story

Philosopher and author Jason Reza Jorjani told Michels during a recent American Alchemy appearance that Buchanan described human-looking beings often associated with the “Nordic” category in UFO literature. Jorjani claimed these beings had fled an oppressive society, found refuge on Earth, and established families whose later generations might have little or no knowledge of their unusual ancestry.

orjani went further, claiming Buchanan had told him that former CIA scientist Christopher “Kit” Green was connected to a capability for accessing genetic information held by consumer services such as 23andMe and Ancestry. Jorjani alleged that the purpose was to search for a genetic variation that differed from the normal Homo sapiens population and could reveal descendants of these beings.

No document proving such a CIA program has been produced publicly, and no genetic marker recognized by mainstream genetics has been demonstrated to identify extraterrestrial-human ancestry. The claim therefore remains an allegation traveling through a chain of testimony: Jorjani says Buchanan told him the information, while the publicly available evidence does not establish the existence of the alleged database access.

There is also an interesting difference between the two accounts. In Buchanan’s direct 2026 interview with Michels, the men associated with the “other” DNA story are described simply as human-looking escapees whose ancestors had supposedly been taken from Earth. Buchanan does not identify them in that section as Nordics living in Colorado. Jorjani’s version contains those additional details, making it important not to treat every element as though Buchanan made all of the claims publicly in the same interview.

What 23andMe And Ancestry Say About Government Access

23andMe says it scrutinizes government requests and requires legally valid process before considering disclosure. Its customer information currently states that it has not released customer information to law enforcement. The company also says it does not voluntarily provide personal information to law enforcement without valid legal authority such as a court order, subpoena or search warrant.

Ancestry publishes its own government-request transparency reports. Its report covering 2025 says it received zero valid requests for access to customers’ DNA data during that year. More significantly for claims involving intelligence agencies, Ancestry states that as of December 31, 2025, it had never received a classified request under U.S. national-security laws, including a National Security Letter or a request under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The company says DNA disclosure requires, at minimum, a court order or search warrant and that it may challenge legal demands involving genetic data.

Those statements cannot logically disprove an allegation specifically built around an unknown covert “backdoor,” because the allegation itself assumes access outside normal legal channels. They do, however, show that there is currently no public evidence supporting the claim and that the companies’ documented policies describe a very different access process.

Buchanan Claims He Recognized A UFO Control Panel Inside A Military Hangar

Michels also asked whether he believed the U.S. government possessed recovered UFO technology. Buchanan answered yes and described an incident he says occurred while visiting a military hangar used to investigate aircraft accidents. According to him, the facility contained piles of wreckage that investigators were attempting to reconstruct following midair collisions.

As Buchanan walked through the building, he says he suddenly recognized an unusual control panel among the debris and announced that it had come from a UFO. The statement apparently echoed through the metal building, after which, according to Buchanan, the officer in charge quickly had him removed.

Buchanan said he recognized the panel because he had encountered the same kind of technology during what he believes was a physical alien abduction.

He Says A Small Grey Being Showed Him How To Operate A Craft

Buchanan told Michels that the alleged abduction happened while he was serving as a Methodist minister in East Texas. He recalled hearing something arrive outside his home before finding himself in an unfamiliar white room.

Among the beings he described were very tall humanoid figures and a much smaller grey being. Buchanan said the small being eventually took him toward the front of a craft, where it appeared to function as the pilot.

The control system he remembered was unlike a conventional aircraft cockpit. Buchanan described a surface containing a hand-shaped area in which individual finger positions corresponded to different functions. He claimed the craft responded to the user and that he was allowed to try operating it.

Years later, he said, seeing what appeared to be the same style of control panel among wreckage in a military facility immediately triggered his recognition.

A “Mantis” Being Working Alongside Humans

Michels also asked Buchanan whether he had ever physically seen humans and non-human beings working together rather than merely encountering them during remote viewing.

Buchanan answered that he had seen what he described as an “insectoid.” He compared the being to the mantis-like entities sometimes reported in UFO and paranormal literature and said it was seated alongside humans who were operating equipment.

He refused to identify the location or surrounding circumstances, saying those details were connected with information he would not disclose.

Mars, Rendlesham And UFO Crash Retrievals

The interview continued through several other well-known mysteries in the remote-viewing and UFO world. Buchanan said he had experienced what remote viewers call “bilocation” or “perfect site integration,” in which the viewer becomes so absorbed in a target that the environment seems physically present.

He recalled one session in which he believed he found himself in the Cydonia region of Mars, feeling sand beneath his feet, experiencing the cold and seeing an orange-red landscape. He later claimed that imagery shown to him matched portions of what he had perceived during the session.

Buchanan also discussed the famous 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident in England. He claimed to have remotely examined a triangular craft associated with the case and drawn what he interpreted as its internal layout, including a reddish interior, a control area and a compartment that appeared to hold samples.

Asked directly whether he believed the United States has operated a UFO crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering program, Buchanan said he did. He nevertheless drew an interesting distinction, telling Michels that he did not believe the military remote-viewing unit was formally part of such a program because, according to him, his unit was not normally tasked with UFO crash retrieval.

The Government Really Did Study Remote Viewing, But That Does Not Verify Buchanan’s UFO Claims

The U.S. intelligence community genuinely spent years investigating remote viewing. Declassified CIA records document experiments, operational sessions and efforts to determine whether anomalous perception could have intelligence value. The CIA says the research eventually passed to the DIA and became associated with the program widely remembered as STARGATE.

However, the government’s acknowledgment that remote-viewing research existed should not be confused with confirmation of every extraordinary story told by people who participated in that world.

A CIA-commissioned review by the American Institutes for Research in 1995 concluded that although some experimental results appeared difficult to dismiss as simple randomness, remote viewing had proven too inconsistent and ambiguous to produce dependable actionable intelligence. The reviewers concluded that continued operational use was not warranted.

That leaves Buchanan’s latest interview in an unusual place. Parts of his biography are tied to a genuine and once-classified chapter of American intelligence history, while his claims about alien installations, non-human beings, UFO technology and altered extraterrestrial-linked DNA remain unsupported by publicly verifiable physical evidence.

The connection to 23andMe and Ancestry is even more indirect. Buchanan’s own interview gives a detailed account of two apparently human men asking about a mysterious “other” category in DNA analysis, while Jorjani is the source publicly connecting Buchanan’s story to an alleged CIA backdoor into major commercial genetic databases.

Whether those stories eventually lead to documentation or remain part of the strange mythology surrounding America’s psychic-intelligence programs is an open question. What can be established is that the U.S. government really did spend decades studying remote viewing, Buchanan really was part of that world, and more than thirty years after those programs emerged from secrecy, some of their former participants are still telling stories considerably stranger than anything contained in the declassified files.

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Mini alien species does exist on Mars, heres the proof, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Sept 23, 2026

Location of discovery: Mars

Source photo: 

• https://areo.info/mer/opportunity/5076/tn/1P578810104ESFD2E2P2370L5M1_L2L5L5L7L7.jpg.html

I just wanted to share this strange discovery. A doorway thats just 6 inches high and 7 inches wide. It has a rim around it like a doorway would to make it stronger. No door is seen, but a dark cave entrance is very visible. This entrance is attached to a round oval object that looks like a carved out rock to make a home for something intelligent. A mini species with the ability to carve out a structure much like ancient native Indians use to do in the cliffs and rocky mountain areas tens of thousands of years ago. Extraordinary that something this small could exist, survive and create these dwellings. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

 

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The curse of King Tutankhamun’s tomb: As archaeologists plan to drill inside to look for Queen Nefertiti - the unsettling stories of people allegedly doomed after its opening

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 captivated the world – but it also gave rise to one of archaeology's most enduring legends.

A string of illnesses, accidents and untimely deaths among people linked to the excavation fuelled claims that the young pharaoh's resting place was protected by a deadly curse.

Now, as archaeologists consider drilling into suspected hidden chambers that could contain the long-lost tomb of Nefertiti, the eerie stories surrounding the so-called 'curse of the pharaoh' have resurfaced.

The first person fell 'victim' to the curse just five months after the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb.

Lord Carnarvon, chief financial backer for the project, died on April 5, 1923, from blood poisoning and pneumonia after a mosquito bite on his face became infected.

However, some have claimed inhaling spores from the pharaoh's crypt contributed to his death.

The rumours were fuelled by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes series, who, in a piece published in the Glasgow Herald, said: 'An evil elemental may have caused Lord Carnarvon's fatal illness.

'One does not know what elementals existed in those days, nor what their form might be. The Egyptians knew a great deal more about those things than we do.'

A string of illnesses, accidents and untimely deaths among people linked to the excavation fuelled claims that the young pharaoh's resting place was protected by a deadly curse. Pictured: Howard Carter examining Tutankhamun's sarcophagus

New scans have revealed tantalising evidence of a previously unknown network of corridors and chambers (pictured in purple and yellow) just metres from the young pharaoh's burial chamber (in grey). KV 9 refers to the nearby tomb of the pharaohs Ramesses V and Ramesses VI

Another 'cursed' individual who visited King Tut's tomb was George Jay Gould, a wealthy American financier.

He visited the crypt in 1923 as Lord Carnarvon's guest but fell sick almost immediately afterwards. He never recovered and died of pneumonia a few months later.

Arthur Mace, meanwhile, was an archaeologist who helped clear and catalogue the tomb's treasures.

He suffered declining health after working in the tomb and died aged 53 from complications linked to pneumonia.

One of the most mysterious deaths was that of Hugh Evelyn-White, the archaeologist who entered the burial chamber and who took his own life in 1924.

According to reports, he left a note saying: 'I have succumbed to a curse.'

Bizarrely, some of the curse 'victims' never even stepped foot in the tomb.

Lord Carnarvon's half-brother Aubrey Herbert also died in 1923 – shortly after the tomb was opened – after developing blood poisoning following dental surgery.

This added to speculation surrounding the family, with some suggesting he suffered from the curse merely by being related to Lord Carnarvon.

It is believed that inhaling spores from Tutankhamun's tomb may have contributed to the death of Lord Carnarvon, the chief financial backer for the project. Pictured: Experts in the burial chamber during the excavation of the mummy

Members of the team that discovered the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. From left, Arthur Mace (died 1928), Richard Bethell (died 1929), Arthur Callender (died 1937), Lady Evelyn Herbert (died 1980), Howard Carter (died 1939), Lord Carnarvon, (died 1923), Alfred Lucas (died 1945) and official photographer Harry Burton (died 1940)

Another person who allegedly fell foul of the mummy's curse was Aaron Ember, who died in 1926.

Although not directly involved in the excavation, the Egyptologist was friends with members of the team. He died in a house fire while attempting to save a manuscript on ancient Egyptian beliefs.

While Howard Carter – the man who was credited with discovering the tomb – appeared unaffected by any mysterious wrongdoing, the same can't be said for his friends.

Publishing entrepreneur Sir Bruce Ingram reportedly received a mummified hand as a gift from Mr Carter, which he used as a paperweight.

Soon after, his house allegedly burned down and was subsequently damaged by flooding during rebuilding.

Another figure frequently cited in curse stories is radiologist Sir Archibald Douglas Reid.

Popular lore and sensationalised news reports from the 1920s claimed that Sir Archibald X-rayed King Tut's remains just before the mummy was handed over to museum authorities.

Storytellers claim he fell ill the next day and died three days later in Switzerland following abdominal surgery.

Lord Carnarvon (left) died months after the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb. Howard Carter (right)is the man who first discovered the crypt

Renowned Egyptologist James Henry Breasted was also part of Howard Carter's team during the exploration of Tutankhamun's tomb.

According to legend, shortly after the discovery he returned home to find his pet canary had been killed by a cobra that was still sitting inside the bird's cage.

As the cobra was a powerful symbol of ancient Egyptian royalty and appeared on pharaohs' headdresses as a sign of protection, the incident was widely interpreted as an ominous warning.

However, perhaps the strongest argument against the curse is the fate of Howard Carter himself.

The archaeologist who discovered the tomb, oversaw its excavation and spent more time inside it than anyone else lived for another 17 years, dying from cancer in 1939 at the age of 64.

Far from meeting a mysterious end, Mr Carter's relatively long life has led many historians to dismiss the so-called curse of the pharaoh as little more than a myth fuelled by coincidence.

KING TUTANKHAMUN: THE PHARAOH WHO RULED EGYPT MORE THAN 3,000 YEARS AGO

The face of Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, and ruled between 1332 BC and 1323 BC. Right, his famous gold funeral mask

Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, and ruled between 1332 BC and 1323 BC.

He was the son of Akhenaten and took to the throne at the age of nine or ten.

When he became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten.

He died at around the age of 18 and his cause of death is unknown.

In 1907, Lord Carnarvon George Herbert asked English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter to supervise excavations in the Valley of the Kings.

On 4 November 1922, Carter's group found steps that led to Tutankhamun's tomb.

He spent several months cataloguing the antechamber before opening the burial chamber and discovering the sarcophagus in February 1923.

When the tomb was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, under the patronage of Lord Carnarvon, the media frenzy that followed was unprecedented.

Carter and his team took 10 years to clear the tomb of its treasure because of the multitude of objects found within it. 

For many, Tut embodies ancient Egypt's glory because his tomb was packed with the glittering wealth of the rich 18th Dynasty from 1569 to 1315 BC.

Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass (3rd L) supervises the removal of the lid of the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in 2007.

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