It's not the Wardenclyffe Tower but fans of Nikola Tesla will recognize the similarity in a new announcement from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) that its Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program has “absolutely obliterated all previously reported optical power beaming demonstrations for power and distance" by beaming a laser carrying more than 800 watts of power across a distance of 5.3 miles (8.6 km); according to Paul Jaffe, the POWER program manager, a 30-second laser beam pulse arrived at the receiver, passed through a small aperture, bounced off a parabolic mirror onto solar cells, and still had 20% of its power, which was used to (we are not making this up) pop popcorn; while that is a valuable benefit, the next goal is to use the wireless beam to power unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Tesla would probably be underwhelmed, but still more impressed by this than by the accomplishments of the EV company bearing his name.

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters explains how researchers used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to analyze HD 100453, a young star about 330 light-years from Earth with about 1.6 times our sun's mass, and found isotopes of methanol – alcohol - in the planet-forming dust ring around the star; according to the researchers, these isotopes methanol “gives essential insight into the history of ingredients necessary to build life here on Earth"; these same isotopes have been found in comets in our solar system, suggesting that these frozen particles in protoplanetary disks could eventually clump together to form comets loaded with complex organic molecules that could be deposited on planets via collisions; co-author Milou Temmink, a doctoral candidate who studies protoplanetary disks at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said that the presence of alcohol in this star’s dust ring “may be the reason why life, including us, was able to form here". Forget ashes to ashes – our life is actually alcohol to alcohol.

Shouldn't this be the first planet we explore?

From the “I’m not saying it’s aliens but I’m not saying it’s not aliens” file comes a revelation from astronomers studying a short (less than 30 nanoseconds) fast radio burst (FRB) detected by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder in June 2024 which was so strong that it was assumed to have come from deep space and led many to hope it was evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence; while it was indeed created using intelligence, the researchers determined that the signal came from the Relay 2 – a communications satellite launched by NASA in 1964 that went dead in 1967 and has been stuck in orbit ever since - that suddenly came to life and blasted a signal so strong that astronomers mistook it for a fast radio burst from a distant galaxy; as they explained in their study, the zombie satellite most likely had a buildup of static electricity that suddenly discharged a pulse of energy over Earth; however, it could also have been caused by a collision with a micrometeorite that released a very small cloud of plasma in front of a real FRB signal, magnifying it so that it seemed stronger. We saw Zombie Satellites open for Foo Fighters.

The so-called ‘Pharaoh’s Curse’ – the alleged spell bringing death and destruction upon anyone disturbing the final resting place of a king – has been blamed for deaths to tomb explorers occurring soon after the openings of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt and Casimir IV’s tomb in Poland, but scientists eventually determined that at least some of those deaths were due to Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that can cause serious lung infections; now, a new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania reveals that the Pharaoh’s Curse might actually be a Pharaoh’s ‘Cure’ for cancer – the scientists isolated and purified four RiPPs (ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides) from Aspergillus flavus and found that they cursed and killed leukemia cells; the fungi are difficult to purify and don’t work on other kinds of cancer, but it is hoped that there are more fungal RiPPS to be discovered. All we need are more curses and scientists brave enough to study them.

If you’ve ever wondered who would win a drinking contest between Hercules and Dionysus, the Roman god of wine, you need to get a hobby – but before you do, you may be interested in the recent discovery in Israel of a sarcophagus decorated with a depiction of what appears to be a drinking contest between Hercules and Dionysus; according to the press release posted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on its Facebook page, the marble Roman sarcophagus was discovered during excavations in Caesarea on the northwest coast of Israel by IAA archaeologists Nohar Shahar and Shani Amit; the scene shows Hercules lying on a lion skin and holding a cup in his hand across from Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, in what can only be described as an ancient Roman drinking contest; while these bouts have been found before in ancient art, this is the first between Hercules and Dionysys; if you’re wondering who won, the archeologists say: “Hercules' condition, depicted on the sarcophagus as someone who is no longer able to stand, points to the obvious answer: Dionysus”. Which part of ‘god of wine’ did Hercules not understand?

Why didn't I challenge him to an arm-wrestling contest?

The so-called Buga sphere – the mysteriously engraved metallic orb tracked and retrieved in Colombia and now being ‘inspected’ in Mexico by controversial journalist and UFO researcher Jaime Maussan - continues to dominate the international UFO news with a statement by Maussan that men disguised as police tried to steal the Buga sphere; this was confirmed by UFO researcher Dr. Stephen Greer who, after he, US Congressman Eric Burlison and other US officials listened to a report from Maussan, said that “fake policemen” attempted to enter the vault in Mexico City where the orb was secured and warned that “Those scientists and their information have been provided to the top law enforcement... Any sort of attempts to interfere with this examination will be known, and the people and perpetrators will be held to account for it”; Burlison said that he believed governments and other groups were working to suppress the public's knowledge of UFOs and alien life but “We have too many people reporting and too many videos to ignore it’”. It would be nice if UFO research looked more like science and less like theater.

April Newton of Texas had a lifelong dream of visiting loch Ness and looking for its monster, so it was understandable that when she finally got tot her wish recently she immediately booked a boat tour with her traveling companion; what she didn’t expect was that soon after the boat left the dock, she’d be standing in the back when suddenly she’d see “Several serpent-like humps appeared one at a time”; as she described it to The Scottish Sun, “They caused rings of water to ripple out like something was rising from below”; Newton managed to take some photos which convinced her that "The shapes I saw are Nessie"; others on the tour boat were looking in the wrong direction to see her brief encounter, but she showed the photos to the captain and guide and “He told me he had been doing this for years and hadn’t seen anything like them before”; they were on the Jacobite Warrior boat to Urquhart Castle and the photos have not yet (as of this writing) been accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. Perhaps the monster can pick and choose to reveal itself to those it thinks are worthy of a sighting?

Stonehenge 'Joker' Crop Circle | 10 June 2025 | Crop Circles From The Air

Those who believe crop circles are messages left by aliens may see this a sign aliens have a sense of humor – a crop circle in the shape of a creepy clown face was discovered in a field near Bush Barrow, a few hundred yards from Stonehenge; crop circle researcher Hugh Newman said, "It’s a new one for me. It’s different from the usual designs”; however, some skeptical researchers saw something familiar about the clown and traced it to a painting by British artist Harry Pack; meanwhile, other doubters pointed out that the hole at the center of the clown’s nose was left by a pole used to attach a rope and served as the radius for the human making the circular face in the field’s crop. Steve Miller fans look at it and see a joker, a smoker and a midnight toker who don’t want to hurt no one.

Alien art teachers would give something like this an 'F' (not the crop crircle in the story)

The clown face has appeared in a field near Bush Barrow, just a few hundred yards from Stonehenge 

(Image: Jam Press/Crop Circles From The Air)

Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization (RMSO) posted a video of an alleged Bigfoot sighting on the Ammonoosuc River in northwestern New Hampshire near Mt. Washington; the witness shot a video of the woods and river where the sighting occurred and included a separate photo of the creature which Rocky Mountain Sasquatch magnified and analyzed, noting that what the witness thought was a baby on the back of the creature was probably just a large shoulder on a muscular back; RMSO also said the creature did not look like a human in a costume and pointed out that this spot was 60 miles from a location in Vermont where another Bigfoot was seen a few years ago. Keep your camera ready and steady and practice holding your breath so you can get a good clear photo and then yell for help.

In a recent podcast, John Ramirez, who spent 25 years as a CIA analyst, revealed that he had access to classified information confirming the existence of a secret program designed to track alien DNA in humans and analyze how genetic markers in children could indicate hybridization with non-human beings; after collecting the DNA, Ramirez claimed that “There were human traits in the alien DNA and vice versa. Hybrids are real. This is not a conspiracy”; he did not know how the hybridization occurred but speculated that they were altered, manipulated or “enhanced” by aliens; in the podcast, he also claimed he saw classified documents describing “UFO propulsion systems” but did not have the security clearances to actually see them; however, Ramirez claimed he did have an encounter with a reptilian being heard of incidents related to implants and the monitoring of individuals with lower genetic ancestry than human. What we need now is a test to determine if a whistleblower is a government plant trying to distract us or a shapeshifting alien doing the same thing.

He claims quantum AI linguists believe this signal may represent a non-human communication protocol

(Image: Getty Images)

This week’s psychic news comes from Brazilian prognosticator, Athos Salomé, who calls himself ‘The Living Nostradamus’; Salomé says his latest proclamations are backed by military documents, declassified reports, and high-level leaks and they connect quantum AI, extraterrestrial life, and what he calls "humanity's psychic transition" that "cannot be dismissed as conspiracy"; he first describes a covert project codenamed Sentient Atlas that is backed by "credible sources from US and UK intelligence" and designed to intercept and decode anomalous gravitational signals which have caused atmospheric disturbances in Patagonia, Nevada, and Mongolia, and are being analyzed by private AI firms and a ‘stealth startup’ in Dubai whose technical documents referring to ‘reverse gravitational engineering’ and ‘interdimensional non-human intelligence’ are locked in encrypted digital vaults with military-grade security; Salomé also claims that at least nine nations have initiated covert social conditioning programs in anticipation of public disclosure of alien life which he predicts will culminate in 2030. While his predictions are definitely more detailed and current than the real Nostradamus, the Living Noz needs some winning predictions before he is replaced by the Living Nostradamus 2.0.

After a Bigfoot sighting in Monroe, Michigan, a marijuana dispensary there offered a free rolled joint to anyone who brought in a clear photograph of a Sasquatch; this was not the hairy one’s only link to Michigan marijuana as another pot shop, the  Higher Love cannabis dispensary in Menominee just across the border from Wisconsin, is causing a local uproar by advertising the business with a menacing 14-foot tall Sasquatch statue at the entrance; locals attending a council meeting said they feared the Bigfoot will make children believe marijuana is OK and endorsed by the “big gorilla by the bridge", while the dispensary’s management points out that the Bigfoot as depicted is big and mean; however, it also admitted that the chain is considering adopting Bigfoot as its mascot (there are a number of Bigfoot-related strains) and putting statues at all locations. Does Bigfoot have an obligation to humans to avoid being associated with controversial products? (Yes, even beef jerky is controversial to vegans.)

The theory that there is a huge structure, or even an entire city, buried underneath the Giza pyramid complex and in particular the Pyramid of Khafre jut got deeper with a scientific presentation by Professor Filippo Biondi of the Khafre Project at its first international conference held recently in Malta; Biondi described the SAR-Doppler technology used to map the underground area, but the most important revelation was details on how the researchers on the project translated the electromagnetic response of the ground into physical vibration patterns in a radical technique developed by them which he likened to using “a stethoscope on rock”; this allowed them to detect differences in mass, shape and resonance below the surface; he then noted that the signals then interpreted not by generative artificial intelligence, but by human experts who reconstruct three-dimensional models based on probabilities calculated by algorithms; based on their analysis, Biondi said that  “The detected signatures do not resemble natural formations or geological fissures. Their orientation is almost perfect in relation to the cardinal points, and the symmetry leaves no doubt: someone built them”; and because the technology and engineering involved to build them does not match what is known of the period, they believe the structure predate them; a researcher at the conference let this comment: “If this is validated, we will have to rewrite part of Egypt’s history”. That’s a big ‘if’ which will only be resolved with excavation and the list of approvals needed to do that is as tall as the pyramid.

Space physicist Agnit Mukhopadhyay of the University of Michigan says his field can be used to explain the extinction of Neanderthals and the survival of homo sapiens; he starts with the shift in the Earth's magnetic poles around 41,000 years ago known as the Laschamp event and suggest that it caused an extreme weakening of the Earth's magnetic field which allowed for greater penetration of cosmic and ultraviolet radiation that created aggressive environmental conditions that Neanderthals could not withstand – because their clothes were too loose; that’s right, Mukhopadhyay proposes that homo sapiens used needles to make better and tighter-fitting clothes which covered more of their bodies and both blocked harmful rays and kept them warmer; he also suggests that homo sapiens used ochre on their skin for decoration, therapy, cosmetics, healing, and as an insect repellent, and that same ochre was also an effective sunscreen against the harmful radiations; archeologists dispute this theory, pointing out that there is no evidence humans in other areas wearing loose-fitting and no ochre died from radiation to the point of extinction like the Neanderthals. Does having Neanderthal DNA preclude one from becoming a tailor?

The question of whether journalists with secret information leaked to them by inside sources have an obligation to reveal the info has now been applied to the psychic world, as spoon-bending prognosticator Uri Geller claimed that he had read the mind of U.S. President Donald Trump and found out what Trump would do in the Israeli-Iran conflict - this was days before Trump authorized the bombing of three Iraqi nuclear facilities; Geller said he did not reveal what was on Trump’s mind,  explaining that “I cannot say because I will not compromise US-Israel secrecy... but remember even Golda Meir famously said Uri Geller read her mind!"; however, Geller, who lives in Tel Aviv, did tweet what he called “A vital message for Donald Trump: You MUST use your B52s to bomb Fordo! It is the ONLY way to end Iran's nuclear threat. Don't leave a single piece intact. This is a pivotal moment in history and I am urging you with all my energy to do it for the sake of mankind!"" Did Geller give a hint of what Trump would do? Are psychics morally obligated to tell what they know – or are they morally obligated to keep it a secret in order to avoid causing mass panic – especially if they’re wrong?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

© Getty Images

4 mysterious UFO sightings that are still unexplained

Some UFO sightings can be explained away – but we still don't know the truth behind these ones.

Around 350 children and teachers at Westall High School in Melbourne, Australia, watched five planes surround a silvery flying-saucer-shaped UFO in 1966. The planes attempted to aerially herd the craft for about 20 minutes before it disappeared.

A UFO-themed play park commemorates the event and, to this day, witnesses meet once a year to discuss their experience.

In 1997, thousands of people reported lights across several hundred miles of night sky in Arizona and Nevada in the United States, and Sonora in Mexico. These lights were either stationary, or on a moving V-shaped craft in a triangular formation (artist’s impression above).

The United States Air Force stated that the lights over Phoenix were military flares but the V-shaped UFO remains a mystery.

In December 1980, US airmen stationed at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England were investigating reports of lights in Rendlesham Forest when they saw red and blue lights and a UFO land. It was described as around three metres high and three metres in diameter and appeared to be standing on fixed legs. The material of the craft was like ‘smooth, opaque black glass.’

The next day, indentations were seen on the ground and radiation levels recorded. On a separate night, another member of the US Air Force set out to disprove his colleagues with a tape recorder. He reported lights in the sky that looked ‘like an eye winking at you’ and observed ‘a beam coming down to the ground’. Three years later, the US government released a report that described the encounter, which has become known as Britain’s Roswell.

While there remain believers, psychologist Prof Chris French – who has also visited the site – is among many of those who are unconvinced. A local forester said the indentations were caused by rabbits, and the levels of radioactivity were not especially high. As for the lights? “I’ve heard the tape,” says French, “and the lights are in complete synchrony with Orfordness Lighthouse nearby.”

{ https://www.sciencefocus.com/ }

The UFOs that scientists think are real, but can't explain

Nature's UFOs are even weirder and more mysterious than flying saucers.

Image credit: Alamy

New Jersey is the new Roswell – or so it might seem after a swarm of bright lights, glowing orange-red orbs and unidentified flying objects filled the skies throughout December 2024.

As expected, these strange orbs gave rise to a flood of conspiracy theories involving UFOs and foreign interference. One US Republican congressman even claimed the lights were aircraft originating from an "Iranian mothership," a theory swiftly dismissed by the Pentagon.

Although the exact source of the objects remains unconfirmed, US officials suggest that the majority of sightings were most likely caused by – you guessed it – civilian-operated drones.

The New Jersey drone saga is yet another example of how many so-called UFOs have perfectly logical explanations. But not all phenomena are so easily dismissed. For decades, scientists have been baffled by a different kind of mysterious light: ball lightning.

While it’s easy to roll your eyes at such stories, there have been eyewitness accounts of weird floating balls of light for centuries – the earliest thought to be in 1195. It’s only thanks to the sheer volume of accounts – and photographic evidence – that scientists have felt the need to investigate these mysterious sightings further.

Many of the reports are from credible sources.

For instance, in 1927, renowned quantum theory physicist Walther Gerlach claimed to have witnessed a “bright, luminous yellowish-white ball” emerge from a bolt of lightning.

Being a scientist, he used his own hastily acquired observations to work out that the ball of light had travelled 1,225m per second (a little over 4,000ft per second) – over three times the speed of sound.

Then there’s Dr Roger Jennison, a radio astronomer at the UK’s Jodrell Bank Observatory.

In 1963, he was travelling on an overnight flight from New York to Washington during a thunderstorm, when a loud, bright electrical discharge suddenly enveloped the plane. Passengers then observed something extraordinary, which Jennison later outlined in a letter to the prestigious journal Nature.

In the letter, he wrote: “Some seconds after this a glowing sphere a little more than 20cm [almost 8in] in diameter emerged from the pilot’s cabin and passed down the aisle of the aircraft approximately 50cm [19in] from me, maintaining the same height and course for the whole distance over which it could be observed.”

Descriptions around the world vary in detail, but often involve a thunderstorm and a ball of light, usually no larger than a football, in a variety of colours.

These luminous globes float through the air for a short period of time, some slowly, others extremely fast. There are reports of them disappearing, exploding or passing through walls or windows. Some leave behind an odour of sulphur.

Yet despite over 800 years of sightings, due to its elusive nature, scientists still don’t understand ball lightning. But there are clues that plasma might be the missing ingredient.

Plasma attack

Often called the fourth state of matter (the other three being solid, liquid and gas), plasma can be produced relatively easily.

“If you add high temperatures to a gas, you get a plasma – a charged, ionised gas – which can be influenced by electric and magnetic fields,” says Prof Ursel Fantz from the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics near Munich. “This is very important as you can’t do that to the other states.”

“More than 95 per cent of the Universe is plasma,” she adds. “All the stars, interstellar space, interplanetary space, aurora and standard lightning. Plasma is also used in medicine and chemical energy storage."

Plasma too, according to some of Fantz's experiments, could potentially be the source of the floating orbs.

Using just a small beaker of salt water, a couple of electrodes and a high voltage (akin to a bolt of lightning – approx 300 million volts), scientists at Fantz’s institute created a 10–20cm [approx 4–8in] diameter plasma cloud – lasting just 0.3 seconds – resembling a glowing orb.

“There are some similarities with ball lightning, but we can’t say it is [ball lightning],” said Fantz, “as it exists for less than the time of a twinkle in your eye.”

In 2020, the experiment was recreated with more water and filmed. The resulting video showed ball lightning-style plasmoids rising from the water’s surface in slow motion.

Despite not hovering, as previous sightings have claimed, could these plasmas explain ball lightning orbs? Fantz isn’t sure. “All we have are people’s reports, and pictures are really rare,” she says.

Read more:

• Conspiracies and FBI secrets: Why we love UFOs
• Alien mothership might be spying on us from orbit, says top Harvard scientist
• 4 mysterious UFO sightings that are still unexplained

Getting Warmer

Although floating balls of light like those that could pass through Jennison’s aircraft haven’t yet been recreated in the lab, scientists continue to speculate on how they might form without relying on plasmas.

For instance, in 2014, there were reports of ball lightning being caught on video by scientists at Northwestern Normal University in Lanzhou, China.

They were studying lightning during a thunderstorm in Qinghai and observed a ball of light form and travel about 20m (65ft) in 1.5 seconds. A spectrograph also identified the ball’s main components to be iron, silicon and calcium.

This unexpected observation chimed with one theory hypothesised by researchers in New Zealand, in 2000, which proposed that the glowing ball resulted from a lightning strike on the ground that vaporised grains of minerals (since all of those elements can be found in soil).

“There are lots of theories as to what they are, from mini black holes to antimatter,” says physicist Dr Stephen Hughes, an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, Australia.

He examined the evidence for green fireballs and ball lightning in a Proceedings of the Royal Society paper published in 2010, which detailed multiple eyewitness sightings over Brisbane and the Gold Coast a few years earlier.

“Ball lightning is definitely some kind of electrical phenomenon,” says Hughes. “People report hissing [and] sizzling sounds, which we associate with electricity. But its mechanism isn’t fully understood.”

The mystery is understandable since many eyewitness accounts are contradictory or simply baffling, Hughes adds.

For example, in 1974, during a thunderstorm, Philip Bagnall, the network director of the British Meteor Society, awoke to find an orange ball of light at the foot of his bed. When he reached out, he could feel heat radiating from about 10cm (4in) away.

While some reports describe shocks or partial paralysis upon contact with ball lightning, Bagnall experienced nothing after clapping his hands on it. The sphere then passed through his bedroom ceiling “like a Hollywood ghost.”

“Ball lightning has travelled down an aircraft [according to Jennison] and not caused any burning, although it could still be hot,” says Hughes. “Similar to how you can put your hand in an oven when it’s 230°C (446°F) and your hand doesn’t get burned as long as you don’t touch the metal.”

“Some of the UFO reports talk about objects accelerating extremely fast, at impossible rates of acceleration. Fighter aircraft can’t stop and change direction that fast, but electrical phenomena can,” says Hughes.

“Electrons are very light and the electromagnetic force is so strong you get this insane acceleration. In just over 1cm (less than 0.5in), electrons can accelerate to half the speed of light.”

In 2024, scientists at the University of California, the University of Arizona and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, published their theory on the origin of ‘foo fighters’: plasmas in the thermosphere.

This is a region from about 90–600km (approx 56–370 miles) above Earth’s surface, where temperatures at the higher altitudes can reach 2,000°C (3,632°F) or more.

Although the story made national news in one UK paper, the theory was published in the Journal of Modern Physics, a publication that charges authors to publish their work. The theory asserts that the plasma in this region of the atmosphere could be a form of “pre-life”, one that’s “completely different from life as we know it.”

While the paper is speculative, it raises the question of whether these sightings of strange glowing balls might be interpreted as potential evidence of aliens.

Fantz, however, is far from convinced. "Plasma is atoms, ions, electrons and photons," she says. "And that's it."

Eyes on the skies

Be it plasmas, lightning vaporising minerals on the ground, or extraterrestrials, all current theories about the glowing balls of light remain exactly that – theories.

You might, like others, also think that the many accounts of these balls, from the foo fighters to Jennison’s plane aisle, can be explained through psychological means.

But evidence from scientists, such as Fantz’s floating plasma ball experiment, leaves little doubt there remains a lot to uncover about many phenomena on this planet. This is why government agencies are changing their approach and are now more prepared to keep an open mind.

“Just because we observe something we don’t understand and even surprises us, doesn’t mean that we’re crazy or wrong,” says ETH Zurich’s Prof Thomas Zurbuchen, the former associate administrator of NASA’s science directorate, who commissioned an independent study of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) in 2022.

“I believe in the power of science and the power of data,” he adds. “I’m not telling people what to believe and not believe. I think to some people [the report] demystified what was happening.”

The study, which features the likes of former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and an array of prominent academics, included numerous images of known natural phenomena that are of ten mistaken for UFOs: such as the aurora borealis (northern lights), the Perseid meteor shower and red sprites – an eerie form of crimson lightning that resembles a glowing squid and shoots up, instead of down, into the atmosphere.

The final report stated: “It’s increasingly clear that the majority of UAP observations can be attributed to known phenomena or occurrences.” It found no evidence that UAPs were extraterrestrial, but it didn’t rule out the possibility.

It therefore surprised many people when, in November 2024, two US subcommittees held a hearing in Washington DC titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.”

The aim was to discuss the Department of Defense and the wider intelligence community’s lack of transparency regarding UAPs, and to increase disclosure.

The testimonies attracted a global audience who heard pilots testify that they saw unidentified objects, such as balls of light, on an almost “daily basis”. One former military intelligence officer even stated: “We’re not alone in the cosmos.”

The conclusion, however, was that there was no evidence for extraterrestrial life, but that such sightings should be studied further.

“So often, puzzling and disturbing observations indicate new discoveries. For example, we now know that a specific set of observations were indications of a new type of cloud we hadn’t known previously,” said Zurbuchen of the NASA report.

“Similarly, weather-related phenomena, such as temperature inversions or electrical phenomena in the atmosphere can lead to surprising observations that may, at first glance, look like UAPs, but are atmospheric science in action.”

This brings us back to ball lightning.

Unfortunately, we’re no closer to understanding how it forms, and whether it is or isn’t a plasma. Some have even referred to its elusive qualities as “tracking the Sasquatch of meteorology.”

Like Sasquatch, it can be faked too. A 2020 video of ‘ball lightning’ travelling above railway tracks went viral on Twitter (now X) and is still doing the rounds today, even though its Russian creator admitted he was testing visual effects.

Science, meanwhile, continues to unravel the cause of the glowing orbs and use the properties of plasma. In fact, a number of classified US research projects are now pivoting to research plasma.

While some have speculated that this is new evidence relating to UFOs, others have pointed to how plasmas could be used for military applications.

Whether these new studies eventually reveal the mysteries of plasmas, or if other scientists unlock hidden truths about the behaviour of lightning on Earth, the truth remains out there… for now.

About our experts

• Prof Ursel Fantz is head of ITER Technology and Diagnostics Division at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics near Munich, Germany. She has been published in the likes of Frontiers in Physics, Nuclear Fusion and Fusion Engineering and Design.
• Dr Stephen Hughes is an honorary senior lecturer of mathematics and physics at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, The Physics Teacher and Physics Education.
• Prof Thomas Zurbuchen is the leader of ETH Zurich and former associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate. He is an international speaker and appears in Netflix documentary film Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine. He is also published in Scientific American.

Read more:

• Project Galileo: The search for alien tech hiding in our Solar System
• What would alien life actually look like?
• These two signals are the closest we've come to alien contact

{ https://www.sciencefocus.com/ }

The recently circulated photos reveal at least two B-2 Spirit aircraft in mid-stage assembly, surrounded by engineers and specialized equipment. It marks one of the very few public glimpses inside the highly classified B-2 production line.

Photo: Archival image of the B-2 assembly line at Northrop Grumman – circa 1990s

“The revival of the B-2 line likely isn’t just routine maintenance — it could indicate a significant upgrade phase,” commented a defense analyst from the RAND Corporation.

 B-2: The Undisputed Stealth Bomber

First introduced in 1997, the B-2 Spirit remains the only strategic stealth bomber in the world capable of penetrating advanced air defense systems.

• Equipped for both conventional and nuclear payloads (B61, B83)

• Range exceeds 10,000 km without refueling

• Capable of transoceanic combat missions, particularly across the Pacific

Photo: The B-2 Spirit unveiled to the public for the first time in Palmdale, California – 1988

Amid growing tensions in the South China Sea, Ukraine, and the Korean Peninsula, America’s reactivation of B-2 operations could send a dual message — to deter adversaries while reassuring allies.

 A Silent Upgrade for the Entire B-2 Fleet?

Open-source analysis suggests the B-2 may be undergoing integration with next-generation technologies, often referred to as Gen 5.5+, including:

• AI-assisted navigation with 360° sensor fusion

• Potential adaptation for hypersonic weapons

• Advanced radar-absorbing coatings aimed at countering high-frequency tracking systems reportedly in development by China and Russia

Photo: Strategic bomber production line – illustrative image from Northrop Grumman, possibly B-2 or B-21

Although no official statement has confirmed the scope of the upgrades, these moves are believed to serve as a strategic bridge until the B-21 Raider enters full-scale deployment in the coming years.

 A Calculated Move, Not an Accident

Many experts believe the leaked image from the Palmdale plant was intentional. It may be part of a broader “Flexible Deterrence Options” (FDOs) strategy designed to subtly project strength.

Photo: A B-2 Spirit flies over Northrop Grumman’s aerospace complex – illustrative aerial view

“When you reveal part of the B-2 line, you’re not showing weakness — you’re signaling that there’s more in reserve,” wrote military analyst James L. Martin for The WarZone.

 Final Thoughts: A Phantom Returns

In an era dominated by drones and electronic warfare, the U.S. doubling down on the B-2 sends a chilling message: some technologies don’t need replacing — because they remain nightmares for any air defense network.

Photo: Rare underside view of the B-2 Spirit on descent, exposing its weapons bay and landing gear

Decades after its first flight, the B-2 Spirit remains more than just a weapon — it is a symbol of stealth supremacy the world still struggles to match.

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{ https://movies.newspetcats.com/category/military/ }

First images from Biomass mission show vibrant Earth

• The Biomass mission from the European Space Agency is taking images of Earth to acquire data about forest biomass and how it changes over time.
• The mission’s goal is to aid scientists understand the role forests play in the Earth’s carbon cycle.
• The first images from Biomass show a vibrant Earth, revealing details of the landscape through the forest canopy down to the floor.
• ESA published this original article on June 23, 2025. Edits by EarthSky.

Biomass mission delivers vibrant Earth images

On June 23, 2025, the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed the first stunning images from its groundbreaking Biomass satellite mission at the Living Planet Symposium. It marks a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle. But these inaugural glimpses go beyond forests. Remarkably, the satellite is already showing potential to unlock new insights into some of Earth’s most extreme environments.

Biomass – an Earth explorer research mission developed within ESA’s FutureEO programme – was launch less than two months ago. This new mission is, therefore, still in the process of being commissioned, but its first set of images are stunning none the less.

ESA’s Biomass Project Manager, Michael Fehringer, commented:

As is routine, we’re still in the commissioning phase, fine-tuning the satellite to ensure it delivers the highest quality data for scientists to accurately determine how much carbon is stored in the world’s forests.

Biomass is equipped with novel space technology, so we’ve been closely monitoring its performance in orbit, and we’re very pleased to report that everything is functioning smoothly and its first images are nothing short of spectacular. And they’re only a mere glimpse of what is still to come.

More about Biomass

Biomass is the first satellite to carry a P-band synthetic aperture radar. Its signal is capable of penetrating forest canopies to measure woody biomass: trunks, branches and stems. These measurements serve as a proxy for carbon storage, the assessment of which is the mission’s primary objective.

While it settles into its life in orbit, ESA’s pioneering Biomass mission is already returning data. The satellite, its instrument and systems are still being calibrated. So researchers cannot yet use these first data to quantify carbon or support scientific advances. But they do show that Biomass is well on track to achieving its goals.

Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, said:

Looking at these first images, it’s clear to see that our Earth Explorer Biomass satellite is set to deliver on its promise.

We fully expect that this new mission will provide a groundbreaking leap in our ability to understand Earth’s forests. It will combine cutting-edge radar technology with the scientific excellence that will unlock vital insights into carbon storage, climate change and the health of our planet’s precious forest ecosystems.

Bolivian forests

Biomass’ first image (at top) features part of Bolivia. Bolivia has experienced significant deforestation, ranking among the highest globally for primary forest loss. Although there are complex reasons at play, this is primarily driven by forest clearance for agricultural expansion.

This vibrant image is from the radar instrument’s different polarization channels. Each color reveals distinct characteristics of the landscape. For instance, green hues mainly represent rainforest, red hues forested floodplains and wetlands, and blue–purple is indicative of grasslands. Meanwhile, black areas are rivers and lakes.

In the Amazon basin, some rivers run wild. Unhindered by dams, they are free to meander, but some more dramatically than others. The image captures one such wanderer, the Beni River, which flows from the Andes Mountains across the Bolivian lowlands northeast toward Brazil.

The true strength of the Biomass mission lies not in identifying features from a single image, but in its unique sampling technique and ability to combine multiple observations of the same area to reveal forest height and biomass. This enables scientists to accurately quantify forest carbon stocks and better understand the role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle.

Biomass mission vs. Copernicus-Sentinel 2

The second image, an image in two parts, is the same capture of Bolivia from Biomass but featured below an image of the same area from Copernicus Sentinel-2.

Although the images appear visually similar, the Biomass image offers significantly more information for quantifying forest carbon stocks. This is primarily thanks to its long-wavelength radar, which can penetrate the canopy and characterize the entire forest structure. In contrast, the optical Sentinel-2 image captures only the top of the canopy.

Northern Brazil

This third image is actually the very first acquisition Biomass returned. It offers another striking view of the Amazon rainforest, but this time over northern Brazil.

In the southern part of the image, pink and red hues reveal the presence of wetlands. This highlights Biomass’ ability to penetrate dense vegetation and detect features down to the forest floor. The dominance of red tones along the river indicates forested floodplains. Meanwhile, the northern area, depicted in rich green, reveals more rugged topography and dense, continuous forest cover.

Volcanoes of Indonesia

The fourth image features tropical forests on islands in Indonesia. This is the Halmahera rainforest, situated in mountainous terrain, much of which has volcanic origins. Several volcanoes remain active in the area, including Mount Gamkonora, visible near the northern coast in this image.

This particular image clearly demonstrates that, beyond providing insights into rainforests, the Biomass P-band radar also reveals topographic features, as its long wavelength can penetrate down to the forest floor.

Biomass sees Gabon in Africa

The fifth capture features Gabon in Africa. The Ivindo River, which is vital to the health of the rainforest, is clear to see in this striking image. Other than the river and tributaries, the image is predominantly green, representing dense forest. The visibility of distinct topographical features in this image further underscores the radar’s capability to image through forest canopies to the terrain underneath.

Examining other aspects of Earth from the Biomass mission

Biomass also offers opportunities to explore other aspects of our planet, as the last two images below demonstrate.

The radar should be able to penetrate through dry sand by as much as 16 feet (five meters). Data can, therefore, be used to map and study sub-surface geological features in deserts, such the remains of ancient riverbeds and lakes. This will help understand the past climate and also help prospect fossil water resources in desert regions.

Indicating that this can indeed be achieved, the sixth image, below, shows the stunning structure of part of the Sahara Desert in Chad. This image covers part of the Tibesti Mountains, a mountain range in the central Sahara, mainly located in the extreme north of Chad.

The last image shows a portion of the vast Antarctic Transantarctic Mountains with one of the large ice streams, Nimrod Glacier, flowing into Ross Ice Shelf.

The long wavelength of Biomass’ radar allows for deeper penetration into ice. This enables the retrieval of valuable information on ice velocity and the internal structure of the ice. These are capabilities that shorter wavelength radars cannot achieve effectively. And this image indicates that this could be a possibility.

Bottom line: The Biomass mission has revealed its first images! See vibrant pics of Earth from space, highlighting forests and more.

• Via ESA
• Read more: 1st photo of Earth from space, 78 years ago

{ https://earthsky.org/space/ }

Door de prachtige foto’s die telescopen en satellieten van planeten, sterrenstelsels en nevels hebben gemaakt, zou je bijna vergeten hoe mooi onze eigen planeet is. Maar ESA’s gloednieuwe Biomass-satelliet steekt daar nu een stokje voor.

De Biomass-satelliet is nog geen twee maanden geleden gelanceerd en moet gaan onderzoeken hoe onze bossen eraan toe zijn en hoe ze door de tijd heen veranderen. Daarnaast hopen onderzoekers dat de satelliet meer inzicht kan geven in de rol die bomen spelen in de koolstofcyclus (zie kader).

Bomen en koolstof
Bossen worden ook wel de longen van de aarde genoemd. Ze geven zuurstof af en halen koolstofdioxide (CO2) uit de atmosfeer. Die koolstof slaan de bomen op, tot ze worden omgehakt; als de bomen sterven en vergaan, komt de CO2 weer vrij. Tot zover is het een vrij helder verhaal. Minder duidelijk is echter hoeveel CO2 de bossen wereldwijd op dit moment hebben opgeslagen en hoe de mate waarin bomen koolstof opslaan nu precies verandert onder invloed van stijgende temperaturen en hogere CO2-concentraties in de atmosfeer. De Biomass-satelliet moet daar meer inzicht in geven. De satelliet is daartoe onder meer uitgerust met een radarsysteem dat deze in staat stelt om dwars door het bladerdak heen te kijken en de zogenoemde ‘biomassa’ – de stammen en takken – van bossen te meten. Omdat bomen het leeuwendeel van de koolstof die ze opnemen in die stammen en takken opslaan, kan uit die metingen worden afgeleid hoeveel koolstof er op dit moment in bossen zit opgeslagen – en hoe die hoeveelheid door de tijd heen verandert.

Testen
Op dit moment is de Biomass-satelliet nog niet in bedrijf; ESA is druk bezig om de systemen aan boord van de satelliet te testen en goed af te stellen. Dat is allesbehalve saai. Zo resulteert het onder meer in de eerste beelden van Biomass en die zijn volgens projectmanager Michael Fehringer “niet minder dan spectaculair”.

Afbeelding: ESA.

Bolivia
En daar is weinig aan gelogen. Zo heeft Biomass bijvoorbeeld bovenstaande afbeelding afgeleverd. We zien hier een stukje van Bolivia – waar ontbossing een groot probleem is. Op de levendige afbeelding zien we regenwoud (in groentinten), beboste uiterwaarden en wetlands (in roodtinten), graslanden (in blauwpaarse tinten) en rivieren en meren (in zwart). De wild slingerende rivier de Beni springt daarbij met name in het oog.

Brazilië
Nog zo’n mooie opname zie je hieronder (links), van het Amazonewoud in Brazilië. De opname laat mooi zien dat Biomass dwars door het bladerdak kan kijken, tot op de bosbodem. Zo zie je onderin rode en roze tinten die op de aanwezigheid van wetlands wijzen. In het noorden zijn dan weer heuvels te vinden die – afgaand op de groentint – heel dicht bebost zijn.

Afbeelding: ESA.

Gabon
Ook de foto die je hier rechtsboven ziet, gemaakt in Gabon (Afrika) is prachtig. De Ivindo-rivier springt er duidelijk uit. Deze rivier is van levensbelang voor het omringende regenwoud waar Biomass dus ook weer dwars doorheen gluurt, zodat de topografische kenmerken van het gebied aan het licht komen.

Woestijnen
Maar Biomass kan nog meer, zo onthult de foto hieronder. Het radarsysteem waarmee de satelliet is uitgerust kan namelijk niet alleen dwars door bladeren heen kijken, maar ook dwars door tot wel vijf meter droog zand heen ‘gluren’. En daarmee is de satelliet bijvoorbeeld in staat om ondergrondse structuren – zoals de restanten van oude rivierbeddingen en meren – in woestijnen op te snorren. Die restanten kunnen onder meer onthullen welk klimaat de woestijn in het verleden kende en hoe de woestijn er onder dat klimaat precies uitzag.

Op deze foto zie je een stukje van de Tibestigebergte in de Sahara (Tsjaad). Afbeelding: ESA.

IJs
En daar blijft het niet bij. Want het radarsysteem aan boord van Biomass kan ook vrij diep in ijs gluren en zo meer inzicht geven in de interne structuur daarvan. Om dat te demonstreren, maakte Biomass de foto hieronder, met daarop een stukje van het enorme Transarctisch Gebergte en de Nimrod-gletsjer (beiden te vinden op Antarctica).

Afbeelding: ESA.

De beelden zijn prachtig om te zien, maar onthullen bovenal dat Biomass in staat is om de hoge verwachtingen waar te maken en ons een ongeëvenaard inkijkje te geven in bossen – en en passant ook in woestijnen en ijsmassa’s – op onze eigen prachtige planeet. “We verwachten dat deze nieuwe missie een baanbrekende sprong voorwaarts betekent in ons begrip van de bossen op aarde,” aldus Fehringer. “En essentiële inzichten zal opleveren als het gaat om koolstofopslag, klimaatverandering en de gezondheid van de kostbare bosecosystemen op onze planeet.”

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A cosmic ray-like signal was recorded, seeming to come from below the Antarctic ice. 

(Westend61/Getty Images)

Two Anomalous Radio Signals Detected Coming from Antarctic Ice

The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on NASA balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere. The goal of the experiment is to gain insight into distant cosmic events by analyzing signals that reach the Earth. Rather than reflecting off the ice, the radio signals appeared to be coming from below the horizon, an orientation that cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics and may hint at new types of particles or interactions previously unknown to science.

ANITA was placed in Antarctica because there is little chance of interference from other signals; to capture the emission signals, the balloon-borne radio detector is sent to fly over stretches of ice, capturing what are called ice showers.

Image credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State.

“The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,” said Dr. Stephanie Wissel, a physicist at Penn State.

“By our calculations, the anomalous signal had to pass through and interact with thousands of km of rock before reaching the detector, which should have left the radio signal undetectable because it would have been absorbed into the rock.”

“It’s an interesting problem because we still don’t actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are, but what we do know is that they’re most likely not representing neutrinos.”

Usually emitted by high-energy sources like the Sun or major cosmic events like supernovas or even the Big Bang, there are neutrino signals everywhere.

The problem with these particles, though, is that they are notoriously difficult to detect.

“You have a billion neutrinos passing through your thumbnail at any moment, but neutrinos don’t really interact,” Dr. Wissel said.

“So, this is the double-edged sword problem. If we detect them, it means they have traveled all this way without interacting with anything else.”

“We could be detecting a neutrino coming from the edge of the observable Universe.”

“Once detected and traced to their source, these particles can reveal more about cosmic events than even the most high-powered telescopes, as the particles can travel undisturbed and almost as fast as the speed of light, giving clues about cosmic events that happened light-years away.”

“Teams of researchers around the world have been working to design and build special detectors to capture sensitive neutrino signals, even in relatively small amounts.”

“Even one small signal from a neutrino holds a treasure trove of information, so all data has significance.”

“We use radio detectors to try to build really, really large neutrino telescopes so that we can go after a pretty low expected event rate.”

ANITA is one of these detectors, and it was placed in Antarctica because there is little chance of interference from other signals.

To capture the emission signals, the balloon-borne radio detector is sent to fly over stretches of ice, capturing what are called ice showers.

“We have these radio antennas on a balloon that flies 40 km above the ice in Antarctica,” Dr. Wissel said.

“We point our antennas down at the ice and look for neutrinos that interact in the ice, producing radio emissions that we can then sense on our detectors.”

These special ice-interacting neutrinos, called tau neutrinos, produce a secondary particle called a tau lepton that is released out of the ice and decays, the physics term referring to how the particle loses energy as it travels over space and breaks down into its constituents. This produces emissions known as air showers.

“If they were visible to the naked eye, air showers might look like a sparkler waved in one direction, with sparks trailing it,” Dr. Wissel said.

“We can distinguish between the two signals — ice and air showers — to determine attributes about the particle that created the signal.”

“These signals can then be traced back to their origin, similar to how a ball thrown at an angle will predictably bounce back at the same angle.”

The recent anomalous findings, though, cannot be traced back in such a manner as the angle is much sharper than existing models predict.

Stephanie Wissel/Penn State

By analyzing data collected from multiple ANITA flights and comparing it with mathematical models and extensive simulations of both regular cosmic rays and upward-going air showers, the researchers were able to filter out background noise and eliminate the possibility of other known particle-based signals.

The scientists then cross-referenced signals from other independent detectors like the IceCube Experiment and the Pierre Auger Observatory to see if data from upward-going air showers, similar to those found by ANITA, were captured by other experiments.

The analysis revealed the other detectors did not register anything that could have explained what ANITA detected, which led the authors to describe the signal as anomalous, meaning that the particles causing the signal are not neutrinos.

The signals do not fit within the standard picture of particle physics, and while several theories suggest that it may be a hint of dark matter, the lack of follow-up observations with IceCube and Auger really narrow the possibilities.

“Our team is currently designing and building the next big detector,” Dr. Wissel said.

Stephanie Wissel/Penn State

“The new detector, called PUEO, will be larger and better at detecting neutrino signals, and it will hopefully shed light on what exactly the anomalous signal is.”

“My guess is that some interesting radio propagation effect occurs near ice and also near the horizon that I don’t fully understand, but we certainly explored several of those, and we haven’t been able to find any of those yet either.”

A rendering of what PUEO will look like once deployed.

(Christian Miki/University of Hawaii)

“So, right now, it’s one of these long-standing mysteries, and I’m excited that when we fly PUEO, we’ll have better sensitivity.”

“In principle, we should pick up more anomalies, and maybe we’ll actually understand what they are.”

“We also might detect neutrinos, which would in some ways be a lot more exciting.”

• The team’s paper was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
• A. Abdul Halim et al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration). 2025. Search for the Anomalous Events Detected by ANITA Using the Pierre Auger Observatory. Phys. Rev. Lett 134, 121003; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.121003
• This article is based on a press-release provided by Penn State.

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{ https://www.sci.news/ }

Department of Defense

Five U.S. Navy Sailors Saw the Glowing ‘Tic Tac’-Shaped UFO. They Told Us Exactly What They Witnessed - PART I

• Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on November 12, 2019

The five men share an easy rapport with each other, playfully ribbing one another while also communicating a deep sense of mutual respect. It’s clear they all share the bond of having once served in the armed forces. Yet for Gary Voorhis, Jason Turner, P.J. Hughes, Ryan Weigelt, and Kevin Day—assembled together in a private group chat by Popular Mechanics—something much bigger ties them together beyond simply serving in the U.S. Navy.

These men also share the connection of being witnesses to one of the most compelling UFO cases in modern history: the Nimitz Encounters, an event that the Navy confirmed in 2019 did indeed involve “unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Largely overshadowed by a grainy black-and-white video and a former TOPGUN fighter pilot eyewitness, these veterans offer new and intriguing details on what occurred with the Navy’s Strike Carrier Group-11 as it sailed roughly 100 miles off the Southern California coast in 2004—details that a former career intelligence agent who investigated the Nimitz Encounter while at the Pentagon can neither confirm, deny, or even discuss with Popular Mechanics.

Ultimately, these five men—the “other” Nimitz witnesses—could be key to understanding an event that a leading aviation defense expert says “likely wasn’t ours.”

So whose was it?

The Intercept

Stationed on the USS Princeton, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, the Nimitz carrier group went underway in early November 2004 for a routine training exercise. This would be the last time former Petty Officer 3rd Class Gary Voorhis would set sail aboard a Navy vessel.

Having already done almost six years in the Navy, including two combat tours, Voorhis was ready to transition to life outside the world of passionless gray metal hulls and vast leavening seas.

“The group was going to be deploying in a few months and there was a bunch of new systems, like the Spy-1 Bravo radar,” Voorhis tells Popular Mechanics. “It was really about getting all the kinks out.”

While chatting with some of the Princeton’s radar techs, Voorhis says he heard they were getting “ghost tracks” and “clutter” on the radars. For Voorhis, the Princeton’s only system technician for the state-of-the-art Cooperative Engagement Capability and AEGIS Combat System, news of these systems possibly malfunctioning was especially concerning.

Fearing the ship’s brand-new AN/SPY-1B passive radar system was malfunctioning, Voorhis says the air-control systems were taken down and recalibrated in an effort to clear out what he assumed to be false radar returns.

“Once we finished all the recalibration and brought it back up, the tracks were actually sharper and clearer,” Voorhis says. “Sometimes they’d be at an altitude of 80,000 or 60,000 feet. Other times they’d be around 30,000 feet, going like 100 knots. Their radar cross sections didn’t match any known aircraft; they were 100 percent red. No squawk, no IFF [Identification Friend or Foe].”

Pixel-Pushr//Flickr

Sitting in the Princeton’s Combat Information Center (CIC), Operations Specialist Senior Chief Kevin Day was tasked with the critical role of protecting the airspace around the strike group. “My job was to man the radars and ID everything that flew in the skies,” Day said in the documentary film The Nimitz Encounters.

On or around November 10, 2004, roughly 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, Day began noticing strange radar tracks near the area of San Clemente Island. “The reason why I say they’re weird [is] because they were appearing in groups of five to 10 at a time and they were pretty closely spaced to each other. And they were 28,000 feet going a hundred knots tracking south,” Day said in the documentary.

In another YouTube clip, Ryan Weigelt, the former leading petty officer and power plant specialist for the SH-60B “Seahawk” helicopter, recalled the tone aboard the missile cruise at the time.

“Senior Chief Day, his name, was being called over the comms, no bullshit, every two minutes.” Weigelt said. “I recall hearing something, like a big, real-world scenario was going on, but I just didn’t really understand.”

While Day and the Princeton’s air traffic controllers continued to monitor the strange radar returns, Voorhis says he began to take the opportunity to use the ship’s advanced tracking systems to catch a glimpse of whatever these objects were.

“When they’d show up on radar,” Voorhis says, “I’d get the relative bearing and then run up to the bridge and look through a pair of heavily magnified binoculars in the direction the returns were coming from.” Describing what he saw during the daytime, Voorhis says the objects were too far off to make out any distinguishing features, however, he could clearly see something moving erratically in the distance.

“I couldn’t make out details, but they’d just be hovering there, then all of a sudden, in an instant, they’d dart off to another direction and stop again,” Voorhis says. “At night, they’d give off a kind of a phosphorus glow and were a little easier to see than in the day.”

By November 14, the strange returns had been continuously showing up for close to a week. With an air-defense exercise scheduled for that morning, Day convinced his commanding officer to let him direct aircraft to attempt an intercept of these anomalous radar returns. Day’s decision led the VFA-41 Squadron Commander David Fravor to encounter what an “unofficial executive summary” later described as “an elongated egg or a ‘Tic Tac’ shape with a discernible midline horizontal axis” of approximately 46 feet in length.

Wikimedia Commons

An unofficial executive summary of the Nimitz encounter.

With the intercept too far away for even high-powered binoculars, Voorhis, Day, and the rest of the Princeton crew could only listen to the live communications chatter, as the unidentified craft effortless evaded the two fighter jets by demonstrating “an advanced acceleration, aerodynamic, and propulsion capability,” per the unofficial summary. Outmaneuvered by an object that’s colloquially become known for its shape as the “Tic Tac,” Fravor and his wingman returned to the USS Nimitz.

Thanks to a state-of-the-art ATFLIR targeting pod, in a subsequent flight by another F/A-18, Lt. Chad Underwood would successfully capture video of the “Anomalous Aerial Vehicle,” or “AAV.”

For 13 years, the incredible story of the U.S. Navy being harassed and outperformed by UFOs was largely unknown to the greater public. However, in December 2017, after To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science—a verbosely named UFO think tank founded by former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge—and The New York Times published a 1:16 clip of the ATFLIR video, the world suddenly became very familiar with the Nimitz encounters.

What hasn’t been discussed, however, is what the Nimitz’s enlisted witnesses say happened after the now-famous intercept with the “Tic Tac.” Their testimony raises many more questions, debate, and even some controversy.

The Mystery

Like many of the other sailors aboard the USS Princeton, former Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Turner knew something was up, but didn’t exactly know what had been going on inside the CIC. It was only during a chance encounter while delivering supplies to the ship’s Signal Exploitation Space that Turner found himself being another unwitting witness to the Nimitz’s UFO event.

A video playing on one of the console monitors immediately caught Turner’s eye. In it, the “Tic Tac” performed a number of seemingly impossible maneuvers, not seen in the brief clip released in 2017. Turner described what he saw in the Nimitz Encounters documentary:

“This thing was going berserk, like making turns. It’s incredible the amount of G forces that it would put on a human. It made a maneuver, like they were chasing it straight on, it was going with them, then this thing stopped turning, just gone. In an instant. The video you see now, that’s just a small snippet in the beginning of the whole video. But this thing, it was so much more than what you see in this video.”

Even now, Turner still appears visibly disturbed by whatever it is he saw that day. “I asked a good friend of mine who worked in that area, is this the training we’re going through?” he tells Popular Mechanics.

“No,” the friend replied. “This is real life.”

Equally by chance, during the time of the now-famous intercept, after being called to have a conversation with another detachment, Ryan Weigelt found himself inside the Princeton’s CIC. According to Weigelt, a video of an F/A-18 trying its best to catch the elusive “Tic Tac” was playing on the monitors. Like Turner, Weigelt says what he saw was a lot longer than the brief clip released in 2017.

“I was in there for quite a while and it was on the screen the whole time. I could not tell you how long, but it was playing when I went into combat and it was playing when I left,” Weigelt said in a YouTube interview.

Voorhis tells Popular Mechanics that he, too, saw a much longer and clearer version of the ATFLIR video through the ship’s Top Secret LAN network. “I definitely saw video that was roughly eight to 10 minutes long and a lot more clear,” Voorhis says.

Did what he saw resemble any type of conventional aircraft?

“Umm, no!” he says with a laugh. “In the video I saw, you got a good sense of how the pilot was having a difficult time trying to keep up with this thing. It kept making tight, right angle turns.”

The most shocking claim these Navy veterans make is in what they say happened with all the data tapes for the various systems that recorded these UFO events.

The Visitors

Miles away from Voorhis, Day, Turner, and Weigelt, on the deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, Petty Officer Patrick “PJ” Hughes was unaware of the unidentified objects the Carrier group had been dealing with for the past several days. Instead, as an aviation technician, one of Hughes’ jobs was to secure the hard drive data recorders from the airborne early-warning aircraft, the E-2 Hawkeye.

“We call them bricks, but they contain the software to run the airplane and they also record or can record a lot of the data that the air crew sees during the flight,” Hughes said in a YouTube interview.

On November 14, as Hughes performed this routine task, he was unaware that the E-2 hard drives he was securing away in a classified safe had just come from the Hawkeye that Day first tried to use to intercept the mysterious UFOs.

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Shortly after securing the data bricks, Hughes said he was visited by his commanding officer and two unknown individuals. “They were not on the ship earlier, and I didn’t see them come on. I’m not sure how they got there,” Hughes said.

According to Hughes, his commanding officer told him to turn over the recently secured hard drives. “We put them in the bags, he took them, then he and the two anonymous officers left,” Hughes said.

Inside the Princeton, Voorhis had a similar encounter. “These two guys show up on a helicopter, which wasn’t uncommon, but shortly after they arrived, maybe 20 minutes, I was told by my chain of command to turn over all the data recordings for the AEGIS system,” says Voorhis.

In an interview with Popular Mechanics, Aiello detailed the processes for securing flight tapes as Fravor mentioned. Though these materials are classified, a number of different qualified squadron personnel would have access to the safe where the tapes would have been kept.

“It’s very common, even for tapes you’ve marked and want to save, to inadvertently get put back into circulation, handed out, and recorded over,” Aiello says. “I think Cmdr. Fravor’s opinion on how the tapes went missing is the most plausible explanation. However, a lot of squadron personnel have access to those materials, so it leaves the door open that someone could have intentionally taken them.”

Though Fravor has acknowledged the disappearance of data records, the Nimitz’s most well-known witness has equally pushed back on some of the enlisted sailor’s accounts.

Speaking at the McMenamin’s UFO festival this past May, Fravor admonished some of the “other witness” accounts, saying only the four pilots involved ever personally saw the “Tic Tac,” that no one was asked to sign non-disclosure agreements [NDA], and that “men in suits” never showed up on the ships.

During an October appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Fravor said, “There’s still groups of people making stuff up, like someone came out on ours and was talking about, he’s like, I saw the whole video, the whole video is like 10 minutes long and it was doing all this. That’s bullshit.”

Twitter/Jeremy Corbell

Fravor told Rogan that he was one of the top 20 highest ranking members of the carrier group, and had there been any kind of formal investigation, he’d have known about it.

“Okay, I’ll give you credit, if they did, why wouldn’t they show up and talk to the guys who witnessed it, chased it, and one of the senior guys in the battle group?” Fravor asked.

Voorhis claims that in the days prior to the intercept, he witnessed indistinct objects far in the distance. But regarding Fravor’s intercept, he says, “His intercept? Nope, we were too far away, plus I would not have known about it or the bearing of it. Just that it was happening.”

“I just knew they were there for a reason, to do something they have to do, and just stay the hell out of the way.”

None of the witnesses Popular Mechanics spoke with claimed they’d seen Fravor’s intercept of the unknown object.

In The Nimitz Encounters documentary, Hughes said a friend and aircrew member on one of the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft told him he had to sign an NDA about the incident. Since the E-2 planes would have been in Carrier Wing Nine’s Airborne-Early Warning Squadron VAW-117 (“The Wallbangers”), and not strike fighter squadron under Fravor’s command, the possibility exists that the E-2’s squadron commander could have issued an NDA to their crew without Fravor’s knowledge. However, Popular Mechanics has not verified what Hughes was told. None of the witnesses we spoke with claimed they had signed an NDA.

The Nimitz’s enlisted witnesses stand by their claims that two unknown officials showed up shortly after the UFO incidents. However, they don’t describe them as being the sinisterly sounding “Men in Black,” as Fravor has implied.

According to Weigelt, it wasn’t at all uncommon to have people coming and going that weren’t stationed on the ships. For him, it was only when he heard Voorhis’ and Hughes’ accounts that the arrival of the two individuals on the Princeton seemed to become related to the UFO events.

“I just knew they were there for a reason, to do something they have to do, and just stay the hell out of their way,” Weigelt said.

“Squadron aircrew wouldn’t normally be notified if the ship’s radar or other information was being used for an investigation,” says Guy Snodgrass, a former F/A-18 pilot, Topgun instructor, and communications director for former Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis.

While Snodragss wouldn’t comment directly on the UFO event, he said he served alongside the weapons systems officer inside Fravor’s plane during the intercept.

“He’s a talented weapons systems officer (WSO) who has dedicated himself to the naval aviation profession,” Snodgrass says about the pilot, who has never spoken publicly and Popular Mechanics is choosing not to name, as he is still serving in the U.S. Navy. “He also has the acumen to correctly characterize anything out of the ordinary that he might have seen, so I would bias towards giving his account more, not less, weight.”

The Defenders

While investigating these claims, Popular Mechanics was able to locate and speak to a previously unknown witness who was with the Nimitz carrier group in 2004. Unaware of some of their fellow shipmates previously coming forward, and out of concerns related to security oaths, the witness agreed to speak only under the condition of anonymity.

“I do remember the events of 2004 very well,” says the witness, who at the time was an Operations Specialist aboard the USS Princeton. “The decision was made to scramble two fighter jets to investigate. From what the pilots described, the movement of the UFO was defying the laws of physics.”

Popular Mechanics didn’t provide the witness with any of the previous claims.

“What really made this incident alarming was when a Blackhawk helicopter landed on our ship and took all our information from the top secret rooms,” the witness says. “We were all pretty shocked and it was an unspoken rule not to talk about it because we had secret clearances and didn’t want to jeopardize our careers.”

Regarding whether or not there was originally a longer recording than the infamous UFO intercept, Aiello says that’s “entirely possible.”

“From what the pilots described, the movement of the UFO was defying the laws of physics.”

“The 8mm tapes in use at the time had two hours of recording time, and it was not uncommon for aircrew to leave it on for most of the flight,” Aiello says. “It’s plausible that they simply recorded a short segment of the tapes down in CIC, but that the rest of the tapes were available … up until they were either recorded over or whatever happened.”

Aiello, who was on the Nimitz aircraft carrier in 2004 but was assigned to another strike-fighter squadron, says he doesn’t have any direct information on the incident, but he’s willing to offer his opinion based on his experience as a military fighter pilot for over 20 years.

The enlisted witnesses say it’s disappointing to hear Fravor suggest some of their accounts are inaccurate. However, they all stand by their experiences, and equally support Fravor’s account. For them, they say the only reason they ever came out with their story was to support Fravor and their fellow sailors. “That’s what it’s always been about since day one,” Turner says.

But even if Fravor isn’t buying the witnesses’ stories, that doesn’t mean others don’t believe.

“The combination of those aviators, the Princeton Aegis Radar operators, and the E-2 crew convinced me beyond a doubt of the veracity of the story,” says Paco Chierici, a former F-14 pilot, author of Lions of the Sky, and the person credited with first sharing the news of the Nimitz event in a 2015 Fighter Sweep article. “I know those people and how that world works. There is no way it could have been fabricated or misinterpreted.” (Fravor did not respond to several requests for an interview.)

To be clear, the only Nimitz witness Chierici personally knows is Fravor. “But,” he says, “I know these people. I worked and lived with them for 20 years, operating at very high tempos and stress levels. They’re all, from the enlisted radar operators, to the squadron COs, incredibly professional and competent. The absolute best at what they do.”

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Department of Defense

Five U.S. Navy Sailors Saw the Glowing ‘Tic Tac’-Shaped UFO. They Told Us Exactly What They Witnessed - PART II

• Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on November 12, 2019

The five men share an easy rapport with each other, playfully ribbing one another while also communicating a deep sense of mutual respect. It’s clear they all share the bond of having once served in the armed forces. Yet for Gary Voorhis, Jason Turner, P.J. Hughes, Ryan Weigelt, and Kevin Day—assembled together in a private group chat by Popular Mechanics—something much bigger ties them together beyond simply serving in the U.S. Navy.

The Truth...

By the Nimitz’s “other” witnesses’ accounts, there’s overwhelming evidence to suggest someone was very interested in this event when it occurred. Since none of the witnesses or pilots involved say they were ever interviewed at the time, it appears the most significant concern for the witnesses was the ship’s electronics data. What this data reveals, however, remains a mystery.

And as far as why other data may be being withheld from public release, Elizondo says this could have more to do with what was used than what was actually recorded.

“Many of the systems and the manner in which data is collected remains classified in order to protect tactics, techniques, and procedures,” says Elizondo. “I am not at liberty to discuss any of those systems.”

Elizondo says he would “absolutely” encourage other military witnesses to come forward with their accounts. “Many of our service members are highly trained observers,” he says. “Data obtained by these types are always considered valid observations, although the nuances may not be immediately known.”

Nick Cook, the former aviation editor for Jane’s Defense Weekly, says there are a number of reasons why personnel might have boarded ships and seized electronic data. “It could mean it was sensitive information,” he says. “It could mean this was an exercise.”

Regarding the latter possibility—that this was a secret military test of some sort—Cook, a career defense journalist, says in his opinion it was unlikely this was a classified test. “It’s not impossible, but I wouldn’t think it’s likely. It would be so against the norm of my experience with how the black world conducts testing.”

Having spent a decade investigating the potential for secret highly advanced aerospace technology, and publishing these efforts in The Hunt for Zero Point, Cook was cautious in offering any definite conclusions as to what the Nimitz carrier group had encountered. Cook says it’s possible, but not likely, that the “Tic Tac” was some type of classified drone.

“I searched for 10 years, and never found any compelling evidence that the type of technology exists,” Cook says. “[That] doesn’t mean it couldn’t still exist … I just never found any smoking gun for it.”

But when pushed, the career aviation journalist soberly says, “In the balance of probabilities, I don’t think it’s ‘ours.’”

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To Hide Top-Secret Weapons, the Pentagon Planted Myths About UFOs at Area 51—Then Things Spun Out of Control