UFO sightings are increasing daily in 2012...what..or who...is in the skies over planet Earth?
'They've inundated our newsroom with calls and e-mails... Those strange lights over Blue Springs....We still don't know what these things are, but we do know more people are seeing them, in fact we're still getting calls as we speak..." KCTV5 Missouri
Blue Springs residents aren't the only ones scratching their heads over the strange lights which have become frequent nocturnal visitors, the station reports.
The Missouri UFO Network has been overwhelmed with the number of calls that they are getting from residents spotting the pulsing multi-coloured sphere in the sky.
Missouri's station KCTV5 has also been inundated with calls since a report May 24th was first aired, including calls from people from around the world confirming that they have seen the same glowing objects.
Videos shot in the last year confirm an identical sphere has been witnessed in Croatia, in Italy, as well as in numerous other countries and US States.
'See how they pulse back and forth? That's consistent with what we've seen on other nights...'
FAA refered the station to NORAD, however the agency stated that they did have some calls regarding some strange sightings, but that they have 'no record' of those calls.
Local news kmov.com asks the question:
'If it is not a star, a planet or a plane then what is that strange light in the night sky? That is what residents of Blue Springs, Missouri are asking.'
A new tool could aid planet hunters in the search for Earth-like alien planets.
Scientists published a study in the May 31 edition of the journal Nature in which they detail results from testing their laser frequency comb–a calibration tool for large ground-based planet-hunting telescopes. Some of these telescopes locate planets by observing the gravitational effect, or wobble, these potential planets have on their parent stars. Current tools are reportedly limited in function, and lack precision. For example, the European Southern Observatory’s High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph on a telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile searches for planets using this “wobble method.”
The La Silla Observatory in Chile. (Credit: ESO)
But according to Space.com, “precision is key, and the hollow cathode lamps used to calibrate those spectrometers have their limitations . . . they are not adjustable, can be difficult to gauge, and allow the spectrometers to track the wobble of a star only down to about 30 centimeters per second.” And, as study co-author Gaspare Lo Curto of the European Southern Observatory explains, the detection of Earth-sized planets requires that precision, multiplied by ten.
Lo Curto and his colleagues tested the laser frequency comb on the HARPS. The researchers claim this tool provides the required accuracy enhancement. Space.com explains that the laser frequency comb works by emitting “many lines of light spread apart like the teeth of a comb.” And because the distance between these “teeth” is known, it is possible to more accurately gauge “wobble.”
Although the laser comb is capable of detecting planets with masses similar to Earth, the limitations of the telescopes themselves currently prevent this. Researchers say that the HARPS, even with a laser comb, would not be capable of detecting planets less massive than Neptune-size planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars. For reference, Neptune’s mass is seventeen times that of Earth. But optimistic researchers contend that larger telescopes currently being constructed, when fit with a laser comb, will be able to detect Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.
Date of
sighting: May 26 and 27, 2012 Location
of sighting: Japan
These two videos were taken in Japan this week and both
apparently by the same person. I can't find the persons statement about it but
as we see these objects look a lot like cloud orbs. They move quickly and
playfully as cloud orbs are often seen doing. The shortness of the video has me
a bit concerned but it looks authentic.
A silver orb
UFO was spotted by a fisherman in Karnak, Illinois, as he was looking for the
perfect fishing hole.
The object
hovered just long enough for him to get this photo before it zoomed away at what
he claims was "a thousand miles an hour."
The video was
posted to YouTube by the paranormal investigation channel AlienInformation which normally uploads raw video.
But this
incident is being reported more in the M.U.F.O.N. style of investigation, with
the witness appearing on camera and just a still photo to show as evidence.
The
unidentified flying object is of the now familiar silver orb UFO type which just seems to hover silently, with no
flashing lights or identifiable markings, no wings, engines or propellers and
obviously not a bird or a weather balloon.
Because there
is no video, it's difficult to dispute the story of the fisherman, who clearly
believes he saw something strange.
By only being
able to take the one photo, it's possible the object zoomed away before he was
able to get another shot. So, what is
it? Here's the
video:
A mysterious UFO sighting last Friday had
some Tijuanans wondering if their city was being visited by
extraterrestrials. The event was captured on a two-minute,
43-second video and uploaded to YouTube.
The disc-shaped object was sighted at night
hovering above a mountain range for several minutes. This video could very well
be a fake, but it's still compelling footage. You be the
judge.
The strange disc-shaped vehicle is
motionless throughout the video, and you can clearly see pulsating lights on the
top and bottom of the craft. The camera operator seems very alarmed by what he
is viewing, and utters expletives in English several times.
Tijuana is only 20 minutes from San Diego,
home to the largest fleet of warships in the world, so people should be
concerned any time there is UFO activity in this region. San Diego also hosts
Marine and Coast Guard bases, as well as many defense contractors.
Despite the shakiness, the picture
resolution is fairly good, and he zooms to give the viewer a better look at the
UFO.
There can surely be very few stranger experiences for the researcher of Fortean and paranormal phenomena than when those same phenomena decide to turn the tables and focus their attentions upon the aforementioned researcher. And there is, perhaps, no better example of this than in relation to the mystery of the Men in Black – whose shadowy and creepy activities seem to have consistently targeted UFO witnesses and investigators alike. Including, just maybe, me. Read on…
On last Saturday night’s Coast to Coast show I was interviewed on that very subject: the Men in Black mystery. It was a 3-hour-long episode (1AM to 4AM) in which I discussed with the host of the show, John B. Wells, the many and varied complexities of the legend of the Men in Black.
During the course of the show, we covered a great deal of ground, such as: (A) the saga of Albert Bender (arguably, the one man more than any other who kick-started the MIB mystery), (B) Gray Barker’s significant part in the controversy (largely thanks to his classic 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers), (C) the MIB-Mothman connection detailed by John Keel in The Mothman Prophecies and by the aforementioned Barker in The Silver Bridge (the latter being a book I particularly recommend), (D) the many and varied theories for who – or what – the Men in Black might be, (E) modern day encounters with the MIB, and much more.
But, there was something else too…
Normally, whenever I do a radio show, it goes ahead without a hitch or a glitch. But, not when I’m talking about the MIB. On many occasions now, when that subject surfaces, we seem to encounter endless telephone interference – which is, as many will be acutely aware, an absolutely staple part of MIB lore.
As anyone who has read the work of Keel will know, cases abound where people immersed in the conundrum of the Men in Black have encountered all manner of very bizarre telephone interference, such as hearing strange voices ranting in bizarre or foreign languages, as well as equally weird electronic noises, clicks, and bleeps. And, very often, in the night hours and early mornings when the world is transformed into a very different and mysterious place.
And, indeed, it might be said that last weekend’s Coast to Coast show was just the latest addition to this odd and clearly ongoing situation.
On no less than four occasions during the course of the show, the landline dropped, forcing the producers to call me back. But, the phone didn’t ring out at my end on any of those call-back occasions. So then they tried my cell phone. Which was fine, as I always have that handy for use as an emergency back-up. Well, it was okay for a while. That is, until the cell started dropping and we had to then use another land line.
So, all in all, no less than three phones for one interview – a significant portion of which was focused on the very issue of the Men in Black and telephone interference!
If this had happened only once or twice during the course of my MIB-themed research and interviews, I would put it all down to glitches in the phone connection and nothing else whatsoever. But, as listeners to some of my previous shows on the MIB may know, this happens frequently – even to the point of where I now pretty much anticipate it occurring! One particularly memorable example occurred last year while I was doing Whitley Strieber’s Dreamland show, right at the exact time we were discussing – yep, you guessed right – the MIB and phone-based freakishness.
So, what on earth (or, very possibly, completely off it…) is going on? Of course, the eye-rolling skeptic or smug, know-it-all debunker would very possibly say that because I have extensively written and spoken about the association between the MIB and telephones, I am simply noting every time such a weird event occurs – and then I’m placing more significance on such matters than I should be. Well, I disagree with those smug eye-rollers!
I very rarely get any phone problems when I’m doing radio. So, why should I get far more while doing MIB-based broadcasts? And, more importantly, why should the interference actually occur – as it has on more than a few times – exactly (and I do mean exactly) when I’m talking about that very issue of phone foul-ups?!
Tricksters from beyond the veil? A warning from the stars? Shadowy visitors trying to provoke menace, anxiety and silence? If so, they’re doing a pretty bad job of it, as all that this makes me want to do is tell everyone, and spread the data far and wide. But Ufology has had (and still does have) its weak souls for who such potential, perceived threats just might work.
As for me, I have a message for E.T.: Don’t phone home. Or, at least, quit phoning (or interfering with) my phone! And, while you’re at it, get a life!
There, if that doesn’t guarantee me a face to face visit from the MIB, then nothing will…
Published on May 18, 2012 by silverstreemz
This was filmed ouside Las Vegas, near Red Rock. It seemed to be following us along the ridge for about 5 minutes, appearing and then dissapearing.
Soon after we started filming, it quickly vanished and we didn't see it again.
The stills at the end are much better quality.
Video has been enhanced by www.ufocasebook.com
Team Ocean Explorer said this image shows 300m "drag marks" around an unidentified -- possibly flying -- object. (Ocean Explorer/Peter Lindberg)
Swedish scientists plan to explore a mystery ripped straight from the “The X-Files.”
Rather than Mulder and Scully, this adventure features Swedish researchers Peter Lindberg and Dennis Asberg. They too know the truth is out there -- and in mere days plan to visit what they call the “Baltic Anomaly.”
Last summer, while on a treasure hunt between Sweden and Finland, the pair and their research associates made headlines worldwide with the discovery of a 200-foot wide unidentified object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Now a team of oceanographers, engineers and deep sea divers will return to the site Friday, June 1, for a 6 to 10 day trip.
They want to find out once and for all what it really is.
“We don’t know whether it is a natural phenomenon, or an object,” Lindberg, captain of the Ocean Explorer, told FoxNews.com. “We saw it on sonar when we were searching for a wreck from World War I. This circular object just turned up on the monitor.”
The discovery was a worldwide news event, covered in the popular press, the scientific press and in the blogosphere. Many speculated that the discovery was of a long-lost unidentified flying object (UFO), that crashed into the sea -- evoking Duchovny’s alien-hunting character on the TV show.
Lindberg is clearly aware of the connection: The logo for his “OceanX Team” is clearly meant to evoke the X-Files logo. But is the truth out there this time? He aims to find out.
“We’ll be searching the area in a number of ways,” Lindberg explained. “We’ll use sonar to make 3D images of the bottom, the clay bottom, of that part of the sea. We’ll send down deep-sea divers too. And a camera robot. We’ll also take samples from the sea bed and measure them for toxicities and radiation.”
At this point, Lindberg said, he and his colleagues “don’t know more than anyone else what it is” down there for certain.
But he’s willing to speculate as to the possibilities. The crash debris could be from a meteor, he told FoxNews.com. It could a naturally occurring gas well discovery -- located interestingly enough in international waters, he added. Or, he muses, it could be the remains of a Russian warship from the late 19th century.
“I don’t think it’s an ordinary stone formation, or cargo dropped from a ship,” Lindberg said. “But it can be a lot of things. If it’s not manmade, and was made by another form of intelligent life, it would be very lucky. I’ve never won the lottery before!”
His colleague, Dennis Asberg, agreed. “If this were a UFO, that would indeed be a strange thing.” He too speculates that it could be a gas well finding, or the remains of a meteor. “I’m just not sure,” he said. “But we’ll see soon.”
Others claim that the object, located 300 feet beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea, may be a natural formation, or even an emerging volcano.
Earlier this year, Lindberg told the media he thought this discovery might be a “new Stonehenge.”
The Ocean Explorer crew includes 13 researchers, including a sonar expert, and a camera crew from Swedish TV that will document the event. Lindberg said he is in negotiations with Microsoft to see if the event can be carried live on the Internet, from the remote location in international waters via video streaming.
“We’re working with Microsoft on that, but nothing is final yet. Tell them we want to do a deal,” he joked.
The exploration is funded by private investors and bank notes that Ocean Explorer has secured, said Lindberg. The initial discovery of the unidentified sea object was made during a trek to find Swedish commercial ships sunk by the German Navy during World War I last summer.
As spring eases into summer, the multiplexes are witnessing an all-out alien assault. Within the space of a month, silver screens have shown ships of the U.S. Navy belching ordnance at invading extraterrestrials in Battleship; portrayed black-garbed government agents keeping tabs on ornery aliens in Men in Black III; and are promising the long-awaited back-story of perhaps the most visceral space opera of all time (Alien) in Prometheus.
These fictional tales appeal to us with themes that are long established: The all-powerful enemy with some niche vulnerability that humankind can discover and exploit; the potentially malevolent neighbors who are not what they seem; and the odd strangers who lie in wait, keen to turn us into surrogate mothers thanks to unauthorized breeding experiments.
Extraterrestrial beings offer obvious benefits for the movies' creators. The filmmakers can exploit the possibilities of novel settings and situations, and can fashion their antagonists to be thoroughly repugnant and in possession of technology that would stun DARPA.
Obviously, there is no pretense that Hollywood aliens might accurately reflect actual inhabitants of the galaxy. But is it all just free-form imagination? Can contemporary science say much about whether these cinematic sentients might be ciphers for the real thing?
That may sound like an unanswerable question. After all, researchers haven't yet found any life -- dead or alive -- from beyond Earth. None; not even microscopic life. That fact seems to gives the moviemakers utterly free rein. But not entirely. We know a few things about both astronomy and biology that can help delineate what's plausible when it comes to extraterrestrials.
One thing that every school kid learns is that the distances between stars are vast. This, of course, is a challenge to rocketry -- our fastest spacecraft would take 100 thousand years to travel to even the nearest star. But it's no real impediment to filmic aliens, as they can be presumed to be far beyond our own technical level. After all, they've demonstrated their advanced technology by coming here, for good or otherwise (or, as in the case of Alien, have invaded someone else's world.) Clearly, this automatically implies that any weaponry these visitors wield will also be far beyond the capabilities of our own quaint arsenals. It's not likely that we could really take them on and win. However, if Hollywood were to bow to that fact, it would turn most alien invasion films into short subjects.
The large distances between the stars will also affect the motivation for any extraterrestrials to come to Earth. In some sci-fi, the visitors from afar have opted to visit because they are aggrieved by our nuclear weaponry or our poor treatment of the environment. But our cosmic confreres won't know about either, since the radio and television broadcasts (or for that matter, the reflected light from the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere) will not yet have reached their world, and alerted them to our bad behavior.
Often, invading aliens decide to drop by because we have some tempting natural resources. Water is a favorite, but so are heavy metals. However, one of the great triumphs of astronomy has been to show that the entire cosmos is composed of the same stuff everywhere. The aliens can find needed raw materials at home, and save the transportation costs.
Most movie aliens also share our body plan -- an upright stance with two arms, two legs, and a nose separating eyes and mouth. Their biochemistry is often similar enough to ours that they can either get some nourishment by eating us, or use us for breeding -- all of which would be remarkable, which is to say unexpected and unlikely. But the movie mavens know that if the aliens are too alien, audiences will have a difficult time reading their intentions, or accepting any interaction between them and us.
The bottom line is that Hollywood aliens are mostly reflections of ourselves, and hardly accurate ciphers for real extraterrestrials.
Even so, sci-fi movies are more than just entertainment: they are remarkably influential in getting young people interested in space and science in general. This is not because these pictures correctly reflect what we know about the universe, but because they are emotionally compelling. The facts might be wrong, but the story telling grabs young minds, and infuses the subject matter with romantic appeal.
The National Academy of Sciences has recognized the significant influence of cinema sci-fi on youth, and has inaugurated a program, known as the Science and Entertainment Exchange, that brings practicing scientists and filmmakers together. That way, not only will Tinsel Town script writers be able to sharpen the fidelity of their product, but they'll also hear of discoveries that might help in the development of novel story concepts.
And that could be beneficial to all concerned because, after all, the hero of a sci-fi story is not a character -- it's the idea.
Residents in Blue Springs, Missouri have seen multiple UFOs in the night sky for the past two weeks. The objects are described as bright hovering orbs that change color. A witness even claims to have seen one of these orbs rapidly drop in altitude. Other witnesses have described zig-zagging behavior, and have observed these objects disappearing and reappearing.
Strange light over Blue Springs, Mo. (Credit: KCTV5)
Some sources indicate the lights have been seen in nearby Independence, MO as well.
According to KCTV5, Missouri MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) is investigating these sightings. Assistant State Director Margie Kay interviewed witnesses, then set up telescopes to observe the lights for herself. Her initial assumption upon viewing the first light was that it was the bright star Vega–the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. But as other similar lights appeared in the sky, Kay was stumped. After reassessing her opinion, she told KCTV5, “I don’t think it’s a planet at this point. I don’t know what it is. It’s unidentified.” KCTV5 reportedly contacted local police, but police have received no calls about the mysterious lights. KCTV5 also contacted the FAA, but was redirected to NORAD, where a spokesperson confirmed that a similar sighting had been reported, but the objects have not been identified.
Date of
sighting: May 24, 2012 Location of sighting: Moscow,
Russia
This is
an interesting but shaky video from Moscow of several glowing orbs over the
city. It seems that they flash to communicate with one another as well as
staying in a triangle formation most of the time.
I’m very often asked words to the effect of: What evidence did the Collins Elite (the clandestine think-tank group in the U.S. Government whose activities are the subject of my Final Events book) find to support their highly controversial idea that the UFO phenomenon is demonic in origin? Well, as far as can be ascertained, they didn’t find any evidence.
Rather, they developed a vast body of beliefs relative to such matters – which is what often happens in paranormal-themed situations when hard evidence fails to materialize and the researcher either becomes frustrated by the quest for the truth, or has an emotional need to gravitate to one idea or another, something which often results from weakness and insecurity, or an arrogant and ego-driven conclusion that one is right, despite being unable to prove it.
But, that’s not to say the Collins Elite didn’t uncover a wealth of intriguing threads that they wove together into an extraordinary scenario. They most certainly did. One of them relates to none other than a certain George Adamski. Born in Poland in 1891, Adamski had the distinction of being the most supported, celebrated, and ridiculed of those who claimed direct contact with human-like extraterrestrials in the 1950s.
The controversy largely began on November 20, 1952, when Adamski claimed that he witnessed, along with six other people, the landing of a UFO in the Californian desert and then made contact with its pilot, one Orthon of the planet Venus.
FBI documentation of 1953 on Adamski’s claimed encounter with the extraterrestrial Orthon states:
“At a point ten and two-tenths miles from Desert Center on the road to Parker and Needles, Arizona, Adamski made contact with a space craft and had talked to a space man. Adamski stated that he, [deleted] and his wife Mary had been out in the desert and that he and the persons with him had seen the craft come down to the earth. Adamski stated that a small stairway in the bottom of the craft, which appeared to be a round disc, opened and a space man came down the steps. Adamski stated he believed there were other space men in the ship because the ship appeared translucent and could see the shadows of the space men.”
The alien that allegedly confronted Adamski, the FBI noted, was “over five feet in height, having long hair like a woman’s and garbed in a suit similar to the space suits or web suits worn by the US Air Force men.” (The image to the left is a scan of one of the many pages contained within the FBI’s dossier on Adamski).
This was a story greatly expanded upon in a 1953 book entitled Flying Saucers Have Landedthat Adamski wrote with an Irish aristocrat named Desmond Leslie. It was this Adamski-Leslie connection that got the members of the Collins Elite all worked up and bent out of shape. One of the former Collins Elite staffers told me that the group quickly became concerned by the working relationship that existed between Adamski and Leslie, and for one very stark and eye-opening reason: Desmond Leslie had a long and rich link to the world of the occult, including – in a roundabout way – Aleister Crowley himself.
As Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts note in their book, Flying Saucerers, Leslie’s father, Sir Shane (who was a second cousin to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill) was a truly colorful character. Indeed, he caused a sensation by converting to Roman Catholicism and the Nationalist cause. In addition, he spent part of his early years in Russia, where he became friends with Leo Tolstoy, before traveling across Europe.
It was during these travels that Sir Shane became obsessed with the world of the supernatural, which led him to carefully collect stories for his Shane Leslie’s Ghost Book, published in 1955. Sir Shane’s closest friends at this time included the acclaimed paranormal novelist M.R. James and the eccentric Lord Tredegar, who dabbled in the black arts, under the influence of Aleister Crowley’s teachings, at his country estate in Wales.
So Desmond Leslie was, in a roundabout and convoluted fashion, someone who had been exposed to the occult and the teachings of Crowley. Just like rocket scientist and Crowley devotee Jack Parsons – another character whose 1940s/early 1950s actions greatly troubled the Collins Elite. And that Leslie was digging into the world of Flying Saucers with George Adamski only troubled them even more and amplified their beliefs that the UFO phenomenon was/is demonic.
Unconnected threads that happened to occasionally cross paths, or evidence that the Collins Elite members were correct? In the absence of evidence one way or the other, it all comes down to belief and interpretation of the data and facts.
“What made Ridley Scott revisit the
world of his iconic movie Alien more than 30 years later? The reasons are
complicated, writes Damon Wise, and the results aren't what you'd expect.”
Article
featuring comments from Ridley Scott indicating that
Prometheus might be the beginning of a whole new
franchise. Read it here.
Men in Black 3
stuff
MIB 3 director Barry Sonnenfeld tells io9 what he has learned from the
second movie’s mistakes and how his threequel is better as a
result.
Meanwhile, Lee Spiegel of The Huffington Post reminds us of the real-life MIB encounters that inspired
the movie franchise.
Finally, on the MIB front, it’s an
“illegal alien” face-off between MIB 3 and Mars
Attacks over at Bryce Zabel’s Movie Smackdown site. Go see who
wins!
Former SETI Director:
Hollywood’s aliens are too nasty!
Former SETI Director
Jill Tarter tells Universe Today that Hollywood’s
alien invasion movies are a big bag of bollocks… but phrases it more politely
than that…
“While Sir Stephen
Hawking warned that alien life might try to conquer or colonize Earth, I
respectfully disagree. If aliens were able to visit Earth that would mean they
would have technological capabilities sophisticated enough not to need slaves,
food, or other planets. If aliens were to come here it would be simply to
explore.
Considering the age of
the universe, we probably wouldn’t be their first extraterrestrial encounter,
either. We should look at movies like ‘Men in Black III,’ ‘Prometheus’ and
‘Battleship’ as great entertainment and metaphors for our own fears, but we
should not consider them harbingers of alien
visitation.”
Lovable ‘80s TV alien ALF is headed
for the big screen according to his creator Paul Fusco, who tells The Hollywood Reporter:
“ALF
could be more outspoken now than ever, because the world is a whole different
place than the '80s. And I think the character still stands up and certainly has
more to say now than ever,” he says. “I think we would approach it in a fresh
way. I don’t think we would duplicate the TV show, but I think we would maybe
put it in a storyline where we would explain how ALF got here and put him with a
new family and let the character speak for
himself.”
Read more about the history – and
possible future – of ALF, here.
Sticking with the ‘80s
theme...
Thunder, Thunder,
ThunderCats... ho!!!
This is old news (it was first reported in February of last
year), but I’ve never mentioned it on Silver Screen Saucersuntil now.
Five years ago, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it would be producing a big
screen CGI adaptation of the 1980s animated TV series, ThunderCats. However, the project
got lost in development hell, and there it remains to this day. Fans of the
heroic alien cat-people thingies might be interested in the following test
footage for the movie that found its way online last year (don’t get excited,
though. It’s naff)...
The best alien
invasion movie ever?!
Last but not least, visionary
filmmakers Michael Bay (Transformers) and Peter Berg (Battleship) have teamed-up to bring
us their dream project ;-) Could this be the greatest alien invasion movie ever?
View the trailer here...
One of the most tantalising ever accounts of an apparent encounter with a UFO – deemed so credible it apparently convinced a British minister – can be told for the first time.
After the sighting, Hughes – who was known as Sam, after a character created by Stanley Holloway, the actor and comedian – was nicknamed 'Saucer Sam' by colleagues, who painted a cartoon of a flying saucer on his jet.
Image 2 of 2
After the sighting, Hughes – who was known as Sam, after a character created by Stanley Holloway, the actor and comedian – was nicknamed 'Saucer Sam' by colleagues, who painted a cartoon of a flying saucer on his jet
The RAF logbook of Flight Sergeant Roland Hughes
It is one of the most tantalising ever official accounts of an encounter with a UFO – deemed so credible it even convinced the government minister who investigated it.
Now, for the first time, the sighting of a flying saucer by an RAF fighter pilot and the subsequent high level inquiry it prompted can be revealed.
The sighting occurred in 30 July 1952, when Flight Sergeant Roland Hughes was on a training flight over West Germany in a de Havilland Vampire FB9.
As he was returning to base, he reported being intercepted by a "gleaming silver, metallic disc" which flew alongside his aircraft before speeding off. The mystery object was also detected by RAF radars on the ground, which recorded it travelling at speeds far in excess of any known aircraft.
Hughes reported the sighting to his senior officers who sent him to see Duncan Sandys, the then aviation minister, to brief him personally.
Following the meeting, Sandys went on to tell senior civil servants he was convinced by the airman's story.
The UFO sighting is not only one of the most detailed by a serving member of the armed forces but also shows how seriously such reports were taken by the authorities. British governments have historically downplayed the suggestion that such sightings have been investigated.
The existence of the sighting has emerged in papers released by the Churchill Archive, at Cambridge University. The centre contains the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, as well as Sandys, who married the former prime minister's daughter, Diana.
In one document – written a few days after the interview with the 23-year-old Hughes – Sandys tells the government's chief scientist, Lord Cherwell, about the meeting and states that he found the airman's account and the supporting evidence from radar "convincing".
The sighting came shortly after a number of similar "flying saucer" reports from US airmen and Sandys added: "I have no doubt at all that (Hughes) saw a phenomenon similar to that described by numerous observers in the United States."
Lord Cherwell had dismissed the US sightings as "mass psychology", but in his memo Sandys takes him to task for this attitude and makes clear his position on the existence of UFOs.
The minister, who was later promoted to Defence Secretary, went on: "Until some satisfactory scientific explanation can be provided, it would be most unwise to accept without further question the view that 'flying saucers' can be dismissed as 'a mild form of hysteria'." Sandys also wrote that there was "ample evidence of some unfamiliar and unexplained phenomenon".
The documents are among thousands released by the archive in recent years. Their disclosures were uncovered by David Clarke, a Sheffield Hallam
University academic, while he was conducting research for a new edition of a book he has written on UFO sightings for the National Archives.
By chance, shortly after his discovery, Dr Clarke was contacted by the fighter pilot's son, who had read the earlier edition and wanted to share information about his father's sighting.
Roland Hughes had died in 2009, aged 79, but had recounted his version of events to his son, Brian, who passed on the account to Dr Clarke, as well as his father's log book, in which he had noted the sighting and subsequent meeting with Sandys.
The incident will now feature in the latest edition of the book, to be released in September, following the release this summer of more government UFO files from the National Archives.
In the airman's account, relayed via his son, he was in one of four aircraft from No. 20 Squadron, of the RAF's 2nd Tactical Air Force, returning to RAF Oldenburg, in northern West Germany, flying in formation at high altitude in clear visibility.
He reported seeing a sudden flash of "silver light" in they sky high above him which rapidly descended towards him until he could see that it was a "gleaming silver-metallic disc".
The airman said its surface was shiny, "like tin foil", and "without a single crease or crinkle in it". He could see, with "astonishing clarity", the aircraft's "highly reflective and absolutely seamless metallic-looking surface". He estimated its size at 100ft across – "about the wingspan of a Lancaster bomber".
It flew alongside him for several seconds before flying off at great speed.
None of the other three pilots saw the object – it is thought because they were all executing a "banking turn" at the time and would not have been looking in the right direction – but radar on the ground had picked it up.
Six days later, Hughes – who later worked as a commercial airline pilot – was sent to RAF Fassberg, another base in northern West Germany, to give his account to senior RAF officers and Sandys himself, who was visiting. The minister's first question to Hughes was how many beers he had had the night before.
After the sighting, Hughes – who was known as Sam, after a character created by Stanley Holloway, the actor and comedian – was nicknamed "Saucer Sam" by colleagues, who painted a cartoon of a flying saucer on his jet.
Brian Hughes, 45, a Ministry of Defence civil servant based at Bovington Camp, in Dorset, said: "We knew about the sighting in the family when we were growing up but my father didn't talk about it a lot. We learned about it more from prompting him.
"He was very matter-of-fact about what he saw, just describing the details. He never did any research into UFO or flying saucers and didn't have any interest in the supernatural of science fiction.
"If it was someone other than my father who had told this story, I would be sceptical. He once said to me 'People think you're mad if you say you've seen a flying saucer – I've only ever seen one once; I've never seen one since.'"
Dr Clarke, who is sceptic on UFO issues, said: "There is absolutely no doubt that something was seen by Hughes. He is not making this up. But the only honest position to take is that we don't know what it was. But there could be some sort of scientific explanation, before you start jumping to conclusions about alien visitors."
The Navajo Rangers have been modestly performing their duties on the reservation for more than fifty years now. The group has seen their numbers decline due to funding, but have remained dedicated to the needs of their people. Jonathan Dover and Stanley Milford provide law enforcement, public education, preventive patrols, and regulatory enforcement to the reservation as Navajo Rangers. And they keep open minds when unique cases come forward. Their investigations have included UFO sightings, paranormal cases, and big foot. Examining these occurrences has led to an array of skepticism from other law enforcement agencies.
A short time ago, the two Rangers attended the 2012 International UFO Congress and gained attention from a local TV station, which ran a story on what they’ve been investigating. This has sparked more interest in the pair, and how they go about their investigations. Dover and Milford carry on case by case though, listening intently to the witnesses and recording the evidence. Recently, the two presented on their experiences and investigations at a monthly meeting held by the Phoenix Chapter of MUFON. In the future, Open Minds will be travelling north to ride along with the Rangers for a glimpse of their practices, investigation techniques, and the affect this has on their people.
SETI astronomer Jill Tarter objects to how extraterrestrials are portrayed by Hollywood on the big screen.
In a press release issued to promote the SETI Institute’s upcoming SETIcon II conference, Tarter explains her opinion that, if aliens came to Earth, “that would mean they would have technological capabilities sophisticated enough not to need slaves, food, or other planets.” She then offers her theory that “If aliens were to come here it would be simply to explore.” So, basically, “Alien life probably isn’t interested in having us for dinner, enslaving us or laying eggs in our bellies,” as Jason Major of Universe Today summarizes.
Movie poster for 'Battle Ship'. (Credit: Universal)
In voicing her disagreement with Hollywood’s portrayal of extraterrestrials, Tarter also takes issue with theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking: “While Sir Stephen Hawking warned that alien life might try to conquer or colonize Earth, I respectfully disagree.”
Although she disagrees with Hollywood’s versions of extraterrestrials, Tarter suggests that we should “look at movies like ‘Men in Black III,’ ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Battleship’ as great entertainment and metaphors for our own fears, but we should not consider them harbingers of alien visitation.”
SETI Institute officials announced on Tuesday, May 22 that Tarter, the director of the Center for SETI Research is stepping down from her position to devote her full time to fundraising for the Institute.
Long-time UFO researcher and Huffington Post journalist Lee Speigel joins us to talk about space robots and the search for extraterrestrial life. That, plus the latest space and UFO news, on this episode of Spacing Out!
Like clockwork — not to be confused with A Clockwork Orange — creatures from distant worlds were inexplicably drawn to McMinnville once again last Saturday. For the lucky 13th consecutive year, these unearthly beings set foot, claw, pad and tentacle on our downtown streets.
Parade-goers roam Third Street before the parade
Joel Ray / News-Register
McMinnville Downtown Association operative Ginger Williams, on assignment to observe, monitor and even interact organizationally with all manner of sentient life forms, was debriefed in the aftermath.
“They came from everywhere,” Williams gasped, barely able to maintain her composure after such a taxing ordeal. “Word has apparently gotten out over the intergalactic communications network, and they’re determined to make a show of force.”
According to her calculations, the 2012 parade established a new record for entries at 55 and individual participants at 619. By comparison, the 2009 parade logged 37 entries and 349 individuals.
Star Wars characters patrol the 13th annual UFO Festival, which drew large crowds to downtown McMinnville on Saturday. Joel Ray / News-Register
Williams expressed both elation and consternation at the prospect of continued increases. “Being able to have positive encounters with even more humanoids and other intelligent beings is exciting, but the logistics may become challenging.”
Pointing out that the growth of such an event is necessarily restricted by the size limitations of McMinnville’s central district, she mentioned that this year, the parade route was expanded to Fourth Street to accommodate more attendees.
“Not only were there more exotic aliens this year,” Williams said, “but more curious humans came to welcome them.”
The homo sapiens gawking in awe and wonder at the extraterrestrials and their bizarre vehicles passing by lined Third Street five deep. Observers who elected to view the scene from Fourth Street sidewalks enjoyed less crowded conditions.
Still, people stood curbside as far up Fourth as Evans.
If this continues, both streets could very well be packed with onlookers in years to come. There may be no stopping the momentum of McMinnville’s UFO Festival phenomenon.
Having the opportunity to converse with some of these ETs provided a unique perspective for this writer.
Take the female trio calling themselves The Celestial Sun Sisters. In a futile effort to cloak their true identities, they claimed to be from Centralia, Washington.
Further, the “sisters” had assumed the alien aliases of Sunny Hawkins, Mary Creeley and Connie Pyles. Her cohorts kept referring to the latter as “Connie the Creator.”
My suspicions about their cover story, which seemed blatantly bogus, were confirmed when the obviously duped judges selected her as this year’s Queen. And instead of insisting her sisters accompany her on the Queen’s float, she left them to fend for themselves.
Then there was the group with the audacity to claim it hailed from our own Dayton. It would have been a better ruse to claim Dayton, Ohio. Given only minimal investigation, I determined this crew was actually from Planet Retina.
Anyone with average vision could clearly see that these aliens had eyeballs all over them. In fact, one had a giant eyeball for a head.
Another part of their cover story was a claim to membership in the Red Hat Society. But I didn’t see any red hats, just a bunch of bug-eyed eyeballs and a banner with the scary slogan, “Our Eyeballs Are On You.”
Shades of the book and movie “1984.”
Speaking of actually identifying true planetary origins, the Intergalactic Scottish Gladiators from the Planet Zarg appeared bellicose enough to wage war if given the slightest excuse.
Fortunately, another well-armed, Intergalactic group dedicated to maintaining peace and order was also out in force.
The Cloud City Garrison, a chapter of the famed Star Wars 501st Legion, was making its sixth straight voyage to McMinnville. Luke, Ben and Anikan Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Chewbacca the Wookie, a cadre of storm troopers and a star-studded selection of other Star Wars characters arrived here at warp speed.
Encounters went on and on, including those of local humans participating in the parade. The latter included Grand Marshals Bruce and Esther Huffman, riding in a red 1966 Cadillac Eldorado convertible driven by owner Dean Klaus, who was accompanied by his wife, Debbie.
Noted Gallery Theater players Jeff and Julia Sargent were covering the event for our own Channel 11. And Portland’s KXL Radio brought a news SUV to town so its paranormal Ground Zero show host Clyde Lewis could cover the guest speakers.
Proof and/or belief that there is life out there abounded at the UFO Festival. So there was a lot to report on.
A key player in all this is the McMenamins organization, founder and chief sponsor of the event through its Hotel Oregon.
The hotel’s tent at Third and Evans was abuzz with activity, from brews and BBQ to alien accouterments and a bevy of books chosen just for the occasion. Following are a few titles intended to entice those intrigued by the subject of life on other worlds:
“The Klutz Guide to The Galaxy,” “Life As We Do Not Know It,” “Hair of the Alien: DNA and other forensic evidence of alien abduction;” “UFO Encyclopedia;” and “Alien Invasion: The Ultimate Guide for the Ultimate Attack.”
However you look at it, McMinnville’s UFO Festival, punctuated by the parade, has become a Close Encounter of the Third Kind. It’s something to look forward to with an abnormal level of anticipation each year. You could say simply being there will put you in an alien daze.
Well, with Men in Black 3 finally among us, I figured that now would be the time to share with you a very weird story of definitive MIB proportions, which was brought to my attention in September of last year by a woman named Marjorie Braxton. Her curious and sensational story told of an event that her grandfather was reportedly involved in – back in the 1950s – while visiting the State Department. Truly, it is one of definitive Men in Black proportions. In other words, it’s manifestly bizarre…
“Hello, Mr. Redfern. My name is Marjorie Braxton. Last night I finished reading your newest – The Real Men in Black. Thank you for giving me nightmares LOL! But to be serious, congratulations on the book and I thought you might be interested in the following story of my late grandfather, who had his own MIB sighting in 1955. Grandfather was into science-fiction and shared it with David Grinnell at the time, and was published somewhere in UFO fandom. But I have grandfather’s original notes – - that would be the full notes – - and have copied some of them here for you. If you ever find anything more on this could you let me know? It’s yours to publish if you wish. With kindest regards, Marjorie, a fan.”
And here is the text of the curious communication of Marjorie Braxton’s grandfather, in his very own words, as provided to me by Marjorie herself:
“I cannot say whether I am the victim of a very ingenious jest on the part of some of my wackier friends or whether I am just someone accidentally ‘in’ in some top-secret business. But it happened, and it happened to me personally, while visiting Washington recently, just rubber-necking, you know, looking at the Capitol and the rest of the big white buildings.
“It was summer, fairly hot. Congress was not in session, nothing much was doing, most people vacationing. I was that day aiming to pay a visit to the State Department, not knowing that I couldn’t, for there was nothing public to see there unless it’s the imposing and rather martial lobby (it used to be the War Department building, I’m told). This I did not find out until I had blithely walked up the marble steps to the entrance, passed the big bronze doors, and wandered about in the huge lobby, wherein a small number of people, doubtless on important business, were passing in and out.
“A guard, sitting near the elevators, made as if to start in my direction to find out whom and what the deuce I wanted, when one of the elevators came down and a group of men hustled out. There were two men, evidently State Department escorts, neatly clad in gray double-breasted suits, with three other men walking with them. The three men struck me as a little odd; they wore long black cloaks, big slouch hats with wide brims pulled down over their faces, and carried portfolios. They looked for all the world like cartoon representations of cloak-and-dagger spies. I supposed that they were some sort of foreign diplomats and, as they were coming directly toward me, stood my ground, determined to see who they were.
“The floor was marble and highly polished. One of the men nearing me suddenly seemed to lose his balance. He slipped: his feet shot out from under him, and he fell. His portfolio slid directly at my feet.
“Being closest to him, I scooped up the folio and was the first to help raise him to his feet. Grasping his arm, I hoisted him from the floor – he seemed to be astonishingly weak in the legs; I felt almost that he was about to topple again. His companions stood about rather flustered, helplessly, their faces curiously impassive. And though the man I helped must have received a severe jolt, his face never altered expression.
“Just then the two State Department men recovered their own poise, rushed about, and, getting between me and the man I had rescued, rudely brushed me aside, and rushed their party to the door.
“Now what bothers me is not the impression I got that the arm beneath that man’s sleeve was curiously woolly, as if he had a fur coat underneath the cloak (and this in a Washington summer!), and it’s not the impression that he was wearing a mask (the elastic band of which I distinctly remember seeing amidst the kinky, red, close-cropped hair of his head). No, it’s not that at all, which might be momentarily misconstructions on my part. It’s the coin that I picked up off the floor where he’d dropped his portfolio.
“I’ve searched through every stamp and coin catalogue I can find or borrow, and I’ve made inquiries of a dozen language teachers and professors, and nobody can identify that coin or the lettering around its circumference.
“It’s about the size of a quarter, silvery, very light in weight, but also very hard. Besides the lettering on it, which even the Bible Society, which knows a thousand languages and dialects, cannot decipher, there is a picture on one side and a symbol on the other.
“The picture is the face of a man, but a man with very curiously wolfish features: sharp canine teeth parted in what could be called a smile; a flattened, broad, and somewhat protruding nose, more like a pug dog’s muzzle; sharp, widely spaced vulpine eyes; and definitely hairy and pointed ears.
“The symbol on the other side is a circle with latitude and longitude lines on it. Flanking the circle, one on each side, are two crescent-shaped moons.
“I wish I knew just how far those New Mexico rocket experiments have actually gone.”
And there the curious report ends. Bizarre, indeed! But, when it comes to a phenomenon so strange as the Men in Black, we should, perhaps, not expect anything less!
A whirling,
glowing UFO was caught on night vision video by a skywatcher near Melbourne,
Australia, as it twirled and flashed brightly across the skies of the darkened
city. What is it?
The
unidentified flying object, posted to YouTube by self-professed night vision
video maker Lou20764, silently
travels in a straight line from one side of the screen to the other above the
treetops and does look like a satellite.
But it's
traveling much too low and doesn't look like any kind of known aircraft.
As the witness
says, it's definitely flying beneath the sparse cloud cover, ruling out any
object in orbit.
The UFO looks like it's spinning and the light it emits does
not flash like navigational lights. The object doesn't change color, staying
pearly white the entire time.
These kinds of
objects have been faked before, or misidentified.
But this one
peeks in and out of the trees covering the horizon, which is a very hard effect
to achieve by hoaxers. It doesn't rule out the possibility, though.
This object
doesn't look like a bird, a plane, a jet or a helicopter. And it doesn't fly
like a Chinese lantern or a flare. So, what is
it? Here's the
video:
