UFO News Stories
Below are key excerpts of revealing news articles on UFO/UAP phenomena from reliable news media sources. If any link fails to function, a paywall blocks full access, or the article is no longer available, try these digital tools.
For further exploration, delve into our comprehensive UFO Information Center.
There has long been an air of conspiracy surrounding theories of alien life, and the head of Hillary Clinton's campaign said Thursday it's time to do away with the secrecy. "The U.S. government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what's going on with unidentified aerial phenomena," [Clinton campaign chair John] Podesta said. During his time serving in the Obama administration, Podesta tweeted, "Finally, my biggest failure of 2014: Once again not securing the #disclosure of the UFO files." Clinton herself pledged in January to "get to the bottom" of ... rumors of U.S. contact with extraterrestrial life. In regard to Area 51, Podesta echoed Clinton's call, saying, "What I've talked to the secretary about, and what she's said now in public, is that if she's elected president, when she gets into office, she'll ask for as many records as the United States federal government has to be declassified, and I think that's a commitment that she intends to keep and that I intend to hold her to." Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, said the 42nd president once "asked for some information about some of these things, and in particular, some information about what was going on at Area 51." Asked if there is evidence of alien life, Podesta said, "That's for the public to judge once they've seen all the evidence that the U.S. government has." And he made clear: "The American people can handle the truth."
Note: Check out strong evidence in declassified FBI files that UFOs are quite real. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO cover-up and disclosure news articles from reliable major media sources. Then explore the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
Before Aaron Rodgers was a first-round pick in 2005, he experienced another first: The Packers quarterback had a Close Encounter. Rodgers described the mysterious incident recently. In February 2005 ... the former Cal quarterback flew to the East Coast for [an ESPN] interview and while he was there, he was staying with the family of former Cal teammate Steve Levy. "We were winding down at dinner and then there was a weird siren in the distance, so we go outside ... it was one of those bright nights, where it's overcast, but there's enough light from the moon to see things and the next thing you know, we saw something in the sky," Rodgers said. This wasn't just anything, though. The Packers quarterback is 100 percent convinced he saw a UFO. "It was a large orange, left-to-right-moving object. Because of the overcast nature of the night and the snow, you couldn't make out, it was behind the clouds we were seeing, but it was definitively large in the night sky, moving from left to right," Rodgers said. "Again, it was like 12:30 at night here. It was me, Steve, and his brother that saw it." That means there were a total of three witnesses. "And it goes out of sight and we look at each other and go, 'What in the f--- was that?'" Rodgers said. The group then heard about four fighter jets overhead and he knew they were fighter jets because, "You know the sound of a fighter jet when it flies by," Rodgers said. The Packers quarterback was hesitant to share his UFO story. But after he got started, you could tell it was a moment he clearly remembered.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO cover-up and disclosure news articles from reliable major media sources. Then explore the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
Which presidents have asked about UFOs? Does the president have the security clearance to know about UFOs? What happens if extraterrestrials show up? Most people in Washington don't know how to answer those questions. But Stephen Bassett, America's only registered lobbyist on UFO and extraterrestrial issues, is convinced that the government has this information and it's only a matter of time before the president "announces to the American people that we're not alone." This ... moment, known among some UFO enthusiasts as the "disclosure," will officially confirm that "there are extraterrestrials, not only elsewhere, but engaging us now." In 1995, when he read Abduction: Human Encounters With Aliens ... Bassett concluded that there was already enough scientific evidence "to confirm the ET presence many times over. The problem was political." So in 1996 he registered as Washington's first ET issue lobbyist. In 1999 he followed up by forming the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee. Though he's the only UFO lobbyist, Bassett is not the only earthling inside the Beltway intrigued by the concept. Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter both claimed to have had UFO experiences. [And] in 1995, President Bill Clinton declassified millions of military and intelligence records. Ever since something crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, the US government has investigated interplanetary craft with varying levels of official acknowledgment.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO cover-up and disclosure news articles from reliable major media sources. Then explore the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
John Podesta, chair of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, has declared that he has convinced the former secretary of state to explore declassifying any government documents that may relate to unidentified flying objects. Ive talked to Hillary about that, Podesta told KLAS-TV Politics NOW in Las Vegas. There are still classified files that could be declassified. I think Ive convinced her that we need an effort to kind of go look at that and declassify as much as we can, so that people have their legitimate questions answered. In 2005, former president Bill Clinton told a Hong Kong audience that he has been attempting to crack any X-files the government might possess: "I did attempt to find out if there were any secret government documents that reveal things, and if there were, they were concealed from me, too. I wouldnt be the first president that underlings have lied to or that career bureaucrats have waited out. But there may be some career person sitting around somewhere hiding these dark secrets, even from elected presidents. But, if so, they successfully eluded me, and Im almost embarrassed to tell you I did try to find out." Podesta, who also served as a senior advisor to Barack Obama, has cited his inability to determine the truth about UFOs as one of his biggest failures while serving in government.
Note: John Podesta has strongly advocated for an end to UFO secrecy. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO cover-up and disclosure news articles from reliable major media sources. Then explore the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
The CIA has released hundreds of declassified documents detailing investigations into possible alien life. The Central Intelligence Agency posted documents of reported Unidentified Flying Objects that range in date from the late 1940s to the 1950s. While playing off the hype of the TV show reboot "The X-Files," the CIA broke down the cases into two categories, whether you side with Agent Mulder or Agent Scully. For believers in alien life ... one case you can choose to investigate is the case of a flying saucer in Germany in 1952. An eyewitness told investigators that an object "resembling a huge flying pan" landed in a forest clearing in the Soviet zone of Germany in 1952. The eyewitness said once he was closer to the area where it landed, he saw two men dressed in shiny metallic clothing. Spooked by the eyewitness ... the mysterious men jumped into the large flying pan object and it spun out into the sky. "The whole object then began to rise slowly from the ground and rotate like a top," the eyewitness told the CIA. The man told a judge he thought he was dreaming but said there was a circular imprint on the ground where the object had landed. If that case intrigues you, there are four more listed on the CIA blog post. But if you are more of a skeptic like Scully, and believe there is a simple explanation for flying saucer sightings, then the documents from the scientific advisory panel on UFOs in 1953 will help you prove your case.
Note: Explore these intriguing 'X-Files' on the CIA website at this link. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO cover-up and disclosure news articles from reliable major media sources. Then explore the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
Edgar Mitchell, one of just 12 human beings who walked on the moon, has died. Mitchell was 85. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement, "He is one of the pioneers in space exploration on whose shoulders we now stand." On February 5, 1971 ... Mitchell became the sixth man to walk on the lunar surface. [He] found the trip to be a profound experience. "Looking at Earth from space and seeing it was a planet in isolation ... that was an experience of ecstasy, realizing that every molecule in our bodies is a system of matter created from a star hanging in space," Mitchell told the UK Telegraph in 2014. "The experience I had was called Samadhi in the ancient Sanskrit, a feeling of overwhelming joy at seeing the Earth from that perspective." Fascinated and frustrated by the relationship between religion and science, he was very public about seeking links between the known and unknown. He said he had conducted ESP experiments on the mission. He was also a believer in extraterrestrial activity, and was convinced UFOs had visited Earth. He told Bloomberg Business that the 1947 Roswell incident ... was covered up. "It's not just military. It's a cabal of organizations primarily for a profit motive," he told the publication. Mitchell also created the Institute of Noetic Sciences to research paranormal phenomena and consciousness. In addition, he was co-founder of the Association of Space Explorers, an organization for space travelers.
Note: Edgar Mitchell was one of the most prominent and credible voices calling for an end to secrecy about UFOs and extraterrestrial contact. Read one of the last, fascinating interviews with Mitchell in an article in the UK's Observer. For more along these lines, see his comments at this link and read concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO cover-up and disclosure news articles from reliable major media sources. Then explore the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
NASA has set up a Planetary Defense Coordination Office - to defend the Earth from asteroids and comets that get too close for our comfort. The department, which includes the position of Planetary Defense Officer, is managed by the Planetary Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. And its mission includes the early detection of potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) - asteroids and comets which get within 0.05 Astronomical Units of Earth's orbit around the sun (7.5 million kilometers) and are large enough, greater than around 30 - 50 meters (98 - 164 feet), to reach the Earth's surface. They must also track and issue warnings on the minor planets, or even try to redirect them. If it's too late and space rubble is found hurtling towards the Earth's surface, the team will coordinate with the U.S. government to plan a response to an actual impact threat. More than 13,500 NEOs have been discovered to date and about 1,500 are detected each year. "Asteroid detection, tracking and defense of our planet is something that NASA, its interagency partners, and the global community take very seriously," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "While there are no known impact threats at this time, the 2013 Chelyabinsk super-fireball and the recent 'Halloween Asteroid' close approach remind us of why we need to remain vigilant and keep our eyes to the sky."
Note: Dr. Carol Rosin, spokesperson for modern rocket science's founder Wernher Von Braun, made this comment about Von Braun, asteroids, and more: "The reasons for space-based weaponry were all based on a lie. He said the strategy was to use scare tactics - that first the Russians, then terrorists are going to be considered the enemy. The next enemy was asteroids. The last card is the alien card. We are going to have to build space-based weapons against aliens, and all of it is a lie." Read a two page summary of the UFO cover-up for more.
Last July, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced the launch of a bold $100 million project "to reinvigorate the search for life in the universe." The amplified SETI initiative is "the most powerful, comprehensive and intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth," according to the project's website. Now, for the first time, a new group of scientists and other professionals [has] formed a non-profit ... called UFO Detection and TrAcking (UFODATA for short), which includes an international team of scientists and engineers with an interest in UFOs. The organization has one goal and one goal only: to design, build and deploy a global network of automated surveillance stations that will monitor the skies full time looking for UFOs. UFODATA has no interest in alleged government conspiracies or adding more witness reports or FOIA documents to the thousands already on file. The idea here is that only a complete change of methodology toward a purely scientific approach to the UFO issue will enable us to move forward. The monitoring stations ... will record numerous physical characteristics of any UFOs that appear in their range. They will all send their data back to a central location. Current projections are that the stations will cost about $10-20,000 each, thanks to the unprecedented convergence of high resolution digital camera technologies, off-the shelf scientific instrumentation, powerful low-cost computing platforms and far-reaching high-speed internet access.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.
There's a movie being screened in Sydney next week ... called Australien Skies. It's a documentary about some of the unexplained stuff seen by people who call themselves skywatchers. There is an intriguing story in the documentary. Liam Freaney [is a] regular kind of guy who, two years ago, had no particular interest in UFOs. But in March 2013, he and a workmate saw in the daylight, bright stars gathering around a ball of white light which disappeared and reappeared. A few months later he started seeing objects regularly. "I would see and film an object then directly afterwards I would get home and a helicopter would show up and sit over the house," he said. "So I started filming the helicopters as well as the unidentified flying objects. It happened over and over again, 20 or 30 times at least." He got in touch with Damien Nott and with Mariana Flynn, president of UFO Research NSW. She said they had [numerous] "reports of people leaning out of the helicopter[s] with a camera and filming." Mr Freaney was last year going to give a talk about his experience to her UFO group. The event had been publicised. Two weeks before the talk ... he noticed a car behind him. "It had flashing lights inside the front grill. It was a black car. I stopped. Two guys got out. One approached the window and he said: 'Good day Liam, how are you?' I said 'This is really strange.' He said: 'Yep, but you know what it is about. We'd like it if you didn't do your talk.' They said it would be better off for me to keep my mouth shut and to have a good day."
Note: Explore an intriguing webpage with many documents showing efforts by top people to open the UFO/ET issue. Then delve into the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
Aliens flew to earth on peace missions to prevent nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union at the start of the Cold War, according to a former Nasa astronaut. Dr Edgar Mitchell has made a series of increasingly bizarre claims about extra terrestrial life. His status as the sixth man to walk on the moon - during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971 - gives his claims a ready audience. Now he says military top brass saw UFOs visiting Earth during weapons tests in the 1940s at American missile bases and the famous White Sands Proving Ground, in the New Mexico desert, where the world's first nuclear bomb was detonated in 1945. "White Sands was a testing ground for atomic weapons - and that's what the extra-terrestrials were interested in ... they wanted to know about our military capabilities," [Mitchell said]. "My own experience talking to people has made it clear the ETs had been attempting to keep us from going to war and help create peace on Earth." He claims other officers manning missile silos or Pacific bases back up his claims with stories of alien spacecraft shooting down test rockets mid-flight.
Note: For more, read Edgar Mitchell's testimony on a major cover-up of UFOs. Then explore the highly reliable resources presented in our UFO Information Center.
Dr Edgar Mitchell said he was aware of several UFO visits during his career, but each one had been covered up. The 77-year-old, who was a crew member of the Apollo 14 mission, said sources at the space agency had described aliens as resembling "little people who look strange to us". Dr Mitchell told Kerrang! Radio that human technology was "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and had they been hostile, he warned: "We would be been gone by now". He said: "There's not much question at all that there's life throughout the universe, we are not alone at all. I'm most assured about that. I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real. It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it. I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes we have been visited. Dr Mitchell, along with Apollo 14 Commander Alan Shepard, still holds the record for the longest ever moonwalking session at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission. Officials from NASA, were quick to play the comments down. In a statement, a spokesman said: "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe.
Note: For more, read Edgar Mitchell's testimony on a major cover-up of UFOs. Then explore the highly reliable resources presented in our UFO Information Center.
From The Day the Earth Stood Still to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T., pop culture is filled with stories about friendly, curious extraterrestrials visiting Earth to learn more about mankind. For Apollo 14 veteran Edgar Mitchell that plotline is less fiction than it is reality. The sixth man to walk the surface of the moon told Mirror online that he believes peace-keeping aliens visited our planet to prevent a nuclear war between Russia and the United States. Mitchell claims that military insiders viewed strange flying crafts cruising over U.S. missile bases and the White Sands facility in New Mexico, the site of the first-ever nuclear bomb detonation in 1945. They wanted to know about our military capabilities, he said. My own experience talking to people has made it clear the ETs had been attempting to keep us from going to war and help create peace on Earth. Mitchell, who grew up near the famous Roswell site in New Mexico, said that he has heard from various Air Force officers who claim UFOs were a regular site during the Cold War. They told me UFOs were frequently seen overhead and often disabled their missiles, he added. Other officers from bases on the Pacific coast told me their (test) missiles were frequently shot down by alien spacecraft.
Note: For more, read Edgar Mitchell's testimony on a major cover-up of UFOs. The explore a powerful summary of evidence of UFOs presented by highly respected military and government officials. You can find many other excellent, reliable resources in our UFO Information Center.
The increasingly tense relationship between the United States and Russia might be about to face a new challenge: a Russian investigation into American moon landings. In an op-ed published by Russian newspaper Izvestia on Tuesday, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the government's official Investigative Committee, argued that such an investigation could reveal new insights into the historical space journeys. According to a translation by the Moscow Times, Markin would support an inquiry into the disappearance of original footage from the first moon landing in 1969 and the whereabouts of lunar rock, which was brought back to earth during several missions. "We are not contending that they did not fly [to the moon]. But all of these scientific – or perhaps cultural – artifacts are part of the legacy of humanity, and their disappearance without a trace is our common loss. An investigation will reveal what happened," Markin wrote, according to the Moscow Times translation. In 2009, NASA itself admitted that it had erased the original video recordings of the first moon landing among 200,000 other tapes in order to save money, according to Reuters. However, NASA has since restored copies of the landing, using recordings from other sources such as CBS News. The organization says that due to restoration efforts, the recordings' quality is superior to the original one that has gone missing.
Note: The New York Times has reported that the moon rock donated to the Dutch was a fake. And explore an intriguing article about the disappearance of the original lunar landing videos. How could NASA lose and/or erase what are among the most historic video recordings ever made? And how could it be possible to restore the quality of the original videos using major media sources? For an abundance of stunning, reliable information along these lines, see the excellent resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
In the wee hours of Aug. 24, 1953, George Van Tassel, a 43-year-old former aviation engineer, was awakened by a man from outer space. The spaceman looked like a human. He informed Van Tassel that his name was Solganda and that he was 700 years old. (He looked no older than 28, Van Tassel said.) Van Tassel was ushered onto the spacecraft where he was told that Earthlings reliance on metal building materials was interfering with radio frequencies and disrupting interplanetary thought transfers. Solganda also divulged a secret: a formula that Van Tassel could use to build a remarkable machine, a device that would generate electrostatic energy to suspend the laws of gravity, extend human life and facilitate high-speed time travel. A circular, dome-topped building, 38 feet tall and 55 feet in diameter, [was] constructed by Van Tassel over the course of nearly two decades in accordance with the instructions of his extraterrestrial architectural patron. The name that Van Tassel gave to his time machine: the Integratron. It ... was constructed without nails, screws, flashing or weather stripping. But its not the way the Integratron looks that draws thousands to Landers each year. Its how the place sounds. You may not subscribe to Van Tassels [beliefs], but an Integratron sound bath will startle your ears, and, perhaps, awaken your imagination. Beneath the wooden dome, it seems at moments that youre not listening to sound so much as inhabiting it. It is, aesthetically speaking, extraterrestrial: a transportative encounter with music, an experience of pure sound not quite of this earth.
Note: Watch an incredible video interview from 1964 of George Van Tassel. In this interview, Van Tassel shares the equation he claims given to him by an ET: F=1/T, Frequency = 1/Time. For more fascinating equations received in a similar method, explore Wilbur Smith's essay "The New Science." Read more on the Integraton in this 2015 article in the Atlantic. And if you are eager for more, listen to a very informative and revealing 50-minute interview with Van Tassel. Fascinating stuff!!!
The Vietnam War saw its share of UFO activity in the 1960s. One close encounter, in 1968, involved the crew of an American patrol boat that reported two glowing circular craft following them. The crew aboard a second patrol boat later reported seeing the UFOs over the first boat and a flash of light, followed by an explosion that completely destroyed the boat. These Vietnam reports included close observation of the unknown aerial craft. Wartime UFO stories are recreated in ... History's "Hangar 1: The UFO Files." The accounts are drawn from tens of thousands of UFO cases in the archives of the Mutual UFO Network, the world's largest UFO investigation group. Former Air Force intelligence officer, Capt. George Filer ... described a typical report that he'd receive: "You'd have an aircraft flying along, doing around 500 knots and a UFO comes alongside and does some barrel rolls around the aircraft and then flies off at three times the speed of one of the fastest jets we have in the Air Force. "I would be told this unofficially. People tell you a lot of things that they don't put in writing or sign their name to. There was always this part of UFOs that, if you got too interested, it could mess up your career. And this is true today even with commercial pilots. I've also heard from people serving in Afghanistan saying they've seen UFOs, and the Iranian news carries UFO reports pretty regularly."
Note: Read an interesting article about a UFO that buzzed the ranch of George W. Bush while he was president. For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
A moon rock given to the Dutch prime minister by Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 has turned out to be a fake. Curators at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum ... discovered that the "lunar rock", valued at 308,000, was in fact petrified wood. Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation, said the museum would continue to keep the stone as a curiosity. "It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," she said. "We can laugh about it." The rock was given to Willem Drees, a former Dutch leader, during a global tour by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin following their moon mission 50 years ago. J. William Middendorf, the former American ambassador to the Netherlands, made the presentation to Mr Drees and the rock was then donated to the Rijksmuseum after his death in 1988. "I do remember that Drees was very interested in the little piece of stone. But that it's not real, I don't know anything about that," Mr Middendorf said. Nasa gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries following lunar missions in 1969 and the 1970s. The United States Embassy in The Hague is carrying out an investigation into the affair. Researchers [from] Amsterdam's Free University were able to tell at a glance that the rock was unlikely to be from the moon, a conclusion that was borne out by tests. "It's a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone," said Frank Beunk, a geologist involved in the investigation.
Note: High strangeness alert! Why would NASA and Apollo astronauts be giving out fake moonstones? And how could it be that NASA lost the original videos of the first lunar landings?
Initial DNA analysis of one of the 3,000-year-old elongated skulls found in Paracas, Peru, has revealed that they may not have been come from humans but from a completely new species, according to Paracas Museum assistant director Brien Foerster. A geneticist who tested skull samples has found that they contain mutated DNA that does not match any known genetic DNA information in GenBank, an open-access sequence database of all the known genetic data in the world. The unidentified geneticist told Foerster: "It had mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known so far. But a few fragments I was able to sequence from this sample indicate that if these mutations will hold we are dealing with a new human-like creature, very distant from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans. I am not sure it will even fit into the known evolutionary tree." According to Foerster, the geneticist in question, who apparently does contract work for the US government, is willing to go public, but does not want to come forward until the tests prove the theory conclusively. Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello discovered the skulls in 1928 ... on the south coast of Peru. There are still many more tests that need to be carried out to verify what the DNA is. With the help of interested individuals over the last two years, Foerster has so far raised $7,000 (4,260, 5,120) to do the initial DNA testing, but a full genome study to completely verify the theory would cost at least $100,000,
Note: Read more on this webpage. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about our enigmatic world from reliable major media sources.
James Louis Warsher and a friend were driving across the Anderson Memorial Bridge in Harvard Square when they noticed a dull gray elliptical vessel tinted with muted yellow light descending from the sky. It was around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 9, 1964, and the two were among 11 Bostonians who reported UFO sightings that night. Air Force investigators said the object was just an advertising plane. They confirmed it by cross-checking the aircrafts flight plan. But the Air Forces official explanation ... couldnt answer one issue: When Warsher and his friend saw the UFO, it was flying within sight of the same plane the investigators purported it to be. This story is one of more than 12,000 chronicled by Project Blue Book, the Air Forces UFO investigation program that ran from 1947 to 1969. The once-classified files ... have become more accessible to the general public in recent years through Fold3, a commercial database of government and military documents. Readers can sort the files by date, state, and when they were added to the website. The collection reveals how the nations military bureaucracy painstakingly documented what amounted to a cultural phenomenon of the Cold War. Even though the Air Force deemed only a small portion of the reports unexplainable, UFO researcher Stanton Friedman believes Project Blue Book barely scratches the surface of American UFO investigations. Friedman claims the Air Force has gotten away with carefully worded misrepresentation, of its interest in the aircraft.
Note: Explore Project Blue Book documents at Fold3. The free searchable archive of declassified Project Blue Book Air Force UFO files that used to be available through The Black Vault was recently removed under questionable circumstances. For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
Astronomers have spotted huge cloudlike plumes erupting from Mars a phenomenon that scientists are at a loss to explain. The bright flares, which have now died away, towered higher than anything else observed in the Martian atmosphere. Their tops reached some 150 miles in altitude, more than twice as high as the highest Martian clouds, and they sprawled across 300 to 600 miles, researchers report in this week's Nature, a science journal. The researchers initially were skeptical, but "we came to the conclusion that what we were seeing is actually real," says study co-author Antonio Garca Muoz, a planetary scientist at the European Space Agency. The plumes are "exceptional. It's difficult to come to terms with this." This scientific brainteaser first came to light in early 2012. "I don't think it's real. Basic physics says this can't occur," [Planetary scientist Todd Clancy of the Space Science Institute] says, adding that the conditions in Mars's upper atmosphere don't supply the necessary ingredients for clouds. In response, study co-author Agustin Snchez-Lavega, a planetary scientist and physics professor at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, notes that 19 different observers captured the strange eruptions. He considers the source of the formations "open to discussion," he says via e-mail.
Note: Here is a picture that shows Mars' strange behavior. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about our enigmatic universe from reliable major media sources.
This is how the story goes: Its 1966, and 6-year-old Thomas Reed is in his bedroom on his familys horse farm in the Berkshires when the encounters begin. Suddenly, hes in the woods near his home looking at a UFO. The following year, there is another incident. Two years later, the family is driving on Route 7 when they see strange lights in the sky. Thomas and his brother and mother and grandmother find themselves in a giant room. Next thing, hes back near the car. Reed has told these stories many times, and it has not always gone well. But recently, his tale had found recognition in an unlikely place. The Great Barrington Historical Society & Museum has formally inducted the UFO story. "We believe it is true, said Debbie Oppermann, the director of the society. I know were going to get a lot of backlash. But ... based on the evidence weve been given, we believe this is a significant and true event. The historical society believes it is the first time a mainstream historical society or museum in the United States has declared a UFO encounter to be historical fact. What most interests the historical society is the 1969 encounter, because dozens of people in the area reported seeing an unidentified flying object around that time. Many of those eyewitnesses called the local radio station, WSBS, which covered the sightings. The radio station has provided documentation to the historical society, which interviewed one of those eyewitnesses.
Note: The Great Barrington Historical Society joins a former presidential aide, a respected astronaut, countless others in legitimizing historic accounts of UFO activity. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of news articles about The UFO cover-up and disclosure effort from reliable major media sources.
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