Category: Space

Biden Reveals Deepest Image of Our Universe Ever Taken by a NASA Space Telescope

The first glimpse of how the James Webb Space Telescope will change the way people see the universe has arrived.

President Joe Biden released one of Webb’s first images Monday at the White House during a preview event with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

The image shows SMACS 0723, where a massive group of galaxy clusters act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. Called gravitational lensing, this created Webb’s first deep field view of thousands of galaxies, including incredibly old and distant, faint ones.

“This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground,” according to a NASA release.

“It is the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken,” according to Nelson.

The rest of the high-resolution color images will make their debut as planned on Tuesday, July 12.

The space observatory, which launched in December, will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by viewing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.

The first image release will highlight Webb’s science capabilities as well as the ability of its massive golden mirror and science instruments to produce spectacular images.

There are several events taking place during Tuesday’s image release, and all of them will stream live on NASA’s website.

Opening remarks by NASA leadership and the Webb team will begin Tuesday at 9:45 a.m. ET, followed by an image release broadcast that kicks off at 10:30 a.m. ET. Images will be revealed one by one, and a news conference at 12:30 p.m. ET will offer details about them.

The First Images

NASA shared Webb’s first cosmic targets on Friday, providing a teaser for what else Tuesday’s image release will include: the Carina Nebula, WASP-96b, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan’s Quintet.

Located 7,600 light-years away, the Carina Nebula is a stellar nursery, where stars are born. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and home to many stars much more massive than our sun.

Webb’s study of the giant gas planet WASP-96b will be the first full-color spectrum of an exoplanet. The spectrum will include different wavelengths of light that could reveal new information about the planet, such as whether it has an atmosphere. Discovered in 2014, WASP-96b is located 1,150 light-years from Earth. It has half the mass of Jupiter and completes an orbit around its star every 3.4 days.

Test Image

The Southern Ring Nebula, also called the “Eight-Burst,” is 2,000 light-years away from Earth. This large planetary nebula includes an expanding cloud of gas around a dying star.

The space telescope’s view of Stephan’s Quintet will reveal the way galaxies interact with one another. This compact galaxy group, first discovered in 1787, is located 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies in the group “are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters,” according to a NASA statement.

The targets were selected by an international committee, including members from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Looking Ahead

These will be the first of many images to come from Webb, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space. The mission, originally expected to last for 10 years, has enough excess fuel capability to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

“Webb can see backwards in time just after the big bang by looking for galaxies that are so far away, the light has taken many billions of years to get from those galaxies to ourselves,” said Jonathan Gardner, Webb deputy senior project scientist at NASA, during a recent news conference. “Webb is bigger than Hubble so that it can see fainter galaxies that are further away.”

The initial goal for the telescope was to see the first stars and galaxies of the universe, essentially watching “the universe turn the lights on for the first time,” said Eric Smith, Webb program scientist and NASA Astrophysics Division chief scientist.

Smith has worked on Webb since the project began in the mid-1990s.

“The James Webb Space Telescope will give us a fresh and powerful set of eyes to examine our universe,” Smith wrote in an update on NASA’s website. “The world is about to be new again.”

Original Article

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UFO Research Breakthrough in Japan

People keep reporting UFO sightings at Mount Senganmori, and an organization of alien experts wants to prove that aliens exist.

Fukushima, Japan – People keep reporting UFO sightings at Japan’s Senganmori Mountain. A UFO expert is investigating the reports and says he’s sure his team will be able to provide evidence that extraterrestrials exist.

452 UFO sightings were confirmed for last year alone, according to Takeharu Mikami (51), director of the International UFO Laboratory – an organization dedicated to professionalizing UFO research and bringing it closer to everyday people.

According to The Sun, Mikami is convinced that Senganmori Mountain in Fukushima Prefecture is a real hotspot for extraterrestrials.

The area is well-known among UFO researchers, with people repeatedly reporting strange flying objects. That’s why it became the home of a UFO laboratory, Mikami told The Mainichi last year.

“I hope the research lab will serve as a base receiving information, and lead to new discoveries. I’d like to get to the bottom of their identity,” Mikami said.

So far, he says UFO research is still in its infancy. Information about possible sightings is mostly shared among individuals, with scientific systems lacking. The UFO lab aims to change that.

The International UFO Laboratory opened last year

The area around Mount Senganmori is considered a UFO hotspot.
The area around Mount Senganmori is considered a UFO hotspot.  © PR/UFO Laboratory

“It is not a bird; it is likely a UFO”

Mikami dismissed UFO skeptics, saying that of the 452 recorded sightings last year, 125 were documented with photos and 24 with videos.

The expert is confident in confirming UFO sightings. “It is not a bird; it is likely a UFO,” he stated with a practiced eye as he looked at an image of a flying object made available to the public.

On social media, Mikami also expressed confidence that his institute will soon provide irrefutable evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials.

An undated UFO sighting published by the International UFO Laboratory.
An undated UFO sighting published by the International UFO Laboratory.  © PR/UFO Laboratory

Until that happens, they are selling stickers, coffee mugs, and T-shirts to UFO fans from all over the world.

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Navy Warships Swarmed by 100 ‘Other Worldly’ UFOs?

US Navy sailors have revealed how their warships were harassed by hundreds of UFOs off the coast of Southern California. The sailors have revealed how the UFOs had capabilities that were unlike anything man has manufactured to this date. These crafts could rise to altitudes of up to 21,000 feet or plunging into the ocean effortlessly as if the water was not even there.

The recent statements contradict naval intelligence’s effort to dismiss the unidentified objects as drones.

Sailors aboard a fleet of US Navy warships sailing off the coast of Southern California in July 2019 witnessed several of the ships being stalked by large numbers of unidentified flying objects. 

The incident lasted for hours and then happened over and over again throughout the month. Navy chiefs have tried to explain the incident, with Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray testifying at the last congressional hearing that he was “reasonably certain” the objects were drones.

But documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell says he has been told by the crews of the ships involved that multitudes of “at least 100” UFOs possessed unexplained capabilities far beyond traditional drones.

And he warned that unless the government could determine who was behind the swarm, the intelligence failure would “dwarf our mistakes made around the events of 9/11.”

“I don’t care if these were ”drones” or true UFOs, pyramids, triangles, or even seagulls with lights strapped onto their wings. I want the fundamental question to be answered. Do we know the controllers of these units?” Corbell said in an interview with the Daily Mail.

“And we still don’t know what exactly these ships were. But whatever they are, their skills and presence alone represent a serious national security issue and should not be dismissed out of hand,” added the filmmaker, who posted videos of the incidents on his social media last year.

The videos—verified by the Pentagon—showed flickering objects hovering over US Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego, radar screens capturing nine of the ships, and infrared images of a star-shaped object plunging into the ocean.

Corbell’s current intervention appears to be in response to the fact that a few days ago, the Navy released briefing slides suggesting that the UFOs were actually quadcopter-style UAS [unmanned aerial systems] and likely came from a nearby Hong Kong-registered cargo ship.

Corbell is now striking back, claiming he has “dozens” of accounts from the crew, investigators, and informed officials saying the cargo ship was written off, and the nature and origin of the UFOs are still unknown. They flew in ways that would put publicly known drone technology to shame.

According to the filmmaker’s sources, the capabilities of these crafts included rising to altitudes of up to 21,000 feet or plunging into the sea, making spontaneous accelerations into the upper atmosphere, flying for more than four hours, traveling long distances in one flight, and apparently being immune to the Navy’s anti-drone technology.

A crew member on one of the vessels with direct knowledge of the case, who spoke to the Daily Mail on condition of anonymity, called the incident a “world changer”.

“We don’t yet have enough information to say whether this is man-made technology or not. But the amazing energy capacity of these crafts is world-changing regardless,” the Naval officer told the Mail in the interview.

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Do aliens exist? The ancient Greeks thought so and so should you

When it comes to aliens, everyone has an opinion despite no one having much of anything concrete to go on. Famed physicist Enrico Fermi famously looked up into the deafening silence of the night sky above Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1940s and demanded to know where the hell everybody was.

If even one of the greatest minds of the 20th century was stumped, it’s a good bet that we’re not going to do much better at answering the question, “where are all the aliens?” There is still a lot to say about them though, and the idea of alien species on other worlds or in different realities is about as old as human thought.

For whatever reason, aliens have a hold of our imagination, and they frankly always have. So what do we mean when we talk about aliens? What are our best guesses on their appearance if they do exist? And, honestly, what are the odds that they’re actually out there, and why should we care so much?

Do aliens exist?

That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? We’ve discovered thousands of exoplanets in the past 30 years, and we haven’t heard a peep one way or the other.

If we just look at the question of probabilities, then it seems like madness to doubt the existence of aliens. There are about 400 billion star systems in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and each of those is almost guaranteed to have at least one exoplanet. Most systems we’ve looked at in detail have half a dozen exoplanets, with two or three in the “habitable zone” of their star—the range of distance from the star where liquid water can exist on its surface at least for a substantial portion of the year.

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Institute has been scouring the skies for radio signals from intelligent civilizations for decades now. While there have been plenty of false positives, we’ve yet to intercept or otherwise receive so much as a “Hello World”. We’ve even put many of our species’ significant highlights on a golden record and shot it into interstellar space—twice—in the hope that it bumps into someone up there who will then get on the ‘phone’ and call us to let us know that we’re not alone.

But in addition, many of our next-generation science instruments, like the James Webb Space Telescope or the Nancy Roman Telescope, are specifically designed, or at least have it in their remit, to look for alien life. It’s unquestionable that if there is alien life out there capable of being detected, we’re closer to making contact than we’ve ever been.

But that would be true whether we were days away from getting an interstellar email or we’ve got decades ahead of us before any kind of contact is made, and so all most of us can really do is look up at the night sky like Enrico Fermi and ask the big questions while we wait for an answer, one way or the other.

What do aliens look like?

Aliens could and will look like just about anything you can imagine, given the nature of their evolution and development (should they exist). Even on Earth, we are constantly surprised by the kinds of utterly bizarre flora and fauna that live 1 kilometer below the ocean surface, and we are far closer to a barreleye fish (see above) than we’d be to Alpha Centaurians.

Unless the exact opposite were true.

There is a theory in evolutionary biology called convergent evolution. According to this idea, geographically isolated species are likely to adopt the same evolutionary adaptations due to their lived environment. 

All those movies with humanoid aliens may be a more accurate representation of our future alien relationships than anything out of Independence Day. Suppose the aliens we’re talking about evolved primarily on land and on a planet similar to ours. In that case, they’ll have many of the same physiological developments that we do, even if there are some more unique configurations.

We’re far more likely to recognize ourselves in land-evolved aliens than we are for anything that evolved in the oceans, however, so that is definitely something to think about as we look out into the cosmos for evidence of intelligent life—and also reminds us that there are plenty of aliens to be discovered nearer to home than many people realize.

What about the Drake Equation?

Do aliens exist? The ancient Greeks thought so and so should you
Dr. Frank Drake, revisiting the variables of the Drake Equation, several decades after its inception | Source: Raphael Perrino/Flickr

The Drake Equation was introduced by the astronomer Frank Drake in 1961 as a starting point for discussion at the first meeting of astronomers working on the subject of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and it has since taken on something of a life of its own.

According to the SETI Institute, the Drake Equation “is generally agreed to be the ‘second most-famous equation in science (after E= mc2),’ and you can find it in nearly every astronomy textbook.” That isn’t that much of a stretch, and the Drake Equation has influenced the conversation around alien life for the past 60-plus years.

The Drake Equation looks at several factors to determine the probability of alien life in our galaxy. The Drake Equation is defined as

N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L

with the terms in the Drake Equation being:

  • N: The number of civilizations in our galaxy whose electromagnetic radiation is detectable
  • R*: the rate of star formation in the galaxy that produces suitable conditions for the development of life
  • fp: The fraction of those stars that have planetary systems
  • ne: The mean number of planets in a star system that can support life
  • fl: The fraction of such planets where life, in fact, develops 
  • fi: The fraction of life-sustaining planets where intelligent life develops  
  • fc: The fraction of those planets which have civilizations capable of producing detectable electromagnetic signals, like radio waves
  • L: The average length of time that a civilization can produce such signals, in years

What we’re looking for is N, namely the probability that an alien civilization is alive and broadcasting at a point in time when we can hear them. Take that probability and multiply it against the number of stars in our galaxy (400 billion). In theory, you can come up with a rough estimate of the number of active alien civilizations currently inhabiting our galaxy.

If you’ve read those variables closely, though, it should be fairly obvious to you that this is not an equation in a traditional sense like, say, E=mc2 or a2 + b2 = c2.

The Drake Equation is, ultimately, a probabilistic one, giving you a result between zero and one, and which tells you the odds of a particular outcome, much like the flip of a coin or the roll of a die, only with many more sides and each weighted very differently from the others.

If the number of life-sustaining planets in a planetary system is one or two planets greater than expected, the impact on the result can be substantial. The time a civilization can exist while being capable of producing electromagnetic waves can likewise produce a galaxy buzzing with activity, or, it can turn the Milky Way into a cosmic crypt with a single inhabitant—us—that is destined to take its place beside the rest of the dead alien species that we won’t ever even know existed.

Because the variables in the Drake Equation are so fluid, it’s not like math equations produced by thinkers like Einstein or Euclid. Those are meant to describe something concrete in an abstract way. Meanwhile, the Drake Equation is much fuzzier, and each variable is open to interpretation (at least for now), and serves a different purpose than mere math. 

In many ways, the Drake Equation is aspirational and is more an expression of hope in the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life than it is science (which is one of the principal criticisms leveled against it). Hope is not science, and in many ways is antithetical to sound science, at least in that a good scientist shouldn’t go out in search of evidence to support a conclusion, but should rather see whether neutral (or as close to neutral as possible) observation or experimentation supports a hypothesis.

But there is a place for something like the Drake Equation, taken in its proper context. When looking out into the cosmic void of hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone, confronting the apparent silence of it all can easily lead one to write off SETI as a fool’s errand.

In cosmic terms, we’ve only had the capacity to detect aliens on other worlds for just over a hundred years, at most (assuming that rudimentary radio receivers on Earth could somehow pick up radio broadcasts from thousands of light-years away, not that we’d understand what we were hearing necessarily). That’s not long at all, even in terms of the lifetime of our species, much less the age of life on Earth or the galaxy as a whole, which is thought to have taken on its current form about 9 billion years ago.

In short, we’ve only just turned on the radio, and we haven’t even had a chance to hear the song. Given that our individual lives are so short, cosmically, it would be absurd to say that there is no alien life out there because we haven’t heard from them. That is what makes the Drake Equation a critical point of discussion from a scientific perspective because it gives scientists some perspective.

Yes, that is an enormous haystack we have in front of us, and after some searching, we’ve yet to find any needles. Some scientists might be tempted to throw their hands up and say the search is pointless, but the Drake Equation reminds us that there might still be needles in there, even tens of thousands of needles. We just have to keep searching if we ever hope to find them. Whether we continue to do so is entirely up to us.

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UFO Caught On Camera During Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Parade

As we now know, thanks to Pentagon reports and numerous pilots’ testimonies, UFOs have been encountered numerous times in the vicinity of the world’s military and especially fighter jets, helicopters and warships.

This appears to have once again occurred last week during, of all things, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee parade over in the United Kingdom. At least that’s what many on the internet believe.

During the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70th anniversary as monarch, nine fighter jets flew in formation, making a pass over the parade leaving contrails of red, white and blue smoke.

As this was occurring, several people on the internet noticed an anomaly on camera in the form of a very fast, white or shiny UFO zooming perpendicular behind the aircraft across the screen.

The UFO appeared to be very small, but moving at a rate of speed not achievable by any known drones. A second video taken from one of the jets in the formation appears to show the same UFO, or perhaps a second unidentified flying object in the vicinity of the aircraft.

Many on the internet offered up their opinions of what the UFO may have actually been

“That is definitely not a lens flare,” one viewer of the video wrote on Twitter.

“Way too fast for a drone. Unless its closer than it looks… that thing is hauling a–,” another commented.

“At least you know where she’s gone should she suddenly disappear,” joked another viewer, referring to the Queen.

Over on Reddit, commenters were equally as puzzled.

“I’m starting to believe these are just uninhabited drones that aren’t ours… Like not human,” one person wrote.

“I’ve thought about this a lot, we often just assume that things will be at a similar scale to us, but depending on the evolutionary diceroll it could be anything,” another explained. “What if dinosaurs had stayed the dominant species? What if it ends up being ants? Spaceship for ants joke aside, if we’re being visited by?”

One viewer went even deeper, positing, what if “that point of light is just the visual light spectrum signature of a larger craft?”

The truth is out there.

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Huge Asteroid to Narrowly Miss Earth on May 27

An enormous asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building will make a close approach to Earth on May 27, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

Fear not: the asteroid, named 7335 (1989 JA), will soundly miss our planet by about 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) — or nearly 10 times the average distance between Earth and the moon.

Still, given the space rock’s enormous size (1.1. miles, or 1.8 km, in diameter) and relatively close proximity to Earth, NASA has classified the asteroid as “potentially hazardous,” meaning it could do enormous damage to our planet if its orbit ever changes and the rock impacts Earth.

According to NASA, 7335 (1989 JA) is the largest asteroid that will make a close approach to Earth this year. Scientists estimate the asteroid is traveling at about 47,200 mph(76,000 km/h), or 20 times faster than a speeding bullet.

The rock won’t make another close flyby until June 23, 2055, when it will pass even farther away than this flyby, or within about 70 times the distance between Earth and moon.

This asteroid is one of more than 29,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) that NASA tracks each year. NEOs refer to any astronomical object that passes within about 30 million miles (48 million km) of Earth’s orbit, according to NASA.

A majority of these objects are extremely small; 7335 (1989 JA) measures larger than about 99% of NEOs that NASA follows, the agency said.

7335 (1989 JA) also fits into a class of asteroid called the Apollo-class — which refers to asteroids that orbit the sun while periodically crossing Earth’s orbit, Live Science previously reported. Astronomers know of about 15,000 such asteroids.

NASA monitors NEOs like this one closely, and recently launched a mission to test whether potentially hazardous asteroids could one day be deflected from a collision course with Earth.

In November 2021, NASA launched a spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which will collide head-on into the 525-foot-wide (160 meters) Dimorphos asteroid in autumn 2022. The collision won’t destroy the asteroid, but it may change the rock’s orbital path slightly, Live Science previously reported.

Originally published on Live Science.

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‘Known Alien’ Al Roker Loses It During UFO Discussion

Al Roker, who was identified as a “known alien” in the movie Men in Black, lost it on the Today show during a discussion on the House starting hearings on UFOs.

Roker—who said back in 2008 that he “firmly” believes extraterrestrials are “out there”—showed that he was less than impressed as the Today panel discussed what messages future humans might be sending back to the present time.

“Moving on now,” the clearly annoyed Roker said.

“Is this the current Al Roker talking or is this the Al Roker from the future,” Today co-host Craig Melvin asked.

“I know our producer from the present wants us to move on because time in this universe is finite. MOVING ON!” he yelled.

The House committee is holding the first congressional public hearing on UFOs in decades on Tuesday.

It follows the release last year of a U.S. intelligence report on UFOs, which found that investigators were only able to explain one out of 144 sightings of mysterious flying objects.

Roker’s face appears in a hilarious scene from the movie Men In Black, in which certain celebrities are named as being “known aliens.” They included Roker, Isaac Mizrahi, Danny DeVito, director Barry Sonnenfeld, Chloe Sonnenfeld (Barry’s daughter), Sylvester Stallone, Dionne Warwick, Newt Gingrich, Anthony Robbins, George Lucas, and executive producer Steven Spielberg.

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Is Congress Finally Waking Up To UFOs?

UFOs are finally having a moment. In Congress that is.

On Tuesday, for the first time in more than 50 years, a congressional hearing is being held to address UFOs – or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) as they are now known.

“For too long, the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis,” said Indiana Rep. André Carson, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation subcommittee. “Pilots avoided reporting, or were laughed at when they did. DOD officials relegated the issue to the back room, or swept it under the rug entirely, fearful of a skeptical national security community. Today, we know better. UAPs are unexplained, it’s true. But they are real. They need to be investigated. And any threats they pose need to be mitigated.”

Congress’ openness to talk about flying objects with no known or proven origin has increased exponentially in recent years.

That increased interest – and ramped-up belief that UAPs pose a national security threat – began in earnest in April 2020 when the Pentagon released three short videos documenting UAPs.

As CNN wrote at the time: “The videos show what appear to be unidentified flying objects rapidly moving while recorded by infrared cameras. Two of the videos contain service members reacting in awe at how quickly the objects are moving. One voice speculates that it could be a drone.”

Then last summer, the US intelligence community issued an unclassified report to Congress on UAPs that, among other things, detailed 144 UAP sightings or incidents – documented by military aviators – between 2004 and 2021.

The report also included these lines: “In 18 incidents, described in 21 reports, observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics. Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion.”

Which, whoa!

That UFOs UAPs are having a moment in Congress would be of considerable gratification to the late Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, who, for a very long time, was a lone voice in pushing the importance of studying this phenomenon more closely.

Reid had advocated for the creation of the secretive Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was housed within the Department of Defense.

In a 2017 profile of the program, The New York Times wrote:

“The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.”

In 2019, Reid defended the $22 million he had earmarked for AATIP over his time in the Senate.

“We know that China is doing it,” Reid said in reference to studying UAPs. “We know that Russia, which is led by someone within the KGB, is doing it, too, so we better take a look at it, too.” Added Reid: “We got a volume of research that was done, $22 million worth of research. It showed that not two people, four people or six people or 20 people but hundreds and hundreds of people have seen these things, sometimes all at the same time.”

The following year, Reid was blunt about his interest. “I personally don’t know if there exist little green men places,” Reid said. “I kind of doubt that, but I do believe the information we have indicates we should do a lot more study.”

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Nasa Shuts Down Sun Live Feed After Mysterious Object Emerges

Nasa‘s live sun cam allegedly crashed after a mysterious black cube appeared on the screen.

The ominous black object was spotted in the bottom right corner of the sun for approximately two seconds before the live stream abruptly ended. Conspiracy theorists insinuated there’s only one explanation: Aliens.

Self-proclaimed extraterrestrial expert Scott C Waring made bold claims that the space agency covered up the incident using the front of experiencing glitches.

The footage is widely available to the public, which is how Waring discovered the strange entity.

Talking about the supposed cube sighting on his blog and Youtube channel, Waring reported that Nasa shut down the feed once the object appeared on May 2nd at around 1:06pm GMT.

“You can see the cube coming out of the Sun and right after that, a big glitch that covers 25 per cent of that. There it is, gone! Glitch!” he told his followers.

“Two frames of the cube coming out of the Sun and then huge glitch…one, two, glitch. Guys, this is mind-boggling… this is on the SOHO official website, you also see the cube and the timestamp matches.”

“This is on the SOHO official website, you also see the cube and the timestamp matches — 13.06, on May 2,” he said while opening a separate tab on the Helioviewer Project, a similar platform to SOHO.

“Guys, this is undeniable evidence that Nasa and SOHO are part of the cover-up,” he suggested. “They’re trying to hide these black cubes going through space, to and from our Sun.”

“What do you think they are harvesting?” he quizzed.

Many people believed the sighting was nothing more than a solar flare, an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the sun’s atmosphere.

“I want to believe this but are you sure it’s not a flare,” one said. “I agree the whole maintenance timing is odd, but could you put some flare videos next to this to compare?”

Another shared: “A square-shaped flare. I must be one of them smart flares.”

A third person theorized that the cube symbolized angels, “It takes a lot of energy for an angel to manifest itself to the physical world, so they use the sun’s power for a boost,” they said, adding: “The cubes are black, so you won’t be seeing them on their journey). They come in human form so most of us won’t recognize them. But if you believe you’ll know.”

Another person bluntly shut down their theory, saying: “Angels have never been described as squares.”

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The UFO Briefings on Capitol Hill Begin

Lawmakers receiving the latest secret briefings on UFOs say national security agencies still aren’t taking seriously the reports of highly advanced aircraft of unknown origin violating protected airspace.

Members of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees received classified progress reports in recent weeks on a series of new data collection efforts the Pentagon and spy agencies are now required to pursue to more rigorously investigate reports of UFOs, three people with direct knowledge confirmed.

But some leading sponsors of recent legislation want more analysts and surveillance systems dedicated to determining the aircrafts’ origin — and not just more reports of their existence.

One of those lawmakers is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a member of both committees who has called the phenomena “an urgent issue” and for the first time is expressing her public dissatisfaction at the response.

“Senator Gillibrand believes that the DoD needs to take this issue much more seriously and get in motion,” said one of her aides, who requested anonymity in order to discuss private conversations. “They have had ample time to implement these important provisions, and they need to show us that they are prepared to address this issue in the long-term.”

The congressional briefings come four months after Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Pentagon to create the Anomaly Surveillance and Resolution Office.

The office, which is supposed to be fully operational by June, was granted the authority to pursue “any resource, capability, asset, or process” to investigate “unidentified aerial phenomena” — the now-widely accepted nomenclature for UFOs.

The Pentagon office is supposed to be developing an “intelligence collection and analysis plan to gain as much knowledge as possible regarding the technical and operational characteristics, origins, and intentions of unidentified aerial phenomena,” according to the legislation.

That means identifying people across the government “to respond rapidly to incidents or patterns of observations.”

The bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden, also required an annual report and semiannual briefings for Congress, including descriptions of all UAP incidents such as those “associated with military nuclear assets, including strategic nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered ships and submarines.”

To respond to Congress’s direction, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks directed the creation of an Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group to oversee the stepped-up effort and establish the permanent UFO office required by Congress.

Among its tasks is to standardize UAP incident reporting across the military and collect and analyze more intelligence.

“The Department continues to brief Congress on our efforts regarding unidentified aerial phenomena, including our progress in standing up the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, in accordance with the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act,” Susan Gough, a department spokesperson, told POLITICO in a statement.

“I cannot comment on specific engagements,” she added.

Expanding investigations of UAPs will require dedicating far more resources and personnel to the task, military and intelligence experts say.

But some members of Congress and their staff are beginning to air their dissatisfaction with the progress in making that happen.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the intelligence panel, also believes the Pentagon is not aggressively carrying out Congress’ direction.

“Rubio is definitely frustrated,” said one of the senator’s aides, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “They are not moving fast enough, not doing enough, not sharing enough.”

“The administration is aware of the concerns,” he added. “It is not at the level it needs to be.”

Others are more critical, accusing the Pentagon of hiding information from Congress.

“I don’t trust the Department of Defense to get this right since leadership there has always been part of a cover-up,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee.

“It is clear from the public evidence that we don’t have full control of our airspace,” added Burchett, whose district includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where there have been numerous reports of UFO sightings over the decades. “That’s a national security issue and it’s also unacceptable.”

Five current and former military and intelligence officials and contractor personnel privy to the deliberations who were not authorized to speak publicly told POLITICO they believe real progress is being made to compel agencies to take a more proactive approach — and also be more transparent about what they might know about UFO sightings and technologies.

Capitol Hill scrutiny has intensified since 2017, when former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo went public with his concerns. Since then, Navy pilots have come forward with credible testimony of UFO encounters, and the Pentagon began releasing select footage depicting mysterious aircraft captured by fighter jet cameras and ship radars.

“They are putting time in, they are doing work,” said a government contractor who has been enlisted in the new effort. “They are going to put some bodies on it. I think they’ll probably file the reports back to Congress on time. And that is a big plus.”

Others said that while officials are doing a better job of collecting reports of UAPs, they are still reluctant to dedicate more intelligence assets to determine whether some of the reported craft might belong to a foreign nation or if they are extraterrestrial in nature.

“I have seen everything we have [in the files] and I am very confident they are not ours,” said a former senior intelligence official who had authority over the UFO portfolio, referring to classified U.S. aircraft programs.

The continued uncertainty is prompting members of Congress to increase pressure on the Pentagon and spy agencies to do much more than merely collect UAP reports.

The contractor worries that the new Pentagon panel “is going to receive reports and collate them but they’re not going to lead any organized, serious effort to find out what the hell’s going on, nor are they going to be in a position to press anybody else to do that.”

Congress wants “somebody to get on the stick over there and get to the bottom of it,” the contractor added.

That also means determining where the sightings are most commonly being reported and then cueing technical systems to monitor those areas more regularly — for example, to “have these three satellites collect X amount of hours in X locations.”

“Who’s got all the puzzle pieces, who’s doing serious analysis, and then making informed, intelligent decisions about [intelligence] collection?” he asked.

But it also means “you have to compete with a lot of other priority things that are going to often outrank this,” he added.

Elizondo also said in an interview that he believes an enduring problem is that there are still “pockets of information” on UAPs within the government that are not being shared with the new Pentagon oversight body or Congress.

And when some of those pockets reach oversight committees through other channels, it further undermines their confidence in the government’s ability to seek and provide comprehensive answers.

“When they are made aware of information and data and videos and photos that are not being provided by DoD, it sets up a situation where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” Elizondo said.

Gough, the Pentagon spokesperson, declined to respond to such criticism.

Elizondo also warned that the Pentagon is lumping the most mystifying UAP reports with more traditional drones or other more readily identifiable objects commonly discovered in U.S. airspace, such as weather balloons or discarded rocket and satellite components.

The intent of the new law “is not to associate UAPs as an air clutter issue or space junk,” Elizondo said. “That should not be confused with clearly breakaway technologies that are being employed and demonstrated within our controlled U.S. airspace.”

The government UFO contractor sees signs of momentum to give “the phenomenon” the attention it deserves, but expects Congress will have to take more legislative action.

“I think there are pockets of people in different agencies who are enthusiastic,” he said. “But is it a focused effort? Is there somebody at a high level who is an advocate who owns this problem and is putting together a plan to get the answers that Congress wants? I think the answer to that is no.”

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Original Article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-ufo-briefings-on-capitol-hill-have-begun-lawmakers-aren-e2-80-99t-impressed

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