A team of Cornell researchers detected radio bursts emanating from the sole exoplanet orbiting the Tau Boötes binary star system – making this the first radio emission received from a planet outside of our solar system.

All together now … with feeling:

“It’s aliens!”

OK, the team, led by Cornell postdoctoral researcher Jake D. Turner, Philippe Zarka of the Observatoire de Paris – Paris Sciences et Lettres University and Jean-Mathias Griessmeier of the Université d’Orléans, isn’t yelling that with feeling along with us, but it’s a great signal they’ve picked up using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands. The exoplanet – a hot Jupiter gaseous giant named Tau Boötes b – is in a tight orbit around Tau Boötis, a binary system consisting of a yellow-white dwarf and a dim red dwarf that is 51 light years from Earth in the Boötis constellation. The radio bursts are almost certainly coming from the exoplanet, which has Turner’s postdoctoral advisor and astronomy professor Ray Jayawardhana pretty excited.

The real Jupiter

“If confirmed through follow-up observations, this radio detection opens up a new window on exoplanets, giving us a novel way to examine alien worlds that are tens of light-years away.”

According to the Cornell press release – the paper was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics – Turner came up with the idea of studying the radio emissions of our own Jupiter as a way to detect other big gaseous planets outside the solar system. Using that data, they developed a signature for finding them in star systems between 40 and 100 light years away. The team’s “Eureka!” moment came quickly as they found candidates in the 55 Cancri system in the constellation Cancer and in the Upsilon Andromedae systems. However, neither were as significant as Tau Boötes b.

So … are aliens on Tau Boötes b trying to contact us … or anyone else listening?

“The signature, though, is weak. There remains some uncertainty that the detected radio signal is from the planet. The need for follow-up observations is critical.”

Like all good scientists, Turner wants certified proof that the signal is coming from Tau Boötes b. Also, the exoplanet is a hot Jupiter, not an Earth-like exoplanet with a magnetic field that contributes to possible habitability “by shielding their own atmospheres from solar wind and cosmic rays, and protecting the planet from atmospheric loss.” There’s not much chance our own Jupiter harbors life, let alone intelligent life with the ability to intentionally send out radio bursts.

Europa

Could the radio burst come from an exo-moon like Jupiter’s Europa, which has a salty ocean that could support life? Is anyone looking for Europa-like signatures or radio signals?

It’s times like this we mourn the demise of the Arecibo Observatory.

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There’s probably not a single one of us who hasn’t, at some point, wondered what it would be like to travel through time. Of course, we must first make a strong case demonstrating that such a thing is, at the very least, feasible. It’s all good and well to share sensational and exciting stories of time-surfing with one and all. The fact is, though, we need much more than that. And, with that said, let’s now look at the science behind time-travel. Today, I’m focusing on the phenomenon called “Wormholes.” Nola Taylor Redd says: “The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter. Wormholes were first theorized in 1916, though that wasn’t what they were called at the time. While reviewing another physicist’s solution to the equations in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm realized another solution was possible. He described a ‘white hole,’ a theoretical time reversal of a black hole. Entrances to both black and white holes could be connected by a space-time conduit.”

Jillian Scharr is a staff writer for NBC. She, too has, carefully addressed the almost-mind-boggling issues of time-travel and wormholes: “The concept of a time machine typically conjures up images of an implausible plot device used in a few too many science-fiction storylines. But according to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which explains how gravity operates in the universe, real-life time travel isn’t just a vague fantasy. Traveling forward in time is an uncontroversial possibility, according to Einstein’s theory. In fact, physicists have been able to send tiny particles called muons, which are similar to electrons, forward in time by manipulating the gravity around them. That’s not to say the technology for sending humans 100 years into the future will be available anytime soon, though.”

Now, let us ponder deeply on the words of Calla Cofield, who provides us the following: “In his 1994 publication Black Holes and Time Warps…[Kip] Thorne proposes a thought experiment: Say he obtains a small wormhole, which connects two points in space as if they were not separated by any distance at all. Thorne takes his wormhole and puts one end in his living room, and the other aboard a spaceship parked in his front yard. Thorne’s wife, Carolee, hops aboard the spaceship to prepare for a trip. The two don’t have to say goodbye, though, because no matter how far away Carolee travels, they can see each other through the wormhole. They can even hold hands, as if through an open doorway.” Fascinating? Indeed! We aren’t over yet, though.

Bill Andrews, of Discover magazine, most assuredly gives us something to think about – and deeply too: “The first problem for any explorer determined to survey a wormhole is simply finding one. While Einstein’s work says they can exist, we don’t currently know of any. They may actually be impossible after all, forbidden by some deeper physics that the universe obeys, but we haven’t discovered. The second issue is that, despite years of research, scientists still aren’t really sure how wormholes would work. Can any technology ever create and manipulate them, or are they simply a part of the universe? Do they stay open forever, or are they only traversable for a limited time? And perhaps most significantly, are they stable enough to allow for human travel? The answer to all of these: We just don’t know.”

Now, I’ll share with you the words of my colleague and friend here at the Mysterious Universe website, Paul Seaburn. In 2017, he elected to immerse himself into this strange and swirling world of wormholes: “In a recent post on his Forbes blog, Starts with a Bang, theoretical astrophysicist and science writer Ethan Siegel lays out the parts and the plans for traveling backwards in time. Siegel claims this ‘time machine’ abides by Einstein’s general theory of relativity and will not destroy the universe as we know it. Siegel proposes a sort of reverse wormhole. Instead of the conventional ‘travel 40 light years out at nearly the speed of light, come back and you’ve aged 2 years while everyone else is 82 years older,’ he proposes a wormhole with one fixed end and one that moves around at nearly the speed of light. The wormhole is created, you wait a year and then enter the end that has been in motion. When you come out at the fixed end, it’s 40 years prior. That means if you entered this wormhole today, you could travel back to 1978.”

It’s most important to note that all of those who have addressed the issue of wormholes are well-respected figures in their own, specific arenas. And, they have brought to the table significant material that suggests wormholes and time-travel are both a reality. Heading back into the past? Don’t bet against it!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Sometimes the UFO field takes a right turn into the dark recesses of the downright grim. The man called Stanley Romanek has had a pretty weird life. A prominent author and expert on alien and UFO phenomena, he is also well-known as being an alien abductee, which entails those individuals who claim to have been kidnapped by aliens for reasons we may never understand. Besides being an abductee, Romanek has a pretty unusual pedigree even within the UFO field, as his claims of alien contact really run the range of the weird, going well above and beyond the usual oddness. In the year 2000 he claims that he had his first abduction experience, during which time he was allegedly experimented on, and according to him he would be abducted numerous other times. He claimed that the aliens often communicated with him telepathically, and while this might seem pretty mundane by normal abductee standards, this is not even nearly the end of the strangeness. Here we go down the rabbit hole of a man who was embroiled in some really rather bizarre UFO stuff, as well as a dark secret life and unspeakable crimes.

Unlike the usual straight forward alien abduction claims, some of Romanek’s stories really went out past the stratosphere of the odd into the furthest reaches of the bizarre, and over the course of numerous supposed abductions by these aliens some of his stories really stand out. He says that on several occasions he had woken with lost time and inexplicable cuts and other wounds on his body, which oddly glowed brightly when put under a black light. He claims that under hypnosis he would remember that these strange wounds had been inflicted upon him by the aliens using inscrutable medical procedures. On another occasion he woke from one of these experiences and was baffled to find that he was now wearing a woman’s dress. How did he end up in women’s clothing? Why, the aliens did it of course, and not only that, but he was convinced that this wasn’t just any dress, but rather the actual dress that Betty Hill had worn during her famous alien abduction. Why the aliens would do this, Romanek doesn’t say. There was also the time that they installed an implant into his leg. He also claims that the aliens would frequently talk with him either telepathically or through a device known as a “ghost box,” basically an electronic audio device designed to pick up the voices of ghosts, called “electronic voice phenomena,” or EVP.

Stanley Romanek

Throughout these abductions Romanek claims that there was an ominous undercurrent to it all. He would say that the aliens constantly monitored him and followed him around, sometimes even breaking into his home. There also seemed to be others keeping tabs on him, both malevolent and benign. One of these was a mysterious call from a woman with a British accent who called him “Starseed,” and reassured him that he was special and important and that he should not be afraid of what he is, but follow his instincts and stay alert. Another person who contacted him was a little girl who called herself “Kioma” and who claimed to be one of his 9 (!) alien hybrid daughters. Other parties following him around were decidedly more nefarious, and he would complain of being subjected to stalking, harassment, computer hacking, intimidation, and even assault, all in what he claims was an effort to silence him on what he had experienced. So, did Romanek have any evidence for any of this? Well, that’s kind of a long, weird story in and of itself.

Romanek would claim to have taken various photographs and videos of these UFOs and aliens, with perhaps the most famous being what has come to be called the “Boo Video.” The video in question is taken in Romanek’s bedroom, and allegedly shows at one point an alien face leering in through the window. It is blurry and indistinct, like many other similar videos, but Romanek insisted that it was genuine, even going so far as to take a lie detector test over its authenticity after being suggested that he take one by radio host George Noory on the popular paranormal program Coast to Coast AM. Unfortunately for him, he failed the test, but that’s OK, because he would also claim that he had a mysterious medical condition that prevented lie detectors from working for him, later even accusing Noory of having set up the lie detector test to fail from the beginning. Right, then.

This would highlight another aspect of Romanek, which is that he was able to come up with an excuse for his lack of being able to show any concrete evidence at every turn. Seriously, he has a weasel excuse for everything. When he appeared on in an interview on ABC Primetime and someone wanted to examine the supposed alien implant in his leg, he agreed, yet when the time came for him to actually be examined he said it had mysteriously disappeared. When some of his photographic evidence was found to be almost definitely faked, he blamed the shady parties following him of capturing him in a nefarious plot to discredit him. He would use a similar excuse when he admitted that he had faked video footage of moving objects, but then said it was only because authorities had strong-armed him into discrediting himself. Then there was the time he was arrested on charges of child pornography and this was all a government conspiracy too. Wait, wait?

In 2014, Romanek was arrested on child pornography charges after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found more than 300 images as well as video files depicting child pornography on his computer. This is a serious felony offense, but both Romanek and his wife, Lisa, immediately strongly denied the charges. According to them this was all part of a vast conspiracy to frame him and to serve as an example and warning to silence other alien abductees. Romanek adamantly claimed that the pornography had been planted on his computer by the authorities in order to implicate him, and that everyone involved in the arrest and trial were corrupt conspirators. Romanek did everything but claim that aliens were actually controlling his mind in an effort to deny any responsibility for his action. He even constantly put off the inevitable by claiming illness on several court dates in order to push back and delay the trial, anything to deflect blame and stave off having to actually face taking responsibility for what had happened.

Lisa Romanek famously proclaimed that they were going to fight it to the end, and were going to “bring ufology into the courtroom,” but unfortunately for them child pornography is pretty serious business that no one really has any sense of humor or leeway about at all, and so their bonkers claims of corrupt cops and shadowy government alien conspiracies did little to stop Romanek’s inevitable conviction. In the end Romanek got off rather lucky, in that he was found guilty of knowingly possessing the pornography on his computer but not of the more serious charge of distribution. He would be sentenced to serve two years in the Larimer County Community Corrections halfway house and to register as a sex offender, including the 10 years of intensive supervised probation and regular mental evaluations that comes with. He has been featured on a Netflix documentary entitled Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story. What are we to make of Romanek and all of this weirdness? It is certainly a dark splotch on the record of the alien abductee phenomena, and whether any of his alien encounter stories are true or not, he is undoubtedly a pathetic human being that most are probably willing to agree got what he deserved.

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