UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

If, as my Body Snatchers in the Desert book and my The Roswell UFO Conspiracy book suggested, certain key events in the summer of 1947 – of a perceived flying saucer nature – had far less to do with the actions of aliens and far more to do with matters of a classified, military nature, then it would be most reasonable to assume that (a) discussions of such a possibility would have been flying around Washington, D.C., and (b) the government, and people in the military, would have been secretly digging deep to try and determine if this was indeed the case. Guess what? That is exactly what happened. Although many UFO investigators have said that the government’s worries and concerns about UFOs in ’47 were provoked by fear of them having definitive alien or Soviet origins, we have prime evidence in our hands that demonstrates the domestic “secret weapon” angle was one most definitely discussed – and even accepted – at an official level, as we shall now see. It is a crucial part of the argument that at least some UFOs are not from faraway worlds, but from right here. In early July 1947, Brigadier General George F. Schulgen, who was the Chief of the Requirements Intelligence Branch of Army Air Corps Intelligence, met with Special Agent S.W. Reynolds of the FBI. The purpose: to determine if the Army Air Force could solicit the assistance of the Bureau on a regular basis in its investigation of the growing flying saucer controversy. General Schulgen advised Reynolds that, “every effort must be undertaken in order to run down and ascertain whether or not the flying discs are a fact and, if so, to learn all about them.”

(Nick Redfern)

Welcome to Roswell!

The foremost thought on General Schulgen’s mind, at the time, was that the saucers were probably man-made in origin. He had another theory, too, and confided in Special Agent Reynolds that, “the first reported sightings might have been by individuals of Communist sympathies with the view to causing hysteria and fear of a secret weapon.” It was for this reason that the Army Air Force sought the FBI’s assistance. General Schulgen pledged to the FBI “all the facilities of [my] office as to results obtained.” He outlined a plan that would involve the FBI in both locating and questioning witnesses to UFO sightings to ascertain whether they were sincere in their statements that they had seen flying saucers, or whether their statements were prompted by personal desire for publicity or subversive reasons. According to declassified FBI files, Schulgen was careful to advise Reynolds too that: “It has been established that the flying discs are not the result of any Army or Navy experiment.” But, was that statement the literal truth? Was someone keeping the FBI in the dark?

Following the meeting between Schulgen and Reynolds, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover instructed his agents to begin investigations into flying saucer sightings, specifically in the manner suggested by General Schulgen. As a result of these investigations, on August 15, 1947 the FBI learned of the distinct possibility that the military’s involvement in the flying saucer subject extended beyond that of mere observer. In a memorandum to Edward A. Tamm, the FBI Assistant Director, D.M. Ladd of the Bureau’s Domestic Intelligence Division wrote the following: “The Director advised on August 14, 1947, that the Los Angeles papers were carrying headlines indicating that Soviet espionage agents had been instructed to determine the facts relative to the flying discs. The article carried a Washington date line and indicated that Red espionage agents had been ordered to solve the question of the flying discs, the Russians being of the opinion that this might be some new form of defense perfected by the American military [italics mine]. The article further recalled that during the recent war pieces of tin foil had been dropped in the air for the purpose of off-setting the value of radar being used by the enemy forces and that these aluminum discs might be a new development along this line. The Director inquired as to whether the Bureau had any such information.”

(Nick Redfern)

When there were concerns about UFOs and the Russians

Suspecting that, if the Russians were snooping around, the saucers just had to be American in origin, Special Agent Reynolds of the FBI’s Liaison Section was directed by J. Edgar Hoover to make further inquiries with the Air Force. Answers were sorely needed. Answers came, too. But, they weren’t the ones you might expect them to have been. On August 19, 1947, Reynolds met with a Lieutenant Colonel George D. Garrett and the entire secret weapon issue was discussed frankly and openly, as were the potential consequences should the Bureau uncover details of a top-secret, domestic research-and-development program. Following their very candid exchange, a remarkable memorandum captioned “Flying Discs” was prepared by Reynolds for the attention of Hoover. It is this document, perhaps, more than any other, which indicates that the American military was testing flying saucer-type aircraft in the summer of 1947. Or, craft that were not circular-shaped but which still came under the UFO banner, such as massive balloon arrays. The document reads as follows: “Special Agent S. W. Reynolds of the Liaison Section, while discussing the above captioned phenomena with Lieutenant Colonel Garrett of the Air Forces Intelligence, expressed the possibility that flying discs were, in fact, a very highly classified experiment of the Army or Navy. Mr. Reynolds was very much surprised when Colonel Garrett not only agreed that this was a possibility, but confidentially stated it was his personal opinion that such was a probability. Colonel Garrett indicated that a Mr. [Deleted], who is a scientist attached to the Air Forces Intelligence, was of the same opinion.”

“Colonel Garrett stated that he based his assumption on the following: He pointed out that when flying objects were reported seen over Sweden, the ‘high brass’ of the War Department extended tremendous pressure on the Air Forces Intelligence to conduct research and collect information in an effort to identify these sightings. Colonel Garrett stated that, in contrast to this, we have reported sightings of unknown objects over the United States, and the ‘high brass’ appeared to be totally unconcerned. He indicated this led him to believe that they knew enough about these objects to express no concern. Colonel Garrett pointed out further that the objects in question have been seen by many individuals who are what he terms ‘trained observers’ such as airline pilots. He indicated also that several of the individuals are reliable members of the community. He stated that these individuals saw something. He stated the above has led him to the conclusion that there were objects seen which somebody in the Government knows all about [italics mine].”

Special Agent Reynolds then pointed out to the colonel that if flying saucers really did originate within the heart of a highly classified domestic project of the military, it was wholly unreasonable for the FBI to be expected to “spend money and precious time conducting inquiries with respect to this matter.” The colonel duly concurred with Reynolds; he indicated that it would have been extremely embarrassing to Air Force Intelligence if the saucers proved to be American in origin. Perhaps sensing that he was now getting very close to uncovering the truth behind the UFO puzzle, Reynolds then made inquiries with the Intelligence Division of the War Department. He wanted their opinion on the theory that something akin to a shadow government operation was responsible for the many flying saucer-type objects seen over North America. The War Department, however, issued a flat denial that it was in any way implicated in the UFO issue. In a report written up later, Reynolds noted that he was given “the assurance of General Chamberlain and General Todd that the Army is conducting no experiments with anything which could possibly be mistaken for a flying disc.”

(Nick Redfern)

Secret U.S. devices? Soviets? Aliens?

Nevertheless, the FBI continued to view the subject of flying saucers and the military’s involvement in the subject with profoundly suspicious eyes. Rumors continued to circulate within the higher echelons of the FBI that it was being denied access to the full and unexpurgated facts – facts suggesting UFOs were home-grown and not Russian or alien in origin. None of this, of course, proves that the flying saucer wave of the summer of 1947 was provoked by a highly classified military program – rather than one of E.T. origin – but the behind-the-scenes discussions between the likes of Reynolds and Garrett on just such this very possibility most definitely pushed things in that direction.

A young binary system that is located approximately 325 light-years away from us has broken several records in regards to what scientists have found in space thus far. The binary star system called b Centauri contains a gigantic planet that shouldn’t even exist.

The planet, which is called b Centauri b, is about 11 times larger than Jupiter and is one of the heaviest worlds ever found. What’s even more astonishing is that the two stars in the system are between 6 and 10 times heavier than our own sun. This means that b Centauri is by far the largest system that’s ever been found that contains a planet. Furthermore, it is the hottest known system with a planet.

In fact, prior to this discovery, the heaviest known binary system with planets had stars that were about 2.7 times our sun’s mass and the heftiest single star system to have planets contains a sun with about 3 times our solar mass.

(Not the b Centauri system)

The two stars in the b Centauri system are only about 15 million years old and since they are so massive and let off so much heat, it didn’t seem as though any planets would be found there. The main star called b Centauri A is a B-type star that has a temperature of about 32,000 degrees Fahrenheit (almost 18,000 degrees Celsius). To put this into better perspective, it is approximately three times hotter than our sun and much hotter than any other planet-hosting star that has been found to date.

In a statement, Markus Janson, who is an astronomer at Stockholm University in Sweden, stated, “B-type stars are generally considered as quite destructive and dangerous environments.” “It was believed that it should be exceedingly difficult to form large planets around them.” But they did find one massive planet in that system by using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Additionally, b Centauri b has one of the widest orbits found so far as it is located approximately 550 astronomical units (AU) away from the stars (one AU is the distance that Earth is to our sun). To understand this better, it is about 14 times further away than Pluto is to the sun. This may explain why it has survived as it is far enough away from the extreme radiation.

(Not b Centauri b)

How the planet formed is still a mystery but there are some theories like perhaps it was created close to the stars but ended up getting tossed further away by gravitational interactions, or maybe it formed where it is currently located. Nevertheless, it is one incredible discovery that has broken many previous planet and star system records. The study was published in the journal Nature.

A picture of the system taken by SPHERE and an artist’s impression of the planet can be viewed here.

Artist's illustration showing a close up of the newfound planet b Centauri b, which orbits a binary star system with mass at least six times that of the sun. This is the most massive and hottest planet-hosting star system found to date. The planet is 11 times more massive than Jupiter and orbits the two-star system at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the sun.

(Image credit: ESO/L. Calçada)

This image, captured by the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, shows the most massive known planet-hosting star pair, b Centauri (at left), and its giant planet b Centauri b (arrow). The bright dot in the upper right is a background star.