Tag: Seth Shostak

Pentagon UFO Program Still Exists. But Navy’s Alien Sightings Don’t Add Up.

Article by Seth Shostak                                August 2, 2020                               (nbcnews.com)

• The New York Times recently reported that in spite of a Pentagon UFO research program being shut down in 2012, a new one has taken its place. This gives a hundred million Americans hope that there must be something worth looking at… aliens perhaps?

• When The New York Times reported in 2017 that Navy pilots captured video of a UFO outmaneuvering their jets over the Pacific Ocean, they felt compelled to look into it due to national security concerns. Or is this a ruse by the government to make the public think that the military thinks that these are probably Russian or Chinese technologies, so that the public won’t be thrown “into chaos”?

• The NY Times also revealed that the government has in its possession “retrieved materials” that are “not made on this Earth”, and possibly even recovered alien spacecraft. This claim seems suspect. The Navy pilots didn’t report picking up pieces of alien technology or strange metal alloys, so it’s unclear where these “materials” came from. This is a case where seeing might be believing. But no one has let us see anything, which is convenient.

• Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., says he is especially concerned by the fact that the extraterrestrials spend a lot of time hanging out above our military bases. But why would such technologically advanced aliens travel trillions of miles to our planet just to ‘play cat-and-mouse’ with Navy jets and monitor our far-less advanced weaponry? Perhaps these aliens come as saviors to protect us from ourselves.

• No, aliens wouldn’t be interested in our pitiful technology. If unidentified craft or drones are watching our military capabilities, then it is more likely they are Russian or Chinese intelligence. Humans are too quick to ascribe strange phenomena to superhuman beings, much as the Greeks believed that lightning bolts were javelins tossed by Zeus. There is no solid ‘science’ that supports these unidentified objects being extraterrestrial.

• The Office of Naval Intelligence will supposedly make regular reports on at least some of its UFO findings. Is this good news for the Fox Mulder crowd who ‘want to believe’ in UFOs? Or will it rob these believers of their best evidence – which is no evidence at all?

• [Editor’s Note]   As the Senior Astronomer for the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) which peers at distant stars through radio telescopes looking for clues of extraterrestrial civilizations, Seth Shostak’s continuing fame and fortune lies in never finding any aliens at all, so he can keep on “searching”.

To this end, he pens this article that twists and contorts until he finally reaches his foregone conclusion – that extraterrestrials have not yet come to this planet. Shostak’s tortured premise is that highly advanced extraterrestrial beings would have no interest in our inferior technology, although the Russians or the Chinese may have. To believe that UFOs are of an extraterrestrial origin is a testament to the feeble human mind that ascribes anything unknown to supernatural causes. There is no hard science supporting alien technology, and there are no ‘alien materials’ or recovered alien craft in the government’s possession.

Shostak is a proud standard-bearer for the Deep State, continuing to debunk the extraterrestrial presence in any way he can, just as others before him have done for over seventy years. He must be aware that aliens exist here in our solar system. But his job is to lie to the public and attempt to make a mockery of the UFO disclosure movement, while posing as a responsible scientist. Unfortunately for Shostak, more and more people are waking up to this deceit and recognizing him for the despicable charlatan that he is.

 

Is it vindication at last? The New York Times has recently reported that a supposedly canceled Pentagon project to investigate

                      Seth Shostak

strange aerial phenomena is still showing a pulse. The clandestine effort, originally known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, was said to have ended in 2012. But, apparently, it’s still doing its thing under the auspices of the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, and with a new name: the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force.

So, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right? If the feds are still forking over tax dollars to delve into odd goings-on in the sky, it must be because they’ve got convincing evidence of extraterrestrial visitors. That’s the hope of the 100 million or so Americans who seem willing to swear on the Good Book that unidentified flying objects are, at least in some cases, alien objects.

But as with everything UFO-related, it’s worth taking a second, or third, look before rushing to lay out the red carpet for alien houseguests. When, in 2017, the Times first reported on a secret project to study unidentified aerial phenomena, it was in connection with some puzzling videos taken by Navy fighter pilots over the Pacific. The video showed unidentified objects ahead of the jets, objects that seemed to maneuver in bizarre ways. The military has always wanted to know about anything that can fly, so there are plenty of national security reasons for why they would continue such research.

That’s the most straightforward explanation for why the Navy has extended the Pentagon program. It’s also what they’ve said.
But isn’t it possible that what’s really going on here is not an investigation into unknown aircraft or drones, but a distraction to keep us from a more disturbing truth — that UFOs aren’t enemy flying machines, but alien flying machines? Maybe the government doesn’t want to admit this, because they figure the news might throw society into chaos.

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Will 2020 Be the Year We Find Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life?

Listen to “E187 Will 2020 Be the Year We Find Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life?” on Spreaker.

Article by Leonard David                            November 26, 2019                        (space.com)

• So far, astronomers have found more than 4,000 exoplanets and more are being discovered, suggesting that every star in the Milky Way galaxy hosts more than one planet. Space.com asked top SETI experts whether they will detect life elsewhere in the galaxy or even intelligent extraterrestrials?

• In searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak relies on detecting narrow-band radio signals or brief flashes of laser light from nearby star systems. If there are 10,000 extraterrestrial societies broadcasting radio signals in the galaxy, then he estimates that SETI will need to examine 10 million star systems to find one. That will take at least two more decades.

• But with the new receivers for the Allen Telescope Array in northern California that is scheduled for 2020, SETI will be able to search for laser technosignatures, which may improve their chances. Says Shostak, “[O]ne can always hope to be taken by surprise.”

• Michael Michaud, author of the book: Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials, says that improvements to search technologies could boost the odds of success. But there are still vast areas of the galaxy that we are not looking at. In searching for chemical technosignatures, we’ll most likely find simple life forms before finding a technological civilization.

• If SETI did find evidence of life in the galaxy, Michaud thinks the news will leak quickly. How should they announce the discovery? “[G]overnmental authorities won’t have much time for developing a public-affairs strategy,” says Michaud. Premade plans for such an announcement are unlikely because agency personnel won’t be able to get past the “giggle factor”, thinking that it is all just too absurd.

• Pete Worden, executive director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, which is affiliated with SETI, said, “I think this is going to be a long-term project. I estimate a very small probability of success (of finding extraterrestrial life) in any given year.” Nevertheless, “The Breakthrough Initiatives is committed to full and immediate disclosure of any and all results,” said Worden.

• Steven Dick, an astrobiology scholar and author of the book: Astrobiology, Discovery, and Societal Impact, says despite the work by Breakthrough Listen and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), there’s no reason to think 2020 would be the year for discovery. “[A]ll these things combine to increase the chances over the next decade of finding extraterrestrial intelligence. I would caution, though, that any discovery will be an extended process, consisting of detection and interpretation before any understanding is achieved,” said Dick. “I see the search advancing incrementally next year, but with an accelerating possibility that life will be discovered in the near future.” “One thing that is certain is that we are getting a better handle on the issues of societal impact, should such a discovery be made.”

• Douglas Vakoch, president of the SETI-affiliated nonprofit Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI), notes that “We are right now on the verge of finding out whether there is life elsewhere in the universe.” We scan with available technologies: Earth-based observatories, space-based telescopes, and even craft that travel to other planets and moons in our solar system. “It all depends on how plentiful intelligent extraterrestrials are. If one in 10,000 star systems is home to an advanced civilization trying to make contact, then …the news we’re not alone in the universe could well come in 2020,” Vakoch says.

• “As the next generation of space telescopes is launched, we will increase our chances of detecting signs of life through changes to the atmospheres of planets that orbit other stars, giving us millions of targets in our search for even simple life in the cosmos,” says Vakoch. But we probably won’t have “definitive proof” until after 2020 when NASA launches the James Webb Space Telescope, or 2028 when the European Space Agency starts its Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, or ARIEL, to study the atmospheres of exoplanets for potential signs of life.

• “[D]on’t hold your breath for discovery by 2020,” says Vakoch. Humans cannot control whether or not there is life elsewhere in the universe. “Either it’s there or it’s not.” “To be human is to live with uncertainty.” “If we demand guarantees before we begin searching, then we are guaranteed to find nothing. But if we are willing to commit to the search in the coming year and long afterwards, even without knowing we will succeed, then we are sure to discover that there is at least one civilization in the universe that has the passion and the determination to understand its place in the cosmos — and that civilization is us.”

• [Editor’s Note]   Seth Shostak and his band of idiots at SETI make their living by covering up the widespread existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life all around us, on behalf of their puppet masters, the Deep State elite. Are they liars or are they being fooled themselves? If they are half the scientists they claim to be, they must know the truth. Therefore, they are the very face of the Deep State lying to the public. They are reprehensible. They talk in scientific terms about the new technologies that they employ in their phony search to find a needle in a haystack. But they insist that it will take years, and probably lifetimes before they find a microbe on a distant exoplanet. Then they add platitudes of what a grand discovery it will be if they ever find life in the universe besides humanity. But make no mistake. Their job is to never find life beyond the Earth, and they have gotten very good at it.

 

In the past three decades, scientists have found more than 4,000 exoplanets. And the discoveries will keep rolling in; observations suggest that every star in the Milky Way galaxy hosts more than one planet on average.

                  Seth Shostak

Given a convergence of ground- and space-based capability, artificial intelligence/machine learning research and other tools, are we on the verge of identifying what is universally possible for life — or perhaps even confirming the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence?

Is 2020 the celestial payoff year, in which objects of interest are found to offer “technosignatures,” indicators of technology developed by advanced civilizations?

Space.com asked top SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) experts about what next year may signal regarding detecting other starfolk.

Michael Michaud

Gaining speed
“Well, despite being the widely celebrated 100-year anniversary of the election of Warren G. Harding, 2020 will not likely gain fame as the year we first discover extraterrestrial life,” said Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.

The search for intelligent beings elsewhere, Shostak said, is largely conducted by checking out nearby star systems for either narrow-band radio signals or brief flashes of laser light. And those might succeed at any time, he told Space.com.

“But one should remember that this type of search is gaining speed in an exponential fashion, and that particular technical fact allows a crude estimate of when SETI might pay off. If we take — for lack of a better estimate — Frank Drake’s opinion that there might be 10,000 broadcasting societies in the Milky Way, then we clearly have to examine at least one [million] – 10 million stellar systems to have a reasonable chance of tripping across one. That goal will be reached in the next two decades, but certainly not in 2020,” Shostak said.

             Pete Worden

Improved searches

But there are still reasons for intelligent-alien hunters to be excited and optimistic about the coming year. Multiple existing projects will either be expanded or improved in 2020, Shostak said. For example, the SETI Institute will get new receivers for the Allen Telescope Array in northern California, and both the SETI Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, will conduct new searches for possible laser technosignatures.

“And, of course, there’s always the unexpected,” Shostak said. “In 1996, the biggest science story of the year was the claim that fossilized Martian microbes had been found in a meteorite. No one really saw that coming. So one can always hope to be taken by surprise.”

Previous predictions

“I am skeptical about picking a specific year for the first discovery. Previous predictions of success have been wrong,” said Michael Michaud, author of the thought-provoking book “Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials” (Copernicus, 2007).

“I and others have observed that the continued improvement of our search technologies and strategies could boost the odds for success,” Michaud said, noting that the primary focus of SETI remains on radio signals. “However, we still don’t cover all frequencies, all skies, all of the time. Other types of searches have failed, too, such as looking for laser signals or Dyson spheres [ET mega-engineering projects]. Those campaigns usually have limited funding and often don’t last long.”

                   Steven Dick

A new possibility has arisen because of exoplanet discoveries, Michaud said: “In some cases, astronomers now can look for chemical evidence of life in planetary atmospheres. It is conceivable that we will find simple forms of life before we find signals from a technological civilization.”

     Douglas Vakoch

Prevailing opinion

If astronomers do someday confirm a SETI detection, how should they announce the discovery? It is an old question that has been answered in several ways.

“The prevailing opinion among radio astronomers has been that the news will leak quickly. If that is correct, scientific and governmental authorities won’t have much time for developing a public-affairs strategy,” Michaud said.

“It remains possible that the sophisticated monitoring capabilities of intelligence agencies might be the first to detect hard evidence,” Michaud said. “One might think that the government would have a plan to deal with such an event.”

But, Michaud said that his own experience suggests that such plans are unlikely to be drawn up due to a “giggle factor” and would be forgotten as officials rotated out of their positions. He previously represented the U.S. Department of State in interagency discussions of national space policy.

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We May Be Closing In On the Discovery of Alien Life. Are We Prepared?

Listen to “E127 10-15-19 We May Be Closing In On the Discovery of Alien Life. Are We Prepared?” on Spreaker.

Article by Seth Shostak                October 4, 2019              (nbcnews.com)

• In 2020, Mars and Earth will be relatively close to each other in their adjacent orbits around the sun. Taking advantage of this fortuitous orbital circumstance, NASA and European-Russian space agencies will be dispatching a small brigade of spacecraft to Mars. The new NASA craft will go beyond merely scouting for locations that were once suitable for life. They’ll be looking for life itself.

• Jim Green, the director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, is concerned that scientists haven’t thought much about the next steps should life be found on Mars. What if they found a biota that went extinct billions of years ago on Earth under the surface of Mars? Are we prepared for the discovery of life beyond this planet? Green isn’t worried about an overreaction by the public, though. In 1996, fossilized microbes were found in a meteorite that was ostensibly from Mars itself. The public barely took notice.

• What if we found an intelligent civilization on Mars? Would we do any better than the Spanish did to Native Americans in 1492? A recent survey at Arizona State University reveals that most people would welcome the revelation of intelligent extraterrestrials coming to the Earth. These rubes believe that the advanced beings would be friendly to them. Sure. Thanks ET (the movie).

• No need to worry, says Shostak. There are no intelligent beings on Mars, and certainly no civilizations. And there is no evidence that there ever were. It is a ‘silly concern’. Any life we encounter on Mars will be microscopic. But even this discovery would be enormously significant. It would be evidence that life is a process that begins on many worlds and consequently that the universe may be brimming with biology. But as of now, this is no more than hypothesis.

• [Editor’s Note]  Senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, the poster boy for the Deep State, is at it again. Here he is smugly reciting the status quo disinformation that extraterrestrial intelligence does not exist anywhere near the Earth, and that the only life we can hope to find off-planet is microbial life. To the very end, Shostak and the Deep State will deny that there are in fact many intelligent species currently visiting the Earth. We are a part of a local star cluster teeming with extraterrestrial civilizations all around us, waiting for us to shake off the shackles of ignorance cultivated by the Deep State serving an elite Illuminati cabal, to pull ourselves out of this third-density zombie apocalypse, and to join the other advanced civilizations of the Galactic Federation.

 

In the next decade or so, it’s entirely possible that you’ll see a headline announcing that NASA has found evidence of life in space.

Seth Shostak, Deep State Stooge

Would that news cause you to run screaming into the street? An article that appeared recently in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph hints that Jim Green, the director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, thinks the public might be discombobulated by the discovery of biology beyond the bounds of our own planet. But that’s not really what Green believes. He’s concerned that we haven’t thought much about the next steps by scientists, should we suddenly confront the reality of Martian life.

Here’s the backstory: In 2020, Mars and Earth will once again be relatively close to each other in their adjacent orbits around the sun. To take advantage of this fortuitous orbital circumstance, space agencies will be lobbing a small brigade of spacecraft toward the Red Planet. Unlike the robotic explorers now prowling Mars’ dusty landscapes, these new craft — launched by both NASA and a European-Russian collaboration — will be engaged in a type of reconnaissance that hasn’t been tried since NASA’s Viking landers set down there in the mid-1970s. The new craft will go beyond merely scouting for locations that were once suitable for life. They’ll be on the hunt for life itself. Dead or alive.

It’s the imminent dispatch of these new robotic explorers that prompted Green to say that we might learn of life on Mars within a few years. They could dig up compelling evidence of biology. But he also said that the next steps are murky. Now, he wasn’t saying that news of extraterrestrial life would inevitably disquiet the public. We know it won’t because, after all, we ran that experiment more than two decades ago.

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Featured image by Jake Gillman and Andie Isaacs.

 

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We Keep Looking for Space Aliens. Are They Looking For Us?

Listen to “E110 9-30-19 We Keep Looking for Space Aliens. Are They Looking For Us?” on Spreaker.
Article by Seth Shostak                   September 18, 2019                     (nbcnews.com)

• “It seems a safe bet that if advanced aliens do exist in our galaxy, they would at least know our planet is here,” says Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The real challenge for these inquisitive ET species isn’t finding habitable planets such as Earth, it is discovering details that will narrow their search – mass, size, approximate temperature. The aliens will have really big telescopes trained on us. Being aware of our world and its properties, would they be spurred to transmit signals in our direction? Extraterrestrials could have learned enough about us by now to even pay us a visit.

• An enormous alien telescope would see the Earth as a dot of light. Directed through a prism, they could analyze its spectral fingerprint and detail the Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers here on Earth recently used spectroscopy to detect water vapor in the atmosphere of planet K2-18b, 110 light-years from Earth. An alien telescope could surely detect oxygen on our planet. Oxygen betrays photosynthesis, a sure tip-off that this is a living planet. Light patterns would tell the alien astronomer that the Earth rotates, perhaps even revealing oceans and continents in low-res images.

• Shostak continues to ruminate: “If we can imagine it, some of (the aliens out there) have probably done it. Of course, the most interesting thing these hypothesized neighbors might find is not the outlines of the Americas or even the oxygen in our atmosphere. They might find us.” If they’re within 70 light-years of us, they could pick up the radar or television signals that we’ve been sending into space since during World War II. Roughly 15,000 star systems lie within 70 light-years.

• Researchers using data from NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory recently simulated how an extraterrestrial astronomer might gather information on the Earth, resulting in a world map more accurate than the Greeks had. It’s hardly inconceivable that alien astronomers have not only found Earth but learned that we humans inhabit it.

• [Editor’s Note]   The assumption that Shostak is making here, is that intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations are as technologically deficient as we are here on earth – taking spectrometer readings from telescopes to search the galaxy for the elusive intelligent civilization. In reality, the plethora of extraterrestrials with advanced technologies have far more effective ways of watching us than telescopes, and they are literally here already. But Shostak goes through this meaningless drill of speculating what non-terrestrial aliens would do if there were any alien civilizations out there whose technology had “equaled” our own. Not that we don’t possess advanced technologies ourselves. But the elite power brokers on the planet have prevented the general populace from having knowledge of or access to these technologies. Instead, they limit the use of these technologies to their super-secret space programs and black projects, which Shostak’s disinformation is intended to hide.

The truth is that the extraterrestrial beings that are visiting our solar system and interacting with certain elite factions of our human species are far more advanced in their technological development than we. They know everything about us. But Shostak and his Deep State handlers want people to think they are continuing the hard work of searching for extraterrestrial worlds and beings. And since they haven’t found any (on purpose), there must not be any extraterrestrials out there who can reach our star system. It is all a carefully controlled psy-op that SETI has helped to perpetrate since 1960. But when it is finally revealed that advanced extraterrestrial beings not only exist but have been here throughout the history of this planet, Seth Shostak will be out of a job.

 

Scientists have been trying to discover planets around other stars for generations. They finally succeeded in the 1990s, and more than 4,000 have been catalogued since then.

But could aliens have found our planet? Is Earth cataloged by even a single population of extraterrestrials? If so, what do they really know about terra firma?

            Seth Shostak

You may consider this an idle question, of no greater importance than asking if gerbils enjoy oboe concertos. But the answer is of real consequence for those who scan the skies for signals from intelligent aliens. After all, if extraterrestrials are unaware of our world and its properties, what would spur them to transmit signals in our direction?

Additionally, if you’re among the many folks who are convinced that aliens are sailing through the troposphere, it might help your self-esteem to know that extraterrestrials could have learned enough about us to pay a visit.

It seems a safe bet that if advanced aliens do exist in our galaxy, they would at least know our planet is here. If human astronomers can find thousands of worlds in two dozen years, how many exoplanets —planets around other stars — will the denizens of other solar systems find in, say, a millennium of slogging away?

The real challenge for these exo-catalogers isn’t finding the planets, but discovering details beyond the gross characteristics — mass, size and approximate temperature. To learn more, the aliens will need really big telescopes.

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Apollo 11 Moon Landing Showed That Aliens Might Be More Than Science Fiction

Listen to “E51 8-03-19 A Private Tour of Roswell with a UFO Expert Looking for the Truth” on Spreaker.

Article by Brandon Specktor                       July 20, 2019                      (livescience.com)

• On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon. Four days later, the astronauts were quarantined aboard the USS Hornet for a 21-day isolation period. This was to ensure that no potentially hazardous lunar microbes had hitchhiked back to Earth with them. The NASA scientists found no microbial aliens on the astronauts themselves or in the 50 pounds of lunar rocks they brought back.

• Senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, Seth Shostak (pictured above), thinks that the Apollo 11 Moon mission did bring back aliens, in a sense. “Today, about 30 percent of the public thinks the Earth is being visited by aliens in saucers, despite the evidence of that being very poor,” says Shostak. “I think the Moon landing had something to do with that.” Live Science.com recently spoke with Shostak to find out more about how the Moon landing changed the scientific community’s pursuit of aliens and the world’s perception of them.

• LS: What did the Moon landing teach humans about extraterrestrial life?  Shostak: Not too much. By 1969, most scientists expected the Moon would be dead. The Moon has no atmosphere, no liquid, and temperatures that range from hundreds of degrees to minus hundreds of degrees. “It’s awful!” But the Apollo missions showed that you could travel from one world to another on a rocket – and maybe aliens could, too. Suddenly, the universe was a little more open.

• LS: In 1969, did scientists think there might be aliens somewhere else in the solar system?  Shostak: Mars was the ‘Great Red Hope’ of extraterrestrial life in the solar system. People were very optimistic in 1976 when the Viking landers plopped down onto Mars that there would be life. There wasn’t. These days, scientists will suggest looking at the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, such as Enceladus, where geysers shoot possible microbial material right into space, so you don’t have to land a spacecraft on the surface to find it.

• LS: What did the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) look like around 1969? Shostak: Modern SETI experiments began in 1960 with astronomer Frank Drake and his Project Ozma, where he searched for inhabited planets around two stars using a radio telescope. (After four years of searching, no recognizable signals were detected.) By 1969, SETI research was being conducted informally by people who were working with telescopes in their spare time, looking up the coordinates of nearby stars and hoping to pick up radio waves. It wasn’t really organized until the NASA SETI program began in the 1970’s with a budget of $10 million a year. In 1993, a democratic congressman from Nevada killed the SETI funding, in spite of the fact that the NASA program profited from the public’s fascination with aliens more than from anywhere else.

• [Editor’s Note]  Previous articles have established that Seth Shostak and SETI are Deep State assets whose objective is to lull the public into complacency by reassuring them that every planet and heavenly body, besides the Earth, is ‘dead’ and unable to support life beyond possible microbial life. Lately, SETI and Shostak have been shilling for the restoration of Deep State government funding, so they can line their pockets while maintaining the ongoing Deep State cover-up of a teeming extraterrestrial presence on, within, and orbiting our planet.

 

On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on Earth’s moon for the first time in human history. Four days later, they — along with Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins — were locked up on an American battleship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The triumphant astronauts were in quarantine. Per a NASA safety protocol written half a decade earlier, the three lunar visitors were escorted directly from their splashdown site in the central Pacific to a modified trailer aboard the USS Hornet, where a 21-day isolation period began. The objective? To ensure that no potentially hazardous lunar microbes hitchhiked back to Earth with them.

Of course, as NASA quickly confirmed, there were no tiny aliens lurking in the astronauts’ armpits or in the 50 pounds (22 kilograms) of lunar rocks and soil they had collected. But despite this absence of literal extraterrestrial life, the Apollo 11 astronauts still may have succeeded in bringing aliens back to Earth in another way that can still be felt 50 years later.

“Today, about 30 percent of the public thinks the Earth is being visited by aliens in saucers, despite the evidence of that being very poor,” Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute — a nonprofit research center focused on the search for alien life in the universe — told Live Science. “I think the moon landing had something to do with that.”

Shostak has been searching for signs of intelligent life in the universe for most of his life (and, fittingly, shares a birthday with the Apollo 11 landing). Live Science recently spoke with him to find out more about how the moon landing changed the scientific community’s pursuit of aliens and the world’s perception of them. Highlights of our conversation (lightly edited for clarity) appear below.

LS: What did the moon landing teach humans about extraterrestrial life?

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UFOs Are Real But They Might Not Be From Outer Space!

Listen to “E30 7-13-19 UFOs Are Real But They Might Not Be From Outer Space!” on Spreaker.
by Oon Yeoh                      June 30, 2019                       (nst.com.my)

• Navy pilots recently interviewed by The New York Times and appearing in the History Channel documentary series: Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation, reported detecting several UFOs during flight training between 2014 and 2015. Their radars detected these UFOs flying at hypersonic speeds at altitudes just over 9000 metres (30,000 feet), despite having no obvious means of propulsion. UFO sightings along the Southeastern US coast and in the Persian Gulf have been reported by six Navy pilots. One of the pilots, Lt. Danny Accoin, said, “It seemed like (the UFOs) were aware of our presence because they would actively move around us.” None of the pilots suggested that the UFOs were alien in origin, however.

• Leon Golub, a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the possibility of an extra-terrestrial cause “is so unlikely that it competes with many other low-probability but more mundane explanations,” such as “bugs in the code for the imaging and display systems, atmospheric effects and reflections, neurological overload from multiple inputs during high-speed flight.”

• As a rule, the more mundane explanation for UFO sightings is the logical one. The US Air Force’s Project Blue Book collected more than 12,000 sightings between 1952 and 1969. All but 6% were “explained” astronomical, atmospheric or human phenomena. The US National Science Foundation’s Project Ozma monitored two stars: Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani for six hours a day from April to July 1960. No signal was found.

• Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) said the UFOs could be drones from rival countries. Shostak also noted that these pilots began spotting the UFOs after their plane’s radar system was upgraded, which suggests that the sightings might be due to some software bug. SETI began as a government program under NASA, and continued as a private effort in 1993 when funding from the US Congress ended.

• The SETI Institute in a joint project with the University of California, Berkeley, built 42 individual telescopes that function as a single massive instrument to observe up to 1 million nearby stars for radio or optical signals. Dubbed the Allen Telescope Array, it began observations in 2007. Italy’s University of Bologna also has a radio SETI search, and Harvard University in Boston has an optical SETI search. So, while the US Air Force’s detection of UFOs might not be aliens visiting the Earth – the various SETI efforts around the world might just one day lead to such a discovery.

• [Editor’s Note]   Once again, the Deep State institutions are lining up to debunk what Navy pilots are seeing with their own eyes.  Seth Shostak and SETI along with Harvard-Smithsonian, are leading the charge toward abject unenlightenment and disinformation surrounding the extraterrestrial/UFO phenomenon. Despite the overwhelming evidence of UFO’s, or ET-controlled drone UFOs which is most likely, that are routinely operating in our skies, the Deep State is pushing hard to make sure that the mainstream public does not take this seriously, and to disregard it all as a ‘glitch in the technology’. ‘There’s nothing to see here. We have it covered. Move along. Move along.’

 

According to recent media reports, between 2014 and 2015, US Navy pilots detected several Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) during training. Their radars detected these UFOs flying at hypersonic speeds at altitudes just over 9000 metres, despite having no obvious means of propulsion.

In total, six pilots who were stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during that time period spotted UFOs during flights along the Southeast coast of the US, The New York Timesreported late last month.

Two of the Navy pilots interviewed by The New York Times have also appeared in the new History Channel documentary series: Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation, which also premiered late last month.

The objects had “no distinct wing, no distinct tail, no distinct exhaust plume,” Lt. Danny Accoin, one of the pilots said. “It seemed like they were aware of our presence because they would actively move around us.”

Accoin had told the Times that although tracking equipment, radar and infrared cameras on his aircraft had detected the UFOs twice, he was unable to capture them on his helmet camera.

Meanwhile, Lt. Ryan Graves, the other pilot featured in the documentary said that a squadron of UFOs followed his Navy strike group up and down the eastern coast of the US for months. After the USS Theodore Roosevelt was deployed to the Arabian Gulf in March 2015, the UFOs reappeared.

Such accounts would surely fire up the imagination of those of us who are fascinated by the thought of extra-terrestrials visiting our planet. However before we get too excited about this prospect, it’s worth noting that none of the pilots interviewed by the Times suggested that the UFOs they detected were alien in origin.

So, what were they? Well, the pilots themselves thought that they might have been part of a highly-classified drone programme using cutting-edge technology. There are other possibilities.

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UFOs Are Real, But Don’t Assume They’re Alien Spaceships

“Seth Shostak (pictured above) is the senior astronomer at the SETI Institute”.
 

by Mike Wall                     June 4, 2019                       (foxnews.com)

• Seth Shostak (pictured above) is the senior astronomer at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) in Mountain View, California. His job is to listen for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial sources in space.

• Shostak contends that, even though US Navy pilots have come forward to describe witnessing UFOs reaching hypersonic speeds without any detectable exhaust plumes, suggesting super-advanced propulsion technology, Defense Department officials aren’t invoking intelligent aliens as an explanation, and neither is Shostak. ‘UFOs are very real, as we have recently seen – but that doesn’t mean ET has been violating our airspace,” said Shostak.

• US Navy pilots and the DoD have provided video evidence of fast moving UFOs off of the coast of San Diego in 2004 (i.e.: the “Tic Tac UFO”) and more recently off of the Virginia and Florida coasts. In one case, a UFO nearly collided with a Navy jet off the Virginia coast. The Pentagon’s ‘Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program’ (AATIP) has studied these incidents, and others (including UFO propulsion technology) since at least 2007. Such incidents have become so common that the Navy has enacted a new policy for reporting UFOs.

• Shostak argues against jumping to the ET conclusion, however. And he offers several “common sense” reasons why: First, these Navy sightings are all off of the coast of the continental US. Isn’t this exactly where you might expect to find advanced Russian reconnaissance craft?

• Second, the Navy pilots’ radar equipment had been upgraded. “[W]henever you upgrade any technical product, there are always problems,” says Shostak. Therefore, the sightings might stem from some sort of software bug or instrument issue.

• Third, it is ridiculous to imagine that alien spacecraft would cross vast gulfs of space and time to come here, and then to not offer their assistance, or pilfer our natural resources, or even show themselves. “[T]hey never do anything,” Shostak said.
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• But Shostak is quick not to dismiss the existence of extraterrestrials altogether. He points out that at least 20% percent of the galaxy’s 200 billion stars could harbor habitable worlds. So intelligent aliens could be out there somewhere, or were out there sometime during the Milky Way’s 13-billion-year history. But the odds are long that any UFO witnessed to date was an extraterrestrial craft.

• [Editor’s Note]    Seth Shostak’s livelihood is searching for ET intelligence among the 200 billion stars in the galaxy. As the Senior Astronomer and former Director for the SETI Institute, he has become something of a celebrity. The last thing he wants is to discover that ET beings already pervade our reality: around and within this planet, on/within our Moon, on/within Mars, and throughout the solar system. Has Shostak and SETI been duped just like the rest of us? Have SETI’s efforts been futile for decades, and now rendered obsolete? Or was SETI just another Deep State psyop that existed to appease and assure the public that so-called “experts” were on the look out for aliens, while their puppet masters continued to hide the true extraterrestrial presence? If so, that would explain why Shostak insists that there are perfectly logical non-alien explanations for Navy pilot’s reports of UFOs possessing technology that defies known physics. (And why Fox News published this article.) Apparently, Shostak knows more about UFO technology than experienced Navy fighter pilots who roam the skies on a daily basis. Nevertheless, while emphatically denying that ET is already here, Shostak advocates continuing the abstract “search” for extraterrestrial life, light years from Earth. After all, it’s a living.

 

UFOs are very real, as we have recently seen — but that doesn’t mean E.T. has been violating our airspace.

“UFO” refers to any flying object an observer cannot readily identify. And pilots with the U.S. Navy saw fast-moving UFOs repeatedly off the East Coast throughout 2014 and 2015, in one case apparently nearly colliding with one of the mysterious objects, The New York Times reported earlier this week.

Those incidents were reported to the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), whose existence the Times and Politico revealed in December 2017. (Interestingly, those 2017 stories cited Pentagon officials as saying that AATIP had been shut down in 2012.)

Former AATIP head Luis Elizondo, by the way, is involved with a new six-part series called ” Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation,” which premieres tonight (May 31) on The History Channel.

The Navy pilots said some UFOs reached hypersonic speeds without any detectable exhaust plumes, suggesting the possible involvement of super-advanced propulsion technology. Still, Defense Department officials aren’t invoking intelligent aliens as an explanation, according to this week’s Times story — and they’re right to be measured in this respect, scientists say.

There are multiple possible prosaic explanations for the Navy pilots’ observations, said Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI ( Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence ) Institute in Mountain View, California.

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The Most Credible UFO Sightings and Encounters in Modern History, According to Research

by Callum Paton              April 17, 2019              (newsweek.com)

  • Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have been recorded since ancient times. But it was Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of flying saucers near Mount Rainier in 1947 that launched the modern era of UFO sightings. The U.S. military immediately moved to discredit Arnold’s claims, along with any other claim of the existence of an extraterrestrial UFO. “The (Arnold) report cannot bear even superficial examination, therefore, must be disregarded,” the Air Force Materiel Command wrote.  With Project Blue Book, the Air Force went on to discredit every single UFO sighting until the project’s end in 1969. 
  • However, the civilian scientist who helped to run Project Blue Book, Allen Hynek, claimed that the Air Force had underplayed the credibility of UFOs. He went on to devise a classification system for grading UFO sightings – ‘close encounters of the third kind’, etc. 
  • Taking its cue from Hynek, Newsweek magazine created its own rating system for UFO sightings on a point-based system. They points are awarded, or subtracted, based on factors such as witness credibility, photographic/video evidence, flight attributes, proximity, physical effect, and discredit by the government/military.  The writer also used input from the Scientific Coalition for UFOlogy (SCU) composed of 45 UFO ‘experts’. 
  • SCU board member Robert Powell says that some 6,000 UFO encounters are reported every year. “Ninety-eight percent or more of sightings are basically misidentifications of airplanes or Chinese lanterns, or a variety of different things,” Powell told Newsweek. Chiming in, Seth Shostak, the Senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, told Newsweek, “Could the rest be alien craft?  Maybe, but that’s like saying that the 40 percent of homicides committed in New York City that are unsolved could be due to alien murderers. Possible, but not likely.” 
  • Here are 25 UFO sightings and their ‘credibility rating’ according to this Newsweek writer: 
  1. Roswell Incident – Roswell, New Mexico July 1947: Hundreds of witnesses claim an alien craft crash landed near a ranch with one or more dead extraterrestrial beings inside. In 1997, the Air Force released a report denying everything, and declaring “case closed”. Credibility Rating: -2
  1. Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting – Mount Rainier, Washington June 1947: Pilot Kenneth Arnold witnessed nine “circular-type” objects flying in formation at twice the speed of sound. It was dismissed out of hand by an Air Force investigation. Arnold maintained his account until his death in 1984. Credibility Rating: 0  
  1. Levelland UFO Case – Levelland, Texas November 1957: Multiple witnesses reported seeing an egg-shaped object or a large flash of light moving across the sky in the small Texas town. The sighting was later discredited by the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, claiming the phenomenon had been caused by severe electrical storms and ball lightning. Credibility Rating: 0 
  2. Stephenville, Texas Sighting – Stephenville, Texas January 2008: Multiple witnesses reported seeing inexplicable objects moving through the sky or bright lights. Naval Air Station Fort Worth at first said that no planes had been active from that base that night. Then they retracted and claimed that those were their planes after all.  Credibility Rating: 0
  1. NASA Curiosity Rover Photograph – Mars March 2019: Ufologist Scott C. Waring claims to have spotted a UFO on Mars in images beamed back from NASA’s Curiosity Rover. Credibility Rating: 1 
  2. The Washington, D.C. Flap – Washington, D.C.  July 1952: On two separate occasions Air Force F-94s were scrambled over Washington after UFOs were sighted on radar at Andrews and Bolling Air Force bases. The bogeys cruised at between 100 to 130 mph before zooming off at incredible speed, outrunning the military jets. Credibility Rating: 3
  1. Valensole UFO Sighting – Valensole, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
    July 1965:     Maurice Masse claimed he saw two humanoid aliens land a spherical UFO in a field and exit the craft. The French farmer said he was left paralyzed when one of the beings pointed a cylindrical instrument at him. The pair then flew away after briefly inspecting the surroundings. Credibility Rating: 3
  1. Delphos Ring Incident – Delphos, Kansas November 1971: Sixteen-year-old Ronald Johnson claimed to have seen a glowing object hovering over a specific area close to his family farm in the early evening. When he went to fetch other witnesses the object had vanished. However, an eerie glowing ring was found where the UFO had been. Another witness corroborated to police the sighting of the strange flying object. Credibility Rating: 3
  1. Loring Air Force Base Sighting – Loring Air Force Base, Maine October 1975: On two successive nights service members reported seeing a cigar-shaped UFO hovering over Loring Air Force Base, which was also seen on radar. The government attributed it to “unidentified helicopter(s) flying out of Canada.” Credibility Rating: 3 
  2. Val Johnson Incident – Marshall County, Minnesota August 1979: On the morning on September 11, 1979, Marshall County sheriff’s deputy Val Johnson encountered what he described as a white ball of light hovering a few feet above the ground while driving on a rural section of a State Highway.  “[S]uddenly it was in the car with me”. Johnson woke up in a ditch half an hour later. His patrol car had suffered superficial damage and he had burns around his eyes.  Credibility Rating: 3 
  3. Cash-Landrum Sighting – Dayton, Texas December 1980: Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Colby Landrum claim they were followed by hovering disc with a single fiery thruster as they drove home in eastern Texas. When the trio abandoned their car they felt intense heat generated by the UFO. All three claimed to suffer health problems in the aftermath of the encounter.  Credibility Rating: 3 
  4. Trans-en-Provence Case – Trans-en-Provence,Var, France  January 1981:  Renato Nicolaï, a 55-year-old farmer, observed a saucer-shaped UFO land on his property at a distance of about 50 yards. The lead-colored vessel then lifted off from the ground and flew towards a nearby tree line. The case is considered remarkable because of scorch marks left by the machine, documented and extensively analysed by French authorities. Credibility Rating: 3
  1. Belgian UFO Wave – Belgium March 1990: Over a number of days, scores of individuals reported seeing strange lights in the sky over Belgium. Belgian Air Force F-16s claimed to have seen nothing.  But the European media   exploded when an image of one of the triangular UFOs emerged, which was then revealed to be a fake. Credibility Rating: 3 
  2. Phoenix Lights Phenomenon – Phoenix, Arizona March 1997: Hundreds of witnesses saw “otherworldly” lights move across the night sky over Arizona, Nevada and northern Mexico. The sighting consisted of a giant V-shaped craft with lights and a series of stationary orange and red lights hanging in the sky. Arizona’s governor at the time, Fife Symington, said. “It was bigger than anything that I’ve ever seen. It remains a great mystery.”  Credibility Rating: 3 
  3. McMinnville UFO Photographs – McMinnville, Oregon  May 1950:  Paul Trent captured images of a UFO on camera after his wife spotted a slow-moving metal disk near their farm. The images were printed in Life magazine. The pair maintained their account until their deaths. Credibility Rating: 4
  1. Shag Harbour Sighting – Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada October 1967:  Multiple witnesses, including pilots, reported to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that they had witnessed a UFO with many flashing lights flying over the shoreline. A dozen or so witnesses said they saw a glowing orange sphere crash into the water and then slip beneath the surface. No wreckage was ever found.  Credibility Rating: 4 
  2. The 1976 Tehran Incident – Tehran, Iran September 1976:  Two Iranian F-4 interceptor aircraft reported their equipment jammed as they approached a star-shaped UFO over the Iranian capital. Ground control equipment at Mehrabad International Airport was also affected by the strange craft. The pilot Parviz Jafari said he attempted to fire on the UFO but was unable to cause any damage. “My weapons jammed and my radio communications garbled.” Credibility Rating: 4
  1. Coyne, Mansfield Helicopter Incident – Mansfield, Ohio October 1973: Four crew members of an Army Reserve helicopter recorded a near collision with a UFO near Charles Mill Lake. The incident was corroborated by witnesses in Richland and Ashland counties who described an object or a ball of light moving in a manner inconsistent with human flight. The crew on the helicopter, piloted by Lawrence Coyne, reported seeing a 60-foot-long, cigar-shaped object with a bright green light.  Credibility Rating: 4 
  1. Nancy France Sighting – Nancy, Grand Est, France October 1982:  A biologist, M. Henri, and his wife observed a UFO that hovered for 20 minutes over their garden. The egg-shaped vessel had a shiny metallic appearance. Henri attempted to photograph the craft but found his camera had jammed. After the UFO regained altitude it moved at a speed and trajectory impossible for man-made aircraft. Credibility Rating: 4
  1. Japan Airlines Flight 1628 Incident – Alaska November 1986:  The pilot, Kenji Terauchi, and crew of a Japan Airlines cargo flight from Paris to Tokyo reported seeing strange flashing colorful lights that followed their aircraft over Alaska while the plane cruised at 35,000 feet.  Credibility Rating: 4
  1. Chicago O’Hare Airport Sighting – Chicago, Illinois November 2006: On an overcast day, United Airlines staff and pilots at Chicago O’Hare Airport reported seeing a flying saucer hovering over the airport terminal. The vessel then shot up into the air so quickly that it punched a hole in the clouds. The FAA called it a “weather phenomenon” and did not further investigate the incident.  Credibility Rating: 4
  1. Rendlesham Forest Incident – Suffolk, England December 1980: Between December 26-28, 1980, U.S. Air Force personnel stationed at RAF Bentwaters reported seeing strange lights near Rendlesham forest. The incident was never investigated. However, radar operators at the base recounted how they had observed a UFO moving too quickly for normal human flight.  Credibility Rating: 5
  1. Aguadilla Airport Incident – Aguadilla, Puerto Rico April 2013:  A UFO was seen flying at low altitude across the Rafael Hernandez Airport runway in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft captured infrared video of the episode that was given to the Scientific Coalition for UFOology (SCU). The video shows the vessel travelling without lights below tree-top altitude, at speeds close to 100 mph.  Credibility Rating: 6
  1. USS Nimitz Tic-Tac UFO Incident – California Coast November 2004:  U.S. Navy pilot Cmdr. David Fravor recalled seeing “something not from this earth” – a tic-tac shaped vessel moving at great speed – while commanding a U.S. Navy strike fighter squadron during exercises some 60 to 100 miles off the coast of Baja California. He recounted observing. A separate Navy jet crew tracked the object and filmed it for more than a minute. The footage was publicized by the New York Times following following the Pentagon’s acknowledgement of its Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, a recent study of UFO sightings.  Credibility Rating: 6
  1. F/A-18 Super Hornet GO FASTER Video – East Coast 2015:  The third video recently released by the Pentagon shows the high-speed flight of an unidentified aircraft at low altitude by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet off over the Atlantic off of Virginia.
  • [Editor’s Note] All of these UFO incidents, with the exception of Scott Waring’s UFO on Mars, are credible and true, and are excellent accounts to look into.  This arbitrary rating system, however, is simply the mainstream media’s way of assuring the public that they are on top of the UFO phenomenon, and, as usual, there is nothing here to be concerned about.  But should anything new happen that might change this perspective, the mainstream media will be there to tell the people what to believe.

 

The modern era of UFO sightings began in 1947 when Kenneth Arnold, a businessman and pilot from Idaho, spotted what he believed was a formation of flying saucers near Mount Rainier in Washington. Encounters with unidentified flying objects have been recorded since ancient times, but Arnold’s sighting hooked the American public. It was the encounter that launched a thousand theories.

The U.S. military attempted to discredit Arnold’s claims. “The report cannot bear even superficial examination, therefore, must be disregarded,” the Air Force Materiel Command wrote in a now-declassified document.

As reported sightings increased and UFO obsession spread like wildfire, its flames fanned by the notorious Roswell incident, the military attempted to douse the issue. A series of UFO studies commissioned by the U.S. Air Force culminated in Project Blue Book, which wrapped up in 1969 and found no evidence of the presence of extraterrestrial vehicles on Earth or in the skies above.

The Air Force clearly hoped to put an end to the UFO craze—but the studies had the opposite effect. Josef Allen Hynek, who had overseen the Air Force efforts, broke with the military, claiming the importance of UFOs had been underplayed. His scientific analysis forms much of the basis of modern UFOlogy and his close encounters classification system is the benchmark in grading the credibility of UFO sightings.

In devising our own credibility rating system for UFO sightings, Newsweek built upon Hynek’s foundations. The astronomer and preeminent UFOlogist valued sightings that involved multiple or highly credible witnesses. We have also incorporated advances in technology into our scale. The advent of cameras and infrared devices on aircraft have presented new kinds of evidence for sightings.

The credibility scale works on a point-based system. One point is given for sightings with multiple witnesses, another for an expert witness (a pilot, air traffic controller, military or government official). One point is awarded for picture evidence and an additional point for film of a moving UFO. Unidentified flying objects can often be explained away as foreign aircraft, so an additional point is given for UFOs seen to be flying in a manner inconsistent with flight as humans know it.

Hynek also prized close encounters. Close encounters of the first kind—sightings of an object less than 500 feet away—are given one point. Close encounters of the second kind, a UFO event where a physical effect is felt (a car light breaks, extreme heat is felt, scorch marks on the ground), are given two points. Finally, close encounters of the third kind, instances where an animated pilot is seen, earn three points.

A system for removing points has also been incorporated to account for cases where military or government bodies have discredited the sightings. Three points are removed in these cases, as the baseline for credibility in the scale begins at three.

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Fear of What’s Out There Causes Big Split Among Space Scientists

by Peter Fimrite            February 25, 2019                   (sfchronicle.com)

• A faction of the San Francisco-based SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has split off to form METI, or Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. While SETI traditionalists believe humans should only look and listen for extraterrestrials to avoid tipping off evil aliens, the METI group intends to broadcast messages to space aliens. The clash is the first major division in the tight-knit community of astronomers, astrophysicists, philosophers, psychologists and science fiction writers who are convinced intelligent beings are out there somewhere.

• SETI has been searching in vain for radio signals or some other sign of life beyond Earth from its Bay Area Mountain View headquarters for 35 years. Astrobiologist Douglas Vakoch, who split with the METI group, says, “What if [the ET’s] position is, ‘No, you are the ones who are new to this game. You send us a signal first.’” METI will employ radar and laser technology to beam more powerful multi-directional messages into space.

• SETI astronomers are worried that less-then-friendly extraterrestrials might be more inclined to enslave Earthlings and mercilessly plunder and destroy Earth. “We wonder whether the galaxy that we are in is maybe a dark forest, where it is dangerous to scream because there are creatures out there unhappy with new life forms,” said astronomer Andrew Fraknoi. “You don’t want to advertise your presence in a dark forest.” Stephen Hawking was among those who warned that aliens “may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria.”

• Vakoch formed METI after a vote in 2014 by the SETI Institute board rejecting his plans to broadcast messages. Vakoch and his supporters reason that any predatory civilization would probably have detected us by now, since our radar, radio and television signals would long ago have signaled our presence. They began sending active signals into space in 2017. “We may have to target hundreds and thousands and maybe millions of stars before we find anything.” Says Vakoch. “I view this as a reflection of the natural growth of SETI.”

• Using Earth’s current technology, it would take 80,000 years for an astronaut to reach the closest star, Alpha Centauri. Fraknoi speculates that self-replicating civilizations could travel through space for thousands of years and still be alive to tell about it when the trip is over.

• Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute who supports Vakoch’s work, says that given the enormous distances, we may never find intelligent life if we don’t get out there and look for it. “No transmissions into the sky because there might be nasty aliens out there.’ That’s just paranoia. Paranoia is not a good long-term policy.”

• The issue moved to the forefront in 1989 when SETI scientists published a declaration of principles on how international leaders should be consulted before anyone replies to an ET signal. A committee of the International Academy of Astronautics took it a step further in the 1990’s, urging consultations with world leaders before anyone attempts to broadcast a powerful message into space that is likely to be detectable by alien life.

• “Human history is littered with examples of societies disrupted by direct contact with others, even when it was led by idealistic missionaries,” Says Michael Michaud, former director of the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology. “Ignore the Hollywood scenario of reptilian aliens landing on Earth’s surface to conquer our planet. They would not need to use futuristic weapons; the correct pesticide would do.”

• [Editor’s Note]  Could the real purpose for these “scientists” to labor in vain for decades be to simply to create a disinformation campaign to make people believe that ‘smart people’ are actively looking for alien beings, and since they haven’t officially found any, then we can presume that there are no aliens out there?  Mainstream science willfully denies the ample proof that dozens of different extraterrestrial species have visited the Earth over the past seventy years. Some alien species are positive and some are negative. The positive ones abide by a galactic law of non-interference with a low-level developing species such as we humans on Earth. The negative ones however, which do include the Draco Reptilians, couldn’t give a hoot about galactic law. But their M.O. is not to wipe us out and take over the planet. They prefer to keep us mind-controlled, determining what we are allowed to know, and using us as slave workers to generate an economic and industrial resource that they can exploit to continue to build out their own secret space program, off-world bases and colonies. Also, the system is set up so that humans must perpetually endure emotional fear, confusion, hardship, conflict and war, in order to create a form of energetic sustenance called ‘loosh’, which the higher negative Archon beings require. If we all woke up, turned to the loving Creator, and denied these negative beings all of this negative energy, this perverted system would collapse virtually overnight.

 

A cosmic rift has opened between Bay Area astronomers and a splinter group of San Francisco stargazers who are hell-bent on contacting space aliens, hang the consequences.

       Douglas Vakoch

The schism pits the traditionalists, who believe humans should only look and listen for extraterrestrials to avoid tipping off evil aliens, against a rebel faction that wants to broadcast messages to intelligent beings, assuming they are altruistic.
The battle is so heated that one prominent scientist quit the Mountain View group known as SETI, or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, to form METI, or Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

    Andrew Fraknoi

“We’ve always assumed the extraterrestrials were looking for us,” Vakoch said. But “what if their position is, ‘No, you are the ones who are new to this game. You send us a signal first.’”

SETI has been searching for radio signals or some other sign of life beyond Earth from its Mountain View headquarters for 35 years, but with nothing to show for its effort, Vakoch and other restless alien hunters are insisting on a more active search, including employing radar and laser technology to beam more powerful multidirectional messages into space.

The problem, many SETI astronomers warn, is that, instead of an intergalactic kumbaya, intelligent extraterrestrials might very well be more inclined to enslave Earthlings and mercilessly plunder and destroy Earth.

Those who adhere to this dark theory imagine humanity as a childlike form of life lost in an Amazonian jungle crawling with skulking predators, said Andrew Fraknoi, a SETI Institute board member.

                  Seth Shostak

“We wonder whether the galaxy that we are in is maybe a dark forest, where it is dangerous to scream because there are creatures out there unhappy with new life forms,” said Fraknoi, an astronomer who will be teaching a course in April called Aliens in Science and Science Fiction at the University of San Francisco’s Fromm Institute. “With every strong signal we send out, we advertise our presence, and you don’t want to advertise your presence in a dark forest.”

The clash represents the first major division in the traditionally tight-knit community of astronomers, astrophysicists, philosophers, psychologists and science fiction writers who are convinced intelligent beings are out there somewhere.
Vakoch and his supporters, including some astronomers at SETI, call the dark forest analogy silly. Any predatory civilization would probably have detected us by now simply by analyzing our atmosphere, they reason. Humans, Vakoch said, have been using radar, which can purportedly be detected 70 light-years away, since World War II. Television and radio signals would long ago have signaled our presence to malevolent space ruffians, he said.

          Michael Michaud

Unconcerned about an invasion of intergalactic invertebrates who are out for our heads, Vakoch adapted a transmitter and used a Norwegian observatory in late 2017 to send a message 12.4 light-years away to Luyten’s Star, a red dwarf with a large planet in the constellation Canis Minor.

He spent years developing the message, combining mathematics and the fundamentals of language that he believes even a blind alien could understand. It was the first of what Vakoch hopes will be many signals sent by his group.
“Our goal is to say we are interested in making contact,” Vakoch said. “We may have to target hundreds and thousands and maybe millions of stars before we find anything. I view this as a reflection of the natural growth of SETI.”

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Alien Civilizations Could Be Behind The Deep Space Fast Radio Bursts That Puzzle Astrophysicists

by Vadim Ioan Caraiman                January 30, 2019                (canadianhomesteading.ca)

• Not long ago, a team of Canadian astronomers spotted weird and repeating fast radio bursts (FRB) signals coming from deep space for the second time in history. Senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak believes that alien civilizations could be behind mysterious deep space fast radio bursts.

• While humanity has not yet “officially” established contact with an alien civilization, we have sent signals and probes into space, hoping to get in touch with extraterrestrials. The aliens may be doing the same thing using fast radio bursts to establish contact.

• “Could that be aliens that are in those galaxies and they have some need to get in touch? Well, maybe,” said Senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak on ABC News Live.

• “It is something new, every time we see something we’ve never seen before that is an opportunity to learn something new about the universe,” said astrophysicist Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi.

• Shostak unveiled on ABC News Live that, in 1997, SETI recorded a signal that was really promising. “We had picked up a signal, and it was passing all the tests. That looked like the real deal. I was there waiting for the Men in Black to show up,” said Shostak.

• [Editor’s Note]   The 1997 SETI signal that Shostak refers to is apparently not the other FRB in history. The first FRB was the “Wow! Signal” detected at Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope in 1977. See this ExoArticle on the Wow! Signal.

 

Not long ago, a team of Canadian astronomers spotted weird and repeating fast radio bursts (FRB) signals coming from deep space. That was the second time in history when scientists detected a repeating deep space FRB. While the origins of these fast radio bursts remain a mystery to astronomers, some other scientists have an even more bizarre theory on this topic. Senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, for example, believes that alien civilizations could be behind mysterious deep space fast radio bursts.

                            Seth Shostak

Despite the many photos and footages showing UFOs or even extraterrestrials, humanity has not yet established contact with an alien civilization. At least, not officially, if we are to believe conspiracy theory enthusiasts. However, we sent signals into space and even probes, hoping that we could get in touch with extraterrestrials.

But what if the aliens are doing the same things? What if extraterrestrials themselves are struggling to contact other civilizations? In case they’re indeed doing that, advanced alien civilizations might use fast radio bursts to establish contact.

Alien Civilizations Could Be Behind The Deep Space Fast Radio Bursts

“Could that be aliens that are in those galaxies and they have some need to get in touch? Well, maybe,” said Senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak on ABC News Live. “It is something new, every time we see something we’ve never seen before that is an opportunity to learn something new about the universe,” also added Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi.

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How Paul Allen Saved the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

by Daniel Oberhaus                   October 16, 2018                (motherboard.vice.com)

• On October 15th, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen (pictured above) died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 65. In addition to owning the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers, Allen founded a brain science institute, an AI institute, and Stratolaunch Systems, which was exploring private spaceflight. In addition, Allen almost single-handedly rescued American SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) by donating over $30 million to scientists scanning the cosmos for intelligent radio signals.

• During the 1980’s, SETI was generally funded through participating university programs and endowments. In the 1990’s as university funding diminished, NASA began helping to fund SETI. But that only lasted a year before some in Congress complained that we were wasting money on a “great Martian chase.” SETI realized that the only hope for the future was private funding.

• Barney Oliver, the founder of Hewlett Packard laboratories and SETI supporter, contacted his billionaire buddies Bill Hewlett and David Packard, Intel founder Gordon Moore, and Paul Allen to successfully raise $20 million to keep SETI’s research moving forward.

• SETI was leasing global telescopes for its projects. But ultimately, SETI wanted its own dedicated array of radio telescopes to target hundreds of stars at a time. SETI’s founder, Jill Tarter, put together an array of 350 20-foot radio telescopes, but needed $25 million to purchase it. Paul Allen stepped up and footed the bill to create the first American SETI telescope array located in northern California. “There’s no doubt that Paul saved American SETI,” said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute.

• By 2007, the SETI array consisted of 42 telescopes. At the dedication ceremony, Paul Allen pushed the button to turn the system on. Over the past ten years, the SETI array has analyzed 200 million signals from thousands of stars, studied unusual high-energy radio emissions, and even scanned the “spliff-shaped” Oumuamua asteroid for signs of intelligent life. Paul Allen had turned his attention to other projects, and the array was shut down for a year in 2011 due to lack of continued funding, however. But Allen remained a public supporter. Said Allen, “I think everybody would admit [the prospect of communicating with extraterrestrials] is a long shot, but if that long shot comes in…”

 

On Monday evening, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 65. At the time of his death, Allen was the 47th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $26 billion. For the last few decades of his life, Allen used his wealth for a staggering variety of business and philanthropic interests. In addition to owning the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers, Allen founded a brain science institute, an AI institute, and Stratolaunch Systems, which was exploring private spaceflight.

Yet one of the research areas where Allen made the biggest impact was also the one he spoke about the least: the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Indeed, Allen almost single-handedly rescued American SETI by donating over $30 million to scientists scanning the cosmos for intelligent radio signals.

SETI’s early years in the United States was mostly defined by intermittent searches bankrolled with public funds, such as the National Science Foundation-funded program at Ohio State University which discovered the Wow! signal, or university endowments, such as Harvard’s Project Sentinel. By the early 90s, however, many of the early SETI programs had ended. The best hope for detecting extraterrestrial intelligence seemed to be NASA’s first foray into SETI, the Microwave Observing Program, which began observations in 1992.

             SETI founder, Jill Tarter

Less than a year after the start of NASA’s SETI program, it was killed by members of Congress who didn’t want to waste money on the “great Martian chase.” The SETI Institute, a nonprofit founded in 1984 by the radio astronomer Jill Tarter, wasn’t going to let SETI die at the hands of a few cynical congressmen, but it also realized that the only hope for the future was privately funded searches.

Fortunately, one of the earliest SETI Institute supporters was Barney Oliver, who founded and directed Hewlett Packard laboratories. So in 1993 Oliver called Bill Hewlett and David Packard of Hewlett Packard, Intel founder Gordon Moore, and Paul Allen to ask for their support.

“It probably only took Barney a few hours on the phone to get each of them to commit $1 million every year for the next five years,” Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, told me on the phone. “I’m not sure any of them were particularly interested in SETI, but they were interested in whatever Barney thought was a good idea.”

This $20 million commitment bankrolled Project Phoenix, a SETI program that ran from 1995 to 1998. Over the course of three years, Project Phoenix rented time on the Parkes radio telescope in Australia and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to scan for signals from 800 stars within 200-light years of Earth.

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What Would Happen If UFOs Tried to Contact Earth?

by Sebastian Kettley                     August 20, 2018                     (express.co.uk)

• Are the people of earth ready for open extraterrestrial contact? A September 2015 YouGov poll found more than 56 percent of Germans believed in the existence of alien life. The German Ministry of Economics, however, said it considered aliens visiting the earth “extremely unlikely according to current scientific knowledge”.

• An August 2017 survey conducted by 20th Century Fox film studio found nearly half of all Americans believe in aliens. Almost as many were certain aliens are visiting Earth on a regular basis but less than 20 percent found stories of alien abductions genuine. Even less claimed to have ever seen a UFO.

• A report published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018 found people across the board would react positively to alien visitors. Michael Varnum of Arizona State University said based on a mix of media headlines and surveys, the overall public response would be optimistic.

• How would the earth’s institutions respond to first contact? The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) stipulates anyone who encounters extraterrestrial signals has to immediately broadcast them to the rest of the world. The Post-Detection Task Group, a branch of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), similarly says international governments would have to pool resources together to beam back a joint message.

• The US Air Force’s 527th Space Aggressor Squadron (527 SAS) at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, is the first line of defense against space-based threats. Captain Dustyn Carroll, aggressor training flight commander at the base said, “We then teach joint and coalition forces what adversaries may or may not do, and then we go out and replicate it ourselves.”

• Most scientists today assume first contact with extraterrestrials would be achieved through a clear signal beamed to Earth and not by intercepting alien spacecraft. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute said, “… [Y]ou would have a press conference and announce this to the world.” Then, says Shostak, he would evacuate from the city as soon as the first UFOs appeared in the skies. Alien visitors capable of reaching Earth would likely have the technology to do how they please with the planet.

• [Editor’s Note]   It appears that the people on the planet are far more open and accepting of extraterrestrial contact than are the world’s governments, military and “scientific” organizations set up to deal with extraterrestrial contact. The institutional organizations remain dutifully diligent in denying any current extraterrestrial contact with humanity, and in spreading their skepticism and fear of the ‘dangerous and evil space aliens’. However, their mind-control is beginning to wear off. Greater numbers of ordinary people are not only accepting the existence of extraterrestrials, but are optimistic of a positive relationship developing between ET beings and humans here on earth.

 

A YouGov poll published in September 2015 found more than 56 percent of polled Germans believed in the existence of alien life.

But Germany has “no plans or protocol” if alien visitors ever attempt to contact the human race.

In response to questions submitted to the government, the German Ministry of Economics said it considered such an event “extremely unlikely according to current scientific knowledge”.

The Government said in a statement on the matter: “Concrete cases that could have been subject of bilateral or multilateral talks with other states are not known.”

There is very little in terms of official legislation on how the Earth should collectively react but there are some guidelines set in place by scientific institutions.

The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) stipulates anyone who encounters extraterrestrial signals has to immediately broadcast them to the rest of the world.

The Post-Detection Task Group, a branch of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), similarly says international governments would have to pool resources together to beam back a joint message.

The USA also appears to be greatly prepared for the threat of space-based attacks with an entire unit of the United States Air Force assigned to combating space-cable adversaries.

The 527th Space Aggressor Squadron (527 SAS), stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, is the first line of defence against space-based threats.

The 527 SAS regularly conducts drills and develops techniques to better prepare for attacks from above.

Captain Dustyn Carroll, aggressor training flight commander, said: “We replicate adversary tactics.

“We want to know what our adversaries are capable of, study that and see how we can apply that.

“We then teach joint and coalition forces what adversaries may or may not do, and then we go out and replicate it ourselves.”

An August 2017 survey conducted by film studio 20th Century Fox found nearly half of all Americans believe in aliens.

Almost as many were certain aliens are visiting Earth on a regular basis but less than 20 percent found stories of alien abductions genuine.

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