ROTMAN
APRIL 2018
E X P L O R A T I V E
EXTRA TERRESTRIALS
intercosmic issue MARCH 2018 In the following pages, we delve into the questions that have plagued humanity since the beginning of time. Are we alone? Are there others out there? Moreover, which possibility is more terrifying? Aided by the input of professionals and amateurs alike, we aim to determine and expose the truth. May the truth set you free, and as always– never stop questioning.
in this issue MARCH 2018
five
The Roswell Incident Sparks 71 years of conspiracies
eight
Signs of Abduction Are you about to be abducted?
eleven
Abductees, What’s Your Story? We asked, you answered.
fourteen Holographic Principle
The earth is a hologram
fifteen Kenneth Arnold
The Birth of “UFOlogy”
eighteen Mountain of the Dead
The horrific mystery of Dyatlov Pass
twenty-three The Flat Earth Conspiracy
Is NASA Fooling the World?
twenty-six Valiant Thor
The Benevolent Alien with an IQ of 1200
twenty-seven How Do We Know
the Moon Landing Happened?
thirty-three Planet Nine
Could ‘Nibiru’ destroy Earth?
thirty-four Aliens Could Detect Life on Earth Plenty of signals that we’re alive
THE ROSWELL INCIDENT
How ‘UFO sighting’ led to 71 years of conspiracy theories
7
n June 14, 1947, a rancher named
O
Blanchard also sent Major Jesse Marcel,
It was after the close of World War II, a
W.W. “Mac” Brazel and his son
an intelligence officer from the base, to
time when nuclear weapons cast a long
Vernon were driving across their
investigate more thoroughly. Accompa-
shadow. Truth-telling was not a priority,
ranchland some 80 miles northwest of
nied by the sheriff and Brazel, Marcel
and there were remarkably unusual events
Roswell when they encountered some-
returned to the site and collected all of
underscoring the situation at hand.
thing they’d never seen before. It was,
the “wreckage.” As they tried to ascertain
in Brazel’s words, “a large area of bright
what the materials were, Marcel chose
wreckage made up of rubber strips, tin-
to make a public statement. On July
foil, and rather tough paper, and sticks.”
8, Marcel’s comments ran in the local afternoon newspaper, the Roswell Daily
The metallic-looking, lightweight fabric was scattered, shredded across the gravel and sagebrush of the New Mexico desert.
Record, alongside a headline stating “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell.”
Brazel didn’t know what to do with the
“…six unidentified flying objects…” Everywhere you looked in 1947, the global, social and political chessboard was being re-divided. The Soviet Union began to claim eastern European nations for itself in a new post-war vacuum.
newfound items, or how they had landed
“The intelligence office of the 509th
Voice of America started broadcasting in
on the property, so on July 4 he collected
Bombardment Group at Roswell Army
Russian to the eastern bloc, peddling the
all of the mysterious wreckage he could
Air Field announced today, that they’ve
principles of American democracy. The
find. On July 7, he drove it all to Roswell,
come into the possession of a UFO.”
U.S. sent V2 rockets carrying payloads of
delivering the goods to Sheriff George Wilcox.
corn seeds and fruit flies into outer space. “Apparently, it was better from the Air Force’s perspective that there was a
Wilcox, too, was confounded. Seeking
crashed ‘alien’ spacecraft out there than
answers, he contacted Colonel “Butch”
to tell the truth,” says Roger Launius, the
Blanchard, commander of the Roswell
recently-retired curator of space history at
Army Airfield’s 509th Composite Group,
the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
located just outside of town. Blanchard
Museum in Washington, D.C.
was stymied. Working his way up the chain of command, he decided to contact his superior, General Roger W. Ramey, commander of the 8th Air Force in Texas.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set the “Doomsday Clock” ticking, and the Marshall Plan was in the making to rebuild war-torn Europe. Small wonder that in the heat of summer that year, flying saucers became all the rage. On June 21, Navy Seaman Harold Dahl
“A flying saucer was easier to admit than Project Mogul,” Launius adds, a chuckle in his voice. “And with that, we were off to the races.”
claimed to have seen six unidentified flying objects in the sky near Maury Island in Washington state’s Puget Sound. The next morning, Dahl said he was sought
ment, it didn’t die as easily in the public mind. “But that was it, really,” says Launius. “The debate was over. It was to be the end of speculation. According to the government, the matter was closed. The debris was from a weather balloon.” Of course, though, that wasn’t the end. There would be a 1948 report from the government about what was now being called the “Roswell Incident.” In 1950, Frank Scully, a reporter for Variety, wrote Behind the Flying Saucers, a book that detailed alien encounters from the Pacific Northwest to the towns of Aztec and Farmington, New Mexico, where aliens were now said to be landing their
(Above) W.W. “Mac” Brazel and wife. out and debriefed by “men in black.”
aircrafts in people’s backyards.
come into possession of a flying saucer, Roswell’s newspaper debunked the story.
By then, enthusiasm for flying saucers had spread everywhere from Belgium to Russia and Japan. A rumor that had
Three days after the Dahl sighting, an amateur pilot named Kenneth Arnold said
A published statement from the War
started as a convenient lie for the Air
he had spotted a flying saucer in the sky
Department in Washington claimed the
Force had become a distraction to the U.S.
by Mount Rainer, Washington.
debris collected on Brazel’s ranch was
government, which was now deep into
the remains of a weather balloon, and
its nuclear weapons monitoring projects.
the Roswell Dispatch’s morning headline,
“But there was no way the Air Force
“Army Debunks Roswell Flying Disc as
was going to admit what it was doing,”
World Simmers with Excitement,” set the
Launius says.
“UFOs aren’t unusual,” Launius says. “They’re simply unidentified things you see in the sky. We’ve all probably seen them. And, if you look long enough,
tale to rest on July 9. Project Mogul was conducted out of
you’ll probably eventually figure out what it is you’re looking at. It’s not extraterres-
“But we need to back it up, here,” says
Washington, D.C. and the Los Alamos
trials.”
Launius. “What was really going on was
National Laboratory in New Mexico, with
something called Project Mogul.” In this
some high-altitude balloon launches tak-
classified program, the U.S. government
ing place in the high desert near the state’s
launched high-altitude balloons into the
border with Texas.
By the end of 1947, mass hysteria had seized the global mindset, with more
than 300 alleged “flying saucer” sightings in the last six months of that year alone. “Not that there was ever any credible evidence to support sightings,” Launius adds. By early July 1947, Brazel had heard tales of flying saucers in the Pacific Northwest. These sightings spurred him to show his discovery to the authorities, but just one day after the Air Force announced it had
ionosphere, hoping to monitor Russian nuclear tests. “The Russians wouldn’t get a nuclear weapon until 1949,” Launius adds. “But we didn’t know that in 1947.”
Typically, a Project Mogul balloon sent into high altitude stretched 657 feet from tip to tail, 102 feet taller than the Washington Monument and twice as tall as the
Launius adds, thanks to the new, horrify-
Statue of Liberty.
ingly powerful weapon and changing geopolitical scene, it was a time of paranoia.
As balloons rode on the upper jet stream toward Russia, a long tail equipped with
Still, if the rumor of extraterrestrial vis-
different types of sensing and listening
itors had been put to rest by the govern-
devices trailed behind.
8
(Below) Weather balloon similar to that government officials claim the UFO stemmed from. “But, obviously, something happened
spacecraft and other crashed ships were
to this one balloon,” Launius says. “It
either being autopsied or slid into glass
came back to Earth and probably was
tanks containing gel-like preservatives.
spread across a wide area.” Although much of the documentation about Project Mogul has now been declassified, Launius says that civilian access to information failed to stop the lure of extraterrestrial life.
The government wasn’t helping to quell speculation, either. At their most secretive sites, they posted large, unambiguous “No Trespassing” signs, often with a reminder to those who entered illegally: “Use of
Because the U.S. government was now in
Deadly Force Authorized.”
a frenzy of nuclear testing—both in the South Pacific and, later, at the Nevada Test Site—the hermetic silence around classified government programs left a certain segment of citizens suspicious. The UFO sightings continued.
And the alien hysteria had gotten even wackier. By the early 1990s, with scant evidence to support it, a global UFO and extraterrestrial industry had come into existence. There were more movies. More books. More newspaper and magazine
“Then we get to the late 1970s and early
stories, more television news segments and
1980s,” Launius says. “And that period
shows focused on visitors from space.
saw a real spike in extraterrestrial interest, from movies to books and other things.”
9
In Roswell, the populace had been cashing in on the alien craze for some time.
Movies such as Star Wars, Close Encounters
The town was home to the International
of the Third Kind and ET, plus dozens of
UFO Museum and Research Center, and
books on the subject, brought aliens to the
even a local Wal-Mart got into the spirit,
forefront of the public mindset once again.
decorating its walls and front windows with green-skinned, large-headed aliens.
“By that time,” Launius says, “people’s imaginations had gotten the best of them.” Suddenly, there were rumors of regular extraterrestrial life on Earth, not to
mention crashed spaceships. There were now stories of two alien ships crashing in New Mexico in June 1947, scattering their contents and tiny green crewmen across the landscape. Before long, any secret government property—from nuclear sites to engineering locations—was suspected to house deceased or imprisoned aliens. This was most evident at Area 51, a restricted aircraft engineering and development facility inside the Nevada Test Site, about 90 minutes north of Las Vegas. It was rumored that aliens from the Roswell
Roswell’s civic seal sports an artist rendering of an alien, and the exterior of the local McDonald’s in town has enough spacecraft-based accessories to look like a ship preparing to take off for some distant galaxy. Along the town’s Main Street, toy aliens, flying saucers and other extraterrestrial ephemera are sold in local shops. Roger Launius has served as the chief historian of NASA and sat on several investigative panels discussing what might exist beyond Earth, but he seems more amused by the 70 years of hysteria surrounding the “Roswell Incident” than anything else. “Well, all I really know,” he says, “is that UFOs are exactly that. They’re unidentified objects seen in the air.”
SIGNS OF ABDUCTION Are you about to be abducted by aliens and subjected to medical experiments? Or has it happened already? Here are some signs you should be on the watch for. AT BEDTIME
ON THE ROAD
AFTER THE FACT
* You have chronic insomnia, and you
* Your car breaks down unexpectedly with
* There may be evidence that the scene
hear a tapping or humming noise just as
no explanation, often soon after you’ve
of your abduction has been “staged” to
you’re dropping off to sleep.
spotted a UFO.
look as if nothing happened, but a few
* You may dream of aliens and UFOs
* You pull over to the side of the road…
incorrect details might be noticeable.
directly, or you may dream of vaguely
and the next thing you remember is
For example, if you went to bed wearing
mysterious beings but remember none of
standing next to or driving your car.
pajamas, you may wake up nude or
the details except one: The beings had
Hours or even days may have passed, but
dressed in only underwear, with the
very large eyes.
you have no memory of what happened
pajamas folded up neatly and placed at
* You have the feeling you’re being
in the meantime. Your “broken down”
the foot of the bed. You may even wake
watched, especially as you’re dropping off
car is running again, and you have no
up in the wrong room of the house. If you
to sleep. Or you wake up in the middle of
explanation for that, either.
were abducted from your car, you may
the night because you think someone -or
* You have the sense that you have levitat-
find that items in the car or in the trunk
something- is watching you. You may even
ed to passed through solid objects such as
have been moved around.
see one or more shadowy figures standing
the doors or roof of your car, perhaps as
* Your ability to remember things
around the bed, staring at you.
aliens lifted you into their spaceship.
suddenly becomes stronger, and you may
* You sleepwalk. You’ve gone to sleep in one place and woken up in another with no explanation for how it happened. (And alcohol is not involved.) * For the first few seconds or minutes after awakening, you are paralyzed and can’t move your body. * When you wake up and find small drops of blood on your pillow, but there’s no explanation for how they got there.
even develop psychic powers that DURING THE DAY * You see smoke, fog, or haze at a time or in a place where is no logical explanation. * You have an unexplained, irresistible desire to walk or drive to a particular
location, where you believe something “familiar, yet unknown” will soon happen. You may experience a heightened level of anxiety in the days leading up to this strange happening.
WHAT’S UP, DOC? * You may have a dim memory of a very “probing” medical exam conducted against your will. * You may also have memories of having your head placed in some kind of restraining device or long needles are inserted in your nostrils or ears, or something drills into your skull. These sensations may be accompanied by a burning smell. Human medical examiners who look over you after the fact find no signs that such procedures have taken place.
PHYSICAL CHANGES * You begin to get frequent nosebleeds and you don’t know why. * You have unexplained soreness or stiffness, or a mysterious rash on one or more parts of your body. There may also be evidence that your skin has been scraped (and a sample taken). * You find new scars on your body and you have no idea how they got there. (And alcohol is not involved.) * When you go in for your annual physical, your doctor finds strange, tiny probes implanted in your body.
enable you to see events in the future. * You suddenly get a sense of mission or the feeling that you have been chosen (by the aliens) for an important purpose, but you don’t know what it is. This often replaces feelings of low self-esteem that you had before the alien encounter. * Electronic appliances behave strangely when you pass by. Computers crash, clocks lose time, radio and TV reception is distorted, and streetlights go dark as you walk under them. * You become obsessive-compulsive or develop addiction you didn’t have before. * You become less trusting of other people, especially doctors, police, and other authority figures, than you were before. * You have an uncontrollable urge to take vitamins.
* You develop an interest in UFOs, astronomy, or physics. Or, conversely, an aversion to being around other people when they are discussing these subjects.
10
11
ALIEN INVASION We asked, you answered. Your (mostly) true encounters with your very own extra-terrestrials. 13
M
y mom tells a story of her and her friend, Lisa. When my
they paralyzed her somehow and did all sorts of invasive experi-
mom and Lisa were teenagers, they were up on the roof
ments on her, but by the most recent time, they stopped probing
of Lisa’s house, and they see a bright light in the sky. Next thing
her and began to talk with her. They didn’t speak English or any
they know, the light is gone. Thing is, they think they’ve been on
other human language, but she could understand everything
the roof for like 15 minutes, but something like 3 hours passed.
they said, even though she can’t speak their language herself.
Mom doesn’t remember anything about what happened during
Apparently they told her all sorts of things - stuff about space,
that time, and Lisa simply refuses to talk about it. She would
Earth itself, and most shockingly, predicted years beforehand that
answer my mom with things like “I dunno” and “Just drop it.” for
she would get pregnant in a specific year and it would also be a
a long time.
stillborn, and that she would never be able to have children again. They also told her that it was not their fault and they even made
So a couple months later, mom moves away and loses contact with Lisa for about 10 years. She finally meets up with her again and immediately notices that something is odd about Lisa. She appeared very “distant” to her, with a very “dreamy” demeanor. Like she was really happy and at peace, for no good reason. After they talk for a bit, Lisa brings up the incident on the roof. Mom
an attempt to save her from this fate, but they were unsuccessful. They also told her that they had abducted my mother. Another time, after that first incident. Mom says she has no recollection of any other potential abductions, but she does have recurring nightmares of being abducted, but she’s “almost sure” that they’re just that - nightmares.
says she still doesn’t really remember anything about it. Lisa tells mom that every time she speaks with them, she comes But Lisa remembers. She remembers everything. She said
that at first, it was all in bits and pieces and she couldn’t remember any of it clearly. She was confused and scared and wanted to avoid discussing it. Then, as time passed, she began to remember more of it. She remembers it all clearly, and she remembers the other 3 times she was abducted after that clearly as well. At first,
to better understand “the truth”. When mom inquires what “the truth” is, Lisa says “you will know eventually”, and that once she learned of “the truth”, “everything became wonderful”. Anonymous Reddit User
14
I
was driving home for the weekend from school at Indiana
The next thing I know, I open my eyes and see nothing but the
University. It takes me about two hours to get home, and I left
night sky full of bright stars - it was a cold night and it seemed like
Bloomington around 10:00pm. At exactly 10:53 I am on a rural
I had never seen stars that bright in my life. I sat up and looked
stretch of the two lane highway I take home, and I notice what
around, and I saw absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. I was in
appeared to be flashing lights behind me. I thought, “great, I’m
the middle of a field, surrounded by corn stalks left over from
getting pulled over,” so I turned onto the next country road about
the recent harvest. As I started to come to my senses I started to
a quarter mile from where I noticed the lights. As the car came to
freak out. Where am I? Why the fuck am I asleep in the middle
a stop and I started to open my glove box to get out my registra-
of a field? Where the fuck is my car? I got up and started walking
tion and proof of insurance, the lights suddenly disappeared, and
toward the distant headlights I could see from a road about half a
no car drove past.
mile away.
Now here is where the story takes a turn for the weird, and I am
When I got to the nearest intersection I looked at the signs which
sure you guys will think I’m just making it all up because it really
read 350N and 50W. I was half a mile away from my car which
does seem like something straight out of a typical
was just right off the main road. I started walking toward the
UFO movie or story. The electronics in my car started to go
headlights I could see on the main road. I can’t say how long it
haywire. The radio was randomly changing stations while the vol-
took me to walk there but it couldn’t have been more than 10 or
ume kept going up and down while the dome light and headlights
15 minutes.
start to flicker and turn off and back on. This was at 10:56 pm. I start thinking to myself that my battery must be failing, or else
When I arrived at my car all the lights were out - my battery
I have a short somewhere in the electric system of my car... so I
had died, which struck me as odd because I couldn’t have been
lean down to pop the hood so I can take a look at the battery, and
gone for that long. I looked at my phone which was sitting on the
that is the last thing I remember doing.
passenger seat, and the time was 2:17 AM. Over three hours had
passed since I turned off onto the side road for the flashing lights
Looking back on it now, there’s no way we could have been the
behind me. I remember sitting in my car completely dumbfound-
only ones to see it. It wasn’t that late at night and it was over a
ed, wondering what the hell had just happened to me. After about
heavily populated suburb of a major city. The idea of this has
half an hour of just sitting there I remembered that my battery
always scared me more than any sort of possible abduction sce-
was dead; so I got on the phone and called AAA to come out and
nario. That there were others and we’re all voluntarily suffering a
give me a jump. It took about an hour for them to get out to me
sort of collective amnesia, except in how we’re not. I’ve thought
since I was a good distance away from the nearest town; during
about hypnosis but that scare me too plus I’m not sure if I’d trust
which time I just sat in silence, running through the possible
the results, I was just a kid then and I’m not sure if I could trust
scenarios in my head concerning what had just happened. To
the hypnotist. What I do know, again, is that there’s no way
this day I couldn’t tell you what really happened to me that night.
it was just the three of us who saw it. We’re talking
All I know is I can’t think of any plausible explanation as to why
a huge thing hovering in the sky directly above hundreds of hous-
I woke up over half a mile away from my car in the middle of a
es just after midnight on a summer weekend night. But nothing
corn field more than three hours after I had stopped.
on the news, nothing in the paper, nothing on tv, no words spoken
Anonymous Reddit User
about it again ever by anyone.
S
Reddit User u/AppalachianWind ummer before 8th grade, me and two of my friends snuck out at midnight to go walk around the neighborhood and
go see these girls on the next block who were having a sleepover. We turn a corner in our neighborhood and there’s this huge black blimp shaped thing in the sky. Like the pictures of the Hindenburg but bigger than that and as close if not closer. Completely silent and the size of at least four to five football fields across, no exaggeration, even though I was young. We stare at it entranced, asking each other over and over again if we see it, which we all
15
agree that we do, standing there, frozen in one place. It’s like black polished gunmetal, no lights, no sound, no anything. It’s just hovering there. And then I don’t know what happened but time clearly jumps. Next thing I remember is the craft/ship/government experiment/ whatever the hell it is has gone and there’s a tiny glowing white barbell thing in the sky, seemingly slowly falling to earth with wisps of smoke coming off it. Then two brand new black trucks with silver gearboxes on the back, like f150s or s10’s but nicer came speeding down the street, going about seventy in a residential 25mph neighborhood. Then after that I remember walking home to one of my friend’s houses and going to bed. At that point it was like 5 or 6 am and the sun was coming up. We all made a promise to tell my dad in the morning because he worked for the city but we never did. I don’t know what happened later in life to one of my friends who was there but the other was my best friend and we sort of made an unspoken pact never to talk about it, don’t know how or why we did that. We all grew up and I sort of lost touch with him too. We did reconnect over Facebook and such over the years but it was like there was something between us neither of us wanted to touch or talk about.
APRIL 17, 1897
A crash in Aurora, Texas
I
n 1897, a “cigar-shaped” UFO supposedly crashed into a windmill belonging to Judge J.S. Proctor of Aurora, Texas.
The incident was reported in the April 19 edition of the Dallas Morning News, two days after the crash occurred, and it claimed the pilot of the ship was “not an inhabitant of this world.” Supposedly, the pilot’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave at a local cemetery, and the ship was partially buried with the pilot. The rest of it is said to have been dumped down a well. Barbara Brammer, a former mayor of Aurora, claims the whole thing was a hoax crafted in order to save Aurora. See, the town was suffering after a series of unfortunate events that included a fire, the local cotton crop dying out, a fever epidemic, and the cancellation of a planned railroad into town. The “hoax” put Aurora back on the map. The events of that April still haven’t been fully disproven.
16
THE HOLOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLE T
he world, in a sense, may be a ho-
Fast forward to 1993. Two particle
more precise and more broadly applicable
logram. The idea comes from black
physicists working separately conclude
statement of the principle that involves
hole physics. In the 1970s researchers
that the universe itself must store
light rays. “The world doesn’t appear to
knew that when an object becomes part
information in a similar way. Quantum
us like a hologram, but in terms of the
of a black hole, two things happen. All
mechanics starts with the assumption
information needed to describe it, it is
the detailed information about that object
that information is stored in every
one,” Bousso says. “The amazing thing is
is lost, and the surface area of the black
volume of space. Any patch of space
that the holographic principle works for
hole’s event horizon (the point of no
can become a black hole, which stores
all areas in all space times. We have this
return for infalling matter and energy)
information in bits of area. Perhaps,
pattern there, which is far more general
grows. The first fact seemed to violate the
then, all that’s needed to describe a patch
than the black hole picture we started
second law of thermodynamics, because
of space, black hole or no, is that area’s
from. And we have no idea why this
one of the lost details was the object’s
worth of information. This is called the
works. What this is telling us is, there is
entropy, or the info describing its micro-
holographic principle, after the way that
a description of the world we should be
scopic parts. But the second fact offered a
a hologram encodes 3D information on a
looking for which will be more economical
way out: if entropy must always grow, and
2D surface.
than the one that we have right now, and will likely have to do with quantum
a black hole’s surface area must too, perhaps for the black hole they are the same,
Recently, Raphael Bousso, while at
and info is stored on the horizon.
Stanford University, helped formulate a
gravity.” --JR Minkel
KENNETH ARNOLD The Birth of “UFOlogy” UFOS: A BACKGROUND
saucers, leading to the popularization of
Flying objects, not easily identifiable by
the term “flying saucer” as a synonym for
the human eye, have been spotted all
UFO.) Though Arnold said he initially
around the world for centuries. Those
thought what he had seen were test flights
who reported seeing such mysterious
of military aircraft, the military later
objects often attributed them to spirits, an-
said they had been conducting no test
gels, phantoms, ghosts or other supernatu-
flights during the time of the incident. A
ral phenomena. In 1938, with the specter
prospector on Mt. Adams saw the objects
of war looming in Europe, Orson Welles
at around the same time as Arnold, bol-
caused mass hysteria in America when
stering his story.
his radio broadcast based on H.G. Wells’ science-fiction novel “War of the Worlds” suggested that meteor-like rocket ships carrying aliens were invading Earth.
After news of Arnold’s sightings hit the media, similar sightings began to be reported in increasing numbers across the United States. Also in July 1947, a
17
Some conspiracy-minded ufologists
Roswell, New Mexico newspaper claimed
viewed Steven Spielberg’s “Close
that personnel of the nearby U.S. Army
Encounters of the Third Kind” as
airfield had recovered a crashed flying
an effort masterminded by the U.S.
saucer. The Army, in turn, explained that
government to introduce the public
the crash was that of a wrecked weather
to the concept of friendly aliens.
balloon. (Though the Roswell incident was mostly forgotten until the late 1970s,
World War II and the accompanying
around that time several eyewitnesses
development of rocket science marked
began to come forward claiming the
a new level of interest in strange flying
“weather balloon” was in fact an alien
objects. Numerous Allied pilots flying at
craft; conspiracy theories regarding Ros-
night over German reported seeing balls
well still abound among ufologists.)
of light following their aircraft. Nicknamed “foo fighters,” these ghostly flyers were said to be one of Germany’s secret
GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSE In response to the increasing number of
weapons; varying explanations for the
UFO sightings that followed Arnold’s
flares claimed they were optical illusions
report, the U.S. Air Force began an inves-
or results of the electrical phenomenon
tigation of these reports, called Operation
known as “St. Elmo’s Fire.” On June 24,
Sign, in 1948. Among the initial theories
1947, the civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold
of the project’s participants was that the
reported seeing nine objects, glowing
UFOs were actually types of sophisticated
bright blue-white, flying in a “V” forma-
Soviet aircraft, although there was also a
tion over Washington’s Mount Rainier.
hypothesis that they might be extraterres-
He estimated the objects’ flight speed at
trial spacecraft. Regarding the June 1947
1700 mph and compared their motion to
sighting over Mount Rainier, Air Force
“a saucer if you skip it across water.” (In
investigators deemed both Arnold and the
newspaper reports of Arnold’s sighting,
prospector to be credible witnesses, but
this description was mistakenly taken to
concluded that what they had seen was a
mean that the objects were shaped like
mirage, not actual flying ships.
Project Sign was succeeded in 1949 by Project Grudge, which in 1952 became Project Blue Book, the longest running of the U.S. government’s official inquiries into UFOs. Project Blue Book compiled reports of more than 12,000 UFO sightings or related events from 1952 to 1969. Of these, more than 90 percent were eventually classified as “identified,” meaning they were caused by a known astronomical, atmospheric or artificial (man-made) phenomenon. The remaining number, approximately 6 percent, were “unidentified,” and included cases in which there was insufficient information to assign the event a known cause.
18
19
(Above) Hikers embrace shortly before their tragic and untimely demise.
MOUNTAIN OF THE DEAD The horrific mystery of Dyatlov Pass
T
he Dyatlov Pass incident (Russian: Гибель тургруппы
wrong.
Дятлова) is the mysterious deaths of nine ski hikers in
It had been agreed beforehand that Dyatlov would send a tele-
the northern Ural Mountains on February 2, 1959. The group
gram to their sports club as soon as the group returned to Vizhay.
consisted of eight men and two women. Most were students or
It was expected that this would happen no later than February 12,
graduates of Ural Polytechnical Institute. The goal of the 14 day
but Dyatlov had told Yudin that he expected to be longer, and so
expedition was to reach Otorten (1234.2m), a mountain 10 km (6
when date passed and no message had been received there was
miles) north of the site of the incident. This route, at that season,
no immediate reaction - delays of few days were common in such
was estimated as “Category III”, the most difficult. All members
expeditions. Only after the relatives of the travelers demanded a
were experienced in long ski tours and mountain expeditions. The
rescue operation did the head of the institute send the first rescue
group arrived by train at Ivdel, a city at the center of the northern
groups consisting of volunteer students and teachers, on Febru-
province of Sverdlovsk Oblast on January 25. They then took a
ary 20. Later, the army and police forces became involved, with
truck to Vizhay - the last inhabited settlement so far north. They
planes and helicopters being ordered to join the rescue operation.
started their march toward Otorten from Vizhay on January 27.
On February 26, the searchers found the abandoned and badly
The next day, one of the members was forced to go back because
damaged tent on Kholat Syakhl. Mikhail Sharavin, the student
of illness. Cameras found around their last camp made it possible
who found the tent said: “…the tent was half torn down and
to track group’s route up to the day preceding the incident.
covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group’s belongings and shoes had been left behind.” Investigators said the tent had
The hike started out fairly late on February 1. Excess gear and
been cut open from inside and that skiers had fled in socks or
food was stored on a platform in the forest, or camp base. Camp
barefoot. A chain of eight or nine sets of footprints, left by several
was set up around 5 pm on a slope of Kholat Syakhl just 16 km (10 miles) from Mount Otorten. They had their dinner around 6-7 pm and one or two members of the group went outside to relieve themselves, presumably Semyon Zolotaryov and Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolles, since they were found to have been better dressed than the others. Then something went catastrophically
“…The tent had been cut open from [the] inside and the skiers fled…”
20
people who were wearing socks, a single shoe or barefoot, could
to preserve themselves. They had managed to dig out a den in the
be followed and led down towards the edge of nearby woods (on
snow, lay it down with branches in an effort to keep themselves
the opposite side of the pass, 1.5 km north-east) but after 500 m
warm. But the things were about to get even more bizarre. Bodies
they were covered with snow.
were actually found few feet from their improvised shelter in the deep part of the ravine on the area of only 4 m2. Some of the
At the forest edge, under a large old cedar, the search party found
hikers’ clothing (2 sweaters and pants) were found to be radioac-
the remains of a fire, along with the first two bodies, those of Yuri
tive. Also, some of the clothes taken from the bodies underneath
Krivoshenko and Yuri Doroshenko, shoeless and dressed only
the cedar tree were placed on the cedar branches, but apparently
in their underwear. The branches on the tree were broken up to
they were not used.
five meters high suggesting that skiers had climbed up to look for
(Below) The last photos captured by the ski hiking group.
something, perhaps the camp. Forensic tests later confirmed that traces of skin were found embedded in the bark indicating that the pair had frantically attempted to climb the tree snapping off branches until their hands were mass of pulpy flesh. The medical examiner recorded that some of the corpses had livor mortis on the front. Given that such marks always form on the side of a body that has been pressed against the ground, this indicated that someone had turned them over after death.
“…skiers had fled in socks or barefoot.” On February 27 between the cedar and the tent the searchers
21
found Igor Dyatlov (300 m from the cedar) and Zinaida Kolmogorova (630 m from the cedar), and 6 days later on March 5 - Rustem Slobodin (480 m from the cedar). The three seemed to have died in poses suggesting that they were attempting to return to the tent. A medical examination found no injuries which might have led to their deaths, and it was concluded that they had died of hypothermia. Slobodin had a small crack in his skull, but it was not thought to be a fatal wound. A legal inquest started immediately after finding the first five bodies. Searching for the remaining four travelers took more than two months. They were finally found on May 5 under four meters of snow in a ravine 75 m farther into the woods from the cedar tree. These four were better dressed than the others, and there were signs that those who had died first had apparently relinquished their clothes to the others. Zolotaryov was wearing Dubinina’s faux fur coat and hat, while Dubinina’s foot was wrapped in a piece of Krivonishenko’s wool pants. An examination of the four bodies found in May changed the cource of the whole investigation. Three of them had fatal injuries: the body of Thibeaux-Brignolles had major skull damage, and both Dubinina and Zolotaryov had major chest fractures. According to Dr. Boris Vozrozhdenny, the force required to cause such damage would have been extremely high. He compared it to the force of a car crash. Notably, the bodies had no external wounds as if they were crippled by a high level of pressure. Dubinina was found to be missing her tongue. The group clearly realized their threats and did everything they could
Yuri Doroshenko
Lyudmila Dubinina
Igor Dyatlov
Alexander Kolevatov
Zinaida Kolmogorova
Yuri Krivonischenko
Rustem Slobodin
Nikolai Thibeaux-
Semyon Zolotaryov
Yuri Yudin *
Brignolles *Yuri Yudin fell sick halfway and returned thus remaining alive. He didn’t have the slightest idea of what might have happened to his comrades. Occasionally some of the conspiracy theorists claim that UFO
USSR paid such interest in this subject. UFO was not investigated
scared the group away. Although seemingly incredible this claim
by the official science so it deemed as a pseudo- religious
might have some base to it. About the same time Soviet armed
phenomena. Atheist Soviet Union obviously prohibited any
forces did launch several rockets from Baykanur base. Although
interest in the subject, especially among members of the highest
military claimed the rockets landed in the north Ural mountains,
legislative body in the country.
several geologists 70 km from the mountains saw some glowing and pulsating orbits flying in the direction of the Kholat Syakhl on a day of tragedy (evening of Febrauary 1st).
Surprisingly, one of the most extraordinary and astonishing versions came from none other than Lev Ivanov himself. In 1990, the retired Prosecutor published an article, “The Enigma of the
Lev Ivanov, a man who was in charge of the investigation at
Fireballs”, where he admitted that in spring of 1959, under the
the Dyatlov Pass, lived a long life. In the early 1990’s in an
pressure of A. P. Kirilenko, and of his deputy, A. F. Yeshtokin, he
interview to a local journalist he made a statement that during
withdrew various key materials from the case that indicated the
his investigation he and E.P. Maslenikov both noticed that the
true cause of the accident: “fireballs” or a UFO*.
pines in the forest were burned at the top. He also claims that A.P. Kirilenko, member of the Soviet Congress, along with his advisor A.F. Ashtokin forced Ivanov to take out any reference to the unknown flying objects or other strange phenomena. This included pictures of flying spheres drawn by the Mansi hunters and other testimonies. It is true that Soviet Union experienced a boom of interest on everything unknown. Skeptic might also add that Ivanov gave this interview to make some money. However we have to mention that Kirilenko became obsessed with UFO theme. Starting in the early 60’s he filed several requests to gain access to the KGB archives. We don’t know what was found in the documents, but it is undeniably strange that a political figure in
“When E. P. Maslennikov and I examined the scene in May, we found that some young pine trees at the edge of the forest had burn marks, but those marks did not have a concentric form or some other pattern. There was no epicenter. This once again confirmed that heated beams of a strong, but completely unknown, at least to us, energy, were directing their firepower toward specific objects (in this case, people), acting selectively.”
NAME (AGE)
23
CLOTHING
INJURIES AND COD
Yuri Doroshenko Under tree
Underwear, shirt, no shoes; Dyatlov was wearing the
Hypothermia
(21)
knitted vest Yudin left Doroshenko before heading back
Yuri
FOUND
Under tree
Underwear, shirt, no shoes; Dubinina took his sweater
Krivonischenko
and and tore a flap of his underpants to wrap her foot
(23)
probably after his death
Igor Dyatlov (23) 300m
Very lightly dressed, no shoes, he was wearing the
Hypothermia
Hypothermia
knitted vest Yudin left to Doroshenko before going back. Zinaida
630m
Kolmogorova
Better dressed that the previously found hikers. No
Hypothermia
footwear.
(22) Rustem
480m
Slobodin (23)
Better dressed that the previously found hikers, one felt
Hypothermia
boot (valenka) on his right foot.
Fractured skull, multiple areas of edema and abrasions on his face and his arms
Lyudmila
Ravine (75m)
Dubinina (20)
Her foot was wrapped in a piece of Krivonishenko’s
Major chest fractures
underpants and she was wearing Krivonishenko’s brown Missing her tongue, eyes, part of sweater that tested radioactive.
the lips, as well as facial tissue and a fragment of skullbone; tongue removed while she was still alive
Semyon
Ravine (75m)
Zolotaryov (38)
He was wearing Dubinina’s faux fur coat and hat;
Major chest fractures ( 5 broken ribs)
camera on his neck. Zolotaryov and Thibeaux were
Eye ball missing
almost fully clothed and wearing some kind of footwear. Alexander
Ravine (75m)
Kolevatov (24) Nikolai
Ravine (75m)
The waistband of his sweater and lower part of his
Hypothermia
trousers tested radioactive.
Exposed skull bones, broken nose
Thibeaux like Zolotaryov was better clothed than the
Major skull damage
Thibeaux-
rest of the members of the group. On his feet he wore
multiple fractures to the side of his skull
Brignolles (23)
hand-knitted woolen socks a pair of felt boots (valenki).
that would have made him unable to move
“THE EARTH IS FLAT!” How is NASA Fooling the World?
M
embers of the Flat Earth Society
the Earth is flat — apparently saying an
they are actually flying in circles above a
claim to believe the Earth is flat.
astronaut drowning was that proof — and
disc. The motive for world governments’
Walking around on the planet’s surface, it
that NASA is “lying.”)
concealment of the true shape of the
looks and feels flat, so they deem all evi-
Earth’s day and night cycle is explained
Earth has not been ascertained, but flat-
dence to the contrary to be fabrications of
by positing that the sun and moon are
earthers believe it is probably financial.
a “round Earth conspiracy” orchestrated
spheres measuring 32 miles (51 kilometers)
“In a nutshell, it would logically cost
by NASA and other government agencies.
that move in circles 3,000 miles (4,828 km)
much less to fake a space program than
above the plane of the Earth. (Stars, they
to actually have one,” the flat-earther
say, move in a plane 3,100 miles up.) Like
website explains.
The belief that the Earth is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory. According to the Flat Earth Society’s leadership, its ranks have grown by 200 people (mostly Americans and Britons) per year since 2009. Judging by the exhaustive
spotlights, these celestial spheres illuminate different portions of the planet in a 24-hour cycle. Flat-earthers believe there must also be an invisible “antimoon” that obscures the moon during lunar eclipses.
effort flat-earthers have invested in flesh-
25
WHO ARE THE BELIEVERS? Flat-earth believers are not relegated to the hidden corners of the universe: Plenty of celebs have been quite vocal with their beliefs. For instance, on Jan. 25, 2016,
ing out the theory on their website, as well
Furthermore, Earth’s gravity is an illusion,
rapper-singer Bobby Ray Simmons Jr.
as the staunch defenses of their views they
they say. Objects do not accelerate down-
(known as B.o.B) released a track called
offer in media interviews and on Twitter,
ward; instead, the disc of Earth acceler-
“Flatline” in which he disses astrophysicist
it would seem that these people genuinely
ates upward at 32 feet per second squared
Neil deGrasse Tyson, after the two had a
believe the Earth is flat. But in the 21st
(9.8 meters per second squared), driven up
Twitter battle over the spherical-ness of
century, can they be serious? And if so,
by a mysterious force called dark energy.
the planet. B.o.B is convinced Earth is flat.
how is this psychologically possible?
Currently, there is disagreement among
A day earlier, the rapper tweeted: “No
flat-earthers about whether or not Ein-
matter how high in elevation you are...
stein’s theory of relativity permits Earth to
the horizon is always eye level ... sorry
accelerate upward indefinitely without the
cadets... I didn’t wanna believe it either.”
A FLAT-EARTHER’S VIEWPOINT First, a brief tour of the worldview of a flat-earther: While writing off buckets of concrete evidence that Earth is spherical, they readily accept a laundry list of prop-
planet eventually surpassing the speed of light. (Einstein’s laws apparently still hold in this alternate version of reality.)
ositions that some would call ludicrous.
And then there’s Shaq. In a podcast that aired on Feb. 27, 2017, former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal proclaimed our home
The leading flat-earther theory holds that
As for what lies underneath the disc of
planet is flat, saying that when he drives
Earth is a disc with the Arctic Circle in the
Earth, this is unknown, but most flat-
from Florida to California “it’s flat to me.”
center and Antarctica, a 150-foot-tall wall
earthers believe it is composed of “rocks.”
Shaq later said he was just kidding.
Then, there’s the conspiracy theory: Flat-
Some believers have gotten creative
earthers believe photos of the globe are
in their quest to prove a flat planet:
photoshopped; GPS devices are rigged to
Conspiracy theorist D. Marble posted
make airplane pilots think they are flying
on YouTube on May 1, 2017, that he
in straight lines around a sphere when
brought a spirit level aboard a flight
of ice, around the rim. NASA employees, they say, guard this ice wall to prevent people from climbing over and falling off the disc. (In keeping with their skepticism of NASA, known flat-earther conspiracy theorist Nathan Thompson recently approached a man he said was a NASA employee in a Starbucks in mid-May 2017. In a YouTube video of the exchange, Thompson, founder of the Official Flat Earth and Globe Discussion page, shouted that he had proof
“…NASA is lying.”
26
from Charlotte, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington, to see
chael Wilmore, an Irishman, told Life’s Little Mysteries. In Zetetic
whether the plane’s nose would dip to “compensate for curvature”
astronomy, the perception that Earth is flat leads to the deduction
of the Earth, he said. On the video, he said: “I recorded a 23
that it must actually be flat; the antimoon, NASA conspiracy and
minute and 45 second time-lapse, which by those measurements
all the rest of it are just rationalizations for how that might work.
means the plane travelled a little over 203 miles. According to Spherical Trigonometry given to explain the Heliocentric model, this should have resulted in the compensation of 5 miles of curvature. As you’ll see there was no measurable compensation for curvature.” (The air bubble in his level remained centered.)
Those details make the flat-earthers’ theory so elaborately absurd it sounds like a joke, but many of its supporters genuinely consider it a more plausible model of astronomy than the one found in textbooks. “The question of belief and sincerity is one that comes up a lot,” Wilmore said. “If I had to guess, I would probably say that at least some of our members see the Flat Earth
THE ZETETIC METHOD
Society and as a kind of epistemological exercise, whether as a
The theory follows from a mode of thought called the “Zetetic
critique of the scientific method or as a kind of ‘solipsism for
Method,” an alternative to the scientific method, developed by
beginners.’ There are also probably some who thought the cer-
a 19th-century flat-earther, in which sensory observations reign
tificate would be kind of funny to have on their wall. That being
supreme. “Broadly, the method places a lot of emphasis on recon-
said, I know many members personally, and I am fully convinced
ciling empiricism and rationalism, and making logical deductions
of their belief.”
based on empirical data,” Flat Earth Society vice president Mi-
Wilmore counts himself among the true believers. “My own convictions are a result of philosophical introspection and a considerable body of data that I have personally observed, and which I am still compiling,” he said.
story with special appeal. After all, flatearthers are more adamant that the Earth is flat than most people are that the Earth is round (probably because the rest of us feel we have nothing to prove). “If you’re faced with a minority viewpoint that is put forth in an intelligent, seemingly well-informed way, and when the proponents don’t deviate from these strong opinions they have, they can be very influential. We call that minority influence,” Douglas
Strangely, Wilmore and the society’s pres-
said.
ident, a 35-year-old Virginia-born Londoner named Daniel Shenton, both think the evidence for global warming is strong, despite much of this evidence coming from satellite data gathered by NASA, the kingpin of the “round Earth conspiracy.” They also accept evolution and most other mainstream tenets of science. CONSPIRACY THEORY MINDSET
27
In a study published online March 5, 2014, in the American Journal of Political Science, Eric Oliver and Tom Wood, political scientists at the University of Chicago, found that about half of Americans endorse at least one conspiracy theory, from the notion that 9/11 was an inside job to the JFK conspiracy. “Many people are willing to believe many ideas
As inconceivable as their belief system
that are directly in contradiction to a
seems, it doesn’t really surprise experts.
dominant cultural narrative,” Oliver told
Karen Douglas, a psychologist at the Uni-
Live Science. He says conspiratorial belief
versity of Kent in the United Kingdom
stems from a human tendency to perceive
who studies the psychology of conspiracy
unseen forces at work, known as magical
theories, says flat-earthers’ beliefs cohere
thinking.
with those of other conspiracy theorists she has studied.
However, flat-earthers don’t fit entirely snugly in this general picture. Most con-
“It seems to me that these people do gen-
spiracy theorists adopt many fringe theo-
erally believe that the Earth is flat. I’m not
ries, even ones that contradict each other.
seeing anything that sounds as if they’re
Meanwhile, flat-earthers’ only hang-up is
just putting that idea out there for any
the shape of the Earth. “If they were like
other reason,” Douglas told Live Science.
other conspiracy theorists, they should be exhibiting a tendency toward a lot of
She said all conspiracy theories share a
magical thinking, such as believing in
basic thrust: They present an alternative
UFOs, ESP, ghosts, the Devil, or other
theory about an important issue or event,
unseen, intentional forces,” Oliver wrote
and construct an (often) vague explana-
in an email. “It doesn’t sound like they do,
tion for why someone is covering up that
which makes them very anomalous rela-
“true” version of events. “One of the
tive to most who believe in conspiracies.”
major points of appeal is that they explain a big event but often without going into details,” she said. “A lot of the power lies in the fact that they are vague.” The self-assured way in which conspiracy theorists stick to their story imbues that
Valiant Thor
The Benevolent Alien With An IQ Of 1200
V
al Valiant Thor lived as a stranger at the Pentagon for
a town called Alexandria in Virginia. After Nancy Warren and
three years interacting with President Eisenhower and Vice
Frank Strange landed in Alexandria, they are said to have met
President at the White House and Air Force military brass. This
with two police officers who quickly transferred the information
video explores the conspiracy theories surrounding Val Thor’s
they were telling them to the Pentagon. The four extra-terrestrial
Pentagon tenure.
beings would then go on to meet with Neil H McElroy, the Secretary of Defence at the time, and following that, President
Dr. Frank Strange is best known today for his best selling work ‘Stranger at the Pentagon’ which was first published in 1967. His book captured the imagination and sparked one of the longest running mythologies relating to the UFO phenomenon and hollow Earth in his history. If his sensational story is true, as many
Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon. It is believed that for a significant period after this meeting, Val and his team met with the senior politicians and Air Force commanders on numerous occasions and gave them advice on policy and dealings with other extra-terrestrial beings.
people believe it is, then it strikes an entirely new perspective on the history of 20th century America.
According to Val Thor, there was a particular reason why he had chosen Dr. Stranges to meet with and tell his story to, and that
Dr. Stranges always struck rather a curious figure in UFO circles. He was a dedicated UFO hunter and a freelance private investigator who apparently never had any trouble accepting the veracity of extra-terrestrial activity. At the same time, he was an evangelical Christian preacher and the founder of a group called the International Evangelism Crusades. According to Dr. Franke, it was this unusual combination of beliefs that marked him out as the natural messenger for some very important otherworldly information. Dr. Stranges claimed that at some point in 1958, he came into the possession of a photograph of a space alien named Val Valiant Thor and his second in command, a female named Jill. Dr. Stranges showed off the image at UFO conferences and claimed that Thor and Jill were extra-terrestrial beings from Venus. This behavior attracted the attentions of the authorities,
and eventually, Dr. Stranges was contacted by a Pentagon insider called Nancy Warren who told him that, astoundingly, Val himself had requested a personal meeting. Naturally, Dr. Stranges was more than happy to accept the invitation and met with Valiant Thor. Val informed him that he and his three-person crew had arrived on March 16th, 1957 in
reason was Dr. Stranges’s devout Christian faith. Val informed Dr. Stranges that the Bible was a representation of the truth but that Jesus Christ was not a human being but rather a space alien. He claimed that he had wanted to preach this
news on Earth but that he had been dissuaded from doing so by the senior politicians of the day. However, Val told Dr. Stranges that this disappointed had not stopped him from continuing with his mission to preach the Galactic word of Jesus Christ which continues probably to the present day.
28
29
How Do We Know The Moon Landing Really Happened? We dig into and address some of the common arguments behind the Moon landing conspiracy theories.
M
ankind first stepped foot on the
In this article, we dig into some of the
THE VAN ALLEN BELTS
Moon on 20 July 1969, achieving
common questions around the Moon
One of the most popular theories as to
what is arguably humanity’s greatest ever
landings, and address the more curious
why the Moon landings couldn’t have
feat of exploration. For two and a half
lunar phenomena with the latest data and
happened has to do with something
hours, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
scientific understanding. A vast weight of
called the Van Allen belts. These are two
explored the lunar surface on foot while
evidence supports the fact that humans
huge belts of radiation that surround the
Michael Collins piloted the Apollo 11
really did land on the Moon multiple
Earth, shaped by Earth’s magnetic field
orbiter around the Moon. That’s the
times between 1969 and 1972. But it is
and pounded with high-energy particles
history that we continue to celebrate
important to question and think critically
from the Sun’s wind. It’s been claimed
today, nearly 50 years on from the first
about events of this scale – and sometimes
that humans couldn’t have passed through
landing. Many of us either remember
researching and puzzling out the answers
these belts without being fried with lethal
watching the landing ourselves or have
can be half the fun!
doses of radiation.
“…the moon landings never really happened.”
The international scientific community
heard the memories from our parents and grandparents. But what do you say when someone insists that the Moon landings never really happened?
was aware of the Van Allen belts thanks to
30
31
32
(Above) Footprint of astronaut on moon
the Explorer, Pioneer, and Luna missions
WHY DID THE FLAG MOVE?
In video footage of the flag being planted
in the 1950s. Luckily, the timings of the
Another ‘giveaway’ that the landing
into the Moon’s surface, it also appears
Apollo launches were such that the Van
was faked comes from the footage of
to wave back and forth. This is because
Allen belts were at their lowest intensity,
the American flag that Neil Armstrong
when the astronauts were planting it, they
which fluctuates with the Sun’s activity.
and Buzz Aldrin placed on the Moon.
rotated it back and forth to better dig into
From photos and video, it appears to
the lunar soil, which of course made the
be flapping in the wind. But hold on a
flag ripple as it swung like a pendulum-
minute! There’s no air on the Moon so
without a breeze. There’s a huge amount
how can it flutter?!
of footage of the flags stood on the Moon
Radiation sickness occurs when you have been exposed to around 200 to 1000 ‘rads’ of radiation within a few hours.
in exactly the same position.
The Apollo 11 crew were within the belts for less than two hours during their
The truth is that the flag isn’t flapping. If
journey to the Moon, and so would have
you look closely at the gif to the left, the
WHY CAN’T WE SEE STARS?
only been exposed to an estimated 18
flag is in the same position between two
Speaking of the flag photographs, it’s
rads – well within the safe limit. There
frames as the astronaut moves. There is
often pointed out that there are no
can still be some adverse effects from even
a horizontal rod projecting from the post
this level of radiation, so NASA made
stars to be seen in the background!
at the top of the pole to hold the flag
This is actually a common feature of
sure that the Apollo 11 spacecraft was
unfurled. The flag was disturbed as it was
photographs from space, where the
well-insulated such that the average dose
planted into the ground and kept this
contrast between light and dark is
of radiation over the 12-day mission was
bent shape because of the lack of strong
extreme. The surface of the Moon reflects
just 0.18 rads, or similar to the radiation
gravity on the Moon.
the strong sunlight and appears very
of a chest X-ray.
bright in photographs. This brightness drowns out the relatively dim light from stars in the dark sky, akin to how car
“…it should be fairly easy to see the evidence with a telescope such as Hubble.” headlights can drown out the fainter light from nearby objects. The human eye can adjust and pick out the stars, but unless it’s set to the right settings, a camera
But we didn’t want to spend all this time addressing Moon landing myths without also discussing some of the more recent, international evidence that proves that humans once did walk on the Moon. The evidence doesn’t just come from NASA. WE CAN SEE THE FOOTPRINTS! We can actually see the footprints and spacecraft left behind by Apollo astronauts.
struggles with the contrast. Astronauts on the International Space Station
It is often claimed that if we really landed
today regularly take photographs of the
on the Moon, then it should be fairly easy
Earth that show a completely starless
to see the evidence with a telescope such
background, but it’s the same problem of
as Hubble. But as powerful as Hubble is
contrasts at work.
at spying galaxies, it simply doesn’t have the resolution to pick up fine details like
THE ROCK LABELLED WITH A ‘C’ The infamous labelled rock from the
spacecraft on the Moon – they’re too small and the Moon is too far away.
Apollo 16 mission. Movie props are often
33
numbered and lettered so that stagehands
Thankfully, we do have a closer
know where to place them. The theory
spacecraft, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance
goes that the rock in the photo to the
Orbiter, which has been in orbit around
left is a prop that someone must have
the Moon since 2009. And it has captured
accidentally placed facing the wrong way.
recent photographs of all the Apollo landing sites (see here and here). These
But in fact, the label simply isn’t there. The image of the rock is taken from a much larger shot of the Moon’s surface, and if you look at the original image, the
images show the Apollo spacecraft in exactly the right locations and amazingly, you can even see the astronauts’ footprints as they explored their lunar home.
marking isn’t there. Either a small hair or piece of thread must have got caught in
These landing sites have also been inde-
the machine while being copied.
pendently spotted by a variety of other spacecraft from China, India, and, as
MODERN PROOF
discussed above, Japan.
There are of course many more arguments against the Moon landings out
THE PROOF’S IN THE ROCK
there. Many of them are addressed on
Finally, we have the proof that the Moon
sites like clavius.org, which is a good
landings actually happened right here
resource for all things related to Apollo.
on Earth, in the form of Moon rocks.
But the key thing to do when presented
The image on the left is a glass spherule,
with new questions and theories surround-
of which many were found in the 382
ing the Moon landings is to ask questions,
kilograms of Moon rocks that were
think about logical explanations, and do
brought back by the Apollo crew.
your homework. There are vast swathes of archive material out there about all of NASA’s missions past and present and it can be a fascinating journey.
(Above) Apollo 13 Launch
the world as a gesture of good will. These rocks have withstood every possible geology test from labs around the world, and these have confirmed they are indeed of lunar origin. No other space mission, manned or unmanned, has been capable of returning such quantities of rock. The Soviet Union’s Luna unmanned programme did bring back some rocks in the 1970s, but only a third of one kilogram. These rocks have been shared with international
When the first rocks were returned from
scientists and match the characteristics of
the Apollo 11 mission, samples were
the Apollo Moon rocks.
given to 135 different countries around
34
PLANET NINE COULD ‘NIBIRU’ DESTROY EARTH?
35
N
ASA has released a statement
Online discussion about Nibiru may
puzzles, and you must come up with five
providing evidence of a ninth
have started as early as 1995, when the
different theories to explain them.”
plane that might be 10 times the mass of
conspiracy website ZetaTalk was created,
Earth, and 20 times more distant from
according to the Telegraph.
the sun than Neptune. But the premier
But the conspiracy theorists could be onto something when it comes to Planet Nine.
space organisation also had to take time
Many believed that the end of the world
to debunk myths that the planet, dubbed
would start on September 23 of this
‘Nibiru’ by doomsayers, will cause the
year.
end of the world.
A 2016 study from the University of Warwick warns that when the planet hurtles into the solar system on its orbit
While NASA originally denied the
around the sun, it might throw planets out
“If a planet is there, it’s extremely distant
presence of the planet, they are now
into space in a pinball effect.
and will stay that way (with no chance
making the case that the planet almost
of ever colliding with Earth, or bringing
certainly exists.
‘days of darkness’)”.
But don’t go hide in your bunker just yet -- it should take another 7 billion
“There are now five different lines of
years before there’s a chance of that
This follows an earlier press release where
observational evidence pointing to the
happening.
denied the planet existed at all.
existence of Planet Nine,” explained Konstantin Batygin, who is a planetary
“The planet in question, Nibiru, doesn’t
astrophysicist at Caltech.
exist, so there will be no collision”. “The story of Nibiru has been around
“If you were to remove this explanation
for years (as has the ‘days of darkness’
and imagine Planet Nine does not exist,
tale) and is periodically recycled into new
then you generate more problems than
apocalyptic fables.”
you solve. You suddenly have five different
ALIENS COULD DETECT LIFE ON EARTH
From gases in the atmosphere to satellites in space, Earth is sending plenty of signals that we’re alive.
A
s the universe’s only known harbor
Once spotted, our planet would likely
Stephanie Olson, an astrobiologist at the
for life, Earth is arguably one
intrigue E.T. Our sun is relatively stable,
University of California, Riverside. “High
strange rock. But light-years from our
not prone to disastrous flares that’d rip
levels of O2, or the processes culminating
solar system, other intelligent beings on a
our atmosphere to shreds. What’s more,
in high levels of O2, may actually
similar planetary oasis might be gazing in
we fall squarely within our sun’s habitable
preclude the emergence of life on some
our direction and seeing us as a sign that
zone, the area around a star where liquid
planets.”
they’re not alone in the universe.
water can persist on a planet’s surface. (These are just some of the things that
To date, astronomers have confirmed the
make life as we know it possible on Earth.)
In addition to oxygen molecules, alien astronomers would look at our atmosphere’s levels of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, nitrous
existence of nearly 4,000 planets beyond our solar system, including some that
Faraway scientists might then spot our
oxide, and methane. Only life could keep
just might have the conditions necessary
atmosphere, to see whether life’s thumb
Earth chemically off-kilter enough for all
to support life as we know it. As our
is on the chemical scales. But what would
these gases to persist at once.
technology improves, we should be able to
they be looking for? And could they really
learn more about these worlds and their
infer life’s presence across trillions of
chances of hosting plants, animals, and
miles?
maybe even civilizations.
“4,000 planets beyond our solar system”
TERRA COGNITA? Beyond those chemical clues, alien astronomers with truly massive telescopes
LIFE IS PRETTY GASSY
might even be able to map Earth’s surface
If you’re afraid of alerting aliens to your
from afar, down to major urban areas.
presence, that ship sailed more than two billion years ago. Our planet’s abundant oxygen is a major hint that we’re alive.
In a paper published on the arXiv in 2017, astronomers Svetlana Berdyugina and Jeff Kuhn outlined how astronomers
Oxygen is a highly reactive element,
could actually map the surfaces of alien
That means if aliens are out there, they
glomming on to other atoms and mol-
planets from light-years away. To pull off
could just as easily discover us.
ecules with such alacrity that it’s tough
such extreme cartography, they’d need a
to find it in abundance by itself—unless
telescope at least 130 feet wide, custom-
First, they’d need to find Earth from afar,
something is breaking down oxygen-rich
built for only one task: seeing the faint
either by watching our sun wobble as the
compounds and pumping out loads of
glow of light reflected off an alien planet.
planet’s gravity tugs against it, or by seeing
O2. On Earth, you can thank photosyn-
Variations in this reflected light over time
the sun dim as Earth blocks a tiny fraction
thetic plants for being generous oxygen
would connote regional differences in the
of sunlight during its orbit. Nine known
factories.
planet’s terrain.
our sun, just as we’ve seen thousands of
But oxygen alone wouldn’t be enough
As a proof-of-concept for this telescope,
alien planets dim their host stars.
for E.T. to prove our existence. “We have
called the ExoLife Finder, or ELF, Berd-
discovered several ways in which O2 can
yugina and Kuhn simulated how nearby
accumulate in the absence of life,” says
aliens using the telescope would see Earth.
alien worlds can see Earth transit across
36
The moon shines through Earth’s atmosphere in a photo taken from the space shuttle Columbia.
37 From 25 trillion miles away, E.T. could not
listen. For the last century, human civili-
As a satellite-fringed world drifts in front
only map Earth’s continents, but they’d
zation has been broadcasting its existence
of its home star, its satellites would block
also be able to see signs of intelligent life.
to the cosmos via radio. Occasionally, we
some starlight in front of and behind the
sent records into the void on the off-
transiting planet. This metallic belt would
chance that aliens stumble across it.
look unnatural when compared to known
Aliens wouldn’t be able to detect our radio
planetary rings.
“The ELF telescope has the sensitivity to see a Los Angeles basin,” says Kuhn. “We don’t see the lights, but we see the heat signature.” Their group, the Planets Foundation, is now building a singlemirror telescope in Hawaii to test the underlying tech. If all goes to plan, they
presence, much less our golden records, unless they’re within 590 trillion miles of Earth. If intelligent life is any farther away than that, our earliest radio signals simply haven’t reached them yet.
say it’s possible to build ELF within a decade.
“It would be like Star Trek, the reality show,” says Berdyugina. “We could virtually visit these planets.” ADVANCED INTELLIGENCE If intelligent life is nearby, the most straightforward way to find us would be to
Currently, Earth’s satellite network isn’t anywhere near dense enough to be detected, nor will it be anytime soon. But our footprint in space is growing exponentially: If we keep launching
But in several centuries’ time, intelligent
satellites at our present pace, Socas-
aliens may see other signs of our tech-
Navarro says in his study, nearby aliens
savviness. In a study recently accepted to
armed with telescopes as powerful as ours
The Astrophysical Journal, for example,
could spot our satellites by 2200.
astrophysicist Hector Socas-Navarro says we could find intelligent life by looking for artificial satellites orbiting alien worlds. And that means they could find us using similar methods.
WINDS OF CHANGE Of course, Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old, and life has changed a lot over the eons. What if alien astronomers had looked our way even a billion years ago?
iStockphoto
38
“Aliens may fear us.”
If aliens are anything like us, perhaps the news that they aren’t alone in the cosmos wouldn’t be their equivalent of
In a 2018 paper in Science Advances,
Still, if the aliens were advanced and
earth-shattering. In a study, researchers
Olson and her colleagues simulated
committed enough, even an early Earth
found that people, at least, would take the
how Earth’s atmosphere has changed
would yield compelling clues for life, says
discovery of alien life in stride.
over time. Even three billion years ago,
study coauthor Joshua Krissansen-Totton
aliens may have been able to infer life by
of the University of Washington.
sniffing out methane and carbon dioxide in the early atmosphere. But our modern atmosphere—a literal beacon for life— arrived only about 500 million years ago. “For more than a billion years of Earth history, an alien astronomer may have even been sufficiently misled to conclude that Earth was sterile—despite the fact that life was flourishing in our ocean at the time,” says Olson.
“People will be able to accommodate even high-impact scientific discoveries without
“The presence of life on Earth has been
their worldviews collapsing,” theologian
fairly obvious for the last 4 billion years to
Ted Peters said at the time.
anyone who could build a big telescope,” he says in an email. “If there was anything nasty out there, then they would have extinguished life on Earth long ago. I think we are safe inviting them over to visit and exchange notes on the cosmos.”
But like us, aliens may fear the prospect of hostile, intelligent extraterrestrials—in this case, humans—arriving unannounced on their cosmic doorstep.
CREDITS Orion Telescope Advertisement: Advertising School: Texas Creative, University of Texas, USA Creatives: Matt Crump, Nancy Jeng, August 2007
39
Stephen Hawking Sabado Advetisement: Print advertisement created by MSTF, Portugal for Sabado, within the category: Media. Back Cover: The Print Ad titled National Geographic: There are no aliens was done by Fox Creative advertising agency for product: National Geographic (brand: National Geographic) in United Kingdom. It was released in Mar 2012.