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NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue
APR 26, 2024
NASA is working to resume science operations of the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope after it entered safe mode April 23 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue. Hubble’s instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health.
The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty readings. The gyros measure the telescope’s turn rates and are part of the system that determines which direction the telescope is pointed. While in safe mode, science operations are suspended, and the telescope waits for new directions from the ground.
This particular gyro caused Hubble to enter safe mode in November after returning similar faulty readings. The team is currently working to identify potential solutions. If necessary, the spacecraft can be re-configured to operate with only one gyro, with the other remaining gyro placed in reserve . The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. To date, three of those gyros remain operational, including the gyro currently experiencing fluctuations. Hubble uses three gyros to maximize efficiency, but could continue to make science observations with only one gyro if required.
NASA anticipates Hubble will continue making groundbreaking discoveries, working with other observatories, such as the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope, throughout this decade and possibly into the next.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue/
NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles
APR 25, 2024
Riding aboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration continues to break records. While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn’t rely on optical communications to send data, the new technology has proven that it’s up to the task. After interfacing with the Psyche’s radio frequency transmitter, the laser communications demo sent a copy of engineering data from over 140 million miles away, 1½ times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
This achievement provides a glimpse into how spacecraft could use optical communications in the future, enabling higher-data-rate communications of complex scientific information as well as high-definition imagery and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.
“We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data during a pass on April 8,” said Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Until then, we’d been sending test and diagnostic data in our downlinks from Psyche. This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system.”
The laser communications technology in this demo is designed to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times faster than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep space missions today.
After launching on Oct. 13, 2023, the spacecraft remains healthy and stable as it journeys to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to visit the asteroid Psyche.
NASA’s optical communications demonstration has shown that it can transmit test data at a maximum rate of 267 megabits per second from the flight laser transceiver’s near-infrared downlink laser — a bit rate comparable to broadband internet download speeds.
That was achieved on Dec. 11, 2023, when the experiment beamed a 15-second ultra-high-definition video to Earth from 19 million miles away. The video, along with other test data, including digital versions of Arizona State University’s Psyche Inspired artwork, had been loaded onto the flight laser transceiver before Psyche launched last year.
Now that the spacecraft is more than seven times farther away, the rate at which it can send and receive data is reduced, as expected. During the April 8 test, the spacecraft transmitted test data at a maximum rate of 25 Mbps, which far surpasses the project’s goal of proving at least 1 Mbps was possible at that distance.
The project team also commanded the transceiver to transmit Psyche-generated data optically. While Psyche was transmitting data over its radio frequency channel to NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), the optical communications system simultaneously transmitted a portion of the same data to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California — the tech demo’s primary downlink ground station.
“After receiving the data from the DSN and Palomar, we verified the optically downlinked data at JPL,” said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL. “It was a small amount of data downlinked over a short time frame, but the fact we’re doing this now has surpassed all of our expectations.”
After Psyche launched, the optical communications demo was initially used to downlink pre-loaded data, including the Taters the cat video. Since then, the project has proven that the transceiver can receive data from the high-power uplink laser at JPL’s Table Mountain facility, near Wrightwood, California. Data can even be sent to the transceiver and then downlinked back to Earth on the same night, as the project proved in a recent “turnaround experiment.”
This experiment relayed test data — as well as digital pet photographs — to Psyche and back again, a round trip of up to 280 million miles (450 million kilometers). It also downlinked large amounts of the tech demo’s own engineering data to study the characteristics of the optical communications link.
“We’ve learned a great deal about how far we can push the system when we do have clear skies, although storms have interrupted operations at both Table Mountain and Palomar on occasion,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. (Whereas radio frequency communications can operate in most weather conditions, optical communications require relatively clear skies to transmit high-bandwidth data.)
JPL recently led an experiment to combine Palomar, the experimental radio frequency-optical antenna at the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Barstow, California, and a detector at Table Mountain to receive the same signal in concert.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/psyche-mission/nasas-optical-comms-demo-transmits-data-over-140-million-miles/
NASA Engineer Claims Major Discovery Of New Force In Physics, But Many Aren't Convinced
April 26, 2024
A former NASA engineer working on a propellant-less propulsion drive has claimed that the device can deliver enough thrust to achieve lift in Earth's gravity, an effect which should not take place under our current understanding of physics.
Dr Charles Buhler, who worked on a range of programs while at NASA, has since co-founded Exodus Propulsion Technologies, which in 2019 applied for a patent for a system that they claim can generate force using asymmetrical electrostatic pressure. According to the patent, the system generates a voltage difference across an electrically conductive surface.
"The applied voltage difference creates an electric field resulting in an electrostatic pressure force acting on at least one surface of an object. Asymmetries in the resulting electrostatic pressure force vectors result in a net resulting electrostatic pressure force acting on the object," the patent reads, adding that the invention could be used as a thruster to propel spacecraft. "The magnitude of the net resulting electrostatic pressure force is a function of the geometry of the electrically conductive surfaces, the applied voltage, and the dielectric constant of any material present in the gap between electrodes."
According to Buhler, whose team has been looking for alternative explanations for the force generated, they were able to create a large enough force for the (very small) object to overcome Earth's 1G of gravity (i.e. enough thrust to move the object off the ground in Earth's gravity) using the method.
That may sound like peanuts – but in the near-vacuum of space, you do not need a lot of thrust to accelerate (depending, of course, on the mass of your payload). If you could maintain a constant 1G of acceleration, for example, not only could you enjoy a nice artificial gravity equivalent to that on Earth, but you could reach vast distances within a human lifespan (or at least, from the traveler's perspective). But doing so would require an unimaginable amount of force beyond what we are capable of delivering with current propellants.
Buhler's claim, were it to be proven true and not the result of another force the team has not accounted for, would be huge. During tests, the team claims to have found an even more puzzling result; the device was apparently sometimes able to maintain this thrust without a constant electrical input.
“The most important message to convey to the public is that a major discovery occurred,” Buhler told The Debrief. “This discovery of a New Force is fundamental in that electric fields alone can generate a sustainable force onto an object and allow center-of-mass translation of said object without expelling mass.”
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of such claims. Other devices, notably the EmDrive, have been claimed to have produced thrust without propellant. This was a highly controversial claim, as to contravene the law of conservation of momentum, and every action having an equal and opposite reaction. Later teams trying to replicate the mysterious thrust created by the EmDrive found that it could all be explained with normal physics and a thermal effect.
"With the aid of a new measuring scale structure and different suspension points of the same engine, we were able to reproduce apparent thrust forces similar to those measured by the NASA-team, but also to make them disappear by means of a point suspension," Professor Martin Tajmar explained to German website GrenzWissenschaft-Aktuell.
"When power flows into the EmDrive, the engine warms up. This also causes the fastening elements on the scale to warp, causing the scale to move to a new zero point. We were able to prevent that in an improved structure. Our measurements refute all EmDrive claims by at least 3 orders of magnitude."
If the force behind Exodus Propulsion Technologies' design was proved to be the result of asymmetrical electrostatic pressure and not some other unaccounted-for force, and it can be shown to work on larger scales, it would be revolutionary to spaceflight.
“There are rules that include conservation of energy, but if done correctly, one can generate forces unlike anything humankind has done before,” Buhler added. “It will be this force that we will use to propel objects for the next 1,000 years… until the next thing comes.”
But it is, as they say, an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence. Buhler is inviting other scientists to look at the results and try to understand the underlying physics behind it. It could be that Buhler, or another, will find normal physics is behind the apparent propellent-less thrust.
For now, we would caution not to get your hopes up space high.
https://www.iflscience.com/nasa-engineer-claims-major-discovery-of-new-force-in-physics-but-many-arent-convinced-73956
Japan startup reveals "world's first" close-up space debris image
April 26, 2024
Japanese space company Astroscale Holdings Inc. on Friday unveiled what it calls the world's first publicly released close-up image taken of space debris, hailing it as progress toward understanding the challenges posed by trash orbiting Earth.
The debris the second-stage section of Japan's H2A rocket launched in 2009 was captured by the startup's cuboid-shaped demonstration satellite, known as ADRAS-J, from several hundred meters away.
Orbiting at high speeds around 600 kilometers above Earth, the section is approximately 11 meters long with a diameter of some 4 meters and weighs roughly 3 tons.
The image shows the object wrapped in brown insulation material as it drifts through the dark expanse of space.
"The unprecedented image marks a crucial step towards understanding and addressing the challenges posed by space debris, driving progress toward a safer and more sustainable space environment," the Tokyo-based satellite-servicing company said in a press release.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has confirmed through its analysis that the insulation material, originally orange in color, has turned dark brown due to exposure to intense ultraviolet radiation while in orbit.
In the next phase of its mission, ADRAS-J will approach within a few meters of the debris to observe it rotating in greater detail, as well as how damaged it is and its level of deterioration.
The removal of space debris has become an urgent issue as concerns grow about the potential for dangerous collisions amid a growing number of satellites and rockets in the Earth's orbit.
Astroscale was founded in 2013 by former Finance Ministry bureaucrat Nobu Okada to offer a commercial service for space debris removal. Its future plans include collecting space debris using a satellite equipped with a robotic arm and burning it up in the Earth's atmosphere.
ADRAS-J, which stands for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, was launched from New Zealand in February.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/04/1161fad78308-urgent-japan-startup-reveals-worlds-first-close-up-space-debris-image.html
Signs of spiders from Mars
24/04/2024
No sign of Ziggy Stardust – but ESA’s Mars Express has snapped the telltale traces of ‘spiders’ scattered across the southern polar region of Mars.
Rather than being actual spiders, these small, dark features form when spring sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited over the dark winter months. The sunlight causes carbon dioxide ice at the bottom of the layer to turn into gas, which subsequently builds up and breaks through slabs of overlying ice. The gas bursts free in martian springtime, dragging dark material up to the surface as it goes and shattering layers of ice up to a metre thick.
The emerging gas, laden with dark dust, shoots up through cracks in the ice in the form of tall fountains or geysers, before falling back down and settling on the surface. This creates dark spots of between 45 m and 1 km across. This same process creates characteristic ‘spider-shaped’ patterns etched beneath the ice – and so these dark spots are a telltale sign that spiders may be lurking below.
Another of ESA’s Mars explorers, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), has imaged the spiders’ tendril-like patterns especially clearly (see below). The spiders captured by TGO lie near, but outside, the region shown in this new Mars Express image. The Mars Express view shows the dark spots on the surface formed by escaping gas and material, while the TGO perspective also captures the spidery, web-like channels that are carved into the ice below.
The aforementioned dark spots can be seen all over the Mars Express image, creeping across towering hills and expansive plateaus. However, most can be seen as small spots in the dark region to the left, which sits just at the outskirts of a part of Mars nicknamed Inca City. The reason for this name is no mystery, with the linear, almost geometric network of ridges being reminiscent of Inca ruins. More formally known as Angustus Labyrinthus, Inca City was discovered in 1972 by NASA’s Mariner 9 probe.
This new view of Inca City and its hidden arachnid residents was captured by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera. A version with labels is also available; click on the image below to explore the region and discover more about the different features you can see here.
A mysterious origin
We’re still not sure exactly how Inca City formed. It could be that sand dunes have turned to stone over time. Perhaps material such as magma or sand is seeping through fractured sheets of martian rock. Or, the ridges could be ‘eskers’, winding structures related to glaciers.
The ‘walls’ of Inca City appear to trace part of a large circle, 86 km in diameter. Scientists therefore suspect that the ‘city’ sits within a large crater that itself formed as a rock from space crashed into the planet’s surface. This impact likely caused faults to ripple through the surrounding plain, which were then filled with rising lava and have since worn away over time.
Towards the middle section of the image the landscape changes somewhat, with large roundish and oval swirls creating an effect reminiscent of marble. This effect is thought to occur when layered deposits are worn away over time.
To the right-centre of the frame lie a few prominent steep-flanked, flat-topped mounds and hills that rise up for more than 1500 m above the surrounding terrain. These form as softer material is eroded over time by flows of wind, water or ice, leaving behind the harder material that forms these hills.
The ground towards the right (north) becomes increasingly covered in smooth, light-coloured dust. Some signs of spiders can be seen scattered across the plateaus here, lurking amongst various canyons and troughs.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Signs_of_spiders_from_Mars
Vice Chiefs: Operating jointly provides advantage over adversaries
April 25, 2024
The U.S. military is at its best when its separate branches are working together.
That was the resonant message communicated by the vice chairmen of the U.S. armed forces' six branches during a panel discussion April 24 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
With a theme of "Preparing U.S. Military Forces for Competition and Contestation," the 90-minute discussion covered a wide range of topics, including many related to how joint operations give U.S. forces a leg up against America's adversaries.
Regarding the military's comparative advantage to operate jointly, one panelist said it's something that is happening more frequently, and that it's something America's near-peer adversaries hadn't counted on.
"They didn't think we'd be able to fight [jointly]. They also didn't think we'd be able to fight [alongside] our allies. They also didn't think we were going to be able to fight [alongside] our commercial partners," said Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the Space Force's vice chief of space operations. "So, what we're learning from not only what's going on in the Middle East, but especially in Ukraine, is that we're bringing all of this to bear, simultaneously, on the adversary."
Guetlein added the caveat that America's adversaries are also acting in a similar fashion, thus necessitating that the joint force constantly works to ramp up more integration and networking among the branches.
To that end, a significant portion of the discussion was focused on the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2, that the Defense Department is developing.
CJADC2, which had its initial iteration in February of this year, is the DoD's approach to developing both material and non-material solutions to deliver information and decision advantage to commanders.
"Command and Control [has] been the integrating and synthesizing function of all the seven joint functions that we have, and it's one of the most critical components of how we fight as a combined joint force," said Gen. James J. Mingus, the Army's vice chief of staff.
"CJADC2 is making sure that we as a joint force move together forward."
Adm. James W. Kilby, vice chief of naval operations, said that it's important for all the vice chiefs to acknowledge their and their individual branch of service's reliance on each other in order to successfully work together as a joint force.
"This [CJADC2] effort, which has been going on for quite some time, is an imperative," he said.
"How we get there is what we really need to focus on, so we can collectively benefit from each other."
Members of the panel also spoke of real-world examples of how the separate branches working jointly bring a comparative advantage to the battlespace.
"From a Red Sea perspective, it takes a joint force for this big fight we're preparing for; everybody brings something to that game," Gen. Christopher Mahoney, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said of the ongoing conflict with Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists.
As an example of this, Mahoney pointed out how the Department of the Navy was able to provide some mobility in the Red Sea region when the military lacked basing rights.
Another example of joint force comparative advantages involves two other branches of the armed services.
"I can tell you that on the topic of airbase air defense … there is not a closer relationship than that, specifically, between the Army and Air Force," said Gen. James C. Slife, the Air Force's vice chief of staff.
"And I'm really encouraged by … us leveraging one of our comparative advantages, which is our ability to work jointly."
The morning panel was one portion of CSIS's day-long Global Security Forum 2024.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3756183/vice-chiefs-operating-jointly-provides-advantage-over-adversaries/
Connecting at Space Systems Command
April 25, 2024
Space Systems Command’s personnel are connected by a common purpose, far greater than any of the individuals that make up the organization, its commanding officer told a capacity crowd of several hundred people at a morning event, April 18, at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
“One of our four ‘Guardian Ideals’ is connection - character, connection, commitment, and courage,” said Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, SSC commander, whose all-call address was the keynote for a day-long event celebrating the command and its mix of uniformed, civilian and contractor staff. “What we do is incredibly hard, but we do it incredibly well, and we do it because of all of you,” he said.
Despite the speed of change since the Space Force was created in 2019, SSC is keeping apace of the command’s mission, Garrant said, including implementing the new Commercial Space Strategy announced this month by Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.
“We’ve never had a single mission command focused on the four aspects of readiness, those being people, training, equipment, and sustainment,” Garrant said. “For the first time, under a single commander, we are focused on delivering capability and readiness improvement.”
Space Systems Command is headquartered on Los Angeles AFB in El Segundo but includes organizations and personnel operating from facilities across the United States and around the world. The command manages a $15.6 billion space acquisition budget for the Department of Defense and works to develop, acquire, equip, and sustain resilient space capabilities to support U.S. and allied forces.
“We need to continue refining what a field command for an acquisition organization looks like, get after developing our workforce, and focus on delivering capabilities,” said Garrant, who spoke in the Schriever Courtyard on base. The courtyard is named for Gen. Bernard Schriever, who led SSC’s predecessor organization, USAF’s Western Development Division, which was organized in 1954 as a crash effort to manage the Air Force’s ballistic missile projects.
“We need capabilities for the warfighter by 1 January 2026, that are fielded, tested, trained, and presented to the warfighter, in about 20 short months,” Garrant said.
Garrant came to SSC in February, assuming command from Gen. Michael Guetlein, now vice chief of space operations. His service in acquisition positions dates to 1992, when Garrant started his career as a systems engineer and program manager for the Document and Data Networks Division, National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Following that assignment, Garrant went on to serve in a variety of acquisition positions including systems engineer, program manager, program element monitor, squadron commander, senior materiel leader, deputy program executive officer, and program executive. Prior to taking command at SSC, Garrant served as the Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations, strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
The general spoke on a wide range of issues during his keynote, directly and – along with Chief Master Sgt. Jacqueline Sauvé, SSC’s senior enlisted leader – in response to questions from the audience. The two talked about matters ranging from the physical plant and infrastructure needs at SSC’s facilities to the upcoming Torrance Armed Forces Day celebration May 17-19, where Space Force will be the honored service and Garrant will serve as grand marshal of the weekend event’s annual parade.
Along with the commander’s address, the day included a team-building physical training exercise on base sponsored by the Guardian Resiliency Team; a “Helping Agency Fair,” with service organizations from across LAAFB and Los Angeles, ranging from the base Military and Family Readiness Center to the Federal Voting Assistance Program; and an “Open Innovation Office Hours” event hosted by SSC’s AtlasX organization for military personnel and civilian staff to come forward with ideas about improving processes at the command.
At the end of his talk, Garrant offered a quote from the musician and singer songwriter Roger Waters:
“Dragged by the force of some inner tide, at a higher altitude with flag unfurled, we reach the dizzy heights of that dreamed-of world,” Garrant said. “Semper Supra!”
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3756075/connecting-at-space-systems-command/
Alien Day 2024: 'Alien' bursts back into theaters today
April 26, 2024
Happy Alien Day 2024!
"Alien Day" (April 26) has arrived, that annual occasion for all xenomorph acolytes to immerse themselves in the legends and lore of the storied "Alien" franchise that first hatched way back on May 25, 1979 to create one of the most frightening cinematic universes in Hollywood history.
Officially promoted by 20th Century Fox beginning in 2016, Alien Day gets its name from the designation numerals of the LV-426 planetoid where "Alien's" space truckers discover a nightmarish derelict spaceship housing a horrifying secret.
Now for a limited time starting April 26, in honor of the 45th anniversary of 'Alien,' multiplex audiences can re-experience the sheer terror in a darkened theater once again, surrounded by petrified fellow patrons to witness the crew of the commercial towing vessel Nostromo being stalked by a marauding biomechanical creature with no conscience and concentrated acid for blood.
Directed by a youthful Ridley Scott from an original screenplay by Dan O’Bannon and Ron Shusett, "Alien's" stellar cast included Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, and Ian Holm. Fans attending these special anniversary screenings will also be treated to an engaging conversation between Ridley Scott and Fede Alvarez, the director/writer of this summer's theatrical release, "Alien: Romulus."
In other Alien Day news, an upcoming documentary titled "Aliens Expanded" seeks to crack open the memories behind the making of James Cameron's 1986 "Alien" sequel and we have an exclusive chat with its director, British filmmaker Ian Nathan.
cont.
https://www.space.com/alien-day-2024-return-to-theaters
Superheroes fight acid-spewing xenomorphs in Marvel Comics' 'Aliens vs. Avengers'
April 26, 2024
Happy "Alien" Day To All!
When Disney, Marvel Comics' parent company, acquired most of 20th Century Fox's assets back in 2019, it was only a matter of time before fans started seeing valuable properties like the "Alien" franchise seeping into its future content across all of the corporation's tentacular divisions.
We can just imagine dozens of creative executives concocting myriad mashups of intellectual properties before the contract ink dried — and what better medium to hatch a new crossover title than inside the pages of Marvel Comics.
Those nasty xenomorphs — introduced in Ridley Scott's iconic 1979 sci-fi frightfest, "Alien" — are the perfect adversaries for some of the Idea Factory's most celebrated heroes, and now we're about to see the results of those ingenious integrations.
Presented under Marvel's 20th Century Studios imprint, a new "Aliens vs. Avengers" miniseries arrives starting July 24, and unprepared readers are going to be strapped in for a wild ride.
Written by the Eisner-nominated creator Jonathan Hickman ("The Avengers," "Fantastic Four") and paired with ravishing artwork by Esad Ribić ("Thor," "Conan the Barbarian"), this cataclysmic interspecies showdown represents the very first crossover of "Aliens" and the Marvel Universe.
Here's the official synopsis:
"The four-part epic is set in a new timeline many years in the future and features older, grittier versions of Marvel characters. It also will be the first-time readers will see certain parts of Alien lore in the Marvel Universe — like the home of the Engineers. In this unmissable series, Xenomorphs reach Earth, and the perfect organism meets a planet of superhumans. But who will be first to fall?"
"Probably one of the coolest things about the project is how we've found really fun ways to 'Avengerize' 'Aliens' and 'alien-up' Avengers,'" Hickman told Entertainment Weekly. "I think fans will be surprised at how elegantly some of those things fit together. It really turned out to be a chocolate-and-peanut-butter situation."
Positioned to get audiences pumped for the August launch of director Fede Álvarez's 'Alien: Romulus," Marvel Comics' "Aliens vs. Avengers #1" hatches July 24, 2024.
"Hickman and Ribić are storytelling masters, and they bring a cinematic quality to this that seamlessly merges the high action and soap opera that Marvel fans expect with the deep terror and cosmic awe that the Alien universe so inspires," added Marvel editor Sarah Brunstad. "Watching them cut loose across the entire lexicon of these two great franchises is jaw-dropping. ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN IN THIS BOOK — get ready."
https://www.space.com/marvel-comics-aliens-vs-avengers-preview
UK UFO sightings mapped from Essex 'squashed triangle' to 'glowing orbs' in Manchester
UPDATED10:43, 26 APR 2024
A new map of UFO sightings across the UK allows Brits to see how close they've been to extraterrestrial encounters to mark Alien Day today (April 26).
Each year, Alien Day commemorates Ridley Scott's film 'Alien'. The first Alien Day was organised by the movie's fans in New York in 2015 and it has since evolved into a worldwide event.
Research group UFO Identified has recorded 1,789 sightings of unexplained objects in the UK since 2020, including 395 sightings last year. The data was gathered from social media, newspaper articles, Freedom of Information requests and reports submitted directly to UFO spotter groups.
The group's research reveals people in the south-east have the best chance of spotting a UFO, with 233 recorded sightings since 2020. This is closely followed by the north-west (218) and the south-west (193).
Last year's documented sightings include 40 glowing orbs that were spotted moving in a "cross formation" over Greater Manchester. Just this week more orbs were spotted in Merseyside.
There was also a "flying saucer illuminated by varying red glowing spheres" spotted over Worksop in Nottinghamshire last year, as well as dark and silent "squashed triangle" seen gliding over Point Clear in Essex.
According to UFO Identified's research, the most likely time to spot a UFO last year was on Monday evenings between 9pm and 10pm. The most common sightings were "star-like" UFOs, followed by orbs.
There were 27 reports defined as "Close Encounters of the First Kind". These accounts describe UFOs seen up close, at distances no greater than 500ft.
Two events categorised as "Close Encounters of the Second Kind" - where UFO sightings seemed to cause a physical effect such as car malfunctions, impressions on the ground or peculiar animal reactions. Sadly there were no "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", which involve seeing an extraterrestrial being up close.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/uk-ufo-sightings-mapped-essex-32675815