NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

September 29, 2024

Seven Dusty Sisters

Is this really the famous Pleiades star cluster? Known for its iconic blue stars, the Pleiades is shown here in infrared light where the surrounding dust outshines the stars. Here, three infrared colors have been mapped into visual colors (R=24, G=12, B=4.6 microns). The base images were taken by NASA's orbiting Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. Cataloged as M45 and nicknamed the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades star cluster is by chance situated in a passing dust cloud. The light and winds from the massive Pleiades stars preferentially repel smaller dust particles, causing the dust to become stratified into filaments, as seen. The featured image spans about 20 light years at the distance of the Pleiades, which lies about 450 light years distant toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus).

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

'Hacked NASA again': Space agency thanks 'white hat' techie who breached system loopholes for 2nd time

29 September 2024, 06:43 IST

A 'white hat' hacker breached NASA's systems for the second time and got a 'thank you' letter from the US space agency in return.

The hacker, who preferred to remain anonymous, had discovered new loopholes that they then flagged to NASA so they could patch the security vulnerabilities.

NASA in a gesture of appreciation sent an official letter of appreciation, signed by Mark Witt, NASA's Chief Information Officer.

The letter acknowledged that the hacker was helping protect the agency's systems.

The hacker, subsequently, posted on X about their ethical hacking attempt and proudly displayed NASA's letter in the tweet as proof.

The post stated, "I Hacked @NASA (again) and reported some vulnerabilities to them.

Just today, I received this appreciation letter from them after they patched the loopholes!"

The hacker had followed NASA's Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP) after he discovered the loopholes and was thus hailed as an "independent security researcher" for his work.

The letter also mentioned, "The ability to detect and report security vulnerabilities is a valuable skill in the information security industry, adding that the agency was able to safeguard the "integrity and availability of NASA's information" because of the hacker's awareness.

The post, at the time of publication, had over 1.8 million views and several admiring comments.

One educator wrote, "I teach a brand new middle school class in cybersecurity, and we have spoken about ethical hacking, unethical hacking, and “in between” hacking.

Basically What used to be known as red hats, black hats and gray hats.

May I share this example with my class to show them a real example of what we have discussed in our classroom?"

One comment read: "Congrats! That’s a massive personal resume builder — on top of being vital to preventing someone else coming upon the same thought patterns and execution strategy as you. Might not have been a white hat hacker that time!"

Another in a lighter vein said: "They didn't even give you a "I hacked NASA and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" Shirt? smh".

https://www.deccanherald.com/world/hacked-nasa-again-space-agency-thanks-white-hat-techie-who-breached-system-loopholes-for-2nd-time-3211976

NASA Astronaut Nick Hague Boosts Human Health Research in Space

Sep 28, 2024

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will soon dock with the International Space Station as part of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, a venture which will enhance scientific research and bolster the knowledge about how people can live and work in space.

During the planned five-month mission, Hague’s mission tasks will include participating in a variety of research projects for NASA’s Human Research Program.

Each study is designed to help address the health challenges that astronauts may face during future long-duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

“Hague’s experiences and research may potentially lead to scientific breakthroughs that may not be possible on Earth,” said Steven Platts, chief scientist for human research at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

A major focus for Hague’s time aboard the station is to study the suite of space-related vision disorders called Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) which occur as body fluids shift toward the head in weightlessness.

These shifts can cause changes to the eye: the optic nerve can swell, the retina may develop folds, and the back of the eye can even flatten.

Earlier research suggests multiple factors contribute to the syndrome, so two vision-related studies on this mission will tackle different yet distinct approaches that may help address or even prevent such changes during future missions.

One project, called Thigh Cuff, will explore whether wearing fitted cuffs could counter the syndrome by keeping more bodily fluids in the legs.

Thigh cuffs are compact, lightweight, and easy to use, which makes them appealing for potential use during long-duration, deep space missions.

For this study, Hague will wear the thigh cuffs for six hours during two sessions.

To help researchers measure how well the cuffs work, he will record ultrasound images of blood flow in his legs and neck veins during the sessions.

Researchers will also compare this data against ultrasounds taken without the cuff to examine flow differences.

“Thigh cuffs like these may allow researchers to better investigate medical conditions that result in extra fluid in the brain or too much blood returning to the heart,” said study leader Brandon Macias at NASA Johnson.

In another study, Hague will test if a vitamin regimen may help combat SANS. The study, led by Sara Zwart, a nutritional biochemist at NASA Johnson, seeks to examine if a daily vitamin B supplement—taken before, during, and after flight—can prevent or mitigate swelling at the back of the eye.

The research will also assess how an individual’s genetics may influence the response.

“Earlier research suggests that some people are more susceptible to this ocular syndrome than others based on genetics that can influence B vitamin requirements, so taking daily vitamins may make all the difference,” Zwart said.

“We think by giving the B vitamins, we could be taking that piece of genetic variability out of the equation.”

The work also may eventually improve care options for women on Earth with polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition that can cause eye changes and infertility in women.

Researchers hope that patients may similarly benefit from targeting the same genetic pathways and vitamin supplementation as crew members in space.

Hague also will record data to study whether a new way of administering a common anti-nausea medicine can help alleviate motion sickness following launch and landing.

In this study, Hague can self-administer a novel nasal gel formulation of the medication scopolamine.

Hague will note his experiences using this medicine and any other motion sickness aides, including alternative medications or behavioral interventions like specific head movements.

This research, led by neuroscientist Scott Wood of NASA Johnson, eventually will include 48 people.

“Our goal is to understand how to help future space travelers adapt to motion sickness when living and working in space,” Wood said.

“Crew members must stay healthy and perform key tasks, including landing on the Moon and other destinations.”

To help NASA plan future missions, Hague also will participate in human research studies that tackle other space challenges, such as avoiding injury upon landing back on Earth and learning how space travel affects the human body on a molecular level.

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/nasa-astronaut-nick-hague-boosts-human-health-research-in-space/

NEID Earth Twin Survey discovers its first alien world

September 26, 2024

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new extrasolar world orbiting a nearby star known as HD 86728.

This is the first exoplanet detection made as part of the NEID Earth Twin Survey (NETS).

The finding was detailed in a research paper published September 18 on the pre-print server arXiv.

NEID is a fiber-fed, environmentally-stabilized optical-near-infrared echelle spectrograph installed on the WIYN1 3.5 m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

The NETS survey employs NEID to search for low-mass exoplanets around nearby bright stars.

Now, a team of astronomers led by Arvind F. Gupta of the U.S. National Science Foundation National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, has identified the first exoplanet from NETS.

The newfound planet orbits HD 86728—a bright star of spectral type G3Va, located some 48.6 light years away.

"In this work, we present the first three years of NETS observations of the HD 86728 system and we confirm the detection of the exoplanet HD 86728 b … HD 86728 was observed with NEID on 137 separate nights during the first three years of the NETS program," the researchers wrote in the paper.

According to the study, the newfound exoplanet HD 86728 b orbits its host star on a circular orbit every 31.15 days, at a distance of about 0.19 AU.

The projected mass of this planet was estimated to be some 9.16 Earth masses.

The astronomers noted that the vast majority of exoplanets with similar masses and orbital periods to HD 86728 b reside in multi-planet systems.

Therefore, if it hosts only HD 86728 b, this planet would be in the small minority (less than 12 percent) with no known siblings.

However, further observations are required in order to rule out the presence of additional planets orbiting HD 86728.

When it comes to the host star, HD 86728, it has a radius of approximately 1.24 solar radii, while its mass is comparable to that of the sun.

The star has an effective temperature of about 5,610 K and its metallicity is at a level of 0.2 dex.

In concluding remarks, the authors of the paper underlined that the detection of HD 86728 b proves how important extreme precision radial velocity spectrographs are for the search for low-mass alien worlds.

"NEID and other extreme precision spectrographs will continue to chip away at the sensitivity floor for quiet stars, enabling the detection of exoplanets at lower masses and longer periods as we push towards the discovery of Earth analogs with radial velocity measurements," the scientists wrote.

https://phys.org/news/2024-09-neid-earth-twin-survey-alien.html

https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/hd_86728_b–9606/

Astronomers prepare for once-in-a-lifetime event: A 'new star' in the night sky

September 29, 2024

Any day now, our night sky will host a guest star.

Stargazers and astronomers around the world continue to gaze toward the Corona Borealis constellation 3,000 light-years from Earth, where a long-dead star is expected to reignite in an explosion so powerful it will briefly rival the brilliance of Polaris, the North Star.

The stellar corpse last turned on almost 80 years ago and will not reignite for another 80 years, making this a nearly once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Already, the stellar remnant, a white dwarf called T Coronae Borealis that's feasting on material from a nearby red giant star, has revealed a tell-tale dip in brightness that "is right on top" of the one that preceded its previous outburst in 1946.

Astronomers don't yet know for sure what's causing the dip, but they say it's just a matter of time before the nova satiates its hunger and explodes into a spectacular nova.

"We know it's going to go off — it's very obvious," Edward Sion, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, told Space.com.

The remarkable event is a treat not just for skygazers. Astronomers have earmarked precious time onboard a host of ground- and space-based telescopes to catalog every possible detail to learn more about novas, whose dynamics remain murky thanks to only a few outbursts cataloged over decades.

T Coronae Borealis, or T Cor Bor for short, belongs to an elite club of ten recurrent novas known across the Milky Way, our home galaxy, offering astronomers a rare front-row seat to closely study a stellar corpse as it devours material to the extent that it caves in, thus recoiling in a violent explosion.

Insights from this event would eventually make their way to models of how stars work, astronomers say.

T Cor Bor is being watched by NASA's Fermi gamma-ray space telescope every day — and, most of the time, every few hours.

As soon as the nova erupts, gamma rays will skyrocket alongside a similar spike in the nova's brightness, allowing astronomers to decipher just how hot material is getting soon after the eruption, and how fast that material blows away from the white dwarf.

Astronomers are also eager to learn more about how shock waves will whiz through space in the moments following the explosion, the specifics of which are not very well understood.

"Usually, what's going on with these white dwarf stars takes so long we never see it again," Elizabeth Hays, who is the project scientist for the Fermi telescope, told Space.com.

The cadence of T Cor Bor's outbursts within a typical human lifetime makes it a unique case study, made even more special by the fact that there were no X-ray or gamma-ray telescopes in space 80 years ago — which was the last time the nova erupted.

"I'm very excited to see what it looks like — there are a lot of firsts here," said Hays.

In addition to the Fermi telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, Swift and the INTEGRAL space telescopes as well as the ground-based Very Large Array in New Mexico will be redirected from their usual observing schedule to watch the event at its peak and through its decline into the abyss of space.

Together, they'll capture the nova in various wavelengths for the first time. "There's a lot of cooperation when something interesting happens," said Hays.

The event will be visible to the unaided eye only for the first few days, to gamma- and x-ray telescopes for a few months, and to radio telescopes for years to come.

Such long term observations of the explosion's aftermath can reveal how the outbursts spread over time and interacted with the companion red giant star.

Astronomers will also be closely watching how the outburst decays; any "bumps" along the way would reveal intriguing clues about how the nova is interacting with its companion star's wind, Hays said.

And as violent as the explosion will be, "it's far enough away that it's not going to affect us," said Sion.

So, we can just look up and enjoy the cosmic show.

https://www.space.com/astronomers-new-star-nova-explosion-t-coronae-borealis

SpaceX pauses Falcon 9 launches after upper stage deorbit anomaly

September 29, 2024

SpaceX is suspending launches of its Falcon 9 rocket after a problem with the deorbit burn of the upper stage on a crewed launch Sept. 28, the second upper stage anomaly in less than three months for the rocket.

SpaceX said in a social media post early Sept. 29 that the upper stage “experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn” during the Crew-9 mission that launched Sept. 28.

“As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.”

The company did not provide additional details on the incident but said that it would halt Falcon 9 launches for the time being.

“We will resume launching after we better understand root cause.”

The burn is designed to target the reentry of the upper stage, disposing of the stage over an unpopulated region of the South Pacific Ocean to both avoid leaving the stage in orbit, where it would pose an orbital debris risk, and to prevent an uncontrolled reentry.

The targeted reentry location, based on airspace and marine hazard notices, was east of New Zealand.

The incident is the second problem involving the upper stage of the Falcon 9 in less than three months.

On a Starlink launch late July 11, the single Merlin engine in the upper stage malfunctioned when reigniting on a second burn to circularlize its orbit.

The satellites were deployed, but in low orbits that resulted in the satellites soon reentering.

An investigation concluded that the engine suffered a liquid oxygen leak created by a crack in a sense line for a pressure sensor.

The leak resulted in “excessive cooling of engine components” including those that deliver ignition fluid to the engine.

That caused the engine to suffer a hard start when it reignited, damaging the engine and causing a loss of attitude control.

On that July launch, the liquid oxygen leak was seen in video of the first burn of the upper stage as ice built up on engine components.

There was no sign of similar ice buildup or other anomalous behavior of the stage during the Crew-9 launch, and neither SpaceX nor NASA mentioned any issues with the rocket during a post-launch press conference.

It is unclear how long SpaceX would pause Falcon 9 launches. The July incident halted Falcon 9 launches for 15 days, with the rocket returning to flight early July 27.

SpaceX also halted launches for two days in late August after a booster was lost when it tipped over and exploded upon landing on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

In both earlier cases, SpaceX needed approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to resume launches either after completing a mishap investigation or receiving a public safety determination from the agency that the incident did not pose any risk to the general public.

The FAA did not immediately respond to questions on the incident early Sept. 29.

The anomaly comes as SpaceX is preparing for two time-sensitive launches in the coming weeks.

One Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch as soon as Oct. 7 carrying the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission.

A Falcon Heavy, whose upper stage is similar to the Falcon 9, is scheduled to launch NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft no earlier than Oct. 10.

Both missions have launch windows that run through late October.

https://spacenews.com/spacex-pauses-falcon-9-launches-after-upper-stage-deorbit-anomaly/

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1840245345118498987

>>21678716

https://youtu.be/E4xsBEMzQ50?si=HJQe_JrJ3_4GrG7n

'Aurora' the baby falcon plush toy takes flight again as SpaceX Crew-9 zero-g indicator

September 28, 2024

A tradition borrowed from the Russian space program has now physically crossed over to an American spacecraft for the first time.

The "zero-g [gravity] indicator" that launched aboard SpaceX's Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station on Saturday (Sept. 28), previously flew on two Russian Soyuz capsules, including one that survived an emergency in-flight abort.

"I've got a little Falcon here," said NASA astronaut and Crew-9 commander Nick Hague, as he revealed the small plush baby falcon in the crew cabin of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft "Freedom."

Hague and mission specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos had just entered orbit after a nine-minute ride atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 two-stage rocket, as was evident by the toy falcon floating on the end of its tether, hence it being a "zero-g indicator."

"I love the fact that a Falcon 9 [launched] Crew-9 and we've got a falcon on board with us," said Hague.

"This one is a multi-flyer, though. It was on my first flight with Aleksey [Ovchinin] and I, and with Aleksey, I and Christina [Koch]. So say hello to 'Aurora.'"

Hague's first attempt at flying to the International Space Station ended about three minutes into the October 2018 flight when the Russian Soyuz FG rocket that he and Ovchinin (and Aurora) were riding on failed.

A launch escape tower pulled their Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft away from the booster and set them loose to make a ballistic landing.

Five months later, Hague, Ovchinin and Aurora lifted off again, this time on Soyuz MS-12, and successfully made it to the space station.

Hague's (and Aurora's) third launch and second time to space on Saturday went just as smoothly, and even made some history.

The Crew-9 launch marked the first human spaceflight to fly from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

All previous crewed Dragon flights had lifted off from the nearby Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Hague also became the first active member of the U.S. Space Force to fly from a Space Force launch pad.

Hague and Aurora will be reunited with Ovchinin when they arrive at the station on Sunday.

The Russian cosmonaut arrived at the orbiting complex on Soyuz MS-26 earlier this month and will serve with Hague as members of the ISS Expedition 72 crew for the next five months.

Hague and Gorbunov will then return to Earth on "Freedom" with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who launched to the space station on Boeing's Starliner Crew Flight Test in June.

NASA reassigned Wilmore and Williams to ride home on Dragon after technical issues with Starliner gave rise to safety concerns.

On Sept. 6, the Boeing capsule "Calypso" made a safe, but uncrewed touchdown.

The change resulted in reducing the Crew-9 launch crew by two. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were removed so that Wilmore and Williams had seats for the ride home.

"I absolutely love the history that this zero-g indicator has for Nick, specifically, and I'm sure Alexey will be happy to be reunited with [it] as well," said Cardman, who joined NASA's coverage of the launch.

"[They're] getting the band back together."

Aurora is a bean bag-type stuffed falcon that was marketed by Puffkins (Swibco) under the name "Swoop." First made in 1994, the toy is no longer in production.

The idea to fly a zero-g indicator can be traced back to the first human spaceflight by Soviet-era cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

He packed a small doll aboard his Vostok spacecraft so he could watch it float as he completed an orbit around Earth in 1961.

The same doll was flown to the Mir space station in 1991 to mark the 30th anniversary of Gagarin's flight.

Other Soyuz commanders have re-flown their zero-g indicators. Aleksandr Skvortsov, who launched on three flights to the space station before retiring, chose the same toy duck every time.

Similarly, Fyodor Yurchikhin launched four times with the same white puppy that he was gifted by a high school teacher in 1976.

Hague is the first American astronaut to re-fly a zero-g indicator since the tradition began on U.S. spaceflights in 2019.

"Suhail," the mascot for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut program, was also carried on Soyuz and Dragon, but by two different Emirati crew members and in the form of two dolls of distinct designs.

https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-9-zero-g-indicator-aurora-falcon

Watch SpaceX's Crew-9 astronaut mission arrive at the ISS today

September 29, 2024

SpaceX's two-person Crew-9 mission will arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) today (Sept. 29), and you can watch the action live.

Crew-9's Crew Dragon capsule, named Freedom, is scheduled to dock with the ISS today around 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT).

You can watch the rendezvous live via NASA+ and the agency's website, beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT).

Space.com will carry the feed as well, if NASA makes it available.

The coverage will continue through hatch opening and the ISS crew's welcoming remarks, which are expected around 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT) and 7:40 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT), respectively.

Crew-9 launched Saturday afternoon (Sept. 28) from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov into orbit.

It was the first-ever human spaceflight to lift off from SLC-40. And Hague, who's a colonel in the U.S. Space Force, became the first active member of that relatively new military branch to reach space.

Crew-9 is notable in another way as well. SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules usually ferry four people to the International Space Station, but NASA cut Crew-9's astronaut manifest in half to save seats for two people already on the orbiting lab who need a ride home.

That duo — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — arrived at the ISS in June on the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule.

Their mission was supposed to last just 10 days or so, but Starliner suffered thruster problems in orbit, and NASA extended the capsule's stay at the ISS to study the issue.

The agency eventually decided that bringing Wilmore and Williams home on Starliner was too risky.

So the capsule returned to Earth uncrewed on Sept. 7, and its former crew will come home on Freedom with Hague and Gorbunov when Crew-9 ends, in February 2025.

Wilmore and Williams are two of nine astronauts who are currently living aboard the ISS.

The other seven are NASA's Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps and Donald Pettit, and cosmonauts Alexander Grebenkin, Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner.

Barratt, Dominick, Epps and Grebenkin came up with SpaceX's Crew-8 mission in March.

They will head back down to Earth not long after Crew-9 arrives, if all goes according to plan.

https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-9-astronaut-mission-iss-docking

https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasas-spacex-crew-9-rendezvous-and-docking/

Chilling video shows' 'horseshoe-shaped' UFO defying laws of physics after photo of similar craft shot down over Yukon is declassified

Updated: 11:55 EDT, 28 September 2024

UFO enthusiasts are attempting to draw parallels between a old video that appears to show a flying aircraft zooming through the clouds and the recently declassified image of the UFO that was shot down near Alaska last year.

The photo shows a seemingly glowing horse shoe-shaped object with ill-defined edges over the Yukon territory in northwest Canada on February 11, 2023.

An internal email obtained by CTVNews had a Canadian brigadier-general describing it as such: 'Top quarter is metallic, remainder white.

20-foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended from it.'

It was shot down by a US Air Force F-22 stealth fighter on a joint mission with the Canadian Armed Forces following the now infamous Chinese spy balloon drama that made international news that month.

A former officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force told DailyMail.com that based on his conversations with three active-duty staff who were involved with the shootdown, the object was a balloon similar to the Chinese craft shot down days earlier.

Nonetheless, a user on Reddit said they were able to stabilize a different UFO video from over 12 years ago, claiming it is similar to the object that was shot down.

'I recently stabilized this footage, which has drawn interesting comparisons to the “horseshoe” object reportedly shot down over the Yukon in 2023,' the poster wrote.

'After stabilizing the video, the object’s crescent or horseshoe shape becomes much clearer, along with its curious flight dynamics.'

They said the stabilization was done with Adobe After Effects and Premiere, software packages for editing motion graphics and video.

The video was originally posted by a YouTube channel called 'xxxdonutzxxx', which claimed the footage was shot over Busan, South Korea.

The reactions to the stabilized footage were all over the place, with some people showing their excitement and others showing skepticism.

'A better way to avoid confusion would be to publish a color, high-res photo or video, as they did with that jet intercept and the Chinese spy balloon.

Amazing how transparency actually works,' one user wrote.

Another took issue with the entire idea that aliens are flying around in spacecrafts that always seem to look different in every UFO video.

They wrote: 'Serious question; why does every UFO look different? Do aliens hate mass production?

Have they never heard of cost reduction through standardization? What does that say about their economy? Are they idiots?'

Those who are more inclined to believe aliens are out there offered a number of explanations for this.

There could many many different alien races with different vehicles, some said. Others thought their space crafts could probably shape shift.

Elsewhere on social media, people are claiming all of the videos on the now abandoned 'xxxdonutzxxx' are fake and were made by two CG artists named Nico and Marco Kaschuba.

A person posted an alleged UFO sighting in Monument Valley, Arizona, from the 'xxxdonutzxxx' channel to a UFO forum on April 5, 2012.

At the bottom of the post, there is a copyright that belongs to 'Kaschuba Ufology.'

DailyMail.com approached Marco Kaschuba for comment, but he didn't immediately respond.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13901669/chilling-video-ufo-defying-physics-canada-yukon.html

Police reveal 10 years of Wiltshire UFO sightings first time

28th September 2024

Following a freedom of information request, Wiltshire Police published all the reports they have received mentioning UFOs, UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena), aliens and more.

The results are both bizarre and intriguing, telling of mysterious and largely unreported experiences of the unknown.

As well as your common and garden UFO sightings there are alleged physical interactions with aliens, even inside people’s own homes.

The first log from September 11, 2016, describes a UFO in the sky and an alien in someone’s living room in Swindon.

Further information on why an alien would visit a living room in Swindon is not known, as the logs provided in the FOI are brief.

Down in Salisbury, a woman reported she was abducted by aliens the very same month.

There were a quiet three years with no incidents before another abduction was reported in Chippenham on April 5, 2019 - this time a man, naked

Six months later a UFO was sighted in Trowbridge.

The last log is from January 17, 2021, again in Chippenham, and is not so much a sighting as a hearing. It simply states: “Ex-friend talking about aliens”.

Wiltshire Police’s slogan is “Keeping Wiltshire safe”, but it is not known what actions the local force take to tackle extraterrestrial tampering.

Wiltshire is not alien to unexplained phenomena as the county is famed for its crop circles which some people think are the result of otherworldly interference.

It had the most crop circles in England in 2023 and Honey Street, near Pewsey, is the home of the Crop Circle Centre.

Until 2009 the British government published an annual report on UFO sightings.

The 2009 report mentions Wiltshire 16 times. Among these were “bright orange lights continuously going up and down on the horizon heading east in the direction of Frome or Wiltshire” in on February 10.

In Bradford-on-Avon, there was “a brightly glowing orange ball” that “seemed to be a controlled craft.

“It hovered for a couple of minutes then the light seemed to deliberately fade. It was a few hundred feet up and a quarter of a mile from the house.”

In Wroughton, someone saw “Black disc-shaped objects hovering over crop circles near Barbury Castle” that “cast shadows on the ground”.

Meanwhile, in Swindon, there was merely “something peculiar” spotted in April.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/24614027.police-reveal-10-years-wiltshire-ufo-sightings-first-time/

https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/wiltshire/2024/09-september-2024/foi-2024-822_ufo-sightings.pdf