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Watch sun unleash major X-flare in epic solar eruption
October 24, 2024
The sun has been rather quiet of late but has since roared back to life with a major X-class solar flare eruption, the most powerful class of solar flare.
The intense solar flare originated from sunspot region AR3869 and unfolded over the span of an hour, reaching its peak at 11:57 p.m. EDT on Oct. 23 (0357 GMT on Oct. 24).
Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the eruption triggered shortwave radio blackouts over Australia and Southeast Asia.
The eruption was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME) — a plume of plasma and magnetic field, according to space weather forecaster Sara Housseal's post on X.
"As expected with the return of many regions, big solar flare activity has also returned. AR3869 wasted no time with going straight for an X3.3 flare earlier today with a large CME," Housseal wrote.
"These regions will need to be watched over the coming days as they rotate westward and face Earth."
When CMEs hit Earth they can trigger geomagnetic storms like the ones experienced earlier this month that lead to impressive northern lights stretching into mid-latitudes.
But before you aurora hunters start getting too excited, note that it is unlikely any significant portion of a CME released during the event will impact Earth due to the position of the sunspot at the time of eruption .
But, as we are still awaiting CME models, we cannot say for certain that Earth won't at least receive a glancing blow. Watch this space!
Space weather forecasters and aurora chasers alike will be keeping a watchful eye on AR3869 as it crackles with solar activity.
Over the next few days, the sunspot region will rotate into the "Earth strike zone" whereby any CME released during this time is more likely to hit Earth.
AR3869 is not alone. Several large sunspots are also rotating into view over the sun's southeastern limb, so we could be in for even more solar action in the coming days.
Shortly after the X-class solar flare erupted shortwave radio blackouts were detected over Australia and the Southeast Pacific, the sunlit portion of Earth at the time of the eruption.
These shortwave radio blackouts are not uncommon during such explosive events and result from the intense burst of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation emitted during the X-flare.
https://www.space.com/watch-sun-unleash-x-class-solar-flare-eruption-emerging-sunspot-ar3869
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/r3-strong-hf-radio-blackout-observed-0
Saturn gets its 1st confirmed Trojan asteroid — but it might be stolen
October 24, 2024
Saturn has finally joined its fellow solar system giant planets as the parent of trailing asteroids called "Trojans."
But the gas giant, mostly known for its spectacular rings, may have cheated a little to fit in with its contemporaries, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus.
Saturn seems to have snatched its first known Trojan asteroid, designated 2019 UO14, a few thousand years ago as the space rock was "bouncing" around the solar system.
Additionally, because the orbit of this Saturnian Trojan is unstable, Saturn seems to be a terrible parent that will lose this cosmic hanger-on in around 1,000 years.
That means astronomers will have to get to work, hunting for more asteroids that share an orbit with the sixth planet from the sun.
That is, if Saturn wants to hang with its fellow gas giants and ice giants. In fact, even smaller terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars have Trojans.
"We think it is about 9 miles (15 kilometers) across, though its composition is unknown, it probably originated from the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune," discovery team member Paul Wiegert, an astronomer at the University of Western Ontario, told Space.com.
"The Trojan asteroid was in the process of gravitationally 'bouncing' between the giant planets when it got snagged by Saturn."
Wiegert explained that Trojan asteroids are space rocks that share a planet's orbit, either remaining ahead of or behind the planet.
These asteroids also usually sit at an average separation from the planet of about 60 degrees, as seen from the sun's vantage point.
"With the discovery of 2019 UO14, all the gas giant planets are now known to have Trojan asteroids," he said. "Only Mercury and Venus still don't have known Trojans."
The solar system's "king of the Trojans" is, without a doubt, its largest planet: Jupiter.
The fifth planet from the sun has around 10,000 known Trojan asteroids, enough to be divided into two families.
One is ahead of the gas giant planet in its orbit (the Greek camp) and the other is trailing Jupiter (the Trojan camp).
These Jovian Trojans are considered so scientifically important that the NASA mission Lucy will visit the Greek camp in August 2027 when it performs a flyby of the asteroid Eurybates and its moonlet, Queta.
The spacecraft will then visit three more Greek camp asteroids before its mission concludes in 2033.
Jupiter's gravitational influence is responsible for the amount of Trojans in its orbit, and this influence actually interferes with Saturn's ability to build its own Trojan family, or at least to hang on to one.
"There are some reasons to expect Saturn Trojans to be less common than for the other gas giants," Wiegert said.
"Primarily, Jupiter acts to destabilize Saturnian Trojans and shorten their lifetimes considerably, shoving them out of the Saturn Trojan state and back into the background population of small bodies in the solar system."
Jupiter's first discovered Trojan, 588 Achilles, was identified in 1906 by German astronomer Max Wolf.
In other words, there has been quite the delay in detecting Saturn's first confirmed Trojan. Astronomers saw the first hints of 2019 UO14 in 2019, but are only now confirming that it shares the gas giant's orbit.
Wiegert added that the Trojans of Saturn are not more difficult to detect, in principle, meaning astronomers have been puzzled as to why they haven't been discovered earlier.
Answering this conundrum didn't come down to a clever new approach or technique, but rather a quality astronomers need to have in spades: patience.
"We didn't really do anything different in terms of the approach used in this case; it was really just a matter of carefully watching the lists of nightly small body observations looking for likely candidates," he said.
"Kudos go to Andrew Walker of Australia, one of our co-authors, for noticing it first."
Wiegert and colleagues will now attempt to determine more of the characteristics of 2019 UO14, which should help identify from where it originated.
Initial indications point to this Saturnian Trojan coming from the Kuiper belt, a ring of icy bodies at the edge of the solar system, but there are irregularities the team must iron out before this is confirmed.
"2019 UO14 is similar to some of the Trojans of Uranus and Neptune, but we don't know enough about them yet to say if they are identical," Wiegert said. "Currently, it seems not."
"We'll absolutely be looking for more Trojans around Saturn now that we've got our first one," Wiegert said. "We expect there to be more, but probably not a lot more.
I'd guess, and it is little more than an educated guess, that we might find 10 more Saturn Trojans bigger than 0.62 miles (1 km) — but we'll have to wait and see.
https://www.space.com/saturn-first-trojan-2019uo14-asteroid-stolen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.19725
SpaceX rolls out Super Heavy rocket for Starship Flight 6 test launch
October 23, 2024
SpaceX is deep into planning for its newest Starship launch.
Super Heavy, the first stage of the rocket that hefts Starship into space, was moved to a Starbase pad for testing ahead of the planned sixth flight of the next generation space system, SpaceX officials stated on Tuesday (Oct. 22).
(Starbase is the location in south Texas where Starship launches are performed.)
"Flight 6 Super Heavy booster moved to the Starbase pad for testing," SpaceX representatives wrote on X, formerly Twitter, noting they had only just returned the last Super Heavy booster from a launch one week before.
SpaceX has not yet released a date, however, for the sixth Starship flight test.
SpaceX does appear to be rapidly gearing up for the sixth flight test of Starship following the highly successful fifth excursion on Oct. 13.
During that flight, the Super Heavy first stage was caught by launch tower "chopsticks" seven minutes after liftoff as the Starship upper stage (known as Starship, or Ship) flew into suborbital space. The sixth flight will aim to replicate the milestone.
On Flight 5, Starship flew for about an hour before it made a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean, all within view of a livestream carried by the company's Starlink internet satellites.
SpaceX wants to move quickly on Starship launches, in part because it is the vendor tasked with sending NASA astronauts to the moon for the early Artemis program launches.
The first moon landing effort of Artemis with astronauts, known as Artemis 3, may happen as soon as 2026.
NASA officials have been praising the pace of Starship's progress after each launch, while noting the program still has a way to go before sending humans aloft.
Artemis 3 was delayed in January this year to a September 2026 launch, roughly a year past when the mission was expected to fly.
Starship development was partly the cause, but there were also technical issues with NASA's Orion crew spacecraft, the spacesuits built by private industry, and other things.
Starship will need to demonstrate "a significant number of launches" ahead of Artemis program activities, NASA associate administrator Jim Free said in June 2023.
More recently, NASA has noted progress with Starship development; for example, earlier this year agency officials said Starship had passed several docking system tests as well as more than 30 milestones for human launch systems.
https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-booster-roll-out-flight-test-six
https://www.space.com/halloween-comet-headless-already-doomed
Headless 'Halloween comet' could already be doomed
October 23, 2024
The latest update concerning "the other comet" of October 2024 — Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) — is that it continues on target to completely disintegrate before it sweeps around the sun early next Monday.
Back on Oct. 10, Space.com published an article indicating that this comet — which belongs to the Kreutz family of sungrazing comets — was in the process of disintegration and would likely not develop into an eye-catching object like its early October predecessor, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.
However, an online story published this past Monday evening (Oct. 21) in a New York City tabloid, apparently ignited a renewed surge of excitement by indicating that Comet ATLAS would evolve into a "Halloween treat" which, according to a NASA official who was quoted in the article, "may become bright enough to see during the daytime."
Unfortunately, this is all a fallacy. Comet ATLAS is more likely to simply disappear into the solar glare in the upcoming days.
It has already shown indications that it is gradually breaking apart, which could be the main reason why it is brightening so very slowly as it races inward toward the sun.
Normally, a potentially bright comet would tend to rapidly ramp-up in brightness as it gets progressively closer to the sun, but with less than a week to go before Comet ATLAS comes to within literally a hairbreadth of the sun's surface (called the photosphere), it has not brightened much at all.
Most observers have placed it at around magnitude +10, which is still about 40 times dimmer than the faintest star that can be perceived with the naked-eye without any optical aid, and some have indicated that it has even faded in recent days.
Apparently, in the distant past — perhaps nearly a thousand years ago — a single giant comet fragmented into countless numbers of pieces of different sizes.
And it's quite probable that these fragments have themselves broken up repeatedly as they've orbited the sun, resulting in periods ranging from about 500 to 800 years.
Each of these pieces apparently swings extremely close to the sun, coming to within less than a million miles of its surface.
Comet ATLAS is one of these fragments. Orbital calculations showed that it was destined to indeed "graze" the sun's surface next Monday, Oct. 28, coming to within a scant 341,000 miles (548,800 km).
At that extremely close distance, the comet will be immersed deep within the sun's outer atmosphere or corona, and will be subjected to temperatures of at least one million degrees F.
(555,537 degrees C), as well as endure tremendous gravitational forces which could completely tear it apart.
In order to survive, Comet ATLAS will whiz around the sun along a hairpin-curved shaped orbit at a speed of over a million miles (1.6 million km) per hour.
But by that time, the damage may already have been done and nothing may remain on the comet's return to deep space.
Those of us here on Earth might be able to track the comet — if it is still intact — as it passes closest to the sun early on Monday, Oct. 28, using real-time imagery from the LASCO C3 coronagraph on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which monitors the sun 24/7. Comet ATLAS will appear to pass very close above the sun around 8 a.m. EDT on Oct. 28. Observers were able to follow Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in this manner earlier this month.
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Comet ATLAS was discovered on Sept. 27 in Hawaii by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project, the object was initially cataloged as "A11bP7I."
But shortly thereafter, enough observations came in to confirm that it was indeed a comet and not an asteroid.
When orbital calculations indicated that it belonged to the Kreutz family of sungrazing comets, a surge of excitement followed, because some Kreutz comets have evolved into some of the brightest on record.
In addition, the Great Comets of 1680, 1811, 1843 and 1965 had gloriously bright tails stretching for many tens of millions of miles. Initially, it was hoped that Comet ATLAS would evolve into this type of comet, but we now know that is likely not going to happen.
On the other hand, there might still be something to see early on Halloween morning or during the opening days of November.
It brings to mind a spooky Halloween tale: The Headless Horseman. It is a recurrent story involving a mythical figure whose origins can be traced back to Europe; traditionally depicting a rider on horseback who is missing his head.
As it turns out, according to astronomer Qicheng Zhang of Arizona's Lowell Observatory, Comet ATLAS "… has almost certainly disintegrated," adding, "There's probably not much left of its primary core."
That having been said, it now seems likely that even under the best of circumstances, this newcomer — after coming within a minim of the sun on Monday — can only hope to present itself as a short-lived disembodied tail after it closely sweeps around the sun — if any sort of remnant is left at all.
A headless comet is not unique. In January 1887, The Great Southern Comet of 1887 appeared and was seemingly all tail and no head.
As a result, some older astronomical texts refer to it as the "Headless Wonder".
Then, in December 2011, Comet Lovejoy, another Kreutz sungrazing comet, disintegrated just before Christmas, leaving in its wake a bright tail that was seen both from the ground as well as the International Space Station.
So, if you want to try and see a headless comet for yourself, then starting on Halloween morning, about an hour before sunrise, and for about week thereafter, look toward the east-southeast horizon and see if you can catch an appendage that in essence should resemble a faintly glowing airplane contrail stretching upward and tilted toward the right. Scanning the horizon with binoculars will certainly help.
Remember, however, that odds are that the comet may have been completely consumed by its interaction with the sun and as a result, you might not see anything at all.
So, the ballyhooed "Halloween Treat" might, in the end, turn out to be a disappointing trick!
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SpaceX NROL-167 Mission
October 24 10:13 a.m
T-minus 2 minutes
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, October 24 for a Falcon 9 launch of the NROL-167 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Liftoff is targeted for 10:13 a.m. PT. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, October 25 at 9:59 a.m. PT.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about ten minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX.
You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This is the 21st flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched NROL-113, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, SDA-0B, and 14 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=nrol-167
Spooky fireball blazes across Lake Erie a week before Halloween
October 23, 2024
On Monday (Oct. 21) night, a bright fireball could be seen streaking across the skies over Lake Erie in the U.S. and Canada.
Over 550 witness reports of the meteor were submitted to the American Meteor Society's (AMS) "Report a Fireball" webpage; the object could be tracked moving from northeast of Cleveland, Ohio, to just west of Erie, Pennsylvania.
The event occurred around 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on Oct. 21. Accounts of the fireball came from viewers as far east as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and as far south as Madison, North Carolina — nearly 400 miles (640 kilometers) away.
"The overwhelming colour was light green but there did appear to be yellow/golden sparks falling from it," wrote Brian F. in the remarks of their report to AMS from Ontario, Canada.
Fireballs falling toward Earth like this aren't entirely uncommon, but are nonetheless rare events to witness.
They're known as bolides and appear as bright streaks across the sky, explosively incinerating from the molten heat of friction from slamming into Earth's atmosphere at interplanetary speeds.
Peter Brown, a meteor scientist and planetary astronomer at Western University, in Ontario, Canada, posted a video of the fireball on X, formerly Twitter, captured by the university's meteor network.
"Bright fireball just after sunset witnessed by many in S. Ontario and OH/PA. Meteor occurred entirely over Lake Erie, ending near 30 km altitude N. of Ashtabula, OH dropping meteorites into lake," Brown said in his post.
"I hear a bang from my right and saw the meteor breaking into green pieces, maybe 5 or more," said Murray D. in their AMS report remarks.
Theirs was one of only a small handful of reports that included witnesses physically hearing the phenomenon.
Explosive "bangs" or "booms," known as "air bursts," often accompany these fiery reentries, as external temperatures and pressures on the descending space rocks lead to explosive incineration.
"It was big and low. For a couple seconds, I thought it was going to hit the Earth.
It was huge, nothing like the casual meteor shower which I have seen many times," wrote Kammie J., in the remarks of their report to AMS.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/meteors-showers/spooky-fireball-blazes-across-lake-erie-a-week-before-halloween-video
https://fireball.amsmeteors.org//members/imo_view/event/2024/6206
Public UFO records archive opens in Rio Rancho
October 22, 2024 - 6:09 PM
Another New Mexico city is shining a spotlight on UFOs, but not in the way you might expect.
The portable classrooms at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary are the new home of the National UFO Historical Records Archive.
It’s the largest collection of UFO sighting documents in the country, and maybe the world.
Now, thanks to a partnership with Rio Rancho Public Schools, the amateur collectors who kept all these records safe over the years are finally making them available to the public.
“It’s literally overwhelming. People don’t have any conception until they come here how much material that we’re talking about.
And it really, I think, makes people pause and realize there’s a lot more to this UFO subject than I ever thought,” said David Marler, executive director of the National UFO Historical Records Center.
Marler knows the idea of a UFO records archive probably sounds silly to some folks, but he says that skepticism is welcome.
“We really don’t care what your take is on the UFO subject. In fact, we welcome differing opinions, differing perspectives,” said Marler.
The National UFO Historical Records Center is a nonprofit organizing hundreds of thousands of declassified government documents, news clippings, photos, videos and more evidence from across the globe all under one roof.
“It’s a traditional historical archive dedicated to a non-traditional subject.
We want serious research to be conducted here in the hopes ultimately of maybe gaining a better insight into this mystery that we’ve been dealing with now for 75 plus years,” said Marler.
He says there are countless connections to be discovered now that all these case files are together.
“Some organizations interviewed witnesses that the other did not, and vice versa, and sometimes there’s new insights provided by one investigative organization that was never obtained by this one,” said Marler.
“The more minds, the more set of eyeballs we have looking at the data as with any subject, the better we’re going to be if we truly want to try to understand what we’re dealing with when we talk about UFOs.”
Marler’s collection – which used to live inside his Rio Rancho home – is largely a collection of other collections sent in from fellow UFO archivists.
With all this extra space donated by Rio Rancho Public Schools, Marler says they’re ready for more.
“We have about 10 to 12 other collections that are also in the queue,” Marler said.
“Two individuals I know in Ohio have stated, ‘You’re already in my will. If anything happens to me, my material is coming to Rio Rancho.'”
Whether or not you believe in aliens, Marler says the overwhelming amount of documentation is worth preserving.
“We feel it’s important because it is an element of history, it is an element of our culture. So that’s really how we try to view it,” said Marler.
“If we can’t define the answers to the UFO mystery, maybe in 40, 50, 60, years someone might, but they can only do that by looking at the data.”
While this is a public archive, it’s a not a free for all. Marler says you’ll have to submit a request on their website to set up a time to come and visit. The idea is that you’ll have full access to everything inside.
But why would Rio Rancho Public Schools get involved with something like this. “Our students find the subject matter of UFO investigation very intriguing.
And so we want to do is we want to use that as a catalyst in order to get students involved in other types of learning,” said RRPS Chief Operating Officer Michael Baker.
“So we think that the parents, as long as the students are learning, we’re not trying to persuade thinking one way or another, we think we’re going to see some really good benefits from this area.”
District officials say the partnership is expected to last at least five years.
https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/public-ufo-records-archive-opens-in-rio-rancho/
https://nufohrc.org/
The Pentagon Responds Publicly to the Issue of UAP Incursions at Sensitive Military Installations
October 23, 2024
Langley Air Force Base, located near Hampton, Virginia, has been the site of Unidentified Aerial Vehicles (UAV) activity over the sensitive military facility for 17 consecutive days.
The Wall Street Journal reports “The Pentagon is stumped…U.S. officials don’t know who is behind the drones that have flown unhindered over sensitive national-security sites—or how to stop them.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wUNrTuagJ0
Baba Vanga, Nostradamus prophecies for 2025: War in Europe, alien encounters
Oct 22, 2024 04:35 PM IST
As the world approaches 2025, two of history's most renowned mystics, Nostradamus and Baba Vanga, have issued ominous predictions that suggest dark days ahead.
Despite living centuries apart—Nostradamus, the French astrologer who died in 1566, and Baba Vanga, the Bulgarian seer who passed away in 1996—both have eerily foreseen "cruel wars" and a potential apocalypse for the coming year.
Nostradamus, known for his book "Les Propheties," has long captivated audiences with his accurate forecasts of pivotal historical events.
His predictions are believed to have anticipated significant occurrences, including the rise of Adolf Hitler, the assassination of President John F Kennedy, and even the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his latest forecasts, he warns that Europe will be the epicenter of turmoil, declaring that "the ancient plague will be worse than enemies," hinting at a resurgence of catastrophic events that may engulf the UK and the continent.
Meanwhile, Baba Vanga's prophecies also signal an impending global crisis.
Known for her uncanny predictions, including the election of America's first Black president and the tragic death of Princess Diana, Vanga claims that a new war will ignite in Europe, with devastating implications for the world at large.
Her forecasts extend into the realms of the extraordinary, suggesting that humanity may encounter aliens this year.
Nostradamus' Prophecies
The 16th-century French astrologer, known for his accurate predictions of historical events such as the Great Fire of London and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has warned of:
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"Cruel wars" in Europe
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The UK being affected
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A resurgence of ancient plagues
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Volcanic activity and deadly floods in Brazil
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The Russia-Ukraine conflict ending due to exhaustion
Baba Vanga's Visions
The Bulgarian clairvoyant, who predicted the 9/11 attacks and Princess Diana's death, forecasts:
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A worldwide apocalypse triggered by conflict in mainland Europe
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Alien encounters, potentially during a major event like the Super Bowl
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A "Martian war" with extraterrestrial creatures
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Perfection of telepathy
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Natural disasters and global upheaval
Both mystics have painted a picture of a world teetering on the edge of chaos. Nostradamus has hinted at the conclusion of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, attributing it to the "exhaustion" of both sides.
However, he also cautions of volcanic activity and severe flooding in Brazil, positing that these natural disasters could lead to the emergence of a new world order, marked by the rise of an "Aquatic Empire" following the inundation of major cities.
As we stand on the brink of 2025, the alignment of these prophetic visions has sparked both intrigue and skepticism.
While some dismiss the predictions as mere superstition, others find chilling parallels between the seers' warnings and current global tensions.
With the specter of conflict looming and the promise of unprecedented events on the horizon, many individuals are bracing for what these storied mystics have forecasted—a year of profound change and potential calamity.
As the world watches and waits, one question remains: will the dire predictions of Nostradamus and Baba Vanga come to fruition, or are they simply echoes of a past that no longer holds sway? Only time will tell.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/charlamagne-tha-god-bursts-into-laughter-over-lara-trumps-wild-claim-about-donald-thats-ridiculous-101729589785297.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13992603/experts-study-alien-mummies-peru-dissect-bodies.html
Experts studying 'alien mummies' from Peru make startling find while dissecting their bodies
Updated: 09:28 EDT, 24 October 2024
Dissection has begun on hands from one of Peru's hotly debated 'alien mummies' — seen in an eerie new video revealing bones and odd metallic structures.
Worldwide controversy has followed these now roughly dozen or so small peculiar specimens, often referred to as the 'Nazca Tridactyls' after the region in Peru where they are believed to have been taken by anonymous local 'huaqueros' (tomb raiders).
Now, doctors claimed to have removed a 'light metal' implant from the new specimen's palm, a reporter who is working with medical professionals involved in the investigation told DailyMail.com.
The short video documents the moment one physician carefully pulls the suspected 'alien implant' from the Nazca Tridactyl's severed, three-fingered hand with tweezers.
Mexican Navy forensic doctor Dr Jose Zalce Benitez — who devoted his free time to remove the metal — said: 'It is a very complex metal alloy that requires special knowledge and techniques to be able to achieve it with such quality and purity.'
'It was possible to identify elements such as aluminum, tin, silver, copper, cadmium and osmium among others in smaller quantities and percentages,' Dr Zalce added.
The video also depicts what appears to be one of the mummified hands peeled back to reveal two of its 'metacarpal' or 'palm' bones.
'This tridactyl hand, from which I obtained the metal, does not belong to any of the bodies presented at the Mexican Congress,' Dr Zalce emphasized.
'This hand is part of a series of loose pieces that belong to the place where the tridactyl bodies of Peru were found,' the physician and forensic expert clarified.
The doctor's volunteer investigation into these unusual, potentially extraterrestrial bodies dates back to his testimony before an open hearing of Mexico's Congress last year, during which two similar alleged 'alien' corpses were presented.
Since that September 12, 2023 congressional presentation, two distinct sizes of these alleged 'alien mummies' have been subjected to public scrutiny — but the new video examination relates to the smaller and more controversial of the specimens.
The alleged 'metal implant' can be see looking like a torn patch of silvery reptilian scales in the new video, as it is tilted toward the camera by Dr Zalce's gloved hand.
Reporter Fernando Correa Dominguez explained to DailyMail.com that the hand had been carefully rehydrated by the doctors to better remove the 'metal implant.'
Initially, Correa noted, 'they did not see any moisture inside the hand, [only] dehydrated skin tissue was observed inside the tendons and muscles.'
Dr Zalce described the procedure in more detail: 'We used a forensic technique to protect the tissue and minimize its degradation […] a special serum that is used for the rehydration of corpses that has very specific concentration percentages.'
'We use sterile swabs with a soft surgical cotton tip to avoid any type of damage or contamination to both the metal sample and the tridactyl hand,' Dr Zalce elaborated.
'This technique is used by the FBI and helps recover data or information from relevant evidence in forensic investigations,' the physician noted.
Correa, who took credit for bringing Dr Zalce onto this project, added that the severed 'tridactyl' hand closely resembles the hands present on the specimens brought before Mexican Congress last year.
That spectacle within the nation's highest legislative body had been spearheaded by UFO researcher and broadcaster Jaime Maussan, Correa's boss for over two decades at the paranormal-focused TV news magazine 'Tercer Milenio.'
'It is a hand from small bodies,' Correa told DailyMail.com, 'such as the mummies of Josephina, Victoria and Louise' as the mummies have been nicknamed by the team.
These purported beings — typically just under two feet (60.96 centimeters) long — have originated from sites in Peru along with larger, more human-sized specimens, similarly coated in white, powdery algae fossils known as diatomaceous earth.
Critics, including top Peruvian officials from the Ministry of Culture, have claimed the smaller bodies are grim fabrications, based on two specimens seized by customs.
Dr Flavio Estrada, a forensic archaeologist with Peru's Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, concluded the seized bodies were grisly dolls, 'assembled with bones of animals from this planet, with modern synthetic glues.'
'They're not extraterrestrials,' Dr Estrada pronounced after his group's examination last January. 'It's totally a made-up story.'
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But Colorado attorney Josh McDowell has told DailyMail.com that these two alleged mummies, which were confiscated by Peruvian customs from courier DHL at an airport in Lima, only superficially resemble those brought before Mexico's congress.
These contraband specimens, he said, also did not resemble those kept at the University of Ica in Peru, where many of the Nazca Tridactyls are currently stored.
McDowell said that the seized 'mummies,' dressed-up in miniature imitations of traditional Andean dress, had merely been bootlegs made by an artist who intended to cash-in on the 'Nazca mummy' craze.
'The artist that made them said as much,' he continued.
'There is a way to obtain definitive answers as to what these specimens are through genetic testing and additional forensic examination,' McDowell emphasized.
'It would mean a true collaborative effort with a multidisciplinary team of scientists, working with the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, to complete the studies legally, ethically and with respect to the cultural heritage of Peru.'
'Both agreed on the inside of the hand,' Correa said.
'There is anatomical correspondence with this member that comes from the same place where the other specimens were found: a cave in the Peruvian desert,' he said.
But even some sympathetic observers and amateur 'ancient alien' archeologists online have voiced their doubts about the hand as depicted in the new video.
Posters on the Reddit forum r/alienbodies likened the interior seen in the new alien hand video to 'wet sludge and bones' or hastily stuffed 'with ground coffee beans.'
'The more I learn about these,' one opined, 'the less authentic I believe them to be.'
For his part, Dr Rangel, whose past research work has focused on a form of gene called Human leukocyte antigens (HLA), has focused the most of his studies on DNA samples taken from the Nazca mummies over the past few years.
In one of his 2023 assessments of the specimens, he asserted that 'there is a probability greater than 50 percent that this organism is not related to living beings known to date on our planet.'
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