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NASA scientist addresses mystery sightings of 'alien satellites' orbiting Earth
09:45 ET, 25 Mar 2026
With Elon Musk's Starlink satellites now cluttering the night sky, identifying an asteroid or anything more unusual has become nearly impossible for stargazers.
However, a fresh analysis of night sky photographs taken before the first satellite launched in 1957 has uncovered evidence of rapidly moving objects in Earth's orbit that scientists can't explain.
The photographic plates, captured in April 1950, reveal nine fast-moving and seemingly reflective objects in near-Earth orbit.
The new analysis of the images coincides with President Trump's social media announcement that he is "directing the Secretary of War" and other government departments to locate and declassify documents concerning "alien and extraterrestrial life."
The mysterious objects were initially documented by Swedish astronomer Beatriz Villarroel, and now, former NASA developer Ivo Busko has replicated her findings – proving conclusively that something peculiar was circling our planet years before Sputnik 1 took flight.
Busko notes in a recent study: "Given that these observations were obtained at a time that predates our first artificial satellite, they become especially noteworthy in the context of SETI [The search for extraterrestrial intelligence.]"
Various theories have been proposed to account for the puzzling sightings, from meteors heading directly toward the observers' telescope, to debris from nuclear weapons tests that had been propelled high enough to achieve orbit.
But, unsurprisingly, given they appeared during one of the most active eras for UFO reports, there's a substantial group convinced these mysterious objects were spacecraft from an extraterrestrial civilization, monitoring Earth as mankind stepped into the atomic era.
Dr Villaroel herself maintains that most of the conventional theories proposed don't withstand close examination.
For instance, she argues, the notion that these fleeting, brilliant specks of light could be supernovas or similar transient cosmic events doesn't add up.
"Stars don't work on those time-scales," she told the Event Horizon podcast.
She continued: "Solar flares can happen within within a few minutes, so if you see something just appearing and disappearing you can have just a flaring object.
"You can also have after glows from gamma-ray bursts or fast radio bursts that can be seen in the optical range," Dr Villarroel pointed out.
"But the thing about the nine simultaneous transients is that you have nine of these things in a very small field of view. That doesn't go with any natural explanation."
In his follow-up research, Busko adds:
"While such transients are difficult to reconcile within a conventional astronomical framework, they are consistent with sub-second optical glints produced by sunlight reflecting from flat surfaces on rotating objects transiting above Earth's atmosphere.
"Given the potential implications for SETI-related research, establishing a robust observational basis for the reality and behaviour of these events is of clear importance."
Mainstream scientists are very reluctant to allow themselves to become associated with potential UFO research, because the mockery that still today comes from claims of "little green men" can undermine their other work.
https://www.themirror.com/news/weird-news/nasa-scientist-addresses-mystery-sightings-1757146
https://x.com/DrBeaVillarroel/status/2036379674477998209
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.20407
A solar system is forming right before our telescopes
March 25, 2026
Astronomers are watching the birth of a solar system unfold right before them.
A young nearby star has revealed a second giant planet forming inside its dusty space surroundings.
Scientists confirmed the new exoplanet around the star, known as WISPIT 2, using powerful telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory, and advanced imaging techniques.
The discovery adds to earlier evidence reported last year that the system already hosted one massive Jupiter-like gas giant.
Together, the two worlds, WISPIT 2b and WISPIT 2c, sit inside a wide disk of gas and dust marked by bright rings and dark gaps — the kinds of features scientists often link to planet formation.
Directly spotting planets while they are developing is extremely difficult. By observing WISPIT 2, just 5 million years old, scientists have a case study to better understand how planetary systems — including our own — begin and evolve.
Each new detection helps researchers test ideas about how giant planets grow and shape their environment.
"WISPIT 2 is the best look into our own past that we have to date," said Chloe Lawlor, lead author of the research at the University of Galway in Ireland, in a statement.
Following the discovery of PDS 70 and its orbiting worlds, WISPIT 2 is only the second system known where multiple giant planets are forming.
In most cases, astronomers detect distant planets indirectly, by measuring how they tug on their stars or block starlight. Here, researchers can actually observe the planets themselves and study the light coming from them.
The discovery of WISPIT 2c
WISPIT 2c lies much closer to its star than the previously known planet.
While the first planet sits at a distance roughly 57 times farther than Earth's distance from the sun, the second appears at about 14 times that distance. Even so, both remain far from their star compared to planets in our solar system.
They're also much heftier than anything in our own cosmic backyard. WISPIT 2b is five times more massive than Jupiter, and WISPIT 2c is double that, according to the new research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
To confirm WISPIT 2c as a planet, the team used the Sphere instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, which captured an image of the object, then followed up with the Gravity+ instrument on the VLT Interferometer:
By splitting the planet's light into each color of the rainbow — a technique known as spectroscopy — scientists identified which gases were present.
The researchers saw signs of carbon monoxide, according to the paper. This chemical signature, along with the overall shape of the light spectrum, suggests the object is a young giant planet. It also makes it unlikely that what scientists have detected is just a random clump of cosmic dust.
Tracking the planet's position over time helped scientists rule out the possibility that it is a background object simply lining up by chance. Early measurements even hint at its movement, though more observations will be needed to confirm its orbit around the star.
"Finding two planets at such an early stage at the same time is almost like witnessing a rare twin birth," said Frank Eisenhauer, project leader of GRAVITY+, in a statement.
"This shows that planetary systems do not develop one after the other, but in parallel — much like our own solar system once did."
Solar system in the making
The broader disk around WISPIT 2 adds to the intrigue. Multiple bright rings, gaps between them, and a central cavity all suggest that more planets could still be in the making.
Some scientists speculate that systems like this may represent an early stage in the development of complex planetary families.
Researchers have noticed giant planets in several young systems seem to form at similar distances from their stars.
This pattern raises the possibility of a Goldilocks region — i.e., not too hot or cold — where conditions favor the growth of massive worlds. For now, that idea remains tentative.
But future giant telescopes are expected to monitor WISPIT 2 closely, tracking planetary orbits, probing atmospheres, and watching the dusty disk's changes. A smaller gap farther out in the disk is another tempting place to look, Lawlor said.
"We suspect there may be a third planet carving out this gap," Lawlor said, "potentially of Saturn mass, owing to the gap's being much narrower and shallower."
https://mashable.com/article/birth-of-solar-system-wispit-2
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2604/?nolang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEBVeBMEeV0
https://thedebrief.org/astronomers-identify-origin-of-mysterious-deep-space-x-rays-directed-toward-earth/
https://www.sciences.uliege.be/cms/c_13667355/en/the-origin-of-the-mysterious-x-rays-from-gamma-cas-identified
Astronomers Identify Origin of Mysterious Deep-Space X-Rays Directed Toward Earth
March 25, 2026
An international team of researchers led by astronomers from the University of Liège, using observations from the Japanese XRISM space telescope, has determined that mysterious X-rays from a star called Y Cassiopeia in the constellation Cassiopeia, which have puzzled astronomers for half a century, originate from a white dwarf orbiting the star.
The research team behind the discovery said that using the space telescope’s Resolve instrument to confirm the mysterious X-ray emissions source with an intensity and temperature deemed ‘incompatible’ with what one would expect from an ordinary, massive star like y Cas confirms the existence of a family of binary star systems that had been previously predicted but remained unidentified.
Mysterious Deep Space X-Rays Have Puzzled Astronomers for Half a Century
According to a statement announcing the discovery, y Cassiopeia, which was first discovered in 1866, is classified as a Be-type star.
Described as “fast-rotating massive stars that regularly eject matter,” Be stars have a disc around them formed by this ejecta, which astronomers can spot at interstellar distances due to characteristic emissions in their optical spectrum.
In 1976, observations of these emissions yielded contradictory results, leading to a mystery that persisted until the University of Liège-led discovery.
Specifically, y Can seemed to emit X-rays with a luminosity approximately 40 times greater than that of comparable massive stars, with plasma heated to over 100 million degrees and unusually rapid variability.
Since then, twenty additional objects with similar, mysteriously confounding data have been observed, resulting in the formation of an entirely new subclass of stars called ‘y Cas analogues.’
Over half of these unusual objects were spotted by astronomers at the University of Liège.
According to Yaël Nazé, an astronomer at ULiège, astronomers have proposed several possible explanations for the mysterious X-ray emissions.
“One of them involved local magnetic reconnection between the surface of the Be star and its disc,” the researcher explained. “Others suggested X-rays to be linked to a companion, whether a star stripped of its outer layers, a neutron star, or an accreting white dwarf.”
Although ULiège had already ruled out the first two types of companions due to contradictions between observations and theoretical predictions, their data left open the possibility of white dwarf stars and magnetic interactions.
However, they cautioned, “no observation allowed to choose between them.”
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Solving Mystery ‘Opens Up New Avenues of Research for the Years to Come’
To solve the longstanding mystery, the researchers conducted a new observation campaign focused on y Cas using the microcalorimeter Resolve instrument.
Launched aboard the Japanese XRISM space telescope, Resolve is noted for providing spectra with “unrivaled precision.” Because the target system has a full orbital period of 203 Earth days, the team conducted observations in December 2024, February, and June 2025.
Nazé said those observations revealed that the signatures of the high-temperature plasma change velocity between the three observations, following the orbital motion of the white dwarf rather than that of the Be star,” the researcher continues.
“This shift was measured with high statistical reliability,” the scientists explained. “It is, in fact, the first direct evidence that the ultra-hot plasma responsible for the X-rays is associated with the compact companion, and not with the Be star itself.”
A further analysis of the Resolve data revealed that the spectral signatures were of moderate width, on the order of 200 km/s.
The team said this measurement “effectively rules out the case of a non-magnetic white dwarf.” That’s because a white dwarf accretion occurs rapidly in the inner regions of that category of star’s disc, which produces very broad signatures.
Instead, the team determined that the best explanation for the mysterious X-rays is y Cas is magnetic, where “the disc is then truncated, and the magnetic field channels the accreting material towards its poles.”
If confirmed by future observations, this would mean that y Cas and the twenty other stellar objects in its analogue subclass are Be + white dwarf binary systems where the objects share an orbit.
The researchers said these objects have been predicted for a long time but were “never clearly identified” before now.
When discussing the implications of their findings, Nazé said that astronomers and astrophysicists will likely have to revise binary stellar evolution models, “particularly regarding the efficiency of mass transfer between components,” which would make it consistent with several other recent independent studies.
Understanding the evolution of binary systems is crucial for comprehending, for example, gravitational waves, as it is indeed massive binaries that emit them at the end of their lives,” the researcher explained.
“Solving this mystery, therefore, opens up new avenues of research for the years to come!”
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