(CNN) -- NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening "a new chapter" that could allow for the development of a lunar space station.
The discovery was announced by project scientist Anthony Colaprete at a midday news conference.
"I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit; we found a significant amount" -- about a dozen, two-gallon bucketfuls, he said, holding up several white plastic containers.
The find is based on preliminary data collected when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, intentionally crashed October 9 into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.
After the satellite struck, a rocket flew through the debris cloud, measuring the amount of water and providing a host of other data, Colaprete said.
The project team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the best information about the presence of water, Colaprete said. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb.
Although the goal of the $79 million mission was to determine whether there is water on the moon, discoveries in other areas are expected as studies progress, Colaprete and other scientists said at the briefing at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California.
"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," the space agency said in a written statement shortly after the briefing began.
Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the latest discovery also could unlock the mysteries of the solar system.
He listed several options as sources for the water, including solar winds, comets, giant molecular clouds or even the moon itself through some kind of internal activity. The Earth also may have a role, Wargo said.
"If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data," NASA said in its statement.
"In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration."
Mars has two tiny moons, named Phobos, meaning fear, and Deimos, meaning panic. There are several topics of interest related to Phobos.
In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift talked about Phobos & Deimos 150 years before their actual discovery.
Phobos' orbit is speeding up, leading scientists to believe that it is lighter than its size dictates, it might be hollow.
The Russian Phobos 1 mission failed.
The Russian Phobos 2 mission failed too, an "object that should not have been there" appears on the last photo.
SOURCES: UFO Phenomenon at Close Sight
Tass News Agency
UFO Digest
UFO Casebook
Wikipedia
The Jonathan Swift issue about Phobos; an Immodest Proposal
In 1726 Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels, which describes the imaginary exploits of Lemuel Gulliver. He learns that the scientists from the Laputa island have...
"...discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars; whereof the innermost is distant from the center of the primary planet exactly three of its diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the center of Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies."
Swift's prediction is quite surprising, given the fact that there were no powerful enough telescopes on earth then to spot the moons at this time: The number of moons is correct. He places them close to the planet, and they are. The distances relation between the moons and Mars is quite correct. The moons could not be actually seen before 1877, 151 years later. The 1750 story Micromégas, by Voltaire, which deals with an inhabitant of Sirius visiting our solar system, also mentions the two Martians moons; he obviously read Gulliver's Travels.
The Swift story is a starting point for theories in which Phobos would be an 'advanced logistic base' used by aliens on their visit to our planet.
But there is also a less disturbing explanation: Swift knew of the 'celestial harmony' concepts proposed by Kepler. The idea was that the planets of the solar system must have an increasing number of satellites progressing as their distance with the sun is.
At the time it was believed that:
Mercury has 0 satellites,
Venus has 0 satellite,
The Earth has 1,
Mars has ?,
Jupiter has 4,
Saturn has 5.
Since they could not be seen, maybe he guessed that they had to be very small, and also close to the planet so that they would be lost in its glare. So much for the Jonathan Swift discovery! Unless you wish to check if there is more to it...
Asaph Hall, an astronomer at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. was looking to see if Mars had any moons. He failed to see anything even though he looked over a long series of nights. He was about to give up because he was so discouraged but his wife Angeline Stickey kept encouraging him and suggested he should try one more night. When he discovered the moons he named the crater in her honor because she did not let him give up his dream. It is sometimes suggested that the reason he named them Phobos (terror) and Deimos (panic) is that he felt so when he remembered Swift's tale, written 150 years earlier. It is much more widely accepted that the names were simply chosen in the Greek mythology, without any special reason except that Phobos was a son of Mars and Venus. Phobos was the embodiment of fear and horror. In Greek mythology, Deimos was the personification of dread, and also the son of Ares and Aphrodite (or Mars and Venus, to the Romans). He, his twin brother Phobos and the goddess Enyo accompanied Ares into battle, as well as his father's attendants, Trembling, Fear, Dread, and Panic. His Roman equivalent was Formido or Metus. (Wikipedia)
DID PHOBOS PROBE MEET WITH A UFO?
The Soviet Phobos 2 probe was sent to examine the Martian moon Phobos (The USSR was interested in the possibility of using Phobos as a staging post for a manned exploration of Mars) Maybe one of the mission's goal was to find more about the strange chain craters on Phobos? (January 1977 issue of 'Astronomy' author anonymous). On March 28, 1989, Russian ground controllers suddenly and unexpectedly lost contact with their Phobos 2 probe. The very last close-up infrared photo of Phobos snapped by the spacecraft shows 'an object which shouldn't have been there'.
The Phobos Mystery Object (PMO) as it was referred to was soon believed to be a UFO by some. It was also speculated that the Russian mission had been deliberately terminated by aliens unwilling to let Phobos 2 approach the moon, supposed to be an artificial avant-poste of alien visitors on their way to earth. This scenario fit with the other mysteries: the supposed hollow nature of the moon suggested by its strange gravitational behaviour, its strange closeness to the Martian surface, its visionary discovery by Jonathan Swift, the failure of Hershell and others to discover it and the sudden discovery by Hall that suggested it was not there before, the failure of Phobos 1, and all the other more famous Martian mysteries.
The final infrared picture photo of Phobos occurred just three days before the communication failure, it reveals the outlines of both Phobos and the PMO. All surface detail is washed out on both objects which is very common in infrared pictures. If the PMO was at the same distance as Phobos itself, it would be about 2 kilometers wide and 20 long. Its surface brightness is the same as that of Phobos. The sides of the PMO are perfectly parallel; it is rounded at both ends; the end towards Phobos narrows slightly; the other end seems to have a slight protrusion. An attempt to explain the presence of the object was that...
"...since the PMO does not appear to have a metallic surface and displays no antennas or other indicators of artificiality, it is reasonable to ask whether it might be some natural phenomenon. One possibility is that the PMO image is only a "trailed moonlet;" that is, the smeared image of a small piece of debris also in orbit about Mars but moving at a slightly different velocity from that of the spacecraft and Phobos. Since the exposure time of the last photo was 8 seconds, a smeared image due to the PMO's relative motion is reasonable." (Anonymous; "Mystery Object Encountered by Russian Phobos Spacecraft," Meta Research Bulletin, 1:1, March 15, 1992.)
Of course one wonders why a UFO should have an antenna, and why an antenna -a thing supposed to be rather small- should be seen on an infrared photo blurred enough not to reveal the Phobos craters properly. One can also suppose that a smeared image of a moving debris would result in a regular trail, not a trail with a narrow beginning, a long enlargement and a slightly widened head. Unless maybe the debris changed speed inside the 8 seconds exposure, which would raise more questions. Then, If it is not a trail, the elongated shape would be a sufficient indicator of artificiality-- or at least strangeness.
Actually there is a second strange Phobos 2 photo, an elongated shadow on the Martian surface, that was considered as an UFO shadow by some. It is certainly a source of great confusions when rational explanations are provided on this photo while the other is ignored and vice-versa. Here is an interesting text about the last photos from Phobos 2, by an unknown author:
An unusual photo of a thin shadow across Mars was shown on the Russian television segment. Seen on the surface of Mars was a clearly defined dark shape that could indeed be described, as it was in he initial dispatch from Moscow, as a "thin ellipse" (this photo is a still from the Soviet television clip). It was certainly different from the shadow of Phobos recorded eighteen years earlier by Mariner 9. The latter cast a shadow that was a rounded ellipse and fuzzy at the edges, as would be cast by the uneven surface of the moonlet. The 'anomaly' seen in the Phobos 2 transmission was a thin ellipse with very sharp rather than rounded points (the shape is known in the diamond trade as a "marquise") and the edges, rather than being fuzzy, stood out sharply against a kind of halo on the Martian surface. Dr. Becklake described it as "something that is between the spacecraft and Mars, because we can see the Martian surface below it," and stressed that the object was seen by both the optical and the infrared (heat seeking) camera.
All these reasons explain why the Soviets have not suggested that the dark, "thin ellipse" might have been a shadow of the moonlet. While the image was held on the screen, Dr. Becklake explained that it was taken as the spacecraft was aligning itself with Phobos (the moonlet). "As the last picture was halfway through," he said, "they [Soviets] saw something that should not be there." The Soviets, he went on to state, have not yet released this last picture, and we wont speculate on what it shows. So what was it that collided or crashed into Phobos 2? Was the space probe shot out of space for "seeing too much"? What does the last secret frame show? In his careful words to 'Aviation Week and Space Technology', the chairman of the Soviet equivalent of NASA, referred to the last frame, saying, "One image appears to include an odd-shaped object between the spacecraft and Mars."
This "highly secret" photo was later given to the Western press by Colonel Dr. Marina Popovich, a Russian astronaut and pilot who has long been interested in UFO's. At a UFO conference in 1991, Popovich gave to certain investigators some interesting information that she "smuggled" out of the now ex-Soviet Union. Part of the information was what has been called "the first ever leaked accounts of an alien mother ship in the solar system". The last transmission from Phobos 2 was a photograph of a gigantic cylindrical spaceship - a huge, approx, 20km long, 1.5km diameter cigar-shaped 'mother ship', that was photographed on 25 March 1989 hanging or parked next to the Martian moon Phobos by the Soviet unmanned probe Phobos 2. After that last frame was radio-transmitted back to Earth, the probe mysteriously disappeared; according to the Russians it was destroyed - possibly knocked out with an energy pulse beam.
The cigar shaped craft in the penultimate frame taken by Phobos 2 is apparently the object casting the oblong shadow on the surface of Mars in the earlier photo. Australian science writer Brian Crowley says that because of the convex cats eye shadow - which, because the overhead solar inclination prevented shadow- casting by Martian surface features, implies a shadow thrown on the surface from something in orbit - beyond the orbit of Phobos 2 itself. The shadow - spindle - or cigar shaped - is inconsistent with any possible shadow cast by the moon Phobos, which is an irregular potato shape. One needs little imagination to postulate a giant, hovering cigar- shaped mother craft similar to those documented down the years by UFO investigators.
On March 31, 1989 Headlines dispatched by the Moscow correspondents of the European News Agency (EFE) stated: "Phobos 2 Captured Strange Photos of Mars Before Losing Contact With Its Base." Vremya revealed yesterday that the space probe Phobos II, which was orbiting above Mars when Soviet scientists lost contact with it on Monday, had photographed an UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT on the Martian surface seconds before losing contact." Scientists described the UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT as a thin ellipse 20 KILOMETERS LONG! It was further stated that the photos could not be an illusion because it was captured by 2 different color cameras as well as cameras taking infrared shots. One controller at the Kaliningrad control center concluded that the probe was now spinning out of control. It would seem that something struck or shot the Phobos II Probe.
In the October 19, 1989 issue of Nature Magazine, Soviet scientists concluded that the craft could be spinning because it was impacted. It has long been rumored that Mars and its moon Phobos are alien colonies. The surface of Mars is covered with strange shapes/buildings that do not appear to be natural such as the pyramids, square buildings, runways, etc. One structure shows the face of a man with a helmet looking into space. It can be seen at the National Space Science Data Center, Viking photo with catalog number 76-A-593/17384 Titled "HEAD." Another photo is 070-A-13. There are now eleven Viking photographs (and growing) of this obviously intelligently constructed monument on the surface of Mars. The "HEAD" and other artificial features such as the pyramids were combined by electrical engineer and imaging specialist Vincent DiPietro and a Lockheed computer scientist. The composite images seemed to show that the features on the surface of Mars had been artificially sculpted.
An interesting although unverified text about the loss of Phobos 2, author unknown:
PHOBOS: MALFUNCTION OR EARLY STAR WARS INCIDENT?
Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars, has itself always been considered a rather mysterious object, as has its smaller twin, Deimos. Joseph Shklovskii noted member of the Soviet Academy of science and co-writer with Dr Carl Sagan of 'Intelligent life in the universe', once calculated from the estimated density of the Martian atmosphere and the peculiar "acceleration" of Phobos, that the satellite must be hollow. Could Phobos be a hollowed-out space station of huge proportions? In July 1988, the Russians launched two unmanned satellite probes - Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 - in the direction of Mars, and with the primary intention of investigating the planet's mysterious moon, Phobos. Phobos 1 was unfortunately lost en route two months later, reportedly because of a radio command error.
Phobos 2 was also ultimately lost in the most intriguing circumstances, but not before it had beamed back certain images and information from the planet Mars itself. Phobos 2 arrived safely at Mars in January 1989 and entered into an orbit around Mars as the first step at its destination towards its ultimate goal: to transfer to an orbit that the would make it fly almost in tandem with the Martian moonlet called Phobos (hence the spacecraft name) and explore the moonlet with highly sophisticated equipment that included two packages of instruments to be placed on the moonlet's surface. All went well until Phobos 2 aligned itself with Phobos, the Martian moonlet. Then, on 28th March, the Soviet mission control center acknowledged sudden communication "problems" with the spacecraft; and Tass, the official Soviet news agency, reported that "Phobos 2 had failed to communicate with Earth as scheduled after completing an operation yesterday around the Martian moon Phobos. Scientists at mission control have been unable to establish stable radio contact." What had caused the Phobos 2 spacecraft to be lost? The answer came about three months later. Pressed by the international participants in the Phobos mission to provide definitive data, the Soviet authorities released a taped television transmission Phobos 2 sent in its last moments except for the last frames, taken just seconds before the spacecraft fell silent.
The television clip was shown by some TV stations in Europe and Canada as part of weekly 'diary' programs, as a curiosity and not as a hot news item. The television sequence thus released focused on two anomalies. The first was a network of straight lines in the area of the Martian equator; some of the lines were short, some were longer, some were thin, some were wide enough to look like rectangular shapes 'embossed' in the Martian surface. Arranged in rows parallel to each other, the pattern covered an area of some six hundred square kilometers (more than two hundred and thirty square miles). The anomaly appeared to be far from a natural phenomenon. The television clip was accompanied by a live comment by Dr. John Becklake of the London Science Museum.
He described the phenomenon as very puzzling, because the pattern seen on the surface of Mars was photographed not with the spacecraft's optical camera but with its infrared camera- a camera that takes pictures of objects using the heat that they radiate, and not by the play of light and shadow on them. In other words, the pattern of parallel lines and rectangles covering an area of almost two hundred and fifty square miles was a source of heat radiation. It is so highly unlikely that a natural source of heat radiation (a geyser or a concentration of radioactive minerals under the surface, for example) would create such a perfect geometric pattern. When viewed over and over again, the pattern definitely looks artificial; but as for what it was, the scientist said "I certainly don't know." According to Boris Bolitsky, science correspondent for Radio Moscow, just before radio contact was lost with Phobos 2, several unusual images were radioed back to Earth, described by the Russian as "Quite remarkable features". A report taken from New Scientist of 8 April 1989, described the following:
"The features are either on the Martian surface or in the lower atmosphere. The features are between 20 and 25 kilometers wide and do not resemble any known geological formation. They are spindle - shaped and proving to be intriguing and puzzling." Since no coordinates for the precise location of this "anomalous feature" have been released publicly, it is impossible to judge its relationship to another puzzling feature on the surface of Mars that can be seen in Mariner 9 frame 4209-75. It is also located in the equatorial area (at longitude 186.4) and has been described as "unusual indentations with radial arms protruding from a central hub," caused (according to NASA scientists) by the melting and collapse of permafrost layers. The design of the features, bringing to mind the structure of a modern airport with a circular hub from which long structures housing the airplane gates radiate, can be better visualized when the photograph is reversed (showing depressions and protrusions).
(Below) Frencq, France, August 1969 (article published in October 1973)
A UFO IN THE SKY OF THE BOULONNAIS?
In the sight of his camera, during two seconds, the display of an object out of time at the border of the worlds
By Marc Desoutter.
It is truly a bomb which was thrown by Clause Plessis, Saturday evening, at the Brasserie Liégoise [local pub], at the meeting of the Cercle d'Etude des Phénomènes Spatiaux [Circle of Space Phenomena Studies] when he presented the exclusive photograph of an unidentified flying machine taken by an amateur photographer in August 1969 to the members of C.E.P.S. A few times ago, on the tip by a friend, the president of C.E.P.S had paid a visit to a person who, it was said, had strange documents in his possession. Claude Plessis heard this person and he was quickly excited by the revelations that he made and by the document which was given to him.
Here is the extraordinary history such as the author of photograph told it to Mr. Plessis.
By the time to take a second shot
"I really like walking in the country, so, I frequently enjoy to make walks through the area, equipped with my camera. On a beautiful after midday of August, I walked in the Boulonnaise countryside, between Frencq and Etaples. At a certain place I had the sudden desire to take a photograph, judging that the landscape was worth it. I tallied a portion of the landscape in my sight and I SUDDENLY SAW APPEARING BEHIND THE HILLS, A CLOUD OF STRANGE ASPECT. I took a shot and decided to take a second photograph. By the time I winded the film, the "cloud" had disappeared. That hardly lasted two seconds. I very quickly forgot this strange event and it is only when the film was developed that I saw that I had captured this curious object on the film."
Claude Plessis did not stick to this quite simplistic explanation. Admittedly this cloud, if it is a cloud, presents all the characteristics of a lenticular cloud, called by the specialists an Alto-cumulus-lenticularis. The formation of these clouds remains very mysterious and their composition poses a enigma. It is a quite rare phenomenon but which already occurred sufficiently enough so that one is not astonished too much by its appearance. What is certain, in any case, is that they have the reputation to be extremely dangerous without anyone being able to truly explain the reason for that. In August 1915, for example, at the top of a hill, in Gallipoli [1], a cloud of this kind had landed. 250 soldiers penetrated in it and disappeared. Certain planes which crossed these clouds were disintegrated or fell down mysteriously.
What intrigued Claude Plessis is that a lenticular cloud does not disappear as quickly as the one which volitilized in front of the author of the photograph. Moreover, this type of cloud is found at 5000 meters and it seems curious to find one at a height of a few hundreds of meters.
Claude Plessis managed to get the negative and it sent it in Paris in order to have it examined by specialists. For the president of the C.E.P.S it is not a lenticular cloud but indeed of an Unitenified Flying Object.
Waiting for mankind's evolution
This extraordinary document was not the only point of discussion of the people in charge of the C.E.P.S., Mr. Jacques Delescluse, Mr. Michel Steers, astrophysicist, Paul Plessis and surrounded by the members. It was talked about the recent facts which occurred around September 10 in Equihen and which were noticed by many witnesses. They were not "saucers" but balls, 80 centimetres in diameter, blue and red colors and comprising several branches. According to the C.E.P.S., they may be probes. A thesis has been proposed: we enter a new phase observation on behalf of those who study us, there are no inhabited machines anymore but extraterrestrial probes which would have the mission to carry out studies in an indirect way, the direct contacts not being currently considered possible. The thesis of Aime Michel was evoked: Since centuries, the extraterrestrials studied the evolution of humanity while waiting for us to reach a sufficient level to seek to establish a contact.
The next meeting of the C.E.P.S will certainly relate to the results of the expertise of the photograph of the U.F.O taken in 1969.
In the month of December, C.E.P.S. will study, undoubtedly, very closely too, the first results of Pioneer 10 which, launched two years ago, will arrive in the surroundings of Jupiter, the largest planet of our solar system, it has twelve satellites, at 778 million km of the Sun.
UFOs in outer space, in the neighborhood of earth and the moon, filmed by NASA human astronauts during wild and crazy early missions into the final frontier. The fantastic purple moon! Oh my!
In 2267, the USS Enterprise was inadvertently propelled backwards through time to the year 1969. In that year, the ship was an entirely unknown design. Its immense size and ability to climb rapidly through the atmosphere exceeded what was then state of the art. It was initially taken for a UFO, forcing Kirk and Sulu to mount an expedition to recover the hard evidence. Ultimately, Spock devised a method of returning to the future that essentially erased their presence in the past. (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")
Astronautas da Apolo 11 registraram um estranho UFO em órbita do planeta Terra em 16 de julho de 1969
According to renowned UFO investigator, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, one of the best-documented "close encounters of the third kind" occurred in the Anglican mission village at Boianai, Papua, New Guinea, which was, at the time of the incident, still a territory of Australia. The Australian Anglican Church was very involved in missionary work, and ardent in sending its heralds to the island nation. One of these was the Father William Booth Gill(1928-2007).
Gill was highly thought of by his co-hearts, and all those who knew him. As far as the occurrence of extraordinary events was concerned, Gill was skeptical, to say the least, especially being a devoted Church worker. The first hint of the events to come, began on April 5, 1959, when Gill saw a light on the uninhabited Mount Pudi. This light, Gill stated, moved faster than anything he had ever seen. A month later, his assistant, Stephen Moi, saw an "inverted saucer-shaped object" in the sky above the mission. Gill dismissed these sightings as some sort of electrical or atmospheric phenomena.
(ABOVE) Portrait of a Huli Southern Highlander, Papua New Guinea, by Mrs Holdsworth
Soon, William Gill would have one of the most celebrated UFO sightings to ever be documented, which was validated by a whole group of additional witnesses. This extraordinary event would take place at 6:45 P.M., June 26, 1959. Father Gill saw what he described as a bright white light to the Northwest. Word of the sight spread quickly, and within a few moments, Gill was joined by no less than thirty-eight additional witnesses, including Steven Moi, Ananias Rarata, and Mrs Nessle Moi. According to sworn statements, these thirty-plus individuals watched a four-legged, disc-shaped object approximately the size of 5 full moons lined up end to end. This unbelievable craft was hovering over the mission! To their utter surprise, they saw four human-like figures that seemed to be performing a kind of task. Now and then one of the figures would disappear, only to reappear in a moment or two. A blue light would shine up from the craft at what seemed to be regular intervals.
(RIGHT) "Ancestor Ghost" of New Guinea
The witness watched the craft and its activities for forty-five minutes, until the shining ship rose into the sky and disappeared at 7:30 P.M. The witnesses would see several smaller objects appear at 8:30, and twenty minutes later, the first craft reappeared. This phenomenal occurrence would last an incredible four hours, until cloud cover obscured the view.
This first sighting, a once in a lifetime occurrence, would incredibly be followed by another sighting the very next night. At 6:00 P.M., the larger object appeared again, with its occupants. It was shadowed by two of the smaller objects. In Gill's words: "On the large one, two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the center of the deck. They were occasionally bending over and raising their arms as though adjusting or "setting up" something. One figure seemed to be standing, looking down at us." (In a moment of anticipation, Gill raised his arms and waved to the figure.)
"To our surprise the figure did the same. Ananias waved both arms over his head; then the two outside figures did the same. Ananias and myself began waving our arms, and all four seemed to wave back. There seemed no doubt that our movements were answered..." Gill and Ananias continued to occasionally wave, and their waves were returned. Another witness, Eric Kodawara, waved a torch, and there were acknowledgments from the craft. Gill went inside to eat, but when he came back, the craft was still there, only farther away (smaller). After a Church service, at 7:45, Gill again came outside to look for the craft, but clouds had appeared, and there was no sight of the object. The very next evening, the shining craft would make one more appearance. Gill counted eight of them at 6:45. At 11:20, Gill heard a loud bang on the roof of the mission. Going outside to see what had happened, he spied four UFOs in a circle around the building. These four craft were extremely high in the sky. The roof was checked for damage the next morning, but none was found.
The aftermath of the event would bring unsubstantiated explanations. The noted UFO debunker Dr. Donald H. Menzel offered his explanation thus: He claims that Father Gill, who suffered from myopia (nearsightedness), had "probably" not been wearing his corrective lenses, and misidentified the planet Venus, which was prevalent in the evening skies during this period. This was NOT true; Gill WAS wearing his glasses, and in either event, what about the other witnesses to the event. Menzel also asserted that the Papuans were ignorant, native people who worshiped Gill, and believed anything he told them. This was a surefire way to debunk the 30+ witnesses. (BELOW) Mudmen of New Guinea As to the Venus connection, Gill knew where Venus was during this sighting, and had even pointed it out separately to the unknown craft. Gill would be criticized for "leaving such an extraordinary sight" to go eat dinner, but his response is that he did not think of the craft as extraterrestrial at the time. He believed that it was an American or Australian craft, and that if it did land, that ordinary human beings would emerge. Gill was scheduled to return to Australia soon, and it afforded an excellent opportunity to get his documentation of the case to the appropriate authorities. All investigators found Gill to be an intelligent, impressive individual. One of the most respected civilian groups, the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society stated:
"Gill's reports constitute the most remarkable testimony of intensive UFO activity ever reported to civilian investigators. They were unique because for the first time, credible witnesses had reported the presence of humanoid beings associated with UFOs."
The sighting at Papua brought about an unlikely allegiance among UFO research groups in Australia. The groups distributed copies of Reverend Gill's report to all of the members of the House of Representatives of Australia's Federal Parliament. An accompanying letter urged the leaders of government to request the Minister for Air to issue an opinion on the subject, not being satisfied with their initial, negative reaction. This letter did exact a reply. On November 24, 1959, E.D. Cash, who was a Liberal member of Parliament, asked the Minister for Air, F.M. Osborne, if they had even investigated the sightings at Papua. Osborne's response was that they were still waiting for more evidence before making an "official" report. In his own words; "Most sightings of UFOs are explained and only a very small percentage-something like 3 per cent-of reported sightings of flying objects cannot be explained."
The response of the Australian Minister for Air was to be taken lightly, considering the fact that they had not even interviewed Gill, until the Minister of Defense requested an investigation into the matter. The RAAF finally interviewed Gill in December 1959, some six months after the sightings. Gill related that the interview consisted of two officers who talked about stars and planets, and then left. He heard no more from the two. The RAAF finally released an opinion on the case... and a negative one at that. Squadron leader, F.A. Lang stated:
"Although the Reverend Gill could be regarded as a reliable observer, it is felt that the June/July incidents could have been nothing more than natural phenomena coloured by past events and subconscious influences of UFO enthusiasts. During the period of the report the weather was cloudy and unsettled with light thunder storm. Although it is not possible to draw firm conclusions, an analysis of rough bearings and angles above the horizon does suggest that at least some of the lights observed were the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars."
Since the unusual events of 1959, there have been many "explanations" of the event, all by individuals who had not seen it. Among these are hoax, planets, stars, astronomical misidentification, Gill's myopia, etc. None of these really address the event as it happened. Dr. J. Allen Hynek investigated the sighting at great length, and gave his usual well thought out conclusions. His "Center For UFO Studies" research included well-respected Allen Hendry, who was, at the time, the Center's top investigator. Their conclusions were as follows: "Though the smaller UFOs seen by Gill could be attributable to bright stars and planets, the primary object COULD NOT. "its size and absence of movement over three hours ruled out an astronomical explanation." The inclusion of the Boianai case in the well-known Australian book of fiction, Randolph Stow's 1979, "Visitants," would become a double-edged sword. Although it brought the details of the case to a larger audience, its inclusion in pure fiction lessened the appeal of the events as being REAL. Stow was a cadet patrol-officer in Papua, New Guinea, and an assistant to the Government Anthropologist. His novel begins with this sentence, "On 26 June 1959, at Boianai in Papua, visitants appeared to the Reverend William Booth Gill, himself a visitant of thirteen years standing, and to thirty-seven witnesses of another colour." The events of New Papua in 1959, at first glance, seem to be too unbelievable to be true. It is just too good of a sighting, compared to hazy photographs, reports of abductions by unreliable witnesses, and the designation of any undefined light in the sky as a "flying saucer." To be respectable, open-minded individuals, we must NOT compare one report to another. Each case must be viewed on its own merits. Many of the so-called explanations are by those who never interviewed Reverend Gill, never visited the site, and never read Gill's actual reports, but relied on third party explanations to draw their own conclusions. Dr. Hynek and his staff members actually interviewed Gill, they visited the site, they searched weather reports, and they stood in the same spot that Gill stood. They interviewed other witnesses of the events. They followed up initial inquiries with subsequent visits, and interviews, allowing the passage of time to shed its light on the witnesses, and what they had seen. Fourteen years after the fantastic events at Papua, Dr. Hynek revisited Papua New Guinea, Australia, and re-interviewed six of the initial witnesses. They all supported William Gill's initial reports, and still believe what they saw to be a REAL craft of unknown origin. The Papua, New Guinea sighting is one of the best documented cases of an unidentified craft of unknown origin in UFO annals.
Most people have been lead to believe that astronomers never see any UFO in the sky. The belief has been built by amateur skeptics and widely relayed in the media. Actually, telescopes and astronomy instruments are not at all ideal for capturing any UFO; they are also not capturing airplanes anyway and nobody would doubt the existence of airplanes by claiming that "astronomers don't see them in their telescopes". So, astronomers see UFOs with the naked eye mostly, as more knowledgeable skeptics could tell you. However, there are also cases where UFOs were captured by astronomers using telescopes. An example is a sighting reported by amateur astronomer Jesse Wilson in March 18, 1959, in Denville, New Jersey, USA. He has decided to take some photographs of the moon through his telescope. When he developed the series of photographs, he noticed that one of those captured 34 bright objects arcing in a line formation away from the moon. He then checked his telescope for any possible fault. There were none. He checked the negatives with a magnifier for faults, such as mecanical scratches. He found none. So he sent the photographs to Project Blue Book for examination. Project Blue Book investigated. They checked any possible commonplace explanation and found none. For example, they checked if some static electricity discharge could have occurred and result in some similar effect on the photograph. They dismissed this possibility. However, any explanation was better than none to them, so they concluded that static electricty discharge had to be the explanation.
THE CONTACTEE FILES: HOWARD AND CONNIE MENGER, a truly out of this world couple!R.I.P. Howard Menger (February 17, 1922 – February 25, 2009)
(FROM Wikipedia) Howard Menger (February 17, 1922 – February 25, 2009) was an American Contactee who claimed to have met extraterrestrials throughout the course of his life, meetings which were the subject of books he wrote, such as From Outer Space To You and The High Bridge Incident. Menger, who rose to prominence as a charismatic contactee detailing his chats with friendly Adamski-style Venusian "space brothers" in the late 1950s, was widely dismissed as a charlatan who simply jumped on the bandwagon in the wake of publicity following publication of George Adamski's wild stories of chit-chatting with Nordic-looking spacemen, and during at least one live TV appearance he admitted as much. Nonetheless, his various stories, photographs and films have been accepted by some UFO believers.
While most contactees have religious revelations to impart after their "experiences," Menger came back from his saucer-rides with a far more practical message: a new outer-space-approved diet for losing excess weight. Later he issued a 33-1/3 rpm recording of "music composed by space aliens." When he was still young he moved with his parents to the rolling hills of Hunterdon County, New Jersey. His first alleged contact with a person from another planet was at the age of ten, in the woods near his hometown High Bridge. Shortly after leaving high school, he entered the Army and was attached to the 17th Tank Battalion. In later life he was often employed as a sign painter. He died on February 25, 2009 at the age of 87.
One of the original flying saucer contactees of the 1950s, Howard Menger emerged in 1956 when he told his story to late-night radio talk show host Long John Nebel. Three years later, his book From Outer Space to You appeared. Menger told of contacts that began when he was only ten years old. The original contact was with a beautiful blonde woman whom he met in person but who communicated via telepathy. Other contacts followed with other humanoid beings. Then in 1946, the woman disembarked from a spaceship and announced that a wave of contacts was in humanity's immediate future as many space people were coming to Earth to assist in solving its problems.
In 1956, in the wake of the publicity given contactee George Adamski, Menger took some photos of flying saucers, and claimed he took a ride in a Venusian ship. Following his appearance on Nebel's show, he was a guest on a national television shows hosted by Steve Allen and Jack Paar. The television exposure led to attacks by critics. An examination of his pictures led to denouncements that they were a hoax, and they caught Menger lying about his having read (and drawing material from) Adamski's books. Amid the controversy, a young blonde woman came to a gathering at the Menger home. He recognized her as the sister of the space person who had originally contacted him as a child. They began an affair and were eventually married. The woman, Connie Weber, wrote her story, which was published in a book under the pseudonym Karla Baxter. It actually appeared in 1958, a year prior to Menger's first book.
The Truth About the "Orion Belt" Sightings as published in the July 1959 issue of Ray Palmer's "Flying Saucers" magazine
On February 24, 1959, an American Airlines four-engine DC-6 airliner captained by Peter Killian, sighted three flying saucers. Crew and passengers observed them for 45 minutes. Other airliners were radioed and also reported seeing the same three objects. Here was an unmistakable refutation to Air Force claims that there is no such thing as a flying saucer. Yet, within days, this sighting became the most incredible snafu in flying saucer history. Because of it, airline pilots have become involuntary members of a new "society of angry men". What are the facts to this historic case?
In order to evaluate what has become known as the "Orion Belt" sighting, it is necessary to describe the sighting in precise detail before going on to the various explanations and analyses offered by various authorities, and by the ever-acrobatic gyrations of the Air Force Spokesman type of public relations, intelligence and secrecy classifications. It all began at 7:10 p.m. on February 24, 1959 aboard a DC-6 leaving Newark Airport enroute to Detroit, non-stop. At the controls was Captain Peter Killian, a pilot of twenty years experience, fifteen of them piloting airliners for a total of more than four million miles. For a change, the story hit the nation’s headlines, and typical of the unusually accurate stories published is the one presented by the Detroit Times, which we quote with capable reporting in mind, particularly of the type presented by Al Leaderman, star writer for the Times:
Thirty-five passengers aboard a Detroit-bound American Airlines DC-6 watched with awe last night as three illuminated "flying saucers" escorted the ship through the dark sky for 45 minutes.
Both passengers and crew members on the plane which left Newark nonstop for Detroit at 7:10 p.m. viewed the phenomena while questioning each other, their own powers of observing and their sanity.
Probably the most startled was Capt. Peter Killian of Syosset, N. Y., who has flown passenger planes for 15 years and "never saw anything like it before."
Killian even radioed two other American Airlines planes flying in the vicinity to make sure "I wasn’t seeing lightning bugs in the cockpit."
BOTH OTHER captains called Killian back to assure him he wasn’t – they saw the saucers, too.
The captain and co-pilot, John Dee of Nyack, N. Y., said they lost the three strange objects in the haze when they started their descent for landing at Metropolitan Airport while they were over Lake Erie.
N. D. Puscas, 41, of 30835 Barton, Garden City, a passenger, told the Times that while he was no exponent of flying saucers he saw the strange objects "dancing in the sky."
Puscas, general manufacturing manager of Curtis Wright division at Utica, asked that before his version of what he saw was printed, it be corroborated by the pilot.
"I don’t want to be quoted alone," Puscas explained. "People might get the idea that I’m the little boy in the corner with a dunce cap on his head."
KILLIAN SAID: "We were flying around 8,500 feet between Philipsburg and Bradford, Pa., at 8:45 p. m. when I looked off to the south and saw three yellowish lights in a single horizontal line overhead.
"At first, I thought it was the Belt of Orion (a group of stars in a constellation) but then I took a second look and saw both the Belt and the foreign objects."
"When Dee caught the expression on my face he asked me if my eyes were tired. I then pointed in the direction of the "things" and asked him if there were any lightning bugs in the cockpit.
"The objects were by no means close to the plane, but one would move in at intervals, fall back again, and change its place in the formation while keeping abreast of the ship, which was traveling at 350 miles per hour."
At the MCMath-Hulbert Observatory of the University of Michigan, at Lake Angelus, Dr. Orren C. Mohler, assistant director, said:
"There is no astronomical explanation of the reported sightings. I know of nothing that occurred in the skies last night that could account for the objects described."
"Deciding it might be an after-dinner treat for his passengers, Killian talked to them over the intercom.
He started off jokingly by telling them that he didn’t want them to get the idea he was losing his mind but he thought some "flying saucers" were trailing the plane.
He prefaced his intercom comment with:
"Don’t get excited. I’ve had only a cup of tea with my dinner."
THE PASSENGERS peered out, saw the objects and began guessing what they might be.
"It couldn’t have been an apparition," Killian continued, "because all the others on the plane saw them too.
"All in all, the objects traveled in our direction for about 45 minutes," Killian said.
"During the time I kept watch on the radar screen but saw nothing on it.
"At one time I thought it might be a high altitude jet refueling operation, but the varying intensity of the lights and the changing positions of the objects made me toss out that theory."
KILLIAN SAID he also radioed the tower at Metropolitan to notify CIRVIS of the sighting. CIRVIS, he said, was a civilian agency which investigates UFOs – unidentified flying objects.
Killian, a flier since 1929 with more than four million commercial air miles, said the objects gave off a "yellowish glow."
The captain is married and has three children. His wife is Kay; the children, Peter M., 14; Stephen, 13, and Kathleen, 6.
PUSCAS PRAISED Killian’s actions in informing and chatting with the passengers about the sight.
"The way he broke the news to is was very clever. No one panicked or showed any signs of worry. Everyone immediately began to show a keen interest in what was going on. He did a fine job.
"There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I looked out and saw the objects in precision formation. They were round-like and every now and then one would glow brighter than the other as if it had moved nearer to the plane.
"I have been making that same trip a number of times because the home office is in New York but I have never experienced anything like that before."
THE PLANES two hostesses, Edna Le Gate, 22, and Beverly Pingree, 25, said today they were still puzzled over the objects.
Miss Le Gate, of Walton, Ariz., whose birthday was yesterday, said:
"I don’t know what they were. I’m a terrific science-fiction fan, but I know what I saw."
There are the basic facts. Added to them, secured by later interviews, we can list the following: Visibility was 100 miles. There were broken clouds below the plane, at 5,000 feet. All the sky above that layer was absolutely clear. Captain Killian at first guessed the objects were a mile distant, but says this was just an impression, since he cannot estimate their size. On later consideration, he was of the opinion that they were not that close. The DC-6 was flying at 8,500 feet when the objects were sighted. All lights inside the plane were switched off to afford the passengers a better view. Two other American Airlines planes were radioed. One informed Killian that he had been observing the objects for from ten to fifteen minutes when Killian radioed him. This plane was north of Killian’s position. The other plane was near Toledo, and he readily discerned the objects upon searching for them in response to Killian’s directions.
Meanwhile, independent sightings were being made by United Airlines crews. Captain A. D. Yates reported tracking the objects visually from 8:40 p.m. to 9:10 p.m., between Lockhaven, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio. Flight engineer L. E. Baney was also a witness on this plane. In addition, United Airlines Flights 321 and 937 encountered the objects while flying west of Newark. While observations were going on, radio discussion concerning them was carried on by the planes. All pilots and flight engineers agreed as to what they were seeing, and stated that they were separate vehicles on a formation course, from which they occasionally deviated somewhat, only to return to formation.
Ground witnesses added to the confirmation. At Akron, Ohio the Akron UFO Research Group, an organization of flying saucer spotters, sighted the three objects between 9:15 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. Over 100 separate reports have come in to the editors of FLYING SAUCERS from the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin area for the same night, all generally agreeing as to the number of objects, although there were scattered instances of one object or two, or as many as six.
Later, Hugh McPherson of Radio Station WCHS, Charleston, West Virginia, recorded an interview on tape between himself and Captain Killian, in which additional facts were disclosed concerning the sighting. The objects, said Killian, changed color during the sighting. The last of the three objects would change position several times, going higher than the other two. Then it would dip down under the other two before resuming its normal position to the rear. At one time, one of them disappeared, leaving only two. At another time, all three objects vanished, only to reappear suddenly. The three objects were seen in the section of the sky where the constellation Orion is visible. However, Captain Killian had both the three stars of Orion’s Belt and the three U.F.O.s in sight at the same time, and said he could not have mistaken one for the other. Passengers on the Killian plane had requested him to fly closer, for a better look, but he did not deem it within safety regulations for him to do so.
It will be interesting now to repeat the various Air Force comments on these sightings, as they were issued. On February 28, the Air Force said: ". . . pilots may have been seeing stars instead of ‘unidentified flying objects’ in a recent flurry of flying saucer reports. The Air Force Technical Intelligence Agency at Wright-Patterson Air force Base, Dayton, Ohio, gave the opinion. It said the crew of an Air Force transport flying between Washington and Dayton made a report similar to those by the crews of two commercial airliners who reported seeing bright moving objects in the skies Tuesday night, February 24, 1959 in the Pennsylvania-Ohio area. The Air Force transport was flying under a broken cloud overcast at about 8,500 feet altitude. Experts of the Technical Intelligence Agency (the word intelligence is purely technical) said they believed the pilots may have sighted stars, especially the formation of Orion."
A letter from Major Lawrence J. Tacker, Executive Officer, Public Information Division, Office of the Information Service, Department of the Air Force, Washington, D. C., to Bob Barry, Director Aerial Phenomena Investigations Society, 328 North 6th Street, Olean, New York, states as follows:
"The American Airlines sighting of 24 February new Bradford, Pennsylvania, turned out to be a B-47 type aircraft accomplishing night refueling from KC-97 tankers. The American Airlines pilot’s report of the sighting confirmed this and Air Force records show that three B-47 type aircraft were in the vicinity of Bradford, Pennsylvania, on a night refueling operation. The tanker has several groups of lights which at a distance would appear to be one or more lights. The time duration of a refueling operation varies, can last well over an hour, depending on the type of operation. The KC-97 refueling a B-47 will fly at approximately an altitude of 17,000 feet at around 230 knots. This would account for the lights being approximately 30 degrees above the American Airlines pilot’s horizon and his seeing them for 40 minutes."
Even in this letter, we have confusion. Either it was one B-47 and two KC-97 tankers; or it was three B-47s and an unstated number of tankers. Further, only the tanker has the lights which might explain the American Airlines pilot’s sighting, and would have to have the faculty of disassociation, one from the other, so that the one mounted on the rear could climb above the other two, dip below them, then return to the rear. If Major Tacker cannot say from Air Force records exactly what kind and number of planes was in the vicinity that night, it would seem that Air Force records are vague indeed, if in fact any records such as described actually exist. Perhaps it would be better to refer to Major Tacker’s Division as the Public Mis-information Division, Office of Mis-information Services (services of doubtful value to the public).
The day following the Killian sighting, the New York Herald Tribune, wishing to give it readers the facts, queried the Air Force about the sighting, shared by crews of six American and United flights on the night of February 24. On March 1, the Air Force answer appeared in the newspaper. There was much in the answer that had nothing to do with the February 24 sighting such as references to "people who can’t remember anything when they sober up the next day"; people who are either deluded by ordinary objects or are outright liars. No, the Air Force didn’t say that Killian and his five fellow pilots were drunkards, but the implication was there by these unnecessary associations. The Air Force knows quite well that airline rules prohibit drinking, particularly before flights. The reply, in effect, was a slur, since it branded the crews of the planes as incompetent observers, or deluded, and belittled the intelligence of all the passengers who saw the flying objects.
Radio Station WOR, in New York, on its "Long John" show, interviewed First Officer Dee. Here it was explained by Dee that the sky above the plane had been "very clear". It was also revealed that the plane’s crew had actually considered the possibility that what they were witnessing was a refueling operation, but that they had discarded it, except for checking upon landing if such flights were actually in progress that night and getting a negative answer.
Overlooked by the Air Force is one of the most important factors of the 45-minute sighting, which no doubt is overlooked because even Air Force mental calisthenics cannot hurdle it, specifically the constant radar watch maintained by Captain Killian and his crew during the sighting. At no time were there any objects detected by the radar screen. There can be no question that, had these objects been either B-47s or KC-97s, there would have been a powerful signal received on the radar screens of all planes included in the sighting. This one fact alone rules out any refueling operation. Captain Killian’s estimate of distance is varied, of course, ranging from one mile to an unknown distance, but based on the angles of sightings from other planes, the distance cannot be too great. Certainly at all times within efficient radar range.
American Airlines, contrary to its usual policy, seemed to be startled out of its equanimity sufficiently to issue a public statement on February 26th that its pilots had had a considerable number of sightings in the midwest, where this particular sighting had occurred.
Asked about the color changes of the objects, Captain Killian later stated that they had changed from yellow to bluish white, and ranged from extreme brilliance to temporary fade-outs. No pattern was discernible in these fluctuations, and apparently no attempt at intelligent signaling.
In Major Tacker’s report, the speed of the supposed refueling planes was given as 230 knots, or around 270 miles per hour. Yet, when questioned, Captain Killian said it was not only safety regulations which persuaded him not to chase the mysterious objects upon the request of the passengers, but the fact that he obviously did not have sufficient speed to catch up with the UFOs, since his own speed was 350 miles per hour.
If it was the Air Force’s purpose to warn all airline pilots that they would be openly ridiculed if they reported sighting flying saucers, it worked to some degree, because many airline pilots have stated that they will never report any unusual objects sighted in the air. However, other pilots are not taking the matter so negatively. They have been aroused, and a movement is underfoot to form a private organization to combine their testimony and present it to Congress to force the issue out into the open.
The Newark Star-Ledger published a report that the Civil Aeronautics Administration has been tracking unidentified flying objects by radar in all parts of the United States. If the truth were known concerning radar tracking of UFOs, the result might be startling indeed.
A group of fifty commercial pilots who fly into Newark, which is one of the busiest air freight ad passenger centers in the world, are of the opinion that the Air Force policy of secrecy on UFOs is just plain silly. Every one of the fifty pilots had reported to the Air Force seeing at lease one flying saucer. Each had been questioned and then told, in effect, that he had seen a mirage. Then to cap it off, he was warned that if he told anyone else what he had seen, he might face up to ten years in prison for revealing military secrets. To the pilots, this makes no sense. If the UFOs are mirages, as the Air Force claims, why all the secrecy? And if they are military secrets, why does the CAA bother to track them by radar?
"They are very strict about requiring us to report the mysterious objects – then they are downright insulting in telling us we haven’t really seen anything." Was the gist of the pilots’ complaints.
Truly the attitude of the Air Force is becoming utterly ridiculous, and in fact, of actual disservice to the nation as a whole. It seems time that a more respectful policy is adopted, and a more efficient one, less conductive of engendering distrust of the capability of the Air Forces in the public mind. Certainly it is not too much to ask that all military personnel measure up to "conduct becoming a gentleman" in the tradition of the American armed forces.
The ‘Orion Belt" incident has, in effect, been a sound strapping for the Air Force Intelligence Crew, and will most certainly prove to be embarrassing in the future. It will no longer be possible to keep the anger of the competent pilots and crews of our commercial airlines in check, and to intimidate them concerning the reporting of what they know to be facts and not delusions, or "delirium tremens" due to guzzling whiskey. There is no more responsible person than the commercial airline pilot, nor more intelligent.
What Captain Killian and a hundred other competent people, saw on the night of February 24, 1959, was not a group of stars known as "Orion’s Belt". Of that you can be sure. And the other thing you can be sure of is that the Air Force public announcements concerning the sighting are pure drivel. It is irresponsible and unsatisfactory, and the citizens of America have every right to demand that an immediate change be made.
We wonder what would happen if all Airline pilots carried a good camera with telephoto lens at all times? Considering the number of sightings commercial pilots have, there should soon be an impressive number of good photos of "Orion’s Belt" to present to the public. FLYING SAUCERS offers to print any photo, even if presented anonymously, which can be shown to be a legitimate image of a sighting such as are being kept quiet by pilots who can see nothing to reward them for reporting except public insults and attacks upon their intelligence and integrity and ability.
JULY 13 1959, BLENHEIM, MARLBOROUGH, NEW-ZEALAND, EILEEN MORELAND
Frederick Moreland worked at the Woodbourne station of the New Zealand Royal Air Force, his wife Eileen Moreland worked in the weekend as nurse helper and in the week at their farm on the old road of Renwick, near Blenheim, Marlborough, New Zealand. It was dark and cold, with no wind, and a cloud cover at some 700 meters.
In the morning of July 13, 1959 at 05:30, still a little sleepy, she went outside to milk the cows and started to cross the three acres yard in front of the farm to gather the cows.
She then saw that there was a bright green light among the clouds, which puzzled her because it was the wrong place for the moon. When she had arrived halfway in the yards' meadow, she saw two large green lights "like eyes", surrounded by an orange circle, igniting in the cloud and going down quickly.
The worrying green light lit all the meadow, she looked at her hands and saw that she was bathed in this green glow too and thought that she should not be here. She thus ran among the cows bathed in the green light into a group of pines on the other side of the meadow and stood there to observe.
She then saw a gleam in the shape of a saucer with two green lights at the underside coming down. The air had become very hot. Two lines of jets around the object projected colored orange flames. The bottom seemed to be of a metallic grey color. There was a weak buzz in the sky.
The object stopped its descent smoothly at approximately 10 meters above the ground and at approximately 5 meters above a group of peach trees of 3 to 5 meters in height. The jets were of a brilliant orange color, with greenish centers, and weakened on the outside, passing from orange to the yellow. They made a weak whistling noise. When the descent stopped, the jets were immediately cut, then reappeared at an angle. Each band of the jets started to enter in rotation in opposite directions at high speed, the higher band from the right to the left, and the lower band from the left to the right, turning at such a speed that the bands of lights became continuous, "like halos."
The apparatus had the form of a section of cylinder, the edge being of 2.50 to 3 meters in height and the diameter of 7 to 10 meters. The two bands of jets were one along the high edge and the other along the low edge. A light started in what seemed to be a vitreous cap or a dome of glass; which shone, while the object hovered near the center of the meadow above the group of each trees, approximately 40 meters from where she stood.
She saw two characters of human silhouettes sitting in the dome, separated one from the other of more than the length of an arm, and wearing quite adjusted suits of a shining material which was like aluminum foil. These suits folded at each movement and reflected the light. Silvery helmets started from their shoulders and she could not see their faces because they were not facing her.
The character at the back stood up and put two hands in front of him as if he leaned to look at the ground or to look at a twinkling light source between him and the other character in front of him, then he sat again. The other character remained motionless.
After a minute or two, the craft was slightly bent, the bands of jets turned off, then were re-ignited, without rotation. There was a strong hot air draught that reached Mrs. Moreland, and the craft rose vertically with its body always at a slight angle, accompanied by a very strong, almost unbearable, and high pitched whining sound, and it was lost from sight in the clouds. There was then a strange hot odor that Mrs. Moreland with compared with that of pepper and that thereafter was suggested to be the odor of ozone.
Eileen Moreland was so dumbfounded that she remained in the group of trees during one moment not knowing what to do. Then she decided to resume her normal tasks and gathered the cows, which had not reacted much to the object as only one or two did get up. She felt shaken a little shaken and embarrassed, not knowing at all what to make about what she had seen. She entered then the house and woke her husband, who had worked in night shift, and who did not make fun of her as she had feared, but asked her whether she had had phoned the police force or the Air Department. She told him she had not, and although she thought nobody would believe her she then phoned the police, who seemed interested. Her husband phoned the Air Force at Woodbourne.
An article about the sighting including descriptions of Mrs. Moreland was published in the Nelson Evening Mail newspaper. It created such interest that their farm was plagued by hordes of inquisitive sightseers, with people wandering all over the property, uninvited, leaving gates open, upsetting the cows and generally creating such a nuisance that the Morelands said that if this should happen again they would not tell about it. Drawings of the craft and occupants were made.
She was visited by the police and a representative of the Air Force, R. Healey, Operations Officer, and F. Simpson, a pilot, as well as an aviation engineer, D. Thynne, who requested a detailed sketch of the object. The Air Force personal indicated that residual radiation had been detected where the object was seen.
Mrs. Moreland underwent a series of audiotone tests in Wellington, supervised by Air Force personnel, to determine the noise levels of the object. The tests showed that the hovering noise was at 15.000 cycles and the high-pitched climbing noise at 150,000 cycles.
Thynne stated that he was "willing to believe that there might be something in it. Most of the people here are interested and have an open mind on it. They don't scoff and are willing to consider it."
The director of the Observatory of Casing, professor I. L. Thomsen, was also interested by the report and stated that although he did not see a persuasive proof of the existence of UFOs so far, the report was more than that of a simple unexplained light in the sky and that he would have liked to interview Mrs. Moreland right after the event.
It was later noticed that the row of fruit trees beneath the position where the UFO had hovered died and had to be pulled out. On the contrary, grass in the vicinity grew much faster, becoming several times taller and much greener than grass elsewhere.
On June 24, 1967, professor James McDonald arrived in New Zealand and interviewed a certain number of witnesses of UFO sightings in this country, and he questioned Mrs. Moreland, noting that the craft that she described was similar to that seen by another witness he had interviewed in New Zealand. She was also interviewed by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, and both scientists were very impressed by her account of the incident.
A source mentions the physical effects undergone by Mrs. Moreland: after several days, her hands started to swell and patches of brown color developed on her face. She showed these symptoms to her doctor. The swelling gradually disappeared, but the brown patches on her face persisted much longer, with the last spot, above her right eyebrow, disappearing only six years later.
Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C. § 107.
.jpg)
Posts
