Tag: extraterrestrials

NASA Denies Existence of Classified Briefings on James Webb Telescope Discoveries

In recent weeks, rumors spread rapidly on social media suggesting that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had made an extraordinary discovery—potentially alien life—and that members of Congress had been briefed about it.

The rumors intensified after U.S. Representative Andre Carson, who had previously chaired a congressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), declined to answer a question about classified briefings when asked by @AskaPol_UAPs run by journalist Matt Laslo on X.

The speculation prompted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, filed by The Black Vault on September 22, 2024, seeking any records—classified or unclassified—about JWST briefings provided to Congress, particularly related to the telescope’s findings. The request aimed to clarify whether any congressional briefings had been held about significant discoveries made by JWST, which has been in operation since 2021.

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Alien Visitation Beliefs Are “Spiraling Out of Control,” Becoming a Societal Problem, Warns Prominent Philosopher

The topic of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and the possibility that some form of alien or non-human intelligence is visiting Earth has captured immense public interest in recent years.

However, in a thought-provoking paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, Scottish philosopher, and professor at King’s College London, Dr. Tony Milligan, argues that this increased belief in alien visitation is fast becoming a widespread societal issue, posing challenges to science communication, government policy, and even cultural integrity. 

In his forthcoming paper, Equivocal Encounters: Alien Visitation Claims as a Societal Problem, Dr. Milligan suggests the rise of social media and the increasing influence of UAP claims in public and political discourse demands a more robust response than the periodic debunking efforts traditionally employed by the scientific community.

“This belief is slightly paradoxical as we have zero evidence that aliens even exist,” Dr. Milligan wrote in an article published by The Conversation. “If beliefs of this sort, in conspiracy, concealment, and collaboration, have made it into the mainstream, then periodic debunking has simply not worked.” 

Dr. Milligan contends that the alien visitation narrative, once confined to countercultural fringes and conspiracy theorists, is now making serious inroads into the political mainstream. 

In the past year, the belief in alien visitation has only intensified, largely fueled by several former government officials who have claimed that the U.S. government has secretly recovered crashed vehicles of non-human origin.

In 2023, The Debrief was the first media outlet to report that David Grusch, a former Air Force officer and intelligence specialist with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), had filed an official complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG). 

Grusch alleges that the U.S. government has recovered several vehicles “of exotic origin—attributed to non-human intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or otherwise unknown—based on their unique vehicle morphologies, material science analyses, and distinctive atomic arrangements and radiological signatures.” 

In July 2023, Grusch reiterated his claims under oath before the Congressional Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. In response, the Pentagon has denied that the Department of Defense (DoD) has recovered any “exotic technologies” or operates secret alien reverse engineering programs.

Because Grusch’s assertions of recovered alien craft are closely tied to classified information and national security programs, it remains virtually impossible for journalists, scientists, or the general public to verify or refute his statements.

While much of the fascination with aliens is harmless or confined to bickering on social media, Dr. Milligan argues that its expansion into mainstream belief systems can also have troubling consequences. 

The persistence of these beliefs—and the increasing pressure on governments and scientific institutions to address them—has stretched beyond simple curiosity into a problem that touches various societal sectors.

Dr. Milligan suggests that the traditional approach to handling alien visitation claims—periodic public debunking—is no longer sufficient. He further argues that dismissing alien visitation narratives without engaging in deeper discourse may even be counterproductive. 

“If we hold that the practice of science in a democratic society requires the answerability of the science community to sustained public concerns, then something more robust may be due,” Dr. Milligan asserts. “This will be the case even if the end story that is told (‘no aliens, no cover-up, no conspiracy’) is likely to be the same.” 

The exponential rise in social media platforms has amplified the potential for unsubstantiated claims, making it harder for scientific facts to break through the “background noise” that detracts from serious scientific discourse.  The focus often shifts to debunking sensational claims rather than fostering meaningful scientific dialogue.

Dr. Milligan acknowledged that social media or news outlets, like The Debrief, have played a particular role in shaping the conversation surrounding alien visitation beliefs. However, he says that science, as a whole, could do a better job addressing unscientific populism. 

“There are responsibilities that all of us have. I don’t think that we could police social media even if we wanted to. It’s too big, too varied and too entrenched,” Dr. Milligan explained to The Debrief in an email. “But people from the sciences could do much more outreach and aim for a stronger ongoing presence so that people can start to see the difference between real science and plausible imitations.”

“I also think that analytic skills (especially argument building and recognition of the difference between good and bad arguments) could be taken more seriously across academia,” he added. “In recent years, it has been watered down. Pseudoscience thrives upon bad argumentation, weak analogies, fallacies, and grudge argumentation. But without a solid analytic background, it is hard for younger academics to recognize the box of tricks that get used, and so rather than being easily recognized as bad reasoning, pseudoscience can sound a lot like fearless thinking.” 

In fields like biology and astronomy, where public understanding is already limited, the intrusion of alien visitation narratives can further complicate the communication of scientific findings.

“Particular difficulties get in the way of astrobiology outreach,” Dr. Milligan notes. “We are making progress towards understanding the origins, emergence, distribution, and survival of rudimentary life forms. However, discussions about ‘life’ and ‘space’ can easily be confused with storytelling about aliens crashing into hillsides.”

For Dr. Milligan, this is particularly concerning in the context of cultural astronomy—where astronomy intersects with indigenous cultures. He points out that Indigenous storytelling, which is deeply respected by many astronomers, is increasingly being muddled with alien visitation narratives. This fusion of indigenous origin stories with modern UFO claims can distort traditional narratives, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction.

“Astronomy faces a specialized problem because it requires ground infrastructure in indigenous areas where local people may have been worked over pretty badly by the ‘ancient aliens’ people and convinced that ‘the scientific establishment’ is concealing the truth about ancient indigenous technologies,” Dr. Milligan said. “Responsible siting of astronomy infrastructure draws upon a sense of the importance of cultural astronomy, but that becomes really tough when authentic cultural astronomy gets intermingled with new age tales and suspicions.”

Despite his criticisms, Dr. Milligan does not call for an immediate dismissal of the legitimate study and investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena or possible near-Earth evidence of alien life. 

Instead, he advocates for a more measured yet engaged response. He suggests that while current responses may not be sufficient for much longer, it is not yet time for a full-scale paradigm shift in how science tackles the issue.

In his paper, Dr. Milligan points to scientists like Harvard’s Dr. Avi Loeb, and his establishment of the Galileo Project, or Dr. Martin Elvis, who have advocated for scientific research programs exploring alien visitation claims in a more structured manner.

In his paper, Dr. Milligan notes about the Galileo Project and Dr. Loeb, “Rather than targeting the wilder horizons of dubious testimony about abduction, they have focused upon equivocal material evidence in forms such as possible derelict craft and possible physical residues.” 

Critics have suggested that Dr. Loeb’s scientific approach to hunting for alien visitors is “shaped too much by wanting to believe” and “too entangled in the kinds of populist narratives.”

However, Dr. Milligan points out that based on current attitudes towards topics like UAP or alien visitation, “it may simply be difficult to build any robust SRP program dedicated to [the] evaluation of artifact claims without involving a disproportionate number of people who also want to believe, and who have a certain attitude towards the conservatism of more mainstream lines of scientific research.”

While Dr. Milligan does not necessarily endorse scientific research programs focused solely on hunting for near-Earth alien life, he acknowledged that such programs could have merit, provided they maintain scientific rigor.

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US Congress to investigate controversial Peru ‘alien’ mummies amid fears they could be linked to UFOs

Peru’s famous ‘alien mummies’ are set for the US, where Congress has pledged to crack the mysterious cases once and for all. 

Republican Tim Burchett, known for his outspoken criticism of the US government’s UFO secrecy, vowed to assemble ‘the most important people in the world’ to examine the bodies, which some scientists claim harbor ’30 percent unknown’ DNA.

The congressman said he would initiate this new analysis at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in his home state.

The team at Tennessee have obtained half-a-million dollars from the Department of Justice late last year to better understand skeletal remains and ‘relic DNA.’

Though Rep. Burchett has not called the bodies ‘alien‘ yet, his plan is sure to spark furor akin to the firestorm that accompanied the mummies’ debut before Mexico’s Congress last September.

Legal experts also told DailyMail.com that, despite Rep. Burchett’s best efforts, US treaty agreements with Peru could delay transnational shipping of the eerie remains.

The Republican lawmaker made his pledge to veteran Mexican broadcast journalist and prolific UFO researcher Jaime Maussan in a new interview, which aired Monday. 

‘I will gladly help you,’ Rep. Burchett said during his appearance on Maussan’s ‘No Humano’ (‘Non-Human’), ‘help you find someone that would analyze them.’ 

‘I would also be interested in getting some people to analyze those bodies that are independent of the federal government,’ the congressman added, echoing myriad past comments in which he has accused federal officials of a UFO ‘cover up.’ 

‘We will look for the most important people in the world,’ Rep Burchett said, in the Spanish-translated interview, ‘right here in Tennessee.’

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville — the school that the congressman referenced as a likely candidate for this work — is home to an internationally recognized center for the forensic examination of human remains: the ‘Body Farm.’

Last December, the US Department of Justice’s R&D agency, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), awarded two grants to the Farm, more formally known as UT’s Forensic Anthropology Center, totaling more than $580,000.

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Life on Venus? New Discovery Deepens Controversy Over Possible Signs of Life in Planet’s Atmosphere

Recent observations of Venus have yielded new evidence of a compound in its atmosphere that could indicate the presence of life, according to findings that potentially lend weight to controversial past discoveries.

Phosphine, a toxic gas that astrobiologists have proposed could be associated with the presence of life on rocky planets, was initially detected in Venus’s atmosphere in a surprise discovery four years ago. Now, new observations potentially strengthen those past findings, hinting at the presence of biosignatures that, if confirmed, could mean life forms are able to thrive in the planet’s harsh environment.

A Controversial Discovery on Venus

The initial detection of phosphine in Venus’s oxidized atmosphere was reported in September 2020, when a team of scientists led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University said they had found evidence of the toxic molecule. The discovery initially led to debate over the possibility that life could exist on Venus, since phosphine is normally associated with organisms that thrive in low-oxygen environments.

The team’s announcement received considerable media attention, and also led to controversy that culminated in rebukes from some in the scientific community. Arguably, the sharpest criticism was leveled by the organizing committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission F3 on Astrobiology, who even questioned the ethics of Greaves and her team over the manner in which the discovery was revealed.

“It is an ethical duty for any scientist to communicate with the media and the public with great scientific rigour and to be careful not to overstate any interpretation which will be irretrievably picked up by the press,” the commission wrote in an official statement released at the time.

The commission added it “would like to remind the relevant researchers that we need to understand how the press and the media behave before communicating with them.”

Initial follow-up attempts to detect the compound again were unsuccessful. However, last year, Greaves and her team succeeded in detecting phosphine in deeper portions of the planet’s atmosphere during observations made with the James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) at Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. Additional detections with NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) also suggested the presence of phosphine, which may originate either within or from below the clouds on Venus.

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‘Amazing’ new technology set to transform the search for alien life

It has produced one of the most consistent sets of negative results in the history of science. For more than 60 years, researchers have tried to find a single convincing piece of evidence to support the idea that we share the universe with other intelligent beings. Despite these decades of effort, they have failed to make contact of any kind.

But the hunt for alien civilisations may be entering a new era, researchers believe. Scientists with Breakthrough Listen, the world’s largest scientific research programme dedicated to finding alien civilisations, say a host of technological developments are about to transform the search for intelligent life in the cosmos.

These innovations will be outlined at the group’s annual conference, which is to be held in the UK for the first time, in Oxford, this week. Several hundred scientists, from astronomers to zoologists, are expected to attend.

Astronomer Steve Croft, a project scientist with Breakthrough Listen, said: “There are amazing technologies that are under development, such as the construction of huge new telescopes in Chile, Africa and Australia, as well as developments in AI. They are going to transform how we look for alien civilisations.”

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Aliens have ‘100% visited Earth’ and ‘actually protect humans’ claims Stanford academic

A top academic from one of the world’s leading universities has claimed that extraterrestrial beings have ‘100%’ visited our planet and that Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) actually serve to protect humanity. Dr Garry Nolan, a Professor of pathology at Stanford University, suggested that these unexplained phenomena provide a form of planetary defense, acting as a safeguard for humans, as reported by Sunday World.

He also indicated that the theory proposed by Irishman Patrick Jackson, who resides in Cambridge, is worth further exploration. “I’ve been in conversation with Patrick for over a year now and was among the first to try to bring his ideas into the spotlight. I believe there’s something here that merits investigation,” Professor Nolan wroteover the weekend, reports the Daily Star.

The nominee for the Nobel Prize went on to say: “I am deeply cognisant of the situation. I find the findings and overall observations compellingly worth trying to comprehend,” Professor Nolan added. “Sets of spheres seen in photos that were ‘unnoticed’ over decades. Who would know to ‘hoax’ them repeatedly until Patrick spotted them? Full credit to him.”

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A new religion has Americans looking to the stars

Belief in aliens is no longer fringe. Fifty-one percent of Americans think that unidentified flying objects are likely controlled by extraterrestrials — an increase of more than 20 percentage points since 1996. And one in three believe we’re likely to make formal contact with aliens in the next 50 years.

But as someone who studies the psychology of religion, what’s most striking to me isn’t the widespread belief that aliens are out there — in the vastness of the universe, it’s unlikely that we’re alone — but rather the growing popularity of blending this belief with spirituality. From group sky-watching sessions in the desert Southwest to backyard meetups in suburbia, people are using practices like meditations, mantras, and offerings to try to commune with god-like entities they believe possess vast knowledge and technological power. And since UFOs are the supposed vehicles that aliens use to visit earth, looking for them, or sometimes even trying to entice them to appear, is a primary focus.

Is that enough to qualify this growing movement as a religion? For some scholars, the answer is yes. Diana Walsh Pasulka, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, says many faiths are characterized by stories of divine beings coming down from the sky. Whether it’s angels, spirits, or gods, we humans have always looked to the heavens for entities greater than ourselves and yearned to join them in their higher realms. Aliens easily fit that narrative. And in truth, religions based around enlightened extraterrestrials aren’t new. Raëlism, for example, is a minor religion that emerged in the 1970s in which adherents seek communion with the Elohim — an alien race they believe created Jesus, Buddha, and other great teachers as alien-human hybrids.

But now UFO spirituality is no longer only comprised of small cults; it’s a burgeoning movement — one the psychologist Clay Routledge argues can fill the spiritual needs of a growing segment of secular Americans. The question is: Why?

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The Tuatha De Danann: Were they Irish gods or aliens?

It’s little wonder the Tuath Dé or the Tribe of the Gods were mistaken as the stuff of nonsense, but we as mere mortals today can make our own conclusions. 

When I came to live in Ireland, it did not take long for me to fall in love with its misty landscape and scattered ancient ruins. They drew me in; I felt at once connected and intrigued. Leaving behind the realms of accepted Irish history I plunged into the shadowy domain of Irish mythology, and that was where I first encountered the Tuatha de Danann.

Stories of the Danann were passed down through the ages into legend via the ancient oral tradition of the poets. Later, Christian monks began assembling and recording them in an effort to produce a history for Ireland. Inevitably, these texts were influenced by their beliefs and doctrines, their translation skills (or lack of), and the desire to please their patrons. What we are left with is impossible to distill into fact and fiction.

These myths are so fantastic, so bizarre, that no scholar or historian worth his salt would ever entertain them as anything other than pure fantasy.

But I am not a scholar, and I don’t have to worry about academic reputation, and I say there is no smoke without fire.

Who were the Tuatha de Danann?

Tuatha de Danann (pronounced Thoo-a day Du-non) is translated as ‘tribe of Danu.’ Scholars are agreed that Danu was the name of their goddess, most probably Anu/Anann. However, that is unproven, and I believe could equally have referred to their leader or king, or even the place from which they originated.

They were a race of God-like people gifted with supernatural powers, who invaded and ruled Ireland over four thousand years ago. According to an ancient document known as the Annals of the Four Masters (Annála na gCeithre Maístrí compiled by Franciscan monks between 1632-1636 from earlier texts), the Danann ruled from 1897 BC until 1700 BC, a short period indeed in which to have accumulated such fame. They were said to have originated from four mythical Northern cities Murias, Gorias, Falias and Finias, possibly located in Lochlann (Norway).

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The truth behind the ‘alien’ in Colombia: As mysterious corpse is discovered, scientist reveals what it could really be – and whether or not it is an extraterrestrial

While most scientists look to the stars for signs of extraterrestrial life, others claim that the evidence might already be here on Earth.

Mysterious remains surfaced in Colombia this week, which some say could have their origins beyond this world. 

Veteran public radio reporter, Josep Guijarro, claimed the unusual corpse could be an extraterrestrial or a ‘tiny humanoid’ from an ancient species. 

But experts now say that the real explanation is likely far simpler. 

Professor Sian Halcrow, a forensic anthropologist and expert on infant remains, told MailOnline that this is probably the remains of a preterm human baby. 

…The alleged alien has a large elongated skull, slanted eyes, an umbilical cord and, an ‘unusual number of ribs’.

In an article published in Espacia Misterio, he claimed that the remains only had 10 ribs on each side of the body compared with 12 in the typical human. 

Mr Guijarro also claims that the remains emerged from ‘el cerro de los enanos’ (‘the Hill of the Dwarves’) in remote Colombia.

However, in a later post on X, he added that he could not know the exact origin of the specimen because he lacked ‘verifiable data’.  

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No, the James Webb Space Telescope hasn’t found life out there—at least not yet

The rumors have been out there for a while now, percolating through respectable corners of the astronomy and astrobiological community, that the James Webb Space Telescope has found a planet with strong evidence of life.

Some of this sentiment recently bubbled into the public view when the British news magazine The Spectator published an item titled “Have we just discovered aliens?” In accordance with Betteridge’s law of headlines, the answer to the question posed in this headline is no.

But is it a hard no? That’s a more difficult question. The Spectator featured comments by some serious British scientists, including astrophysicist Rebecca Smethurst, who said, “I think we are going to get a paper that has strong evidence for a biosignature on an exoplanet very, very soon.”

Additionally, there was British astronaut Tim Peake fanning the flames with this comment: “Potentially, the James Webb telescope may have already found [alien life]… it’s just that they don’t want to release or confirm those results until they can be entirely sure, but we found a planet that seems to be giving off strong signals of biological life.”

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