https://phys.org/news/2026-03-unexplained-sky-1950s-independent-analysis.html
Palomar survey found odd flashes of light very small sized flashes randomly appearing and this before ANYONE on Earth launched satellites and such.
They speculate those flashes are from something artificial in the atmosphere like a machine that reflected sunlight briefly and twisting where the reflected sunlight is aiming somewhere else..
Right now that is all they have in the way of theory but it is intriguing nonetheless.
As for future research, I imagine they will use some tech to say how far in the atmosphere such light appears and the spectrogram saying 'is this a real reflection from our sun' and such and maybe they can see more subtle details in a real scientific effort to understand what is going on here.
Could be anything, an exploding firefly🙂
@sonhouse
Nowadays one speaks of a UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomenon) instead of a UFO.
Anyway, here's a 6-minute video by Sabina Hossenfelder that sums up where UAPs stand today:
The upshot is that dozens of UAPs observed before 1957 (when the first satellite was launched) have no scientific explanation. They come and go in minutes (and so are close), are highly reflective and smooth (ruling out asteroids), and show up in astrophotographs taken at the same time by different cameras (ruling out artifacts arising in the development process).
Little research is done on these UAPs because astrophysicists are afraid of ruining their careers by investigating something with even the faintest whiff of "woo." Well yeah, I've already talked here many times about the many ways modern science prays in the Church of Latter-Day Metaphysical Materialism, so should we be surprised that the hallowed halls of academia and the offices of grant application evaluators are closed to any number of investigatory proposals that truly rational minds would think have merit?
Anyway the video certainly does not conclude that aliens are behind it all. Aliens would be one explanation, but there are surely others. It bears closer examination.
@Soothfast saidJust out of curiosity, how would an astrophysicist conduct research on this subject? Like, is there a testable hypothesis in there somewhere?
@sonhouse
Nowadays one speaks of a UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomenon) instead of a UFO.
Anyway, here's a 6-minute video by Sabina Hossenfelder that sums up where UAPs stand today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYVxRHk258g
The upshot is that dozens of UAPs observed before 1957 (when the first satellite was launched) have no scientific explanation. They come ...[text shortened]... d it all. Aliens would be one explanation, but there are surely others. It bears closer examination.
I don't think the problem is woo, I think the problem is that the only thing to "study" is grainy photographs. It seems like a product of sketchy critical thinking to imagine a scenario where we figure this problem out.
@wildgrass saidThe grainy photo part was the Palomar run, 2000 plates analyzed where they did find these flashes, whatever they are, the point there is that was like 70 years ago and a LOT of technology developments have happened in that time frame.
Just out of curiosity, how would an astrophysicist conduct research on this subject? Like, is there a testable hypothesis in there somewhere?
I don't think the problem is woo, I think the problem is that the only thing to "study" is grainy photographs. It seems like a product of sketchy critical thinking to imagine a scenario where we figure this problem out.
There can be spectrographic analysis for instance, if it was shown those flashes were in fact literal reflections of our sun and the spectrum matches our sun spec, then it pretty much proves there was something physical in the atmosphere and they might even find a tail like an assumption it is some kind of probe, the scientists could see a complete cycle and see an uptick in intensity and a filling off which might tell them how fast it is turning whatever it it, hell it might even be crap secretly launched by old German engineers in Argentina, no telling what is going on till more research is done beyond just pointing to a readout on a screen, we want quantitative analysis, the pulses are not nanosecond stuff, the flash lasts for a second or two so that will be easy if they match a sighting with the right spectroscopes. For instance it could observe doppler shift see if there is a velocity component that can be measured if it is in fact sunlight reflected.
@sonhouse saidMany of the pre-1957 UAPs were observed in the middle of the night in locations in the sky that seem to rule out reflected sunlight. The video I linked to above, which was uploaded only a few days ago, gets into this.
The grainy photo part was the Palomar run, 2000 plates analyzed where they did find these flashes, whatever they are, the point there is that was like 70 years ago and a LOT of technology developments have happened in that time frame.
There can be spectrographic analysis for instance, if it was shown those flashes were in fact literal reflections of our sun and the spectrum ...[text shortened]... shift see if there is a velocity component that can be measured if it is in fact sunlight reflected.
You guys might find this interesting:
https://www.firstprinciples.org/article/serious-physicists-are-talking-about-ufos-what-changed
It's mentioned more than once in the article that investigating UFOs has long been considered fringe or pseudoscience. Rebranding UFOs as UAPs is a reflection of changing attitudes, and is intended to mitigate the stigma of studying things the public tends to associate with "little green men."
And what do I think UAPs are? I remain agnostic on the issue, and tend toward some kind of unknown natural phenomenon. I mean, really, why should aliens find humans even the least bit interesting, even assuming they have some high-tech hack for traveling the stars without being limited by the speed of light? And if aliens are buzzing around Earth, then I would imagine they're doing anthropological work and would be more discreet. Ships with a mirror finish are not discreet.
@Soothfast saidThat would blow the alien hypothesis out the water, no sunlight. So back to reality🙂
Many of the pre-1957 UAPs were observed in the middle of the night in locations in the sky that seem to rule out reflected sunlight. The video I linked to above, which was uploaded only a few days ago, gets into this.
Maybe super powerful gamma radiation ionizing a small bit of our atmosphere by running smack into a particle that makes maybe like matter/anti matter explosion but on a tiny scale.
When hyper energetic particle beam hits the upper atmosphere but doesn't cause a reaction till it hits dead on to some molecule or atom of just the right kind to allow a visible reaction but it has to last for at least a second which is way out of the wheelhouse of all particle beams since the higher the energy, the faster the reactions go and it could be over in a nanosecond which puts severe limits on that theory.
Something like that would be my best guess. Fun to think they are probes though.....
@Soothfast saidGood link, good commentary.
@sonhouse
Nowadays one speaks of a UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomenon) instead of a UFO.
Anyway, here's a 6-minute video by Sabina Hossenfelder that sums up where UAPs stand today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYVxRHk258g
The upshot is that dozens of UAPs observed before 1957 (when the first satellite was launched) have no scientific explanation. They come ...[text shortened]... d it all. Aliens would be one explanation, but there are surely others. It bears closer examination.
I'm not convinced we're looking at objects at all. Just flashes of light, or in many cases, dark spots--shadows. I would go for some naturally occurring phenomenon before assuming alien intelligence. There are spontaneous electrical phenomena in nature--St. Elmo's fire is one such--and these can generate flashes of light. The photographic plates give no clue how far away these flash of light were. Might be atmospheric electrical discharges.
@moonbus saidI think the secret is further spectrographic work, like is there a doppler for instance, a doppler would show refections if that is what it is.
Good link, good commentary.
I'm not convinced we're looking at objects at all. Just flashes of light, or in many cases, dark spots--shadows. I would go for some naturally occurring phenomenon before assuming alien intelligence. There are spontaneous electrical phenomena in nature--St. Elmo's fire is one such--and these can generate flashes of light. The photograph ...[text shortened]... tes give no clue how far away these flash of light were. Might be atmospheric electrical discharges.
There would be no doppler on a 1 second flash in the atmosphere if that is what it is for real.
My guess is consmic rays hitting just the right matter to react with a flash.
I wonder if they have figured out how high in the air these things are showing up?
If it is lower, there is the possibility of those plasmas shooting up from storm clouds which have been seen a number of times, they call them "Red Sprits" but if they go high enough there is an energy source that could cause such flashes.
Those show up some 30 to 50 miles up, still not official outer space which is defined as around 70 miles up. Sprites are seen from 150,000 ish feet up to about 250,000 feet up. They could interact also.