UFO Contact? Looking At The Evidence For Alien Visitation

Terry Hooper-Scharf

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Since 1947 it has been claimed that UFOs/flying saucers are evidence of aliens visiting the Earth.  Since the 1950s claims of encounters with landed craft and alien beings were talked about but not taken seriously.

In the 1960s the subject of UFO abduction was a "slow-burner" until the whole "Grey" abduction phenomenon and claims made by researchers such as Budd Hopkins, Prof. John Mack and Dr David Jacobs and Whitley Streiber.

But is there evidence to back up any of the claims -and what about those encountering Alien Entities but who were not abducted? 

Are these people all hoaxers, psychotic or suffering from some other mental illness as some claim?

Are those people who were exposed by Ufologists against their wishes, people who wanted to report what happened and then just get back to their everyday lives -thrust into the media glare against their will?

And if US authorities were so interested that in one case at least they broke into the home of two abductees and this was later proven -why?

Why did a hard core of these people never want publicity or to make money from what happened to them? 

Above all, why did a major UFO landing incident take place on a US Inbterstate road in front of a large number of observers (all willing to talk to investigators) never get investigated? If it were not for a radio presenter interviewing and taking notes we would know nothing of the case -it would be labelled "insubstantial".

James and Coral Lorensen -the Scopolamine Kids; using a very notorious "truth drug" on alleged UFO witnesses and selling stories to newspapers.  An investigator (a veteran) showing a witness images of "aliens" encountered in other cases before any memories were retrieved.  Worst of all, the constant "pissing competition" and breaches of trust between UFO investigators.

2017 is the time to assess the past evidence and look at the faults within Ufology.

Not everyone is going to be happy -debunkers or ufologists.

Reports Are Far Rarer Than We Think

I think that when ufologists claim that "many thousands" of CE3K/abductions are on record they are correct. That would be proof.

However, when you consider that "many thousands" of those cases were not investigated then that is proof of nothing.

There are claims made based on statistics and "data" that have been accepted by ufologists.  This is false data.  Looking at the reports ( you cannot call them cases as they were not investigated) used there are well known hoaxes, cases that involved people with psychological problems, there are reports of airships, aircraft, helicopters, meteors, aurora. For the 1954 French "UFO wave" the CE3Ks include a man who was repairing a motor vehicle, another involving a local hermit -it goes on and on.

This means that all the proposed theories based on dates, times and locations are invalid. The "Mars Cycle", ortotheny -it all falls to pieces.

The 1954 French 'wave' probably was not a big UFO event.

However, and this is the important part: there are CE3K/AE cases from that period that look quite sound. Sound in the sense that they survive scrutiny but none actually furnishing actual proof of, say, extraterrestrial visitation. Almost 70 years later no such devices as described by witnesses have emerged as terrestrial test or secret aircraft -so where are they from?

Now this is important. It means that there are not "many thousands" of CE3K/AE reports but maybe a few hundred -which without thorough investigation may be an exaggeration- actual incidents.  But this means that cases from the past do become far more important because if they are genuine then this may give us a better insight into what is going on or, at least, the type of entities behind the UFOBs -seemingly solid and constructed objects.

This is why, in my last post, I wanted to stress the importance of actually  tracking down the witnesses/percipients to these incidents -if we can talk to those from 1954, when the activity really seemed to begin in earnest, then that is important. All of those reports are scraps of paper unless you can say that the person(s) involved were spoken to and they seemed genuine even after these decades.

But we are definitely dealing with CE3K/AE reports that are rarer than we thought.  Certainly UFOB sightings are rarer because if we rule out everything other than an investigated report that appears genuine we have...only scraps of paper.

With funding I'd spend the time I have left chasing up these case -but there is no funding for this type of work.  I have tried UFO organisations but they have no interest -membership and financial gains seem to be the main aims.

If ufologists in France, Belgium, Netherlands, USA -where ever think the project worthy then go for it!  We seriously need to carry this work out or we have truly lost valuable information.

Are We Going to Let All of the Information Fade Away: Or Are We Going To Do Something About It?

I would like to offer this page from Patrick Gross' Ufologie page.  It shows the results for an incident during the 1954 "French UFO flap" -which may not have been a flap at all (see Unidentified-Identified):

The 1954 French flap:

The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this site is here.

October 3, 1954, Marcoing, Nord:

Reference number for this case: 3-oct-54-Marcoing. Thank you for including this reference number in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Reports:

[Ref. la1] "L'ALSACE" NEWSPAPER:

The newspaper reports on October 6, 1954, with no other information, that there was a sighting in Marcoing. The date is not given but the sighting is mentioned among others that took place on October 2 and 3, 1954.

See the article here.

[Ref. li1:] "LIFE" MAGAZINE:

MARTIAN MEN'S HEIGHT is shown by two bakers. Pierre Lucas (left) of Loctudy was going to well when, he said, orange ball fell from the sky. Suddenly a small bearded figure with one eye in the middle of his forehead tapped him on the shoulder. Serge Pochet (right) of Marcoing was approached by two small shadows.

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

103. Location. Marcoing France Date: October 3 1954 Time: night Bakers apprentice Serge Pochet was approached by 2 small shadowy entities, about 3-feet tall. No other information. Humcat 1954-67 Source: Humcat quoting Newspaper reports Type: E?

[Ref. dj2:] DONALD JONHSON:

Donald Johnson says that on October 3, 1954, a humanoid report occurred later than 6:45 p.m., in the night and did not involve a UFO sighting: young baker's apprentice S. Pouchet, was approached by two small shadowy beings, about three feet tall, in Marcoing, Nord, France.

The sources are noted as "Webb, David F. & Bloecher, Ted. HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case A0271, citing Life Magazine, November 1, 1954" and "Life Magazine, November 1, 1954".

[Ref. gn1:] "GNEOVNI" UFOLOGY GROUP:

In "Special notes" of their catalogue, the GNEOVNI group indicates that there exists in several books, such as Aimé Michel's "M.O.C.", Planète publishers in 1966, in which there is a number of observation cases in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais which are not included in their catalogue because there "remains much doubts as to their credibility." One of them is noted "3-10-54 Marcoing nord".

[Ref. ta1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

Location: Marcoing France Date: October 3 1954 Time: night Bakers apprentice Serge Pochet was approached by 2 small shadowy entities, about 3-feet tall. No other information. Source: Humcat quoting Newspaper reports

[Ref. ub1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

This database recorded this case 9 times:

Case Nr.	New case Nr.	Investigator	Date of observation	Zip	Place of observation	Country of observation	Hour of observation	Classification	Comments	Identification
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	Night	CE III
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.30	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.30	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	Night	CE III

Explanations:

Not looked for yet.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

Marcoing, Nord, Serge Pochet, entity, entities, dark, small, two

Sources:

[---] indicates sources which I have not yet checked.

• [la1] Article in the regional newspaper L'Alsace, Mulhouse, France, October 6, 1954.
• [li1] Part of the article "Astral Adventurers - Frenchmen report meetings with unlikely creatures", in LIFE Magazine, USA, page 28, November 1, 1954.
• [---] "HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports", compiled by David Webb and Ted Bloecher, Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), USA, circa 1978.
• [ar1] "1954 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2001, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1954.shtml
• [dj2] "The Worldwide UFO Wave of 1954", electronic article by Donald Johnson, Ph.D., USA, page 5, 2009, at www.ufoinfo.com/onthisday/papers/Worldwide%20UFO%20Wave%20of%201954.pdf
• [gn1] "Catalogue Régional d'observations", by the Groupement Nordiste d'Etudes des Observations d'Objets Volants Non Identifiés (GNEOVNI), France, undated, circa 2009, at www.geru.fr/fr/catalogue-regional-observation-ovni-nord
• [ta1] "1954: October Sightings", catalog on the UFO website Think About It, USA, not dated, found 2014, at http://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/8-1954-october-sightings
• [ub1] Online database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, found in 2016, at ufodatenbank.de

So what do you notice? Perhaps that someone notes that someone referred to this case...appearing in newspapers?  I am hoping that this sticks out like a ten feet (3m) high glowing red thumb. We have a case, once again, of 'investigation' by news-clippings.

Two reported incidents of alleged actual landings and entities and who turns up after -the press. There were people claiming to be flying saucer investigators but that amounted to noting down a news item on the radio or adding a newspaper clipping to the scrapbook. From the news clipping these people could pontificate and waffle on over pages.

I understand that there was no funding for flying saucer research but most of these people involved in the subject knew each other one way or another. There was a very real attitude, not just in France, that even if a report came from a mile or two away -why go investigate when the newspapers had all the information?

I actually almost choked on a swig of coffee when I read Italian investigators, who had not once even attempted to go and investigate Rosa Lotti's encounter in 1954 until the early 2000's, complaining and criticising newspapers and journalists for leaving out information and not doing a thorough job. Well, at least the reporters got off of their arses and went to see her.  There are literally hundreds of cases like the one above.

Writers -'ufologists'- are making money out of including these cases in their books and worst of all in their "data" or "sightings breakdowns" that make them look so good.  The truth is that they are producing nonsense: they have no data other that he wrote what so-and-so wrote who got it from whatshisname who found it mentioned in a newspaper clipping. That is then the solid data used by people like Jacques Vallee who does not actually check anything himself. 

The period 1947-2018 has literally achieved nothing when it comes to ufology other than over-hyped hysteria, bunko-men and...literally, huge volumes of trash.  Graham F. N. Knewstub's British Flying Saucer Bureau Technical Report No. 1 was in the 1950s, we all thought that we were seeing real science (I was fooled, too) when Vallee published his work on UFO Waves, Flaps and so on.  He included well known hoaxes, misidentifications of aircraft, meteors, weather balloons and much more in amongst the not investigated UFO cases. The data was useless.

Then we saw Ted Bloecher Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, published in 1967. This was an actual attempt at analysis and to piece events from that year together.  Published work that could be peer reviewed. It was as early as 1956 that Bloecher became intrigued by the growing number of “UFO occupant” reports and along with researcher David Webb, started to work on what would become the Humanoid Catalogue –HUMCAT: a collection of early “humanoid” sightings. I prefer not to use the term “Humanoids” as an all-encompassing term but the important thing is that the work began.

   Ted Bloecher’s major interest was always in occupant reports or Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K), as they would be called after J. Allen Hynek set out his categorisation of UFO sighting reports.  Bloecher had been one of the top thinkers in the Civilian Saucer Investigation group and after that became active with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and when  NICAP became “moribund”, Bloecher moved on to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS).  He was still concentrating his efforts on investigation of CE3K reports with David Webb. In 1978, CUFOS published his and Davis's Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, based on the investigation of the Kelly-Hopkinsville case.

   Bloecher could well be called the top authority on these cases in the United States by the 1970s and though he did everything he possibly could (see UFO Contact?) to get the Euporia, Mississippi landing/entity case prioritised and investigated it never was –presumably due to the prejudices of the two investigators.

   But being the top man does not come with a university grant or even financial funding and to keep records complete Bloecher filed away press reports.  This should have been the data base used for thorough investigation of the cases. Instead, ufologists just quoted Bloecher and that he, himself, was referencing newspaper reports.

   Then came the big excuse of the “Grey Abduction Paranoia” –if a case did not involve Greys then it was a fake or misidentification.  No need to bother. Or to use the much criticised US Air Force ‘excuse’ used so well by MUFON today: the amount of time that has passed negates any fruitful investigation.

Ufology does not “get the respect deserved”?  You earn respect.

Two cases from recent years I have tried to get more information on so I went to the site owners who reported on the cases.  In each I was told “I picked that up from (website) –best you contact him” and so I did: “I read that on (name of website) because it seemed interesting” and then I was advised to contact the “original source”. This original source turned out to have copied the item from some newspaper item and he could not remember which or the date. This is the most common response I get when following up old reports and today I more or less expect it.

Ufology is basing all of its claims on cases –including plain old “UFO” sightings- that were never investigated because it is much easier to sit in a chair and say “The evidence is all there” –it is not.

In the United States, France and Belgium I think there are enough ufologists with some credibility who can open cold case investigations on old CE3K/Alien Entity cases.  Once the witnesses, now in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are gone then so are all of the facts that they can tell us and to ascertain which, if any, of the CE3K/AE reports is genuine could provide us with the valuable data we need.

I am undertaking this work in the UK (though some prominent ufologists appear to not want this –I wonder why?) and I just hope and pray that someone out there will do likewise in their own country.  PLEASE!

Unidentified - Identified: Special Offer

Terry Hooper-Scharf

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The follow up to the comprehensive book "UFO Contact?"

The Author spent 1974 to 2018 specializing in the investigation and research of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K) and alien entity cases; the former involving an Unidentified Flying Object and the latter, apparently, involving none.

Previously unreported cases as well as 'lost' cases are looked at as well as the possibility that some percients suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after their encounters A must read for those with a serious interest in UFOs

Some of the contents:

 The Nottinghamshire UFO Crash of 1987…or 1988                                     

 The Llandrillo ‘Saucer’ and Berwyn Mountains ‘UFO’ Crash Retrieval   

 Strange Pennsylvania Entity Encounter                                                         

 UFO Abductees and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome                               

 The UFO That Landed On A US Highway                                                     

 My Encounters With The Men In Black                                                         

 A Previously Un-noted Alien Entity Type                                               

       

 Early 20^th Century UK Close Encounters of the Third Kind                       

 Close Encounter with a Boggart                                                                      

 Some Odd and Unusual Cases                                                                         

 Rosa Lotti and the Happy Entities                                                                  

 The Strange Case of the Woollaton Gnomes and the Mince-pie Martians 

 What Happened on the Isle of Wight and at Felixstowe?                             

 The ‘Lost’ Belgian UFO Landing Case                                                        

  

 Strange Aliens from Outer Space?                                                              

   

 Encounter with Black Aliens and Landed UFO                                 

           

 Preliminary UK CE3K/Alien Entity Catalogue                                            

Strange Ohio Humanoids: What Should We Accept As Evidence?

   Regarding mysterious Ohio creatures there was this report in 2014:

Alien Encounter in Cincinnati, Ohio, 12^th December, 2014

“We recently bought a place in the fort hill area. we first noticed after about 30 days of living here that we suddenly have a perfect circle that stays fresh green, no matter what weather, in our front yard. friday night (the 12th) we were driving home and after turning on carmel rd which leads to our road (washburn) we went around the curve by the carmel church and then up a small incline and approx. 10 feet over the incline and in front of our truck, the alien ran across the rd and into the woods. my husband saw it. he is a skeptic, almost 60 years old and a proud marine. he wouldn't have admitted to seeing it if he hadn't been in shock. i had him draw it for me when we got to the house. he says it was asphalt gray (our asphalt is gray) and about 7 foot tall, no arms that he could see, but muscular in the legs area. no jawline and it's legs were bent backward and it leaned forward as it ran.”

   The legs looked very odd –almost as though they belonged to a quadruped. However, as I do not live in Ohio I have no idea of the full variety of wildlife there but then I accidentally found the Doubtful News website and it featured this very brief incident.

https://doubtfulnews.com/2015/01/ohio-alien-creature-sighting-may-have-logical-explanation/

   In her piece, Idoubtit, expressed the opinion that what was seen was nothing more than a white Tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on its hind legs or, as others suggested, great blue heron (Ardea herodias): there are other suggestions and based on the fact that there is so little information on this sighting I tend to go for a natural explanation.

   Now there are three other incidents and they are reported on at Phantoms and Monsters, not the most evidence based website as I have found several times. Lon Strickler wrote:

  

“I recently received a 3rd report of a humanoid sighting in the Mount Vernon, Ohio area. The eyewitness' daughter contacted me:

“Hi, I am reaching out not as a hoax but to let you know that I received a phone call from my mom in Mount Vernon, Ohio recently telling me that she saw a figure of what appeared to be an alien come in one side of her basement and go out the other end of the basement. She describes this thing as being tall with long arms, and she didn’t see his face as she watched him from a side view but she did say that his head looked just like the one in this picture I’ve attached (from my last report and above). I wish to have her identity anonymous please if she is not contacted. I thought you might be interested to know that there has been another sighting in this area. My mom said that she wasn’t scared nor did she feel any danger by this presence and that it just came in and left. Thank you....

“NOTE: I am attempting to gather more information from this sighting. Lon”

   Unfortunately, for researchers this report is immediately thrown out.  We have an anonymous report which is okay if the writer clearly identifies herself to the investigator but this is not even her sighting.  It is her mother’s.  The problem is that unless an independent investigator can view and confirm the existence of the witness and that an email was sent reporting the incident and that the actual witness has confirmed details –the report is of no use.

   Does the witness use any medication or have any existing physical health problems –mental/physical?   What was her frame of mind at the time of the sighting –what kind of day had she had; any stress?

   Really, unless an investigator can talk to the witness of an event it cannot be taken as even hearsay: far too much hoaxing and fabrication takes place on the internet.

   The following is the first Ohio report:

Mount Vernon, Ohio:

“As I was driving home on 31 July 2018 at 01:43 on Ohio state route 13 north of Mount Vernon, OH a 7-8ft tall, skinny, humanoid like creature ran across the road out of a corn field across into a soybean field (from a east to west direction). I noticed the creature in my headlights from 50-75ft away as I was traveling at a rate of 55-60mph. As it came out of the cornfield I immediately let off the accelerator. At first thinking it was a deer but then seen the creature walked upright. It was 7-8ft in height, tall slender body, arms and legs small in diameter, hands and feet looked over-sized for its body proportion, small neck with oval elongated head, being dark tan to light brown skin tone and had no body hair. The creature slightly turned its head towards my vehicles headlights and I seen the creatures black eyes and small mouth just open slightly as it continued to run across the road. It barely took 2-3 steps and it was across the road at a tremendous rate of speed. I was in total shock and thought I should check it out at first but then thought for a second and being uncertain of what I may have just seen I had better get out of the area. I lost sight of the entity due to darkness. I am a 24 year USAF retired aircrew veteran with a top secret security clearance. Not to be totally bliss but would someone please advise me on what I seen because it still and truly and frightened me”. - MUFON

   The news item can be found here: https://mountvernonnews.com/article/2018/08/10/alien-sighting-north-of-mount-vernon/

   I am sorry to say that just because it carries a “MUFON” (Mutual UFO Network) tag most people will accept this outright.  What we have, though, is the old problem: a single witness driving along a dark road in the early hours. Again, you could go for a deer crossing the road but there are other options such as a waking dream and this could be a viable explanation but unless MUFON provide online access to the investigator’s report we have no idea how the interview was carried out.

   There are reasons why I tend to be more sceptical about quick sightings under these conditions but in the end it is down to what you want to believe.

   Strickler then goes on to refer to a second sighting in the Mount Vernon, Ohio area:

“Mount Vernon, Ohio - 2018-08-17: I had just gotten back to the parking lot down from Mount Vernon’s Wolf Run Park and when I turned on my lights to leave I saw it in the woods. I felt like I was being followed my entire hike and I got a little lost on the way since I was feeling super sketched out so when I saw it I was panicking and super scared. It looked startled as my lights came on and made this strange gargling scratching sound and I felt super sick to my stomach. I don’t really know what it was. Like I thought it was just someone in the woods but it’s eyes looked weird and it looked smooth and naked. It seemed to vibrate in front of my eyes as I looked at it and I ripped my phone out of my pocket and tried to take pictures but my phone seemed to lag. I have a iPhone 6 plus and I know my battery is having issues but I’ve never had anything like that. I slammed my car in reverse and got out of there as fast as I could. The noise it made still freaks me out like it was like a Velociraptor from a movie but it made me light-headed and made me feel sick in a strange way I’ve never felt”. - MUFON

   There are a lot of warning signs here: the witness felt he had been followed throughout his hike and even describes himself as “feeling super sketched out” and also: “The noise it made still freaks me out like it was like a Velociraptor from a movie but it made me light-headed and made me feel sick in a strange way I’ve never felt”.   The psychological frame of mind of the witness would need to be ascertained as there really are a lot of red lights here.

   How often did the person go hiking?  Had they been under home or work pressure at the time and had they had any other experiences before?

   The problem is that ufologists will accept these reports based on the website version or news item.  This is really –really- bad practice. We need as much information as possible about the witnesses and their lives at the time of their sightings –so long as it can be confirmed that the witnesses do exist they need not be named: it is important that genuine witnesses need their anonymity protected but research hers need to know that they are not being fed a story because that could result in months or even many years wasted –and of course bad data is used.

   Also, there are a few fake videos out there of very similar entities which makes me suspicious.  See...

   For these reports we quite honestly have nothing.

   You may think we do but that is down to personal opinion and beliefs.

AOP Face Book page has had more items posted.

AOP Face Book page has had  more items posted.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/467983846696626/

Well, They WOULD say that...wouldn't they? Update

Just a note: it appears all the paranoia and conspiracy theory nuts have been spreading silly tales.  The FBI did NOT order staff out.  There was a lot of attention paid to equipment and the scare talk of six observatories closing down is just that.  They are all still open and some have public events.  The data streams of these observatories was cut.  That suggests espionage is involved and the finger is pointing at Chiona (but let's not rule out other countries yet).

So why IS the observatory closed? Sunspot says mercury spill isn't behind mysterious evacuation and insists they have NOT made contact with aliens, despite claims of UFO sightings

CHEYENNE MACDONALD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

After days of radio silence from officials in charge of the shutdown at a solar observatory in Sunspot New Mexico, the public has been left to come up with its own explanations for what might be going on.

Operations at the National Solar Observatory have been suspended since September 6, when it was abruptly evacuated and closed down until further notice.

Theories have varied from the mundane to the extraordinary, with some even suggesting aliens could be at the root of it all.

Among the more down to Earth suggestions, some people have proposed that the facility may have suffered a leak at its Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope, which relies on a mercury float bearing.

But, the team that operates the telescope has since confirmed that there has not been a mercury incident.

The scientists also insist the mysterious shutdown is not the result of an extraterrestrial encounter, as alien conspiracies continue to build.

Scroll down for video  

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Operations at the National Solar Observatory have been suspended since Sept 6, when it was abruptly evacuated and closed down until further notice. Theories have varied from the mundane to the extraordinary, with some even suggesting aliens could be at the root of it all

The National Solar Observatory in Sunspot has been closed since last Thursday, along with the nearby post office and roughly a dozen residents, but officials remain tight-lipped as to what’s going on.

The secrecy persists even as local media report the FBI has showed up to the site, and Blackhawk helicopters have been seen circling overhead. 

There's been little insight as to what the 'security issue' may be, but now, we know two things it definitely is not – aliens or toxic mercury.

‘There’s no mercury incident,’ Sunspot Solar Observatory Director R.T. James McAteer told the Alamogordo Daily News this week. 

‘That’s a completely different set of protocols that would not have involved them locking all the doors.

‘We have a very regular maintenance routine. There is no cause for concern there.’

The director also briefly addressed the more outrageous claims, telling a local news station flat-out that the 'telescope did not see aliens.'

According to McAteer, the truth will soon come out.

'All data will be made public in its unaltered form,' McAteer told KOB 4. 'Nothing is hidden or kept secret.'

Still, the ongoing silence has done nothing but stoke suspicions that something otherworldly is up at the observatory, and claims of alien activity and UFO sightings are spreading like wildfire across the internet. 

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Some people have proposed that the facility suffered a leak at its Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope, which relies on a mercury float 

The observatory finally issued a statement on its website and across social media this Thursday, but it's done little to quell the excitement, offering no explanation on why the facility was shut down. 

The Sunspot Solar Observatory tweeted a link to its statement on Sept 13, exactly a week after the initial shutdown.

‘On Thursday September 6th, AURA made the decision to temporarily close Sunspot,’ the observatory said in a statement shared on social media.

‘The Sunspot Solar Observatory continues to work closely with AURA in order to allow for us to reopen as soon as possible.

‘With the excitement this closure has generated, we hope you will come and visit us when we do reopen, and see for yourself the services we provide for science and public outreach in heliophysics.’

Though several days have passed since the evacuation, no details have been released.

The facility is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), and has been vacant since September 6.

Last week, a spokesperson for AURA told the Alamogordo Daily News that they evacuated as a ‘precautionary measure.’ 

Otero County Sheriff Benny House revealed that even local law enforcement has been kept in the dark, despite being told to stand by.

‘The FBI is refusing to tell us what’s going on,’ House told Alamogordo Daily News.

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The observatory has finally issued a statement on its website and across social media, but it's done little to quell the excitement, offering no explanation on why the facility was shut down

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The mysterious activity sparked conspiracy theories across the internet, especially given its alignment with with this week's solar storm. A geomagnetic storm sent particles streaming toward Earth's atmosphere Sept 11

‘We’ve got people up there that requested us to standby while they evacuate it. Nobody would really elaborate on any of the circumstances as to why.

‘The FBI were up there. What their purpose was nobody will say. But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there.

‘There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything.’

As of September 11, officials confirmed the facilities were still closed, and would not be reopened until they were given the green light.

‘We were told on September 6th that we would be evacuated along with the surrounding area, we were not told why,’ USPS spokesperson Rod Sturgeon told ABC 7 KVIA.