In April 2019, astronomers with the Breakthrough Listen project detected something extraordinary: a narrow radio signal at 982 MHz, seemingly emanating from Proxima Centauri, our solar system’s closest stellar neighbor. Dubbed BLC1 (Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1), the signal had all the hallmarks of a technosignature—a potential transmission from an extraterrestrial civilization.
For a brief moment, the world dared to wonder: Had we finally found evidence of alien technology?
But as scientists dug deeper, the truth proved far more mundane—and far more fascinating.
The Case for BLC1 as an Alien Signal
At first glance, BLC1 was the most compelling candidate in the history of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI):
Precise frequency: The signal was laser-sharp, just a few Hertz wide—something natural astrophysical phenomena can’t produce.
Non-zero drift: Its frequency drifted at 0.03 Hz/s, consistent with a transmitter on a planet like Proxima b.
Localized: It appeared only when the telescope pointed at Proxima Centauri, vanishing during off-source scans.
“The signal appears to only show up in our data when we’re looking in the direction of Proxima Centauri, which is exciting,” Ms. Sheikh said.
The Plot Twist: A Cosmic False Alarm
The Breakthrough Listen team subjected BLC1 to relentless scrutiny—and cracks began to appear.
May 2nd 2019, a possible BLC1 redetection: radio dish is pointed at Proxima b
1. The Drift That Didn’t Fit
If BLC1 came from Proxima b, its frequency drift should have shown:
Cyclical variation (rising and falling as the planet rotated). Orbital signatures (subtle shifts tied to its 11.2-day year).
Instead, the drift was strangely linear—more like a glitching human device than an alien beacon.
2. The RFI Doppelgängers
Then, researchers found dozens of similar signals at frequencies like 712 MHz and 1062 MHz—all mathematically linked to common radio interference (RFI). These “lookalikes” had the same drift behavior but were unmistakably human-made, appearing even when the telescope wasn’t pointed at Proxima.
BLC1 wasn’t a lone anomaly—it was part of a pattern.
3. The Cadence Coincidence
The final clue? BLC1’s timing matched the telescope’s observing schedule.
On-source (30 min): Signal detectable. Off-source (5 min): Signal too faint to see.
This created an illusion of localization—like a flickering streetlight that only seems to work when you walk by.
The Verdict: A Cosmic Mirage
After a year of analysis, the team concluded: BLC1 was interference, likely from:
Intermodulation: A “ghost” signal created when two radio waves mixed in faulty electronics.
A malfunctioning device (possibly hundreds of miles from the observatory).
Lessons for the Hunt for Alien Life
BLC1’s rise and fall taught scientists three critical lessons:
Single telescopes are vulnerable to false alarms. Future searches need global networks to cross-check signals.
The search is worth it.
For now, Proxima Centauri’s secrets remain hidden. But the hunt continues.
BLC1 wasn’t aliens—but as SETI enters a new era (with projects like the Square Kilometer Array), we’re better prepared than ever to answer humanity’s oldest question: Are we alone?
Primary Research Papers
These two papers were published concurrently and should be read together for a complete understanding of the BLC1 signal, from its detection to its ultimate classification as interference.
A radio technosignature search towards Proxima Centauri resulting in a signal of interest
Authors: Shane Smith, Danny C. Price, Sofia Z. Sheikh, et al.
Abstract: This paper describes the overall search for technosignatures from Proxima Centauri and the initial detection of the BLC1 signal. It details the characteristics that made BLC1 an intriguing candidate.
Analysis of the Breakthrough Listen signal of interest blc1 with a technosignature verification framework
Authors: Sofia Z. Sheikh, Shane Smith, Danny C. Price, et al.
Abstract: This is the companion paper that provides a deep dive into the analysis of BLC1. It outlines the verification framework used and presents the evidence that led to the conclusion that BLC1 was a product of human-generated radio frequency interference.
Additional Resources from Breakthrough Listen
The Breakthrough Listen initiative has also made a wealth of information about BLC1 available to the public.
BLC1 – Breakthrough Listen’s First “Signal of Interest”: This is the main resource page from the Berkeley SETI Research Center, providing summaries, links to the papers, data, and other supplementary materials.
This week’s WOW! Signal news highlights several upcoming UFO-related events, including a nine-day mindsight and skywatching gathering at Mt. Shasta in August and a global online event for “experiencers” on July 9th. Advocacy is also a key theme, as the New Paradigm Institute is urging citizens to push for a congressional investigation into UAP disinformation. The newsletter also features a guest column on presidential UFO encounters, commemorates the famous Phoenix Lights incident, and presents a UAP photo of the week from New Jersey.
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Epic “Mindsight Event” Coming to Mt. Shasta in August! New Paradigm Institute Calls for Citizens to Take Action! Global Online Event July 9 Celebrates Experiencers! The UFO Encounters Presidents Don’t Want Us To Know! The Phoenix Lights Event Continues to Fascinate! What’s Going On In The Sky Lately?
All This Plus UAP Photo of the Week, Future Events, And More!
What could be the worst-case scenario upon announcing the discovery of extraterrestrial technological intelligence? This list is not inclusive.
Scenarios after Human-ETI Contact. This list is not inclusive of all possibilities.
Potential Consequences:
1. Mass Panic:
The crisis of order. Exploitation could surge, with doomsday cults gaining followers and charlatans claiming to be “ambassadors” for the aliens, preying on the fearful.
Economic collapse might occur, as markets could crash due to radical uncertainty following an extraterrestrial discovery. Misinformation would fill the information vacuum, leading to conspiracy theories and fear-mongering, potentially inciting violence and civil unrest.
However, studies of disasters (including the COVID-19 pandemic) suggest that true, sustained mass panic is less common than often assumed.
2. A Retraction: The Crisis of Credibility
What if subsequent investigations prove the discovery to be false, requiring a retraction? This could discredit the entire SETI field.
Such a scenario would be a catastrophic embarrassment. The field already struggles with what some call the “giggle factor,” and being discredited for a generation could severely damage public trust in scientists and science as a whole. Securing funding for future searches might become nearly impossible after a failed extraterrestrial discovery.
3. Humanity Dethroned: The Crisis of Meaning
What if the extraterrestrial discovery implies that humankind no longer occupies the pinnacle of evolution in the cosmos?
Religions centered on human exceptionalism could face a fundamental crisis. However, studies on this subject have shown that the impact may be negligible.
Will Discovering Extraterrestrial Life Challenge Religion?
Examining the reaction of religion to the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence. Will beliefs be challenged or transformed? Discover more.
Read More
contactproject.org
Our entire worldview, which places humanity at the center of meaning, could be invalidated. This could lead to profound, species-wide depression, a loss of purpose, and what philosophers term “cosmic despair.” Why strive, create, or even continue if we are but ants on an unremarkable anthill?
(I disagree.)
4. The Optimistic View (The Cosmic Perspective):
Would this discovery temper humankind’s worst instincts, such as warfare, and diminish the power of despotic rulers?
Carl Sagan and others have hoped that knowing we are not alone would foster a “cosmic perspective.” Realizing we are all citizens of a fragile, shared planet in a vast cosmos could make nationalism, racism, and warfare seem petty and childish. Such an extraterrestrial discovery could unite humanity and pose a threat to despotic rulers whose power relies on manufacturing “us vs. them” conflicts.
(I agree.)
5. The Pessimistic View:
A despotic ruler thrives on controlling information and manipulating fear. An alien intelligence could become the ultimate propaganda tool.
A dictator might claim that the aliens pose a demonic threat, justifying crackdowns and military expansion to “protect” the populace.
They could also claim that the aliens have endorsed their rule, creating a new “divine right” to govern after such an extraterrestrial discovery.
The discovery could trigger an unimaginably high-stakes Cold War, where nations fight not for territory or resources but for control of communication channels and any technological secrets the aliens might reveal.
(Well, that’s why we have HAM radio operators and satellite dishes.)
You won’t believe the bizarre new way scientists are hunting for aliens! Forget listening for strange signals—the real proof might be in their TRASH! A team of maverick researchers is now searching for “technosignatures,” and their wild ideas are blowing the lid off the search for ET.
Scientists Now Hunt for ET’s GARBAGE!
The Cosmic Archaeologist:
Star astronomer Jason Wright makes the bombshell claim that alien junk—like their old space probes and pollution—could last for BILLIONS of years, making their garbage heap easier to find than the aliens themselves!
The Pollution Detective:
Researcher Jacob Haqq Misra is on the hunt for the ultimate smoking gun: cosmic factory fumes! He wants to find banned industrial chemicals and even signs of massive alien “space farms” in the atmospheres of distant worlds.
The Ocean Hunter:
But it gets weirder! Sofia Sheikh has the most mind-blowing theory yet—she wants to find microplastics in alien oceans! She even dares to ask if advanced ETs could be aquatic creatures who never needed fire and warns we could be looking right at their super-advanced worlds and be too blind to even notice!
The Search for Intelligent Life Is About to Get a Lot More Interesting
There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe, home to an unimaginable abundance of planets. And now there are new ways to spot signs of life on them.
New Unknown Signal System Detected Related to UAP Activity!
MUFON Gears Up for Its 2025 Symposium!
Hollywood Disclosure Alliance Achieves 200 Members!
UnX Publishing Releases New Book “All Monsters are Human!”
All This Plus UAP Photo of the Week, Future Events, And More!
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Highlight:
Hollywood Disclosure Alliance Marks Its 200th Member
Beverly Hills, CA, JUNE/JULY 2025 —The Hollywood Disclosure Alliance has announced that it has just secured its 200th member. The announcement was made by Dan Harary, The HDA’s Chairman/Co-Founder…Read More
What if time isn’t a single, smooth river but a hidden cascade of microscopic “droplets”? Blending hard science with speculative fiction, “The River of Time” follows Dr. Mara Lentz to CERN, where a mysterious program called Chronos may prove that every moment in the universe comes in indivisible ticks.
The river was frozen solid—or so it seemed. Beneath the glassy sheath of ice, water still slid forward, grain by grain, molecule by molecule, each one stealing an instant from the future and secreting it into the past. Dr. Mara Lentz stood on the footbridge and let her gloved fingers tap against the rail, her every heartbeat echoing the tick-tock she had sworn to conquer. In the distance, CERN’s cavernous domes glittered beneath the winter sun like watch gears strewn across the snow. Today, she promised herself, she would decide whether time was prisoner or jailer, river or clock.
Frozen River
The Invitation
A month earlier, the summons had arrived in a yellowed envelope, the handwriting achingly familiar to any physicist.
Mara, If you wish to see how deep the river of time runs—and whether it is made of droplets—come to Geneva. A. E.
Impossible, of course. Albert Einstein had been dead for nearly a century. Yet the looping letters were unmistakable, right down to the playful curl beneath the final E. A prank, she assumed, until the envelope yielded a security badge to CERN and a one-sentence note: “Ask for Chronos.”
Chronos
The man who met her at CERN reception looked nothing like a mythic god and everything like a graduate student in overwashed jeans.
“Call me Noah,” he said, steering her through a maze of elevators that plunged beneath the Earth.
“Chronos is more program than person,” he explained. “A string of algorithms built to test the most radical hypothesis on the table—that time itself has a dual identity.”
“A wave and a particle?” Mara asked, half-teasing.
“Exactly.” Noah’s eyes gleamed in the fluorescent gloom. “Just like light.”
They reached a vault-like door. Above the keypad a single line was etched into steel: FOR AS LONG AS WE HAVE BEEN HUMAN, WE HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO THE TYRANNY AND GRACE OF TIME.
CERN Control Room
Inside, the air thrummed with cooling fans and suppressed excitement. Monitors covered the walls, each looping equations Mara knew as well as her own pulse—general relativity’s smooth curves entwined with quantum mechanics’ jagged spikes.
The Duality
“For a century,” Noah continued, “we’ve known that if you watch an electron’s path, it behaves like a point particle. If instead you watch its spread, it becomes a wave. Wave-particle duality. Our question is whether time plays the same trick.”
“What if time flows in indivisible droplets?” she murmured.
“Chronons,” Noah supplied. “Each a jump of 10⁻⁴³ seconds—the Planck tick.”
Emergence
At the Planck scale, time does not flow; it hops.
Aggregating trillions of those hops, a seamless current emerges—just as a lake’s surface looks smooth though every molecule jitters.
The arrow of time appears only once enough chronons click in concert.
When fatigue blurred her vision, Mara imagined she could hear them: countless microscopic gears ratcheting reality forward—click … click … click …
The Rift
But the duality, however elegant, sat like an unsolved crime against everything Einstein had bequeathed. Relativity demanded a continuous spacetime; quantum mechanics insisted on discreteness. Chronos promised a bridge but offered no proof.
“Tools,” Noah groaned, rubbing bloodshot eyes. “We need instruments slim enough to slip between two ticks, to watch the droplet itself.”
CERN Control Room
“Or,” Mara countered, “we find evidence in the macroscopic world—patterns only quantized time could leave behind.”
Einstein’s Ghost
That night, Mara reopened the mysterious envelope. A translucent sheet she’d missed before drifted out, bearing Einstein’s familiar scrawl:
“The answer is not in the river or the clock, But in believing they are one; Watch the particle, see the wave— Then look away and they are gone.”
The River and the Clock
Back in the vault at dawn, Mara loaded gravitational-wave echoes from merging black holes. Traditional analyses assumed continuous time. She resampled the data at chronon intervals.
CERN Synchro-Cyclotron
A pattern emerged: micro-staccato pauses in the waves, like hidden commas in a cosmic sentence. They repeated every 10⁻⁴³ s.
Noah stumbled in with two coffees. One sloshed onto the floor as he saw the display. “Droplets,” he whispered. “A river of droplets.”
Convergence
Word sprinted through CERN, through Caltech, Tokyo, Cape Town. Observatories retuned their algorithms to chronon cadence. Within weeks, corroborating signals poured in. Everywhere physicists looked, the universe ticked like a flawless watch hiding inside a roaring river.
Epilogue
Mara returned to the frozen footbridge. Beneath her boots, the river still looked motionless, an immense silver ribbon. Yet she knew it for what it was: trillions upon trillions of glimmering beads—each an indivisible heartbeat of existence.
The tyranny of time remained—but its grace had multiplied. Every instant was a jewel, perfect and complete, and the future was nothing more than an undiscovered sequence of brilliant ticks.
And somewhere, maybe in the hush between those droplets, she imagined she heard Einstein laugh—soft as snow falling on the river that was also a clock.
Background:Is Time Both a River and a Clock?
A Dual Identity for Time?
What if time behaves just like a particle of light? This radical new idea from the frontiers of physics suggests that our most fundamental reality has a dual identity.
The Birth of the Arrow of Time
The dynamics of a collection of particles gains a direction in time, called the arrow of time, when there are many particles. And this arrow of time is absent for a single particle.
Tyranny and Grace: Time’s Two Faces
For as long as we have been human, we have been subject to the tyranny and grace of time. It is the steady, flowing river of our lives, as Einstein imagined it—a dimension that can be bent and stretched by gravity. It is also the relentless tick-tock of the clock, marching forward one second at a time. But what if both are true? What if time itself leads a double life?
A Quantum Clue to the Puzzle
On the cutting edge of theoretical physics, a fascinating proposition is taking shape. It suggests that time may not be one thing or the other, but could possess a dual nature, an idea borrowed directly from the strange and proven rules of the quantum world. While still speculative, it’s a powerful lens through which scientists are tackling the biggest unanswered questions in the cosmos.
The Lesson of Wave-Particle Duality
The concept hinges on an analogy to one of science’s most famous paradoxes: wave-particle duality. A century of experiments has shown that an entity like an electron or a photon refuses to be pigeonholed. If you design an experiment to track its path, it behaves like a discrete, pinpoint particle. But if you design it to observe its flow, it acts like a continuous, spread-out wave. The nature it reveals depends entirely on the nature of the measurement.
Applying this same principle to time offers a startlingly elegant way to resolve a deep conflict in physics. It would mean that time’s identity is also dependent on context.
Relativity’s Smooth River
At our human scale—the world of falling apples and orbiting planets described by Einstein’s theory of general relativity—time behaves like a continuous wave. It is the smooth, flowing river we all experience, a dimension that warps and bends to create the force we call gravity.
Zooming to the Planck Scale
But if we could zoom down to the impossibly small Planck scale, a fraction of a second so tiny it’s written with 43 zeroes after the decimal point, we might see time’s other identity. Here, it would behave like a particle. In this view, time would not flow but “tick” forward in indivisible, quantized jumps. These hypothetical droplets of time, sometimes called “chronons,” would be the fundamental clockwork of the universe.
Emergent Time: River from Droplets
This isn’t just a philosophical parlor game. The idea aligns with a leading theory known as Emergent Time, part of the grand quest to unite Einstein’s relativity with quantum mechanics. This framework suggests that the smooth river of time we perceive is not fundamental at all. Instead, it *emerges* from the collective behavior of countless discrete, particle-like ticks at the quantum level—much like the smooth, liquid surface of a lake emerges from the chaotic interactions of trillions of individual H₂O molecules.
One Reality, Two Appearances
From this vantage point, there is no paradox. The “particle” nature of time is its true, fundamental identity, while the “wave” nature is what we perceive at our macroscopic scale. It’s one reality that simply appears differently depending on whether you’re looking at the individual pixel or the entire screen.
A Roadmap to a Theory of Everything
We do not yet have the tools to probe reality at such an infinitesimal scale to prove it one way or the other. But the proposition offers a tantalizing path forward. By daring to question the very fabric of our experience, scientists may be on the verge of solving the ultimate puzzle: creating a single, unified theory of everything. The answer may have been hiding in plain sight all along—not in the river or the clock, but in the profound possibility that they are one and the same.
References:
Amelino-Camelia, G. (2013). Quantum-Spacetime Phenomenology. Living Reviews in Relativity, 16(1), 5.
Isham, C. J. (1993). Canonical quantum gravity and the problem of time. In L. A. Ibort & M. A. Rodríguez (Eds.), Integrable Systems, Quantum Groups, and Quantum Field Theories (pp. 157-287). Springer.
Pulsars have puzzled scientists for over 50 years, and many mysteries remain. Some wonder if these cosmic signals could actually be alien beacons rather than natural objects.
You’ve heard of neutron stars and their eerily precise lighthouse flashes of radio waves. But did you know the world’s leading experts openly admit they still don’t know how—or even why—pulsars pulse? Despite more than five decades of dedicated research since their discovery, fundamental aspects of the mechanisms that govern pulsars remain incompletely understood.
WHAT THEY WON’T TELL YOU
• 50 Years of “Mystery Science” – Pulsars were discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell. – The first pulsars were named “LGM” for “Little Green Men”, because they resembled deliberate intelligent signals from aliens. – The discovery was kept a secret for two years, until a “natural” explanation could be found. – Yet top reviews concede: “No consensus on how pulsars make coherent radio beams.” – Even their heavyweight magnetosphere models are “pure speculation,” say the academics.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered Pulsars in 1967
• Energy “Conversion” Conundrum – How does a spinning neutron star turn its spin into light and X-rays? – Experts shrug: “We don’t know where particles get accelerated… or how.”
• Interior Secrets Locked Tight – The neutron-star Equation of State? A “well-kept secret,” even on Wikipedia. – We can’t recreate these ultra-dense conditions on Earth—so we’re flying blind.
THE BIG QUESTION SETI WON’T ASK
If we’re this stumped by “natural” objects, could some pulsars actually be artificial beacons—designed by a super-advanced Kardashev Type III civilization? Imagine harnessing a stars energy to craft perfect, long-range lighthouses! Isn’t this a concept that the Kardashev Scale proposes?
Yet SETI protocols dismiss the idea outright: • They focus on faint, homely radio signals—never megastructures beaming across the Milky Way. • They’ve never seriously tested whether pulsar “noise” could be cosmic Morse code.
WHAT IF SOME PULSARS ARE ETI LIGHTHOUSES?
– Perfect timing, colossal power output, pinpoint beams… sounds like engineered tech! – A K-III society could be “pinging” planets for millennia, and we’ve assumed it’s just physics playing tricks.
CALLING ALL STAR HUNTERS
It’s time to break the dogma. We need to: 1. Re-examine pulsar data for hidden patterns or intentional modulation. 2. Expand SETI’s search to include high-power, pulsed signals. 3. Admit our ignorance—and embrace wild ideas to solve these cosmic riddles.
Until we dare to ask whether pulsars are aliens’ calling cards, we’ll remain stuck in the dark—waiting for E.T. to ring a bell we refused to check. Isn’t it time someone blew the whistle on astrophysics’ biggest oversight?
Scientists on the Limits of Pulsar Knowledge
Beyond the specific unsolved problems within subfields of pulsar research, there are numerous instances where scientists make overarching statements explicitly acknowledging the incomplete state of current knowledge regarding these enigmatic objects.
Several key publications and resources directly state the limitations in our understanding of pulsars:
Beskin, Chernov, Gwinn, & Tchekhovskoy (2015):
In their review “Radio Pulsars,” these authors plainly state, “Almost 50 years after radio pulsars were discovered in 1967, our understanding of these objects remains incomplete.” This is a clear and high-level admission of the persistent gaps in knowledge from experts summarizing the field.
Hankins, Rankin, & Eilek (2009):
The white paper “What is the Physics of Pulsar Radio Emission?” opens with the frank assessment: “Despite much careful theoretical and observational effort, the details of how these rapidly rotating neutron stars radiate are still a mystery.” While focused on radiation, this statement implies broader difficulties in understanding the core processes.
Contopoulos, Kalapotharakos, & Kazanas (2014):
In “A new standard pulsar magnetosphere,” the authors remark, “Though pulsars were discovered almost fifty years ago, they still remain mysterious stellar objects.” This general statement encapsulates the enduring enigmatic nature of pulsars.
NASA on PSR B0943+10:
When discussing the “puzzling pulsar” PSR B0943+10, a NASA resource notes that “astronomers… aren’t sure how the particles get stripped from the surface of the star and accelerated to high energies”. The observation of its inverse radio/X-ray pulsing “reignited debate,” indicating that any prior consensus on such emission behavior was either absent or fragile and that existing models were insufficient.
“Pulsar Electrodynamics: an unsolved problem”:
The very title of a research area or a specific paper can be telling. While there is a paper on this topic, the broader identification of “Pulsar Electrodynamics” as “an unsolved problem” is a direct admission of ongoing challenges. The source itself discusses unresolved issues like “charge starvation” and “current starvation” in electrodynamic models, implying these are areas not fully settled.
The Unknown Equation of State (EoS):
A “Well-Kept Secret” A critical unknown is the Equation of State (EoS) of matter at these supranuclear densities. The EoS describes the relationship between pressure, density, and temperature, and it dictates the macroscopic properties of the neutron star, such as its radius for a given mass and its maximum possible mass.
Neutron star equation of state, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1387647310000564
Multiple sources unequivocally state the current lack of knowledge. Wikipedia’s entry on Neutron Stars, often reflecting expert consensus, asserts: “The equation of state of neutron stars is not currently known.” The entry elaborates that this uncertainty arises because the extreme densities are impossible to replicate in terrestrial laboratories, and theoretical modeling must incorporate General Relativity as well as complex aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), potential superconductivity, and superfluidity of nuclear matter. Understanding the EoS is described as a “major unsolved problem in fundamental physics.”
This sentiment is strongly echoed in the scientific literature. A 2017 review by Chamel et al., “The physics of the neutron star crust,” notes that while the physics of the outer crust is relatively better understood, “the structure of the matter in neutron star cores and in particular its equation of state remain the well-kept secret of neutron stars”. The inability to definitively determine the EoS means that fundamental parameters, such as the precise upper mass limit for neutron stars before they collapse into black holes (the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit), remain uncertain, with theoretical estimates varying.
SIX-SIGMA:
Scientific Theories: When a theory encounters contradictory evidence or fails to explain a new observation, it is not a “defect” in the scientific process. Instead, it signals that the theory may be incomplete, incorrect under certain conditions, or in need of refinement. Such discrepancies are essential for scientific progress, often leading to new hypotheses or even paradigm shifts. This mindset may be exactly what’s needed to advance our understanding of pulsars.
Beskin, V. S. (2018). Radio pulsars. Physics-Uspekhi, 61(7), 655–686.
Hankins, T. H., Rankin, J. M., & Eilek, J. A. (2009). What is the Physics of Pulsar Radio Emission? Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Science White Papers, no. 120.
Contopoulos, I., Kalapotharakos, C., & Kazanas, D. (2014). A new standard pulsar magnetosphere. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 443(1), L45–L49.
NASA. (2013, October 23). NASA’s Chandra and XMM-Newton Find Puzzling Pulsar. NASA Missions.
Petri, J. (2019). Pulsar electrodynamics: an unsolved problem. Journal of Plasma Physics, 85(5), 15850501.
Chamel, N., Fantina, A. F., & Zdunik, J. L. (2017). The physics of the neutron star crust. In The Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars (pp. 57-95). Springer, Cham.
In 1985 I was living in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. I regularly raided the local library in Augustine Street for reading material. It no longer looks like this, but I remember walking up the stairs on the left:
Old Galway Central Library, Augustine Street, from memory
The Mysteries of Pulsars Capture My Imagination
There, I discovered a book about pulsars. As I read, I was struck by the remarkable characteristics of these cosmic phenomena—they emitted incredibly regular radio pulses, seemingly ticking like celestial clocks. Something about their precise periodicity raised a suspicion in my mind: Could these signals be of artificial origin? The idea gnawed at me. It seemed almost too perfect, too synchronized, to be purely natural.
Antony Hewish in front of 4.5-acre array, image by Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
Delays and Doubts: The Scientific Community’s Caution
What puzzled me even more was the fact that the researchers who first detected pulsars waited nearly two years before publishing their findings. When they finally did, they explained the regular radio transmissions as the result of some natural astrophysical process—perhaps rapidly spinning neutron stars or some other exotic object. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was being hidden, or at least not fully explored. Why delay the publication? Why rush to explain away the strange signals with a natural cause, when they could just as easily be a message—or evidence—of intelligent life?
First Observation Of Pulsar, image by Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
A Personal Mission: Reaching Out to a Nobel Laureate
I found myself unable to let go of the thought. I decided I had to try and get some answers directly from someone who knew the science firsthand—Professor Antony Hewish himself, the Nobel laureate who played a key role in the discovery of pulsars.
The walk to the phone booth on Eyre Square was not long—just a few minutes—but to me, it felt like a journey into the unknown. I passed by the familiar sights: the cobblestone streets, the bustling cafés, and the distant clang of the clock tower. The square was busy with people, their conversations and footsteps creating a constant hum. I could feel the cool breeze on my face, carrying the faint smell of brewing coffee from nearby cafés, mingling with the crisp air of a typical Irish day.
Pádraic Ó’ Conaire statue on Eyre Square, Galway
Making the Call: Asking the Expert About Artificial Origins
As I approached the square, I paused briefly to steady my breathing. I reached into my pocket, clutching the handful of Irish pound coins I had carefully gathered for this purpose. I looked at the phone booth—a small, glass-panelled box standing at the corner of the square, slightly worn but functional. Its faded paint and the faint smell of old metal reminded me of countless moments of waiting and hope.
I stepped inside, feeling the cool metal of the door handle against my hand. The interior was dimly lit, with the faint glow of the coin slot and dialing pad. I took a moment to collect myself. The hum of the city outside seemed to fade into the background as I lifted the receiver and inserted the coins one by one into the slot, hearing the satisfying clink as they dropped into place.
The phone was a rotary-style model, but it worked—reliable and straightforward. I stared at the dial pad, my fingers trembling slightly as I entered the number for the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. The line was long-distance, and I had only a limited amount of coins. I whispered a quiet prayer that the call would go through.
The Interview
Finally, I heard the connection click. A calm, measured voice answered.
Antony Hewish on the phone (AI generated)
“Hello?”
“Professor Hewish?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Yes, speaking,” came the reply.
I hesitated for a moment, my mind racing with questions. Then I blurted out, “I’m calling to congratulate you on the discovery of pulsars.”
There was a brief pause, and I could almost hear him smiling on the other end of the line.
He thanked me politely, then I took a deep breath and asked, “I find the subject absolutely fascinating, and I was wondering—are you absolutely certain that pulsars are not of artificial origin?”
He responded with quiet confidence, “Yes, I am certain.”
And then he proceeded to explain, his voice steady and reassuring:
“Pulsars are fascinating objects. They are highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron stars—remnants of massive stars that have gone supernova. As they rotate, their intense magnetic fields funnel particles toward their magnetic poles, which act like cosmic lighthouse beams. When these beams sweep past Earth, we detect them as highly regular radio pulses.”
Reflections Under the Galway Sky
I listened intently, my mind swirling with his explanations—ones I’d heard before, yet they only deepened my curiosity. I asked again, perhaps more insistently:
“And you are 100% sure that pulsars are not of artificial origin?”
Hewish chuckled softly on the line, “Yes, absolutely certain.”
I thanked him for his time, and before used up all my coins, I ended the call. Stepping back onto the street, I looked up at the grey, cloudy sky, pondering the vastness of space and the mysteries it still held. The conversation left me with a lingering question: could we someday truly find signs of intelligent life out there?
One Second of Error in 30 Million Years
The universe’s most precise timekeepers—the most stable pulsars—are so remarkably accurate that they would drift by only a single second over tens of millions of years. Their stability rivals—and in some respects even surpasses—that of our most advanced atomic clocks.
The most stable known millisecond pulsar, designated PSR J1713+0747, exemplifies this extraordinary precision. Its rotational period is so consistent that it would accumulate an error of just one second after approximately 30 million years.
When we talk about the superiority of pulsars as cosmic clocks, we’re referring to their ability to keep perfect time over millennia—far beyond the reach of any human-made clock. Engineers can build clocks that lose only one second in 300 billion years, but such devices are fragile, often breaking down within a few decades. Pulsars, on the other hand, can continue their steady ticking for billions of years, offering an unmatched cosmic standard of time.
Commemorating the historic Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting—24 June 1947 (Full transcript and link to original radio interview from the 26th of June, just two days later.)
THE SIGHTING THAT STARTED IT ALL
Seventy-seven years ago today, a 32-year-old Idaho businessman and experienced pilot named Kenneth Arnold unwittingly ignited the modern fascination with unidentified flying objects. While flying his CallAir A-2 over the Cascade Mountains on 24 June 1947, Arnold spotted nine silvery objects weaving in formation near Mount Rainier. He later described their motion as “like a saucer if you skip it across water,” a phrase newspapers soon shortened to “flying saucers,” forever branding the phenomenon.
ON-AIR EXCLUSIVE
The broadcast of the first radio interview with Kenneth Arnold itself has its own remarkable backstory: for over forty years, the KWRC interview existed only in second-hand reports—until researcher Pierre Lagrange uncovered the original vinyl in 1988. This pristine recording finally lets us hear Arnold’s exact words and raw emotion in the immediate wake of his sighting and the media storm that followed.
Kenneth Arnold interviewed by Ted Smith, KWRC, 26 June 1947:
“Every newspaper across the nation has made headlines out of it, and this afternoon we are honored, indeed, to have here in our studio the man himself, Kenneth Arnold, who we believe can give us a first-hand account of what happened. Kenneth, first of all, if you’ll move a little closer to the microphone, please tell—in your own words, as you told us last night in your hotel room and again this morning—what you were doing and how this entire thing started. Go ahead, Kenneth.”
ARNOLD RECOUNTS THE FLIGHT
(Kenneth Arnold) “Well, at about 2:15 p.m. I took off from Chehalis, Washington, en route to Yakima. Every time any of us fly over the country near Mount Rainier, we spend an hour or two searching for the Marine plane that’s never been found; they believe it’s in the snow somewhere southwest of that area, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet.
I had made one sweep close to Mount Rainier and down one of the canyons, looking for any object that might be the Marine ship, and about fifteen minutes later, as I came up out of the canyon, I was approximately 25–28 miles from Mount Rainier. I’d climbed back to 9,200 feet when I noticed, to my left, a chain that looked like the tail of a Chinese kite—weaving and moving at terrific speed across the face of the mountain.”
FIRST IMPRESSION
“At first I thought they were geese, because they flew like geese, but they were traveling so fast that I immediately decided it had to be a formation of new jet planes.”
TIMING THE OBJECTS
“As the objects reached the edge of Mount Rainier, heading about 160° south, I thought I’d clock them. It was such a clear day, and I could use Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams as reference points—pilots love arguing about speed. They flipped and flashed in the sun like mirrors, and the glare through my Plexiglas windshield nearly blinded me.”
TAILS—OR LACK THEREOF
“It was about 2:59 p.m. when I started timing them with my sweep-second hand. I kept looking for their tails; they had none. Thinking something might be wrong with my eyes, I turned the plane around, opened the window, and looked out—still no tails.”
BRIEF BUT MEMORABLE
“The entire observation lasted no more than two and a half minutes. I could see them clearly only when they tipped and reflected the sunlight. They looked like a pie plate cut in half with a convex triangle at the rear.”
UNCONVENTIONAL FLIGHT
“I thought perhaps they were jet planes with their tails painted green or brown and didn’t think much of it, but I kept watching. They didn’t fly in the conventional formation taught in our Army; they wove in and out above the mountaintops and even dipped into canyons—probably by about 100 feet. Against the snow on Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, they were unmistakable.”
INCREDIBLE SPEED
“When the last one passed Mount Adams, I checked my watch: 1 minute 42 seconds. Later, using my map, I calculated their speed. Allowing for error, it was roughly 1,200 mph—even if I stretched the flight time to three or four minutes, they’d still be exceeding 800 mph. To my knowledge, nothing but some German rockets could do that.”
LEVEL FLIGHT, NO DIVES
“They maintained a more or less constant altitude—no climbing or diving, just straight and level. I joked with the fellows at the airport that they must have had a tailwind, but the joke didn’t help much.”
HAND ON THE BIBLE
“To the best of my knowledge, that is exactly what I saw. As I told the Associated Press, I’d be glad to confirm it with my hand on a Bible.
Kenneth Arnold in front of his CallAir A-2 plane
Whether it involves our Army or Intelligence, or some foreign country, I don’t know. But I did see it, and I did clock it. I just happened to be in the perfect position, and it’s as much a mystery to me as to anyone who’s been calling me for the last 24 hours.”
NEWSROOM FRENZY
(Newscaster Ted Smith)
“Kenneth, thank you very much. I know you’ve been busy these last 24 hours—I’ve spent some of that time with you myself—and both the Associated Press and United Press have been after you every minute. This story has been on every newscast and in every newspaper I know. United Press in Portland has made several telephone calls to Pendleton—to me and to you—and New York is clamoring for details.”
LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
“We may have an answer before nightfall. If it’s some new type of Army or Navy secret missile, there will probably be an announcement and that will be the end of it—or perhaps we’ll finally get a definite explanation. I understand United Press is checking with the Army and Navy now, and we hope for something concrete soon.”
STAY TUNED
“We certainly want to thank you, Kenneth, for coming into our studio. We’re pleased to give our KWRC listeners this first-hand report. Listeners, keep tuned to this station: any time we get something on our United Press teletype—from New York, Chicago, Portland, or any bureau across the nation—we’ll have it on the air.”
A CALL FOR SERIOUS INVESTIGATION
“We’ve seen something—hundreds of pilots have seen something—in the skies. We have dutifully reported these sightings, yet it seems we need fifteen million witnesses before anyone looks into the problem seriously. This is utterly fantastic—more fantastic than flying saucers or people from Venus or anything else, as far as I’m concerned.”
MUFON Live Stream to Present “Materials Unknown” On July 19!
New Billy Meier Film “Singularly Authentic” Now Available!
Make Contact with Star People via Global CE-5 Event, June 28!
Sir John Ventre Releases New Book About the Templars!
Special Guest Columns: The History of “Who’s Who in the Cosmic
Zoo?”; The Discovery of a Massive Unknown, Underwater Structure in
Malibu; “How to Fine Tune Your Frequency”;
And “Why Don’t People Want to Believe?
All This Plus UAP Photo of the Week And More!
Cincinnatti, OH, JUNE 2025 — MUFON will be presenting its 2025 Symposium July 17-20 in Cincinnatti, Ohio. And on July 19, MUFON will present a Special Live Stream Event. For a preview of these events, please CLICK HERE
Bay Area, CA, JUNE 2025 — On June 28, 2025, Kosta Makreas, the Founder of both The People’s Disclosure Movement and ETLetsTalk.com, invites you to join his group in “The Global CE-5 Initiative” ET/Star People contact event to be held all-day everywhere on Planet Earth. The People’s Disclosure Movement is comprised of over one-million people globally.
Beverly Hills, CA, June 2025 – Beginning Monday, June 16, at 12-noon Pacific Time, the brand new, one-hour documentary film entitled INSIDE HOLLYWOOD: ALIENS, UFOS AND THE QUEST FOR DISCLOSURE will be made available for free viewing. To View CLICK HERE
I am writing this rebuttal in regard to the June 6, 2025, Wall Street Journal article, “America’s UFO Mythology,” by Joel Schectman and Aruna Viswanatha: Since my name (Robert Salas) was mentioned in this article (page 7) with respect to an incident I experienced while I was a Minuteman I (ICBM) missile launch officer, in command of a Launch Control Facility (LCF) in Montana, designated “Oscar 1” and false representations were made, I find it necessary to respond to those statements in the referenced article here, with this rebuttal.
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