NASA scientist confirms sightings of 'alien' satellites orbiting Earth

With Elon Musk 's Starlink satellites completely dominating the night sky these days, spotting an asteroid or something more exotic is a near-impossible task for astronomers. But a new evaluation of night sky images captured before the launch of the first satellite in 1957 has revealed evidence of fast-moving objects in Earth orbit that defy scientific explanation . The photographic plates, made in April 1950, show nine fast-moving and apparently reflective objects in near-Earth orbit.

The unexplained objects were first catalogued by Swedish astronomer Beatriz Villarroel and now former NASA developer Ivo Busko has duplicated her work – demonstrating beyond doubt that something strange was orbiting our planet several years before the launch of Sputnik 1. Busko writes in a new study : "

Given that these observations were obtained at a time that predates our first artificial satellite, they become especially noteworthy in the context of SETI [The search for extraterrestrial intelligence.] Multiple suggestions have been put forward to explain the anomalous sightings, ranging from meters that were heading straight for the observers' telescope to debris from nuclear weapons tests that had been blown high enough to enter orbit. But inevitably, coming as they did during one of the most fertile periods for UFO sightings, there is a sizeable body of opinion that these peculiar objects were satellites created by some alien civilisation, spying on Earth as humanity entered the nuclear age. Dr Villaroel herself says that most of the natural explanations that have been put forward don't hold up under scrutiny.

For example, she says, the idea that these brief, bright pinpricks of light cannot be explained by supernovas or other temporary stellar phenomena. "

Star don't work on those time-scales," she told the Event Horizon podcast. She added: ”

Solar flares can happen within within a few minutes, so if you see something just appearing and disappearing you can have just a flaring object." "

You can also have after glows from gamma-ray bursts or fast radio bursts that can be seen in the optical range.," Dr Villarroel pointed out. "but the thing about the nine simultaneous transients is that you have nine of these things in a very small field of view. That doesn't go with any natural explanation." In his follow-up research, Busko adds: "

While such transients are difficult to reconcile within a conventional astronomical framework, they are consistent with sub-second optical glints produced by sunlight reflecting from flat surfaces on rotating objects transiting above Earth's atmosphere. "

Given the potential implications for SETI-related research, establishing a robust observational basis for the reality and behaviour of these events is of clear importance." Mainstream scientists are very reluctant to allow themselves to become associated with potential UFO research, because the mockery that still today comes from claims of "little green men" can undermine their other work. But whether the short bursts of light observed in those distant, pre-satellite days are extraterrestrial craft of some other phenomenon currently unknown to science both Villaroel and Busko have urged their fellow-scientists to stop look deeper into his decades-old mystery.