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| 07.31.2005 | Confusion around the 10th planet explained: there really are two separate discoveries. |
| 07.30.2005 | Strange low flying objectin the Gers, France. |
| 07.30.2005 | ESA's Mars Express finds water ice in Martian crater. |
| 07.30.2005 | About the new planet. |
| 07.29.2005 | NASA Scientists discover 10th planet in the solar system. |
| 07.22.2005 | Australia releases classified UFO documents. |
| 07.15.2005 | UFO or ballon, France. |
| 07.15.2005 | Wingless object, Seraing, Belgium. |
| 07.15.2005 | Wingless object, Brittany, France. |
| 07.14.2005 | Light goes much too fast near Metz, France. |
| 07.10.2005 | Moving lights, Paris, France. |
| 07.08.2005 | Images and videos from North Queensland, Australia. |
| 07.02.2005 | Nocturnal light seen by couple in Ontario, Canada. |
| 07.01.2005 | Night saucer seen near Hollis, Oklahoma, USA. |
| 07.01.2005 | Nocturnal lights in le Coustelet, the Vaucluse, France. |
July 31, 2005.
First, Michael Brown, the discoverer of the "tenth planet" 2003UB313, seems quite a bit opportunistic. He argues that since his new planet is bigger than Pluto, then it must be called a planet. However, in the past, he was among those who argues that even Pluto is not a planet, but rather a Kuiper Belt Object:
"It's pretty clear, if we discovered Pluto today, knowing what we know about other objects in the Kuiper Belt, we wouldn't even consider it a planet."
- Michael Brown, California Institute of Technology.
Source: www.olemiss.edu/courses/astr104/Topics/Pluto-N.html
Many astronomers have not been able to resists the temptation to announce their discovery of a mythical 10th planet when they spot a Kuiper Belt Object or some yet-to-identify astronomical body, as explained here.
Second, the announcement was issued for non-scientific reasons. It seems that quite simply, the private part of his website, containing data about the detection of the new planet, was hacked by someone, and thus, it was felt that the discovery must be announced before someone else does.
Third, much confusion occurred also from a separate discovery of a different object designated as 2003EL61 which was said larger than any known world after Pluto; which has a moon. The main object is 32 percent as massive as Pluto and is estimated to be about 70 percent of Pluto's diameter, which mean that it would be larger than Sedna, also discovered by Brown's team, the previous known "larger than any known world after Pluto."
When space.com were telling that after a phone conversation, Brown's object would not be as large as Pluto, they were really talking about this other object.
So apparently there are two discoveries, one KBO at least 1.5 times larger than Pluto, covered of methane ice and nearly 15 billion kilometers form the Earth, 2003UB313, discovered by Michael Brown, and another one 0.75 times smaller than Pluto, 2003EL61, found by Jose-Luis Ortiz of the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain. Most media mix both discoveries together.
July 30, 2005.
NASA, in their communiqué, defines the notion of "planet" purely on the base of the size.
This new planet is really a big Kuiper Belt Object, i.e. its nature and its formation are very different from that of the 8 innermost planets of the solar system.
Also noteworthy, according to space.com, Brown has said on the phone that this object is not at all larger than Pluto, it is smaller than Pluto. Other sources say it has a moon.
July 29, 2005.
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Dolores Beasley Jane Platt Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (Phone: 818/354-0880) July 29, 2005 RELEASE: 05-209 NASA SCIENTISTS DISCOVER TENTH PLANET A planet larger than Pluto has been discovered in the outlying regions of the solar system. The planet was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, Calif. The discovery was announced today by planetary scientist Dr. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., whose research is partly funded by NASA. The planet is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size in relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified as a planet, Brown said. Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, the planet is the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects. "It will be visible with a telescope over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus," said Brown, who made the discovery with colleagues Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., on January 8. Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz first photographed the new planet with the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope on October 31, 2003. However, the object was so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months, the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions. "It's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Brown, who is a professor of planetary astronomy. Scientists can infer the size of a solar system object by its brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if one knows its wattage. The reflectance of the planet is not yet known. Scientists can not yet tell how much light from the sun is reflected away, but the amount of light the planet reflects puts a lower limit on its size. "Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be as big as Pluto," says Brown. "I'd say it's probably one and a half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure yet of the final size. "We are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than Pluto ever found in the outer solar system," Brown added. The size of the planet is limited by observations using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which has already proved its mettle in studying the heat of dim, faint, faraway objects such as the Kuiper-belt bodies. Because Spitzer is unable to detect the new planet, the overall diameter must be less than 2,000 miles, said Brown. a name for the new planet has been proposed by the discoverers to the International Astronomical Union, and they are awaiting the decision of this body before announcing the name. For more information see: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/home/index |
UFOcasebook published a video filmed in North Queensland, Australia at 6:30 PM on July 8, 2005. Amateur cameraman Ross writes: "I'm a farrier/blacksmith in north Queensland, Australia, near Atherton Tablelands which is a well known place in history for UFOs. It’s just up the road from "Tully" a place you will find that was one of the first ever to document crop circles, Tulley Saucer Nest. Almost every day for the last five years I’ve witnessed UFOs flying over our area. I have around 8000 still pictures, and have recently taken old style infrared shots of orbs/earthlights as close as 200 meters away. We have orbs/earthlights, starjets that morph that match scarily with the ones seen to this date at Mt St Helens in Washington."
See here: http://www.ufocasebook.com/australia070805video.html
On Saturday, July 2, 2005, at 11:30 p.m., eyewitness Deb Nixon reported, "I had just gotten off work" in London, Ontario, Canada (population 325,646) "and was outside talking to my husband, who also witnessed the sighting. We were facing south, and I happened to look up to the west when a bright light seemed to be coming down very fast out of the sky."
"I pointed this out to my husband. And we both watched it immediately begin to fade. It looked as if it was going back up into the sky very rapidly until we could no longer see it. The total time of the sighting was under 15 seconds. There was no noise, and the night was uncommonly clear for our area. There were many stars visible."
Thanks to Joseph Trainor, UFO Roundup, Volume 10, Number 27.
"Last night", July 1, 2005, "I was fishing at Lake Hall, about 20 miles north of Hollis, Oklahoma," reported Mr. Blake. "After being there for some time, a line of thunderstorms began to move into the area, so I began to gather my things up and put them in the back of the truck. I had my back to the lake while picking up my tackle when suddenly there was a bright flash of lightning. Then it dawned on me that there hadn't been any crash of thunder from this particular lightning bolt, and there was still a bit of a glow left in the sky."
"So I turned around and looked, and there was this saucer-shaped thing hovering over the lake. It didn't make a sound but seemed to be greenish-yellow in color and had a small protrusion attached to the bottom."
"I was where I had stood around to watch it, but suddenly I was overcome with fear and jumped into my truck and got the hell out of there. I've been in combat before, but I'd never felt fear like this before."
On Saturday, July 2, 2005, "after I calmed down, I called a friend of mine who had been interested in UFOs for a long time and told him what happened. He told me that there was a local fella named Jim Hickman that studied UFOs, and that I should look him up on the Internet."
"When I told Jim what the thing had looked like, he said it sounded a lot like the one seen near Willow, Oklahoma some time ago." Upon visiting Jim Hickman's Web site, Blake added, "I shouted, 'Holy shit! That's it!' out loud. Sorry for my language, but that's what I said at the time."
Thanks to Jim Hickman, Skywatch International.
