The unexplained mysterious rock on Mars

Mystery on Mars: Scientists baffled after rock suddenly appears out of nowhere in front of Opportunity rover

Opportunity rover hasn’t moved in over a month as it awaits better weather

Photo taken on Jan 8th shows a rock that wasn’t visible in previous images

Nasa’s Opportunity rover has spotted a rock that seems to have appeared out of nowhere, leaving mission engineers scratching their heads.

The obstacle, which is about the size of a doughnut but has been given the rather grand title of “Pinnacle Island”, popped up in front of the rover in early January 2014. A photo taken on sol 3528 of the mission shows bare bedrock, but on sol 3540, the rock had suddenly appeared.

Experts said they were “completely confused” by both the origins and makeup of the object, which is currently being investigated by Opportunity’s various measuring instruments.

Astronomers noticed the new rock had “appeared” without any explanation on an outcrop which had been empty just days earlier. The rover has been stuck photographing the same region of Mars for more than a month due tobad weather, with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California monitoring the images it sends.

Nasa issued a Mars status report entitled “encountering a surprise”, and lead Mars Exploration rover scientist Steve Squyres told a JPL event it seems the planet literally “keeps throwing new things at us”.

He said the images, from 12 Martian days apart, were from no more than a couple of weeks ago. “We saw this rock just sitting here. It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.

“And it appeared, just plain appeared at that spot – and we haven’t ever driven over that spot.”

Did aliens drop it as a joke to confuse us?

Aliens – What does the President Know?

The question really should be: “Who says they’re NOT real?” It’s impossible to find any government official who will flat-out say UFOs or flying saucers are not real. Check out the following quotes.

U.S. Presidents

President John F. Kennedy in 1963

“I’d like to tell the public about the alien situation, but my hands are tied.”

President John F. Kennedy to Bill Holden, steward on Air Force One flying over Germany, summer 1963 When Holden asked Kennedy what he thought about UFOs.

President Bill Clinton

“If I put you over at (The Dept. of) Justice, I want you to find out two things;

1. Who killed JFK.

2. The truth about UFOs.

President Bill Clinton to Webb Hubbell shortly after Clinton had been elected to his first term.

Ronald Reagan

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Forty-second Session, September 21, 1987:

“I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And, yet I ask you, is not an alien force already among us?”

When Reagan said “alien force,” he wasn’t talking about the Democrats. I have not only confirmed this quote, I also have it on videotape, and in full color. The fact of alien visitors is well known and openly discussed inside the United Nations.

Speaking of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit Conference in 1985, Reagan said,

“How much easier his task and mine might be in these meetings we hold if suddenly there was a threat to this world from another species from another planet outside in the universe. We’d forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries, and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this earth together.”

President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

Former President Jimmy Carter had a dramatic UFO experience when he was running for president. On his way to a two-day religious conference Carter saw a UFO. He and his entourage were so disturbed by the experience that they spent the next two days discussing UFOs and extraterrestrials instead of the planned conference agenda.

“It was the darndest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Carter. “It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors and it was about the size of the moon. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us could figure out what it was. One thing’s for sure, I’ll never make fun of people who say they’ve seen unidentified flying objects in the sky.”

Although he touted himself as a humble “peanut farmer,” Carter was a sophisticated observer. He was a graduate in nuclear physics and served as an officer on U.S. Navy nuclear submarines. Carter later declared: “If I become president, I’ll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and scientists.”

In 1977, after Carter had been elected president and tried to open the UFO files, he was told by the heads of the intelligence agencies that he, as president, did not have a high enough security clearance to even SEE the files! The intelligence community had immediately gone to work to prevent Carter from investigating further.

The chief of the Air Force community relations division, Colonel Charles Senn wrote the following in a letter to Lieutenant Duward Crow of NASA: “I sincerely hope that you are successful in preventing reopening of UFO investigations.”

Gerald Ford

“In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomenon. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject.”

Written while serving in Congress (in a letter sent to Mendel Rivers, chairman of the Armed Services Committee) March 28, 1966.

President Harry Truman

Harry Truman

President Harry Truman formed the highly secret group (code named MJ-12) which stood for Majestic-12. The sole purpose of this group was to investigate UFOs and report their findings to the president. Majestic-12 was established by a special executive order of President Truman on September 24, 1947, three months after the crash at Roswell, New Mexico.

A briefing document describing the group for incoming president Dwight Eisenhower was leaked and is now available to almost anyone. I have included it in the Documents section of this website. The government denies the existence of such a group or document. The authenticity of the document cannot be proven, but the reality and the purpose of MJ-12 has been confirmed with many high-level sources over the years.

“I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on earth.”

Aliens – What does the FBI know?

J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI

“I would do it but before agreeing to it we must insist upon full access to discs recovered. For instance in the (2nd) case the Army grabbed it and would not let us have it for cursory examination.”

J. Edgar Hoover
FBI Director, in a handwritten note to Clyde Tolson
July 15, 1947

And what about the CIA?

Victor Marchetti

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)

“We have indeed been contacted, perhaps even visited by extraterrestrial beings and the U.S. government, in collusion with the other national powers of the earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public. The purpose of the international conspiracy is to maintain a workable stability among the nations of the world and for them, in turn, to retain institutional control over their respective populations. Thus, for these governments to admit there are beings from outer space … with mentalities and technological capabilities obviously far superior to ours, could, once fully perceived by the average person, erode the foundations of the earth’s traditional power structure.”

Victor Marchetti
former Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the CIA,
1979

“It is time for the truth to be brought out in open congressional hearings. Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel through the issuance of a regulation.”

Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter
former Director of the CIA (1947-1950), member of MJ-12
1960

What about the military ?

General George C. Marshall

“The United States has recovered UFOs and their occupants. The UFOs were from a different planet and they were friendly. They have been hovering over defense facilities and airports. The U.S. authorities were convinced they had nothing to fear from them. The U.S. wanted people to concentrate on the real menace, communism, and not be distracted by the visitors from space. There has actually been contact with the men in the UFOs and there have been landings.”

General George C. Marshall
U.S. Army Chief of Staff in World War II; Secretary of State, 1947
(as told to Dr. Rolf Alexander)
1951

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

“I am convinced, based upon my research and the individuals with whom I have had contact within the U.S.intelligence community that the U.S. government does indeed have craft that meets the description of many UFO reports.”

TheSpiderFromMars

 TheSpiderFromMars

Circleville is a small city in Ohio that has a population of over 13,000. Its biggest event is the annual Circleville Pumpkin Show. It is also the home of a mysterious letter writer known as the Circleville Letter Writer. Starting in 1976 residents of Circleville began receiving mysterious, vindictive letters. Thousands of letters, written in block letters were sent to city officials and even normal citizens. One recipient of the letters was school bus driver Mary Gillespie. She received letters accusing her of having an extra-martial affair with a school official. On August 19, 1977 Mary’s husband Ron Gillispie received a phone call seeming to indicate the identity of the writer. He left his house with his gun to confront the writer. He was found dead a short distance from his house. His car was driven off the road and his gun had been fired once. He died as a result of the crash and it is unknown why he fired the gun. It is unclear if it was an accident or murder. Later, while driving her bus, Mary saw signs along her route harassing her. She went to take one down and discovered a booby-trap meant to fire a gun at her. The gun belonged to her former brother-in-law Paul Freshour. Freshour was convicted of attempted murder and was thought to be the Circleville writer. However, while incarcerated the letters continued despite him being in solitary confinement without access to letter writing material and his mail being monitored. He was denied parole because of the letters and received one himself after his parole was denied.

Phobetor And The Oneiroi

Phobetor And The Oneiroi

The Greeks had many different gods to portray different aspects of dreams. And while Morpheus served as the dream messenger, his brother Phobetor was the bringer of nightmares. His name translates from Greek as “to be feared.” Every night, he emerges from the land of eternal darkness as awinged demon to infest the dreams of the living.

The poem Metamorphoses describes Phobetor as a shapeshifter who “forms the beasts and birds and long sliding snakes.” He is the son of Darkness, and is one of the most important figures of the Oneiroi. The Oneiroi are the pantheon of dream gods who live in Erebos, which was part of the Greek underworld. Phobetor’s children are the shapes of nightmares themselves, allowing him to extend his reach to all the sleeping people of the world.

Dream Catching

Dream Catching

Photo credit: Media123

The Ojibwe are a Native American tribe who originally lived near the shores of Lake Superior in the northern United States. According to their own legend, however, their people began on the mythical Turtle Island. There, the Spider Woman, or Asibikaashi, watched over the Ojibwe people. Every morning, she builds a lodge that captures the sun and brings it to her children. Since she’s a spider, the lodge is a spider web, and the morning dew reflects the morning sunlight, “capturing” it.

As the Ojibwe people spread, Asibikaashi was no longer able to watch over every individual, so she allowed the people to build their own lodges—dreamcatchers—through which she would protect them from nightmares. According to the legend, if you hang a dreamcatcher over your bed at night, the good dreams will filter through the holes, but the nightmares will get stuck before they reach your head.

The dream legend of Mara

Mara

Photo credit: Hintha/WIkimedia

In Germanic folklore, a mara is an evil spirit that sits on your chest while you sleep, constricting your air supply and turning your dreams into nightmares. It appears in some form or another in all the Germanic cultures, although the specific name and description change with each language.

Most notably, the English word for the mara is “mare,” which is the origin of the word nightmare. Croatians believe that the mara takes the form of a beautiful woman at night. She visits men in their sleep to torture them and slowly suck away their life force over the course of a decades. In other cultures, a mara is a thick-skinned goblin.