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Edwards Air Force Base UFO Incident (1968) - Audio Recordings and Archive Footage

Up to twelve luminous UFOs flew over this secure test facility and the region, and at least one F-106A interceptor was scrambled from George AFB at Victorville. All of this action was captured on classified U.S. Air Force audio tapes which have now been declassified and are available to the public along with official documentation.The question in my mind is, what was going on during those 3-4 hours we don't know about? If we were allowed to hear only 6 hours of 40,  and read only 17 pages of hard-to-read documents, what is it we were NOT allowed to hear and see? The documents we have make it clear that by the time Alpha Lima Zero One was scrambled at at 1209Z or 5:09 PM PDT, "the activity was just about over."

Major Struble from an outfit known as LAADS (Los Angeles Air Defense Sector), a division of ARADCOM (Army Air Defense Command) authorized the making of these recordings of voice transmissions made by military personnel to and from Edwards Air Force Base- from base to base communications, phone patches, ground to air radio & tower to air radio. These recordings archived the conversations which documented this event of UFO visitation of a highly secure military base. The audio recordings were made on an extra track of large reels of radar data tapes, which were running all the time in the case of an accident and the need to review the radar tracks.


The event at Edwards Air Force Base took place over about a five hour period and since the voice recordings were made from at least 8 positions, approximately 40 hours of audio recordings had to have been made. Out of the possible 40 hours of these tape recordings only 6 hours were declassified by the Department of the Air Force.

Darryl Clark, Capt. 329th  Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), George AFB, Calif., was an alert pilot with Detachment.1 at Edwards AFB. He happened to be on duty this evening and was called upon to observe the activity. His observations were all made from the ground. Captain Clark was one of the important Alert Pilots at Edwards Air Force Base on the night of October 7, 1965. He was entrusted with flying one of the Hot Birds, as planes loaded with Nuclear Weapons were called, that protected the western part of the United States. Skilled at target identification, Captain Clark is heard on the original Air Force recordings describing his UFO sighting of that night.


That evening, October 7 (and the following one, October 8), 1965, some 700 engineers and scientists attended the Fourth X-15 Technical Conference at the (then) NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB. This dealt with the research results of the 150 some X-15 flights made since 1959. (Astronautics and Aeronautics 1965  NASA SP-4006, page 464 - Joel Carpenter)

UFO Alert At Edwards Air Force Base
A true account by Samuel M. Sherman
Note: The text file presented below is for use of the NICAP Search Engine only. To view the actual original web page and images, go to"

 http://www.flash.net/~joerit/edwards/edwards.html

In 1961 I saw and photographed an illuminated domed disc over New York City. I was treated with ridicule then and didn't like it. I had three other witnesses to this event. I planned to do a UFO documentary in the 1960's on this subject and use some of the stills and motion picture footage photographed.

At the time I was more interested in going to LA to make dramatic films, which I did. I came back to my old project in 1992. I had to endure the slings and arrows of ridicule from friends, and even business associates working on this film, now called Beyond This Earth.

I decided that I needed hard evidence that the subject was a real one, especially evidence from government agencies (which would add credibility if they had any connection to this subject).

From December 1992 to about June 1994 we filmed interviews, staged reenactments, obtained unique UFO footage, and even sent up a plane to chase and film UFOs from the air. (The plane succeeded in its mission, but that is another story.)

Having that success, I felt we were on a roll and more real events would take place which we would cover, but they did not. Not knowing if what we filmed in Northern California posed a threat to the public, I felt we should make an official report on it. Which we did.

This led to the suggestion that we go to various government agencies through the Freedom of Information Act and otherwise.

This has been a long, tedious process because we found out that we could classify the people we were in contact with into three categories, regarding the UFO phenomenon:

1. They knew nothing and couldn't help at all.
2. They knew nothing but wanted to help and were pro-release and moved us along.
3. They knew something and didn't want to help or encourage us.

Even still, we obtained the following de-classified materials, related to the UFO subject: Over 4000 pages of paper documents and correspondence; still photographs, radar photos, motion picture film, videotapes and audio tapes. Audio tapes?? Who was interested in that? We all wanted to see something.

Well, it turned out that the sounds presented some fantastic images all their own. I reviewed the audio materials last, as I had shelved them for months, I wanted visuals. What a mistake! I listened to six hours of confusing audio recordings from Edwards Air Force  Base from the night of October 7, 1965 in which it sounded like a UFO alert was taking place over the base with 12 strange luminous objects coming down over the runway of one of our nation's most secure test facilities. This was/is the place where they fly the black, classified projects. They know what they are and what planes, helicopters, stars, weather balloons,  planets and satellites are.

So what were they getting excited about? It was difficult to tell on the six hours of tapes. These tapes were de-classified, but in a form called "scrambled release" - all chopped up out of sequence, so they made no sense at all. I knew there was a story in there somewhere.

Between the chopped up editing and the overlay of noise, something very  important lay in waiting. I decided to analyze the tapes for possible use in a segment in Beyond This Earth. I took eight months in my own audio studio editing 1/4 inch audio tapes, after signal processing them in computer to remove noise. I got to know the tapes so well, I felt I almost knew the people on the tapes, which I would in time. Now, what were these tapes and why were they made? In 1965 the Air Force ran large reels of recording tapes which recorded all of the signals from Radar.

Then if an accident or problem took place, the Radar could be re-played like running a video tape to figure out what took place. In the case of special events a track on these radar tapes could be used to record voice transmissions at the air base.

This included all Phone Patches, Base-to-Base Communications and Ground- or Tower-to-Air Radio. Now this is what took place on the night of October 7, 1965 at Edwards Air Force Base. By putting the tapes into chronology and doing further research the story emerged.

At approximately 12:30AM, the Tower Operator at Edwards (a/k/a Edwards Tower) - Tech Sgt. Charles "Chuck" Sorrels saw a group of luminous objects flashing red, white, and blue or green light coming over the field. His job as an air traffic controller taught him to be watchful, so he could identify incoming planes. when these objects started to do unusual maneuvers, he knew this was out of the ordinary and called the Air Defense Command - in this case a unit known as LAADS (The Los Angeles Air Defense Sector).

Major Struble at LAADS ordered the recordings to be made--now we hear all this taking place on the actual tapes. He involved NORAD and the following other air bases- NORTON, HAMILTON, GEORGE and MARCH.

The major wanted to send planes up after the objects but could not do this until a CAPTAIN at Edwards approved sending up the planes. This Captain was the . . .get this . . . UFO officer (pronounced Yoo-fo) officer in charge on the base.

This was apparently more than just a job classification for reporting sightings, but he had to request the plane or planes go up, from the 28th Air Division at Hamilton, or they would not go up. In short the Air Defense Command needed HIS authority.

Well, here we are: the UFO subject, which we have heard does not exist, has its own UFO officers . . . how strange.

There were no officers on base for the other paranormal pursuits - Demon Officers, Ghost Officers or Leprechaun Officers.

Once I started editing the tapes into some kind of sequence, everybody wanted to hear them. I then started making some cassettes as samples, and everybody wanted them. I gave many away and was encouraged to go further with my research. I did.

I found Chuck Sorrels, who authenticated the event and recorded an audio interview for my tape verifying the details.

I went to about a dozen military agencies, and they helped with the research. Eventually I put this together into a 54-minute audio documentary on audio cassette, along with a copy of Air Force written documentation, in a large vinyl display case and called the final program . . .

"THE EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE ENCOUNTER."

I have had great positive response to this work. Where I have made feature films for theatres for many years, and do have some fans, nothing I ever worked on yielded this response. Apparently many people, like myself, had been researching the UFO subject seriously, and were ridiculed by friends and family.

They, as I, needed some hard evidence to show/play for others, to gain new  respect. I have been told that people are getting this tape, inviting their friends over and having a UFO party playing the tape to the amazement of all present.

That is what has been going on. The media caught onto this. I have been  interviewed on numerous radio and TV programs on this subject and Paramount flew me out to California to appear in and work on a two-part "Sightings" episode on the Edwards tapes. We filmed in the Mojave Desert near Edwards AFB, where the original event took place.

They were very pleased with how it turned out and got good reaction to it. I have also sent copies of the documentary back to official agencies, with positive reaction, on a person-to-person basis. I think many people want to get this UFO information out to the  public. One well-known airline pilot, who is also a UFO investigator, sent me a nice letter when he finally got our tape and said: "When I  first heard of your tape, I said to myself, who needs this? How  wrong I was. This is solid evidence in a field where there is  precious little (evidence)."

Since this has only been a side issue away from the production of my film, this tape is not yet available in stores, although we have had requests for it. Many people have contacted me who wanted to obtain it and said it was hard to find. So, we set up a mail order division to make the tape available, generally on short turn-around.

The tapes are guaranteed to be authentic. I am still researching the subject for a two-hour TV special on the same topic and an interactive CD-ROM on it. These programs will take this subject and broaden out the events of 10-7-65 and go forward and back in time. On the tapes the UFOs were spotted on Radar, Heightfinder Radar, Weather Radar and mutual observations from many  locations--ground, towers, tops of buildings, and planes. On the tapes we hear one F-106 pilot chasing a UFO up to 40,000 feet. However, my research shows that one plane may have crashed and a third plane also sent up.

The six hours of tape I received, I believe to have been cut down from over 40 hours of original tapes . . . what could be on the rest of them?? I am seeking further research on this event and connecting events at Edwards and related bases.

I am also seeking to locate Major Struble, Captain John Balent (the UFO officer) and others involved with this event which was given a Code Name: "The Incident."

There were some civilians near Edwards who also saw something and some stories in local papers, which I would like to obtain copies of. Many other events like this have taken place at other locations, but the information is . . . where? The existence of these tapes serves to prove that the entire subject is real. I am continuing to work on it . . .

Samuel M. Sherman

Sphinx And Pyramid Twin Peaks On Mars? Pathfinder Landing Site, A Sphinx Revisited

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"Still, we cannot deny that the act of placing a
tetrahedral object on Mars at latitude 19.5 contains all the necessary
numbers & symbolism to qualify as a "message received" signal in response to
the geometry of Cydonia. Moreover, such a game of mathematics & symbolism is
precisely what we would expect if NASA were being influenced by the type of
occult conspiracy that Hoagland, for one, is always trying to espouse."

- Graham Hancock, "The Mars Mystery -- The Secret Connection Between Earth and the Red Planet"




When Mars Pathfinder bounced to a halt on its innovative airbags after it's unprecedented straight in, meteor-like decent to the Martian surface on July 4th, 1997, most of us were convinced - watching its initial panoramas -- that we were simply looking at another boring Martian desert filled with rocks -- just like the scenes relayed from the previous Viking Lander missions some twenty years earlier. Overshadowed by Enterprise principal investigator Richard C. Hoagland's highly advertised political prediction -- that the Pathfinder Lander would be diverted to Cydonia, instead of arriving at its announced touchdown point a thousand miles away -- many of us in the "anomalist community" were initially distracted from viewing those first Pathfinder images in any great detail.

we had yet to begin a formal collaboration on our now highly successful "reverse engineered" model of NASA's extraordinary (and now extraordinarily well documented) "Egyptian ritual obsession." Hoagland's high-profile mistake on Pathfinder, after years of additional analysis, is understandable in retrospect -- given the (deliberate?) "mixed messages" carefully promoted at the time around JPL's actual Pathfinder landing (see below).

One of the things that threw Hoagland was the sky above that landing site: looked at before the actual July 4th arrival, it did not correspond at all to the stellar pattern he'd found throughout NASA's previous manned and unmanned missions; at the announced time of Pathfinder's projected landing, the key "ritual star," Sirius, and the critical "Belt stars of Orion," would not be in their expected "ritual positions" (19.5° or 33°) above or below the horizon; or, on the horizon or meridian. By sharp contrast, the sky at Cydonia did fit - not for July 4th, but for the "perfect" ritual date, July 20th. (It wasn't until about a year later that continuing analysis revealed previous "commemoration" patterns - alignments "celebrated" for one landing site on a particularly auspicious date, but conducted at another landing site or "temple" -- on many prior missions.)

The "Twin Peaks" seemed have the definite geometric shapes of pyramids -- but highly eroded pyramids (especially the North Peak) -- which apparently had had some of their casing literally ripped off in that same massive flood that had devastated the entire area countless millennia before. The debris field in the foreground, which had initially captured Hoagland and Nicks' attention, consisted of a myriad of objects possessing multiple sharp "points" and edges. They could not therefore be merely "water eroded (or water tumbled) rocks." They obviously had to be made of much harder materials - potentially artificial objects and even metallic machinery, ripped from the exposed interiors of the not-so-distant, exposed-"arcologies" - including, probably, remnants of the technology that actually built them!

All of which was quite fascinating ... and ultimately irresolvable. For, without better resolution images from future rover missions, or cleaned up versions of the Pathfinder originals (as opposed to the degraded and obviously "sanitized" versions placed by NASA on the Web), there was really not much more that we could do to prove the artificial nature of the region.

Until now.

Using a technique called "Super Resolution Surface Modeling," in the several years since Pathfinder, NASA scientists have been able to take multiple images of the Pathfinder landing site and enhance them well beyond their original resolving capability. Recently the official NASA image archive for these "super resolution" images. After downloading a few, it quickly became apparent that something - completely unnoticed at the time, and even more interesting (if that's possible) than the potential nearby artifacts analyzed by Nicks and Hoagland -- might have been imaged on the Martian landscape … between South Peak and Pathfinder itself

What had been merely a huge "blocky shape" on the original scenes, suddenly emerged as "recognizable" on the new, highly processed images. I did a "double take" on the shape.

... A Sphinx!

Given Hoagland's now strikingly confirmed "leonine" dual Face image lying at Cydonia, my mouth basically dropped open when I saw this other, "eerily familiar shape" crouching there in front of Pathfinder's "South Peak Pyramid." It struck me as not only of the right size and form for nothing less than a Great Martian Sphinx (!) -- but it was in the right position as well (out in front of the background Pyramid!). It lay some distance from the Pathfinder Lander, at the edge of the previously mapped debris field … near the base of South Peak. And -- like its counterpart on Earth -- also faced East … directly toward the Martian equinoctial sunrise. There were even a couple of what appeared to be "vertically-faced buildings" to the left of this potential "Martian Sphinx"; they could easily be viewed as "a temple," or a distant entrance to the background Pyramid Arcology itself.

In ancient Egypt, Sphinxes were used to "guard" temples, tombs and monuments. The grandest example of these, and probably the earliest on Earth, is the Great Sphinx at Giza -- forever guarding the three Great Pyramids on the Plateau. As a Sphinx carries out this task, it is always in the same repose: lying flat on its stomach … forepaws extended outward … ready to "pounce" into action at a moment's notice. Sphinxes invariably have the head of man (or woman?), to go with their lion's body. The head, in turn, is framed by the characteristic banded "nemes" headdress (which is meant, of course, to signify the lions mane).

140,000 Year Old U.F.O Discovered - The Baltic Sea Anomaly - Still dont Believe in UFO's? - Watch This

“It is not an object which is man made in modern time. What ever it is it’s either from during the ice age or pre-ice age.” – Peter Lindberg, February 24, 2013 “The object is older than 140.000 yrs. Older than that… with straight angles/lines – rounded corners… much like a “dinner plate” and separate from the base below.” – Dennis Asberg, September 28, 2012

There are THREE objects of interest – 1) the main 60 meter circular anomaly, 2) a smaller secondary object lying approx. 200 meters from the 1st anomaly with an area shaped like two “Gothic church windows” and 3) a third anomaly – a 28 meters high and 275 meters wide rock outcrop with a crack running through it, lying some 1500 metres South of the circular object, direct on the other end of the “trail”. The team has stated Anomaly 2 might turn out to be the most interesting than the first, and they plan to dive on it this time around

The object lies at approx. 85-90 meter depth in international waters between Sweden & Finland
Conditions at site are poor – visibility is low – 2-3 feet, low light levels, low temperatures.
60 meter in diameter, 4 meters thick
Perfectly round, somewhat flattened dome-shaped object made of a “rock-like” substance, although it is not a rock formation. There are rock formations, which appear on the surface of the object. (This is what a sample was taken of on the second expedition, NOT of the circular object itself. “They hammered off a couple of pieces from a huge rock formation on top of the circle, but it seems like that part is not really a part of the larger circular body. We were thinking that if it is a volcano the material with the smooth surface maybe was basalt and that the rocks on top were ordinary rock that has been broke and pushed up on top of the magma. But since the divers hardly could not see anything they just took samples from where they landed and that was on the highest point.” – Peter Lindberg, July 22, 2012)
The object seems to be very very old, rare and something the crew has never seen before. (Peter Lindberg feels that it could be Pre-ice age.) “I think you must think of this object being there for a very long time, natural or made in some way.” – Peter Lindberg, July 22, 2012
“When I say the anomaly is not a rock i mean that it is not a solid block of granite or some other “stone”. (like ayers rock in Ausralia) That is the definition I have of a rock. The anomaly is made of some other material which I do not know what it is but I´m sure there are several different materials @ the sight, you have 5-10 meter deep layer of clay, that lies on top of the Scandinavian rock. On top of the clay lies this anomaly, and on top of the anomaly small stones of different kind.” ~ Stefan Hogeborn November 13, 2012  When asked if the anomaly was metal, Peter Lindberg answered, “Nothing like any metal I know any way.”  June 8, 2012
It seems like the circle is covered in a very thin layer of sediment, but at certain locations the silt is thicker, nearly like clay. I guess that the currents can stir the silt up at these locations. When the divers scraped it off a blackish surface appeared underneath.
Nearly the entire anomaly seems to be of the same material except a piece of cliff where I have marked the black ring for the hole and the blue ring where the the drop weight landed on the second dive. (south on the anomaly).  The team is not sure if it is just rocks which are laying on the anomaly or if it is a part of it.
The surface of the circle is not entirely smooth, in some places it is cracking.  It appears to be covered in some type of hard cement-like substance, mineral deposit. After being chipped, the interior of object is black, like volcanic rock, almost petrified inside. Material is very hard, not simple stone, described as “preserved rock”. Hogeborn describes the sense of carbonized material.
The object has rounded sides with rugged edges (not smooth). “It’s like someone has pinched the mountain at the edge, as if you have moulded together two molds, and it sticks out stones between the molds”,- Stefan Hogeborn. “We can see this phenomena at several different points on the anomaly. It appear to occur where we have these structural corridoors, cracks and such things.” – Peter Lindberg
There are two round holes in the circle. One is 30 cm wide, and the other is approx. 2 meters wide and surrounded by a square formation of 2 x 2 meters.
There are not only straight lined formations on the circle, there appear to have construction lines and boxes drawn on it.
90 degree angle corridors 1.5 meters in height and 3 meter wide, which are cut into the object.
Divers said there was a “blackish” powder that had been attracted to the cameras.
Looks like something has been very hot down there, so that the stone has melted.  Dennis believes this to be true because “some stones look like their up side is burned. Also the blackish material which looks like it has been poured out gives the sense that it might been some heat down there.” – Peter Lindberg, July 4, 2012“The surface of the (circular) object has cracks in it in some places 1-2 inches wide, and in these cracks, it looks like something has poured out like magma…If the magma had come out before the ice age, it should have been scraped away by the ice, but now it’s there like it poured out yesterday.” – Earthfiles interview with Peter Lindberg ” As you understand it is very much in this that points toward this not being just a “stone formation”. “The cracks seams not to be irregular, they seams to go vertically or horizontally. Behind them you can see a blackish colored mineral(?) with the structure of old wooden planks.” – Peter Lindberg, June 21, 2012
Dennis said that a volcano is possible, however according to researchers, there has never been a volcanic activity in the Baltic Sea.  Also, the object they found doesn’t look like a volcano  because of the perfect circular form of it and also because of the 90 degree angles. Peter Lindberg, on the other hand feels they have found volcanic activity (see below) and this volcano-like mountain (approx. 2 km away from the anomaly) will be looked at on their next expedition.

“The entire anomaly has a thin layer of silt on it and when the divers scraped it off a blackish surface appeared underneath. Nearly the entire anomaly seams to be of the same material except a piece of cliff where I have marked the black ring for the hole and the blue ring where the the drop weight landed on the second dive. We do not know if that rocks just lays on the anomaly or if it is a part of it.“There is nearly no silt at all on the anomaly, just a very thin layer. You can clearly see the structure of the surface through the silt. I as diver would refer it to what you find on ships hull. You can clearly see the color but when you brush with your hand over the surface you notice it is a “slimy” layer on it

The circular object rests upon a 8 meter tall pillar/foundation.  “The foundation is more that it has “popped up” like a cork or it has always been there but being partly exposed by the ice or currents. It is more of a solid cliff than bottom being pushed together to a conglomerate”- Peter LindbergThe foundation increases in thickness, to a dimension of 56 meters near the top where it meets the object. On one side of circle (front), the object is extending approximately 4-6 meters off from pillar. The object does not appear to be connected to the pillar. There is a wedge formed gap between the upper part (the circle) and the lower part (pillar foundation). Looks like granite, surface of anomaly is made of different material than pillar. “During the last expedition it was confirmed that there is a wedge formed gap between the upper part (the circle) and the lower part (foundation/pillar). However, if the two parts are completely separated or if the upper part and the lower part are the same object has not been clarified“.

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Skylab UFO Incident, Witnessed and Photographed by All 3 Astronauts

A bizarre UFO encounter that occurred on September 20th, 1973, during Flight Day 55 of the Skylab III (SLM-2) mission. This UFO encounter can be classified as a highly credible case as it was witnessed by all three Skylab crew members, with the astronauts observing and photographing the unidentified object for at least a 10-minute period before both Skylab and the UFO crossed the sunset terminator into darkness and visual contact was finally lost.
In addition to examining the available official archive evidence about this Skylab III UFO incident, I also thought it relevant in this video to point out several of the contradictions that exist in that official evidence chain. While these inconsistencies do not prove a cover-up about this incident was/is in place at NASA, what should be clear is that IF there was a cover-up in place, these contradictions certainly would have aided in that cover-up because, deliberate or not, they serve to muddle and even conveniently eliminate from the public record some very important evidence related to this sighting that should exist and be available for us to analyze.

However, even with those contradictions in the official evidence chain, the Skylab III encounter remains a confirmed UFO sighting that has never been explained. What is certain is that the Skylab III crew had no idea what this bizarre pulsating red object was, and neither does NASA or NORAD (at least officially).

Comet Siding Spring Swings Past Mars - Comet C/2013 A1

A comet zoomed by Mars today (Oct. 19) in an extremely rare close encounter that scientists billed as a "once-in-a-lifetime" event that may help researchers better understand the earliest days of our solar system.

Comet Siding Spring came within just 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Martian surface at 2:27 p.m. EDT (1827 GMT) about one-third of the distance between Earth and the moon. At the time of closest approach, the comet barreled by at 126,000 mph (203,000 km/h) relative to the Red Planet, NASA officials said.

All seven spacecraft currently operating on or around Mars were scheduled to observe the close shave, with the aim of learning more about comet composition and behavior.

The Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) made an extremely close - and ultra rare) - flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014, coming within 87,000 miles of the Red Planetduring the event, captured by the Slooh Community Observatory, shows the comet during that historic flyby.

"We cannot plan missions to comets like this — this one was discovered less than two years ago. It is incredible luck that it is saving us the trouble of going to it, as it flies by Mars, which is being explored by seven active robots," Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, a camera team member for NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity Mars rovers, said in a statement. "So this very much is a once-in-a-lifetime event, for us and our rovers."

Planetary scientist David Grinspoon, who tracked Comet Siding Spring flyby in real-time during a live webcast by the Slooh Community Observatory, compared the significance of the event with the epic impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994. 


"It's very rare," Grinspoon said of such a close encounter between a comet and planet. "And it's certainly the first time that I can think of that I've seen it happen with Mars."

Comets are time capsules of a sort, remnants left over from the solar system's formation 4.6 billion years ago. Studying them can reveal insights about the conditions prevailing when the planets first started coming together, researchers say.

And Siding Spring, which was discovered in January 2013, is an especially pristine time capsule. It's making its first-ever trip to the inner solar system from the Oort Cloud, a shell of trillions of comets that lies perhaps 50,000 astronomical units from the sun. (One astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the sun —about 93 million miles, or 150 million km.)

Siding Spring — whose core is between 0.5 and 5 miles (0.8 to 8 km) wide — has never been baked by the sun, so the comet likely looks much as it did 4.6 billion years ago.

Today's Mars flyby therefore presented a unique opportunity, scientists say. No space mission has ever visited an Oort Cloud comet; indeed, the core of such a body has never been resolved in an image before.

"NASA's Planetary Science assets – including the MAVEN spacecraft which just entered Mars’ orbit last month – are in prime positions to gather data and record this once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon,"  Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said in a statement after the comet flyby. "These are the events that inspire our imaginations and remind us why we must continue investing in planetary science and NASA's primary mission of space exploration."

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) aimed to photograph Siding Spring's core today. Curiosity and Opportunity were going to try to make history as well, capturing the first-ever images of a comet from the surface of another world.

"Opportunity and Curiosity are on opposite sides of the planet," Lemmon said. "Opportunity will take images from the surface in the dawn twilight, hours before the comet buzzes Mars. After the sun sets on the other side of the planet, Curiosity will take pictures as the comet departs Mars."

NASA's Mars Odyssey and newly arrived MAVEN spacecraft (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), India's Mangalyaan orbiter and Europe's Mars Express probe were also slated to observe the encounter from orbit. MAVEN is especially suited to study any interaction between Siding Spring's dust and Mars' upper atmosphere, which could reveal insights about the Red Planet's air.

While a collision with any shed cometary material could result in serious damage, NASA officials are not too worried about their spacecraft. The orbiters were moved to be on Mars' "safe side" during the time of highest dust exposure, and Curiosity and Opportunity are protected by the planet's atmosphere.
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Apollo 10, Astronauts Report Strange Music Coming From The Dark Side Of The Moon

Apollo 10's amazing encounter with a VERY bizarre anomaly while behind the far side of the Moon. This segment will give you an up-close look at an astounding audio transcript from the Apollo 10 mission that has never before been publicly analyzed - and that NASA and the Apollo 10 astronauts to this day still refuse to talk about.
You will follow Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young as they become only the second crew in history to journey behind the lunar far side. During this period of "LOS" (Loss Of Signal), the astronauts encounter something truly incredible - they discover MUSIC behind the Moon!

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