NASA scientists last night unveiled compelling evidence of life on Mars.

A special mission to the Red Planet has revealed the likely presence of a form of pond scum - the building blocks of life
as we know it.

NASA unveiled the results of the recent Opportunity and Spirit probes sent millions of miles through the solar system to discover signs of extraterrestrial life. The results are so promising boffins have already planned a host of other missions to discover whether there is extraterrestrial life in the universe.

The recent missions have gathered evidence of sulphates on Mars, a strong indication there is water on the planet and therefore life. Previous missions to Mars have concluded there is probably water on the planet. But the NASA boffins said the recent missions have gone further than any others in proving there is life on Mars. They were particularly excited about the discovery of a sulphate called gypsum which, it has emerged recently, is found in large quantities among fossils in the Mediterranean.

Jack Farmer, researcher at the Arizona State University, in Tempe, Arizona, said he was "optimistic" there was - or had been - life on Mars. Another of the scientists Bill Schopf, researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles, added: "One, thanks to Opportunity and the rovers and orbital imaging it is clear that there are literally vast areas of Mars that are carpeted with various sorts of sulphates, including gypsum.

"Two, it turns out on earth there just hasn't been hardly any work done at all to show whether gypsum ever includes within it preserved evidence of former life. "The age doesn't matter. We just didn't know that fossils and organic matter and things like that were well preserved within gypsum.

"So, three, it turns out that now we have made that first step we are going to find out how widespread it is in other sulphate deposits on earth. "And those lines of evidence will then give us a way to justify going to Mars and looking at gypsum because it looks as though based on these findings that is going to turn out to be a really excellent place to find evidence of ancient life, regardless of age, if in fact it is there."

Five experts took part in last night's press conference to celebrate 50 years of astrobiology research. Dr Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, said the only way of being sure there is life on Mars was to bring back a sample of Mars rock. He also said that the detection of methane in the martian atmosphere - as revealed exclusively by The Sun - raised the possibility that there was still life on Mars today.

"Methane is a molecule that should go away very quickly. We need to send a mission to find out if the source is biological. "We also need to send a mission to return samples from Mars. That would enable scientists to find out whether Mars might ever have harboured life. "If we are ever going to show if there was ever life on Mars, I think we're going to have to study samples back on Earth."

Almost 30 other NASA missions to discover life in space - including one to bring back rocks from Mars - have already been planned. There are also plans to visit Jupiter's moon Europa to explore its deep underground ocean and a moon of Saturn, Enceladus, which spouted ice volcanoes. Long-term missions will also return to Saturn's biggest moon Titan, sending a balloon flying through its atmosphere and landing a probe in its surface lakes. Future missions would also visit comets.

NASA scientists have been searching for extraterrestrial life on other planets for some time. Last November the space organisation launched the Kepler space telescope to look for Earth-size planets in this galaxy. The telescope is on a three-and-a-half-year mission to find planets. NASA has so far been able to download data - but many believe there are aliens out there.

British physicist Stephen Hawking said this week aliens might be traveling through the cosmos right now - but he warned they might have evil intentions.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/37n2jax

Are Aliens About To Invade Australia?

A MASS of UFO sightings has Territorians wondering if we are on the brink of an alien invasion. There have been seven separate Top End UFO sightings reported in the past week. Hardly a night has passed without a sighting of some "unexplained phenomena" since the first sighting last week. Almost all of the sightings have been in Darwin's rural area.

The first sighting was reported by a woman who wanted to be identified only as Shirel on April 21.She said she saw the strange lights from her Humpty Doo home hovering over Howard Springs. "The lights were really low in the sky, really bright, with flashing dots," she said. "Three of them formed a semi-circle and they hovered over the area for at least half an hour."

There were three separate sightings on Friday night including British backpacker Kylie Myers who said she had "never believed in anything like UFOs" before her strange encounter. The 27-year-old tourist said she turned into a "believer". Ms Myers said she stopped her car on the side of the road to grab her camera from the glovebox, but the light disappeared. "It was pretty spooky."

There were more sightings at Coolalinga on Saturday, Acacia Hills on Sunday and again in Howard Springs on Tuesday.But astronomer Geoff Carr yesterday told the Northern Territory News he was "far from believing any of this UFO stuff". "Unless aliens have found a way to travel faster than light speed, it's a doubtful thing to believe they came to visit us," he said.

Mr Carr said he believed 99.9 per cent of all the UFO sightings could be explained as simple weather phenomena.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/2asezae

UFO: The Truth Is Out There

A UFO photographed in the night skies at Evans Head two weeks ago may actually be a ghost according to Wardell purveyor of all things paranormal David Delaney. The photograph taken by Lismore Heights woman Korrinne Stewart appeared in Friday’s Northern Star.

“It’s a pretty difficult one to pick from a photo, but I believe it is an orb,” Mr Delaney said. An orb, according to Mr Delaney, is a ghost or a human soul in the form of light. Appearing as an orb is the preferred form of apparition by ghosts because it requires less energy, Mr Delaney said.

Ms Stewart took the photo,in which both the moon and a mysterious shape can be seen, while fishing in the Evans River. She sent the photo to The Northern Star after reading about another UFO sighting at Evans Head when two men on their way home from the pub saw strange shapes in the sky, resembling a crescent moon.

There have been several reported UFO sightings in the region recently, including one last week in the skies at Nimbin where party-goers saw a bright red light which quickly faded to green before disappearing.

Mr Delaney said the most likely explanation for the photo taken by Ms Stewart was a ghost not a UFO. Ghost sightings increase over the winter months. “In the colder months you get more,” Mr Delaney said. “It is easier (for ghosts) to take on apparitions and manifestations in winter.”

Mr Delaney, who owns and operates ghost tour company Paranormal Pursuit, said orbs were very common. “They are the most common thing to be photographed on the tours,” Mr Delaney said. “We see them 100 per cent of the time. “They can be very photogenic when they want to.”

Mr Delaney said sometimes people’s camera batteries went flat when photographing an orb because it could draw on a variety of energy sources. “They can draw on powerlines and people as well,” Mr Delaney said. Mr Delaney has a Facebook group on which people can post their photographs of orbs for him to authenticate.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/yan2faz

Possible UFO spotted at Evans Head

'There has got to be something out there’, Lismore Heights woman Korrinne Stewart said after capturing with her camera a mysterious object in the night sky at Evans Head.

There have been several reports from around the region of mysterious bright lights in the Northern Rivers’ skies in recent weeks.

Ms Stewart contacted The Northern Star after reading a report in Tuesday’s newspaper about a UFO sighting by two Evans Head men. The men were on their way home from the pub when they saw moon-like objects in the sky. They were the same size and brightness as a crescent moon, but vertical.

Ms Stewart was fishing at Evans Head the week before when she began taking photographs of the Moon. Sometime after 10.30pm a strange object, which she could only see through the lens of her camera, appeared beside the Moon.

Ms Stewart said while she did believe in UFOs, she did not know if that was what she had captured. “I thought it might have been some kind of shadow,” she said.

Ms Stewart said she had taken photos of the Moon earlier that night in Ballina, but the object did not appear in any of those images.

Party-goers at Nimbin also reported seeing a strange object in the sky last Saturday night towards the west.

Silvia Tribolet, of Lillian Rock, said she saw a bright orange light, like fire, which quickly faded to green and then disappeared. “It was beautiful,” she said. “I saw it for just one second. It was about one-third of the size of the Moon.” Ms Tribolet said she had never seen anything like it before, but thought it was probably space junk.

Astronomer Philip Hood said people often saw things in the sky which were unexplainable. “The sky is usually very predictable from an astronomy point of view,” Mr Hood said. “And most things can be explained.”

Mr Hood runs the Starry Night Planetarium, which holds astronomy nights at Brunswick Heads on the foreshore on the first-quarter moon.

UFO Research Queensland will be holding a workshop on UFOs in Byron Bay on April 17.

Source http://tinyurl.com/ybpxhs5

UFOs Spotted Over Evans Head

Strange lights spotted over Evans Head at the weekend have been listed as a possible UFO sighting. The sighting is one of ‘a constant stream’ of such events recorded as ‘worthwhile’ by UFO Research Queensland, which monitors the skies from New Guinea to northern New South Wales. The high incidence of sightings in the area had prompted the group to man a stall at this year’s Starlight Wellbeing Expo in Bangalow over Easter, and also to hold a workshop in Byron Bay on April 17.

Tino Pezzimenti, who ran a seminar at the Expo, said the Evans Head sighting occurred when two men were walking back from the pub on Saturday night. One of the men, who swore he was completely sober, had reported seeing ‘moon-like objects’ in the sky besides the real one. “They were of the same size and brightness as the crescent Moon, but vertical,” Mr Pezzimenti said. “A third appeared and they all started moving erratically, zigzagging in the air. “One moved to the left, another to the right and the third straight up. They then rejoined themselves in the blink of an eye, back in their original position.”

Mr Pezzimenti said it was possible to discount other phenomena, such as hot-air balloons or aircraft. “It was also at 10.30pm, so it could not have been Venus,” he said. “It’s something we cannot explain. “But many UFOs have been reported as behaving in this way – erratically, and making sudden right-angled turns without slowing down.”

Australia has been something of a hotspot for UFO sightings in the past. Almost 900 a year were recorded throughout the 1990s, and there have been 200 this year. UFORQ has about 220 financial members and records reported sightings from all over the world. It had been in existence since 1956 and was the oldest still-running such group, Mr Pezzimenti said. One of the services it offered was a confidential support group for people who believed they had seen something but felt unable to tell anyone for fear of ridicule, or even worse, feared they might be going crazy.

UFO Research NSW spokesman Doug Moffett said the majority of the sightings in the state had been in rural areas.
The reason for this was because the aliens’ actions were largely ‘covert’. “They do not land and say ‘take me to your leader’,” he said. They could get lower and not be seen by so many people in country areas, he said.

Grafton-based UFO researcher and sky-watcher Barry Taylor said the phenomena went in 20-year cycles, known as ‘flap activity’. He said the 1950s, the ’70s and the ’90s had been active years for sightings, and he expected activity to increase again this year.

SIGHTINGS
The Gold Coast, with 25 reports, ranks second to Brisbane in the number of unexplained sightings in Queensland between October 2008 and September last year. Out of a total of 123 statewide, Brisbane had 28, while Caboolture, Cairns and Logan were next on the list, with five.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/yb7zrwn

Gold Coast UFO Sightings Rocketing

The Gold Coast has reported the second highest number of UFO sightings in Queensland in a year.

According to UFO Research Queensland, an organisation established in 1956 which records and researches UFO sightings, the Gold Coast ranked second to Brisbane in the number of unexplained sightings between October 2008 and September 2009, with 25 reports out of a total 123 coming from the Coast. Brisbane had 28, while Caboolture, Cairns and Logan were next on the list, all with five reports recorded.

For many years, the Australian Air Force was responsible for handling Unusual Aerial Sightings at the official level but in the 1990s, the department stopped archiving reports. Nowadays sightings are reported to local police authorities or civilian UFO research groups in the State, if at all.

UFO Research Queensland president Sheryl Gottschall said sightings ranged from strange lights in the sky to detailed descriptions of craft. She believed the Gold Coast recorded more sightings because of its location and holiday appeal.

"If you look at the population difference (between Brisbane and the Gold Coast), it's interesting," she said. "We think it's because of the geography of the Gold Coast, because it is fairly flat and you can see more of the sky, particularly out over the ocean and/or because of the population. "Many (people) are on holidays so they might be more casually looking at the sky (and notice these things)."

The latest sighting was two Saturdays ago, when Robina resident Pat Gatward saw four strange orange lights in the sky about 6.20pm. Mrs Gatward said she was having dinner with her husband when they noticed the phenomena in the sky.

"It wasn't fireworks or anything like that, I don't know what it was. I've never seen anything like it ... it was very strange," she said. Mrs Gatward was undecided about whether or not she believed in extra-terrestrial life.

Police said they had not received a report about the lights.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ybf8eg6

That Wild Australia Night

By 1988, at least publicly, the U.S. Air Force had long since washed itshands of UFO sightings reported by mere citizens, no matter the anxietyfactor, putting the burden firmly on the shoulders of local law enforcementagencies. The cops. Police and sheriffs' deputies weaponised with automobilesunable to fly. The last place on Earth where anybody would have the timeor inclination to give a damn about some light in the sky. Yes, there was Dr. J. Allen Hynek's public lifeline, the Center for UFO Studies, poorly funded then, as now, and a few other national private organizations, but UFO manifestations didn't care a whit about investigative protocol.

So, the UFO enigma continued to assume center stage, sometimes dramatically. Unfortunately, other countries emulated the U.S. and deferred the troublesome UFO issue, as it affected the man or woman on the street,

to police agencies.

Twenty-two years ago, some very strange and frightening things happened in Australia, according to Associated Press reports emanating from Sydney, and -- to my knowledge -- the integrity of these events was never discredited.

Based solely upon AP reports, the story developed as follows. . .At about 2:45 a.m. on a Wednesday in January, 1988 Faye Knowles, driving, and her three sons (brothers Sean and Wayne are pictured here, both having

confirmed their mother's story) were proceeding on a lonely outback highway through the Nullabor Plain from Perth in western Australia, when she spotted a glowing object through her rear window. In an attempt to escape pursuit by

what seemed an egg-shaped object, Knowles accelerated to speedsapproaching 120 m.p.h. However, the UFO easily paced the automobile and ultimately, according to Sgt. Jim Furnell of the Ceduna Police, "apparentlypicked the car up off the road, shook it quite violently and forced the car back with such pressure that one of the tires was blown." Knowles' vehicle was left facing the direction from which it had come.

Apparently associated with the incident was a layer of a black powdery ashen substance found inside and outside of the car, and forensic scientists were scheduled to take samples. But, as in the best detective thrillers, there was

more to the story.

First, a tuna boat crew 50 miles away in a water area known as the Great Australia Bight -- a crew whose members had absolutely no contact with the Knowles family -- reported being buzzed by a bright object just minutes after the Knowles incident. "We were a little bit skeptical at first," continued Furnell, "but after investigating, we are treating the reports very seriously."

Second, and this was a particular point of interest to me because sound was involved, both the Knowles family and tuna fishermen noted similarly bizarre effects in the presence of a strange object. Explained Furnell, "While this was happening, the (Knowles) family said their voices were distorted and it was as if they were talking in slow motion." In the tuna boat, crew members' voices became "unintelligible" during the object's presence.

While these sound/voice/slow motion UFO incidents, almost suggestive of interference in some space & time mode, may seem uncommon, they do exist, probably in far greater numbers than are reported, and should be taken quite seriously in any scientific court of UFO conjecture. Wendy Connors' (now completed) Faded Discs project retrieved an old recorded interview with a young woman, once living as a child with her family at a British Air Force base in the 1960s. Recounting the appearance of a large UFO cruising at treetop level over base housing, the woman remembered that sounds were interrupted and voices could not be heard or comprehended until the thing departed.

Her active duty military father, and presumably others suddenly involved in this crisis alert situation, refused to speak of the incident and, whatever visited the base, it obviously wasn't regarded as "ours."

Getting back to the Australian events: A Royal Australian Air Force base representative in Edinburgh claimed he wasn't aware of any military aircraft in the area during the encounters. Still, instant explanations weren't to be

avoided because the media, as usual, went running to the nearest skeptical astronomer for a feel-good moment and, as usual, this expert was more than happy to oblige, with his version of events anxiously lapped up by the media

a week later.

Charles Morgan of the Sydney Observatory postulated a "carbonous meteorite shower" as the culprit (!) which would explain the ash and the Knowles' report of a "smell of dead bodies" inside the car. He also indicated the possibility of a sonic boom associated with such an event, which might explain the hearing difficulties. Acknowledging that some "unexplained phenomenon" might instead be responsible, Morgan nevertheless went on to suggest that the tire blew because the driver became frightened, drove off the road, hit a bump and became airborne.

It must be noted, however, that the Knowles family drove 400 miles to the Ceduna police station following the encounter, and officer Furnell noted that the car's roof was dented, covered with a blackish-gray ash -- and family

members were visibly shaken.

Keith Basterfield of UFO Research Inc., awaiting confirmation of the event, stated at the time that the Knowles case could "certainly be the most physical of encounters ever recorded in Australia. "All of this brings me to ask an unlikely but relevant question -- What's the energy source of a presumably unknown object able to pursue and lift a heavy automobile filled with passengers? If the world truly craves the highest levels of energy independence, the UFO phenomenon might provide answers. . .answers that governments may not learn if they turn away or deny interest

in just one special observer among the masses who happens to experience a UFO encounter of more than passing significance. Despite all the good things law enforcement agencies do, their crime forensics labs aren't exactly stocked with scientists yearning to examine UFO incidents.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/yabt5d2

UFO spottings on Central Coast of NSW

There's something strange happening in the skies over a little patch of our pristine holiday coast.

The suburbs around Gosford, on the Central Coast, are the state's biggest hot spot when it comes to UFO sightings, with dozens of seemingly authentic cases reported every year.

Each month, as many as 30 people turn up to meetings to share their UFO experiences.

UFO Research NSW secretary Joann Kanda, who helps organise the meetings, saw what she believed was a UFO near her home at The Entrance in the mid-1990s.

"It was just a sort of a glowing light in the middle of the night," she said.

"The dogs made a strange noise and I got up. There was something up in the sky with a greenish glow."

The region was the scene for one of Australia's most baffling UFO cases - a series of sightings in 1995 and 1996 - that were reported by police and many other credible witnesses.

Residents have told of seeing shiny, spherical, illuminated UFOs that often hovered above water.

UFO Research NSW's Doug Moffett said UFOs were commonly spotted over water or near power plants and the Central Coast had plenty of both.

The geography of the Central Coast may also play a part. It is heavily populated in parts, which means there are people around to spot UFOs, but still isolated enough for them to be visible in the night sky.

"What UFOs do is, largely speaking, covert in nature. They're obviously not landing at the steps of the Opera House and saying, 'Take me to your leader'," Mr Moffett said.

The UFO and Paranormal Research Society of NSW said the Blue Mountains also figured heavily in UFO sighting reports.

A group of enthusiasts spent the weekend in the mountains searching for UFOs they say visit the area each year in the last week of March.

One of the group, who declined to be named, said that in past years the craft had appeared above the Burragorang Valley, beyond Jenolan Caves, and were seen to hover for some time.

Several readers have reported seeing UFOs near Wollongong a week ago.

Could It Be A UFO?

Eagle Vale resident Shawaan Peck took this photo on an early Winter morning last year.

He took the photo on his mobile phone and rushed inside to grab his handycam but claimed when he returned the ''glowing objects'' in the sky had disappeared.

This week, there have been reports of UFO sightings in Chipping Norton and Mr Peck believed that was what he captured in this shot.

``I've seen freaky things before, but they've been satellites or shooting stars,'' he told the Advertiser.

``But this thing, I was like hello? what's that?

``I thought it was just weird...I don't think we're alone.''

He said he included the street light in the shot to compare the objects with.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/yjwfrq3

UFOs Over Sydney - The Intergalactic Neighbours Drop By

THEY emerged from a blazing light in the clouds, descending on a busy Sydney street before zipping off silently into the sunset.

Just what - or who - propelled the strange flying discs across the sky may never be known. But while the close encounter was over in seconds, it was enough to convince mother-of-two Fiona Hartigan that she'd just seen a UFO. And she has the photos to prove it. Ms Hartigan yesterday said she had just got out of her car on Sunday evening to snap a few sunset photos when the amazing events began. "As I was about to take the picture this black object appeared and then it started to move," she said.

"It started off about 800m away but it came closer - to about 400m - and then two other little round things appeared from this bright orange light above. "There was no noise. It was calm and peaceful but it was very weird." Ms Hartigan said the main UFO then "shot off" above Governor Macquarie Drive at Chipping Norton, with the smaller UFOs zipping away in the opposite direction. "I don't know how to explain it - I'm still totally bewildered," she said.

To the sceptic, Ms Hartigan's photo might show a speck of dust on the lens or something small floating in the air close to the camera. But close encounters like Ms Hartigan's came as no surprise to UFO Research NSW spokesman Doug Moffett: "It could be some electrical anomaly that no one has ever seen, it could be an extra-terrestrial craft, it could be something else.

"There does appear to be a blur around the image, which could just be the way it's shaped, or - and this is pure speculation - it could be due to its propulsion system. "Whatever the case, it's an opportunity to learn something new." Mr Moffett said there were between 1000 and 1500 UFO sightings in Australia every year, "but that is just the tip of the iceberg". "Why would anyone make these stories up? They are setting themselves up for ridicule," he said.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/yj3awqw