"FLYING DISC" FOUND IN N.M.

FORTH WORTH, TEX. - (AP) - An examination by the United States army revealed last night that a mysterious object found on a lonely New Mexico ranch was a harmless high-altitude balloon and not a grounded flying disc.

Excitement was high in disc-conscious Texas until Brig.-Gen. Roger M. Ramey, commander of the 8th air forces with headquarters here, cleared up the mystery.

The bundle of tinfoil, broken wood beams and rubber remnants of a balloon were sent here yesterday by army air transport in the wake of reports that it was a flying disc.

But Ramey said the objects were the crushed remains of a raywind target used to determine the direction and velocity of winds at high altitudes.

The weather balloon was found several days ago in a desolate section of New Mexico by a rancher, W. W. Brazel. He said he didn't think much about it until he went into Corona, N.M., last Saturday and heard the flying disc reports.

MYSTERY BLAST

El Paso, Tex., Oct. 14 - (AP) - An unidentified flaming object soared over the Texas-Mexico border Sunday, apparently smashing into the Zamal-Ayuca mountains of Mexico with a loud explosion and billows of smoke.

North Bay, Ontario, DAILY NUGGET, 14 October 1947, Page 32

"Flaming Object" Sought in Mexico

El Paso, Tex., Oct. 14 - (AP) - Mexican mounted troops today were to ride into the sandhills and mountains near Caseta, Mexico, seeking a mysterious flaming object which residents claimed soared over the town Sunday to explode in billows of smoke 10 miles away.

Brig.-Gen. Enrique Diaz Gonzales last night sent a request that United States military reconnaissance planes assist in the search for "the object." He suggested the planes drop flares and otherwise guide the mounted troops to any crater sighted.

The object was estimated to have landed about 15 miles southeast of El Paso. Many residents of Fabens, Texas, and Colonia Reforma said they heard two explosions as the body apparently exploded.

A captain in the Mexican reserve who first reported the incident described the object as about two feet long and cigar-shaped.

Military officials established the object was not a military missile like the V-2 rocket that went wild and crashed in the same general direction south of Juarez, Mexico, May 22.

An amateur astronomer, Oscar E. Monnig of Fort Worth, Tex., said yesterday it was his belief the object was "almost certainly a fireball meteor."

"BALL OF FIRE" STARTLES THOUSANDS IN SOUTHERN U.S.

DALLAS, Tex., June 24 - (AP) - A ball of fire flashed across the southern United States sky as the sun sank last night, trailing a streamer of flame and startling thousands.

Or did it? Was it just a speeding plane with the sun's last red and gold rays tricks with its vapor trail? Was it a real ball of fire, a meteor? Or was it - could it have been - a flying saucer?

What direction did it travel? Take your choice: East to west or south to east.

And where did it land? If it was a jet plane, at El Paso, Tex.; if a meteor, perhaps in the swamps of Louisiana.

Or maybe there was a meteor as well as a jet.

Known Facts

Here are the known facts: A brilliant light various described as a fire ball and a fiery streak was seen from Montgomery, Ala., to Fort Worth, Tex., at about 7:40 p.m. CST. A ship 350 miles at sea from Galveston, Tex., saw it. A similar flash was seen an hour earlier at Natchez, Miss., and about 20 minutes later at Abilene, Tex. During this period, a jet plane was whizzing over the south on a course from Langley Field, Va., to El Paso.

The weather bureau at Moisant International Airport in New Orleans said there were theories that the fire ball was either the tail-end of a comet or the vapor trail of a high-flying aircraft.

Dr. David V. Guthrie, director of the Louisiana State University astronomical observatory, was sure it was a meteor. But he hadn't seen it.

New Orleans weather observer E. A. Aime, who did see it, wasn't sure what he saw. He carefully reported the aircraft vapor trail theory, then said:

"It looked like something that came from outside our atmosphere (which reaches upward about 75 miles) and burned up in our atmosphere."

"It was the most brilliant and the brightest meteor - if it was a meteor - I've ever seen. It looked like a sky rocket."

Soviets Claim Evidence Of Comet Hitting Earth
By RUSSELL ELMAN

OTTAWA (CP) - Russian scientists believe they have detected the first known case of a comet from outer space striking the earth.

The Soviet claim, now widely supported but still not proved beyond doubt, was related Friday by Dominion astronomer Dr. C. S. Beals following an 18-day visit to Russia.

If the comet theory is correct, it will explain a natural phenomenon that has baffled the world's scientists for more than half a century.

The mystery dates to 1908 when Tunguska, in a remote part of central Siberia, was bombarded by what until recently was considered one of only two recorded major meteorite falls in history. The other occurred in 1947 in eastern Siberia.

However, although the Tunguska fall resulted in great disturbances in the air waves and a shock felt thousands of miles away, no crater was ever discovered.

MASSIVE BODY

Dr. Beals said in an interview that Russian scientists now think the only thing that could produce such a phenomenon would be a massive, large body of low density.

A likely object of this description would be the head of a comet, an apparently loosely-aggregated mass of particles and frozen gases which rotates around the sun. From the ground, a comet usually is seen as a slow-moving, bright object with a tail.

By contrast, meteorites, remnants of meteors which flash through space, have a mineral content and usually carve a crater when they hit.

Dr. Beals said the Russians showed him aerial photographs of the Tunguska area and, although trees were toppled and there was other damage, there was no evidence of craters of any kind.

STUDIES CONTINUE

More of the story is expected to be learned following the return of new expeditions now at work in the Tunguska area.

The head of the Dominion observatories went to Russia under an exchange agreement between the National Research Council and the Soviet Academy of Sciences. His overseas trip, which lasted seven weeks, also included visits to Finland, West Germany, France and Britain.

Dr. Beals thought Russia was probably ahead of Canada in work on meteorites. The Russians had quite a large team of scientists devoted to this kind of work.

As a general impression, he thought individual Russian scientists compares favorably with the best in other countries.

"What struck me most, however, was not the differences but the similarities between scientists. When we get together, we tend to forget our nationalities."

Fireball lights sky over Canada, States

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A brilliant light flashed across the sky late Thursday, raining burning bits of matter across several mid-western states and southwestern Ontario.

"It undoubtedly was a fireball," said Dr. William P. Bidelman, an astronomer at the University of Michigan.

A spokesman for the U.S. defence department said first reports indicate it was a natural phenomenon. All aircraft, missiles and the like are accounted for, he said.

Fireballs are bits of stone or metal that rain from the sky at all times of the year, Dr. Bidelman said. A fireball is a brilliant meteor. Any piece or fragment that survives the flight and impact is called a meteorite.

Whatever it was, it attracted a lot of attention. Persons in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and parts of Ontario said they saw brilliant flashes of light blazing across the sky at dusk. Some said they saw fiery objects plunge to earth.

In Ontario, sightings were reported as far north as Sarnia and as far east as London, Ont. A sighting was also reported at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

Police began receiving reports of small fires in widely scattered areas. Fires were put out and extensive searches were made, but there were no reports of significant findings.

Near the village of Kecksburg in southwestern Pennsylvania, fireman Roy Howard said he saw several blue flashes "like an acetylene torch" close to the ground.

Other persons said they saw the flashes, too.

State troopers and air force personnel tramped through the area for hours with Geiger counters. They said they found nothing and called off the search.

At Elyria, 20 miles west of Cleveland, Ohio, firemen said they found 10 small grass fires burning in a small area, and they quickly put them out with no major damage.

Mrs. Ralph Richards, who lives nearby, said she saw a fiery object the size of a volley ball fall among some trees just before the fires broke out.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Detroit got a report of an airplane down in the Detroit river that separates Detroit and Windsor. Boats searched and found nothing.

Just south of Lapeer, Mich., deputies checked reports that an unidentified object fell into a field.

Flying Saucer Group Asks Body Be Raised for Test

AURORA, Tex. (Reuters) - Some Texans think the pilot of a flying saucer may have been buried here 76 years ago and officials of a saucer-watching group want to exhume the body to determine whether the remains are human or alien.

Officials of the International Unidentified Flying Objects Bureau (IUFO) are seeking "legal means" by which the body, buried in April, 1897, can be exhumed.

IUFO director Hayden Hughes says old newspaper stories report an unidentified flying object "exploded atop a well" on the property of Judge J. S. Proctor April 19, 1897.

"The pilot's dismembered body was buried that same say in the Aurora cemetary," about 70 miles northwest of Dallas, Hughes said.

"We hope by exhuming the body we may obtain some of the same type of unusual metal, from either his clothing or bones, that was unearthed at the well site when we checked it with metal detectors."

A research scientist from a nearby aircraft company, provided with specimens of the metal by the reporters of the Dallas Times-Herald, said: "I've never seen any metal like that in 25 years of experience."

An 83-year-old man who says his father saw the spaceship crash and explode has told reporters: "My daddy watched the silver-colored, cigar-shaped spaceship cross our pasture very low and slowly. It had a white light on it and he watched until it crashed and burned."

1908 blast likely atomic, expert say

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An explosion which devastated part of a frozen Siberian forest almost 70 years ago probably was nuclear in origin and may have been caused by an alien spacecraft, a Soviet geologist was quoted Thursday as saying.

Dr. Alexei Zolotov, who for 17 years has studied the explosion which rocked the forest in western Siberia, has just returned from his latest expedition to the area.

"Our investigations in the course of 17 years seem to confirm our assumption that what took place was a nuclear explosion," he told Tass news agency. "So far there is not a single fact that would contradict our nuclear hypothesis."

Another theory for the blast is that a huge meteorite crashed into the earth. No traces have been found of the meteorite, but some scientists say it may have vaporized on impact.

Before the explosion on June 30, 1908, witnesses reported there was an almost blinding flash visible 500 miles away.

The Soviet encyclopedia says the crash uprooted trees, throwing them into a 20-mile radius around the point of impact and leaving a heavy dust cloud which lasted several hours.

Asked by Tass whether a nuclear-powered spacecraft may have been responsible for the blast, Dr. Zolotov said the possibility of earth being visited by intelligent beings from other worlds was "not entirely improbable."

On his latest expedition, Dr. Zolotov collected samples of permafrost soil dating from 1908 and traces of trees which survived the blast.

Wood samples from the area also show that after 1908, the layers of wood have been exhibiting a radioactive anomaly, a higher-than-normal radioactivity level, he said.

Scientists remain baffled by huge explosion in 1908

MOSCOW (AP) - On the morning of June 30, 1908, an explosion lit up the already bright sky over central Siberia. The force was strong enough to knock horses to the ground more than 400 miles away.

Investigators later estimated that the blast was equal to the detonation of 30 million tons of TNT or the equivalent of 1,500 atomic bombs of the type that devastated Hiroshima.

Sixty-eight years after it happened, scientists are still unable to agree on the cause of the Tunguska phenomenon, named for the remote forest where the explosion took place. The initial assumption was that a gigantic meteorite had smashed into the earth, but this idea was ultimately rejected when no crater and no meteor fragments could be found.

Every summer for the last 17 years, the Soviet Union has sent expeditions to the area where thousands of charred and flattened trees still lie over a vast expanse shaped like a butterfly, stretching 50 miles from wing to wing. They always come back with a little more data, as they did this summer, but no proof of what really happened that day long ago.

SPAWNS THEORIES

The Tunguska mystery has spawned numerous theories from both serious scientists and dreamy science fiction writers. The theories range from an exploded comet head - the most popular notion among Soviet scientists today - to a blown-up spaceship, to the invasion of a "black hole" from the far reaches of the universe. But for every theory raised, someone has come up with a plausible rebuttal.

Continued interest in the Tunguska explosion has particular relevance in the nuclear age. More than once, scientists have posed the question: What if it happened today?

How, for example, would the nuclear powers react if an explosion of the Tunguska magnitude occurred again somewhere in Russia? In the United States? In China?

BODY EXPLODED

Here are the generally accepted data about the Tunguska phenomenon:

A space body of undetermined size penetrated the earth's atmosphere, travelling from east to west at a speed of more than 3,000 miles an hour. It exploded about four miles above the earth, over the lower Tunguska River basin of Siberia.

The blast levelled trees over a 1,250-square-mile area, presumably killing all living things. But since the area was largely uninhabited, few human deaths were recorded. The explosion was followed by intense radiation, which ignited a widespread fire.

For weeks after the explosion, the night sky glowed with extraordinary luminescence, seen as far away as Western Europe.

In addition, there were some particularly puzzling features. Trees at "ground zero," immediately beneath the blast, remained standing. Only their bark and branches were stripped clean.

Also, because of the radiation burns and the resemblance to a nuclear explosion, scientists expected to find heavy traces of radioactivity in the area. But they did not.

FOUND VEGETATION

What they did find, however, was unusually lush vegetation which had grown in the area since the explosion. And examination of the growth rings of trees which survived outside the devastated zone showed that the wood had increased at 10 to 12 times its normal rate since 1908.

Although no meteorite fragments were found, microscopic particles of melted silicate, or glass, were discovered several years ago in the peat bogs of Tunguska. These particles did not resemble other silicate found on earth. They contained the rare elements selenium and ytterbium, which were thought to originate only in the depths of planets.

Scientists try to unravel mystery of giant nuclear blast in 1908

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Soviet and Western scientists still are puzzling over a mysterious explosion which almost 70 years ago ripped through a Siberian forest with the force of several atomic bombs.

The latest theory is that the explosion on the morning of June 30, 1908 was nuclear in origin - and could even have been caused by an alien spacecraft colliding with earth.

Soviet geologist Dr. Alexei Zolotov has for the past 17 years been collecting wood samples from the area of the blast around the Tungus Taiga (forest) and found that they have an unusually high radioactivity level.

Fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field, the type of shock-wave oscillations produced by the blast and the spectrum of seismic waves in the blast area, all tended to back up his nuclear theory, Dr. Zolotov said in a Soviet press interview.

"So far there is not a single fact that would contradict our nuclear hypothesis," he said.

HAS NO EXPLANATION

But Dr. Zolotov could not explain what could have caused a nuclear explosion before the atom had even been split.

Asked whether a nuclear-powered spacecraft could have been responsible, Dr. Zolotov said that he and his research team were investigating the possibility.

"It is from this point of view that we are exploring the possibility of the artificial origin of the Tungus cosmic body," he said.

Other theories range from a comet-head to a "black hole" on its way through the universe, but nobody has yet come up with a conclusive explanation for what is known here as "the Tungus Taiga mystery."

Early on the morning of the blast, according to witnesses, there was a blinding flash which lit up the bleak Siberian marshland around the lower Tunguska river basin.

The glow was visible 500 miles away and, according to some reports, was even seen in Western Europe.

Trees were uprooted in a 1,250-square-mile area and tossed into the air like matchsticks. Animals and birds were killed, although there was no evidence of human casualties in the sparsely populated area.

Villagers on their way to work some 400 miles from the site of the blast were thrown to the ground, horses are said to have dropped to their knees as the shock waves swept the surrounding area.

Some sort of space body, some Soviet scientists calculate, must have penetrated the earth's atmosphere, hurtling from east to west at more than 3,000 m.p.h.

The blast itself, the experts say, occurred about four miles above the earth's surface and had the force of several Hiroshima-type atom bombs or a large hydrogen bomb.

The initial explanation for the blast was that it was caused by a massive meteorite which smacked into the earth with such force that it vaporized on impact.

NO CRATER FOUND

But the theory was discarded after no meteorite fragments, and no crater, were found.

The most popular theory with Soviet experts, including the influential Academy of Sciences, is that the head of a comet - a huge "dirty snowball" of frozen gases - exploded when it came into contact with the earth's atmosphere.

Astro-physicists from Tomsk University who have just returned from taking complex measurements in the area, say the body's probable trajectory agrees with the comet theory.

This would explain the absence of a crater and the brilliant flash before the blast, the experts say.

But these scientists have so far not been able to explain why the comet-head exploded only four miles above the ground, and not as soon as it entered the atmosphere. The high radiation level of the area also remains a mystery.

The radiation burns, according to scientists at University of Texas, could have been caused by a "black hole" - a collapsed star of great density from another galaxy - which hit Siberia, passed through earth and continued its way across the universe.

FEW FACTS

But there are so few facts that almost any blackboard theory could be made to apply.

What makes the Tungus Taiga debate more than an academic wrangle is the prospect of a similar blast occurring again - in a heavily populated area.

Not only would there be a great loss of life, but, if a Soviet or United States metropolis were hit, the blast could be interpreted as a nuclear attack.

Thus many Soviet scientists are anxious to find a final explanation for the Tungus Taiga mystery so that they can start to devise some sort of warning system.

"It is an urgent problem," said one academician, "I dread to think what would happen if there were another Tungus blast."

OUR MYSTERIOUS WORLD
The UFO that went 'Bang!'
Toronto Sun Syndicate

For the peasant Tungus of Siberia, the morning of June 30, 1908, must have seemed like the end of the world.

They felt the earth tremble and shake, saw their tents and buildings tossed down, saw the forest crushed as if by a giant invisible hand, felt a searing hot blast of air and heard the roar of thunder. They saw fires raging and watched a great black cloud rise miles high into the sky. Later they were terrified when black rain fell.

In that terrifying morning, the outside world also received evidence of some cataclysmic but unknown event. Seismographs in Moscow, in Germany, and even in Washington were activated by an immense earth-shudder.

Within five hours of the impact, sudden atmospheric pressure fluctuations lasting twenty minutes were recorded by many meteorological stations in England, leaving weather researchers completely baffled. The air wave circled the globe twice and during the first week of July the night skies across Russia and Europe were aglow with "remarkable lights and sunsets of exceptional beauty." Photographs taken in Russia during this period show vivid atmospheric displays created by glowing ionized air particles.

But as to the cause of all this remarkable phenomena, no one knew.

The first theory to take hold was that a huge meteorite had collided with the earth somewhere. Eventually, in 1921, meteorologist Leonid Kulik began collecting newspaper accounts from the major towns of that Siberian region. One report stated that "peasants to the North saw a body shining very brightly, too bright for the naked eye, with a bluish white light. It moved vertically downward for about ten minutes and was in the form of a pipe; that is, cylindrical."

Kulik was puzzled by this; meteorites were not 'pipe-shaped.' Another puzzling report..."when the flying object touched the horizon a huge flame shot up that cut the sky in two..." The scientist stuck by his meteorite theory however. At that time, with no other frames of reference at hand, it was the only theory possible.

Several expeditions to the area were set up and finally in 1928 the actual centre of the explosion was located. The devastation that met the eyes of the first explorers was incredible. A great area of permafrost tundra had been thawed to a depth of several feet and it was now a swamp. Thousands of trees lay felled in a fan shaped design, charred and black. Only one group of trees had remained upright, at the centre of the blast area, stripped of every branch, a veritable 'telegraph pole' forest. The scientists concluded that the blast had taken place about two miles above the earth, not at ground level. And as for the 'huge meteorite' they firmly expected to find, there was absolutely no sign.

The mystery remained unsolved. Until 1946...and the atomic bomb. On August 6th of that year, at 8:15 a.m., the Japanese city of Hiroshima was obliterated. The uranium-235 bomb created the greatest man-made destruction ever known, killing and maiming multi-thousands in seconds.

Leaving aside the moral implications of this event, it was the aftermath of the Hiroshima explosion that led to a re-evaluation of the Russian Tunguska mystery. One didn't have to look too hard to discern many striking similarities between the two, and awesome though the Hiroshima devastation had been, it was obvious that the explosion of 1908 had been many times greater.

The destroyed area in Hiroshima totalled 18 square miles, that on the Tunguska, 200 square miles. Wood was ignited in the Japanese city at a distance of one mile from the blast while on the Tunguska plateau, trees had been burned at a distance of eight to ten miles from the fall point. Japanese naval students felt a hot breeze from the Hiroshima blast 60 miles away! It has been estimated that the 1908 explosion was at least 100 times more powerful than the one in 1946. But it was still a mystery as to what had caused it.

In the late fifties, soil samples from the Siberian blast area were subjected to extreme magnification and laboratory testing and small particles of extraterrestrial matter were discovered.

In 1962, a surveying team using a helicopter was able to chart the pattern of the explosion's scattering ellipse and more soil samples were gathered. Trees and plants were also examined and here they found thousands of tiny brilliant spheres imbedded in them. A detailed analysis revealed small amounts of cobalt and nickel, and traces of copper and germanium. The discovery of these metallic elements supported a theory that had been put forward previously by a respected Russian scientist, namely that what had exploded was an artificial craft...from somewhere. The eye witness reports had mentioned a very bright pipe-shaped object. At that time no one even knew the term UFO but since 1946 they had become almost common to every country in the world. And many of the descriptions were of pipe, or cigar-shaped spacecraft. Could it really be...?

The early reports were studied again. Discrepancies were found regarding the direction of the object. Some reports indicated a south-to-north trajectory while others maintained a southeast to northwest direction. If both reports were correct it could mean only one thing...the object had made an in-flight manoeuvre!

All evidence now points to one conclusion. The object must have been an intelligently controlled, atomic powered space vehicle, which, having sustained some irreparable damage, was deliberately steered to an area where the least devestation (in terms of human life and property) would result.

Had the explosion occurred just 3 hours later, the great city of Moscow would have been totally destroyed.

Bang!

Sudbury, Ontario, STAR, 11 February 1980, page 11

Strange object

ANKARA (Reuter) - A mysterious object resembling a plane crashed into the Black Sea near the Turkish and Soviet coasts last week, arousing speculation that it may have been a U.S. or Soviet spy plane. No crash was announced by Turkish authorities or the official media, but the governor of the Turkish Black Sea town of Sinep said witnesses saw a planelike shape crash into the sea near Rize, a coastal town about 95 kilometres from the Soviet border.