The curse of Alioshenka

The dwarf from Kyshtym did not do any harm to anybody while he was in the land of the living. Some really weird things began to happen following the death of the creature. The old lady, a “godmother” of Alioshenka the Alien, died in a hit-and-run accident. The woman was knocked down by a car just a few days before a team of researchers arrived in the town from Moscow.

The body of the dwarf vanished without a trace. An investigator assigned to the case is reported to have handed the corpse to some perpetrators who walked off with it. A Japanese TV crew arrived in Kyshtym to do a documentary on Alioshenka. The Japanese posted a reward of $200,000 for information on the whereabouts of the stolen creature. However, their attempts to locate the body of the dwarf ended in failure. A minute piece of the dead body was the only hard evidence the Japanese somehow managed to recover. The Japanese displayed the object for the benefit of the cameras.

Academician Mark Milkhiker looked into the Kyshtym phenomenon on location. He carefully examined the area in which the dwarf was found. Milkhiker fell seriously ill shortly after he returned to Moscow. He died of a sudden heart attack while in hospital.

The above Vadim Chernobrov was also taken ill four years after the discovery of the dwarf. A mysterious disease paralyzed him from the waist down. Doctors were unable to explain the cause of his disease. It was Chernobrov who found a piece of fabric used by the old lady for wrapping around the dwarf on the day she found him.

Were all those misfortunes a coincidence? Did the alien really put a curse on everyone who tried to solve his mystery?

It is clear that Deguchi Masao, a producer of the Japanese documentary on Alioshenka, fell victim to his own naivety that borders on idiocy. What did he do? He promised to pay cash to locals who could share their memories of the dwarf with his crew. Needless to say, the news spread across the town like wildfire. Dozens of bums and drunkards formed a long line around the house where the Japanese were interviewing “eyewitnesses.” It took the producer a while to realize that all those incredible accounts of the event were a fake.

I have been following the Kyshtym phenomenon since it came to light in 1996. I visited Kyshtym several times to get firsthand information from those who were part of the story. Now it is about time I dusted off my old notebooks containing real eyewitness accounts so that we can separate a few grains of truth from a collection of assorted conjectures and speculations.

I am quite confident that the mummified body of the creature is not a myth. There are numerous witnesses who saw the dead body of Alioshenka. Major (Ret.) Vladimir Bendlin, a former investigator with the police department of Kyshtym, is the most important witness.

On a rainy summer morning the police detained one Vladimir Nurtdinov, a local resident suspected of stealing electrical wire. The police confiscated a bundle the man was carrying. Having removed a piece of red cloth from the object, the police were amazed to see a small mummified body of a strange creature. The police placed the corpse on the cloth and videotaped it. Bendlin noticed on the spot that the creature looked like an alien, in a way aliens are usually portrayed in sci-fi movies. The creature looked stone-cold and lifeless. It felt the same by touch.

Bendlin opened investigation into the case of an “alien.” A dead body found under the circumstances normally entails a police investigation. In line with regulation, the police were supposed to determine the cause of death of the strange being.

Russian geneticists to reveal alien’s DNA mystery

Scientists may soon unravel the mystery of the “Uralian alien,” a tiny creature found near the town of Kyshtym in the Urals. Scientists carried out five series of laboratory studies investigating the DNA samples of the creature’s biological material.

The latest study conducted by a Moscow-based Institute of Forensic Medicine produced sensational results.

“A gene discovered in the DNA samples doesn’t correspond with any genes pertaining to humans or anthropoid apes,” said Vadim Chernobrov, a coordinator with the public research center Kosmopoisk. “No gene samples available at the laboratory match the gene. The experts in DNA research haven’t come across any creatures with such an elongated DNA molecule,” Chernobrov added.

Scientists have been looking for an explanation of the Kyshtym phenomenon for more than ten years. The story began in the summer of 1996 after a miniature creature was found in the Chelyabinsk region. The find was soon dubbed the “Kyshtym alien.” A local medical examiner who performed an autopsy concluded that the dead body was neither human nor animal in nature.

Ufologists regarded the Kyshtym dwarf as a clear-cut case of the extraterrestrial. The clergy believe the dwarf was a demon. The creature was still alive when it was found by an old and barely literate woman. She was the only one who gave the dwarf a human name – Alioshenka (a diminutive of the Russian name “Alexei” – ed. note).

Alien recoveries

The two Air Force reports on the Roswell UFO incident, published in 1994/5 and 1997, form the basis for much of the skeptical explanation for the 1947 incident, the purported recovery of aliens and their craft from the vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico.

The first report, “The Roswell Report: Fact verses Fiction in the New Mexico Desert,” identified a secret military research program called Project Mogul as the source of the debris reported in 1947. The second report, "The Roswell Report: Case Closed” concluded that reports of alien recoveries were likely misidentified military programs or accidents.

Based on the evidence which could be gathered, the report concluded that the 1947 incident was not an airplane crash, a missile crash, a nuclear accident, or the recovery of an extraterrestrial craft. Obviously, the latter conclusion was the key one. “…the research indicated absolutely no evidence of any kind [italics in original] that a spaceship crashed near Roswell or that any alien occupants were recovered therefrom, in some secret military operation or otherwise.”
The overwhelming focus of the military at the time was on something more down-to-earth, the report noted: “All the records… indicated that the focus of concern was not on aliens, hostile or otherwise, but on the Soviet Union.”

While the report acknowledged that there would be some who would label the report itself as part of the “cover up,” and would probably assert that evidence corroborating alien recoveries at Roswell or nearby remained hidden or was destroyed, an assertion nearly impossible to disprove, evidence showing the increased activity which would surely be associated with a cover up operation of such a seminal event was also completely lacking, making the assertion that something was being hidden extremely unlikely. “There were no indications and warnings, notice of alerts, or a higher tempo of operational activity reported that would be logically generated if an alien craft, whose intentions were unknown, entered US territory.” The report also refuted claims that several specific high-ranking military personnel were engaged in activities surrounding a recovery of aliens and a cover-up during the time in question by tracing their actual documented activities.

In eliminating an alien recovery as the source of the incident, the report concluded: “… if some event happened that was one of the ‘watershed happenings’ in human history, the US military certainly reacted in an unconcerned and cavalier manner. In an actual case, the military would have had to order thousands of soldiers and airmen, not only at Roswell but throughout the US, to act nonchalantly, pretend to conduct and report business as usual, and generate absolutely no paperwork of a suspicious nature, while simultaneously anticipating that twenty years or more into the future people would have available a comprehensive Freedom of Information Act that would give them great leeway to review and explore government documents. The records indicate that none of this happened (or if it did, it was controlled by a security system so efficient and tight that no one, US or otherwise, has been able to duplicate it since. If such a system had been in effect at the time, it would have also been used to protect our atomic secrets from the Soviets, which history has showed obviously was not the case). The records reviewed confirmed that no such sophisticated and efficient security system existed.”

UFO Crashes

On July 8, 1995, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Bomb Group had recovered a crashed "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest. Later the same day, the Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force stated that, in fact, a weather balloon had been recovered by RAAF personnel, rather than a "flying saucer." A subsequent press conference was called, featuring debris said to be from the crashed object that seemed to confirm the weather balloon description. The case was quickly forgotten and almost completely ignored, even by UFO researchers, for more than 30 years. Then, in 1978, ufologist Stanton T. Friedman interviewed Major Jesse Marcel, who was involved with the original recovery of the debris in 1947. Marcel expressed his belief that the military had covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft. His story circulated through UFO circles, being featured in some UFO documentaries at the time.

In response to these reports, and after congressional inquiries, the General Accounting Office launched an inquiry and directed the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force to conduct an internal investigation. The result was summarized in two reports. The first, released in 1995, concluded that the reported recovered material in 1947 was likely debris from a secret government program called Project Mogul. The second report, released in 1997, concluded that reports of recovered alien bodies were likely a combination of innocently transformed memories of military accidents involving injured or killed personnel, and the recovery of anthropomorphic dummies in military programs like Project High Dive conducted in the 1950s, and hoaxes perpetrated by various witnesses and UFO proponents. The psychological effects of time compression and confusion about when events occurred explained the discrepancy with the years in question. These reports were dismissed by UFO proponents as being either disinformation or simply implausible, though significant numbers of UFO researchers discount the probability that any alien crash was in fact involved

What's the difference between a star and a planet?

Introduction

If you want to examine what conditions are necessary for a planet to support live, an important question will be: When do you call an object a planet? Or what is the difference between a star and a planet? In this article I will try to explain the exact difference between the two and I will look at the atmosphere, the mass and the temperature, to examine if live is possible on these objects.

Star formation

A star forms when a very big cloud of gas contracts under the influence of its own gravitational force. As this contraction takes place the object emits energy. This energy is called fall energy. As a result of this contraction the core gets denser and hotter. When the core reaches a temperature of about 3 million Kelvin, it starts to emit light, because of nuclear fusion ( Krane, K.S) reactions in the core. At this stage the gas cloud will stop its contraction because now the gravitational force is in equilibrium with the pressure build up by the hot gas. When this starts to happen you can say that a new star is born.

Planet formation

A planet on the other hand is build up out of the dust that surrounds a star. When a star is formed there is still a disk of gas surrounding it. As this gas cools, it condenses and forms solid grains. These grain particles accrete into large bodies called planetesimals, which then collide and accrete to make protoplanets. These protoplanets evolve into planets like the planets in our own solar system.
So the formation of a star is totally different from that of a planet. This is the main difference between a star and a planet. If an object has a mass of 0.084 times the mass of our own sun (85 times the mass of Jupiter) the core reaches a point where it can start the process of nuclear fusion in its core (see fig.1). If the mass is smaller than this, the lowest temperature to support nuclear fusion will never be reached and the object will never shine like a star. But can we call all of these objects planets? No, objects with a mass between 85*Mj (85 times the mass of Jupiter) and 13*Mj can't sustain nuclear fusion of elements like hydrogen (H) and helium (He) but can support the fusion of two protons into deuterium (D), early in their lifetime. These objects are called brown dwarfs. They form the transition between stars and planets.

Above a calm, dark ocean, a huge, bloated red sun rises in the sky - a full ten times the size of our Sun as seen from Earth. Small waves lap at a sandy shore and on the beach, something stirs...

This is the scene - or may be the scene - on what is possibly the most extraordinary world to have been discovered by astronomers: the first truly Earth-like planet to have been found outside our Solar System.

The discovery was announced today by a team of European astronomers, using a telescope in La Silla in the Chilean Andes. If forced bookies to slash odds on the existence of alien beings.

The Earth-like planet that could be covered in oceans and may support life is 20.5 light years away, and has the right temperature to allow liquid water on its surface.
his remarkable discovery appears to confirm the suspicions of most astronomers that the universe is swarming with Earth-like worlds.

We don't yet know much about this planet, but scientists believe that it may be the best candidate so far for supporting extraterrestrial life.

The new planet, which orbits a small, red star called Gliese 581, is about one-and-a-half times the diameter of the Earth.

It probably has a substantial atmosphere and may be covered with large amounts of water - necessary for life to evolve - and, most importantly, temperatures are very similar to those on our world.

It is the first exoplanet (a planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun) that is anything like our Earth.

Of the 220 or so exoplanets found to date, most have either been too big, made of gas rather than solid material, far too hot, or far too cold for life to survive.

"On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," says Xavier Delfosse, one of the scientists who discovered the planet.

"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life."

Is There Life on Mars?

With each passing day, those peppy robots on Mars - Spirit and Opportunity - churn out extraordinary new views of the red planet. Each robot is over a year in operation, relaying a steady stream of eye-catching photos.

And more than once, the Mars machinery has sent back an image that stirred up a promising eureka moment: Finding evidence for life on that remote world.

A case in point, during a recent run of Spirit in the Columbia Hills, the robot used its arm-mounted devices to poke and probe a select Mars rock. One piece of hardware -- the Rock Abrasion Tool, known better as the RAT -- is on hand to expose fresh martian rock.

The RAT utilizes a single diamond matrix wheel to scrape the rock surface. It does this ever so slightly and progressively to achieve a wanted depth. The abraded surface is actively swept clean by a brush to prepare it for scientific examinations.

Once the rock was worked over, Spirit's Microscopic Imager went in for close-up looks at the results.

And within the images, an odd feature could be seen, seemingly a pattern of something more biological than just rock.