[ExI] Physicists detect UFOs on plates from old telescopic sky surveys

[Stuart LaForge]

Here is a more detailed article in an astronomy journal by the same 
study group with lead author Dr. Beatriz Villarroel:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/ae0afe

Abstract
Old, digitized astronomical images taken before the human spacefaring 
age offer a rare glimpse of the sky before the era of artificial 
satellites. In this paper, we present the first optical searches for 
artificial objects with high specular reflections near the Earth. We 
follow the method proposed in Villarroel et al. and use a transient 
sample drawn from Solano et al. We use images from the First Palomar Sky 
Survey to search for multiple (within a plate exposure) transients that, 
in addition to being point-like, are aligned along a narrow band. We 
provide a shortlist of the most promising candidate alignments, 
including one with ∼3.9σ statistical significance. These aligned 
transients remain difficult to explain with known phenomena, even if 
rare optical ghosting producing point-like sources cannot be fully 
excluded at present. We explore remaining possibilities, including fast 
reflections from highly reflective objects in geosynchronous orbit, or 
emissions from artificial sources high above Earth’s atmosphere. We also 
find a highly significant (∼22σ) deficit of POSS-I transients within 
Earth's shadow when compared with the theoretical hemispheric shadow 
coverage at 42,164 km altitude. The deficit is still present though at 
reduced significance (∼7.6σ) when a more realistic plate-based coverage 
is considered. This study should be viewed as an initial exploration 
into the potential of archival photographic surveys to reveal transient 
phenomena, and we hope it motivates more systematic searches across 
historical data sets.
-----------------------------------

Here is an in depth interview with the lead author Dr. Beatriz 
Villarroel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylw_NRxJEgM


Stuart LaForge



On 2025-10-24 19:23, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat wrote:
> Nature just reported that physicists using computer analysis of 
> archived photographic plates from sky surveys by Mt Palomar observatory 
> detected 310 instances where formations of 3 to 6 transient objects 
> appeared in orbit then subsequently disappeared before Sputnik was 
> launched, ruling out manmade satellites. Furthermore the transients 
> increased in frequency by 45% during historically documented UFO flaps 
> and nuclear weapons tests.
> 
> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-21620-3
> 
> Abstract
> 
> Transient star-like objects of unknown origin have been identified in 
> the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-I) conducted prior to 
> the first artificial satellite. We tested speculative hypotheses that 
> some transients are related to nuclear weapons testing or unidentified 
> anomalous phenomena (UAP) reports. A dataset comprising daily data 
> (11/19/49—4/28/57) regarding identified transients, nuclear testing, 
> and UAP reports was created (n = 2,718 days). Results revealed 
> significant (p = .008) associations between nuclear testing and 
> observed transients, with transients 45% more likely on dates 
> within + /- 1 day of nuclear testing. For days on which at least one 
> transient was identified, significant associations were noted between 
> total number of transients and total number of independent UAP reports 
> per date (p = 0.015). For every additional UAP reported on a given 
> date, there was an 8.5% increase in number of transients identified. 
> Small but significant (p = .008) associations between nuclear testing 
> and number of UAP reports were also noted. Findings suggest 
> associations beyond chance between occurrence of transients and both 
> nuclear testing and UAP reports. These findings may help elucidate the 
> nature of POSS-I transients and strengthen empirical support for the 
> UAP phenomenon.
> ------------------------
> 
> Incidentally, on a related subject, dust around Tabby's star should be 
> dispersing by solar winds over not getting thicker and darker over the 
> last 100 years as had been previously reported in another different 
> analysis of archived photographic plates suggests. Let me know if you 
> want the link to that study.
> 
> What an interesting time to be alive. :)
> 
> Stuart LaForge
> 
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