Science

astronomers. They reviewed thousands of photographic plates taken by the Palomar Observatory from 1952 to 1957 prior to the launch of Sputnik, the first man made satellite launched into space. They found numerous “transients”, which are dots in the images that don’t correspond to stars in the sky, and which did not appear on subsequent photos taken 45 or 50 minutes later. The transients correlate with nuclear bomb detonations, and with increased UFO reportings, including the well known UFO sightings over Washington D.C. in 1952. The astronomers were able to rule out conventional explanations including imperfections on the plates with a high degree of statistical significance — 22σ.