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FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory (popularmechanics.com)
Alien conspiracy theories are swirling after an observatory in New Mexico has been unexpectedly closed due to an unnamed "security issue," prompting evacuations and a visit from the FBI. "The Sunspot Observatory is now currently closed to both staff and the public, with no word on why or when it will be open again," reports Popular Mechanics. From the report: "We have decided to vacate the facility at this time as precautionary measure," said spokesperson Shari Lifson to the Alomogordo Daily News. "The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time." Lifson said that the facility was first evacuated on September 6 and has remained closed since then. According to Lifson, the observatory has no date for reopening yet.
As part of the investigation into the security issue, the observatory has contacted the FBI, which has been reported on the scene with multiple agents and a Blackhawk helicopter. According to local sheriff Benny House, the agency has been working with local law enforcement but refuses to share any details. The sheriff speculated that the evacuation could be due to some kind of threat made against the facility or its staff, but expressed confusion as to why local police would be left out of the loop. "If that's the case, why didn't they call us and let us deal with it?" he said. "I don't know why the FBI would get involved so quick and not tell us anything."
UPDATE (9/22/18): A warrant application filed in the case suggests the closure involved an FBI investigation into child pornography.
As part of the investigation into the security issue, the observatory has contacted the FBI, which has been reported on the scene with multiple agents and a Blackhawk helicopter. According to local sheriff Benny House, the agency has been working with local law enforcement but refuses to share any details. The sheriff speculated that the evacuation could be due to some kind of threat made against the facility or its staff, but expressed confusion as to why local police would be left out of the loop. "If that's the case, why didn't they call us and let us deal with it?" he said. "I don't know why the FBI would get involved so quick and not tell us anything."
UPDATE (9/22/18): A warrant application filed in the case suggests the closure involved an FBI investigation into child pornography.
I'm not going to say it was aliens. But it was aliens. Ancient alien investigators agree.
So the Andromeda strain is here.....
for some strange reason, I loved that movie as a kid. On the other hand, that might explain a lot nowadays...
bickerdyke
"Alien conspiracy theories are swirling", which is, from the set of probable causes the most unlikely reason by far. Instead of fantasizing, would be more interesting to list a few of the likely causes.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Pretty Simple really:
1)Overlooks White Sands Missile Range.
2)Large Tower.
3)Suspicion of surveillance devices placed on tower/systems that should not be there.
The FBI is just doing this to get the conspiracy nuts to focus their attention on something minor while they do something else that they do not want people to know about.
(Or they share my sense of humour, and are doing this just to mess with crazy people)
Death has been proven to be 99% fatal in lab rats.
Look, guys, it's not whatever you were thinking. I hate to admit it but I'm the reason they shut the place down. Honestly, I had no idea that RIAA would go so crazy that I was torrenting/seeding a crappy Justin Bieber album and ignored the DMCA notices. I'm really sorry, I didn't think it was that big a deal, really. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Big rock coming our way, discovered by that facility. Silence needs to be kept, FBI will do the job.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Black Mesa
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
It says "Sunspot Observatory", I had to Google it and turns out that's actually it's name, but it IS a solar observatory, one that's dedicated to observation of the closest star to our planet. Ie. the Sun. This makes it exceedingly unlikely they would have anything to do with any alien discovery, unless they're some sort of Sun-dwelling variety, it'd be more likely to run into one at a Walmart.
It also should go without saying (But I'll say it anyway) that it isn't the world's only solar observatory, and the world includes many more countries than USA, so any discovery relating to Sun couldn't be hidden by shutting down this one, nor would it make sense as it'd stop further observations.
According to article I quickly skimmed, the observatory was founded for radio observations of the sun, and there's mentions of the feds being very interested in the "antennas", so the espionage angle seems almost certain and would necessitate evacuation to prevent tampering with evidence (Perhaps not allowing them to pack their stuff when leaving though, as one article claimed) and continued espionage. Main argument against this is that all sensitive communications would be encrypted nowadays, but still just the existence of certain communications would be a security issue.
I believe this has all been planned in advance:
NMSU - SSOC Transition Plan
There's probably less to this story than the conspiracy theorists would like to believe.
The telescope sits on a liquid mercury bearing. From the linked document (p8):
Further, the TCS contains significant risk in its older server motors, mercury float bearings, and control software. Regular inspection and
maintenance is key to the longevity of the TCS. Fully documenting maintenance and risk, and implementing upgrades greatly reduces the risk associated with the TCS. As such, the telescope will be less expensive to operate, and much less liable to catastrophic failure. At minimum, the SSOC will require one telescope control engineer ready to assume full control and maintenance of the TCS in Oct 2018.
So a mercury spill could be quite hazardous, and if you were of such a mind, that large amount of mercury could be an inviting target to steal.
Sorry, the right lost the right to moralizing when you all turned a blind eye to what you CLAIM to 'abhor' and elected Trump. You also lost any claims to 'the party of fiscal responsibility' at the same time.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
And my wife works at Apache Point Observatory, a mile away, and thus far unaffected. I've done lots of photography at both sites and been all over the place, inside and out of both telescopes.
At first I thought it was a manhunt, but they wouldn't exclude local law enforcement, and they wouldn't stay in one area for so long. Then for giggles I watched parts of some of the conspiracy videos on YouTube, and I ran in to a comment that had some resonance. The poster said that he saw a comment on another conspiracy vid (therefore it must be true) that a Chinese spy had been caught with 8 computers spying on Holloman Air Force Base. First off, HAFB is a training base flying F-16s and MQ-9 UAVs, the former have been around for decades and the latter aren't that interesting. Not much secret going on there. Now, perhaps the spy was spying on White Sands Missile Range? He would have done better positioning himself in the Organ Mountains on the other side of the basin, except that's pretty rocky, it would've been much more comfortable hiding in the forest over here. Who knows.
Some of the other conspiracy theories were amusing. The sun went out! (we'd know it 8 minutes later, and we know how our sun will die). Something dark passed in front of the sun! (several observatories around the world watch the sun all the time and no one else reported anything - and they would have reported it). They found Planet X! (no one else reported it - see previous).
If we ever get actual information as to what went on, it might be interesting. Or it might not be.
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.