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BWC: Man shoots, wounds Calif. sheriff’s office K-9 before OIS

Madera County Sheriff’s Office deputies were pursuing the man after he allegedly stole a vehicle and hit multiple other cars; K-9 Obie was shot with numerous pellets in the pursuit

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NASA sees progress on Starlab commercial space station development

A NASA-funded commercial space station, Starlab, recently completed four key developmental milestones, marking substantial progress in the station’s design and operational readiness.

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Jovian vortex hunters contribute to storm study

Jumping Jupiter! The results are in, storm chasers! Thanks to your help over the last two years, the Jovian Vortex Hunter project has published a catalog of 7,222 vortices, which you can download. Each vortex is an enormous swirling windstorm in Jupiter’s atmosphere–terrifying yet beautiful to behold.

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Current generated by the quantum Hall effect found to have additional magnetic properties

The quantum Hall effect, a fundamental effect in quantum mechanics, not only generates an electric but also a magnetic current. It arises from the motion of electrons on an orbit around the nuclei of atoms. This has been demonstrated by the calculations of a team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), which are now published in the journal Physical Review Letters. These results can potentially be used to develop new types of inexpensive and energy-efficient devices.

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When you wish upon a star, is it already dead? An astronomer crunches the numbers

When you wish upon a star, Jiminy Cricket told us, your dreams come true. But according to an idea doing the rounds on social media, that may not be the case:

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Event Horizon Telescope: Moving towards a close-up of a black hole and its jets

After taking the first images of black holes, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is poised to reveal how black holes launch powerful jets into space.

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Citizen scientists help map geomagnetic superstorm’s ionospheric impact

As seen across North America at sometimes surprisingly low latitudes, brilliant auroral displays provide evidence of solar activity in the night sky. More is going on than the familiar visible light shows during these events, though: When aurora appear, the Earth’s ionosphere is experiencing an increase in ionization and total electron content (TEC) due to energetic electrons and ions precipitating into the ionosphere.

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BWC: Calif. officer wounded in shootout with homicide suspect before fatal OIS

The man had allegedly shot and killed two people before firing shots at San Diego Harbor Police officers, wounding one

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First-ever binary star found near our galaxy’s supermassive black hole

An international team of researchers has detected a binary star orbiting close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. It is the first time a stellar pair has been found in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole.

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Image: Artemis II core stage moves to High Bay 2

In this image from Dec. 11, 2024, the 212-foot-tall SLS (Space Launch System) core stage is lowered into High Bay 2 at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With the move to High Bay 2, NASA and Boeing technicians now have 360-degree access to the core stage both internally and externally.

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Building concrete on Mars from local materials

Imagine you’ve just gotten to Mars as part of the first contingent of settlers. Your first challenge: build a long-term habitat using local materials. Those might include water from the polar caps mixed with specific surface soils. They might even require some very personal contributions—your blood, sweat, and tears. Using such in situ materials is the challenge a team of Iranian engineers studied in a research project looking at local materials on Mars.

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NASA finalizes strategy for sustaining human presence in low Earth orbit

As part of the agency’s efforts to enable broader use of space, NASA has released its final goals and objectives for low Earth orbit, defining the long-term approach toward advancing microgravity science, technology, and exploration for the benefit of all.

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ALMA observations investigate disk and jet of a massive protostar

Astronomers from Italy and Spain have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe a massive protostar designated IRAS 20126+4104. The observational campaign, detailed in a paper published Dec. 9 on the arXiv preprint server, delivers important insights into the protostar’s disk and jet system.

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Veteran Combat Pilot Alex Dietrich Describes Tic Tac UFO Encounter

Retired Navy Lt. Commander Alex Dietrich, a veteran combat pilot, gave an eye-witness account of a Tic Tac UFO. Dietrich spoke to Anderson Cooper about what she saw off the coast of San Diego in 2004. At the time, she was on a routine training mission off the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier 100 miles southwest of San Diego.

Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich and Cmdr. Dave Fravor, a graduate of the TOPGUN naval flight program, also appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss what they saw together.

 They both described an “unsettling” experience with a Tic Tac UFO.

“It was unidentified. And that’s why it was so unsettling to us. Because we weren’t expecting it. We couldn’t classify it,” said Dietrich.

Strangely, the Tic Tac-shaped UFO had no exhaust plumes, markings, or apparent means of propulsion. Notably,  both pilots reported their sighting in a debriefing but didn’t think there was any formal investigation at the time. Behind them, each pilot had a weapons system officer in the seat, who each witnessed the UFO.

Unsettling, Unexplainable Encounter

On November 14, 2004, Dietrich and her fellow crew gave “thorough debriefs” about the sighting minutes after landing. Furthermore, hours after landing, Dietrich says she gave a written account about the UFO. 

Years later, she gave even more details in what she calls an “interrogation-style” interview to members of Navy intelligence and the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).

Dietrich was a new pilot flying with the VFA-41, also known as the “Black Aces.” That day, she was flying a F/A-18F as part of an exercise to intercept and identify a “real-world contact,” after command redirected her squadron.

When the pilots arrived at the specified coordinates, it looked like something the size of a Boeing 737 had crashed, creating roiling whitewater.

“So my heart sank,” said Dietrich. “I went from being excited that we would go get those bad guys to, ‘Oh no, those bad guys have crashed and are sinking,” she said. 

Suddenly, her heart-sinking feeling changed into the surprise of a lifetime.

Unpredictable Movement

All of a sudden, instead of the expected search and rescue effort, something extraordinary happened: a UFO that closely resembled a white Tic Tac appeared.

“Then, as soon as that happened, enter stage left – the Tic Tac,” said Dietrich. “And, that’s what we affectionately refer to it as because that’s what it looked like.”

Notably, Fravor’s account on 60 Minutes was somewhat different:

“We saw this little white Tic-Tac-looking object… and it’s just kind of moving above the whitewater area,” Fravor recounted.

“No predictable movement, no predictable trajectory,” Dietrich said.

According to their observations, the aircraft was about the size of an average aircraft fuselage.

“It was white, sort of a matte finish, just like a Tic Tac. And, it behaved in a way that we were surprised, unnerved. It accelerated, or it almost didn’t accelerate, right. It sort of jumped from spot to spot and tumbled around in a way that was unpredictable.”

See a clip of her appearance on 60 Minutes below:

https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1394289253895577603?s=20

Related: Charles James Hall: Tic Tac UFOs Belong to ETs He Encountered Called ‘Tall Whites’

Commander Engages the Tic Tac UFO

Upon seeing the Tic Tac UFO, commanding officer Fravor decided to engage with the craft. Meanwhile, an “uncomfortable and inexperienced” Dietrich (as she put it) fell back to give cover, circling above as Fravor approached.

When Fravor’s fighter moved forward, the Tic Tac abruptly disappeared. All the while, the stunned pilots discussed what was happening on their radio.

“It zoomed out of the picture so fast that we were all then scrambling on the radio,” Dietrich said. “And, the whole time we’re on the radio with each other sort of losing our minds.”

According to Fravor’s account, the Tic Tac began mimicking his moves as if aware of his presence. 

60 Miles in Seconds

Seconds later, the USS Princeton’s radar reacquired the location of the Tic Tac UFO 60 miles away. Furthermore, the ship’s radar had also detected “multiple anomalous aerial vehicles” descending 80,000 feet in less than a second. 

According to CBS News, the pilots later found out the USS Princeton had been tracking UFOs for days. However, the pilots were left uninformed and unarmed.

“I felt the vulnerability of not having anything to defend ourselves,” Dietrich said on 60 Minutes. “And then I felt confused when it disappeared.

In all, the strange encounter lasted about five minutes.

Related: Many More UFOs Worldwide – Defying Explanation, Says Former DNI

Ending the Stigma of UFO Reports

After her story, Anderson Cooper asked Dietrich what she thought she had witnessed that day. However, she says she’s “not qualified to make the analysis.” 

Although she isn’t sure what the UFO could be, she appeared to encourage other pilots to come forward. Even so, she may not have come forward at the time if she had been the only witness.

“If I saw this solo I don’t know if I would have come back and said anything because it sounds so crazy when I say it,” she told 60 Minutes.

Notably, both Fravor and Dietrich had endured “ribbing” from their fellow crew about their reports.

Today, she says everyone can contribute to a data pool of sightings. 

“I’m trying to reduce the stigma for other aircrew so if they see something or when they see something, say something, and that they will not feel embarrassed or ashamed to make the reports,” she said. 

By contributing their UFO reports, the veteran combat pilot hopes that intelligence analysts and scientists can use the data to draw “reasonable, rational conclusions.”

Today, the pilots say they have no idea who was responsible for the Tic Tac UFO. 

We All Want Answers

After finally coming forward with her account, Dietrich says she’s seen many camps of people fascinated by her story. Thus, UFO enthusiasts, debunkers, conspiracy theorists, and religious fanatics have all shown interest on Twitter. Unfortunately, they seem intent to fight each other as much as getting to the truth.

“At the core, no matter how much they’re attacking each other, what I see is that they all want answers. They all want to know what it was. And, we can’t do that if we’re just attacking each other or if we’re shaming each other or sensationalizing it. We really have to cooperate and get more information, get more evidence so that we can come to some conclusions.”

See the interview on CNN or watch the clip from Internet UFO Database below:

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

Featured image: Tic Tac by Brett_Hondow via PixbayPixabay License with the ocean by Free-Photos via Pixabay, Pixabay License with Screenshot via Twitter/60 Minutes 

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Detecting the gravitational wave memory effect from core-collapse supernovae

Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity, has passed all tests with predictions that are spot-on. One prediction that remains is “gravitational wave memory”—the prediction that a passing gravitational wave will permanently change the distance between cosmic objects.

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