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The Alamogordo Daily News reports:
The Sunspot Observatory is temporarily closed due to a security issue at the facility that's located 17 miles south of Cloudcroft in the Sacramento Mountains Friday, an Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) spokeswoman Shari Lifson said.
"The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time," Lifson said. "We have decided to vacate the facility at this time as precautionary measure. It was our decision to evacuate the facility." She said she cannot comment on the specifics of the security issue.
[...] Otero County Sheriff Benny House said the Otero County Sheriff's Office was asked to standby. "The FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] is refusing to tell us what's going on," House said. "We've got people up there (at Sunspot) that requested us to standby while they evacuate it. Nobody would really elaborate on any of the circumstances as to why. The FBI were up there. What their purpose was nobody will say."
He said he has a lot of unanswered questions about what occurred at Sunspot. "But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there," House said. "There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything."
Why would the FBI order a sunspot research facility closed, but be unable (or unwilling) to give a reason?
Also at Popular Mechanics, Vice, and Gizmodo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DutchUncle on Thursday September 13 2018, @08:59PM (7 children)
Maybe this kind of observatory would notice incoming alien ships. Just sayin'.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Thursday September 13 2018, @09:22PM
Reminiscent of Anathem. Have the secular authorities closed any other observatories?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Thursday September 13 2018, @09:22PM (2 children)
Don't use weasel words like "maybe". Simply say: This observatory has the ability to notice alien ships. There is one inbound and the public is being protected by the enforcers. Otherwise, the panic is simply too much to handle. It is always better to prevent than to mob-up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:02AM
Perhaps there might be a possibility of up to 50 percent or more for the observatory to detect an anomaly that is seemingly of extraterrestrial origin and which may possess characteristics not unlike an alien ship if such a thing were to exist.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Friday September 14 2018, @01:52PM
I'm sorry, I am not programmed to respond in that area. Oops, I mean, I am not authorized to make public comments regarding this subject.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 14 2018, @08:33AM (1 child)
If no others observatories were affected, I would concentrate on what that one is observing, the sun and/or some particular section of the em spectrum.
I would wager that some peculiar events regarding the sun are even more vitally important than alien spaceships.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by DeVilla on Saturday September 15 2018, @03:25PM
I thought I heard the post office in the area was also evacuated. If so, I would suspect this has to do with something the went to or from the observatory by mail.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @12:02PM
More likely a massive solar flare. Other than all the other solar observatories that haven't been closed, its almost plausible.