Visitors from the Pleiades and the Photon Belt

I received this message from a source that stated that he/she wished to be anonymous, and further that the writer also wished to be anonymous. I was asked to upload this information, and I am providing it, without further comment, for your interest.

THE PLEIADES IN FACT AND FICTION.

EXPLODING THE MYTH OF THE PHOTON BELT:

I read the article with amusement and laughed it off as a joke, however, I have recently become aware that many people took this article seriously and that it has been the cause of some concern.

I am sorry to say that this story, as romantic as it may be, has absolutely no basis in fact. It appears to have become part of a modern mythology which has sprung up around the Pleiades, an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus the Bull, contrary to current scientific knowledge. This mythology seems to be based on a heady mixture of pseudoscience, channelled messages from alleged space entities, biblical prophesy, ignorance and a liberal dose of naivete. It is fuelled by a general mistrust of our scientific community and misinterpretation of modern scientific thinking.

It is a sad reflection of the scientific education of our society that so many people can be taken in by a story that probably started life as a university student's prank.

For the benefit of those readers who have not read the article, the story, in brief, goes as follows:

In 1961 satellite borne instruments discovered a PHOTON BAND in outer space. This PHOTON BELT or MANASIC RING, which scientists have not been able to reproduce in the laboratory, encircles the Pleiades and extends the 400 light years to our solar system. Quoting someone called Jose Comas Sola, our sun and several other stars were said to be part of the Pleiades System and all these stars were said to have planets. Our Sun was said to orbit this system in 24,000 years, during which time we spend alternatively 10,000 years in the dark and 2,000 years in the light of the PHOTON BELT. We were said to be about to enter the light of the PHOTON BELT, whereupon, we would all be transformed "in the twinkling of an eye" into Atmosphereans and night would cease to exist, amongst other things.

A diagram accompanied the article showing 6 of the Pleiadian stars, Merope, Atlas, Teygeta, Electra, Coeleno and our own Sun in orbit around Alcyone, also a member of the Pleiades, encircled by the PHOTON BELT.

Having been contacted by several members of the public with queries about this story, I determined to sort the fact from fiction and track the story to its' origin.

The article had been reprinted with permission from Australian UFO Flying Saucer Research Magazine. A phone number had been given. The phone number proved to be that of a prominent South Australian UFO researcher, who told me that the story had originally been written by a university student who had been a member of his group at the time. This student is now apparently, a physicist at a well known nuclear facility. The UFO researcher, however, was not clear on where the student had obtained the information and had attempted to verify aspects of it with an astronomer at Mount Stromlo Observatory. I was unable to ascertain which aspects had actually been verified.

Fortunately, the astronomer concerned was known to me, so I paid him a visit. He vaguely recalled talking to the researcher but could not remember the exact details of the conversation. He assured me that he would never have verified the existance of the PHOTON BELT but may have given him some information on the Pleiades themselves. He told me that Mount Stromlo had also received queries about the PHOTON BELT and, like me, had considered the whole thing a cruel joke.

So, what is fact and what fiction? Well, for a start, I was unable to find any evidence for a satellite in 1961 carrying the instruments required to detect a PHOTON BAND as described. Satellites of the era were crude by today's standards and were more concerned with telecomm- unications, operating principally in the radio wavelengths.

Subsequent satellites and probes, with their sophisticated instrument- ation, would certainly be capable of detecting the PHOTON BAND, however, no such thing has ever been reported. This is not a case of scientists keeping secrets, it is simply because it has never been detected.

According to other information I have received, this PHOTON BELT is supposed to be preceded by an ELECTROMAGNETIC NULL ZONE. This zone is said to be an energy vacuum, completely lacking in electromagnetic fields. If it existed, this NULL ZONE would certainly have shown up in the many sky surveys done over recent years on the Cosmic Microwave Background. This background radiation is remarkable because it is so evenly distributed over the entire sky. There are no gaps in its' distribution. The ELECTROMAGNETIC NULL ZONE does not exist!

The PHOTON BELT was also described as a MANASIC RING, a "phenomena which scientists have not been able to reproduce with laboratory experiments". I have been unable to determine the meaning of the word "manasic". I can only surmise that it is derived from the word MANA. It is hardly surprising that this has not been recreated in a laboratory as no-one really seems to know what MANA is, beyond its' dictionary definition as a mysterious power.

And so to the Pleiades themselves. Jose Comas Sola, whoever he may be, was either quite wrong or misquoted. Our Sun is not part of the Pleiades system, neither does it orbit the Pleiades every 24,000 years.

The Pleiades are approximately 125 parsecs or 407.5 light years from our solar system. A quick calculation shows that if our Sun were in this orbit, then its' orbital velocity would be 0.107C or a little over one tenth the speed of light. This equates to approximately 32,000 Km/sec. This velocity would be apparent, not only to astronomers, but to every one, as the constellations would change quite dramatically in the course of a single lifetime if this were true.

The Pleiades is a loose cluster of approximately 100 stars with an average age estimated at 78 million years. These are very young stars, much younger than our own Sun, estimated at 5 billion years old, much younger even that our own planet, Earth.

These are very hot, bright stars of spectral type B, much hotter and about 10 times more massive than our Sun, spectral type G. They have not yet moved away from the interstellar gas cloud, or nebula, from which they formed. Remmants of this nebula can readily be seen in photographs of the group. It has been suggested that this misty nebulosity, shining with the light of the stars within, is what has given rise to the myth of the PHOTON BELT.

Studies of the proper motions of these stars, or their movement through space, have shown that they are in the process of dispersion. There is no evidence that these stars orbit Alcyone as depicted in the diagram. It must also be said that there is no evidence of planets around any of these stars. It may well be that planetary systems may evolve around some of these stars, however, it must be remembered that these are very young stars and planetary formation may well take a lot longer than stellar formation. It seems unlikely that habitable planets have had enough time to evolve there. 78 million years is a very short period on the cosmological or geological time scale.

It is very pleasing to think of our planet coming out of the darkness and into the light, although I do not think our nocturnal fauna would agree. It is much better for each of us to seek emnlightenment within ourselves. This enlightenment cannot be imposed by external forces. A deluge of photons from the Pleiades will not save the planet, nor will it transform its inhabitants into enlightened Atmosphereans. We will have to solve our problems ourselves.

(A supplemental post to the above - JS)

> I think there should be no difficulty in taking this message apart and
  > checking each point for accuracy, using existing scientific sources.
  > And I would encourage people to do that.  Also, I doubt it would be
  > difficult to follow up on the writer's source in Adelaide by following
  > the same line of enquiry.

I decided to check the remainder of this material by telephoning the number given at the end of the Nexus article "The Photon Belt Story", Feb/Mar 1991 issue, page 6. I made this call yesterday evening, July 26.

Colin Norris answered, and said he was head of the Australian International UFO Research Society, mailing address GPO Box 2004, ADELAIDE, SA, 5001, AUSTRALIA. The telephone number is (08) 272 3131.

I explained the situation. Colin said that he was extremely embarrassed by this matter. He has had to apologise to numerous people who rang from overseas with great anxiety. He has received hundreds of letters.

The original article was published in his Society's magazine in 1981, about nine years before Duncan Roads asked permission to reprint it in Nexus magazine. Apparently it was co-authored by a lady, who tended to write sensational articles, and a young university student who is now employed as a physicist. He does not want to embarrass these people, or jeopardise their employment by revealing their names.

He said he did discuss the article with professional astronomers from the Mount Stromlo observatory, and they advised him not to worry about it. Again, these astronomers did not want their names mentioned because of professional commitments.

I then spoke to the Society's Secretary, Steve Lamont, who confirmed these details.

Colin and Steve gave permission to post this message. They said that the current "flap" appears to be caused by the predictions of exact dates, such as July 23 and 27, 1992. While these dates are now past, and as usual nothing has happened, it is possible that later dates have been predicted by channels in the USA, causing people further anxiety. I agreed to pass on any information that you may be able to provide, and it is hoped that you will please do so. If you prefer, you can contact Colin Norris using the phone number or mailing address given at the start of this message.

Rgs,