On September 7, the Alamogordo Daily News reported that the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, had been evacuated and “temporarily closed due to a security issue at the facility.” The facility, which is operated by a consortium of universities, is perched at an altitude of 9,800’ and is home to the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope. It generates high resolution images of the sun, and also acts as a testbed for new technologies being used by other solar telescopes. At this point, the facility remains closed to both the public and employees, without a stated reason.
The idea that an observatory might be closed for “a security issue” seems odd on the face of it. That strangeness has been amplified by the refusal of those associated to provide details of the concern or to announce any plans to reopen the facility. But the security issue here does not appear to be a problem with someone swiping lab supplies or getting into the facility on off hours. Because it is definitely not being handled by the staff.
“The FBI is refusing to tell us what’s going on,” [Otero County Sheriff Benny 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.”
Initial speculation suggested that someone may have made a threat against the facility or against one of the employees there. Others have suggested that the isolated location may have led to some part of the property being used for drugs or smuggling.
But with the sheriff reporting that agents arrived in Blackhawk helicopters to evacuate the entire mountain, and the reluctance to give any reason the action, it’s no surprise that many have started to peak around for signs of Mulder and Scully. Just what could have happened at Sunspot to bring down the genuine black helicopter crowd?
It’s never aliens. Until it’s aliens. So is it aliens?
The theories about why Sunspot is currently under lockdown are flying faster than UFOs.
- The original idea that the facility itself was under threat remains the most reasonable suggestion. If the FBI somehow received information that the observatory and its massive telescope were the targets of terrorism, foreign or domestic, that could easily explain the hurried evacuation of the facility. And if that threat included potential explosive devices, the facility might remain closed as the mountain is scoured for signs of potential problems. About the only thing this theory doesn’t explain is the silence. If terrorists threatened the mountain … why not tell everyone about it?
- As far as the idea that the observatory had become a spot for dispatching trucks loaded with heroin or for a mountaintop meth kitchen … this seems extremely unlikely. Yes, Sunspot isn’t the most metropolitan area on the planet, but it’s also not the far side of the Moon. This is a public facility with a visitor’s center and a regular, if not Grand Canyon-esque, stream of tourists. It would not be the top selection for anyone’s Breaking Bad fantasy.
- Reddit speculation seems to be mostly focused on the idea that someone could somehow use dishes at the observatory to spy on the nearby White Sands military base. Which … no. That’s somewhere on the other side of “picking up radio with my braces” stupid. It’s not that kind of observatory. And it does not work that way. And no.
- Since this is a solar observatory, perhaps it has picked up a clue about some upcoming event similar to the 1859 “Carrington Event” in which a pair of solar coronal mass ejections plastered the Earth, resulting in beautiful auroras even in places which such events were exceedingly rare. The brightness of the not-so-northern lights out blazed the full moon, drawing oohs and aahs across the land. And then telegraphs and other early electrical gear got absolutely blasted. If something similar happened today, it would result in widespread damage to the electrical grid, massive communication disruptions, failures of many satellites, general chaos and all that good, civilization-threatening stuff. However, there’s nothing to indicate that the folks at Sunspot have gotten so good at forecasting solar weather that they can predict such an event and the time from first signs of an ejection to “good-bye power” is measured in hours, not weeks. Also, other solar observatories remain open, which certainly suggests that the FBI isn’t covering up something about our friendly neighborhood star.
- What about those aliens? At first glance, a solar observatory might be the last place anyone would consider as an alien contact hot spot. After all, the Sun is quite noticeably throwing off a lot of electromagnetic noise up there, and an instrument aimed its way might seem the least likely SETI detector. Except that might not be the case. Einstein's theory of general relativity shows that mass bends the space-time around it, and the Sun has a lot of mass. The right kind of detector looking at just the right spot next to the Sun might actually use that gravitational distortion as a kind of magnifying lens. That lens could not just magnify the light of distant stars, but also focus the power of distant radio signals. A decade ago, scientists suggested exactly such a system as a means for communicating with our own probes at a great distance. But that lensing effect might also make the neighborhood near the sun a place for detecting radio signals coming from … somewhere else. Which is exciting. But unlikely. Because, once again, those other solar observatories are notably not closed. And even if the government was concerned about scientists getting on a party line with ET, it seems very unlikely that the first action anyone would take would be to close the place down and stop listening. It’s not aliens. Because … it’s never aliens.
Besides, it’s not like we’re talking Roswell, New Mexico. That’s … almost 150 miles away.