Physical evidence and UAP - the Bob White Artifact

The To The Stars Academy A.D.A.M. project

Of late, there has been much written about the Aquisition and Data Analysis of Materials project of the To The Stars Academy. The project aims to acquire and analyse reportedly unusual samples associated with the phenomena.

As a result, I have been reading a lot of published literature on UAP associated samples/materials, but found it is scattered over a diverse range of sources such as UAP periodicals; the files of UAP organisations; making it difficult to ensure, as a researcher, that I have covered all bases.

One of the sources of an example of physical evidence which I am in the process of reading, is the 2017 book by Prothero, D R and Callahan, T D, titled 'UFOs, Chemtrails and Aliens' published by Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.

The Bob White Artifact

Source: https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-10-12/

The first piece of reported physical evidence I am looking at, is what has become known as the Bob White Artifact. Here is what 'UFOs, Chemtrails and Aliens' has to say about it.

'There is however, one mysterious object - much more than just an embedded sliver of metal - that could be physical evidence of an alien spacecraft. In 1987 the late Bob White, and a female companion were driving from Denver, Colorado , to Las Vegas, Nevada. Somewhere in the desert near the Nevada state line, White and his friend saw a huge object hovering near the ground about 100 yards away.

When White's companion flashed the car's headlight high beam on the object, it shot into the sky but ejected an object, which White later found and kept. It is metallic, roughly conical in shape, symmetrical, and rather organic or crystalline, as opposed to looking like a manufactured object.

In a video titled "Bob White Case UFO Object," white told how he took the object to the government lab at Los Alamos, Nevada, and there contacted two experts - whose names are unfortunately, beeped from the video.

I had a call to go to Los Alamos and there I met ---, who was the top metallurgist, and Dr---, who was called in on special occasions. And he was really excited about this, because he hadn't seen anything like it before. He said to me, "This is something I have been looking for all my life." He said, "This is definitely extra-terrestrial." (13)

Later, however, Dr --- refused to talk further with White, who then suspected a cover up. The video later features Chris Ellis, a solid state physicist with expertise in semiconductors. In the video Ellis states the following:

"We found that the object is an aluminum alloy of unknown origin. This is not like anything we've seen before. There are some very unusual metals in the object that you typically do not find in other alloys."(14)

So the video presents a scenario in which a man finds a strange object, seemingly ejected from an alien spacecraft, and takes it to Los Alamos. There government experts (conveniently unnamed), at first enthusiastic about it, later become secretive. Finally a physicist and expert on semiconductors reports that the object is made up of an alloy of unknown origin - a sort he's never seen before. This would seem to be stunning evidence of both an  alien UFO visitation and s shady government cover up.

The operative word here, is "seem." As it turns out, the explanation for the object's origin is prosaic, and not in the least bit otherworldly. In an October 12, 2011 article in eskeptic, the online magazine of the Skeptics Society, Pat Linse, with retired steel foundry quality control supervisor, Ean Harrison, showed the origin of the object and why it is of a previously unknown alloy.

"The object in question is made of accreted grinding residue. It forms in a manner similar to a common stalagmite when metal castings are "cleaned" in large stationary grindings." (15)

Harrison goes on to say that these stalagmites have to be broken off from time to time and that he owns several of them, which he uses as landscape ornaments. He also states that the stalagmites can be an exotic mix of stainless steel, manganese, aluminum, and other metals, depending on what has been fed into the grinder; hence the exotic alloy found by Chris Ellis. As an expert in semiconductors but one ignorant of the vagaries of the industrial technology of foundry grinders, Ellis was baffled by what he took to be a deliberately formed exotic alloy but which was in fact a random, unintentional conglomerate of various metals. As the eskeptic article's subtitle states, "sometimes all it takes is the right expert."

References:

(13) 'Bob White Case UFO Object UFO Hunters.' UFO Hunters season 3, episode 7. 'UFO Relics.' Aired May 6 2009 (New York: History Channel.) www.metatube.com/en/videos/103730/Bob-White-Case-ufo-hunters

(14) ibid.

(15) Pat Linse with Eam Harrison, 'Bob White's Great UFO Artifact Mystery Solved! Sometimes All It Takes Is Finding The Right Expert,' Skeptics, October 12, 2011, www.skeptic.com/e-skeptic/11-10-12/

Source: https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-10-12/#feature

What others have to say about the Bob White object

Source: https://www.coasttocoastam.com/photo/view/bob_white_s_artifact/46121

September 2003

Dr Robert Gibbons, former NASA scientist and Executive Director of the Museum of the Unexplained said:

'We recently came across scientific data that linked Bob's object with the planet Mars. Isotopic abundance ratio tests were performed on Bob's object in May 1999, in La Jolla, CA  and the numbers are virtually the same as obtained from Martian meteorite samples. The ratio of isotopes of strontium for the QUE94201 meteorite found in Antarctica in 1994 was 0.701. The ratio of the isotopes of strontium for Bob's object is 0.712. The ratio of the isotopes of strontium for the Shergotty meteorite found in India in 1860 is 0.723. Bob's object is right in the middle of two proven Martian meteorites.

Dr Gibbons called for more tests on Bob's object.

2004

The Seattle Times newspaper dated 22 June 2004 carried an article by Steve Rock about White and the object. It provides an account by White himself. It was in 1985 about 2-3am one morning and he was travelling in a passenger. The driver woke him from sleep and pointed out a light in the sky. White went back to sleep. A while later the driver again woke White and there was a huge object only 100 yards away in front of the vehicle. These lights ascended into the sky where they joined a pair of neon tube like objects which all travelled East and were lost to view.

An orange object was seen falling from them, which White found red hot on the ground. After it cooled it was placed in the vehicle.

It was 7.5 inches long, teardrop shape and had a metallic exterior , and weighed less than 2 pounds.

It made its way to the Nevada based National Institute for Discovery Science. In 1996 a sample was sent to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Col Kelleher of NIDS reportedly stated 'The metallurgical analysis was pretty mundane.' A Californian scientist who tested it is stated to have said 'It didn't have any extra-terrestrial signature.'

  The full analysis report may be read here. One website I located had the following table:

Source: http://www.greatdreams.com/ufos/ufo_metal.htm

April 2017

In reply to a comment from an individual, named Lee, who said they saw stalagmites of this type form in a steel workshop, Larry Cekander, co-founder of 'The Museum of the Unexplained' with Bob White, stated:

'...trying to compare iron or steel machine shop grinding to the artifact recovered in 1985 is like comparing apples and oranges and trying to make grape juice. The metal object pictured in the interview is aluminum not steel or other ferrous metal. No matter how hard you try you will never get aluminum to melt on a grinding wheel. You will never get any sparks from it. As soon as you start to grind on it, it will turn to powder or dust.

The Vickers hardness scale of the artifact is 61 to 63, the pictures you are using to compare the Bob White object are not close at all to the shape or consistency of the object. One other small point. The artifact has been to 15 labs and universities in the past 21 years including Los Alamos; Ne Mexico State Mine and Minerals; delta state and much more.

If the artifact had been in a machine shop on a grinder of some sort there would be residue in the artifact from the wheels used to form it. There are 33 elements identified and not one of them are binding agents from a grinding wheel or disc.

If you have any other questions please ask me. The labs and universities we have used DO KNOW the difference between a formation of metals under a grinding wheel and the artifact.

We know it was formed outside of our atmosphere, no question about it. Now maybe the machine used on it in outer space had a machine shop but then again we know it was in a molten state when ejected into a vacuum under extreme pressure with extremely cold conditions. There are identifiers showing an extra-terrestrial origin to the object also. It was never near a machine shop lee..'

Chronology

1985. Sighting; and artifact found.

1996 A sample was sent to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Col Kelleher of NIDS reportedly stated 'The metallurgical analysis was pretty mundane.'  The full analysis report may be read here. The final paragraph of the analysis report reads:

'There are no anomalies in the results of this analysis. The detected phases are accounted for, and the micro structure lends itself to standard metallurgical interpretation. The physical properties that were measured (density, hardness and electrical resistivity) all fall within the expected range.' 

1999 Isotopic abundance ratio tests were performed on Bob's object in May 1999, in La Jolla, CA (Geosciences Research Division of the Scripps Institute.) I have not been able to locate a full copy of their analysis. However, it was reported, by Dr Robert Gibbons, that 'The ratio of the isotopes of strontium for Bob's object is 0.712.'

Since 1999 Larry Cekander states that 'The artifact has been to 15 labs and universities in the past 21 years including Los Alamos; Ne Mexico State Mine and Minerals; delta state and much more.' However, I have been unable to locate detailed analyses from other than the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.  If any reader knows of these detailed analyses, I would like to hear of them.