Two peer-reviewed papers from Dr. Beatriz Villarroel’s VASCO (Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations) project have been published in established scientific journals, presenting findings that link short-lived transient light events recorded on 1950s astronomical sky survey plates to above-ground nuclear tests and historical UAP sighting reports.
The papers were published in Scientific Reports (a Nature portfolio journal) and the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP), each undergoing independent peer review processes.
Key Findings
The VASCO project analysed over 107,000 transient events identified in the First Palomar Sky Survey, a photographic survey of the sky conducted between 1949 and 1958, before the launch of Sputnik in October 1957.
In the Scientific Reports paper, co-authored by Stephen Bruehl and Villarroel, the research found that transients were 45 percent more likely to be observed on dates within 24 hours of an above-ground nuclear test than on dates not in a nuclear test window. The analysis also reported a weaker but statistically significant association between transient counts and the daily count of UAP reports from the same period.
The PASP paper documented a 22-sigma deficit of transients inside Earth’s shadow, a finding consistent with a fraction of these events originating from solar reflections off flat, highly reflective surfaces in orbit. Because the survey plates predate the launch of any known human-made satellite, this deficit raises the question of what reflective objects, if any, were present in orbit before the Space Age.
Scientific Reception
The research has generated significant debate within the scientific community. ArXiv, the widely used preprint repository, declined to archive preprints of either paper, stating they lacked “sufficient or substantive scholarly research.” Physicists including Michael Wiescher, Nigel Hambly, and Kevin Knuth have offered criticism of the methodology and conclusions.
Despite the contested reception, both papers completed peer review and were accepted by their respective journals. Villarroel has described the results as forming a “triptych” of methods for investigating UAP using astronomical data across three independent journals with three independent peer review processes.
Background
Dr. Villarroel, based at Stockholm University, founded the VASCO project to systematically compare historical sky survey images for objects that appear or vanish between survey epochs. The project has previously identified cases of stars that appear to have vanished from the sky without explanation, a phenomenon that standard astrophysics does not readily account for.
The papers do not claim to have identified extraterrestrial technology. They present statistical associations and observational anomalies and note that the findings warrant further investigation.
Sources
- Transients in the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-I) may be associated with nuclear testing and reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, Scientific Reports
- Aligned, Multiple-transient Events in the First Palomar Sky Survey, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Did Astronomers Photograph UFOs Orbiting Earth in the 1950s?, Scientific American
- Unexpected patterns in historical astronomical observations, Stockholm University