For as long as we’ve contemplated the possibility for alien life, we’ve searched for signs of it
showing up on planet Earth. And, historically, there have been plenty of contenders, whenever
something weird or unusual is discovered. With anything that looks or behaves in any way that’s
unexpected… there’s often at least one suggestion that it might be extraterrestrial. Like a machine
that we can’t get to work, a message that we just can’t decipher, or an object that appears
to have alternate physical properties. So, this is Unveiled, and today we’re
answering the extraordinary question; is this steel ball a piece of alien technology?
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The Betz Mystery Sphere has rather an unassuming history, but nevertheless it has remained at the
centre of a bizarre, alien conspiracy theory for decades. The sphere - which measures at eight
inches across and weighs twenty-two pounds - first came to light in the mid-1970s, when a Florida
family (the Betz family) discovered it close to where they lived. Intrigued by the object,
they’re said to have taken it home and put it on display. But then, the metal sphere
started behaving strangely, and apparently moving of its own accord… so that the family
reportedly had to lock it away, in a box. Now, the most prominent explanation for the
Betz sphere’s movements is that the ball was simply responding to uneven flooring in the Betz
family home. It was found to be near-perfectly weighted, so that even the smallest deviation
might’ve caused it to roll. However, because the sphere also seemed to respond to music
(i.e., it moved more energetically whenever music was played) there have always been those
that believe that the ball was in some way responding to its surroundings. That it could
hear the music and was reacting to it. As to the origins of the mystery sphere,
one often cited explanation is that it had once belonged to an artist, who had driven through
the area a few years beforehand, and along the journey the ball - which was around the size of
a bowling ball - may well have fallen from his vehicle. Meanwhile, various local engineering
firms at the time went on record to say that they found nothing extraordinary about the ball;
that it was likely manmade, on Earth, and was simply a lost part of some machine. But, again,
not everyone was buying that… and the rumour of an extraterrestrial drop off (either deliberately or
accidentally) has never quite disappeared. The Betz mystery sphere was investigated
by various government figures and authorities at the time, as well,
including the US Navy and the noted ufologist J. Allen Hynek - most famous for creating a scale
to rank alien close encounter stories. Although some aspects of the sphere remained unexplained,
there were no official suggestions (from the Navy, Hynek, or anyone else) that the ball was anything
other than from Earth and manmade. But, still, the Betz family themselves maintained that there
was something else about the sphere. Something that investigators were missing, but that they
(the finders) felt to be true. At one stage, at the height of interest around the sphere, there
were even some reports claiming that it could be a weapon of some kind. Dormant but dangerous.
Of course, while all indications are that it isn’t alien in nature, and that it is simply a
piece of remarkably well-rounded metal found out of context, we can easily speculate about what
the sphere might’ve been if it were alien tech. A weapon, maybe, but as no one has ever been hurt by
it… perhaps a surveillance device, instead? Or an alien computer designed to gather information and
beam back to its masters? Like a smart speaker to the modern world but sent from the skies in
the 1970s. In all events, the Betz Mystery Sphere was deemed to be safe and so, as far as we know,
it probably isn’t alien technology. The Betz Sphere is by no means a one-off,
however. There have emerged many similar objects, especially over the twentieth century, around
which similar interest has grown. Extraterrestrial theories abound around ancient artifacts like the
Baghdad battery and the Antikythera mechanism, for example, despite conventional research
continually concluding that they can have originated out of plain old human civilization,
and both around two thousand years ago. With the Baghdad battery, researchers usually lean toward
it being an unusual storage device… and with the Antikythera mechanism, it’s most widely held to
be an Ancient Greek time-keeping device, perhaps to measure the movements of stars.
Again, while there are parts of the story for both objects that remain unexplained,
there’s a general consensus that they shouldn’t dramatically change how we view life on Earth.
But not everything that has been called into question is quite so substantial and complete
as either the Betz Sphere, the Baghdad battery, or the Antikythera mechanism. And perhaps no single
object has garnered quiet as much “alternate” attention as the superheavy element, Element 115.
While it has become a science fiction staple - featuring in films, TV shows and
video games - Element 115 does exist in the real world, too, on the real periodic table. There,
it’s known as moscovium. It’s manmade, and it’s described as “superheavy” because there
are 115 protons per atom. That’s far beyond anything that naturally occurs on Earth,
which already makes moscovium unusual. But what adds to the story is that Element 115
had been debated long before it was finally added to the periodic table in the 2010s. Various
popular UFO claimants and theorists, including Bob Lazar and Jeremy Corbell, have spoken of it,
with suggestions that it could be dangerous. In general, there are claims that Element 115
could be used to mess with gravity, and even to power alien spaceships. But, while we have
created moscovium here on Earth, it decays so rapidly that we’ve never really been able to
do anything with it. According to Bob Lazar, however, the experiments being carried out now
are only just catching up with the top-secret government work he alleges he was a part of,
in the 1980s. Among other things, Lazar claims to have worked with a stable, non-decaying version of
Element 115 decades ago, running deeply classified tests at the infamous Area 51. It’s said that,
back then, what we now know as moscovium was seen more generally as an exotic, alien material. An
extraterrestrial technology to separate us from the more advanced species of the universe. It has,
then, featured at the heart of many an “alternate theory” ever since, about our search for aliens
and whether we’ve in fact already found them. While there are no direct links between the Betz
mystery sphere, artifacts like the Baghdad battery and the Antikythera mechanism,
or the ever-mysterious Element 115, we can perhaps see a progression in recent years.
Mainstream science and the conventional line have provided an explanation for all of them,
despite the UFO noise that they continue to generate. With the Betz Sphere,
it’s thought to be just a piece of manmade machinery found out of context in the Floridian
countryside… with the Antikythera mechanism, it’s thought to be essentially an analogue computer,
yes, but not out of place in history, either… and with Element 115, science has caught up to such a
degree that we’re now actually producing the stuff ourselves, although not yet at a level to match
what Lazar claims he worked with previously. Naturally, everyone has an opinion on these
things, so what’s yours? Let us know in the comments which (if any) of the mentioned examples
strike a chord with you, as though there really could be something alien about them. Have you,
yourself, discovered a strange object and wondered what its origins might be?
Or do you believe that everything on Earth, no matter how unusual it may seem, can be explained
without the suggestion of extraterrestrials? There’s no doubt that from time to time an
artifact or material can emerge and threaten to destabilize everything we thought we knew about
our planet and history. And, when matched with our growing knowledge of space and the universe,
and the increasing belief all over that alien life must exist somewhere,
it’s perhaps unsurprising that there are so many examples of an unknown discovery
being labeled as alien in nature. But still, in the case of the Betz Mystery Sphere, at least, an
enigmatic orb that could seemingly respond to its environment, it appears far more likely that there
was no ET involvement. And that’s why this steel ball probably isn’t a piece of alien technology.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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