The observatory has denied that aliens had anything to do with the security-related lockdown and evacuation of the facility which is only about 120 miles away from the site of the Roswell UFO incident of 1947.
“I can tell you it definitely wasn’t aliens,” a spokeswoman for the National Solar Observatory, part of the Sunspot Solar Observatory consortium, told The Washington Post.
The solar observatory remains closed amid an ongoing investigation by the FBI with no local law enforcement involved in the probe.
“They wouldn’t give us any details,” Otero County Sheriff Benny House said. “I’ve got ideas, but I don’t want to put them out there. That’s how bad press or rumors get started, and it’ll cause paranoia, or I might satisfy everybody’s mind and I might be totally off base.”
Observatory officials have not confirmed media reports that the FBI was involved in the shutdown.
“It was our decision to evacuate the facility,” AURA spokeswoman Shari Lifson said, according to the Alamagordo Daily News.
When the FBI swoops in on Blackhawk Helicopters and the Post Office Closes…Something is going on!!!! https://t.co/bHRZJtUqTw
— Extortion17 ⚓️ (@CCCINNC) 15 сентября 2018 г.
“I am actually not sure (when the facility was vacated) but it will stay vacated until further notice,” he added.
Meanwhile, the observatory management is using the much-publicized closure to stir up public attention to their work.
“With the excitement this closure has generated, we hope you will come and visit us when we do reopen, and see for yourself the services we provide for science and public outreach in heliophysics,” the observatory said in a statement.
READ MORE: Aliens Unlikely to Be Cause of Mysterious New Mexico Observatory Shutdown
The Sunspot National Observatory, which is one of the best ground-based solar observatories in the world and is run by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), was closed and evacuated on September 6 due to an undisclosed security risk.
— Patrick J Halloran (@HalloranPJ) 16 сентября 2018 г.
Government officials have not given a clear explanation of what the issue is, however, and this has prompted wild speculation sparking all kinds of alien theories and tweeted ridicule.
Uh huh pic.twitter.com/CK17eNGWUF
— Jude (@Jxnewton) 15 сентября 2018 г.
— 🏳️🌈anne🏳️🌈 (@anneh222) 15 сентября 2018 г.
