Attempt to visualize the spatial positions of Sun/Earth and IUMMA on 5-7 February 1934

RELATIVE SPATIAL POSITIONS OF

SUN / EARTH - IUMMA / UMMO

ON 5 - 7 FEBRUARY 1934

 

In some of their letters, specifically in D23 and in D57-1, the Ummites relate the following:

 

D23: "In the Terrestrial year 1950 (March) we arrived at this OOYAA (COLD STAR). Some two years earlier (TERRESTRIAL YEARS) we picked up a weak signal on a frequency of 413.44 megacycles which we were unable to decode. It had been emitted around the year 1934.

 

(We later identified the radio signal as having been emitted from a Norwegian ship off Newfoundland in some experiments carried out by scientists of that nationality aimed at the use of high frequencies in long-distance communications by ionospheric reflection. The signal was emitted between 5 and 7 February 1934).

 

This date is therefore historic in EARTH-UMMO relations. We have photocopies of the radiograms emitted (obtained by our brothers in Germany, who travelled to Bergen for this purpose) and of course the recording of the Morse signals, which were then unintelligible to us, for our technicians believed it would be a binary numbering code (DOT = ZERO, DASH = ONE or vice versa). You will be astonished to know that the duration of the fragment of radiogram picked up was 2.2 UIW (about 6.8 minutes), which was enough for our technicians to identify the position of the solar system on galactic coordinates; they then named the star from which that signal came GAA (SQUARE), since the graph obtained with the signal recalled the analytical equation expressing the area of this geometric figure."

 

D57-1: "Two years (TERRESTRIAL YEARS) before 28 March 1950, our XANMOOAIUVA Centre of the region UIIOGAA IXIOGAA picked up a very low-level radio emission on a frequency of 413.43877 Megacycles per second coming from the Galactic Star Group coded by us as (sign). This is one of the automatic Centres of our Planet in charge of Exploring Signals coming from our Galaxy. Signals which may be of an Electromagnetic or Luminous Nature, as well as trains of Gravitational waves (Practically unknown to you as regards the techniques of Generation and emission, but widely used by other Civilizations apart from UMMO)

 

The duration of the signals picked up was tiny, 2.21 UIW (6.83 minutes), and it consisted of short pulses and long pulses. (We later learned that it was the Terrestrial MORSE code (dots and dashes), but our technicians interpreted it as binary code (Dot = zero; dash = one). This error led to an incorrect translation of the message, for after several possible interpretations had been made, the most coherent turned out to be the analytical expression of the equation that mathematically represents four orthogonal points on a plane. That is: A square. So much so that the presumed planet from which the signals came was named with the word "OYAGAA" (Whose translation is: COLD STAR of the SQUARE.

.../...

It was not, as we believed, an interplanetary message sent by Terrestrial Civilization, but a fragment of coded conversation sent by a Ship of Norwegian nationality which between 4 and 8 February 1934 transmitted by way of tests while heading for Newfoundland. Some scientists of that Nationality, experts in electronics, then called W.T. (wireless telegraphy), were testing some high-frequency equipment aimed at demonstrating the viability of communications by ionospheric reflection (At that time you did not know many techniques that are familiar today to present-day terrestrial engineers). Part of the signal reached us by chance."

 

We have in this same section two studies (UCAT9 and UCAT10) that analyse the plausibility of this account. In the first of them José Luis Camacho studies the possibility that a radio signal originating near Newfoundland and emitted in the direction of Bergen in Norway could have been lost in space and headed towards IUMMA/UMMO, while in the other study Dennis M.F. studies the feasibility of such a weak signal having been separated from the background noise and identified on a planet 14.4 light years from Earth.

 

My purpose in this study is to try to evoke a three-dimensional image of the relative positions of the Sun-Earth system (and, within the Earth, of the Newfoundland-Bergen pair) and of IUMMA-UMMO, so as to be able to visualize the possibility that the signal from the Norwegian ship did in fact travel in the direction of UMMO.

 

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According to the information provided by the Ummites in various letters, IUMMA is located approximately at the following equatorial coordinates:

 

Right Ascension: 12h 31m 14s

Declination: 9º 18' 14"

 

Right Ascension and Declination are the equatorial coordinates of the star, that is, the coordinates with respect to the Earth-based system that takes the plane of the equator as reference plane and, as origin of Right Ascension, the Vernal point (or point of Aries) on the line of intersection between the plane of the equator and that of the ecliptic, this being the point where the sun is apparently located at the spring equinox (see Figure 1 below).

 

Moreover, on 5 to 7 February (of any year, and therefore also of 1934) the Sun will have travelled about 45º since it passed (apparently) through the winter solstice on 21-22 December.

 

If we represent this graphically, the relative positions of the Sun and IUMMA as seen from Earth will be:

 

Figure 1

 

But in reality this is not so, since it is not the sun that moves around the Earth but the other way round. In Figure 2 we can see a spatial representation of the real position of the Earth (5-7 February), the Sun and IUMMA (according to the data of the letters)

 

Figure 2

 

We see that IUMMA has a Right Ascension slightly greater than 12 hours (half an hour more, or what is the same, about 8º), which means that in RA it is very close to the point of Libra.

 

What we want to "see" is whether a possible directional radio emission, starting from a point near the coast of Newfoundland (we have no greater precision here) and directed towards Bergen in Norway, could have left the atmosphere in the direction of IUMMA (RA: 12h 31m 14s and DEC: 9º 18' 14").

 

Let us first come a little closer to the Earth to see it in this position, with the plane of the Equator as reference:

 

Figure 4

 

As we see, the Earth has its axis of rotation perpendicular to the equatorial plane (as is logical), and we see that no matter where the signal starts from and towards which point it is directed, the right ascension at which the signal points will describe a complete circle, that is, it will go through the 24h, just as the light signal of a lighthouse sweeps the whole horizon as it turns on itself, and therefore it will also pass through the 12h 31m 14s corresponding to IUMMA. If the signal were permanent (let us imagine a rapidly rotating laser beam), what we would have after 24 hours is that the signal would describe a cone [NOTE] with its vertex at the Earth.

 

NOTE: In reality the surface that the emission would generate as it turns would be that of a hyperboloid of revolution, but a few million kilometres from the Earth (the Earth-Sun distance is 150 million km) the approximation to the asymptotic cone of that hyperboloid is almost perfect.

 

Figure 5

 

What must concern us, therefore, is to see whether the signal could have left with a declination (angle of the signal with the plane of the equator) of 9º 18' 14".

 

As we can imagine by looking at the drawing above, any signal starting from a point on the Earth towards another of lower latitude would have made the signal, the cone, head below the plane of the equator (never towards IUMMA), and it would be enough for the signal to point well towards the north for the "signal cone" never to point towards IUMMA, as I have drawn below in Figure 6, in which, zooming and moving away, we can also see IUMMA.

 

Figure 6

  

In short, for the signal to be able to leave in the direction of IUMMA, the situation would have had to be something like this:

 

Figure 7

 

First we will restrict ourselves to the declination (since we have seen that the Right Ascension towards which the signal is directed goes through a complete circle over the day.

 

To see whether the signal left at an angle with the equator close to IUMMA's 9º 18', let us first take a look at the Earth, and specifically at Bergen and Newfoundland, and put some marker pins at the places that interest us, that is, Bergen, Newfoundland and a random point off its coast where we will suppose the Norwegian ship was.

 

Figure 8

 

Figure 9

 

Let us now see this together and with a little perspective, and also draw a line joining the ship with Bergen along a great circle.

 

Figure 10

 

Let us move away a little to see it framed on the planet.

 

Figure 11

 

But an electromagnetic signal does not follow a curved line but a straight one in three-dimensional space. What could have happened to this radio emission? What were the Norwegian researchers trying to do (if the story is true)?

 

One of the atmospheric layers is the so-called ionosphere , located between 80 km and 600 km in altitude. The ionosphere is a part of the atmosphere, already very rarefied, in which its gaseous elements undergo ionizations and recombinations due to the absorption of very energetic radiation coming from the sun. These partially ionized layers have the property of refracting electromagnetic radiation, so that for certain wavelengths part of the emission undergoes complete refraction, a reflection, and returns to the atmosphere as if it had bounced off it, thus making long-distance radio communications possible. This property of the ionosphere affects above all electromagnetic radiation with frequencies between 1 MHz and 10 MHz.

 

However, according to the letters, the frequency with which the Norwegian expedition was experimenting was 514 MHz, which we know today is not reflected by the ionosphere except in extreme conditions (it is rare, though not too uncommon, to receive UHF emissions thousands of km from the point of emission, which implies ionospheric reflection). But in 1934 the characteristics of the various layers of the ionosphere and their action on radio emissions of different frequencies were not yet well known.

 

On the other hand we know that UHF emissions (between 300 MHz and 3 GHz) are very sensitive to humidity as well as to other atmospheric conditions, which can greatly attenuate the power of the emission or refract it to a greater or lesser degree.

 

Let us now open a small parenthesis to explain these phenomena of atmospheric reflection and/or refraction.

 

We know that when electromagnetic radiation passes through a medium, the speed of propagation of that radiation within that medium is not 300,000 km/s, as it is in a vacuum, but less. The speed of propagation of light within each medium depends on a coefficient we call the refractive index of that medium (n). When light (or any other electromagnetic emission) passes from one medium to another, a phenomenon occurs which we call refraction and which results in an abrupt change in the direction of that radiation. It is this phenomenon that makes us see a stick half immersed in water as if it were broken.

 

The atmosphere is a complex system whose characteristics of temperature, pressure, ionization, humidity etc. vary (sometimes abruptly) from one point to another, and this means that the refractive index varies, sometimes capriciously, within the atmosphere.

 

Returning to our problem of what happened to the UHF emission of the Norwegian ship near Newfoundland, directed towards Bergen, we must say that it is impossible to know exactly what its successive changes of direction were, although we must consider that they would not be abrupt but gradual and possibly slight. We could accept as a good assumption that, given that a UHF emission is rarely reflected by the ionized layers of the atmosphere, but sometimes is, this is because it undergoes a series of refractions which "tend to keep it within the terrestrial atmosphere" but in general without succeeding, so that it ends up escaping.

 

Within the ionosphere there is a series of layers between 80 km and 600 km in altitude which refract radio waves to a greater or lesser extent depending on their wavelength.

 

Let us see an image in which I try to visualize this, but first let us clarify that the distance from the Norwegian ship to Bergen should be of the order of 3,700 km (See Figure 12)

 

Figure 12

 

And now, let us try to visualize what could have happened to the emission of the Norwegian ship in Figure 13.

 

Figure 13

 

In reality we cannot be much more precise than to suppose that the emission left "tangent to the great circle on the atmospheric envelope" at some intermediate point between the ship and Bergen.

 

To visualize this properly I have drawn a parallel circle (by joining points of equal latitude in Google Earth) and have tried always to look at the Earth so that this circle (which in turn is parallel to the equator) remains horizontal. If we now place ourselves looking from a point facing the midpoint of the great circle joining the ship and Bergen, we will ensure that the apparent angle formed by the tangent line to the great circle at that midpoint and the line projecting the section of parallel will give us the real angle the emission forms with the plane of the equator.

 

Figure 14

 

To see this better in space, let us move as far away from the Earth as possible with Google Earth and draw a tangent line at the midpoint of the great circle joining the ship with Bergen.

 

Figure 15

 

In short, I have deliberately placed myself at a point of view that is perpendicular to the plane containing the signal escaping into space, which is in turn perpendicular to the plane of the equator, so that the angle formed by this tangent line and the straight line projecting the equator will be the "Declination" angle at which the signal left.

 

To measure this angle I have used a protractor I found with Google images, so you can imagine that the accuracy will not be excessive, but that does not matter to us. Indeed, this study does not claim to be, and cannot be, exact, since we are working with incomplete data: Where exactly was the Norwegian ship at the moment of the emission? What were the characteristics of the atmosphere that day and at what point could the signal have left tangentially? With all this, it does not matter if the rudimentary protractor I found gives us an error of several minutes or even of a degree or so, since, although with considerable rigour, we have had no choice but to base ourselves on a series of hypotheses.

 

In short, working the images a little, we have the following:

 

Figure 16

 

We see that the declination at which the signal pointed would be about 8º 30', which, taking all the hypotheses into account, gives us a very good approximation to IUMMA's 9º 18' 14" (let us recall Figure 7). In short, with all the caution one must have in a case like this, we can say that the probable declination at which a directional UHF signal directed from a point near Newfoundland towards Bergen would point would be 8º 30' plus or minus a few degrees (impossible to be more precise).

 

Let us now go on to Right Ascension. We have already said that the rotation of the Earth will make a straight-line signal emitted describe a cone (a hyperboloid of revolution, approximable to a cone) which will cover all possible right ascensions. But: At what time exactly would a signal leaving Newfoundland for Bergen point towards IUMMA, that is, to RA: 12h 14m 14s?

 

Let us first see the Earth (with the signal drawn) from above the North Pole at any time on a day of 5-7 February.

 

Figure 17

 

As we can see in Figure 17, at an arbitrary time of day the signal would not have left in the direction of IUMMA (RA: 12h 31m 14s), although its declination would always be about 8º or 9º. At what time of day (Newfoundland time, for example) would the Norwegian ship, on transmitting towards Bergen, have directed the signal towards IUMMA?

 

Let us first rotate the Earth until the signal is oriented towards that right ascension, and then we will calculate the time.

 

Figure 18

 

We see that with the Earth in this position, if the Norwegian ship emitted a UHF Morse signal towards Bergen, it could perfectly well have escaped into space and headed almost centrally, at its peak of maximum gain, towards the position where the authors of the letters say IUMMA is located.

 

Finally, let us see what time it would be in Newfoundland at those moments. We can already work out, just by looking at Figure 18, that in Newfoundland it would be twilight, but we will try to be somewhat more precise using the Google Earth facility that lets us know the night-day situation of the Earth at any time on any day of the year. What we are looking for, in short, is to check what time it would be in Newfoundland when the signal emitted by the Norwegian ship was oriented towards IUMMA, knowing that on those days (5-7 February) the sun would be approximately 45º from passing through the point of Aries.

 

Figure 19

 

With all this we see that:

 

1. A UHF emission from a point near Newfoundland, directed towards Bergen in Norway, can leave for space with a declination of approximately 8º or 9º.
2. That if that emission took place at around 18:20 in the evening on a day of 5-7 February (Newfoundland time), it could very well have left in the direction of a point of Right Ascension: 12h 31m.
3. That in that direction, DEC: 9º 18' 14" and RA: 12h 31m 14s, lies the point where the authors of the letters place IUMMA.