Society

Earlier this year, the US established a dedicated task force that would investigate reports of UFO sightings, which the body officially refers to as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). It was established after the US Navy confirmed 2017 media reports about American military jets spotting “Tic Tac” UAPs over the Pacific in 2004.

2020 would have been incomplete if it had not presented us with a mystery of metal-like structures unexpectedly appearing in different places around the world and then vanishing without a trace. What are they and, more importantly, who built them? An expert has told Sputnik what he thinks about the bizarre structures.

One of Russia's leading film festivals will host globally-acclaimed superstars and film directors, this time on the computer home screen rather than silver screen, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson announced the forthcoming release of "Beyond Order", a follow-up to his previous bestseller, which is due out in March. The news about the contract with the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, reportedly even left a number of staffers in tears.

Researcher Timnit Gebru, the now ex-co-head of Google's AI ethical department, says she was fired after her colleagues got an email from her, where she "advocated for underrepresented people" in AI research and among the company's ranks in general.

Fresh radio images provided by the top-notch Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, feature weird objects that look like clear-cut circles, but the latter don't appear to transmit any optical, infrared, or X-ray emissions.

Although the two planets come in alignment relatively frequently - every 20 years or so - the last time the gas giants were this close to each other was when Genghis Khan was still alive.

In the long-term, photonics-based devices will almost completely replace the electronics we have been using, scientists from the National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI" told Sputnik, commenting on the advanced Russian developments accelerating technology in this area.

The presentation comes amidst this year's first manned space launch performed by a private company, SpaceX, which successfully delivered human crew to the International Space Station. CEO Elon Musk later stated that his company may send the first people to Mars by 2026, if not earlier.

Earlier this week, following the sudden disappearance of a 7-foot phallic sculpture from a Bavarian mountainside, German law enforcement officials launched an investigation in an effort to solve the mystery. Local lore suggests that the wooden sculpture originally arrived at the Grünten mountain as a result of a prank gone awry.

The old saw states that there is somebody for everyone, meaning that anyone can find the love of their life. It might take a long time but, nowadays, it is easier, with the help of online dating services. Seems like a perfect match is finally available to anybody and everybody, including one of the most monstrous years in recent memory: 2020.

Every year, TIME magazine releases a Person of the Year issue that features and profiles a person, group or idea that has influenced the events of that year. The tradition began in 1927 and was called Man of the Year or Woman of the Year, depending on the winner, until 1999.

The Boeing 737 Max was grounded in 2019 after two deadly air disasters. Investigations found a string of failings, including US aviation authorities allowing Boeing to solely certify the airframe as safe, and the failure to train pilots and ground crew on the onboard automatic maneuvering system that caused two crashes.

What has turned out to be nothing more than a large piece of space trash from a failed moon mission led astronomers at the US space agency NASA on a wild goose chase for three months as they raced to figure out if the mysterious object posed a danger to Earth.

After suffering several cable malfunctions throughout the last several months, the radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory collapsed on itself on Tuesday. The devastating and shocking end to the iconic structure came ahead of the US National Science Foundation’s (NSF) planned demolition at the observatory.

Facebook’s latest effort to combat COVID-19 vaccine "misinformation" comes days before an advisory committee of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to meet and consider granting an emergency use authorization for Pfizer's vaccine candidate.

A second monolith in the US and the third in the world, in a weird recent row of 2001: A Space Odyssey-style shiny metal pillar discoveries, popped up Wednesday on top of a mountain in California, gathering immediate attention around the globe. Although, it did not have long to shine as a tourist attraction for the small town's mountain.

Hen 3-1357, which is also known as the Stingray nebula, is considered the youngest known planetary nebula by researchers. Located some 18,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ara, the nebula is as large as 130 solar systems.

The Chinese spacecraft has accomplished a number of firsts for Beijing, including the first extraterrestrial takeoff and first independent placement of the country's flag on an extraterrestrial body. When its samples return to Earth, they’ll be the first brought back from the moon in 44 years.

The common quarry theory suggests millions of huge limestone blocks were transported from a location a few kilometres away from the Giza Plateau and assembled one by one by over 20,000 labourers.