After the mysterious closing, the solar observatory of New Mexico reopens its doors: NPR

A solar observatory in New Mexico reopened today after being closed by the authorities for ten days, which has sparked national interest and speculation about the cause of its evacuation.

Let's leave that aside: scientists say aliens were do not involved.

On September 6, the Solar Sunspot Observatory was suddenly closed by the Association of Astronomical Research Universities (AURA), the consortium that operates it, without public explanation.

The people who work at the observatory and those who live on the site have been invited to evacuate. The post office of the site was also closed.

The Otero County Sheriff told the local newspaper that his office had been alerted but had not received any information.

"The FBI refuses to tell us what's going on," sheriff Benny House told the Alamogordo Daily News shortly after closing. "We have people there (at Sunspot) who asked us to wait while they evacuated it, no one would really describe the circumstances of why, the FBI was up there. their purpose, nobody will say. "

"But for the FBI to intervene so quickly and be so discreet about it, there were a lot of things going on there," he added. "There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a group of people around antennas and work crews on the towers, but nobody would tell us anything."

From there, it was at the races. Combine the FBI, a powerful telescope and a location in the rural area of ​​Sunspot, MN, and you have all the ingredients for rampant speculation – government surveillance, extraterrestrials, etc.

"Why the FBI closes the observatory? People have the right to know !!" a person asked on the Google page of the observatory.

The observatory, located in the Lincoln National Forest about 170 miles south of Albuquerque, is home to the Dunn Solar Telescope. When it opened in 1969, it was the world's first high-resolution optical solar telescope. Although it is now considered a "traditional telescope", the observatory says that the Dunn "continues to be one of the most versatile and user-friendly facilities in the world".

New Mexico is already associated in some minds with unexplained phenomena. The observatory is about 85 miles southwest of Roswell, MN, a long city in the center of the UFO tradition.

So what fact to reach Sunspot?

A threat to security, although the specific nature of this threat remains unclear. According to a statement from AURA, the consortium and the National Science Foundation have decided to leave the site temporarily due to a security issue:

"AURA has cooperated with an ongoing police investigation into criminal activities in Sacramento Peak, during which time we were concerned that a suspect participating in the investigation would pose a threat to the safety of local staff and the police. As a result, AURA temporarily left the facility and ceased its scientific activities there.

"The decision to leave was based on the logistical challenges associated with protecting staff in such a remote location and the need to respond quickly to the potential threat.AURA determined that moving the small number the most prudent and effective action to ensure their safety. "

The consortium said it acknowledged that the lack of communication during the evacuation of the facility was "worrying and frustrating for some".

"However, our desire to provide additional information had to be weighed against the risk that, if released at that time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the police investigation." a risk that we could not take ". .

And the helicopter? House, the sheriff said The Washington Post Black Hawk helicopters are not uncommon in the region.

A call to an FBI spokesperson was not immediately dismissed. A person from the office in Albuquerque Office said that he had no information and could not comment.

The consortium said the site would benefit from additional security because people had been coming to the plant since it closed: "Given the significant publicity that the temporary shutdown has generated and the expectation of an unusual number of visitors to the site., we temporarily engage a security service while the establishment returns to a normal work environment. "

James McAteer, a professor at the State University of New Mexico who directs telescope operations on the site, said he was impressed by the theories people had imagined for the closure.

"It was the first time I had to deny contact with extraterrestrials and tunnels under the solar and underground storm and new X-ray communications," he wrote in an email to NPR.

The reopening of the observatory means that researchers can go back to what they do: look at the sun.

"We look forward to going back to work to show all the world-renowned researchers that we do every day at the telescope," said Mr. McAteer.

NPR's Emily Sullivan contributed to this report.