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Officials explained the mysterious closure of a New Mexico observatory earlier this month, saying that they were investigating one of the school's custodians for possession and distribution of pornography. juvenile.
The Sunspot solar observatory at Sacramento Peak was closed for 11 days for "a security problem" and its closure sparked off blatant speculation that authorities were investigating the presence of UFOs.
According to unsealed documents from the Federal Court, the FBI was reviewing the observatory – but not for the presence of aliens. In an affidavit, an FBI agent wrote that she was reviewing "the activities of a person using the wireless internet service of the Sunspot National Solar Observatory, New Mexico, to download and distribute child pornography ".
The FBI says it has closed the observatory in case the suspect would pose a danger to other employees. The observatory reopened on Monday.
Laurel Wamsley of NPR reported that the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy stated that the decision to evacuate the facility was "based on the need for a rapid response to the threat potential. "
"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." It was a risk that we could not take ". .
Sheriff Benny House told Alamogordo Daily News: "For the FBI to get involved so quickly and be so secretive about it, there were a lot of things up there. There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a group of people around antennas and work crews on the towers, but nobody would tell us anything. "
The observatory is about 85 miles southwest of Roswell, Maryland, where flying objects were spotted in 1947, provoking theories about aliens or UFOs. The US Air Force stated that the objects were high-altitude weather balloons.
The closure of the observatory has inspired speculation on social media. Wamsley has published articles on the Google page of the observatory. "Why the FBI closes the observatory? People have the right to know !!" a person wrote.
The authorities did not arrest or charge the suspect on whom they were investigating, and no arrest warrant was issued.
A US magistrate in Las Cruces, MN, issued a warrant showing that on September 14, officers withdrew cell phones, laptops, an iPad, a hard drive, and several USB drives from the home. of the suspect.
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