The Black Knight Satellite | Ep. 51

Another Tuesday and another Believing the Bizarre.

This week, we trade in a narrative structure for a more speculative topic – The Black Knight Satellite. Ever since the early 1950s – before satellites were launched – we discovered a small, black object orbiting Earth. Not only that, but it has the ability to transmit radio signals.

Could this early satellite be a prototype created covertly by a different country? Or could this be proof of alien life? Listen now!

What’s up bizzaros? In this week’s episode, we dive into the Black Knight.  No this is not a medieval tale of an anti-hero knight begrudgingly saving a kingdom from a tyrant. Nor is it a fanfic about Batman in an alternate universe.  

This is something much more bizarre.  

What is a satellite? Most of you know that a satellite is a man-made object that orbits the earth for communication or relaying signals.  A satellite can also be a naturally occurring celestial body that orbits a planet.  

When was the first satellite launched?  To most of us it feels like satellites, at least the man-made kind, have been around forever, and for most of us they have been there our entire lives.  But in reality, satellites are a relatively new development.  

The first satellite, Sputnik, was launched by our comrades in Russia in 1957, just a few short months before America launched their first satellite into space. 

Third follow-up question, When was the first satellite(s) discovered? Haha trick question right? It’s 1957, at least it should be, but it isn’t. How about five years before us humans launched our satellites.  In 1952 the black knight satellite, a perfectly thin rectangle was discovered orbiting the earth.  

It’s estimated to be 13,000 years old, and is smaller and thinner than any of the satellites we (humans) have jettisoned into space. It’s design isn’t like what we’ve constructed, as it doesn’t have wings or solar panels.  

Some speculate that it is a rock or thermal blanket, which would still not make sense since I’m pretty sure humans don’t have any 13,000 year old thermal blankets lying around. But it could be a rock or a piece of an asteroid, but if it’s a rock, how can it give off a signal?

Wait, it puts out a signal? Yeah, that’s weird.  But how do we know it puts out a signal? 

Well according to one of history’s most beloved scientists, Nikola Tesla, he claimed to have heard interplanetary transmission in the early 20th century.  According to him “the changes I noted were taking place periodically, and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause then known to me. The feeling is growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.”

It’s theorized that these signals came from the black knight.

Duncan Lunan, a Norwegian scientist in the 1920’s found a code, seemingly coming from a satellite. He said that he decrypted the code and the message said:

“Start Here Our home is Upsilon Bootes, which is a double star. We live on the sixth planet of seven, coming from the sun, which is the larger of the two. Our sixth planet has one moon. Our fourth planet has three, our first and third planets each have one.  Our probe is in the position of Arcturus, known in our maps.”

So now we have two reliable scientists referencing the signal, with one of them even decoding it.  

Which leads us to our next question.

What could this satellite be and what, or who, is its source?

Could it be Aliens?

Let’s frame this from the Fermi Paradox, which states “if there is extraterrestrial life and even intelligent alien civilizations are not just likely, but highly probable, then why have none of them been in contact with us? Are there biological or sociological explanations for this “Great Silence?’ 

If there are aliens out there, where are they?

What if the black knight is their way of keeping tabs on us?  This would let them know if we were becoming dangerous, or perhaps when we’re ready to meet them. 

It could be used as a communication relay from the reptilian race of aliens.  They are, theoretically, posing as people and working to control the human race, and they could use the black knight to communicate with their mother ship or home planet.