YouTube video · UAP Gerb · 10 March 2024
The Physics of UFOs - Dr. Kevin Knuth
A walkthrough of Kevin Knuth's November 2023 SOL Symposium talk and his 2019 Entropy paper with Robert Powell and Peter Reali. Knuth's figures put the Tic Tac at 5,000 g or more and about 1,100 GW for a one-tonne object, with no energy release when it stops. Gerb highlights Knuth's estimate for Minot AFB on 24 October 1968, where an egg-shaped object paced a B-52 and closed 2 mi in one radar sweep (about 209 g, Mach 12), plus HMNZS Southland 1987, Oberth's 1954 radar claim and a slide of classic photographs. Knuth himself stays cautious about alien conclusions.
On the record
- Knuth, Powell and Reali, Entropy 21, 939 (2019).
- The Minot B-52 case of 24 October 1968 is in the Blue Book files.
Open questions
- HMNZS Southland 1987 rests on one radar operator's account as cited by Knuth; it needs checking.
Leads to follow
- Lead, not a record yet: case/hmnzs-southland-1987 (David Barnett, Feb 1987).
- Lead, not a record yet: case/costa-rica-1971 (Lago de Cote mapping photo).
- Oberth's 1954 American Weekly article text.
Timeline
On the recordWitness testimonyAlleged / one person's word
People across the timeline · click a name or a dot
Click a person to follow their thread.
24 Oct 1968
Minot B-52 pacingAn egg-shaped object "like molten lava" paces a B-52; 209 g by Knuth's estimate.
The claims, checked
On the record (8)
"I am skeptical of people who have assumed they have witnessed an alien spacecraft"; unfamiliar engineering can look like anomalous physics.SOL 2023 talk, quoted at 3:18.firsthandKevin Knuth
The Tic Tac accelerated at least 5,000 g, which for a 1,000-kg object means about 1,100 GW, with no energy released when it stops (about 250 Tomahawks' worth).From the 2019 paper and SOL talk.analysisThe Nimitz 'Tic Tac'Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles
Reported luminosities run from 2,000 to 30,000 MW, and some cases show electric and magnetic field effects and transmedium travel.analysisEstimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles
At Minot AFB on 24 Oct 1968 an egg-shaped object "like molten lava" paced a descending B-52 at about 3 mi and closed 2 mi in one radar sweep, implying about 209 g and Mach 12.Crew reports and radar; the figures are Knuth's.analysisMinot AFB B-52 radar-visual case (24 October 1968)
The Minot case was reported under AFR 200-2.firsthandUAP Gerb (from the Blue Book file)Minot AFB B-52 radar-visual case (24 October 1968)Project Blue Book
Photos on Knuth's slide include Costa Rica 1971 (a government mapping plane over Lago de Cote), Wausau 2003, Vancouver 2005, Green Bay 2007 and Trindade 1958.firsthandTrindade Island: Almiro Baraúna's photographs
A 1953 Canadian photograph (McCabe, via Vallee) is used to estimate an object's light output.analysisJacques Vallée
JAL 1628 is one of the worked cases in Knuth's paper.analysisJapan Air Lines Flight 1628
Witness testimony (1)
Oberth said in 1954 that more than 50 radar measurements put saucers at 19 km/s and that "flying saucers are real and... spaceships from another solar system".To verify the article text.firsthandHermann Oberth (lecture and American Weekly, 1954)Kevin Knuth
Alleged / one person's word (3)
In February 1987 north of New Zealand a 150 by 800 ft USO closed 20 km in under half a minute, passed under HMNZS Southland and drained its power.Knuth cites radar operator David Barnett; to verify.secondhandDavid Barnett → Kevin Knuth → told it
The Minot object's "molten lava" skin is like the mother-of-pearl skin of Weygandt's Peru craft.Gerb's comparison.speculationThe crashed egg in Peru (Weygandt, 1997)
Minot, like Malmstrom, was a nuclear base, another link between UFOs and nuclear weapons.analysisMissiles shut down at MalmstromMinot AFB B-52 radar-visual case (24 October 1968)