The Truth About Zeta Reticuli – Astronotes Toggle Navigation Main SiteLatest News Press ReleasesResearch News Solar System EarthPlanetsComets and AsteroidsMoon Our Galaxy Stars UniverseSpace Flight Earth SatellitesHuman ExplorationRobot ExplorationRockets Weird and Fun Concept SpacecraftScience FictionThe FutureUFOs and Fringe Science Monthly Sky Notes AprilAugustDecemberFebruaryJanuaryJulyJuneMarchMayNovemberOctoberSeptember Podcast The Truth About Zeta ReticuliPublished by Armagh Observatory and Planetarium on May 9, 2013May 9, 2013 Zeta Reticuli, a dim binary system of Sun-like stars only 39.5 light years away in the little constellation of Reticulum is strangely well-known. Why is it so famous? This system was once identified as the home of the little grey-faced and black-eyed humanoids who allegedly abducted Barney and Betty Hill and ever since has appeared in popular culture as the quintessential location of extraterrestrial mystery. What do we really know about these stars? The twin stars of Zeta Reticuli can be seen at the far right. (image credit: Google Sky) Reticulum (literally “the net” but used in the sense of an archaic form of eyepiece reticule) is a constellation of the southern hemisphere’s sky (we cannot see it from Northern Ireland). Diamond-shaped, the constellation lacks bright stars and is apparently an unimpressive sight. Only just visible to the unaided eye, Zeta Reticuli was first referred to as such in 1756. Can I just repeat that Zeta Reticuli has been seen in the sky without a telescope for centuries. Anyone who tells you it was not discovered until after the Hill’s story became famous is utterly wrong. The whole identification of this system as a homeworld to ufonauts is based on the thorough and painstaking work of Marjorie Fish, which is now believed to be incorrect being based on out-dated data on star positions. Through a telescope Zeta Reticuli can be clearly seen to be two stars (you can do this without a telescope if the sky is dark enough). The two stars are both very similar in mass, diameter, temperature and brightness to our own Sun (Zeta 1, a G3 class star, is slightly smaller, cooler and more orange than the Sun, while Zeta 2 is G2 class, almost identical to the Sun). They orbit a common centre of mass approximately midway between them and are separated by at least 3750 AU (about 0.06 light years). By the standards set by objects in our own Solar System, this is a huge distance; about a hundred times as far as Pluto is on average from the Sun. A beam of light from one of the stars would take three weeks to reach its companion. This is great enough a separation for each star in the duo to have its own planetary system. Unlike some other binary systems where the stars are closer, the skies of any Reticulan planet would not feature two suns. From the planets of one star, the other star would be a brilliantly bright star about 30 times as bright as Venus looks in Earth’s sky and would be visible even in the daytime sky. Each star could have its own habitable zone (or Goldilocks zone, a region where there is enough warmth from a star to allow water to persist as a liquid on the surface of a planet). Another myth about the Zeta Reticuli system I have encountered states that emissions from the two stars contribute to a dangerous level of background radiation in their vicinity. The two stars are too far apart for this and this idea seems to have been dreamed up by the perpetrators of the staggeringly inept Project SERPO hoax. What are the prospects for life in this star system? Both stars are similar to the Sun and if they have suitable planets it is not impossible that life has arisen there. Older sources claim these stars to be relatively old (6-8 billion years old is often quoted) but more recent evidence acquired by analysing the stars’ light with spectroscopes suggests these are young stars, possibly only two billion years old (compared to our own Sun’s 4.5 billion year age). Their youth may count against the possibly of higher forms of life having evolved on Zeta Reticulan worlds. After all there has been life on Earth for most of the planet’s existence, for most of this time terrestrial life has been single-celled micro-organisms, whereas multicellular life, plants and animals and so on, appeared only in the last 600 million years. If the story of life on Earth is typical (and who knows for sure), I would not bet on there being any little grey men, or indeed ladies, on any Zeta Reticulan planets unless they were colonised from elswhere. I should note that there is some controversy over these stars’ ages, see the comments section if you want to know more. The stars’ similarity to our own has prompted astronomers to search for planets there, but no planets have yet been discovered around either star. There has been a false alarm though. In 1996 astronomers at the European Southern Observatory announced that they had observed evidence of a giant planet around Zeta 2. The planet appeared to be tugging on the star causing it to make slight rhythmic movements, suggesting the planet had a mass about a quarter that of Jupiter and was moving in a close orbit (0.14 AU) with a period of 18.9 days. This would have been an example of what astronomers call a ‘hot Jupiter’ and would be a hopeless prospect for any kind of life. Within days, however, this discovery announcement was retracted as it was recognised that the wobbles in the star’s motion could also be just the star’s slight but regular pulsations. Of course UFO true believers still tell the story of “the scientists who reported a planet at Zeta Reticulum but the government made them cover it up”. To the best of my knowledge, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has never observed this system. Why? Well, its not a conspiracy, rather there is no point as the HST could not resolve any planets at this distance, this is something it was not designed to do. In 2010, another team of astronomers announced that far-infrared wavelength observations with ESA’s Herschel space telescope showed a ring of cold dust and ice about 100 AU across around Zeta 2 Reticuli. Almost certainly there are comet nuclei and dwarf planets, analogues of our Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea, in this ring. This debris disc is not symmetrical, a possible indication that the material is being gravitationally effected by an unseen planetary companion. To be honest, based on the distribution of exoplanets in the Milky Way it would be very surprising if in fact there were no planets in the Zeta Reticulum system. However as our methods for finding exoplanets are still pretty limited it may be a long time before we know for sure. Until we actually discover any Zeta Reticulan planets the best we can do is watch out for them in science fiction. “Reticulans” were name-checked in the X-Files and appeared on screen as “Chigs” in Space: Above and Beyond. By far and away the best-known fictional world in the vicinity of the Zeta 2 Reticuli system is LV-426 (also called Acheron) from the Alien movies and related works. On this world humans first encountered the awful acid-blooded, drooling horrors sometimes called Xenomorphs (yes, I am deliberately ignoring the Aliens vs Predator movies and I advise you to do the same). LV-426, which went unnamed in the first film, is a tiny rocky world, apparently one of several satellites of a gas giant planet. Originally, its tortured landscape was overlaid by a cold but violently stormy atmosphere of nitrogen with methane, carbon dioxide and ammonia but by its second appearance in Aliens it had been terraformed to give it an atmosphere and climate compatible with human life. The moon was apparently devoid of native life; Xenomorph eggs were found there in a derelict starship belonging to some other enigmatic alien civilisation (I also prefer to pretend Prometheus never happened). LV-426 is completely fictitious and not based on any speculation by scientists, nor is the “LV-” numbering scheme used for planets (also in Prometheus) a real piece of scientific methodology. Dan O’Bannon (1946-2009), who wrote the original story for Alien probably used the name Zeta Reticuli after seeing it in an article about the Hill UFO account. Zeta Reticuli is an interesting nearby binary star system, but there is no evidence to suggests it is the home of extraterrestrial visitors to our world. (Article by Colin Johnston, Science Communicator. This article was inspired by a conversation I had with a caller to the Planetarium last week, I hope he is reading this.) Share the knowledge! 0 Shares Share Tweet Share Share Share Mail Share Share You may also like: On the retirement of Kepler On the retirement of Kepler Gault - the amazing disintegrating asteroid Gault - the amazing disintegrating asteroid The August Night Sky The August Night Sky May Night Sky May Night Sky Star Wars: A look at the Science Star Wars: A look at the Science The July Night Sky The July Night Sky September Night Sky 2017 September Night Sky 2017 E.T. Friend or Foe? E.T. Friend or Foe? by shareaholic . Categories: Stars Tags: starsHill abductionconstellationsAlien movie seriesaliensPrometheusscience fictionZeta Reticulibinary starsexoplanetsGoldilocks Zoneextraterrestrial lifeESAESOHubble Space TelescopeReticulum 175 Comments Steve Ford · October 30, 2020 at 23:35 Thanks for the tip. I will be in that area soon and will send everyone a postcard. Should be an interesting tour. Reply Rose Martine · November 16, 2019 at 08:16 Very well written information. It will be valuable to anyone who utilizes it, including me. Keep doing what you are doing – can’r wait to read more posts. Reply silvertongue · June 21, 2019 at 07:43 Bob Lazar – who states he’s SEEN craft in secret base hangers says the dissertation [info he was given before project involvement] claims exotic metals and ‘power sources’ (9 generators I believe he said there were, including one that was “cut” and exploded killing one person – scientist/technician Bob replaced) says this material originated from Zeta Reticuli. Whether it was ZR1 or ZR2 system I’m not clear on that. Pretty much everything Lazar claimed from him leaving the project to now has been proven to be accurate and true, the fact that they tried to erase his involvement to the elusive element 115 (which was touted as a hoax before it was revealed to be very real). I have no problem writing off ANY information that any military or government body releases or speaks for or against in regards to aliens. Information is added to distort the truth, and information is either subtracted or changed to distort the truth also. The power of words is witchcraft if it’s socially engineered correctly. Reply guy · July 16, 2019 at 18:10 ITS ON THE JOE ROGAN PODCAST! YOUTUBE IT! Reply Keith · February 16, 2021 at 02:13 He said it came from zr 3 Reply Someone · February 23, 2019 at 19:52 Government hides them because government is invisibly controlled by them. Reply Kevin Hagan · April 1, 2019 at 22:10 Genetic manipulation is as common as Hydrogen through out the galaxy. Changing life changing yourself to live longer or for space travel has its side affects. This why the Annonaki wear masks, fake hair and beards, Reply Don · January 5, 2019 at 07:33 Curious readers Colin, might like to read some more informed background on Zeta at http://www.zetatalk.com Reply tom Can · December 13, 2018 at 13:14 So refreshing to see a more objective and skeptical analysis of facts. Reply Agen Domino qiu qiu · November 21, 2018 at 11:48 You need to be a part of ɑ contest foг one of tһe ɡreatest blogs οn the web. I am ɡoing tߋ highly recommend tһis web site! Reply bloggar · September 20, 2018 at 20:48 With the surfacing of blockchain technology, development appears far from over, and new and innovative processes and solutions surface. We aim to orchestrate the adoption of a completely decentralized ecosystem through distributed ledger technology. It certainly is a very exciting time to be working in the blockchain area and since lots of people adopt this disruptive solution, it is going to conceivably allow us to construct a further safeguarded, adequate and open world. Reply Super Crispy Taco · July 11, 2018 at 10:40 Hello I am so thrilled I found your blog, I really found you by accident, while I was searching on Yahoo for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a tremendous post and a all round entertaining blog (I also love thee theme/design), I don’t have time to read it all at the moment but I have saved it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the great work. Reply Terence Matheson · December 8, 2017 at 08:48 One problem I have with many of these comments is that they share a common assumption–which I consider fatally flawed–that alien beings would look, think, and behave more or less as we do, whatever their origins; that their thought processes would be intelligible to us, or more importantly, that our thought processes and cultures would be of particular interest to them. On our planet, there are at least three species that are arguably as intelligent in many ways as we humans are, although they lack technological sophistication: the bottle-nosed dolphin, the humpbacked whale, and the elephant. We know that these beings communicate at a highly sophisticated level, yet in no case have we been able even to scratch the surface of their languages, even though they are all relatively close to us in evolutionary terms. I think it is naive and supremely presumptuous for us to assume that we would be able to communicate with alien beings from another planetary system on any level, especially a civilization of intelligent beings that, were they to have the ability to reach our planet from interstellar space, would probably be so advanced tat they could observe us without ever giving notice of their presence, were they to investigate our species. We may well have been visited and studied, or are presently being examined, by highly intelligent lifeforms from another planet. But the naivete of groups such as SETI is astonishing, in its assumption that we would be fortunate enough to encounter an alien civilization virtually at exactly the same stage of technological development as we are. Think about it: even a couple of hundred years ago the brightest scientists on Earth would have absolutely no idea what a television or IPad was, were we to transport it back in time. Any beings from another star system must be hundreds, if not more likely, many tens of thousands of years beyond us, in terms of their technological accomplishments. We might well appear to them as we would regard ants or bees: passably interesting life forms, but virtually impossible to communicate with, due to our (from their point of view) primitive state. And even if they had equipment that could render pictorially coherent reproductions of,say, our television, what would they make of what they saw? What if they had a completely different notion of what they considered music, assuming that they might well be tone-deaf by our standards? What if they were water-based beings that had no sense of boundaries or nations? They might well look at our gyrating rock stars, our sports contests, and our endless wars, indifference to the climate and capacity for self-destruction, without necessarily having any understanding or comprehension of what was occurring, other than to conclude that we were, in the main, non-rational creatures that should be possibly monitored, but otherwise of no genuine significance. Reply jaxk · November 23, 2017 at 01:30 I do not question the validity of other beings from other worlds or star systems. I do question people like Nancy Lieder who have marginalized and monetized the belief in Zeta Reticuli and what she is supposedly told, for a dollar. Perhaps they are real, perhaps they are not, but it’s an interesting and neverending mental quest. Reply Will Doohan · September 9, 2017 at 06:18 Thank you for the interesting astronomical facts about the Zeta Reticuli star system. I’ve been a science fiction fan and occasional UFO enthusiast who has wondered for years if the ‘greys’ are real, and if they are, are they really from that star system? It would be amazing if it were real, but like most UFO tales, there is very little evidence. Reply Robert · November 1, 2017 at 11:50 No evidence does not mean it is not true. Reply Darren Hughes · November 29, 2017 at 22:12 Will, There is evidence all the time: there are radar printouts, marks on the ground from craft making landings, burnt people and cars (radioactive type), there’s eye witness accounts (that’s good enough to convict in a murder trial and cause a death sentence), there are photographs and more. The problem is… that people want to believe, already do and the people don’t want to believe, won’t do any research. Reply Miro · February 24, 2018 at 13:29 Hello Darren, I have a question: there is a lot more evidence that these 100% fake greys are, well, 100% fake than there is “evidence” that they’re real Reply Biff · July 21, 2018 at 16:13 Kids sometimes where fake shark fins to fool people at beaches causing mass panic. Its been done many times. Does that mean ALL sharks are fake? It is human nature to emulate and copy things. Kids raised by dogs loose ability to speak and walk on all fours like a dog. It is expected that there will be fake greys, expect hoaxes etc. It would be strange for this not to happen. This causes some people to only focus on the fakes and then ASSUME if one is fake they all must be. Most isotopes or uranium are NOT fissionable. Does this mean ALL of them are not? Using your logic they would have quit after a few isotopes were not and assume “they all are not” Something is coming to this planet, its obvious looking at the data. A much hazier question is where are they from or what do they eat etc. Baby steps, focus on the easier to swallow mass sightings, military encounters and military nuclear silo observations. You don’t even have to drop your bag of fritos, all can be researched from you tube, or online book. Reply Mike C · April 16, 2017 at 16:53 Interesting that two stars that are so far apart rotate around each other. Is this common? I would assume each star stays clear of the other’s heliosphere. Reply Gene · September 22, 2019 at 09:31 How can they both rotate around each other? I just tried it with two pennies and it only works if one rotates around the other. Reply bella · March 1, 2020 at 02:13 possibly some kind of propulsion system.. Reply Stephan · February 13, 2017 at 18:27 Why we have precise image of constellations that are 1500 light year from us, but we have nothing from hubble telescope for Zeta Reticuli ? Reply Robert · November 1, 2017 at 11:51 US goverment tells NASA stay from that star sysstem NASA says why and US goverment says just do it you fools. Reply M VINOD KUMAR · July 17, 2019 at 06:25 insteresting question…..need to ponder, may be it is a deliberate attempt to withold information. Reply Cody G · January 18, 2017 at 05:24 I was just thinking about something… it’s a what if, but… what if the Greys do exist and have superior unregulated means and technologies which could allow them to effectively strip mine sections of the galaxy in ways we wouldn’t even consider… maybe this is how they’re able to manufacture such technologies… Reply Cody G · January 18, 2017 at 06:05 But it may correlate with the lack of metals causing the stars to appear younger than they really are… and with their seemingly infinite supply of ufos and whatever else… it makes sense when you consider they could be basically a legion of biological robots who reproduce by cloning… each clone could then be hardwired to technologies to ma… truncated (80,900 more characters in archive)