The Betty Hill Starmap - New insight

Before I go into the research I've done recently, I would like to start by making an apologise: I know that the Betty & Barney Hill abduction case has been the subjects of many threads, on ATS and elsewhere; I know that the star map that Betty Hill has drawn has also been a subject of many threads. But I would like still to post this new thread (and it is actually not common that I post new threads, particularly on subjects that have been so largely discussed) because I have had a few new ideas about it.

At least, that's how I feel: I haven't seen a star analysis done for the map. I am going to try to use arguments that I have not seen earlier (at least not compiled together) to give more credit to the possibilty that this star map could well indeed be what Betty Hill and later Marjorie Fish claim it to be.

So let's go...

(image taken from this thread)

Let's take some time to examine all the stars that are on that map, one by one:

Gliese 67
Reference

A nearby Sun-like star in the constellation Andromeda regarded as a promising candidate for habitability if it possesses any Earth-like planets within its habitable zone. It ranks in the top five stars most likely to support life in a shortlist drawn up in 2006 by astrobiologist Margaret Turnbull, one of the authors of HabCat (Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems).

107 Piscium
Reference

The failure, thus far, to find large substellar objects like brown dwarfs or a Jupiter- or Saturn-class planet in a "torch" orbit (closer han the Mercury to Sun distance) around 107 Piscium -- with even the highly sensitive radial-velocity technique of Geoffrey W. Marcy and R. Paul Butler -- bodes well for the possibility of Earth-type terrestrial planets around this star (Cumming et al, 1999). Indeed, the distance from 107 Piscium where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is centered around only 0.62 AU -- between the orbital distances of Mercury and Venus in the Solar System. At that distance from the star, such a planet would have an orbital period of about 202 days -- less than two thirds of an Earth year.

Tau 1 Eridani
Reference
Not a lot of information found on this star. However, data indicates it is a F5V or F6V star, most likely aged between 4 and 6 billions of years. That is potentially a "sun like" star.

Tau Ceti
Reference

The most Sun-like of the 30 nearest stars to the Sun.

It is not known if the star is accompanied by any planets – its low metallicity makes it questionable whether the nebula from which it condensed had sufficient heavy element content to allow planet-sized objects to form). However, if any planets are present, (...) they are likely to be subjected to a much more intense bombardment than anything the Earth has experienced, making the survival of any life problematic.

82 Eridani
Reference

No large substellar companion has been found thus far (Murdoch et al, 1993). However, the distance from 82 Eridani A where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is centered around 0.80 AU -- midway between the orbital distances of Venus and Earth in the Solar System. At that distance from the star, such a planet would have an orbital period of almost 275 days, or over two thirds of an Earth year. Astronomers are hoping to use NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and the ESA's Darwin planned groups of observatories to search for a rocky inner planet in the so-called "habitable zone" (HZ) around 82 Eridani. As currently planned, the TPF will include two complementary observatory groups: a visible-light coronagraph to launch around 2014; and a "formation-flying" infrared interferometer to launch before 2020, while Darwin will launch a flotilla of three mid-infrared telescopes and a fourth communications hub beginning in 2015.

Furthermore, this star is estimated over 10 billions years old. This leaves a lot of time for any potential life around it to be much more advanced than we are!

54 Piscium
Reference

54 Piscium is an orange-red main-sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type K0+ V. The star may have 79 percent of Sol's mass (exoplanets.org), 86 percent of its diameter (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 645), and 46 to 49 percent of its luminosity. With a fairly long rotational period of 48 days compared with Sol that is suggestive of greater age

The orbit of an Earth-like planet with surface water would be centered within 0.68 AU -- around the orbital distance Venus in the Solar System -- and take around 240 days (two-thirds of a year) to complete. However, the inner, eccentric orbit of a giant planetary companion "b" recently discovered around 54 Piscium would probably disturb the orbit of such an Earth-type planet.

The speculations around this system are many. Indeed, a brown dwarf orbiting it has been found, and is the first ever brown dwarf companion to have ever been directly imaged. This companion should account for the inner saturn-sized planet very eccentric orbit. This discovery may shed some light on other star's inner planets curiously eccentric orbits, as those orbits could well be the result of undetected stellar companions.
The presence of an earth-like planet capable of sustaining life is considered unlikely because of the potential disruptions on the habitable zone and on this planet orbit caused by the inner planet. However, as time teaches us, we discover more and more curiosities every day.

Kappa Fornacis
Reference (in Spanish)
Google translation of reference above.

Kappa Pavonis is a solar analog, ie, a star whose physical characteristics such as temperature, metallicity or the presence of nearby stellar companions are similar to those of the Sun. The same spectral type to the Sun, G2V, is a yellow dwarf with effective temperature is 5748 K. The value of metallicity is very close to solar, and its mass of 1.15 mass solar. Its estimated age is within the range from 5420 and 6760 million years, which corresponds to an age of 800 - 2000 million years older than the Sun

And another star about like the sun, a bit older again!

Gliese 95
Rem.: this star is not often found as referred by its Gliese number, rather by its HD14412 designation
Reference
Yet another sun like star, still and always close to us... Maybe a rather unremarkable star except that it is a G5V class, exactly like the sun. It is very slightly colder and less luminous.

Gliese 86
Reference
Much is still unknown about this star. However, it is a K0-1 V orange-red main sequence dwarf star, which can be considered somewhat sun like.

[Edited]
Finally have the links working!

[edit on 11-4-2009 by SpookyVince]

Alpha Mensae
Reference

Alpha Mensae is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type G5-6 V, with about 87 percent of Sol's mass, 84 to 91 percent of its diameter (Perrin and Karoji, 1987, page 236; and Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 659), and around 80 percent of its luminosity. The star may be as as enriched (102 percent) as Sol with elements heavier than hydrogen ("metallicity"), based on its abundance of iron (Cayrel de Strobel et al, 1991, page 285).

(...)Alpha Mensae has become one of the top 100 target stars for NASA's planned Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF)(...)

And guess, another sun like star! But let's go on...

Gliese 86.1
Rem.: this star is not often found as referred by its Gliese number, rather by its HD13435 designation
Reference
Very little can be found about that star, but its stellar class K1III makes it a giant or subgiant orange or redish orange star.

Gliese 59
Rem.: this star is not often found as referred by its Gliese number, rather by its HD9540 designation
Reference
Again, a not popular star, with a spectral class of K0V. This makes it a main sequence dwarf, more red/orange than the sun (thus cooler).

I will leave the last 2 stars on the map except for the sun (Sol), Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli, apart for the moment. I'll come back to them later.

So let's summarize a bit here...:

Star name -- Distance (ly) -- Spectral Type -- Visual Magnitude
Gliese 67 -- 41.4 -- G2V -- 4.96
107 Piscium -- 24.4 -- K1V -- 5.24
Tau 1 Eridani -- 45.6 -- F5/6V -- 4.47
Tau Ceti -- 11.9 -- G8Vp -- 3.49
82 Eridani -- 19.8 -- G5-8V -- 4.27
54 Piscium -- 36.2 -- K0+V -- 5.88
Kappa Fornacis -- 71 -- G2V -- 5.80
Gliese 95 -- 41.3 -- G5V -- 5.82
Gliese 86 -- 35.6 -- K0-1V -- 6.12
Alpha Mensae -- 33.1 -- G5-6V -- 5.08
Gliese 86.1 -- 183.6 -- K1III -- 7.06
Gliese 59 -- 63.6 -- K0V -- 6.98

We see that all the stars labeled on the map are of a stellar type comparable to the sun. We also see that with the exception of Gliese 86.1 and Gliese 59, they all are within 50ly, which makes them in fact close neighbours.

If so far, for none of those stars, a planetary companion supposed to be able to harbour life as we know it, has not been detected, we must notice that most are acceptable candidate. The reference links tells more: some of those stars are prime candidate for the search of such planets!

What about Zeta 1 and 2 Reticuli then...?

First thing that we must notice is that they are respectively G2V and G1V. That's very similar to the sun. Also, they are situated at 39.5 light years from us, a distance remarkably in line with all the other stars quoted above.

ζ1 Reticuli is slightly less massive and luminous than the Sun. Spectral class of the star is G2.5 V.
ζ2 Reticuli has a very similar mass and luminosity to our Sun. The spectral type of the star is G1 V.

(source: en.wikipedia.org...)
Sol Station tells us more about this double star system: (Reference)

(...)Zeta1 Reticuli has become one of the top 100 target stars for NASA's planned Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF)(...)

Once thought to be old Population II, galactic-halo-type subdwarf stars, Zeta1 and its companion are more likely to be old disk stars (Da Silva and Foy, 1987), that may be as much as eight billion years old.

An interesting 3D map:
www.solstation.com...

So, what am I willing to announce that's never been said before? Nothing, really. I have just here compiled bits and pieces of data, and I think that all of this was known before. What has maybe not just sprung is that there are several things we can say out of this data:

1. A person with no knowledge in astronomy has drawn a map that she said was shown to her in 3D. That map includes numerous sun like stars, all in the close vicinity of the sun.
   
2. Those stars are all near impossible to spot with the naked eye. (hence why I listed the magnitudes)
   
3. If one can argue that by selecting certain stars and willingfully ignoring others (Discussion between Carl Sagan & Steven Soter, and Terence Dickinson about the Hill Case) they will always win, I can certainly argue that the configuration matches curiously only stars that are of a spectral type very close to that of the sun, and that most seem older or at the same age as the sun. From a purely hypothetical point of view, those are prime candidates for stellar systems where life could evolve naturally or be brought in. One must know that more than 75% of all stars are actually of other classes (Reference). On average, (Reference) in the neighbourhood of the sun, 1 in 33 star is of F class, 1 in 13 of G class, 1 in 8 of K class. How probable is it for someone with no knowledge whatsoever of astronomy to pick at random 15 or 20 locations on a map, and that all those locations would match closely a star such close to what our sun is? I tell you I have more chance to win the lottery!
   
4. Even if there are lots of other stars closer to our sun, they are mostly red dwarves. They also are mostly non visible to the naked eye. But more importantly, that class of stars is normally not a good candidate to have a planet able to sustain life as we know it. We must eliminate from "habitable systems" lots of K and nearly all of the M class systems. This is exlpained by mainly two reasons: star flares and rotational lock. To summarize this, if a planet had to be in the habitable zone (HZ) of such a star, that means it would be much closer to it than we are from the sun. The HZ of those planets is closer because they are cooler, simply. The flares produced by such stars would cause catastrophic consequences on the surface of such a close planet. Finding a star that would be quiet enough is probably not impossible, however, we have the second reason: rotational lock. A typical example of that is the moon. Because it is so close to the earth, it is strongly tied by tidal forces to the earth, and in fact it shows always the same face to us. Mercury is also nearly locked to the sun: "days" and "nights" are terribly long on Mercury because of its proximity to the sun. That would cause another problem: one side of the planet would be freezing while the other one would be roasting! We must, on the other hand eliminate F0-F4 as well: most of them are rotating too rapidly, and their stable lifespan is too short anyway.
   
5. So what are we left with? Basically G classes and K0-K4 classes, and possibly F5-F9. Have a look again on the classes listed above.
   

6. 
   Indeed Marjorie Fish first tried models using nearby stars of other than strictly solar type as defined in the article. She found no resemblances.

   (from The Zeta Reticuli Incident, NICAP) The fact that only the stars where it would be convenient or simply possible to have a place to stop are shown on that map is in itself significant.
   

   
   The fact that she came up with a pattern that fits as well as it does is a tribute to her perseverance and the accuracy of the models. Stars cannot be moved around "to optimize the desired resemblance"

   (same source)
   

I know that there will certainly be people to cast doubts over this, but I have spent an extensive amount of time researching this. I can assure you that I am convinced beyond doubt that the map that Betty Hill has drawn is indeed the map of those stars as Ms Fish found out. Whether or not it is a coincidence? Rather not, for all the reasons above. Whether or not it came from alien abducters? Up to you, but personally, I don't think that the average person with no knowledge of astronomy could just possibly draw anything that close to a real star map, stars that all are of a class allowing life there, potentially at least. The odds are astoundingly against chance here.

Long read, I know, but I hope this brought some more light on this

Beautiful work....still digesting....

Can't wait to see the responses....

reply to post by SpookyVince


I agree with weedwhacker. Nice job man! S&F

IRM

Good work. I've seen arguments either way for and against the Star Map... in the end, people have to make up their own mind.

If we ever unlock the secret tech hidden in skunkworks, then we would be able to travel to each star and find out what's there!

reply to post by SpookyVince


Great job.

S & F, I think the Betty Hill star map is a very strong.

Extremely thought provoking!
Thank you for your hard work on this, simply amazing research.

[edit on 11-4-2009 by sheila947]

reply to post by SpookyVince


Wonderful research! I will be studying this closely.

S&F!

S&F. Nothing to add but well done for the hard work and a link supporting your ideas.

NICAP- Journey into the Hill Star Map

Wouldn't be fair to leave out a skeptical alternative, SkepticReport although I favor the NICAP account

Hmmmm. When listening to Bob Lazar on his numerous interviews he mentions something about how the alien craft he worked on came from the zeta reticuli star system. He says maybe they had star charts or maybe me and john lear got drunk one night and incorporated there story into ours or something along those lines. You begin to realize the world is full of FOOLS and CHEATERS!

Just out of rank curiosity -an older thread about pulsars possibly being used as navigation devices comes to mind about now. I don't want to complicate it- but I wonder... what would the relative distances of any pulsars to these areas selected on the maps? I think only one would be needed for a 'relative' beacon if that's what they could be used for. Be one way to push proof for that theory...

I can almost hear the skeptics greasing up their eyeballs for the rolling sessions...

Thanks all for the nice replies!

Originally posted by wylekat
Just out of rank curiosity -an older thread about pulsars possibly being used as navigation devices comes to mind about now. I don't want to complicate it- but I wonder... what would the relative distances of any pulsars to these areas selected on the maps? I think only one would be needed for a 'relative' beacon if that's what they could be used for. Be one way to push proof for that theory...

I can almost hear the skeptics greasing up their eyeballs for the rolling sessions...

I have not found a pulsar in the vicinity of these stars, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't one.
An excellent pulsar catalogue maintained by the Australia Telescope National Facility.

Originally posted by RyanLA123
Hmmmm. When listening to Bob Lazar on his numerous interviews he mentions something about how the alien craft he worked on came from the zeta reticuli star system. He says maybe they had star charts or maybe me and john lear got drunk one night and incorporated there story into ours or something along those lines. You begin to realize the world is full of FOOLS and CHEATERS!

I have not yet made up my mind completely about Lazar. There are a lot of pros and a lot of cons about him and his stories. However, one thing is absolutely certain. In 1991 when he went public about those stories that we all know now, no planet was detected around either of the zeta reticuli stars. To be fair, in 1991, no planet was confirmed to have been discovered around no other star than the sun!

Still, with Lazar taken out of this, we're forced to admit that this is a big coincidence, too big to be one don't you think? I see no fraud there...

[edit on 11-4-2009 by SpookyVince]

[edit on 11-4-2009 by son of PC]

I've always thought of the Hill abduction as quite credible despite some of the inconsistency of their reports. If they were abducted and their conscious memory of the event erased, some information would likely necessarily be incorrect. To me the star map is good evidence of the validity of the event.

This is a great piece of research and wonderful reevaluation of one of the classics.

Springer...

People always get caught in the " it's either this or that " thought when it is always a little of both.

Lazar probably is telling the truth about many of the subjects he talks about, he is also probably making up, adding parts, distorting truth to some of the others.


If somebody tells 40% of the truth and 60% lie, it does not mean that it is all a lie or all wrong, it still means 40% is the truth and we should focus on the truth and try to learn more about it.

the hard part is deciphering which 40% is the truth. some may be obvious.


BTW GREAT post. S&F


A lot of info that i'm going to spend the next couple days -week going over.



If people are going to try to debunk or dismiss what you said, I would say they need to bring some serious research on the level that you brought.

reply to post by son of PC


thats not a very valid argument.

Bob Lazar got raided for having explosives (he holds a get together where people play with explosives in the desert.)

If he was CIA I doubt that would have happened.

Anyways, hes not the topic.

btw star for the great work the OP did

[edit on 11-4-2009 by lozenge]

Honestly,
I believe that Betty's star map came to her through her unconscious. And her experience was one akin to a '___' experience.

Of course I also believe our unconscious can deliver very good information, and that your research is not in vain.

However, being an "abductee" myself I feel these experiences are not objective in the least but wholly subjective. It doesn't however remove the importance and symbolism of these experiences.

reply to post by SpookyVince


This is a great work mate, it's exactly what we need here. A thread like this one is more value than thousands threads based on anonymous youtube videos. You research was accurate, balanced and relatively unbiased. I have nothing to add, because what had to be said was already said, here and in many other threads: this should be a mandatory reading for all those interested in the story. Thank you for your effort