On April 7, 2016, the team running NASA’s New Horizons mission were waiting nervously. The spacecraft was about to enter the outermost reaches of our solar system. They'd aimed toward Pluto. Which lives in a region of the solar system called the Kuiper Belt. Just before arriving at the dwarf planet, the team noticed an object nearby. And it was acting very strange. This object, whatever it was, was spinning faster than everything else around it. Too fast. Artificially fast. And the object reflected light in an odd way. New Horizons changed course to do a fly by. They wanted a better look at this bizarre behavior. But as the spacecraft approached the object, all communications went down. NASA wasn't able to see or hear anything. The New Horizons spacecraft suddenly put itself into safe mode. But nothing was broken. Something or someone was blocking the signal. Whoever it was did *not* want NASA to know they were here. And that they’ve been watching us for a very. long. time.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.