Aerial view of the Sunspot Solar Observatory site on Sacramento Peak in New Mexico. Sunspot is part of the National Solar Observatory, which is funded by the US National Science Foundation. It's been more than a week, and a National Solar Observatory (NSO) facility in New Mexico is still closed for an undisclosed "security issue." The NSO's Sunspot Solar Observatory, on Sacramento Peak in the southern part of the state, was evacuated last Thursday (Sept. 6), as was a nearby post office, according to the Albuquerque Journal. FBI agents have reportedly been investigating the site, and they're apparently keeping local law-enforcement personnel in the dark. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), which manages the Sunspot observatory with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, hasn't said much, either. The organization released a statement saying that AURA "is addressing a security issue" at Sunspot "and has decided to temporarily vacate the facility as a precautionary measure until further notice." AURA "is working with the proper authorities on this issue," the statement adds, without specifying who those authorities are. And we may not get answers anytime soon. At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) today (Sept. 14), AURA Corporate Communications Coordinator Shari Lifson sent out an email update, which stated that AURA "has decided that the observatory will remain closed until further notice due to an ongoing security concern." Unsurprisingly, the dearth of information has led to a lot of speculation about what's going on. The rumors range from the downright silly (the feds shut Sunspot down to keep news about a deadly solar superflare from getting into our panicky heads) to the intriguingly believable (this may be an espionage investigation). Observatory team members have shot down one of the more farfetched theories, however. The "telescope did not see aliens," Sunspot Solar Observatory director James McAteer, who's also an associate professor of astronomy, solar physics and space weather at New Mexico State University, told Albuquerque news station KOB4. "All data will be made public in its unaltered form," McAteer added. "Nothing is hidden or kept secret." The FBI hadn't returned a phone call as of press time. The agency has consistently declined to comment on the Sunspot situation over the past week, according to other news organizations. This story was updated at 2:30 p.m. EDT to include the latest update from Shari Lifson and James McAteer's comments. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.<doc-sep>(CNN) — The sudden closure of the Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico has everyone talking – everyone but authorities. The facility focuses on solar research, and its telescope is one of the best ground-based solar observatories in the world. But on September 6, the observatory was evacuated because of a “security issue,” and it remains closed and under FBI investigation. Government officials have not given a clear explanation of what the issue is, however, and this has prompted wild speculation. One popular theory circulating online is that aliens or UFOs could be the reason for the concern. The observatory is about 85 miles southwest of Roswell, where a mysterious object crashed in 1947, launching decades of talk about the wreckage. If y'all could atleast say "This has nothing to do with anything observed in space." That would be awesome, help calm down conspiracy Twitter. — Robert Moose (@RobertMoose) September 13, 2018 Not to worry, according to the FBI, which told CNN affiliate KOAT that extraterrestrial activity is not the problem. Adding to the mystery is that residents around the area were forced to evacuate without any explanation, KOAT reported. “We were told we had a credible threat through the FBI and to leave,” evacuee Sean Williams told the station. CNN contacted the sheriff’s office in Otero County, but a spokesperson said the office is not working with the FBI and couldn’t provide any answers. The FBI transferred CNN’s request for comment to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), which manages the observatory. Though AURA provided no immediate response, the association had released the following statement: “AURA is addressing a security issue at the National Solar Observatory facility at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico and has decided to temporarily vacate the facility as a precautionary measure until further notice,” read the statement. “All other NSO facilities are open and operating normally. AURA, which manages Sacramento Peak with funding from the National Science Foundation, is working with the proper authorities on this issue.”<doc-sep>It's important to note that AURA has consistently described the situation was a "security issue" rather than a "risk" or a "threat," which strongly suggests the reason for the evacuations was not tied to something such as a bomb threat. Had there been a danger of some sort chemical or biological hazard, the responding officials would have been wearing suitable protective gear . "There was a Black Hawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything," Sheriff House explained to the Alamogordo Daily News on Sept. 7, 2018. "We went up there and everything was good. There was no threat. Nobody would identify any specific threat. We hung out for a little while then we left. No reason for us to be there. Nobody would tell us what we’re supposed to be watching out for." A map showing all of Sunspot, New Mexico, with the town's post office marked to the right and the Sacramento Peak observatory facility at the lower left. Lifson might be right that local authorities know that there is a situation, but there is no indication that they know what it is specifically. No one, including AURA's spokesperson, seems to know knows for sure what law enforcement entity told people to leave the post office. Otero County Sheriff Benny House said the FBI asked him to support the initial evacuations at the observatory itself, but gave him no other information and that he and his deputies left after there was no evidence of an ongoing or imminent threat. This "temporary" evacuation has now lasted seven days and it's not entirely clear how much of Sunspot is still off limits , with some residents complaining about not being able to get to their homes. Lifson had no additional information when the Albuquerque Journal asked for an update on the situation on Sept. 12, 2018. The Apache Point Observatory, about half a mile away from the Sacramento Peak site, never closed and remains in operation. "We are working with the proper authorities on this issue," she continued. "The local authorities do know and are aware of the situation. I don’t know when the facility was vacated but it was within the last day. It’s a temporary evacuation of the facility. We [will] open it up as soon as possible.” "The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy [ AURA ] who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time," AURA spokesperson Shari Lifson, told the Alamogordo Daily News on Sept. 7, 2018. "We don’t know [when the facility will open again]." Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and potentially other federal government agencies, arrived in Sunspot on or about Sept. 7, 2018, at which point they ordered everyone out of the National Solar Observatory site, which is technically at Sacramento Peak, situated above the tiny town. They also told the clerk in the Sunsport Post Office to evacuate. A bizarre, unexplained situation has unfolded in and around the tiny enclave of Sunspot, New Mexico. A week after U.S. federal government officials ordered the evacuation of the National Solar Observatory facility there, as well as a nearby post office, the first site remains closed due to a “security issue” and no one can or will say what it is. There are unconfirmed reports that some individuals were dressed as if they were responding to some sort of hazardous material spill, but it seems curious that Sherrif House would have left this detail out of his comments. That sort of incident, or even a crime such as murder, also wouldn't explain why the FBI and other federal officials would have had to descend on Sunspot, do so without apparently alerting local law enforcement or U.S. Postal Service officials in advance, and then refuse to explain the situation in any way to them. The FBI declined to even confirm or deny that it had been or was still in Sunspot to the Albuquerque Journal. But given AURA's statements and what else we know about the situation, there is a distinct possibility that "security issue" is actually related to espionage or a similar operational security concern. The National Solar Observatory's site enjoys a wide and largely unobstructed view of both the U.S. Air Force's Holloman Air Force Base and the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range, both of which regularly host a very wide array of U.S. military research and development programs. Google Earth A map showing the general area around the National Solar Observatory facility at Sacramento Peak near Sunspot, New Mexico. Hollman Air Force Base is marked to the left. White Sands Missile Range is off the map, due north of Holloman. "The Sacramento Peak Observatory serves the solar physics community as the only high-resolution solar facility with extensive spectroscopic capabilities open for community access in the United States and as a development testbed for the high-order AO [Adaptive Optics] capability needed for DKIST [Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope]," the National Science Foundation, which technically owns the site, said in a draft environmental impact statement that it published in February 2018. "The 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is currently under construction on Haleakalá in Maui, Hawai'i, and is planned to replace the function of DST [Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope] for NSO [National Solar Observatory]." The National Science Foundation commissioned the environmental impact survey as part of deliberations about whether to curtail operations at the site, transfer greater responsibility for the facilities to another entity, or shutter it all together, due to funding constraints. Before the U.S. government closed the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak completely due to the ongoing "security issue," there were reportedly only a limited number of researchers and other personnel there anyway, as the Dunn Solar Telescope is the only remaining part of the facility that is still in operation. The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope inside the observatory is a vacuum telescope designed to track the Sun and its movements while gathering imagery and spectroscopy data about the rays it emits and its sunspots. It is possible that the telescope could point low enough to gather useful information about objects at Holloman or White Sands in the valley below. It is also possible that the U.S. government could have had concerns about what it might be able to see in outer space, or at least who saw what and what they did with that information, but this seems quite unlikely. NOAO/AURA/NSF Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope is a massive installation. It doesn't just resemble an iceberg, it's similar to one in that the majority of it is hidden from view below the surface. The facility looks right out of a science fiction movie and penetrates hundreds of feet below the ground. It seems more plausible that a foreign operative or an operative working on a foreign government's behalf might have been able to install an antenna/sensor apparatus onto the top of a structure that is part of the facility and within line-of-sight of the valley below without anyone noticing. This could allow them to persistently gather electronic intelligence on whatever might be happening on, around, and over White Sands and at Holloman. With the capabilities of modern electronics and batteries, it's possible that such a system wouldn't even need to be hard wired. For instance, check out this 360 photo of a publically accessible viewpoint and weather station adjacent to the main solar telescope tower up at Sacremento Peak. The small building is covered with antennas and electronics which have a perfectly clear line of sight to the valley below. Clandestinely placing a sensor package here that is able to collect certain emissions while blending in with the clutter seems like a relatively rudimentary task—hiding in plain sight if you will. This is just one area of a fairly large complex of observatories and other buildings, many of which are in disuse, but which may already be adorned with antennas and other electronics and have an unobstructed line-of-sight towards White Sands.<doc-sep>
The internet is speculating about aliens, FBI involvement and more. A mysterious solar observatory evacuation in remote New Mexico is sparking an array of conspiracy theories ranging from alien sightings to foreign spies. The Sunspot Solar Observatory was unexpectedly closed down and evacuated without publicly stated reason last Thursday -- and a week later, nobody seems to know why. While local law enforcement was requested at the scene in the town of Sunspot, they said they were left in the dark. Benny House of the Otero County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News that employees from the observatory called his team in around 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 6. He said the team stood by for a few hours while employees evacuated, but the security issue remained a secret. "They were tight-lipped about what was going on, no one would tell us what the threat was," House said, and confirmed the FBI had been there. A post office nearby was also evacuated. An official from the United States Postal Service told ABC affiliate KVIA in El Paso, Texas, that he did not know who ordered the postal workers to leave. The observatory is run by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, or AURA, which released a statement about the "security" incident. "AURA is addressing a security issue at the National Solar Observatory facility at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico and has decided to temporarily vacate the facility as a precautionary measure," Shari Lifson, AURA Corporate Communications Coordinator, said in a statement to ABC News. Lifson said AURA is working with authorities on the issue, but did not offer further information. Since last week’s evacuation, the Sunspot Observatory website has also posted a notice: "On Thursday September 6th, AURA made the decision to temporarily close Sunspot. The Sunspot Solar Observatory continues to work closely with AURA in order to allow for us to reopen as soon as possible. With the excitement this closure has generated, we hope you will come and visit us when we do reopen, and see for yourself the services we provide for science and public outreach in heliophysics." The lack of explanation left plenty of room for the internet to speculate and conspiracies to emerge. The Albuquerque FBI has not yet responded to ABC News' request for comment. Whether it be aliens, government secrets, foreign spies or none of the above, what is certain: The observatory remains shut down, with no word about when it will reopen.