Remember though, one of the scientists also identified another unknown element in the SS 431.
I have a hunch that, given a chance, it might fly away. It reminds me of those Foo-Fighters reported by both sides during the war. Maybe it's a broken Foo-Fighter. Remember they even kept it in a bag for a while so it wouldn't "run away".
The balls inside and the "halo" inside intrigue me. I have been trying to understand how this thing might get around. Picture a ball with two smaller balls inside. They would sit against each other, just below horizontal center; there would be a small gap between them if perfectly horizontal (this comes in later).
Now, picture what those two balls would have to do to make, say, take a left turn: The ball on the left would spin towards you as the one on the left would spin away (as if one rolled towards you and the other away). Remember, they are just below horizontal center, so they touch each other in one point, which is no friction at all really. Then, to go straight, they both roll the same direction.
Now, for anti-gravity, picture the balls spinning very fast around each other AT the horizontal center. The small space between them is now evident because they are now not touching. Maybe they even repel each other in some strange way. In numerous anti-gravity experiments, it rewuires a mass of mercury, spinning at very high speed. Could two spinning balls represent and do the same thing? Hmmm... "For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction". That would mean the outer shell would need to be sponning the opposite way. hmmm...
Now, don't ask me about what makes the two balls inside work - I don't know. I'm just tossing around goofy concepts. Also, not enough was said about the radio waves it was emitting.
OTOH, now days, they are coming up with some amazing ball-shaped robots, too. They even have one that transforms to a spider looking thing that can walk, then curl back into a ball and roll (it also transforms to other things). There is one robot ball that is being used for security. But those always have a way in; a seam; a door. Also, they didn't exist in 1974.
In the comments I noticed a news reporter saying their name was really "Betts", not "Betz".
*Hehe* Anyone ever seen the movie, "Solar Babies"? Remember the scene where they are trying to drill a hole in the orb called "Bodi"? That's what comes to mind when they were experimenting with it.
As for the comments saying it was some kind of balve ball or mill ball, I don't buy it. They said once it rolled around for 12 minutes.
OTOH, the best comment was, "Why isn't there any video of it?" [sic]. Damn good question. If it were (at first) exposed to any and every media news agency that wanted to look at it, wouldn't you think there would be LOTS of video footage of it? But, no, never a shred that I've seen. Yet, the story seems real enough to have gotten a lot of attention at one time, and leave a lot of smart people scratching their heads. hmmmm.....:huh: