The remains of Los Alamos National Laboratory employee Melissa Casias have been discovered in the McGaffey Ridge area of the Carson National Forest in New Mexico.
A hiker in the area first encountered the remains, and contacted authorities on May 28. The Medical Investigator’s office have confirmed the remains belonged to Casias.
Casias worked as an administrative assistant at Los Alamos. When she failed to arrive at work or return home after visiting her daughter she was reported as missing on June 26, 2025.
Due to nearly a dozen such disappearances among advanced scientific research personnel in recent years, the U.S. Congress House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has launched an investigation.
“House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) today are seeking information from the Department of Energy, Department of War, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) about the scientists and other personnel connected to U.S. nuclear secrets or rocket technology who have died or mysteriously vanished in recent years,” Congress said April 20.
The FBI launched its own investigation into the matter.
“The FBI is looking for any connections among the recent deaths and disappearances of at least 10 scientists who had ties to government science projects or other sensitive information,” Scientific American said April 21. “The announcement comes after the cases were highlighted by President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers; growing online speculation hinted at a link between the incidents, although there is no known evidence of any connections among the individual researchers other than the nature of their respective jobs and the fact that none of the incidents occurred before 2022.”
In a trend that is becoming all too common, Casias’s purse, identification, and cell phones were left behind.
“The disappearance was among almost a dozen cases in which individuals with ties to advanced research have died or vanished under puzzling circumstances in recent years, prompting a congressional probe,” RT said.
While questions swirl around the disappearances, it should be noted that breakthroughs in energy generation (such as low energy nuclear reactions) may threaten the current geopolitical system, built upon the petrodollar-based hydrocarbon energy trade. This may be one of the more likely causes of the disappearances, although that is just a theory.
Discussion over interstellar extraterrestrials has become a hot topic in recent years. However, advanced biological races physically traversing the distances between star systems is a very unlikely scenario. This is not due to technological limitations, but physical limitations that technology cannot overcome.
The Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light-years across, meaning light from one side of our galaxy takes 100,000 earth years to reach the other side of our galaxy, with the average distance between stars being about 5 light-years.
Physicist Leonard Susskind detailed how the energy required to achieve interstellar travel from even the most energy-dense source, antimatter/matter collisions, would still be untenably large. Antimatter/matter collisions have a theoretical 100% efficiency of converting matter into energy, meaning no other energy source could result in a larger energy release. Antimatter/matter collision is a best case scenario.
The calculations Susskind described would require hundreds of tons of antimatter (and matter) for propelling just one ton of cargo between stars at a high percentage of the speed of light. This is due to not just needing to accelerate the craft, but also accelerate the fuel needed to decelerate once at the destination. Additionally, even more fuel would be required for a return journey (acceleration and deceleration) which must also be calculated into the total takeoff payload and fuel requirements. With a payload only about the size of an automobile, the hundreds of tons of antimatter and matter is a best case scenario.
Due to objects with mass being barred from traveling at or above light speed (the speed of light has to do with the speed of causation in the fabric of spacetime), the times involved in interstellar travel would likely be measured in the thousands or tens of thousands of years. However, that time calculation is for an object at rest, as time dilation would shorten the trip for the travelers. Despite this, the travelers will arrive at a destination far into the future of when they set out, and even longer into the future then when they first saw it through a telescope due to that light taking many years to arrive. Even worse, they will arrive back to their home planet many years, decades, or centuries after they had first set out on the journey. They would be completely disconnected with their home world, as medieval peoples would be arriving in the 21st century. This is a best case scenario.
Even for a short interstellar journey, one that takes a decade in either direction at 50% the speed of light, other challenges arise. Interstellar space is not empty. On average the density of hydrogen atoms in interstellar space is roughly 1 atom per cubic centimeter, and as Susskind explained, there can also be a dust particle every cubic kilometer or so. Hitting these particles at a high percentage of the speed of light creates a massive kinetic energy release on the leading edge of a craft, akin to continuous large explosive events. These are not theoretical guesses, the energy released from the micro collisions are easily calculated. This is a best case scenario.
There is also the phenomenon of rocks and ice floating in interstellar space, where even a golfball size object would rip through a fast traveling craft due to the energy involved in the collision. While exceedingly far apart, as the years and decades of travel increase, so too does the risk of encountering a small object. This is a best case scenario.
Cosmic radiation is also greatly amplified at high speed, as you pass through more of it in a given time, similar to rain on a windshield while driving verses being at a stop. While shielding can be employed, it is only so effective while also adding to the total weight of the payload, adversely affecting fuel requirements. This is a best case scenario.
It should be noted that while wormholes are mathematically permitted under the theory of general relativity, their creation and management would likely necessitate exotic forms of matter with negative energy densities and energy requirements on the scale of entire stars, Susskind said.
The issues of interstellar travel are not solely technological ones which enough research, funding, and development time can overcome. They are physical ones. Problems that exist purely because of the scale and nature of the universe.
It is perhaps more likely that an extraterrestrial visitor would be an inter-dimensional spiritual entity, such as an angel or demon, rather than little green men from an advanced society on another “nearby” planet.
