A reddit user [1] found its location [2] and another figured out it was installed sometime during 2015-2016 based on when the satellite imagery changed.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/k01dc3/mysterious_metal_monolith_found_in_remote_utah/gdfoa9w/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/k01dc3/mysterious_m...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/2xdrTqcnguX3ky8AA" rel="nofollow">https://goo.gl/maps/2xdrTqcnguX3ky8AA</a>
This reminds me of other "land art" installations around the country. Presumably, these are done with the landowners permission:<p>The Lightning Field:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Field" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Field</a><p>Spiral Jetty:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Jetty" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Jetty</a><p>Negative Space:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Negative_(artwork)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Negative_(artwork)</a><p>Amarillo Ramp:<p><a href="https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/amarillo-ramp" rel="nofollow">https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/amarillo-ramp</a>
Apparently this guy was just there a few minutes ago: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/" rel="nofollow">https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/</a>
(deleting, because now my comment is getting pasted all over the Internet, and though it was not to my knowledge misleading, it didn't actually provide any useful information)
Kind of interesting. You can google map yourself to within a few 100 meters of the thing. I suspect the people who "found it" were really just pimping it? If there isn't already there will be trash around it soon. <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Green+River,+UT/38.3431111,-109.66625/@38.4876904,-110.3167187,233795m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x8748f0fbf934edc5:0xa55a1898435ef5ba!2m2!1d-110.1596352!2d38.9955607!1m0!3e0" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Green+River,+UT/38.3431111,-...</a>
Wow this is getting a lot of PR. I've seen this article on the on so many news sites now. It's funny, but front page news? Seems of all the random things that go on, this was picked as special for some reason. Just interesting how some things you wouldn't expect rise to the top.
Does anyone remember the monolith that showed up in Seattle in 2001? It moved around a bit, including to a swampy island in the middle of green lake.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Monolith" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Monolith</a>
I friggin love guerilla art. It always weirds me out how much effort is put into making the world un-artistic. Amazing murals being painted over, shrines being removed from nature, amazing homes made by off-skew people being demolished to put in bland main-stream housing.<p>At least this one lives on: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Ends_Park" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Ends_Park</a>
> "It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," the department said.<p>Is that really true though? Does earth rules apply to life from other planets? And what if the extraterrestrial life are magnitudes of order stronger and technologically advanced than us? I mean we could demand it but in effect it would be nothing but words. The only reason that laws work is because of the threat of what happens if you don’t obey. If we are not in a position to threaten the extra terrestrials then we are also not in a position to dictate rules for them to follow.
No mysterious origin, but the "Tree of Utah" in the middle of the Utah salt flats, next to the highway...is similarly out of place and unexpected. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor:_The_Tree_of_Utah" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor:_The_Tree_of_Utah</a>
I love the fact that it has been added to OpenStreetMap[1] 6 hours ago!<p>[1] <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/8162265901" rel="nofollow">https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/8162265901</a>
>
"It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," the department said.
It’s possibly a Quantum Tunneling Device for interstellar travel.<p>An old advanced alien civilization created thousands of these QTD, and sent them all over the galaxy, to land on rocky habitable planets, waiting to be discovered one day.<p>In essence, these devices are synchronized with a quantum clock, for instantaneous bidirectional quantum communication across vast interstellar distances.<p>It uses the essence of quantum entanglement, whereby every nanosecond, a quantum bit is revealed, and its complement device is triggered. Thus allowing for massive instantaneous communication across vast interstellar distances.<p>Furthermore, by standing in front of the QTD device, and eliciting an audible command, the device will scan the subject in front of it, and allow himself to be dematerialized and transported to any other node in the interstellar QTD network. Some may call this a Stargate.<p>Or it was planted there by some hippy high on shrooms.
It doesn’t look like a monolith. More like three panels of metal screwed together by whoever land artist brought the thing there. (you can see the screws in the video)
It reminds me of Stonehenge. I understand that some people may consider this could set a bad precedent but if its not harming the ecosystem in any way why shouldnt it be allowed to stay up? To me this would be like erasing the paintings we made 5000 years ago.
If it were alien, it would be made of a quasi crystal (a crystal in a higher dimension projected into 3D).<p>Humans have no way of making bulk quasicrystals.
>Wildlife officials spotted the "unusual" object <i>while counting sheep during a flyover in a remote south-eastern area of the US state.</i><p>"So what is it you do for a living?"
Personally, I wonder if there's anything interesting or interactive on the top.<p>eg: Buttons? display? big red button? wifi password? :><p>None of the photos or video seems to have looked there yet. ;)
The Utah desert has been used by performance artists before, remember the giant pen a few years back: <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/09/14/german-artists-built-a-gigantic-pen-and-are-dragging-it-through-the-utah-desert-because-art/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/09/14/german-artists-built-...</a><p>But I am hoping its alien tech ... I think we will find out soon
First impression to me was that it is some sort of modern kinetic projectile[0] from aircraft weapons' testing. I've read US army used something of that shape in recent conflicts, but probably of smaller size.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Dog_(bomb)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Dog_(bomb)</a>
That first picture looks so much like a colorized shot from an original Twilight Zone episode. The flight suits (military surplus, and sort of timeless), the (foam and plaster?) rocky background, the big mysterious artifact (that happens to be really cheap and easy for a prop department to source), and no other items lying around to easily date the picture...
Festivus [1] for the rest of us! We find tinsel distracting.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX55AzGku5Y" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX55AzGku5Y</a>
Once the signals reached them, the aliens finally watched 2001 Space Odyssey and they thought cool, let's actually put something on that little blue planet.
I am so disconnected. In the title I read metal (the music genre) monolith (the software architecture) found by helicopter and sensed something isn't right here.
Is it remotely possible that they put it themselves as media stunt for Utah tourism promotion?<p>And as it all over world's media I guess they have succeeded.
Great, this is what was missing from 2020 :-)
What's next... asteroid, aliens, mega solar flare, singularity.
SPOILER: This metallic monolith (most probably guerilla art) has been out there in the desert since 2015-2016.
Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist, and of course we don't know anything for certain, but is it even remotely possible that this could be a prototype of the Xbox Series X?
A friend suggested that they'll find the name Acme on it and when it's removed there'll be a very flat coyote under it. (American cartoon reference.)
"We could just leave the Utah monolith alone and mind our business.<p>And not summon an alien or demon or whatever during the one of the worst years in our lifetimes."<p>This was the best part of the article.
This is clearly a reference to this movie.
<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)</a><p>What's really fascinating is how such projects are funded. The cost estimates are probably wrong but why?