Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" continues to generate headlines 52 years after it first opened in theaters. The science-fiction epic is back in the news after crew members from the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources discovered a silver monolith out in the Utah desert. The solid object stood about 10 to 12 feet high. The monolith's exact location was not given as to prevent people from traveling out into the desert.
Helicopter pilot Bret Hutchings told Salt Lake City broadcaster KSL-TV the monolith appeared planted by an anonymous person, with wildlife crew guessing the slab was constructed by an artist or fan of Kubrick's science-fiction landmark. Hutchings quipped, "We were joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, I guess the rest of us make a run for it…That's been about the strangest thing that I've come across out there in all my years of flying."
The monolith was first discovered Wednesday, November 18 as Hutchings and his crew were flying over the desert counting bighorn sheep. The wildlife crew noticed the monolith sticking up out of a rock and landed the helicopter to investigate.
"One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it," Hutchings told KSL-TV. "He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'What.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there — we've got to go look at it!' We were thinking, is this something NASA stuck up there or something? Are they bouncing satellites off it?"
The monolith appears in "2001: A Space Odyssey" at pivotal moments in history to provide a higher consciousness to whomever comes across its path. When the apes discover the monolith during the first chapter of "2001," it's implied the mysterious slab teaches the animal species to use bones as weapons. Later in the film, humanity's discovery of the monolith leads to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
Watch KSL-TV's report on the Utah monolith in the video below.
Is it aliens? Wildlife officials discover mysterious 12-foot-tall metal monolith standing in the middle of a Utah desert that resembles the machines in Space Odyssey
State workers in a helicopter noticed the shiny marker while flying overhead
About 10 to 12 feet tall, it's planted in the ground and not dropped from above
There are no identifying markings and no one has claimed responsibility
Utah has a history of 'land art' placed in the desert far from population centers
By DAN AVERY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:41 BST, 23 November 2020 | UPDATED: 18:34 BST, 24 November 2020
Government workers had a close encounter of the strange kind out in the Utah desert.
A crew with the state wildlife resources department was aboard a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter when they spotted a mysterious monolith sticking out of the dirt last week.
About 10 to 12 feet tall, the shiny metal object was firmly planted in the ground, suggesting it wasn't just dropped from above.
Officials suggest it could be have been constructed by an artist or a huge fan of 2001: Space Odyssey - the structure resembles the machines found in Arthur C. Clarke's story.
The unlabeled object is located inside a red rock cove but, fearful amateurs could endanger themselves trying to get a closer look, the workers have withheld details about its exact location.
Scroll down for video
Worker with Utah's wildlife resources department spotted a shiny metal monolith in the desert. The object is between 10 and 12 feet tall and is firmly planted in the ground
Mysterious monolith was found in Utah desert
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The team was in the remote area to count bighorn sheep when they spotted the unidentified object.
'One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it,' pilot Bret Hutchings told KSL-TV. 'He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'what.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there – we've got to go look at it!'
After the copter circled back and landed, the crew went into the cove to investigate.
'We were thinking, Is this something NASA stuck up there or something? Are they bouncing satellites off it?' Hutchings said.
The @UtahDPS helicopter was assisting the @UtahDWR in counting bighorn sheep in remote southern Utah Wednesday when the crew encountered something entirely 'out of this world'...@KSL5TV#KSLTV#Utah
Officials suggest it could be have been constructed by an artist or a huge fan of 2001: Space Odyssey - the structure resembles the machines found in Arthur C. Clarke's story (pictured)
The team was in the remote area to count bighorn sheep when they spotted the unidentified object
'We were thinking, Is this something NASA stuck up there or something? Are they bouncing satellites off it?' said Department of Public Safety pilot Bret Hutchings
State workers climb the monolith to give a sense of its size. A biologist with the wildlife resources office spotted the object from the sky, prompting the crew to land and investigate
'We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it.'
All jokes aside, Hutchings believes the structure is probably some kind of artwork.
'I'm assuming it's some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big [2001: A Space Odyssey] fan,' he said.
Department of Public Safety pilot Bret Hutchings told KSL-TV the unmarked object 'is about the strangest thing that I've come across out there in all my years of flying,'
The monolith is located inside a red rock cove but workers have withheld details about its exact location to prevent others from endangering themselves trying to get a closer look
Utah has a history of 'land art,' unusual installations that cropped up far from population centers in the 1960s and '70s.
The most famous, Spiral Jetty, a 1,500-foot-long coil by artist Robert Smithson in 1970 that's composed entirely of mud, salt crystals and basalt.
Located on the northeastern edge of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point, the jetty appears and disappears depending on water levels.
Utah has a history of 'land art,' unusual installations far from population centers. Located on the northeastern edge of the Great Salt Lake, artist Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is made of mud, salt and basalt rock
So far, no one has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the monolith, though.
'That's been about the strangest thing that I've come across out there in all my years of flying,' Hutchings said.
The workers took video and photos of the object, but left in place.
So far, it hasn't disturbed the bighorn sheep that live in the southern half of Utah.
Their population was once down to under a thousand in the 1970s, but conservation efforts have seen them make a big comeback in recent decades.
The crew was in the remote area to count bighorn sheep, which live in the southern half of Utah
The sheep are less wary of people in early December, which is their mating season.
'Because they're focused on courtship and breeding, they'll allow vehicles to get closer to them than they normally would,' Brent Stettler of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources told My National Parks Trip Media.
First, the summer of 2001 was, like in 2003, marked by a Martian close encounter. It was during June, instead of August, that the Mars 'flyby' took place. Not as spectacular as that of 2003, but the Red Planet was a prominent light in the night sky. On June 13-14 (2001), Mars was at 'opposition' (i.e. 180 degrees away from the Sun) and it made its closest approach to Earth several days later on June 21.
Mars Opposition (June 2001)
On the same day, June 21, there was a total solar eclipse - as if to commemorate the Martian visit. In fact, June 21 was even the day of summer solstice (midsummer)!
So, while not as historic, the 2001 Mars opposition closely preceding the events of 9/11 was spectacular - or in hindsight 'ominous' - in its own way.
It still 'missed' 9/11 by about 3 months... Actually, it did not miss. It hit the bull's-eye perfectly - in a coded form:
September 11 Gregorian corresponds to 'Thoth 1' (New Year's Day) of the Egyptian calendar which was originally marked by the heliacal/dawn rising of Sirius. In the early phase of the ancient Egyptian civilization the Sirius rising (accompanied by the annual Nile flood) coincided with the summer solstice. It was a 'magical' day that the Egyptians naturally used to anchor their calendar. So by highlighting June 21 (i.e. Gregorian summer solstice), the special Mars opposition event in 2001 conceptually pinpointed September 11, the historical/Egyptian summer-solstice date!
On 9/11, there was another remarkable combination of summer solstice, Mars, and the Moon (i.e. all the key players of the June 21 alignment except the Sun). As the earthshaking events of 9/11 were unfolding on the planet, up in the heavens was observed the following configuration: 1) the Moon was at the summer-solstice point (i.e. where the Sun would be on the midsummer day); 2) Mars was positioned exactly 180 degrees away from the Moon on the opposite side of the sky, closely marking the winter-solstice point; and 3) consequently there was a tight Mars-Earth-Moon alignment bridging the two solstice points!
As the above illustrations show, the solstice points today are neatly indicated by the intersections of the apparent path of the Sun ('ecliptic', green line) and the Milky Way ('galactic equator', blue band). This arrangement is coincidental/temporary and is thus astronomically quite special. Some view these points as something akin to 'stargates'.
Now, the prophetic quality of all this dramatically increases as we progress forward (from 9/11/01). Mars opposition occurs approximately every 26 months, so the Sun-Earth-Mars alignment would be established again in the summer of 2003 - specifically on Aug. 28. As already discussed, it seemed to have 'anticipated' the 'Martian' event of Schwarzenegger entering politics on August 6. The same type of code was used here since Aug. 6 is or represents the actual day on which Sirius' heliacal rising occurs in our epoch. Through Sirius, June 21, Sept. 11, and Aug. 6 are but different expressions of the same archetypal date!
This calendrical link is reinforced by one of Schwarzenegger's nicknames being 'The Oak'. In pagan tradition, the 'Oak King' is associated with midsummer which is also reflected in the fact that the Christian version of the Oak King, John the Baptist, has his feast day on June 24, intended to mark the summer solstice (~June 21).
Similarly, Jesus Christ's birthday is celebrated on Christmas in mid-December to mark the winter solstice. The summer and winter solstices represent two opposite calendrical/spatial points. This makes John the Baptist (Oak King) the anti-Jesus, or 'anti-Christ'. Hence Schwarzenegger 'The Oak', whose political rise on Aug. 6 was marked by the Sirius rising associated with midsummer, would also share the ominous epithet. And why not, he's already the 'Terminator'... after all.
An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Sunday, June 21, 2020,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] with a magnitude of 0.994. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 6.2 days after apogee (on June 15, 2020, at 1:55 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[8]
The effect of the solar eclipse (Moon shadow) on Terra satellite image In this photo, the shadow of the Moon has fallen over Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. date: 2020-06-21
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"2001: A Space Odyssey" 
