PLATE 00 · The Anomaly Field Guide · Vol. I
JWST Cycle 5: The Next Shot at K2-18b's Alleged Biosignature
JWST Cycle 5 begins observations around July 2026, and among its targets: K2-18b, the sub-Neptune 124 light-years away where a 2023 Cambridge-led team claimed to detect dimethyl sulfide — a molecule produced by marine life on Earth. A 2025 NASA-led reanalysis (Welbanks et al., arXiv:2508.05961) found the evidence does not meet the scientific standard of detection. Cycle 5 data could settle it — or complicate it further. This is the scientific method running in public, in real time.
TodayWednesday, August 12the band's gone quiet for nowToday's puzzleLatest filed: JWST Cycle 5: The Next Shot at K2-18b's Alleged Biosignature
Nº 00 · CONTENTS · Eleven kinds of unexplained.
Contents of the Guide.
Nº 01
UAP
701 cases the U.S. Air Force could not explain.
13 specimens · → catalog
Nº 02
ANCIENT MYSTERIES
Built 11,500 years ago. Buried by the builders. Why?
7 specimens · → catalog
Nº 03
CRYPTIDS
Washington State has never declassified Bigfoot.
5 specimens · → catalog
Nº 04
PARANORMAL
The Enfield case file is roughly a thousand pages.
4 specimens · → catalog
Nº 05
UNEXPLAINED HISTORY
Nine hikers cut their tent from inside. Then died in the snow.
6 specimens · → catalog
Nº 06
WEIRD WEATHER
The Hessdalen lights have shown up on schedule for 40 years.
3 specimens · → catalog
Nº 07
SPACE ANOMALIES
It left the solar system faster than gravity says it should.
3 specimens · → catalog
Nº 08
COLD CASES
Found with the table set and the lifeboat gone.
2 specimens · → catalog
Nº 09
EARTH ANOMALIES
The Bermuda Triangle's loss rate is statistically ordinary.
2 specimens · → catalog
Nº 10
ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS
Betelgeuse lost 40% of its brightness. A weather satellite caught it.
1 specimen · → catalog
Nº 11
FRONTIER SCIENCE
Fusion ignition happened in 2022. Grid-scale energy: median bet, 2046.
2 specimens · → catalog
Project Blue Book closed in 1969 with 701 officially unexplained cases. The Air Force has not reopened any of them. PURSUE's first 162 files didn't either. Release 02 landed May 22 — and it didn't close the record so much as lengthen it: green fireballs over New Mexico, 1949; glowing orbs splitting apart over a military range, late 2025. Seventy-six years, the same report filed twice. Nobody has explained either one.
Recent cases.
- Nº 0048Class IIOpen
JWST Cycle 5: The Next Shot at K2-18b's Alleged Biosignature
JWST Cycle 5 begins observations around July 2026, and among its targets: K2-18b, the sub-Neptune 124 light-years away where a 2023 Cambridge-led team claimed to detect dimethyl sulfide — a molecule produced by marine life on Earth. A 2025 NASA-led reanalysis (Welbanks et al., arXiv:2508.05961) found the evidence does not meet the scientific standard of detection. Cycle 5 data could settle it — or complicate it further. This is the scientific method running in public, in real time.
Frontier Science2026-07-013 SOURCES - Nº 0047Class IIUnconfirmed
Hurricane Season Opens: NOAA's Below-Normal 2026 Outlook
The Atlantic hurricane season opened June 1 with NOAA putting below-normal activity at 55%, near-normal at 35%, and above-normal at 10%. The useful tension is inside the forecast: El Niño should suppress activity, warmer Atlantic water and weaker trade winds push the other way, and none of it predicts who gets hit.
Weird Weather2026-06-013 SOURCES - Nº 0046Class IIUnconfirmed
3I/ATLAS at Jupiter: What the Third Interstellar Visitor Left Behind
On March 16, 2026, 3I/ATLAS — the third interstellar object ever confirmed — swept through Jupiter's Hill sphere at 53.4 million km, the closest any interstellar object has come to a major planet on record. Discovered by ATLAS in July 2025, its eccentricity of 6.14 dwarfs Oumuamua (1.2) and Borisov (3.36). Breakthrough Listen's 1–12 GHz scan returned a clean null. Here's what the flyby actually showed.
Space Anomalies2026-03-164 SOURCES
A field guide to the unexplained. Daily.
Source-cited cases. One puzzle a day. No breathless takes, no debunky condescension. Launches August 20 — we'll email you when the doors open.
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