Alien Probe, Sentient Machine, Nuclear Weapon, or Junk? What is the Betz Mystery Sphere?

[Music]. in the spring of 1974 a large brush fire. swept across the property owned by. Antoine and Jerry Betts while assessing. the damage they noticed something very. out of place lying in the smoldering. grass was a highly polished metal sphere. this became known as the BET sphere or. the bets orb Antoine and Jerry's 21 year. old son Terry Betts went to pick up the. spear although it was only eight inches. in diameter it was extremely heavy then. the Betts family did something with the.

sphere that would change their lives. forever something that the family would. come to regret they brought it home. foreign. [Music]. family's property was on Fort George. Island just outside of Jacksonville. Florida and this wasn't the. stereotypical Florida family in the. woods the BET's property was 88 acres of. land mostly used for raising trees for. Timber Antoine betz was a marine. engineer his wife Jerry was an artist. and they had six children the vet's home.

was essentially a mansion that the. family nicknamed The Castle the betses. were educated and well to do they were. not fortune and fame Seekers the BET's. fear was just under 8 inches in diameter. and weighed about 21 pounds so slightly. smaller than a bowling ball but much. heavier the sphere had no seams no weld. marks no signs of Machining it had a few. scuffs and scratches but no other dents. or damage it did have a three millimeter. triangle that was etched or stamped into. it the sphere didn't seem dangerous so.

Terry brought it home and set it on his. windowsill with some other Collectibles. and nobody really thought much about it. but a few weeks later that would change. Terry and her friend were were in his. room playing guitar when they noticed a. humming sound coming from somewhere they. stopped playing listen for the hum and. it faded away after a minute they. Shrugged and went back to playing the. humming returned Terry walked around his. room strumming the guitar he soon. realized the sphere would vibrate along. with the notes he played he played a.

little louder the sphere vibrated more. powerfully and then started buzzing at. this point the family dog started. whining as if disturbed by the sound. Terry decided to try a couple of. experiments he gently tapped the spear. with a hammer and it responded with a. ringing sound the way this fear reacted. to sound fascinated Terry so he grabbed. it took it out to the living room to. show his family everyone gathered around. then Terry set the ball down and went to. grab his hammer and his guitar though. nobody was touching the sphere or even.

near it it started to move on its own. foreign. just an interesting souvenir found in. the woods it had extraordinary. properties it responded to sound to. touch and now had the power of a. Locomotion when the BET sphere was. rolled across the ground it would roll. away stop vibrate and then change. directions it would then stop vibrate. change directions again and come back to. the person who rolled it sometimes it.

rolled for just a few seconds but. sometimes for up to five minutes once it. rolled for 12 minutes on its own before. it finally came to a stop at first the. betses thought it could be a gyroscope. which would account for the movement. gyroscopes don't chase people scare. portals or play guitar no but I respect. them for being skeptical so they put the. sphere on this coffee table that had a. glass top they pushed it it would not. fall off it would roll around the edge. of the table then to the middle and just.

stop it had to be freaking out by now. right they were but what happened next. is bananas they lifted one end of the. table to get it to roll onto the floor. it didn't it rolled up the incline as if. trying to save itself from falling. it seemed to be Jerry picked up the. sphere and started shaking it it didn't. like this in a newspaper report Jerry's. quoted as saying if you shake the ball. vigorously and then place it on the. ground it feels just like a huge Mexican. jumping beam which is trying to get away.

from you the bets has figured out that. the sphere had a magnetic field a paper. clip would stick to it but could be. removed easily but if the sphere spent a. lot of time rolling the magnetic field. got stronger after rolling around for a. few minutes the lid from a mayonnaise. jar stuck to it and they couldn't pry it. off they thought maybe it could be solar. powered the Spheres seemed to be more. active when exposed to sunlight when set. in the sun they could feel a gentle. vibration and hear a low hum as if there.

was a motor inside when they brought the. sphere back inside it stayed warm for. three entire days after a few days of. this a family friend reached out to the. Jacksonville Journal who reluctantly. sent a photographer that photographer. arrived a skeptic but he left a believer. Lon anger was a long time photographer. for the Jacksonville Journal he'd seen. it all when he arrived at the BET's home. he admitted this to Jerry I'm weary of.

this kind of thing when I got there Mrs. betz said you won't believe this if you. don't see it they told me to put the orb. on the floor and give it a push it. rolled aways and stopped so what just. wait a minute then it turned by itself. then rolled about four feet it stopped. then it turned again and rolled to the. left about eight feet made a big Arc and. came right back to my feet the. photographer was convinced the paper ran. the story and the BET sphere became an. overnight sensation journalists from all. over the world were calling for.

interviews now in the 70s there was no. call waiting you either got through or. you didn't and after the story went out. it was almost impossible for calls to. get through we came to Fort George. Island to get away to a Serene. atmosphere now he can't get away from. the telephone it means nothing to people. in the west that it's midnight here and. when they quit calling those in the. Eastway up and start the betses were not. that interested in giving interviews but. they did want to help identifying the. sphere finally A call came through that. would be difficult for the bets family. to ignore.

again that's the first thing. named uncle and the last name rhyme with. Sam yep the United States military. wanted to have a look of course they did. still Jerry said no this annoyed the. government anybody. 's okay in my book mine too but the US. government wouldn't take no for an. answer. [Music]. with all the media coverage surrounding. the sphere the military wanted to have a. look Jerry was reluctant to let them. have it but there was concern that the.

sphere could be unexploded ordinance so. Jerry agreed to loan it to the Navy for. two weeks but if it was determined that. it wasn't military property she wanted. it returned she even made the Navy sign. a contract I told them we expect a. comprehensive report in two weeks and if. it can't be identified as government. property it is to be returned to US Navy. scientists performed a number of tests. they measured it at exactly 7.96 inches. in diameter and it weighed 21.34 pounds.

the shell was made of some kind of. magnetic stainless steel alloy it could. withstand extreme heat and extreme. pressure of a hundred and twenty. thousand pounds per square inch this. thing was tough according to the. spectrograph it was made of stainless. steel grade 431 the Navy also found that. the sphere was intensely magnetic it had. four magnetic poles two positive and two. negative the magnetic fields varied in. strength and were in an unusual pattern. the next test was X-rays and that's.

where they ran into a little snag our. first x-ray attempts got us nowhere. we're going to use a more powerful. machine on it and also run spectrograph. tests to determine what metal it's made. of there's certainly something odd about. it the X-rays showed nothing so at the. end of the two weeks the Navy confirmed. that it wasn't government property and. wasn't dangerous so it was returned to. the BET's family but something strange. happened next a Navy serviceman came to. the BET's house to return the object he. was also carrying a manila envelope and.

even though the Navy said they were. unable to x-ray the sphere that envelope. contained x-rays the images showed the. entire internal structure of the sphere. the images also showed there was. something inside. foreign. the results of the x-rays were. surprising the sphere had an outer shell. that was about half an inch thick inside. the sphere were different layers of. Steel of different densities at the core. of the sphere about the size of an apple.

was a hollow space and in that space. were three other smaller spheres and. each of them had tiny wires attached one. mystery was what are these other objects. inside the sphere but an even bigger. mystery how did they get in there. typically you'd get objects into a. sphere by either cutting it in half then. sealing it or drilling out a hole and. placing the objects in that way but. there was no hole and no seam even Navy. scientists couldn't figure it out the. Navy wanted to drill into it but Jerry. said no way now during all this.

excitement friends and neighbors and. people in the media were suggesting that. the sphere could be extraterrestrial. because it responded to sound had a. magnetic field and was almost. indestructible some people speculated it. was an alien listening device the betses. didn't give much Credence to these. theories until the Navy came back with. nothing if no other explanation can be. found that's as logical as any who could. say what's on another planet even. speculations have been proven wrong the. Navy says what it isn't they say it.

isn't an explosive so we still want to. know what it is so the bets has reached. out to scientists for answers what the. scientists found created even more. questions. [Music]. the first scientists to examine the. sphere was Dr Carl Williston of the. Omega minus one Institute he spent six. hours running tests and one of his. strangest discoveries was that the. sphere was emitting radio waves he also. confirmed the Navy's findings of four. poles but like the Navy he couldn't.

explain the pattern of the magnetic. fields it defied the laws of physics he. also witnessed the sphere moving on its. own across any surface Dr Williston. confirmed the exterior was made of. stainless steel grade 431 but he also. found traces of an extremely heavy but. unknown element and a side note about Dr. Williston there isn't any evidence that. anyone by that name ever existed and the. Omega minus one Institute is also a bit. of a mystery some have speculated that.

he was a foreign operative Gathering. Intelligence on the object the next. scientist the bets brought in was Dr. James Harder he was an engineering. professor and became a trusted advisor. to the family Dr harder confirmed Dr. williston's findings and said the. internal spheres were made of a material. with an atomic number of 140 an atomic. number is the number of protons an. element has the highest atomic number. that occurs in nature is 92 uranium it. is possible to artificially increase the. number of protons but the highest.

scientists have been able to achieve is. 118 protons so the element found in the. sphere does not occur on Earth this led. Dr harder to wonder if the sphere could. be a damaged Alien Probe or anti-gravity. device the next scientist was Dr J Allen. heineck he was a well-known astronomer. and Professor but Dr heideck was best. known for being a UFO advisor to the U.S. Air Force under three separate projects. including Project Blue Book which. investigated UFOs from 1952 to 1969. and.

probably longer and probably longer and. probably still and probably still Dr. heineck also confirmed the findings of. the other scientists and during this. time of chaotic activity something. happened that made the bets family very. nervous a group of scientists flew into. Jacksonville arrived at the BET's home. and offered Jerry 750 000 cash for the. sphere that would be worth almost four. million dollars today well nil because. of inflation eh yep and next year.

that'll be six million because of. inflation I really hope you're wrong. about that I am not anyway there was. something about these guys that rubbed. Jerry the wrong way when they asked to. see the sphere she said it wasn't there. and turned down their cash offer this. really annoyed the men and after they. left the family checked their backstory. turns out it was all a lie the family. suspected this was probably a foreign. government trying to acquire the sphere. and that's when the bets family realized. they were in danger.

in the 1970s The National Enquirer. offered a cash award to anyone who could. prove that there is life on other. planets even though the Inquirer was a. bit of a rag the UFO panel they. assembled contained a lot of. well-respected people heineck and harder. were on the panel but there were also. multiple PhD holders a former Supreme. Court Justice and a former United States. Attorney General the bets family decided. to send Terry and the sphere to this. Gathering they didn't necessarily think.

the object was from outer space but they. figured with all these experts in one. place they could finally get some. answers after spending some time with. the sphere Dr heineck felt it was. man-made though everyone witnessed the. sphere roll up a piece of Plexiglas from. a dead stop nobody could explain that. when the idea of drilling came back up. Dr harder warned that if the sphere. contained material with an atomic number. as high as 140 drilling into it could. cause it to go critical. what do you mean critical at that time.

the only way to create elements with an. atomic number higher than 92 was with a. nuclear reactor the protons within the. sphere are much higher than anything. ever discovered or created so drilling. into it okay make it go boom right but. the story takes another turn while at. the inquirer's office Terry got a call. that said his mother had an accident. Terry tried to call her but couldn't get. through so he flew back immediately with. the ball I hope nope he left it behind.

when Terry got home Jerry was fine. someone was trying to separate Terry. from the sphere Jerry told her son to go. back to the Inquirer immediately and get. it so he did at first The Inquirer. didn't cooperate they gave him a story. and seemed to be stalling so Terry. demanded it be returned they finally. admitted that they couldn't return it it. was gone. eventually the people at The Enquirer. admitted that the UFO panel had taken.

the sphere to New Orleans to run further. tests so Terry drives down there and. when he arrives the sphere is being. guarded by the Navy they tell Terry that. while the sphere is being tested he's. not allowed to go near it his property I. know that's a bunch of bulls it is the. test didn't reveal anything new so after. a lot of arguing Terry was finally able. to get the sphere back as Terry is. leaving the facility a few reporters ask. if he can make this fear do something. Terry says sure every time you set it. down it rolls all over the place in fact.

the bets has kept the sphere in a. bowling bag at home because it wouldn't. stay still so Terry sets the sphere down. and nothing it's not vibrating it's not. humming it's not moving it's not doing. anything so Terry leaves a little later. Terry gets a hold of his sister who. tells him that there are people not. reporters waiting for him at the airport. so Terry just drives home once back in. Florida the family has the sphere. examined and x-rayed again it no longer. had four magnetic poles and the X-rays.

showed that the sphere now had a seam. which wasn't there before hey someone. pulled the old Switcheroo yep that's. what they believe and the interior. doesn't have three small spheres anymore. just dust and Dr harder warned the BET's. family to be careful harder didn't trust. Dr heineck and thought maybe heineck had. something to do with the sphere being. replaced and I want to mention that. years later after Dr heineck passed away. his son Paul mentioned that the family. had a silver sphere all they knew about.

it was that their father said it had. something to do with a UFO case in. Florida it was stolen by Dr Heine heinek. what did there's no proof that he stole. it but it's quite a coincidence that. after heinek was left alone with the. sphere suddenly it stopped working then. a different sphere also from Florida. shows up at Dr heineck's House so all. this became too much for the Betts. family they were constantly being. hounded by the press and followed by. what they thought were government agents. once Jerry was even physically assaulted.

by someone who pretended to be a. repairman so the BET's family quickly. and quietly faded back into society they. sold their house and left the island. they gave no more interviews they wrote. no books no movies they they wanted. nothing more to do with the sphere Now. Jerry is still around and has a Blog. where she showcases her artwork and. tells the story of her life nowhere does. she mention anything about the BET. sphere so the BET's family never got the. answer that they wanted the answer we. all want what is the BET sphere.

there are a few theories about the. betsphere one is that it's a down. satellite or piece of space junk it's a. plausible Theory but if the sphere was a. piece of technology it would probably. have a seam and connectors but it has. none of these another theory is that. it's a foo fighter hello I've waited. here for you ever. [Music].

yo what Foo Fighters I know the song but. may I yeah go ahead with the story about. your alien balls during World War II. Allied aircraft encountered UFOs that. followed them and were able to move at. incredible speeds the pilots gave the. UFOs the nickname Foo Fighters poo is.

just a fun meaningless word another. theory is that it's an alien Atomic. weapon people who believe this Theory. think that this was one of the weapons. that was used to destroy Atlantis and. there could be clues that ancient. nuclear weapons did exist in the world's. oldest epic the Mahabharata a line. mentions a terrifying weapon a single. projectile charged with all the power of. the universe an incandescent column of. smoke and Flame is bright as 10 000 Suns. Rose in all its Splendor a more mundane. explanation is that the BET sphere was.

just a piece of industrial equipment an. artist named James Durling Jones said he. lost the sphere a few years earlier he. had been collecting scrap metal for use. in sculptures darling Jones said it was. a ball check valve used as a flow. regulator in large pipes he said it fell. from the rack on top of his Volkswagen. bus this is the most widely accepted. Theory you trust this dirty hippie be. nice sorry you trust this dirty artist. well a couple of problems with it being. from a valve there's only one Factory on.

the island a paper mill though they do. use balls like this in valves they only. weigh about seven or eight pounds the. BET sphere weighs 21 pounds and remember. the sphere was found in the woods it was. about a mile away from the nearest Road. sure the sphere could move on its own. but a mile seems like a long way for it. to roll now some claim this fear didn't. roll on its own at all the bets's home. had uneven tile floors and the sphere. which was perfectly balanced was just. rolling around on the tile now that.

doesn't explain why it would come back. to the same person who rolled it now to. be fair when the Navy was testing it. they never saw it roll on its own but. plenty of other people did Robert. Edwards president of a local Supply. Company showed her reporter a brand new. stainless steel ball manufactured by. Bell Howell it was eight inches across. and weighed just over 21 pounds same as. the BET sphere Elks I don't think so the. vet's family had plenty of money and. aside from trying to win the prize from.

The National Enquirer they never tried. to profit from it they could have made a. fortune selling books about the spear. especially when it was international. news they didn't and to this day nobody. really knows what the BET sphere is it. was taken by the Navy or by Dr heineck. we may never know it's very possible. that the most significant scientific. discovery ever made is sitting in an old. bag Gathering dust in someone's basement. somewhere and the only way we'll ever. learn the secret of the BET sphere is. when its owner whoever he or she is.

decides they want to take up bowling. [Music]. thank you so much for hanging out with. me today my name is AJ that's Heckle. fish this has been the y-files if you. had butter learned anything do us a. favor and like comment subscribe share I. know it's annoying but that stuff really. helps the channel like most topics we. cover here this one was recommended by. you and if there's a story you'd like to. see or learn more about go to the. yfiles.com tips and special thanks to. our patrons who make this channel. possible I couldn't do this without you.

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