UFO’sAlmost every civilization in history that has kept a written history hasrecorded the sightings of strange objects and lights in the skies.
These objectshave been described as glowing wheels, colored balls of light, and disk shapedobjects. Today unexplained aerial phenomena are generally referred to asunidentified flying objects (UFO’s) or flying saucers. The effects of extraterrestrial sightings can have an adverse effect on people if influenced thewrong way. No solid proof has shown that UFO’s are real, but many sightingscannot be proven otherwise. The media, stories, or one’s own experience mayoften influence what one believes. The government once stated that they hadcaptured extra terrestrials.
(60 minutes, CBS) On the contrary, most scientistsnow agree that almost all sightings and stories of extra terrestrials are notauthentic. The United States government has records of thousands of UFOsightings since 1948, including photos of alleged UFOs and interviews withpeople who claim to have seen them. Since UFOs were considered a potentialsecurity risk, the report on these sightings was originally classified assecret. (Craig, 917) When the report was later declassified it showed that 90percent of all UFO sightings could be easily explained.
Most of the sightingsturned out to be celestial objects, such as stars or bright planets like Venus,or atmospheric events such as auroras or meteors falling through the atmosphere. Many other sightings turned out to be objects such as weather balloons,satellites, aircraft lights, or formations of birds. Often these sightings wereaccompanied by unusual weather conditions. Only 5.
6 percent of these cases werenot explained. Testimonies by people are often very inaccurate and dramatized. People have the tendency to explain everything they see, which is not usuallycompletely accurate. The unaided human eye can be tricked into hallucination andhas an inaccurate depth perception.
Reflections from windows and eyeglasses canprovide an optical illusion of a UFO. Radar is much more reliable to identifyobjects, but it cannot detect many characteristics that separate naturalphenomena and physical objects. Radar often picks up ionized gas, rain, orthermal discontinuities. Electronic interference is also a frequent problem. Either way, scientists are left with many unanswered questions. There are manymysteries about UFO’s with many indefinite answers.
Many investigators havetried to solve some peculiar questions about UFO’s, but many of theirconclusions cannot be proven. In 1968 the United States Air Force asked EdwardU. Condon, a physicist at the University of Colorado, to head a panel studyingthe claims of extraterrestrial crafts. (Unidentified Flying Objects, Encartaencyclopedia) The committee’s final report was reviewed by a special committeeof the National Academy of Sciences and released in early 1969. The 37scientists who contributed to the report interviewed UFO witnesses and studiedphysical and photographic evidence. The report, also known as the Condon Report,concluded that not only was there no evidence of extraterrestrial control ofUFOs but also that no further UFO studies were needed.
Their advice was acceptedby the United States, but for other independent laboratories it was not enough. Whether or not a person believes UFO’s are, in fact, real or not is probablybecause of influence from the media. For instance, the smash hit movieIndependence Day was a movie about aliens attacking Earth so they can keep itfor themselves. The company that made the movie, FOX, has been promoting extraterrestrial ideas to bring media attention to UFO’s. The company bought thestretch of highway 375 outside the mysterious secret military base named Area51, which plays an important part in the movie.
In it, several aliens werecaptured and stored along with their aircraft. In fact, the government hasannounced that it has captured aliens and their aircraft, but that was laterdenied. (Woolward, 912) This has been said to be the cause of the vast amount ofUFO reports since 1948. The government also denied that Area 51 even existed forseveral years, even though it had been photographed many times. Today, themilitary base is thought to be a very heavily guarded test sight for manystealth planes in development for the military, including some possible”flying saucers”.
This sight is responsible for several of themilitary’s top planes used today. Local residents persist that they have neverseen any UFO’s that couldn’t be explained by the military’s aerial experiments. Tourists swear they have seen several UFO’s that couldn’t be anything else butextra terrestrial. Many magazines and tabloids visit the area to report aboutsuch sightings and print there own far-fetched ideas. People interpret thesearticles in many different ways.
Because there is no true proof of any extraterrestrial crafts, people are forced to make their own decisions about reality. For instance, in March 1997, thirty-nine people committed suicide to join with”Ti and Do”, two “UFO forces”. Printed on their page on theInternet, it stated, “Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth isfinally coming to conclusion – ‘graduation’ from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave ‘this world’ and go with Ti’s crew.
“(Heaven’s Gate, WWW) Such cases like these are extreme, but recent studies haveshown that fifty percent of America does believe that there is life on otherplanets that may be trying to visit us. However, the majority of these people donot worry about any unwelcome situation. Opinions may vary, but until anyconclusive evidence can be shown that life is visiting Earth from somewhere outin space, it is safe to say that humans are alone in their home planet. It ispossible that this theorem will be proved wrong in the future, but until thenall any person can do is guess, hope, and wait. What the future holds for Earthmay not be what is expected, but until then scientists will be examining all theevidence to help provide a better future for the home to life as we now know it.
Bibliography”Unidentified Flying Objects” World Book Encyclopedia, 1992. Page19, volume U-V, 1992 Craig, Pat. “On Nevada’s Extra TerrestrialHighway. ” Tribune News Service August 19, 1996: Page 819 from InfoTrack/SuperTom+. On CD-ROM.
Foster City, CA: Information access, 1997 “UnidentifiedFlying Objects” Groiler’s Encyclopedia, 1994. Page 17, volume U-V, 1994Woolard, John. “UFO Investigators Scoff at Abduction Claims. ” TribuneNews Service, September 12, 1996. Page 912 from InfoTrack/Super Tom+.
On CD-ROM.Foster City, CA: Information Access, 1997 Heaven’s Gate Home Page, http://www.aeok.com/heavensgate/index.htm
