World UFO Day: Are we really alone? The question deserves a serious study

US images of a UFO (circled in red). Credit: Parzival191919, CC BY-NC-SA

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed to Space.com's expert voice article: Op-Ed

Are We Alone? Unfortunately, none of the answers seems satisfactory. To be alone in this vast universe is a lonely prospect. On the other hand, if we are not alone and that there is someone or something more powerful, it is terrifying.

As a NASA researcher and now a physics professor, I attended the NASA contact conference. focused on serious speculation about extraterrestrials. During the meeting, a worried participant said in a sinister voice: "You have absolutely no idea what is going on there! The silence was palpable as the truth of this statement imposed itself. Humans fear that extraterrestrials will visit the Earth. Fortunately, the distances between the stars are prohibitive. That's at least what we, the novices, who are learning to travel in space, to tell us.

I've always been interested in UFOs. Of course, there was the excitement that there could be extraterrestrials and other living worlds. But more exciting for me was the possibility that interstellar travel was technologically feasible. In 1988, during my second week of graduate studies at Montana State University, several students and I were discussing a recent mutilation of cattle associated with UFOs. A physics professor joined the conversation and told us that he had colleagues working at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, where they had problems with UFOs that extinguish nuclear missiles. At the time, I thought this professor was talking nonsense. But 20 years later, I was stunned to see a recording of a press conference featuring several former members of the US Air Force, with a couple of Malmstrom AFB, describing events similar in the 1960s. It is clear that there must be something to this.

July 2 being World UFO Day, it is time for society to reflect on the troubling and refreshing fact that we may not be alone. I believe we have to face the possibility that some of the strange flying objects that surpass the best aircraft in our inventory and challenge the explanation may indeed be visitors from afar – and there is plenty of evidence to support UFO sightings.

19659009] The nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi was famous for asking questions that were thought provoking. In 1950, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory after discussing UFOs during lunch, Fermi asked, "Where is everyone? He estimated that there were about 300 billion stars in the galaxy, many of which were billions of years older than the sun, with a high percentage of them likely to be in the sky. To host habitable planets. Even if intelligent life were growing on a very small percentage of these planets, then there should be a number of intelligent civilizations in the galaxy. According to the assumptions, one should expect tens to tens of thousands of civilizations.

With the rocket-based technologies we developed for space travel, it would take between 5 and 50 million years for a civilization like ours to colonize our galaxy of the Milky Way. Since this should have happened several times in the history of our galaxy, we should ask where are the proofs of these civilizations? This discrepancy between the expectation of proof of foreign civilizations or visits and the presumption that no visit was observed was dubbed the Fermi paradox.

Carl Sagan correctly summarized the situation by saying that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. "The problem is that there was no well-documented UFO encounter that would be characterized as a smoking firearm alone. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Many governments around the world have covered and classified information about such encounters, but there is enough evidence to suggest that the problem should be open to scientific study.

UFOs, taboo for professional scientists

When it comes to science, the scientific method requires that the hypotheses be verifiable.to be verified.The UFO encounters are neither controllable nor repeatable, which makes their study extremely difficult. the real problem, in my opinion, is that the UFO subject is taboo.

While the general public has been fascinated by UFOs for decades, our governments, scientists and the media, have basically stated that of all UFOs are a result from a weather phenomenon or human actions. No one is actually extraterrestrial spaceship. And no stranger has visited the Earth. Essentially, we are told that the subject is nonsense. UFOs are forbidden to serious scientific study and rational discussion, which unfortunately leaves the subject in the realm of fringes and pseudo-scientists, many of whom littered the field with conspiracy theories and wild speculation.

I think UFO skepticism has become a religion with an agenda, excluding the possibility of extraterrestrials without scientific evidence, while often providing silly assumptions describing only one or two aspects of a meeting. UFO reinforcing popular belief that there is a conspiracy. A scientist must consider all the possible hypotheses that explain all the data, and as little is known, the extraterrestrial hypothesis can not yet be ruled out. In the end, skeptics often make science a disservice by providing a bad example of how science should be conducted. The fact is that many of these encounters – still a very small percentage of the total – challenge the conventional explanation.

The media amplify skepticism by publishing information about UFOs when they are exciting, but always with a mocking or capricious tone and reassuring the audience that this may not be true. But there are witnesses and credible meetings.

Why do not astronomers see UFOs?

Friends and colleagues often ask me, "Why do not astronomers see UFOs?" The fact is that they do it. In 1977, Peter Sturrock, professor of space science and astrophysics at Stanford University, sent 2,611 questionnaires on UFO sightings to members of the American Astronomical Society. It received 1,356 responses among which 62 astronomers – 4,6% – declared to have witnessed or recorded inexplicable air phenomena. This rate is similar to about 5% of UFO sightings that are never explained.

As expected, Sturrock found that astronomers who witnessed UFOs were more likely to be observers of the night sky. More than 80% of Sturrock respondents were willing to study the UFO phenomenon if there was a way to do it. More than half of them felt that the subject deserved to be studied compared to 20% who thought that this should not be the case. The survey also revealed that younger scientists were more likely to support the study of UFOs.

UFOs were observed using telescopes. I know a telescope observation by an experienced amateur astronomer in which he observed a guitar-shaped object moving in the field of view of the telescope. Other observations are documented in the book "Wonders in the Sky", in which the authors compile numerous observations of unexplained aerial phenomena made by astronomers and published in scientific journals throughout the 1700s and 1800s. 19659008] Some of the most compelling observations were made by government officials. In 1997, the Chilean government formed the Organizing Committee of Studies of Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos, or CEFAA, to study UFOs. Last year, CEFAA released images of a UFO taken with a helicopter mounted Wescam infrared camera.

The countries of Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden and United Kingdom have declassified their UFO records since 2008. The COMETA was an unofficial UFO study group composed of scientists high-ranking military officials who studied UFOs in the late 1990s. They released the COMETA report, which summarizes their findings. They concluded that 5% of encounters were reliable but inexplicable: The best hypothesis available was that the observed gear was extraterrestrial. They also accused the United States of concealing UFO evidence. Iran has been concerned about spherical UFOs seen near nuclear power plants that they call "CIA drones" that would be about 30 feet in diameter, can reach speeds up to Mach 10, and can leave the atmosphere. These speeds are comparable to those of the fastest experimental aircraft, but unthinkable for a sphere without lifting surface or an obvious propulsion mechanism.

In December 2017, The New York Times published an article on the Advanced Aviation Identification Program. a $ 22 million program led by former Pentagon leader Luis Elizondo to study UFOs. Elizondo resigned from the program's leadership to protest the extreme secrecy and lack of funding and support. Following his resignation, Elizondo, along with several other members of the defense and intelligence community, was recruited by the Tom DeLonge Academy of Arts and Sciences, recently founded by Tom DeLonge to study UFOs and interstellar travel. Parallel to the launch of the academy, the Pentagon declassified and released three videos of UFO encounters taken with infrared cameras mounted on F-18 fighter jets. Although there is a lot of excitement about these revelations, I remember a quote from retired Colonel John Alexander: "The revelation has arrived … I have heaps of generals, including Soviet generals, who said that UFOs are real My point is, how often do senior officials have to come forward and say that's real? "

A topic worthy of Serious study

There is much evidence that a small percentage of these UFO sightings are unidentified structured craft exhibiting flying capabilities beyond any human technology known. Although there is no single case for which there is evidence that would withstand scientific rigor, there are cases of simultaneous sightings by multiple reliable witnesses, as well as returns. radar and photographic evidence revealing convincing trends.

Secret studies is interesting, but not scientifically useful. This is a topic worthy of an open scientific inquiry, until there is a scientific consensus based on evidence rather than on previous expectations or beliefs. If there are indeed extraterrestrial devices visiting Earth, it would be very useful to know their nature, their nature and their intentions. Moreover, this would present a great opportunity for humanity, promising to expand and advance our knowledge and technology, as well as reforming our understanding of our place in the universe.

Kevin Knuth, Associate Professor of Physics, University of Albany, New York State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all the questions and debates of Expert Voices – and join the discussion – on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Space.com.