UFO, Area 51, etc.

FYOS

Lecture 12

More than a half of Americans believe UFO

• 2002 October poll o 72 percent of Americans believe the government is holding the truth on UFOo men more than women think such information should be shared with the publico The younger you are, the stronger your belief that the government is withholding

information• 1997 CNN/TIME MAGAZINE POLL (June) 54% believe intelligent life exists

beyond earth 64% believe aliens have contacted humans 50% believe that aliens have abducted humans 37% believe that aliens have contacted the US government 75% believe that a UFO crashed near Roswell 26% believe that they would be expected to be treated as an enemy 39% believe that aliens would appear very humanoid

• In a 1947 US Gallup Poll 90% of the population who heard of flying saucers believed they were not real.

1st modern report

• June 24, 1947 by a businessman Kenneth Arnold

• 9 shiny objects with wings streaking the sky at 2,000 km/h “… they flew erratic like a saucer if you skip it across the water.”

• A reporter mistakenly described the objects as “flying saucers”

UFO sightings

• about 10,000 sightings are reported a year• It is true that there are unidentified objects being seen in the sky• Some claims from seasoned pilots or astronauts whose credibility is not in

question.

• Even many astronomers have seen unidentifiable objects in the sky.

• Something unidentifiable ≠ alien UFOs

• US Air Force started investigation on the UFO phenomenon (largely by Cold War concerns).

In 50s and 60s, experts could identify UFOs into bright stars and planets, aircraft and gliders, rocket launches, balloons, birds, ball lightning, meteors, atmospheric phenomena, and hoax.

Ball lightning

• atmospheric electric phenomenon via unknown mechanism.• unlike regular flash lightnings, these ball lightnings can last several seconds

with a size in the range of a fist to several meters across.

The physicists produce luminous plasma balls above a water surface which have lifetimes of almost half a second and diameters of 10 to 20 centimeters.

Flying Saucer over Damascus, Syria?

Lenticular cloud formation

Chinese Lanterns in the Sky

Chinese Sky Lanterns as UFOs

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Lubbock Lights

• Aug 1951, three Texas Tech faculty members

• 15-20 faint white lights in a formation passing the sky. They estimated the altitude being ~50,000 feet 5 miles per second!

• An hour later they saw one more group.

• 2 hours later saw a 3rd group.

It is impossible to determine the distance, altitude, or the speed of an object in the sky

Venus in Georgia• Fall 1967, police officers at 10+ places

reported sighting of UFOs. • Two officers “chased” the “bright-red

football shaped light” for 8 miles and could not chase it. when they returned to their station, it caught up with them!

• They watched it ~30min seeing that the UFO changed in color from red orangewhite, climbing in the sky until it resembled “a star”.

• The police report sparked a local interest in UFOs. Hundreds of UFO sightings in following weeks.

The tendency (ability) of one report to trigger many others!

Venus and Jupiter in Caspian Sea

UFOs

• about 90% of the well-documented UFO cases were explainable as earthly phenomena.

• This does not mean that the remaining 10% unexplainable cases are alien spaceships!

Others…

• Wild animal mutilation by aliens Chupacabras

• Alien abduction sleep paralysis?occur during REM sleep, for a few minutes after the brain wakes up, our body can be still in sleep paralysis with active vision and feeling.

survey says that ~50% of people experiencesleep paralysis at some points in their lives.

Alien artifacts on Mars?

Viking 1 : 1976

2001

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

2007

Mars Global Surveyor

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence!”

Carl Sagan

Upcoming presentations

On Apr 11• Betty and Barney Hill UFO sighting & abduction : Trinh• Ancient aliens : Wilms, Clendening• Area 51 : Breeden• Crop circles (ice circles) : Curry• UFOs and the Mayans : Jordan

On Apr 18• Public opinion on the Global Warming (recent polls) : Stalcup• Over-population : Apollo• Global warming hoax : Cannon