UFOs: A Scientific Point of View.
The very term UFO conjures up exotic images of strange lights and shapes of graceful movement and speed in the twilight skies. These flying saucers or hovering cigars that are glimpsed fleetingly between the trees leaving behind tripod landing marks have become ingrained in popular imagination. But how can we tell what they really are? Their erratic, high-speed maneuvers or exhilarating flying formations belie the fact that they are from human manufacturing plants. Or are they? Can our science begin to explain the case for UFOs, when most official’ organisations have closed the book on their own investigations into extraterrestrial vehicular activities?
The Unknown:
The spacecraft in this category are theories, myths and imaginary. They are the spaceships of science fiction and fantasies of film, minds and dreamers. Are UFOs from the distant galaxies, from the future or from different dimensions? We do not know why they have come whether as observers, invaders or universal guides. Who are the voyagers, navigators or captains of these ships? How do they survive the cosmic vacuum for so long between interstellar space?
Science has answered one of these questions: where are the aliens? Drake’s equation basically figures that there are at least between one and millions of other civilisations out there. Our galaxy is vast and the universe is unimaginably infinite. The chances of us hearing from another civilisation would be very remote. That explains the Fermi Paradox; if the galaxy is so full of planets, then where are the aliens? We will not hear from another civilisation because they are so far away or are living/have lived at different times to us. Also, Olber’s paradox asks why space is black and not lit up with all the stars’ light. The universe is expanding and as it does the energy from stars is diluted, thus light cannot illuminate the entire universe. Now if light cannot get everywhere even at the speed of light, then how can us slow-paced civilisations hope to. These factors reiterate the vastness of space.
So UFOs are a mystery to science, because they don’t exist as we have imagined them, they have not arrived yet or they are something else completely.
The Unknown Unknowns:
This class of UFOs are the unknown unknowns, at least to the public. They are real, but are secret and classified man-made objects, whether crafted from hypothetical extraterrestrial sources or entirely 100% earthly elements. Ever since the Roswell incident in 1947, there have been claims about secret areas, hangars, aircraft and projects. These conspiracies and controversies have been fuelled by Air Force hardware such as the stealth fighter F-117A, stealth bomber B-2, the supposedly secret Aurora spy plane with its alleged distinctive pulse drive, and the latest suite of unmanned aircraft. Also on the radar’ is the Bird of Prey’ (so called after Klingon ships from Star Trek’. These futuristic looking aircraft have been the result of decades of testing from the original X-Plane projects and reams of computer programming and software, rather than reverse engineering of alien craft.
Mysterious aircraft noises, lights, formations and maneuvers could be down to the exotic nature of the UFOs’ construction and propulsion. New stealth aircraft have faceted features and new composite materials, which render them invisible to radar and peculiar to the human eye. Proposed and experimental propulsion systems could include anti-gravity, nuclear fission or fusion engines, electromagnetic or super-conducting power plants, pulse detonation drives and ramjets, all of which would leave distinctive sounds, trails or other signs/effects behind. They could easily be mistaken for UFOs.
So, man-made science has created the UFOs, but the testing of these military craft and applications have increased sightings, press leaks, misinformation and covered-up accidents, which fuel the UFO debate.
Known Unknowns:
UFOs are all around us, but we know them as jetliners, satellites, and weather balloons reflected from strange angles in unusual, low or bad lighting. They are flares, helicopters, training flights and fog-light sightings. They are hallucinations, hysteria, hoaxes, lies, confusion, and tales from UFO believers. They are the crop circles, sheep killers and missing moments of one’s life.
Humans have to make sense of what we feel, see, hear and touch. We see patterns and signs where there are none. Sensory deprivation and certain frequency vibrations can cause sensations of being uplifted and dream-like states can lead to claims of being abducted by aliens. In further and extreme cases, some might claim that they had been subjected to invasive procedures and implanted with mysterious devices. So far, no open or public admission to this alien modus operandi has been reported by the scientific community.
The UFO is a combined product of the imagination and the surrounding environment.
Unknown Knowns:
Lightning never strikes twice, they say, but what about ball lightning? Ball lightning is a rare phenomenon of controversial nature. Its composition is not known, but may be formed from lightning-vapourised silicon, and it has been known to float’ in the sky after formation as a bright ball of light before disappearing. St. Elmo’s fire is another rare occurrence, but is of a different nature than ball lightning, being made from plasma. Meteorites, whether man-made junk or falling stars, can also be mistaken for UFOs, especially if it explodes upon entry just like the suspected meteor in Tunguska, 1908.
Such rare natural events seen in unfamiliar surroundings could tempt people to claim they saw a UFO.
UFOs are non-existent, man-made, natural phenomena. They are secret, yet fly in the open. They are piloted, unmanned, spontaneously appearing figments of the imagination, but real to the touch. Scientific enigmas; Universally Forever Out-there.
