Unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, are one of the most controversial mysteries known to mankind. From ancient to present times, unidentified objects have been seen in the sky by millions of people. The question is, of course, what is it that we are seeing in our skies? Are they foreign spacecrafts from distant planets, merely Air Force experiments, or only our imagination? Many people believe that extraterrestrial life is existent and far more advanced then us. Conversely, many believe that aliens are just figments of our optimistic imaginations.
What about our governments? Are they hiding vital information from us, the citizens of the world, in belief that we are better off not knowing the truth? Countless government employees have continually denied allegations of UFOs being in contact with our planet. Then again, many of these officials have also allegedly taken part in UFO cover-ups and seen flying saucers for themselves. Is there some huge conspiracy, or are there only attention-hungry people who wish to be in the spotlight? Arguments are incredibly strong for both sides.
There is an excessive amount of information which could lead one to assume that UFOs are fiction, yet there is also an abundant amount of evidence which suggests that UFOs are in fact out there. What, and who, are we to believe? I. On September 1, 1859, Richard Carrington, a renowned astronomer of his time, saw two luminous bodies that he said were not meteors flying through the air (Lore 53). Nine years later at Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, many astronomers witnessed a luminous object that moved quickly across the sky, stopped, changed course to the west, then to the south, where it hovered for four minutes.
Then it headed toward the north. (Lore 53) UFOs. What are they, and where do they come from? Unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, are one of the worlds oldest and most intriguing mysteries. UFOs are commonly called flying saucers, which the American Heritage Dictionary defines as any of various unidentified flying objects typically reported and described as luminous discs (272). Esteemed Idaho businessman Kenneth Arnold coined the phrase flying saucer when in June of 1947 he saw saucer-shaped discs flying over the Cascade Mountains.
It was in this year that these unidentified flying object sightings began to escalate. About one month after Arnold saw these objects in the sky the incident at Roswell occurred. July of 1947, Roswell, New Mexico. The spaceships of extraterrestrials flew over the site of a 1945 atomic bomb test site. During flight, one of these spacecrafts malfunctioned and crashed to the earth. Its entire crew was killed. As Charles Moore stated: various portions of this sequence of events were observed on Army Air Force radars and by eyewitnesses.
Thus, alerted, the military acted swiftly; a cordon of troops was placed around the impact site; the wreckage and the small, humaniod alien bodies were removed; and all traces of the crash were expunged. (3) On the 8th of July, the public relations officer at Roswell Army Air Force issued a press release which stated that they had recovered a flying disk that had been sent on to higher headquarters for examination (Moore 3). Within hours though, this announcement was repudiated. The general in command of the regional Army Air Force declared that the wreckage was merely the remains of a weather balloon.
This latter story was obviously invented to conceal the recovery of an alien spacecraft. Government officials continued this cover-up by threatening eyewitnesses and local reporters with severe reprisals if they continued to reveal information about the flying disk (Moore 3). This was just the beginning of a massive cover-up, which attempts to keep the worlds citizens in the dark. It wasnt until 1979 when a former military intelligence officer from the Roswell Army Air Force defied the security regulations and spoke out.
He told reporters and UFO investigators that the wreckage collected near Roswell in 1947 was not that of a weather balloon and that the fragments he had seen and handled exhibited unusual properties, in terms of hardness and strength, that were not possessed by terrestrial materials (Moore 4). In following years researchers interviewed many people who had firsthand or secondhand knowledge about the Roswell incident. Their testimonies confirmed the crash of an alien spaceship and the recovery of many alien bodies. Three years after the infamous Roswell incident, a Mrs. Trent was in her backyard in Oregon when she saw a huge metallic disk.
She was able to snap two pictures of this alien craft, which silently hovered in the air. The U. S. Air Force and many independent investigators scrutinized these photos. In the 1969 government-run Condon Report (a skeptical view of UFO existence), it is stated that the simplest, most direct interpretation of the photos confirms precisely what the witness said she saw. Years afterward, William Spaulding used super intense high-tech computer photograph analyzers to study the same two Trent photos. (Life 138) Spaulding also concluded that the pictures depicted a legitimate flying saucer, and that it was not a hoax.
Recently, in October of 1997, a giant explosion created a flash which was seen over El Paso Texas. The shock-wave from this explosion was felt all the way to Las Cruces, New Mexico. One scientist gave the explanation that a meteor had exploded several miles up, but the local sheriff vehemently disagreed. The sheriff stated that they can say what they want, but it is like I am standing here in a snowstorm. He went on to describe the debris as being lightweight and metallic, like sequins or the metal flake makeup that ladies sometime wear. (DeBow 9) Many eyewitnesses said that they saw a flash in the sky, which was followed by smoke.
Ex-military personnel said that the event looked like something had been shot down by some kind of missile (DeBow 9). Suspicions began when military and scientific search parties refused to allow anybody to look around. Then, a major Army helicopter strike equipped with infrared sensors was employed (DeBow 10). To most people, these actions seem to be very extreme for investigating a meteorite. Some debris from a 1990 UFO crash was recovered and sent to the Space Research Institute in Brussels. The Space Research Institute replied that the item definitely came from space (DeBow 8).
It is rumored that there is a highly secretive and specialized military team that recovers crashed discs. This team is very similar to the Navy Seals or Green Berets…. this unit is known as the Blue Berets. (DeBow 11) Many former military personnel have also claimed that UFOs have repeatedly crashed on our soil. A former CIA agent, Derrel Sims, has shown x-ray photographs of suspected implants in human legs, arms and feet… he also has shown some objects that were removed during recent surgeries. Some looked like small pebbles, another looked like tiny metal sticks, while another was flesh colored and hollow.
Unfortunately, the hundreds of UFO hoaxes and government denials have created UFO skepticism. Sure it is easy to laugh at the thought of Martians and flying saucers visiting our planet, but there is too much evidence out there for us to ignore. There have been, and will continue to be, a good share of hoaxes. However, there are also many cases that cannot be dismissed as so. For instance, most of these crafts maneuver in such humanly impossible speeds and in gravity defying manners. One moment the UFO is spotted hovering over a house and one second later it can be seen over 25 miles away. UFOs? 8-9)
In addition, it has been proven that these metallic saucers can cause interference with television signals and even shut off car ignitions. Governments tell us that there is no intelligent life besides that on Earth. Than why do they continually investigate crash sites and blockade the public from viewing them? If the government knows that there are no extraterrestrial beings out there, why did the Army Air Forces begin an official investigatory program entitled Project Saucer two months after Arnolds sighting over the Cascade Mountains in 1947.
Furthermore, the Fire Fighters handbook has 14 pages dedicated to how to control a disaster when a flying saucer crashes. Chapter 13 is entitled Enemy Attack and UFO Potential. (DeBow 1) To posses the knowledge of how to control a disaster when a flying saucer crashes somebody must have had some experience on the matter. How else could such information be printed on how to extinguish a burning flying saucer? Our governments will try as hard as they possibly can, but they can not keep UFOs a secret for ever. II. Unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, are one of the worlds oldest and most intriguing mysteries.
These UFO sightings, if not hoaxes, can usually be explained by astronomical and meteorological occurrences. UFOs are commonly called flying saucers, which the American Heritage Dictionary defines as any of various unidentified flying objects typically reported and described as luminous discs (272). Idaho resident Kenneth Arnold coined the phrase flying saucer when in June of 1947 he supposedly saw saucer-shaped discs flying over the Cascade Mountains. It was in this year that these erratic unidentified flying object sightings began to escalate. Kenneth Arnold saw these UFOs as his private jet was taking off from an airport.
He stated: the aircrafts were approximately twenty or twenty-five miles away, and I couldnt see a tail on them. I watched for about three minutes… They were flat like a pie pan. Arnold, being an experienced pilot, clocked the speed of these flying objects at about 1200 miles per hour. (Menzel 4) First of all, if these flying saucers were moving at a speed of 1200 miles per hour, they would have traveled out of his sight in well less than three minutes (in the three minutes that Arnold observed them they would have traveled at least 60 miles away).
From his original statement though, they could barely have traveled more than twenty-five miles during that three minutes. Secondly, Arnold also changed his original description of these UFOs from being flat like a pie pan to crescent-shaped, with swept-back wings (Menzel 5). Such discrepancies in Arnolds so-called UFO encounter greatly lowers his credibility and the likelihood that he actually did observe UFOs from his plane that day. About one month after Arnold saw these objects in the sky the incident at Roswell, New Mexico occurred. One day in July of 1947, New York University weather balloons flew overhead.
During flight some of these balloons burst, due to their constant exposure to sunlight, and crashed to the earth. The public relations officer at Roswell Army Air Force issued a press release which stated that the wreckage was merely the remains of a weather balloon. Debris from this crash site included dark grey rubber, tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks. The NYU weather balloons were made of a thick dark rubber, and the radar targets used were constructed using a considerable amount of tape to attach the radar-reflective panels to the balsa-wood structural members (sticks) (Moore 112).
The analysis of the recovered debris is consistent with what would have been recovered if the debris found was from a balloon flight which carried radar targets. This explanation is factual based, and certainly out-weighs the opposition, that a UFO crashed. UFO sightings are known to be caused by many different phenomena, and astronomical objects. One of the most admissible and respected examples of these phenomena are mirages. Mirages are not illusions. They are real objects seen because of abnormal reflection.
Mirages are usually seen on hot flat surfaces such as deserts or roadways. Mirages occur when light is reflected from a caustic (discontinuity) which forms between the normal air and the superheated air near the surface (Amateur Science 1). Mountains, planets/stars, and cars are often reflected, and seen inverted in the sky. Many researchers and investigators insist that Kenneth Arnolds sighting was actually a mirage of the mountain tops, not some flying crafts.