In my Honors Special Studies I have undertaken a scientific investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects, and the probabilities or possibilities of extraterrestrial life. As will be shown by my findings, there are, at pre- sent, only theories with no conclusive proof concerning these phenomena. For\u27 this reason, this paper will not be simply composed of scientific findings, but it will be the specualtions and conclusions I have arrived at from making the study

Wooddell, Marty

English

Ouachita Baptist University

Ouachita Baptist UniversityScholarly Commons @ OuachitaHonors Theses Carl Goodson Honors Program1970Unidentified Flying Objects and ExtraterrestrialLife: Do they exist?Marty WooddellOuachita Baptist UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_thesesThis Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Carl Goodson Honors Program at Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. It has been acceptedfor inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. For more information, please contactmortensona@obu.edu.Recommended CitationWooddell, Marty, "Unidentified Flying Objects and Extraterrestrial Life: Do they exist?" (1970). Honors Theses. 372.http://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/372In my Honors Special Studies I have undertaken a scientific investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects, and the probabilities or possibilities of extraterrestrial life. As will be shown by my findings, there are, at pre-sent, only theories with no conclusive proof concerning these phenomena. For ' this reason, this paper will not be simply composed of scientific findings, but it will be the specualtions and conclusions I have arrived at from making the study. I will begin by comsiderd:ng Unidentified Flying Ob-jects. Some people say UFO's have been appearing since Bible times, They base this belief from passages in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. However, the first actual UFO sighting is attributed to Kenneth Arnold, a pilot who while flying spotted a group of objects "li~e saucers skip-ing across water." Thfs was June 24, 1947. Arnold's sight-ing has yet to be explained. That summer many more sightings were reported. In the two decades since then, there have been over 15,000 sightings reported. Of these, about 90% have been explained. (1) The United States Air Force have been the governmental agency in charge of explaining UFO's, They have files on UFO's called the Project Blue Book, some of which is clas-ified information. In 1966, the Air Force closed their Pro-ject Blue Book and shifted their attempts of explaining UFo~s to a special organized team under their governmental spon-2 sorship. This team was headed ~· physicist Edward Condon, from the University of Colorado. Condon's team of twelve men included astronomers, physicists, and psychologists in addition to consultants. The Condon team was given complete access to the Air Force's files and picked the fifty-nine seemingly most difficult to explain sightingso (2) After two years of this study, Condon and his team concluded that UFO's have no scientific justification. Al-though 100% of the reported sightings have not been exp-lained, most of them have been rationally accounted for. Some explanations and doubts of UFO's are as follow. Some UFO' s were claimed to have interfered with automobile,-'en-gines. A Ford Moter Company representative says a magnetic field would stall a car, but it would be so strong it would also bend the metal frame of the car. Some sightings were found to be vorter rings formed when diesel oil, gas, and white phosphorus were exploded by TNT during Army demon-strations. Reports of night flying UFO's with flashing lights in Colorado were found to be polyethylene, candle-heated, hot-air ballooms launched by two high-school boys. Then, of coarse, there are always the fakes--people who make-up or purposely di~;uise photographs as UFO sightings. (3) So, the Condon report was drawn to a close. This report produced no findings to confirm beli,efs that' UFO' s are from outer space. Con·!ibn said he thought there was no need for further study.. A special review panel set up 3 by the National Academy of Sciences recommended and endorsed the Condon report. This panel was satisfied with their historical research of UFO's, review of UFO literature, ingeniously arranged lab tests, and expert work done in the field of radar, optics, meteorology, and perception which helped to explain UFO's. But this investigation did have some strong critics, including the NIACP (National Invest-igation Committee for Aerial Phenomea), In answering the NIACP, Condon admits that there are some cases where ident-ification with natural phenomena can be made, but there is also no positive evidence that these sightings are e*-tra-terrestrial visitors. (4) Although Condon ' lacks scientific evidence to explain UFO origins, he is broad minded enough to at least ~.peculate on the possibility of UFO's being visitors from other pl~nets. But he explains, if UFO's were such, they would have to be a type of life we know nothing of. They would have to be greatly technologically advanced from us, at least 50,000 years advanced, and probably from another solar systemo Most scientists, one of which is Condon, shy away from this spec-ulation and call it science fiction. But, if we have pro-gressed as much as we have in our short history, what would be possible to accomplish over a vast span of time? So, however low the probability of outer space visitors to our planet may be, can it really be ranked at zero? (5) The Condon report is not the only investigation concerned 4 with UFO's. There have been many independent scientific studies to explain them. One such investigation is a group of scientists lead by Dr. Robert s. Powell of Falls Church, Virginia. This group is independent of governmental support although they have consulted with the Condon team. These in~ependent scientists believe they have found the answer to UFO's. They have produced a gilipwing gas by igniting ammonia vapbr with a high voltage spark. This results in a disc-shaped, inverted, saucer-top sometimes with the appearance of tiny windows around the rim. These can be traced by radar, and they produce a "charge field that could affect radio performance nearby,., which are characteristic of the un-explainab~e UFO's. This phenomenon could be created in na-ture by gases of newly fertilized fields or swamps, set off by a spark from a power line or lightlhiil.gw:n So, maybe this could be the much sought after answer. (6) In the event that UFO's might be forms of extraterres-trial life, what are some of the possibilities or probabil-ities of life forms on other planets? The study to deter-mine the existence of extraterrestrial life began with a study to elicit the growth of organisms from lunar matter, the first samples from the Apollo 11 Mission. ~iological ex-amination of fifty grams of this substance confirm negitive results obtained by the Manned S~cecraft Center quaran-tine team. No viable life forms, including terrestrial con-taminants, were found when the sample was tested in three hundred separate environmentso The samples were found to be completely inorganic. Therefore, no possi~ility of life is 5 even considered to be on the moon, (7) Now, considering the possibility of life on other pla-nets, let up look at the two most commonly discussed planets, Venus and Mars, Life as we know it could not exist much closer to our sun than Venus nor much farther away than Mars, Even though these are thought to be rather similar to the Earth in comparison with other planets, they are extremely dif-ferent from our planet. Venus has an atmosphere of 90% car-bon dioxide, Also, Venus' temperature is a great deal higher than ours since it is closer to the sun. Venus has a much smaller amount of water vapor than Earth, although Venus' amount of water vapor is greater than Mars', (8) Of these two planets, Mars has appeared to be the more serious contender as an abode of life, though these pos-sibilities are e.xtremely slim, From Earth-based obser-vations the most we can accomplish is to exclude the pos~ ' sibility that life in any of the forms we know could sur-vive on Mars. But, whether or not there could be other fpr.ms of life is the relevant question, Let up then comsider the Martian environment and .its possibilities for life, Our best estimates show the temperature of Mars to be above f;:U~e~ing fbr ab:outr·fo.u~·: ho1.1.rs a day, reaching a peak of about 30°;~, in the summer months, Each afternoon the tempera-ture. plunges below zero where it remains for some twenty hours or so, Although at such temperatures does no life exist on Earth, it has been experimentally shown that life could survive under such ten·peratures, Then, the fact that 6 there is an absense of oxygen is Mars atmosphere can be dismissed as a reason to preclude the existance of life on Mars. The insistance by some people , unfortunately even some scientists, t·ha t life demands oxygen is simple ignor-ance of our own biology. In fact, there are a great host of organisms, even on Earth, which thrive upon~~nd even require the absence of oxygen. One·ver~ important factor of Mars' environment conditions is that of low vapor pres-sure. Because of this the boiling temperature of water is greatly affected. Inasmuch as vital functions of life are confined between boiling and freezing points of water, the range of vitality will be restricted on Mars. Another ar-gument against life on Mars, and the mos.t important one, is the scarcity of water and its narrow liquid range, However, although the amount of water on Mars is small, scientists think there might be a possibility of localized concentra-tions of the water present to be enough for life. So, as one can see, there would have to be many problems worked out before one could have an Pli>timistic ·outlook toward life on Mars or any other planet in our solar system. (9) ' Another interesting phenomenon ~hith some people believe points to extraterrestrial life is unexplanable radio sig-nals or pulsations. In Puerto Rico, a radio te,lescope an-tenna reflected faint radio signals from outer space. Where did these come from? No one knows. These radio pulsations h~ve. ~,911,1~ to be called "pulsers." Some scientists believe 7 these are from other civilizations, maybe in another solar system, There are roughly 150 billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, of which our sun is a part. A good many of these resemble our sun in size and composition. There is difficulty, however, in t~ying to prove that these radio singals come from another spiral galaxy, for it would take several mil-lion years for messages to reach us from even the closet one. But, in our galaxy there are a number of sun-like stars closer than 30 light years away which could reach us in a human life time, Some scientists believe these radio pulsations can be interpreted, Some call them sig-nals, some messages. One thing most scientists do believe is that UFO's are not such message carriers since it would take so long to reach us. (10) So, that is what the scientists say about ito Now it is my turn. First, my opinions of UFO's. A good many, in fact most, UFO sightings I believe are either pranks, people trying to get their name in the news, or more often honest mistakes, What could be explained as honest mistakes are such examples as the previously discussed glowing ammonia vapor or other man-made phenomena. On the other hand, we have the few cases of virtually unexplanabae UFO sightings. Of these cases, I have but one thing to say, I believe these few cases are the true UFO's, Before one jumps to comclusions let me explain how I define "UFO's", I take the words for their literal meaning; thus they are exactly What their name implies, Unidentified Flying Objects. Not to say "flying objects" are types of air vehicle ' or ' 8 space craft, but to say they are some unexplained phen-oma in the sky. I dare to say I do not believe UFO ' s are visitors from other planets ; I risk this statement, even though I have all present-day science behind me , in the hope that I and today ' s most notable and brilliant scientists are not being too narrow minded. Is it pos-sible we are like the generation of a hundred years ago whose stories of man visiting the moon were simply fairy tales of children? This is a thought provoking question Although I do say it a tiny bit hesitant, my scientific, realistic self stands with the majority who say UFO's are not forms of extraterrestrial life. In stating this personal belief, I ask myself, am I .alsb concluding there is no extraterrestrial life? To this question I can truthfully, and without having to use as much imagination, answer noo I do not believe there is yet enough scientific evidence to clos~ the door on the possibility of extraterrestrial life~ I have quoted scientific facts which give a dim prospect of life, as we know it at least, existing on such planets as Venus and Mars. Yet, are we so far advanced to be able to even predict, much less prove or disprove, that life,as we know it or otherwise, exists on one of the many planets, solar systems, or galaxies in the vastness of space? To this question I answer a resounding noo Even though I can agree with scientists on their real-9 istic approach to answering the UFO question, I cannot bring myself to have such a ready and waiting answer concerning extraterrestrial life, I reserve the right keep an open mind and see what answers future investi-gations and discoveries in science bring about. Maybe this Honors Special Studies did not provide satisfactory answers, for some people, concerning this subject. But in my attempt to find answers and expla-nations to satisfy myself, I believe I have ~iscovered a truth far more important than a simple answer to a spe-cific question. That truth is the fact that in a sci-entific search of the unknown, more often than not, more questions are asked than are answered. But, is this so bad? Behind every search for truth should be the attitude that the whole truth cannot be found until every pos-sible pathway is traced to its end, Although time has not yet allowed this search to be completed, I beleive the correct start has been undertaken, through the in-vestigation of one path of knowledge at a time. 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY (1) Shuldiner, Hebert. "Great UFO Probe," Popular Science, vol. 191 (October, 1967), 120-123. (2) Editors. "Shooti:ng Down the UFO's:Condon Report," ~ewsweek, vol. 73 (January 20, 1969), 54. (3) Editorso 11 Saucer"s End:Condon Report," Time, vol, 93 (January 17, 1969) 44-45. (4) Boffey, Phillip. "UFO Study: Condon Group Find No. Evidence of Visits from Outer Space," Science, vol. 163 (January 17,~969) 260-262. (5) Hoovan, Fredrick J. "UFO'S and the Evidence," Saturday Review, vol, 52 (March 29, 1969). 16-17. (6) Editors. "New Light on Flying Saucers," u. s. News and World Report, vol. 62 (March 20, 1967),16. (7) Oyama, Vance, !.,Edward L. Merek, and Melvin P. Sil-verman. ..A Search for Viable Organisms in a Lunar Sample," Science. vol, 167 (January 30,1970), 773-775. (8) Editors. "Venus and Mars: Statemen~,.. New Yorker, vol, 45 (May 10, 1969), 29-31. (9) Weston, Charles R, "A Strategy for Mars," American Scientist, vol. 53,(December, 1965), 495-500, (10) Sullivan, Walter. 11 The Universe is Not Ours Alone," New York Times, (September 29, 1968), 40-41. 

Unidentified Flying Objects and Extraterrestrial Life: Do they exist?

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Unidentified Flying Objects and Extraterrestrial Life: Do they exist?

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