Another UFO sighting....

Whilst I'm not a believer in UFO's being alien visitors to Earth, a recent visitor to our Solar System is intrigueing.
The object is described as an Asteroid, coming from interstellar space (i.e. it originated from outside of our Solar System) and reaching a peak velocity of 196000 MPH (that's approximately 1/3000th the speed of light).
As a Scientist, I find the object (named Oumuamua - Hawaiian for 'first messenger') very interesting, whatever it's origin.
As such, I'm delighted to read that studies will be carried out to see if any radio signals are being emitted from the object.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...galactic-driftwood-seti-tunes-in-to-oumuamua/

This is thought to be the first ever interstellar object to have been detected traversing our Solar System and as such all possible observations and analysis should be undertaken.

Kevin
 
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Kevin Farnell said:
Whilst I'm not a believer in UFO's being alien visitors to Earth,
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Hi Kevin,

It's often the case that whenever somebody talks about UFOs they feel the need to make it clear that they don't believe in alien visitors.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion of course but it is my belief that in a universe bigger than anyone can comprehend how could we possibly be the ONLY beings that exist?

Modern science often fails to accept new theories that go against the grail of previously agreed theories.

If alien beings do exist, how could it not be possible for them to be significantly more advanced than we are and to such a degree that they know how to travel through the universe faster than the speed of light?

Another questionable theory such as time travel, if we were to go back to the stone age and take a car, our human ancestors would not believe it is possible to have a machine that moves, let alone moves in the air or in space.

Interestingly, the U.S Government admitted this week that it has been spending millions of dollars on investigating UFO phenomena. Numerous high ranking civilian and military pilots have reported numerous UFO activity stating that they are "out of this world".

Whether a believer or a non believer I would recommend this footage. It was out-shadowed by the 9/11 atrocities so it's fairly old now but still relevant. Note the titles of some of these speakers. Surely they can't all be "off their rocker"?

 
Hi Aviador,

I'm in complete agreement with you regarding the sheer vastness of the Universe (as Douglas Adams famously wrote in 'A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy', "Space, is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space".
It's believed that this hugely, mindbogglingly big Universe cantains more stars than there are grains of sand on all of Earths beaches and deserts. That's 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Stars!
As we know, thousands of Exo-Planets have been discoverd orbiting observable stars in recent years.
I would like to think that by probability alone, life has therefore emerged countless times throughout the Universe.

That brings us to the Drake Equation - N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L.
Astonomer Frank Drake considered such factors as the number of stars, the number of planets, the number of habitable planets, the probability of advance life developing and the longevity of that advance life (how many civilisations destroy themselves not long after the discovery of nuclear weapons - remind anyone of an ongoing situation here on Earth?).
Life is basically Chemistry, Chemistry that has developed to take place within a confined enclosed environment (a cell) and gained the ability to replicate. The next big step is multi-cellular organisms. Some Biologists believe that this could be a very difficult step. And then we have to consider advanced life forms, technology and can they avoid blowing themselves up?
This may seem like the odds are against it, but even at a probability of 1 Trillion to 1, that would allow for 70 Billion advanced civilisations.
Now we come to the Fermi Parradox - basically a contradiction between the high probability of advanced civilisations and the lack of evidence. In other words, 'where is everybody?'
Again, I'm in agreement with Aviador that everyone is entitled to their opinion and that they should be respected.
For my part, do I beleive that we are regularly visited by beings from other planets? I would have to say 'no'!
Ask me if I thought there were other life forms in the Universe, and I would be devestated if the answer was 'no'.
I really, really hope that we find evidence of life beyond Earth within my lifetime. That would be the most astounding discovery of all time. Whether that be single celled organisms on Europa or Titan, an artifact on one of the planets/moons of the solar system or a transmission from an advanced civilisation.

Incedentally, one of my favourite magazines, is Fortean Times which I buy every month. Jenny Randles (a long time UFO investigator and regular contributor to Fortean Times) is currently studying the 5% of UFO sightings that are not explained conventionally.

I could of course have it all wrong. Perhaps there are civilisations with such advanced technology ('technology so advanced would be indistinguishable from magic' - Arthur C. Clark), that they can traverse the Universe in seconds.
But why, would beings with such immensely advanced technology reportedly have so many crashes once they got here?

Anyone that has read to the end, Thank You!
I've tried to write an informative article (obviously from my point of view), but lighten it with humour.

Remember - The Universe is not only stranger than we imagine, It's stranger than we can imagine!

Kevin
 
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That's a great post Kevin!
My personal belief is that there are other civilisations out there and some will be advanced and some not so advanced. I'd like to think that the advanced ones wouldn't make contact with mankind yet considering we are still very young as species in our development and we aren't technically advanced enough to even get past our own moon yet let alone leave our star system. In fact it's only recently that a man made object has left the solar system I'm referring to Voyager 1. Hopefully one day mankind will have the ability to leave the solar system and go make contact with the life that is out there.
 
An excellent and thought-provoking post, Kevin. Many thanks.

I suppose I'm in the Fermi Paradox corner in that I always want fairly strong evidence to prove or even convincingly suggest anything, although I try not to close my mind completely - with any subject.

Incidentally, UFO is not an alternative name for a craft from beyond our planet of course, as reading the popular press might induce some people to believe. They are simply flying objects (some are't even that but tricks of the light or clouds) for which identification could not be confirmed and in the overwhelming majority of cases are likely to have an Earth-based provenance. There is little doubt that on many occasions governments have been pleased to hide behind the fascination that most of us have with the idea that there are other forms of life out there who visit Earth when new, secret types of weapons are aircraft are being tested.

I've read books and articles dealing with the subject, including some written by Jenny Randles. I think she tries to be dispassionate but it must be difficult to remain even-handed for someone who has spent much of her life involved in trying to unravel the mysteries of UFOs that might be carrying some form of alien life. Whenever I read anything produced by her or others of a similar background I always bear this in mind.

I suppose the modern-day public's interest in UFOs began with Kenneth Arnold's reported viewing of a line of 'flying saucers' in Washington State, USA in 1947. This was around the time of the so-called Roswell Incident in New Mexico, USA when wreckage of what some believed to be an alien craft was discovered at the side of the road. There is now an 'industry' surrounding the UFO phenomenon with books, magazines, tv shows etc all keeping the pot on the boil, with places like Area 51, Nevada, USA providing the fuel. One snag is that along with serious and highly qualified observers/investigators this type of thing inevitably attracts the conspiracy theorists and the plain 'wackos', and at times it's not always easy to tell one from another.

UFOs, in the sense that they might be from outer space, are like ghosts and parallel universes: they are almost impossible to prove but equally hard to disprove.

Anyway, listen to Ella on the subject - it doesn't begin until 20 seconds into the video.

 
It's Friday night so I thought I'd have a bit of fun and throw this suggestion out there for people to ponder over.

The recent so-called "drone" sightings at London Gatwick airport seems to be turning out to be something of a mistory. Despite the apparent numerous sightings of the "drone" I've yet to see any imagery of the flying craft?

Although an airport can cover many miles around it's parimeter, you would still expect a fairly accurate positioning of craft sightings. You would think it would be relatively easily to do using grid reference points normally usually used by ATC for pinpointing aircraft during emergencies?

I am really struggling to understand how the Police and the airports security team are having so much difficulty in locating the craft.

As we are yet to see *any* images of the offending "drone" despite it's numerous appearances, I'm beginning to think this could be something else?

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It's rarely possible to rule out most things in life, so I'm not going to say that there are no intelligent beings somewhere in space that might have the capability of visiting Earth.

Thus far I've neither seen nor heard anything that convinces me that there are, any more than I believe that the Earth was formed other than by natural, physical evolution which is why I'm an agnostic although I entirely respect the views of anyone who holds any kind of religious belief.
 
richard winterbourn said:
Should contact be made with beings from another planet i think a good intimation as to their intelligence would be to gauge their response after having the laws of cricket explained to them: one side is in and the other side is out and batsmen are in until they are out. All very straightforward really...
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Not quite sure you've got that exactly right there richard because there are eleven batsmen in a side and when the tenth player is out that still leaves one in however the other team who were out are now in so the batsman who was in is not out but has to go off as out then he then comes back in with the rest of the who are out.

Them there aliens haven't got a hope in hell.
 
Yes, cricket is a very difficult game to understand, perhaps that's why we haven't seen any aliens. It will take them a million years to work us out...
 
Just been reading one report where the Police apparently said "there may never have been a drone" after all!

This smells decidedly dodgy to say the least. How many folk out there think nothing at all happened?
 
Aviador said:
Just been reading one report where the Police apparently said "there may never have been a drone" after all!

This smells decidedly dodgy to say the least. How many folk out there think nothing at all happened?
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The police officer in charge of the investigation is quoted as saying, “We are actively investigating sightings of drone activity at Gatwick Airport following 67 reports from the evening of December 19 to December 21 from the public, passengers, police officers and staff at the airport.”

He said said there is no video footage available and investigators are relying on 67 drone sightings by witnesses.

Nothing there to say that aircraft flight deck crews had seen anything.

Asked about speculation there was never a drone, he said: “Of course, that’s a possibility. We are working with human beings saying they have seen something.”

I don't believe in conspiracy theories but it's well documented that relying on observers with no flight awareness training to accurately assess flying objects is always fraught with uncertainty.

The police will also be aware that once the matter quickly gained national (and international) publicity there will be people who for malicious or other reasons will falsely claim to have seen drones in the area. Others might genuinely think they did but be mistaken.

There is an unconfirmed report that a damaged drone was found in the area.

All this is conjecture of course because none of us know what the authorities might know but are keeping to themselves for the present, no doubt with good reason.
 
richard winterbourn said:
Yes, cricket is a very difficult game to understand, perhaps that's why we haven't seen any aliens. It will take them a million years to work us out...
Click to expand...
Wait, does no one have a copy of 'The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy'?
Read up on the Krikkit Wars!
Basically, an advanced civilisation created white clad robots equiped with a bat and a ball. The ball being a devestatingly lethal bomb that was launched by one robot bowling the bomb at another that was holding a bat. The batting robot would direct the lethal bomb onto the target.
All civilisations in the Universe lived in mortal fear of an attack by the Krikkit robots. All that is, except for the people of Earth who took the basics of an attack and turned it into a sport.
Then, there is the Wikkit Gate, this is viewed by the diverse cultures of the Galaxy as the basic ideals of civilisation.
From the Hitchikers Guide -
'The sport of cricket as played on Earth is a tasteless reminder of the Krikkit Wars, and the cricket wicket is a highly distorted racial memory of the Wikkit Gate. The "bit where the little red ball hits the stumps" is particularly offensive'.

Kevin
 
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