|
Content provided by Wikipedia
Unidentified Flying Object
An 'unidentified flying object', or 'UFO', is any real or apparent flying object
which cannot be identified by the observer and which remains unidentified after
investigation. In popular culture, UFO is often used to refer to any
hypothetical alien spacecraft. The term 'flying saucer' is also sometimes used.
Reports of unusual aerial phenomena date back to ancient times, but reports of
UFO sightings started becoming more common after the first widely publicized
U.S. sighting in 1947. Many tens of thousands of UFO reports have since been
made worldwide. Many more sightings may, however, remain unreported due to fear
of public ridicule because of the social stigma surrounding the subject of UFOs,
and because most nations lack any officially sanctioned authority to receive and
evaluate UFO reports.
Once a UFO is identified as a known object (for example an aircraft or weather
balloon), it ceases to be classified as a UFO and is reclassified as an
''identified'' object.
Extraterrestrial Life
'Extraterrestrial life' is life originating outside of the Earth. Its existence
remains hypothetical; there is no evidence of extraterrestrial life that has
been widely accepted by the scientific community.
Most scientists believe that if extraterrestrial life exists, its emergence
occurred independently, in different places in the universe. An alternative
hypothesis is panspermia, which suggests that life might emerge in one location
and then spread between habitable planets. These two hypotheses are not mutually
exclusive. The study and theorization of extraterrestrial life is known as
astrobiology or xenobiology. Speculative forms of extraterrestrial life range
from sapient beings to life at the scale of bacteria.
Foo fighter
The term 'foo fighter' was used by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II to
describe various UFOs or mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over
Europe and the Pacific theatre. Contemporary witnesses often assumed that the
foo fighters were secret weapons employed by the enemy, and it was not until
after the war that it was discovered neither side had anything to do with them.
Despite these fears, foo fighters (whatever they might have been) were
apparently never reported to have harmed or tried to harm anyone. To this day
the case remains unexplained.
Though usually thought of as blobs of light or fire, several different types of
reported phenomena were classified as "foo fighters".
Project Blue Book'Project Blue Book' was one of a series of systematic studies of Unidentified
flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force. Started in 1952,
it was the second revival of such a study. A termination order was given for the
study in December 1969, and all activity under its auspices ceased in January
1970.
Project Blue Book had two goals: to determine if UFOs were a threat to national
security, and to scientifically analyse UFO-related data. Thousands of UFO
reports were collected, analyzed and filed. As the result of the Condon Report,
which concluded there was nothing anomalous about any UFOs, Project Blue Book
was ordered shut down in December 1969. This project was the last publicly known
UFO research project led by the
USAF.
By the time Project Blue Book ended, it had collected 12,618 UFO reports, and
concluded that most of them were misidentifications of natural phenomena
(clouds, stars, et cetera) or conventional aircraft. A few were considered
hoaxes. 701 of the reports —- about six percent —- were classified as
unknowns, defying detailed analysis. The reports were archived and are available
under the Freedom of Information Act, but names and other personal information
of all witnesses have been redacted.
Roswell UFO incident July 8, 1947 The 'Roswell
UFO Incident' involved the recovery of materials near Roswell, New Mexico, USA,
in July 1947, which have since become the subject of intense speculation and
research. There are widely divergent views on what actually happened, and
passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. The United States
military maintains that what was recovered was a top-secret research balloon
that had crashed. However, many UFO proponents believe the wreckage was of a
crashed alien craft and that the military covered up the craft's recovery. The
incident has evolved into a widely-recognized and referenced pop culture
phenomenon, and for some, Roswell is synonymous with UFO and likely ranks as the
most famous alleged UFO incident.
Contactee'Contactees' are persons who claim to be in regular contact with
extraterrestrials. Contactees have typically reported that they were given
messages or profound wisdom by aliens, and that they were compelled to share
these messages.
As a cultural phenomenon, Contactees perhaps had their greatest notoriety from
the late 1940s to the late 1950s, but individuals make similar claims to the
present day, one of the best known currently being Swiss cult leader Billy
Meier. Some shared their messages with small groups of followers, and many
issued newsletters or spoke at UFO conventions.
The stories of contactees contained much material that has not stood the test of
time, such as claims that there were unknown planets within our solar system,
and that all the planets of our solar system are inhabited by human beings
physically like us, but more spiritually evolved. Certainly at least some of the
claims were fraudulent.
Randles and Hough write that, "The contactee movement is a rich treat for
anthropologists, sticky with sincere and sincerely deluded individuals. Were the
contactees in touch with anything other than their own internal fantasies?"
In fact, the contactee movement has seen serious
attention from academics and mainstream scholars. Among the earliest was the
classic 1956 study, When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, et al, which
included information about, and analysis of, contactee groups. Additionally,
there have been at least two university-level anthologies of scientific papers
regarding the contactee movements.
Contactee accounts are generally different from those who allege alien
abduction: While contactees usually describe beneficial, human-like aliens,
abductees rarely describe their experiences positively as they first incite fear
and then require thoughtful examination.
| 