In 1950 Renowned physicist Enrico Fermi supposedly asked colleagues during a lunch break at Los Alamos laboratory, “If there are extraterrestrials, where are they”? Good question. Dr. Fermi was also asking, if they had visited, why no evidence of extraterrestrials had been uncovered; scientists are “show me” kinds of folks.
But there had been reports of UFOs and alien beings sighted. Just three years earlier we had the Roswell Incident, where pieces of a craft were recovered from a crash site. Claims were made that the body or bodies of extraterrestrials were also recovered. Was that not evidence enough? Then all of the “evidence” was swiftly removed to a secret location. So, it seemed, our government did not want any disclosure regarding this incident. Speculation ran rampant in the press and among the public.
As UFO sightings mounted our government created an investigative group within the Air Force. That sounds great, but it was underfunded and way understaffed. Was this the Air Force’s way of saying they didn’t want to deal with it. At the time UFOs didn’t appear to pose a threat to national security so they must have thought, why are we stuck with this annoyance? One thing that kept the Air Force interested was the Cold War going on between the U.S. and Soviet Union, and the fear of advanced weapons.
Not only was this investigation group understaffed, but it also had insufficient expertise with the physics apparently involved with these craft. They needed help.
Enter Dr. J. Allen Hynek, professor of astronomy and astrophysics (Johns Hopkins, Ohio State University, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Northwestern University). He was enlisted to provide necessary scientific discipline for studying UFO reports. The Air Force initially named the investigation Project Sign (1947-1949), then Project Grudge (1949-1951), finally Project Blue Book (1952-1969). The investigations started out with serious intent to describe UFO phenomena as accurately as possible. But it evolved into a public-relations campaign under Project Grudge, with the Air Force attempting to discredit every sighting as natural or human made. Project Blue Book restored a more scientific and national security focused process.
Dr. Hynek tracked trends and statistics regarding the sightings. While he and his colleagues were able to identify 80% of UFOs as natural or man-made, he had concerns about the 20% that seemed to defy explanation. That 20% remained constant over the years. This was the group he really wanted to investigate more closely. It wasn’t to be. Not seeing any national security threats, the Air Force and our government didn’t have enough interest to fund more in-depth study. Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969.
Fast forward and in recent years numerous reports of UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) are coming from what would be termed ultra-reliable witnesses-military pilots. They even include radar images. Unfortunately, these images are not much better than the hazy, shadowy images of past UFO/UAP sightings, though they have added punch from being displayed on a fighter jet’s radar screen.
And there continues to be accusations of government disinformation regarding UAPs. Government boogeymen at work. Maybe they’re the extraterrestrials.
What’s in the Sky?
August 8 & 9; about an hour before sunrise; southeast: A crescent waning Moon pairs up with Jupiter, then the Pleiades.