OPINION | As a scientist, I want to believe in UFOs

This astrophysicist has doubts about the 1:47 UFO reports

Editor's Note:

Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

He is the author of several science books for the general public, including "Alien Universe: Extraterrestrial Life in Our Minds and in the Cosmos."

It also produces a series of science education videos.

Follow him on Facebook.

The opinions expressed in this comment are solely his own.

See more opinion articles.

(CNN) -

"The truth is out there" is the catchphrase of the television series "The X-Files," aired on Fox in the 1990s. It explored the paranormal and the inexplicable, but largely focused on on the idea that not only does extraterrestrial life exist, but that it has visited Earth repeatedly.

A Pentagon report expected later this month, detailing what the US Army knows about UFOs (and possibly alien visitation), may shed some light on the situation. The news of the next report was greeted with enthusiasm and expectation, although officials briefed on the results have said the report may obscure the conversation with its ambiguous conclusions. And the expectation of multiple newsrooms, in principle to avoid revealing the capabilities of the US military, will surely fuel the suspicions of conspiracy theorists.

This Wednesday, weeks before the expected report, members of the House Intelligence Committee received a classified briefing on the matter.

We may not know what classified information will be disclosed to the committee.

But one thing is clear: the government takes UFO sighting very seriously.

• 5 Things: US Congress Receives UFO Report, And More

In any conversation on this topic, it is imperative to be clear about what the term UFO means. For many, UFOs conjure up images of flying saucers and little green men (LGM). But of course that is not accurate. UFO literally means "Unidentified Flying Objects", or simply something in the air that has no explanation. However, for many the connection between UFOs and LGM is too strong, which is why a new phrase has been coined: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs, for its acronym in English, which can help break the association.

If we undo the mental link between UFOs and alien life, then the idea of ​​a UFO sighting seems more plausible.

Of course, it could be a saucer carrying LGM, but it could also be a military ship or, sadder for alien enthusiasts, an even more trivial space object such as the planet Venus, weather balloons, airplanes flying in. formation or an infinity of ordinary phenomena, often combined with each other.

And the possibility that it is a simple hoax cannot be ruled out.

Of course, if ordinary phenomena are identified as the cause of the sighting, the object is technically no longer a UFO.

Although those who are convinced that extraterrestrial visitations are real point to much older stories, one of the earliest modern examples of what we would call UFOs comes from reports of Allied fighter pilots returning from the bombings over occupied Europe.

They spoke of bright lights that followed their planes.

The pilots called these lights "foo fighters" and believed they were some kind of Nazi weapon.

• ANALYSIS |

  The secret that this UFO report exposes

The report that really caused UFOs to become part of popular culture occurred on June 24, 1947, when pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying near Mount Rainier in Washington State. He reported nine thin, lighted, crescent-shaped objects that moved in a line, like the tail of a kite. He estimated its speed to be about 1,700 kilometers per hour, which was incredibly fast for the time. The press became very interested in the history of these mysterious flying objects.

The term "flying saucers" came into our language by accident. On June 26, the Chicago Sun newspaper ran a headline: "Supersonic Flying Saucers Sighted by an Idaho Pilot." However, the news told a different story. In an interview, Arnold told reporters that the objects moved "like a saucer would if you made it jump over water," but the headline made the term "flying saucer" ubiquitous. Since then, many people have claimed to have seen saucer-shaped UFOs. Apparently the power of suggestion is real.

Another UFO story that occurred during the summer frenzy of 1947 is reports of a flying saucer crashing in Roswell, New Mexico.

In July, the Roswell Daily Record ran a headline about the capture of a flying saucer, but the next day, new reports revealed that it was actually a weather balloon.

The story remained latent until 1979, when the National Enquirer newspaper published an article in which a member of the intelligence services working in Roswell in 1947 claimed that the object was a flying saucer.

Documentaries followed, as well as a 1980 book titled "The Roswell Incident."

The public's imagination was captivated.

But leaving the connections to flying saucers aside, there is a real question about what happens when you observe a foreign object flying through the air.

Or perhaps the best question is, "Is something happening?"

That's what many hope the next Pentagon report will tell us.

The mystery of the UFOs that US pilots have seen 3:34

The US military has long taken UFO reports seriously.

After all, if these objects, which many say move much faster than even the most advanced weaponry in the American arsenal, could pose a military threat.

It doesn't matter if the objects are of extraterrestrial origin or some kind of advanced technology from another country.

It would be grossly irresponsible if the military did not investigate.

And they have. For example, from 1947 to 1969, an Air Force effort called "Project Blue Book" investigated 12,618 UFO reports and found that most of them were simply ordinary phenomena. When it closed, there were still 701 UFO reports that had not been explained and none of the explanations in the reports understood involved little green men.

More recently, a new effort to study UFOs was championed by then-Senator Harry Reid.

This program, called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program or AATIP, ran from 2007 to 2012 and investigated UFO reports from US military personnel.

The explanation for closing it was simply that the funding was better spent on other programs.

A similar program, called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, was launched in 2020.

Luis Elizondo, former director of the AATIP and sometimes called real-world Fox Mulder, denounced what he saw as the premature termination of the project.

He continues to urge the administration and the public to focus on what he considers to be an issue of crucial importance.

So what do I think about UFOs and little green men?

As a scientist, I believe that extraterrestrial life is common in the universe.

After all, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, and chemistry is chemistry.

If the right conditions are in place, life will emerge from the same chemical reactions that we see here on Earth;

and other chemical combinations are also possible.

In fact, it amazes me to think that life has not evolved elsewhere.

I think intelligent extraterrestrial life is likely relatively rare.

• A newly discovered exoplanet could have rain clouds

Here on Earth, millions of species have evolved since life began, and only humanity has developed the intelligence and capabilities to develop a technologically advanced civilization. And I think most UFOs (probably all) are not observations of alien spacecraft. The difficulties of interstellar travel aside, I find it inconceivable that an advanced species would find us interesting enough to visit, but not enough to make contact. And, if they wanted to avoid contact, they are not being very stealthy about it.

But I am open to being proved wrong.

Personally, I want society to continue funding programs that try to search for extraterrestrial life, especially SETI, that is, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence program, which looks for radio transmissions from advanced civilizations around distant stars.

I also want to get to the bottom of the UFO phenomenon.

If it's advanced weapons from other countries, we should know.

And nobody would be more excited than me to discover that we are not alone in the cosmos and that they visit us.

As Fox Mulder said: "I want to believe."

But first, we need irrefutable proof.

UFO