Posted on 06/06/2009 4:24:00 PM PDT by JoeProBono
"If, in fact, we are able to find life or to answer the question 'Are we alone?' then that certainly is grand enough and noble enough to be the enduring legacy of our civilization."
NASA statement
October 1999
The skies over Texas have been busy with spottings of unidentified flying objects in recent times, and I can't help but wonder if some of them might actually be visitors from a galaxy far, far away.
I'm sure that thought has crossed your mind, too, whether you want to admit it out loud or not. Just the chance that we are not alone is enough to pique anyone's interest.
Just days ago, a Continental Express pilot took off from Houston en route to South Carolina and had a weird experience not long after lifting off.
Reaching an altitude of 11,000 feet, still over Texas, the pilot suddenly radioed that a large object was flying 150 feet or so beneath him. The report I read on the Web site of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) didn't say what shape this thing was, but the pilot was shocked to see that it didn't show up on radar.
MUFON records indicate that another Continental Airlines pilot spotted a UFO in May of last year, very near the same area.
You don't need a map to discern that this puts these objects pretty close to our area.
On the same night that the Continental pilot was gazing wide-eyed at whatever it was, another man spotted a UFO in the skies over East Texas, MUFON says. This, according to the spotter, was a triangular-shaped craft.
And, yet another spotter saw three star-like objects over East Texas, traveling fast, then slow, then fast, on that same night.
In view of the spate of UFOs seen flying over the Stephenville, Texas, area last year, and other, less noted sightings since then, maybe we should be spending more time looking up.
MUFON's records show that the U.S. is by far the leader in sightings of UFOs, and Texas is always first or second among the states in the number of these.
Remember that guy in the old 1950s version of "The Thing?" At the end of the movie, he tells the whole world on the radio, "Watch the skies! Keep watching the skies"!
That could turn out to be sound advice.
We are alone, very, very alone.
James Arness, of “Gunsmoke” fame, portrayed the Thing in the movie of the same name.
James Arness in THE THING
We are alone..., except for the angels... (both kinds, the evil ones and the ones that follow God).
Remember that meeting other intelligent life forms is not just a matter of crossing vast distances of space, but time as well.
Assuming that intelligent life has existed on Earth for even 100,000 years, that is still only 2.22 x 10(-5) of the age of the Earth. 8.36 x 10(-6) of the life of the universe. Maybe a dozen or so of the times when intelligent life might have evolved, it was wiped out by a chance occurrence, and had to almost start over.
There have been times when entire sectors of the Milky Way galaxy have been sterilized by cosmic events, that would have wiped out every life form including microorganisms, if any existed.
How long might intelligent life on Earth continue? Another 100,000 years?
Then figure that space and time are both working against us meeting any other intelligent life. Even if they can travel faster than light, they have to travel a LOT faster than light to cover such distances.
The nearest star to Sol is 4 light years away. At twice the speed of light, only 2 years away. At four times the speed of light, only a year. At eight times, a six months. At 16 times, three months. At 32 times the speed of light, six weeks. 64 times the speed of light, three weeks. 128 times the speed of light, a week and a half. 256 times, say six days. 512 times, three days.
1024 times the speed of light to get there in a day and a half. Just four light years away.
The two closest potentially habitable star systems to ours are 26 and 42 light years away, respectively.
Add to that the possibility of their having intelligent live, or the course of 12 billion or so years. Their “200,000 years”, if you like.
Now that’s my kind of angel... LOL...
The truth is out there.
John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is on my personal list of ten best SF movies of all time.
What movie is that, with all those people bending over that table of... what are those things?
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