INVESTIGATING UFOs AND ALIENS INTRODUCTION n April in Flor 2014 four people Orlando ida saw an object with red and green lights streak downward across the night sky It passed behind a building soared upward again stopped in midair and then turned One of the witnesses was a pilot who claimed that no man made aircraft could move like that at the speeds observed What did these people see A trick of the light A classified government aircraft An actual alien spacecraft Many people have reported seeing unusual objects like this in the sky Whether life exists on other planets or not the idea of unidenti fied flying objects UFOs and aliens has long excited and fascinated people on Earth The presence of aliens on or beyond our planet has never been proven but some people continue to believe in look for signs of and listen to stories about encounters with alien life Why are people so interested in alien life Perhaps it is because now that we know how
INTRODUCTION huge the universe really is it seems possible that Earth is not the only life supporting planet Even among the often skeptical scientific community there are some advocates for keeping an open mind about extraterres trial life Aliens are often depicted like this with large beads and eyes shaped like almonds This most likely comes from literature on alien
CH A PTER ONE WHAT IS AN ALIEN he word alien is a popular word for an extra terrestrial life form or a being that originated beyond Earth No one knows if extraterrestrial life exists or ever existed but some scientists think that it is possible The branch of biology concerned with extra terrestrial life from microscopic organisms to intelligent beings is called exobiology or astrobiology Scientists in this field consider the conditions nec essary for life how it evolves how to detect alien life forms and the environments in
WHAT IS AN ALIEN which they might live whether in our own solar system or on any of the numerous planets orbiting other stars EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE The precise requirements for life are not known All liv ing things on Earth are based on the element carbon and need water for chemical reactions Hydrogen nitrogen phosphorous sulfur oxygen and other elements are also essential However if alien life forms exist they might be very different from any living thing on Earth Such life forms might be difficult to detect or even rec ognize as life At a basic level living things must be made of atoms that bond to form a variety of molecules at the tempera tures in their environment They probably require a liq uid water or perhaps ammonia hydrogen cyanide or liquid hydrocarbons for chemical reactions The envi ronment would have this liquid at or near the surface Life forms would also need sunlight or another energy source protection from ultraviolet radiation and proba bly an atmosphere Extraterrestrial intelligence is one step further than extraterrestrial life It means life from another world that is capable of thinking and working toward a Radio telescopes like this one in Virginia are capable of seeking out extraterrestrial signals from deep within outer space However nothing has been detected yet
