Astronomical UFO, SETI, ETI, Aliens, etc 




     The National Research Council of Canada's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics 
   has  no factual knowledge about ExtraTerrestrial (ET) Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) , 
    nor any evidence that life has existed on other planets (only 
    probabilities drawn from statistical possibilities of life). 

     Some limited Searches for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) with Canadian
   radio telescopes to detect signals from an ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (ETI) have been 
   attempted before, but we did not detect any confirmed artificial signal.

     Below we discuss Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) on the Possibilities of 
   ExtraTerrestrial life ...




FAQ 1. Possibilities that life may be present on other planets in the Solar System? 
    - Outside the Earth, there is None detected so far on the other planets
    of the Solar System. But life tends to develop whenever it has a fair 
    chance. So what is a fair chance ? 
    - Current evidence of life on Mars: zero or negligible. In need of in-situ observations.




FAQ 2. Can extraterrestrial life exist outside the Solar System ? 
    - Life on Earth tends to develop in diverse forms, and whenever and 
    wherever that all the basic conditions are there. 
    - Drake's probability Equation, a product of each probability in the 
    process leading to life, gives a crude answer to the development
    of life, when using reasonable hypotheses.  
    - A crude answer may be 1 in 10E12 planets (1 in 
    1 000 000 000 000). That may mean that the Earth is the
    only planet with life in our Milky Way galaxy. 
    - With the usual error margin, one could relax that crude answer by a 
    factor of ten, giving a possible answer as 1 planet in 10E11 planets (1 in
    100 000 000 000), meaning a limiting answer of about 10 planets with life 
    in our Milky Way galaxy. 




FAQ 3. What physical & biological restrictions keep other life forms from reaching the Earth ?
    - Extreme Ultraviolet photons from massive stars in space will kill all
    life and bacteria, if life is not heavily shielded inside a monstrous ship. 
    - The huge distance from one star to the next, about 3x10E16 meters
    (30 000 000 000 000 000 meters) makes an interstellar trip a lonely
    proposition - about 10E12 seconds (1 000 000 000 000 seconds) if your ship
    goes at Earth's speed in space (30 OOO meters/second). That's 32 000 years. 
    - SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial intelligence) by astronomical 
    observations and manned planetary explorations are the only current ways
    to look for Life elsewhere. Astronomy uses photons that travel at the
    speed of light (300 000 000 meters per second), so a message to the nearest
    star from Earth takes only 3 years to go there.
    - To receive a message from the other end of the Milky Way (80 000 light-years),
    it would take 80 000 years.

 Please read this enlightened caution from R. Carroll:
     "Another common tactic of UFOlogists is to claim that the skeptic cannot   
     prove that what was seen was not an alien craft. One is supposed to infer 
     from this fact that the perception probably was of an alien craft. 
     This kind of reasoning is known as the 'argumentum ad ignorantiam'. 
     A claim does not become true or reasonable if a contrary claim cannot be 
     proved to be true. With arguments for UFOs there are two distinct moves 
     here. One is to claim that no logical explanation is possible because 
     some scientist, pilot, Air Force Colonel, or Ph.D. cannot think of one. 
     The other is to point to the lack of contrary evidence: no 
     counter-testimony of other eyewitnesses, no proof that there were not 
     aliens or alien spacecraft. Here, too, there is a logical error."





FAQ 4. How long for Humans on Earth to colonise our Milky Way galaxy ?
    -Jones' Colonization Equation, dealing with the speed of a colonisation wave
    by Earth people within our Milky Way galaxy, uses basic hypotheses linked
    to recent human expansion to cover the whole Earth. Such hypotheses are difficult
    to use for space exploration (no ground support).
    -If you take the colonisation wave to proceed at 5% of the ship's speed,
    and if you take the ship's speed to be the same as the Earth's speed in 
    space, then you will need a time scale of 80 000 light-years at 1500 
    metres/second = 2x10E10 years (20 000 000 000 years).  
    -The Sun and Earth were born only 4x10E9 years ago (4 000 000 000 years). 
    The Milky Way galaxy was born only 9x10E9 years ago (9 000 000 000 years). 
    Thus the colonisation wave from another star system in our Galaxy did not 
    have the time to cover the whole Milky Way.




FAQ 5. Are there real UFO or ET Sightings on Earth ?
Rationale:

    - Since life tends to develop in diverse forms, the possibility that 
    intelligent life on other planets would take a humanoid form (2 arms,
    2 legs, 10 fingers, etc) is remote.
    - Crop circles on Earth are the works of Earth people, perhaps brighter than 
    those who believe in extraterrestials living here on earth.
    - The 'Martian face' is a rock formation, seen at a special angle.
    - The Sphinx was made by Earth people, mostly Egyptian slaves. 

Statistics:

    - The Condon Report in 1969 studied UFO scientifically, 
    and reported that all sightings were mostly (95%) mis-interpretations, while 
    the rest (5%) were mostly outright falsehoods or partial falsehoods or
    mis-representations or due to basic incompetencies/negligences (missing data, 
    etc). There remained nothing (0%) that could be stamped scientific evidence.

    - Philip J. Klass, reporting in the Sept. 1997 edition of Astronomy (p.31-35),
    noted that of numerous reports submitted to CUFOS up to 1979, about 98.5%
    had a prosaic explanation or a possible prosaic explanation, while the rest
    (1.5%) were likely to be hoaxes and missing data. Thus there remains
    nothing (0%) that could be stamped "scientifically credible physical artifact".

        - Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark", 
      Ballantine Books, (c)1996, page 81. states:
    "There are no cases - despite well over a million UFO reports since 1947 - in 
    which something so strange that it could only be an extraterrestrial spacecraft
    is reported so reliably that misapprehension, hoax, or hallucination can be 
    reliably excluded"
    For Sagan in 1996, nothing (0%) was left that was scientifically credible.

    - Carrol's  review of US Air Force reports
   noted that 98% of reports have prosaic explanations, and the remainder
   were likely hoaxes or incomplete, without any scientific evidence.
 
    Conclusion: 0% + 0% + 0% + 0% equals 0% 

Want some human perspectives? Here are two: short and clear, search for alternatives.