Essay: A FRESH LOOK AT FLYING SAUCERS

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Yet even these theories do not wholly explain all UFO sightings. At Colorado, Physicist Condon and his staff have investigated new reports, sifted through past Blue Book and NICAP files, and begun a computer-aided analysis of 2,000 sightings. For the moment, Condon has narrowed the study down to three sightings supported by ample photographic or eyewitness evidence. The first was made in daylight at Mc-Minnville, Ore., on May 11, 1950 by Paul Trent, a farmer who spotted and photographed a saucer 20 ft. to 30 ft. in diameter hovering over his field. Trent's saucer, which resembled a garbage-can cover, is similar to one photographed over France in 1954. Negatives of his pictures, which are among the clearest UFO shots ever obtained, will be analyzed electronically for authenticity. Condon's second case involves several sightings in the vicinity of Levelland, Texas, on the night of Nov. 2, 1957, when glowing elliptical objects 200 ft. long hovered over highways, terrifying several motorists and causing their cars' ignition and lights to fail. A third apparently inexplicable case occurred off Trindade Isle, Brazil, during daylight on Jan. 16, 1958, when scientific personnel aboard a Brazilian navy ship spotted a Saturn-shaped UFO and photographed it four times.

In the Galactic Boondocks

If one accepts the reality of vehicles from outer space, one must assume the existence in the universe of a race more intelligent than man—certainly not difficult to believe. (In fact, it is much harder to think that in all the universe man is the only advanced being.) Next, one would have to assume that these intelligent creatures are interested in Earth, and some scientists find this assumption particularly unlikely. "If saucers have been coming here regularly," reasons Astronomer Sagan, "this attaches some peculiar significance to our planet. Let's remember that the earth is in the galactic boondocks. I really doubt that the city slickers of the universe are all that interested in us." Earth is merely a minor planet orbiting around one of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which in turn is only an average member of a universe that may itself contain 100 billion galaxies. In his book, Intelligent Life in the Universe, written with Russian Astrophysicist I. S. Shklovsky, Sagan estimates that in the Milky Way alone there may be as many as a million planets inhabited by advanced civilizations. Yet distances between stars are so vast—the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years in diameter—that these civilizations are probably separated from one another by anywhere from 300 to 1,000 lightyears, Sagan estimates (a light-year is the equivalent of 6 trillion miles). This deflates the argument of urologists that saucers have begun observing the earth because of man's recent technological strides. High-powered, high-frequency radio-wave transmissions, presumably the only clear evidence of terrestrial civilization that could penetrate the atmosphere and be detected at great distances, began only two decades ago. Thus the first of these signals, which move at the speed of light, has by now traveled only 20 light-years away from the earth, passing only the relatively few stars that are near neighbors of the sun.

Toward the 30th Century