Apparently the powers that be feel that we common folic don't need to know about it. It is disturbing to think that the reason why the full story of UFOs isn't disclosed is that the truth is something we truly don't want to know, and that we are being kept in blissful ignorance for a good reason. President Reagan made a statement at an address at the United Nations in which he suggested that the whole world would suddenly become united should there be a threat from without, even going so far as to wonder whether an alien force was already among us. Did President Reagan know of a possible extraterrestrial threat, his statement a gentle reminder and tacit admission that we are not alone? One wonders what will happen when overt, undeniable contact occurs. But, as I implied earlier, the fact that we are still here suggests that any alien species observing us is of a benign character.
You have to ask why there is life in this universe. Was it created by a Creator, or is it just a result of a series of unlikely events? One could ask, is there just one universe? Or are there a multitude of universes, the so-called multiverse? Either way, just by the odds, I believe there have to be many other civilizations out there. It has been said that if we are the only life, then there is a lot of wasted space. My personal feeling is that we and the universe were created by a Creator. The universe had to be incredibly fine-tuned for life to exist, and I for one don't believe that all that extra space is wasted. Putting the UFO phenomena aside, at this moment, planet Earth is the only site where life is recognized to exist by traditional science. Sadly, until traditional science accepts the reality that events such as Roswell were indeed extraterrestrial craft, humanity will have to accept the presence of intelligent life elsewhere on faith. I have to confess that, had I not seen the debris from that craft on our kitchen floor, I would look at the UFO phenomena with a bit of skepticism. Again, leaving UFO events aside, there are compelling arguments to suggest that we are not alone. Most astrophysicists would agree that there is a high probability of not only life, but intelloent life existing elsewhere, just based on the laws of physics and chance. There are 1022 stars in the visible universe, a number that equates to the number of sand grains on Earth. No matter how unlikely the possibility of life on any given star, there are so many chances for life to exist on a multitude of planets. This means that there is nothing special about this planet, its location in the galaxy, or even our galaxy's place in the universe.
Our own galaxy of 200 to 400 billion stars (which would equate to the number of salt grains it would take to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool) has innumerable solar systems. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has determined that planetary systems that at one time were considered to be very rare are now known to be commonplace. The HST has visualized protoplanetary discs around stars where planetary systems are still in their embryonic or cocoon stage. Maybe just a small fraction of these will go on to develop Earth-like planets with life, but the sheer numbers dictate that there must be many, many such planets that are the abodes of intelligent, spacefaring civilizations. As it turns out, the stars that have the same spectral features as our sun are the ones most likely to have an accompanying retinue of planets.
So far we have found at least 130 extra-solar planets through a variety of means. No true Earth-like planet has yet been found, but our instruments are not quite at the sensitivity to discover Earth lookalikes. Once we find another Earth-like planet, studies can be made of its atmosphere to determine if its gasses contain water vapor, oxygen, and nitrogen. If these are found, life is almost a certainty, especially if there is a trace of methane present. Methane is a biological marker, and its presence would be difficult to explain in the absence of life. Methane has been detected in the Martian atmosphere, which is a very strong clue that life similar to ours is present. Because methane is a gas that degrades, it would be completely gone in 300 years, unless it is continually replaced by volcanic activity, cometary collisions, or biologic activity. Because there is no known volcanic activity or recent cometary collisions on Mars, current biologic activity would almost certainly have to be present.
In 1984, a meteorite named ALH 84001 was found in the Allan Hills region of Antarctica that apparently came to Earth about 13,000 years ago. After study, it was determined that it indeed did come from Mars, and was probably knocked off the surface by a meteorite impact. Gasses contained in the meteorite were consistent with the atmospheric gasses known to be on Mars. Further study revealed some remarkable findings: There were abundant amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that can be produced by organic activity. It is known that some PAHs found in meteorites can be from inorganic activity, but the type found in the Martian meteorite was consistent with the type produced by biology In conjunction with the PAHs there were also unusual minerals found. They were carbonate globules about 50 microns across, with cores containing manganese, rings of iron carbonate and sulfides, along with magnetite and pyrorhite. These all bear strong resemblances to mineral alterations identical to those produced by primitive Earth bacteria. The pattern found in the magnetite was identical to the pattern produced by Earth bacteria, so finding all of this in such a small area makes a nonbiological origin unlikely. The most startling of all findings was made by a highresolution electron microscope. It found what appear to be almost certainly fossilized bacteria. These are very small, and would be classified as nanobes. Taking all of these findings together makes a biological origin most likely. In other words, "if it looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk, then it is probably a skunk." Taking the Occam's razor concept that if you have a variety of solutions to a problem, the simplest explanation is the most likely one, that would be biology.
Our sun is a third-generation star, which means that two previous generations of stars went through their life cycles, with us being the beneficiary of their ashes. Some 13.7 billion years ago our universe was born in the "big bang," which produced clouds primarily made of hydrogen and helium with a trace of other elements such as deuterium. These clouds of deuterium and helium provided fuel for the first-generation stars, which went through their life cycles to produce heavier elements in a supernova explosion. It took one more generation of stars to produce the elements of which our solar system is made. If it happened here, it most assuredly happened elsewhere, and perhaps much sooner, so those civilizations would be older and wiser. Even a span of a few thousand years would put them vastly ahead with their technology
I was fortunate enough recently to hear Dr. Edgar Mitchell of Apollo 14, the sixth man to walk on the moon, give a talk for the Paradigm Research Group, an organization dedicated to the disclosure of UFO secrets from various governmental agencies. In that talk, he spoke of his forebears settling in Texas after getting there in a covered wagon. A hundred years later, Ed was walking on the face of the moon. If we can do that in a hundred years, what would a thousand years do for us? Unfortunately, with our advances in science and space technology, we have also had advances in weapons technology. We can now thoroughly annihilate ourselves, and have come breathtakingly close to doing so in the last several decades. Perhaps some promising civilizations have done exactly that, and have extinguished themselves. I speculate that some of our space cousins have taken an increased interest in us because of our self-destructive tendencies, and may be taking bets to see if we survive to join the intergalactic club of space-faring civilizations. If we continue on our current rate of technological advancement for the next several hundred years, we will be well on our way to the stars.