Yeah, who knew?
Today is "UFO Awareness Day", at least on the Internet.
UFO's - Unidentified Flying Objects - has been in our lexicon for quite awhile.
In 1947 a small plane pilot in Washington State made a report about seeing "flying saucers". And after that movies, books and sightings began to appear, even to modern day incidents.
Where does your state come in?
Personally I have seen 2 UFO's during my lifetime, that is something in the sky I could not identify as being of astronomical, aeronautical or meteorological origin. Does this mean alien or flying saucer in origin? I can't say as the objects were UFOs - Unidentified.
A LOT of sightings can be explained but a small percentage cannot.
For me the bottom line on UFOs is that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN THE UNIVERSE. But, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence as the late Dr. Carl Sagan famously said. Maybe the day will come when we know without question there are other spacefaring species "out there".
Maybe.
But we have been unsuccessful in our quest for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Plus the laws of physics as far as we know apply to the whole Universe which means we shouldn't expect "Warp Drive" or other exotic faster than light space propulsion.
Oh, and the UNIVERSE IS HUGE IN SIZE. When you consider the fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons, cleared the orbit of the Moon in 9 HOURS as opposed to 3 DAYS for the Apollo astronauts it still took 9.5 YEARS (!) to get to Pluto.
The closest exoplanet to Earth is over 25 TRILLION MILES DISTANT and probably harbors no life due to the radiation spewed by its parent star.
I watch the skies ALOT, hoping to see a fireball/bolide/UFO. The odds are overwhelmingly against me seeing anything BUT I do like to look anyway.
Bottom line: watch the skies for their beauty and possibilities......
Sky Guy in VA
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