| Have you seen any flying saucers lately? Many | | | | speed of light would thus take 4.2 years to reach |
| people think they have. Even now, reports of | | | | us. Many researchers think that space travel |
| mysterious sightings are circulating in the press | | | | between solar systems is impossible. |
| and on Internet forums. | | | | Moreover, while a number of Earth-like rocky |
| The modern UFO boom began in June 1947 when | | | | exo-planets or planets orbiting other stars have |
| a businessman named Kenneth Arnold reported | | | | been discovered, they are either too large or too |
| that while piloting a private plane he had seen nine | | | | hot. It is very improbable that UFOs hail from |
| saucer-shaped objects flying over Mount Rainier in | | | | "super Earths" such as Gliese 581 c, which is |
| Washington. Later that years there were rumors | | | | hotter than Venus. |
| of a flying saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico. | | | | It seems that there are some religious ingredients |
| According to a popular but false conspiracy | | | | in UFO sightings. For some, belief in UFOs has |
| theory, US Air Force obtained the corpse of a | | | | superseded the belief in biblical Christianity. Little |
| saucer pilot but covered up the discovery. | | | | green men are seen as the new age saviors who |
| The strained relations between the east and west | | | | will prevent earthlings from destroying themselves |
| that became to be known as the cold war had | | | | and their planet. |
| just begun and the political atmosphere was | | | | According to Gary Bates, the author of Alien |
| conductive to conspiratorial rumors. The number | | | | Intrusion (2004), UFOs often have an evolutionary |
| of UFO observations exceeded 850 by the end | | | | connection. If life evolved on earth by purely |
| of 1947. | | | | naturalistic means, it should also have evolved on |
| Later, for instance the Mercury astronaut Gordon | | | | other planets. The SETI (Search for |
| Cooper and former US president Jimmy Carter | | | | Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project is an attempt |
| have disclosed seeing a UFO. | | | | to prove that we are not as special as we think. |
| So what are UFOs? A UFO is an unidentified flying | | | | Carl Sagan believed that the Earth was just a tiny |
| object. Most sightings have a natural explanation, | | | | pale blue dot in the vast cosmos. However, as |
| such as a landing airplane, satellite or meteor. | | | | Guillermo Gonzales and Jay W. Richards write in |
| Some are hoaxes. But for the ardent UFO fans, | | | | The Privileged Planet, our planet is anything but |
| some are genuine alien spaceships. | | | | ordinary. Our planet looks as though it was |
| However, UFOs cannot originate from the other | | | | designed for life. At best, we can only speculate |
| planets of our own solar system since scientists | | | | about other worlds. |
| have failed to find any evidence of life or little | | | | We might never get proof of the existence of |
| green men on Mars or Venus. The nearest star | | | | little green men for a rather simple reason: there |
| outside our solar system, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 | | | | might not be any. |
| light years from us. A space ship traveling at the | | | | |