FLYING SAUCERS LONG STANDING MYSTERY HELD TO REQUIRE STUDY

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30847, 4 September 1965, Page 14

FLYING SAUCERS LONG STANDING MYSTERY HELD TO REQUIRE STUDY

•? [By ROBERT C. COWEN. Natural Science Editor of the “Christian Science Monitor.”! (Reprinted from the “Christian Science Monitor" bp arranpement J Flying saucers are all but literally knocking on the laboratory door.

The latest wave of sightings gives no more hint than did its many predecessors that we are being visited by spaceships from other worlds. Y’et some of the sightings drive home the point that the long-standing saucer mystery begs for thorough scientific study. Something definitely is going on that cannot yet be explained.

During July and early August, reports of U.F.O.S. (unidentified flying objects) came from many parts of the world, including Antarctica. The ones of special interest in the United States came from Texas at the beginning of this month.

They told of a bright light surrounded by lesser lights. It was after nightfall and no solid object was seen. The lights were so arranged that they could well have been carried by some sort of craft, just as are the riding lights of an airplane. Many people, some well qualified as observers, saw the group of lights. Some of them had it in view for an hour and longer. The lights sometimes hovered for long periods and sometimes manoeuvred. Photographs were made.

Air Force Explanation The explanation first offered by the United States Air Force, charged with U.F.O. investigation, was that the lights were an optical quirk of the atmosphere. They were said to be due to refraction effects of a temperature inversion layer. This is a layer in which the air gets warmer with increasing height rather than becoming colder as its normally does. This “explanation” is not standing up well. Many of the people who saw the lights now have been interviewed by experienced investigators. The negatives of the photographs have been studied. The negatives show no sign of tampering. On the contrary, the image of the lights is seen against a background of star trails. ' It took a two-minute exposure to make the pictures. The apparent movement of the stars due to the earth’s rotation during that time drew their images out into lines. These lines are of the length one would expect if the camera had been focussed on a stationary object. They show that the camera was indeed sharply focussed and steady during the exposures.

Something Strange Together with the reports of the observers, this has convinced at least some investigators that something strange was indeed seen. According to one of them, there was no inversion that could explain it. The lights could have been those of a high-flying, speci-

ally- equipped balloon. But no such balloon had been launched. A little more than 7 per cent of all the cases the Air Force has listed since 1947 are similarly puzzling. Not all are as well documented as this Texas case. But they are well-enough reported to be classed as unknowns rather than set aside because of inadequate data. These cases cover a variety of sightings that run from lights in the sky to what seem quite solid objects that manoeuvre and even come close to the ground. Their common denominator is that they indicate something strange is going on that defies explanation, at least on the basis of reports in hand. Several things can be said about the mystery at this time. Visits from other worlds cannot be absolutely ruled out. But no readable sign of such visits has yet come to light. Books and reports by some who claim to have met visitors from space are discounted even by knowledgeable saucer fans. The Air Force is often charged with conspiring to withhold saucer data that might prove we are being visited. This is not true. But its U.F.O. office has shown a tendency to try to brush off puzzling reports with a handy ex-

planation rather than to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. Trying to explain the Texas sightings as due to an inversion is a case in point. The main reason there has been no scientific study of the puzzle is social pressure within the scientific community. It has not been due to lack of opportunity to gather data. Many scientists feel the whole subject is "kooky.” They dismiss it with ridicule. It can be personally embarrassing, even detrimental to a scientist’s career, to try to take the saucer problem seriously. A Liability

This situation is fast becoming a liability. It is becoming clear that, even if saucers have nothing to do with other worlds, they may involve hitherto unknown or poorly understood earthly phenomena To ignore them is to pass by a chance to expand knowledge. Noting this in an off-the-record comment one experienced saucer investigator said, “The Texas sightings have shaken me up more than any others. They seem to clearly indicate that something unusual is going on.” He added that it seems to be time for at least a serious study to see if one can make a case for a full-scale research programme.