Have you ever seen a UFO?

Have you ever seen a UFO?

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Discussion

jmorgan

36,010 posts

285 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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Black triangles can have a simple explanation, that is also a little research that cannot be denied. The main issue is the human brain putting 2+2 together and getting 5. Especially at night.


Kitchski

6,516 posts

232 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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RegMolehusband said:
I think the vast majority who saw a satellite or an airliner at 30,000ft would think, oh look, a satellite or an airliner.
Quite possibly. I'm in the minority who don't have a built-in zoom lens in my pupil, sadly frown

Catatafish

1,361 posts

146 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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jmorgan said:
Black triangles can have a simple explanation, that is also a little research that cannot be denied. The main issue is the human brain putting 2+2 together and getting 5. Especially at night.
Just google "hypnopompic hallucinations" it's quite fascinating.

Gandahar

9,600 posts

129 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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tuscaneer said:
One thing nobody who thinks we are being visited by aliens seems to consider.......

Assuming that the amount of material floating round in the oort cloud is common to most/all stars...how do crafts travel fast enough to get here while navigating the random rocks and ice that occupy the areas between solar systems and interstellar space?...never has/never will happen
The amount of space the Oort cloud is in there would be a very small chance of hitting anything.




tuscaneer

7,766 posts

226 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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Gandahar said:
The amount of space the Oort cloud is in there would be a very small chance of hitting anything.
small chance or not it's still a very real risk........ you've gone to all the trouble of constructing a vehicle that can travel at the ridiculous speeds needed for interstellar travel....and then you fly into a bit of rock / ice at an unfathomable speed .....the amount of stty debris that must surround every star tells me that you've got to successfully navigate your own star system and then get into our solar system unmolested so you can hover above desolate highways and stab cows in the undercarriage.....

Kitchski

6,516 posts

232 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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Another thing I've often wondered - assuming 'aliens' have the technology to visit Earth, they would first have developed technology to view Earth. If they were 60-odd million light years away, they'd see Dinosaurs. Would you come visit if you were a little green man with a squeaky voice, and you saw T-Rex at the end of your telescope? Nah, I wouldn't either.

The bit that (almost) bugs me, is that humans are so self-centred they not only assume that life of some sort has visited Earth, but that it would be life they took a similar form to ourselves. Life as we know it. All the evidence so far points to likelihood that life as we know it developed from microbes on this particular planet due to its position in the green zone. To achieve similar life, you'd almost have to replicate the same scenario that happened with the birth of the Sun, Earth, microbial life form evolution etc. Lots of links in a chain. It's quite self-obsessed to think alien life would loosely replicate that of life here, let alone to think they'd bomb all the way over here in a flying saucer.
And, even if they did exist in a humanised form that we can get our tiny minds around, and even if they could bomb it over here in a flying saucer, why would they? If they had the technology to get here from other solar systems, or even galaxies, why would they? They'd clearly be miles ahead of us, and would gain nothing from coming here (assuming they even breathe the same gases). They could easily observe us from wherever they are and carry on being better than us. With how destructive humans are, they're best to stay well away anyway.

We know there are some forms of life that can survive in a vacuum, or without oxygen/water/sunlight etc. They're still present on Earth now, so they're possible present elsewhere in the universe. Possibly even on the moons of the gas giants in our own solar system. But little green men with flying triangles? I think Hollywood has a lot to answer for!

My own opinion? Life probably does exist elsewhere, either in microbial form, or a form that we haven't even begun to consider, or even know about. I think it's likely life hatched a ride here on a comet, in the early days (my own assumption based on nothing more than watching a few shows on Eden and deciding I know about the universe) and flourished into what we know, and that only happened because the comet that I assume collided with Earth did so when Earth was cool enough to receive it, and wet enough to harvest it (water may well have also arrived on comets - it had to get here somehow).

So the question is (assuming my opinion held some water (lol)): Where did these comets come from?

Gandahar

9,600 posts

129 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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tuscaneer said:
Gandahar said:
The amount of space the Oort cloud is in there would be a very small chance of hitting anything.
small chance or not it's still a very real risk........ you've gone to all the trouble of constructing a vehicle that can travel at the ridiculous speeds needed for interstellar travel....and then you fly into a bit of rock / ice at an unfathomable speed .....the amount of stty debris that must surround every star tells me that you've got to successfully navigate your own star system and then get into our solar system unmolested so you can hover above desolate highways and stab cows in the undercarriage.....
Quoting good old wiki

"The outer Oort cloud may have trillions of objects larger than 1 km (0.62 mi),[3] and billions with absolute magnitudes[15] brighter than 11 (corresponding to approximately 20-kilometre (12 mi) diameter), with neighboring objects tens of millions of kilometres apart"


So a very small chance indeed, but even so if you can develop an interstellar spacecraft you can assume they have a way of avoiding them, perhaps with a gun that fires, what us scientists call, a disintegration ray. Or ray-gun for short.

I read a funny piece once that explained why alien spacecraft kept crashing into Arizona etc. The flying controls were in the centre of the flying saucer. The reason for a saucer shape would only be explained by it being designed like that so it could spin. The aliens were therefore flung to the outside of the ship and could no longer reach the controls ( forwards / backwards / handbrake)






Gandahar

9,600 posts

129 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
quotequote all
Kitchski said:
The bit that (almost) bugs me, is that humans are so self-centred they not only assume that life of some sort has visited Earth, but that it would be life they took a similar form to ourselves.
This is an interesting point actually if you look at the history of space alien visitations. In the early days the aliens did not look like the big eyed bald creatures as put forward by Hollywood in Close Encounters etc. No, interestingly they tended to have long gold or white hair and tend to by quite hippy looking.

Also they used to look out of portholes in the side of their saucers. Of course portholes in spacecraft stopped being commented on when tv screens and projectors came more into being for humans. The aliens progressed with humans and got rid of portholes. Which is a bit sad really.

Aliens tend to follow the human trends, which is kind of them, to fit in.

Also, I pondered for a long time why, with the massive explosion of cameras on phones, car dashboards and even lonely Peruvian farmers tractors, not more aliens and their anal probes have been captured on "film". Then it struck me, rather than actually visit us they just sit out beyond the range of our Christmas Tasco refracting telescopes and google it all.

Ghosts however, how come there has not been a mad increase in photo's of them? Or BigFoot.



jmorgan

36,010 posts

285 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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I think camera's have been the big downfall. Even die hards must see that.

rovermorris999

5,203 posts

190 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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Regarding black triangular craft:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(aircraft)

A bit of googling gives some interesting accounts.

Catatafish

1,361 posts

146 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
quotequote all
tuscaneer said:
small chance or not it's still a very real risk........ you've gone to all the trouble of constructing a vehicle that can travel at the ridiculous speeds needed for interstellar travel....and then you fly into a bit of rock / ice at an unfathomable speed .....the amount of stty debris that must surround every star tells me that you've got to successfully navigate your own star system and then get into our solar system unmolested so you can hover above desolate highways and stab cows in the undercarriage.....
The interstellar medium and high energy particles are more of a problem, ablating the craft and damaging molecules and material structures, even ignoring damage to dna.

Halb

53,012 posts

184 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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Kitchski said:
Another thing I've often wondered - assuming 'aliens' have the technology to visit Earth, they would first have developed technology to view Earth. If they were 60-odd million light years away, they'd see Dinosaurs. Would you come visit if you were a little green man with a squeaky voice, and you saw T-Rex at the end of your telescope? Nah, I wouldn't either.
We have human scientists pondering if bees can fly and all kinds of silly stuff.
http://time.com/4026473/ridiculous-science-studies...
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjkiebus/19-of-the-years-m...
http://list25.com/25-ridiculous-research-papers-pu...

I can well believe alien intelligence (if it exists) would travel anywhere to view/record complex (and not complex) life.

towser

923 posts

212 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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At the risk of ridicule....here's my UFO "experience" - not saying it's little green men or anything, but always wondered what I saw.

Crisp winter morning, perfect blue sky.

Over the sea spotted a glowing circular object move across the horizon. The object was made up of concentric rings of different coloured light - no other features visible - then again it would have been at least a mile distant - so would have been hard pushed to see anything!!

Object comes to a halt.

3 smaller circular objects appear one after the other from the rear of the larger object and stop in an equally spaced row behind the larger object. These smaller objects were also made up of concentric rings of colored light.

Then all 4 objects move off keeping the same lined up formation until they disappeared from view.

Thoughts???


Edited by towser on Wednesday 6th January 16:36


Edited by towser on Wednesday 6th January 16:37

RegMolehusband

3,961 posts

258 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
quotequote all
rovermorris999 said:
Regarding black triangular craft:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(aircraft)

A bit of googling gives some interesting accounts.
If such a thing as the Aurora existed it would actually make an awful lot of noise. It certainly wouldn't hover silently a few hundred feet off the ground.



If Eric and Mr. Morgan in particular will tolerate a little wild speculation for a moment, I have my own madcap hypothesis (which would probably attract more credence if proposed by somebody more eminent than me) that IF we are being observed then it may be by future inhabitants of this planet.

And I don't mean us.

This planet has a long life yet, and I think it likely that we will all succumb to the next mass extinction, be it self inflicted or otherwise. Things will settle down for many millions of years and the planet will allow the next intelligent life form to evolve. They may be smaller than us, with big eyes and big heads, with big brains. They are more likely to be pale grey than green I think. They may prove far more successful than us and develop more quickly because they might not be so thick and warlike, and they will pass through the religion stage more quickly and painlessly.

They'll have nuclear fusion and particle physics sorted out and then turn their thoughts to the fossil record, the dinosaurs that thrived for millions of years and the later enigmatic humanoids that appeared to have come and gone in the blink of an eye in terms of geological time.

The subject of time travel could be a thread of its own but if they mastered the basics I have no doubts that they would send probes back, maybe "manned" maybe not, to take a look. We would. They wouldn't be worried about the grandfather paradox and the like because, after the mass extinction, the slate will have been wiped clean. It would be quite important to them that they did nothing that might delay or stop the mass extinction though! Just like we wouldn't want to go back and drown Hitler at birth.

If these probes couldn't go "Back to the Future" then they would deposit their data somewhere they know to be stable to be recovered millions of years on, maybe on the far side of the Moon, a satellite type device orbiting quietly far out beyond the moon, or on a nearby planet.

There's no problem with travelling the unfathomable distances between solar systems, or clobbering a rock in the Oort cloud in the last few minutes following years of travel - and they would feel quite at home.

So there we are. I will now take my overdue medication, and carry on with this P&L report I'm working on.


(If this concept features in a science fiction book and film in the near future then I will be seeking royalties) smile

Derek Smith

45,679 posts

249 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
quotequote all
RegMolehusband said:
If such a thing as the Aurora existed it would actually make an awful lot of noise. It certainly wouldn't hover silently a few hundred feet off the ground.



If Eric and Mr. Morgan in particular will tolerate a little wild speculation for a moment, I have my own madcap hypothesis (which would probably attract more credence if proposed by somebody more eminent than me) that IF we are being observed then it may be by future inhabitants of this planet.

And I don't mean us.

This planet has a long life yet, and I think it likely that we will all succumb to the next mass extinction, be it self inflicted or otherwise. Things will settle down for many millions of years and the planet will allow the next intelligent life form to evolve. They may be smaller than us, with big eyes and big heads, with big brains. They are more likely to be pale grey than green I think. They may prove far more successful than us and develop more quickly because they might not be so thick and warlike, and they will pass through the religion stage more quickly and painlessly.

They'll have nuclear fusion and particle physics sorted out and then turn their thoughts to the fossil record, the dinosaurs that thrived for millions of years and the later enigmatic humanoids that appeared to have come and gone in the blink of an eye in terms of geological time.

The subject of time travel could be a thread of its own but if they mastered the basics I have no doubts that they would send probes back, maybe "manned" maybe not, to take a look. We would. They wouldn't be worried about the grandfather paradox and the like because, after the mass extinction, the slate will have been wiped clean. It would be quite important to them that they did nothing that might delay or stop the mass extinction though! Just like we wouldn't want to go back and drown Hitler at birth.

If these probes couldn't go "Back to the Future" then they would deposit their data somewhere they know to be stable to be recovered millions of years on, maybe on the far side of the Moon, a satellite type device orbiting quietly far out beyond the moon, or on a nearby planet.

There's no problem with travelling the unfathomable distances between solar systems, or clobbering a rock in the Oort cloud in the last few minutes following years of travel - and they would feel quite at home.

So there we are. I will now take my overdue medication, and carry on with this P&L report I'm working on.


(If this concept features in a science fiction book and film in the near future then I will be seeking royalties) smile
There was a book, First and Lat Men, Stanislav Lem I think, which covered the bit about extinction and rise again. I found it a difficult read with very little character development.

I disagree that our replacement, if natives, will be fundamentally different to us in their ways. If Darwin was correct then in all essentials we will be more or less identical. We might be taller, smaller, have more legs, fewer arms but if we evolve in a similar planet, we will be similar, because we are the fittest to survive.

If there is a lizard stage and no asteroid, then it is likely that we would be terrible lizards, but still warlike, selfish and no fun at parties unless drunk.


jmorgan

36,010 posts

285 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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Think the lizards were at a evolutionary dead end with regards getting any better (thinking better that is), how many planets with that stage in life as the pinnacle.

Halb

53,012 posts

184 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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The Science of Discworld covers apocalyptic events with story and factual data, it is rather enlightening and amusing.

I think apocalyptic events are probably more common than the current consensus agrees with, after my reading on the Younger Dryas Impact theory.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

285 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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Derek Smith

45,679 posts

249 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
quotequote all
jmorgan said:
Think the lizards were at a evolutionary dead end with regards getting any better (thinking better that is), how many planets with that stage in life as the pinnacle.
The dinosaurs were more successful than any other 'type', with the exception of insects. Certainly more than mammals which didn't crawl out of holes until an asteroid killed all the dinosaurs. I accept that they must have been daft as you'd have thought some of them would have ducked.

There is a lot to support cold blood. Let's face it, 165 million years they lasted and it took 100 trillion tons of TNT to topple their rule.


jmorgan

36,010 posts

285 months

Thursday 7th January 2016
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No doubting their rule, the dead end was not going up in the world and getting off this rock. They were locked in an arms race.

Edit. I also understand that they were already on the slippery slope as the atmosphere changed. The crashing rock helped things along.


Wonder how we would cope.