Tag Archives: Aliens

The Ongoing Question, Do Aliens Exist?

People have asked this question many times before. But was it really answered? Most likely, this question will be asked forever. Scientists have wondered if humans are the only life form in the universe for many decades. To this day, there were many UFO sightings but most have been proven to be hoaxes. But what about the other unexplained ones? Many people agree that there are definitely other life forms out there, while others reject these opinions. Others aren’t sure, but the question still remains unanswered. Are we the alone in the universe?

The Roswell incident dealt with an object that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947. The Air Force states that what was recovered was debris from a high-altitude spy balloon under a top secret program named “Mogul”. People who believe in UFOs claim that it was an extraterrestrial spaceship and that the government covered it all up.

The incident was not discussed for more than 30 years until 1978 when the story spread again through UFO believers after somebody who presumably worked at the site of the crash for the clean-up gave an interview. In February 1980, The National Enquirer interviewed him again which made the incident even more infamous.

In order to quiet these spreading stories, the government directed the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force to conduct an internal investigation. The result was summarized in two reports, released in 1995 and 1997. The reports concluded that a) the recovered material in 1947 was remnants from the crash of a high altitude balloon, and b) rumors of recovered alien bodies were memories of military accidents involving injured or killed personnel. Of course, UFO believers dismissed the reports as being part of a huge cover-up.

In my opinion, the answer is in numbers. I believe that there is extraterrestrial intelligent life in space. I mean, there are many-many planets in a solar system, there are many-many solar systems in a galaxy, and many-many galaxies in a universe. And if each star in the universe has orbiting planets, like our Sun has, then there must be at least a small chance of life. So, to restate a quote from the movie Contact, “iif we are the only life out there, wouldn’t this be a huge waste of space?”

~Yiannis Bagtzoglou

Could there be a LOT of other Earths?

     Just a few days ago on September 12th, 16 new super earths were discovered. These are earths that are a little heavier than our earth, and can possibly support life. There is specifically  one, that is in a great location, a perfect distance away from a star. Could this be a new home for the human race? Or will there be someone/something already inhabiting this environment?

    The E.S.O. (European Southern Observatory) discovered 50 new exoplanets including the 16 super earths. They did this using HARPS telescope. To me it looks like ESO’s pulling ahead of NASA. Uh-oh. Anyway, they are focusing in on one planet in particular called HD 85512 b, (why they didn’t just give it a name like Hector or Felix or something, is beyond me), is estimated to be 3.6 times more massive than earth and 35 light-years away, which sounds like a lot. I can’t even imagine what it would look like!! The only problem is that they have to do more investigating on if it has liquid water on the surface.  And if it does?

Imagine saying, Awww you’re moving? Where are you moving to? And the response you would get is:  I am moving to planet HD85512 b! I’ll send you postcards through a rocket!

     That would be crazy! But then again the earth would be a lot less crowded and it may solve our problems of running out of natural gasses and other natural resources. I think what might happen though is we are eventually going to get there, and there will be another species on the planet already. The theory may be crazy but it’s definitely not impossible. When you think about how there are planets just like ours out there, it gets less and less unbelievable to think there may be other species like us in space.

     So, what do you think? Will we ever get to planet HD 85512 b? I think so. If you had a choice would you go check it out? I would, it would be so cool to see! And do you think we will be the only ones there? I don’t. What is your opinion?

~Emily Inzero