Ufo Sightings And Alien Abductions example essay topic

The term UFO is at the center of great controversy. A UFO is a reported sighting of an object or light seen in the sky or on land, whose appearance, trajectory, actions, motions, lights, and colors do not have a logical, conventional, and natural explanation, and which cannot be explained, not only by the original witness, but by scientists or technical experts who try to make a common sense identification after examining the evidence. The fact that many Americans and other around the world have seen these foreign objects or lights in the sky raises the question as to whether or not there is other life out there somewhere. Just looking at the vast number of stars in the night sky will almost make any person feel certain that there is life somewhere out there. Also, if many of these objects that have been reported have no logical explanation, which questions the origination of these objects and the technology of man, then there must be something or someone else out there making them. So if it can be proven that many of the sightings were not man made and that there is some other life out there, then UFOs and aliens do exist.

Encounters occur too often to be taken lightly. Year in and year out, hundreds of people claim to have witnessed an unidentified flying object in the sky. All kinds of people see UFOs. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, educated or uneducated, young or old.

As a matter of fact, most people who have reported seeing a UFO were not looking or trying to find one at the time of their sighting. It appears as if the chances for seeing a UFO are far greater for people who live in small towns or out in the country and are outside late at night. According to the Center for UFO Studies, there are different kinds of "close encounters". Close encounters of the fist kind are UFO sightings within about 150 yards. While close encounters of the second kind are characterized by physical evidence such as burn marks on the ground or unidentifiable materials left at the location of the sighting. Close encounters of the third kind feature UFOs with visible occupants.

Close encounters of the fourth and fifth kind are often the most skeptical, but are also the most badgering. A close encounter of the fourth kind is one where there is a personal encounter with alien entities or abductions. A close encounter of the fifth kind can be considered to be the most accomplishing and the scariest as it consists of actual communication between a human and an alien. There are thousands of people who can tell a story about a close encounter of some kind. Some of the most famous are the incidents that occurred in Roswell, New Mexico, the story of Betty and Barney Hill, and the story of Police Officer Lonnie Zamora. On July 3, 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, William Brazel discovered metallic debris spread over acres of his ranch.

Mr. Brazel observed the metal and upon picking it up noticed how lightweight it was and what structural strength it had. Apparently the metal was of some kind that could not be burned, creased, or torn in any way. It also appeared as if the metal had some sort of symbols or writing on it. Mr. Brazel then called the officials at the 509th Bombardier Group at the local air force base. The military initiated a high-security search and clean-up operation of the area. A statement was released announcing the discovery of a crashed flying saucer.

Headlines in Roswell read, "RAAF [Roswell Army Air Force] Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region". A few days later though, General Roger M. Ramey, commander of the Eighth Army Air Force, ordered that the previous press release be retracted. A few days later, a second statement was made. Apparently, the investigation was wrong with its previous statement, the debris recovered was nothing more than the wreckage of a weather balloon. This created much suspicion and raised many questions.

People began to wonder if there was something that the American government was trying to hide. Were the authorities trying to keep something from the public? Who knows? Many of the documents regarding Roswell have been done away with.

The incident that occurred in Roswell has never been fully explained, even with the testimony of witnesses who saw the debris and witnesses of a second crash site miles away from the Roswell crash site, which identifies people like Gary Barnett and other firefighters as witnessing alien bodies around the wreckage, with one survivor, and military personnel admitting a cover-up. One thing is for sure, there was something that did crash is Roswell in 1947. Will we ever find out if the air force knows more than what it is telling or if the stories are true, again, who knows? Another famous case is the story of what happened to Betty and Barney Hill in 1961.

The story of Betty and Barney Hill involves a close encounter of the fourth kind. Apparently, one night as Betty and Barney were driving home from their vacation along Route 3 in Indian Head, New Hampshire, they saw a bright saucer shape in the sky. It appeared to be following their car along the road. Well needless to say, someone became a little too curious and stopped to car so that he could have a better look with the aid of his binoculars. What Barney saw both amazed and frightened him. Mr. Hill saw a pancake-shaped craft of some find that had flashing colored light around its edge.

And from inside the craft, Mr. Hill was able to identify a group of sinister-looking figures staring down at him. Realizing the danger of the situation, Betty and Barney jumped back into their car and sped off, thinking they had left the strange craft behind them. It was when they got home though, that they realized there was a problem. Somehow their journey had taken them an extra two hours, but the odometer of the car showed that the trip had been 35 miles shorter than it previous times. Barney's shoes were badly scuffed and the paint of the car had dark blotches all over it. Betty then began having strange nightmares about space creatures and aliens.

They began to wonder what might have occurred during the unaccounted two hours? Well, it was revealed by the Hills, as they were under hypnosis, a trance that you are placed under to help you recall past events, that short, gray creatures that had massive heads and large black eyes kidnapped them. The aliens had floated both Betty and Barney into their spacecraft and began to examine them. Betty mentioned that upon asking the aliens where they were from, she was shown a star map displaying their home planet. Upon drawing what she had been shown, researchers suggested that the group of stars were called Zeta Reticule. For this the Hills were questioned, but they swore to their story for the rest of their lives and did not buy into the assumption that others had made.

Doctors or military personnel were never able to disprove any part of their story and until today it remains unexplainable. After the Roswell incident in 1947, the Hill incident in 1961, there was the Zamora account of an alien blast off in 1964. This occurred in New Mexico as well. One day as Lonnie sped across a Socorro City highway, where he had been chasing another vehicle traveling above the speed limit, he noticed a blue-orange flame that blazed in the sky. Noticing that the flame had descended behind a hill about a mile from where he was at, Lonnie ran off the road and proceeded to where the flame had disappeared.

As he drew nearer, he caught sight of an odd-looking object. After getting out of his car, Lonnie saw what he described as, .".. an egg-shaped craft... with no doors or windows... resting on four silver legs". Near the strange craft, Lonnie had seen two child-like figures wearing what seemed to be white overalls from head to toe. He then noticed that one of the creatures caught a glimpse of him and appeared to be surprised. Lonnie then radioed the sheriff's office for help. When he looked up again, the two figures had disappeared.

Then there were some loud thumps, as if doors had been shut. As Lonnie approached the craft again, he noticed a red symbol on the side of it, but was unable to study it further due to a last blast that filled the air. The craft began to rise from the ground as the engine made tone changes but according to Lonnie, it sounded nothing like a plane. By the time that Police Sergeant Sam Chavez reached Lonnie, the craft had already blasted off. However, there were markings left behind.

Some of the nearby bushes were still burning. Along with the scorch markings that the blast had left behind, Officer Zamora and Officer Chavez noticed four indents into the soil, which was where the four legs of the craft stood. There were also five other marks that were found which appeared to be footprints of some kind. A few days later an official team of investigators led by Dr. Allen Hynek, who was a top scientist working for the United States Air Force on Project Blue Book, a project that was aimed to investigate predominant UFO claims, came to Socorro to learn about what Lonnie had seen. Dr. Hynek found Lonnie to be honest, reliable, and believed he was telling the truth. Project Blue Book labeled what Lonnie had seen as "unidentified".

Even though the previous three accounts have been recognized to be reliable and unexplainable or not man made, there are cases that have been proven to be hoaxes. One case is involving a man who was only referred to by his first name, Paul. In this case Paul had been working on his diminishing farm when all of a sudden a bright metallic-like object appeared to be hovering over the barn. Paul was quite stunned at the sight of this, but proceeded with wanting to get closer.

Paul reported that after walking about 30 feet, he saw a door beneath the UFO open up. Paul then described feeling. ".. a tingling sensation from head to toe". Shortly after Paul said that there was a ray of light that was sent form the UFO and it centered itself on his chest. Paul recalls feeling. ".. a burning discomfort that spread throughout his body" After the ordeal, Paul notified the local authorities claiming to have evidence of an alien close encounter on his skin. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that the markings were made by heated chicken wire that had been pressed against his skin. Paul was simply trying to attract attention to his farm hoping that he would receive donations.

There are things or times when a person might claim to have witnessed a UFO in the sky that turned out to not be one, but it was not a hoax. In these cases, natural phenomena and man made objects are to blame. Investigators will often dismiss stories by saying that they are unusual weather conditions or military aircraft and may times it turns out to be that way. For instance, lenticular clouds are clouds that are lens-shaped and remain still for long periods of time. They are often mistaken for flying saucers. Another natural phenomena that can be mistaken for an unidentified bright light in the sky is a "corona".

As rays of sunlight pass through thin clouds, they appear to be bent. These rays sometimes seem to form colored rings around the Sun. Similar shapes can be seen around the moon and often confuse people into thinking that they have seen a UFO. Dr. J. Allen Hynek had this to say in regards to eyewitness unreliability, "I did not and still do not concern myself with reports which arise from obvious misidentification's by witnesses who are not aware of the many things in the sky today which have a simple, natural explanation". Secret aircraft are another item that sometimes confuse people into thinking that they have seen a UFO.

In the 1950's a company developed a saucer-shaped aircraft called the Avro car for the U.S. Air Force. Unfortunately it was too unstable for use. Gathering from what has been seen or witnessed, it appears as if there are specific regions where UFO sightings and alien abductions tend to occur. Many of the stories of alleged sightings occurred on the western coast of the United States, Western Europe, and the eastern coast of South America.

While most of the stories of alien abductions are have taken place on the eastern coast of the United States. Even though there is great consensus from people with the notion or tendency of things to re-occur in places where they have already in the past, many might still ask why? The answer is quite simple. Think about it, what is someone or something more likely to do if he, she, or it does not want to be noticed by a group of other beings or creatures? He, she, or it will remain in areas that are not very populated, right? That is how most people think so why would other life forms, such as aliens, not do it either?

An intelligent life would be cautious in its many ways, but is there evidence in the possibility of life out there? The logical answer is yes. What exactly is essential to life? Water, various other forms of chemical building blocks such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, as well as a source of energy are required to build an organism. Most scientists are not searching directly for little green men. Their quest for other life might simply be with microscopic organisms.

The interest in the life out in the universe, also called astrobiology has been sparked by several discoveries. Over the past twenty to thirty years, scientists such as biologists, geologists, and geochemist's have become aware of the ability of life to exist in extreme conditions. From deep sea volcanic vents, to hot springs with near boiling water, to frozen lakes in Antarctica, and even within rocks deep beneath the surface of the Earth, life has shown to be adaptable and resilient. Fossils of colonies of microbes have been found in western Australia, which in fact are very similar to the microbes found in shallow water. Though there is chemical evidence that suggests that life may have existed prior to that as carbon in a rock that is dated to be older than 3.8 billion years old appears to be from once-living organisms. Billions of years ago, microbes were the only organisms living on Earth, but the interesting is that the Milky Way is not the oldest solar system out there.

That means that if we were to have the technology to observe one of about the 100 planets that have been found circling sun-like stars beyond our solar system, then we might actually find other life. It took us about 4 billion years to evolve, so why would there not be a possibility for life on another planet that is older. A person might try to argue the so-called Fermi Paradox, which is a statement by Enrico Fermi that basically says that if there was other life out there, then why have we not found evidence of them yet and why have they not contacted us? The answer has already been mentioned. We do not yet have the technology to reach that far out into space, but there is more than enough evidence that does suggest the possibility of the evolvement of life. Plus, who is to say that if there was an older, more advanced life out there, that they would want to contact us anyway.

Maybe they just want to be left alone. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program searches for intelligent life by using radio telescopes tuned to detect the emissions of other technologically advanced civilizations. The largest radio telescope sits atop mountains in northwestern Puerto Rico. It is called Arecibo. Project Ozma was on of the first attempts to that scientists made to detect radio emissions from nearby sun-like stars such as Tau Seti and Epsilon Eri dani.

Even though no radio emissions were detected from other advanced civilizations in outer space, there have been advancements in the knowledge of our own solar system. Still, most scientists involved in SETI projects do not show an interest in analyzing UFO data as a way to test this hypothesis. Even though sightings have become of greater concern and gained greater acknowledgement over the past half-decade or so, many UFO researchers will argue that UFO sightings have occurred throughout history and that scientific studies prove the possibility of the existence of life out there on some planet, even if it appears to not be inhabitable. So if science says that there is the possibility of an evolving life out there, and even an advanced life that we just do not have the technology to discover and see, along with unexplainable sightings of objects and events that were not man made, then you it should be safe to say that there can be aliens out there.