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STUDYING UFOs
According to a report by the United Nations, since 1947 more than 150 million people have been witnesses to UFO sightings throughout the world. More than 20,000 of those have been documented landings. A Roper poll conducted in the U.S. reported that 70% of the U.S. population believes that the government is not telling the public everything it knows about UFOs and extraterrestrials.
Definitions:
UFOs, or Unidentified Flying Objects, are just that—flying objects of unknown origin. USOs, or Unidentified Submerged Objects, are objects of unknown origin in the skies that are seen to enter and/or exit bodies of water. Ufology is the study of UFOs/USOs and an Ufologist is one who studies them. Prior to the term “unidentified flying object”, the term “flying saucer” was used.
Is this a recent phenomenon?
Cave drawings that depict UFOs and figures that look like astronauts date back thousands of years and are found all over the world. Many cultures have stories of ancestors who came from “the stars” in “air ships”.
The modern UFO era can be dated to June 1947 when private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine crescent-shaped objects traveling at speeds he estimated at over 1,000 miles per hour while he was in flight near Mt. Rainier, Washington. A few weeks later, New Mexico rancher William “Mac” Brazel claimed that a “flying saucer” had crashed on his ranch near Roswell. However, there are instances of reported sightings of strange aerial phenomena in newspaper clippings dating back to the 1860s.
Every continent and nearly every country has reported UFO sightings. Official organizations have been established to collect this data. MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network) and NUFORC (the National UFO Reporting Center) are two that are widely known.
Who reports sightings?
Reports are made by people of all ages, all cultures, from all walks of life, and all educational backgrounds. Some of the most convincing sightings have been reported by airline pilots, military pilots, ex-military pilots, and other people with technical backgrounds. Politicians, including Presidents, have seen and reported unusual objects in the skies. Teachers, corporation presidents, farmers, students, doctors, actors, musicians, scientists, just to name a few, have reported seeing unexplained objects in the skies and in the waters.
What do UFOs look like?
Many shapes have been reported such as disks, star shapes, triangles, round, diamond, cylindrical, and chevron. Colors reported are usually metallic silver, black or white. Some reports involve only single or multiple bright lights of different colors that behave erratically.
Types of sightings:
Close encounters of the 1st kind involve a sighting of one or more UFOs that are of unknown origin.
Close encounters of the 2nd kind involve observing a UFO and the physical effects left behind. Some examples are damage to the landscape, frightened animals, and lost time.
Close encounters of the 3rd kind involve the observation of animate beings in association with a UFO sighting.
Close encounters of the 4th kind are abduction by a UFO or its occupants.
Close encounters of the 5th kind involve the conscious, voluntary, cooperative communication with extraterrestrial intelligence.