1952 UFO Flap. In 1952 Project Blue Book
officially received 1,501 sightings of which 303 were listed as unidentified.
This was by far the largest number of UFO sightings reported to the Air Force in
a single year for the 1947 through 1969 period of official investigation.
The 1952 flap was highlighted by the Washington, D.C. sightings which
occurred on two weekends (July 19-20 and July 26-27). Radars at Andrews Air
Force Base and Washington National Airport picked up several slow moving
targets. The radars both agreed on the location of these targets. F-94 aircraft
were scrambled after these targets, but the targets would soon disappear from
the radar scopes as soon as the aircraft were in flight. When the aircraft
returned to base, the targets would reappear. These targets were in restricted
air space near the Whitehouse. Officially the Air Force debunked the
sightings as due to radar beams glancing off of temperature inversions and were
therefore picking up ground level targets (e.g. cars). This explanation was
rejected by personnel who operated the radars due to the fact that they felt
that the targets were solid metallic objects and not due to anomalous
propagation of radar beams (resulting from temperature inversions).
Suggested Reading:
UFOs and The National Security State by Richard M. Dolan.
http://keyholepublishing.com/peter_jennings_and_ufos.htm
How many stars (as of 3/2006) in the
KNOWN Universe?
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSC/SEM75BS1VED_index_0.html
Update (as of 3/2006) (source - Science Channel): There are 400
billion stars in the Milky Way (out galaxy). There are 100 billion
galaxies.
Assuming approximately 400 billion stars in each galaxy, there are 10 9
x 10 12 = 10 21 stars. In addition,
*130 planets have been discovered around
many stars.
There are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars (a billion trillion).
If there is life of some sort on a planet
orbiting 1 billionth of them, then there is life on one trillion planets. If
there is some sort of intelligent life on 1 millionth of the ones containing
some sort of life at all, then there is intelligent life
on 1 million of them. In reality, the chances are probably much
greater. (Recall that there is evidence of the past existence of water on
Mars, and hence, possible life at one time. Include Earth and this is 2 of
10 planets with life, or possible life, by one star out of a billion trillion
stars.)
Big number? Get some perspective:
Assume that there 50 blades of grass per square inch. We know there are
5,280 x 12 x 5280 x 12 = 4,014,489,600 (4 billion) square inches in a square mile.
There are then 4,014,489,600 in2 x 50 blades of grass = 200,724,480,000
(200 billion) blades of grass in a square
mile.
This means that 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 blades of grass cover
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 /
200,724,480,000 = 4,981,953,372 (5 billion) square
miles.
The surface of the earth is about 4 pi r 2 = 4 x 3.14159 x
4000 2 = 201,061,930 (200 million)
square miles.
Therefore, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 blades of grass would cover about
4,981,953,372 / 201,061,930 = 24.8 earths, water and all.
Another perspective:
The sun is 93,000,000 miles away. A round trip would be 186,000,000 miles
(equivalent to 7,560 times around the Earth).
Assume a stack of 100 dollar bills is .5 inches high or $200 per inch.
A stack of 10 21 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollar bills
would go to the sun and back 424,270 times (see calculations below)
(equivalent to 3,207,481,200 times around the Earth).
10 21 stars / (186000000 mi x 5280 ft / mi x 12 in / ft x 200 dollars
/ in) = 424,270 times to the Sun and back.
(Assuming I may have made a mistake in my above calculations, you still must
admit that a billion trillion known stars is a lot of stars. And that's in
our Universe alone!)
*So far (as of 4/2005), 130 planets have been
discovered orbiting around nearby stars (as of 2005).
The development of life on the early Earth provides clues to possible evolution
of life elsewhere.
http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/habitable-planets/invest16.html
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