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Are we alone? The question is worthy of serious scientific study
Are we alone? Unfortunately, neither of the answers feel satisfactory. To be alone in this vast universe is a lonely prospect. On the other hand, if we are not alone and there is someone or something more powerful out there, that too is terrifying.
As a NASA research scientist and now a professor of physics, I attended the 2002 NASA Contact Conference, which focused on serious speculation about extraterrestrials. During the meeting a concerned participant said loudly in a sinister tone, "You have absolutely no idea what is out there!" The silence was palpable as the truth of this statement sunk in. Humans are fearful of extraterrestrials visiting Earth. Perhaps fortunately, the distances between the stars are prohibitively vast. At least this is what we novices, who are just learning to travel into space, tell ourselves.
I have always been interested in UFOs. Of course, there was the excitement that there could be aliens and other living worlds. But more exciting to me was the possibility that interstellar travel was technologically achievable. In 1988, during my second week of graduate school at Montana State University, several students and I were discussing a recent cattle mutilation that was associated with UFOs. A physics professor joined the conversation and told us that he had colleagues working at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, where they were having problems with UFOs shutting down nuclear missiles. At the time I thought this professor was talking nonsense. But 20 years later, I was stunned to see a recording of a press conference featuring several former US Air Force personnel, with a couple from Malmstrom AFB, describing similar occurrences in the 1960s. Clearly there must be something to this.
With July 2 being World UFO Day, it is a good time for society to address the unsettling and refreshing fact we may not be alone. I believe we need to face the possibility that some of the strange flying objects that outperform the best aircraft in our inventory and defy explanation may indeed be visitors from afar – and there's plenty of evidence to support UFO sightings.
See also: Released FAA recording reveals pilot report of a UFO over Long Island
I-Team Exclusive: Nevada senator fought to save secret UFO program
Related: Pentagon's UFO Investigation Program Revealed
UFO Existence 'Proven Beyond Reasonable Doubt': Former Head Of Pentagon Program
Newly-Released Video Shows 2015 U.S. Navy Sighting of UFO
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @12:25PM (4 children)
the "negative energy" part makes those things extremely unlikely.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @12:40PM
No one said they weren't.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday July 02 2018, @05:51PM (2 children)
Actually, negative energy exists. Look up Casimir Effect. It's (probably) a result of a situation where some of the virtual particles that normally appear is space-time are prohibited from showing up. I sure don't see how you could use that to stabilize a wormhole, though. When Forward was trying to justify them he felt he had to invoke negative mass (different from anti-matter). Negative mass is theoretically possible without violating any extant laws, and there are obvious reasons why we've never seen any. But it's really dubious, particularly as it would make the dark matter problem even worse (though it could be used to justify dark energy). And since it would be repelled by gravitational fields, it wouldn't make the dark matter problem *that* much worse. You just wouldn't find any within a galaxy, and probably not within a galaxy cluster.
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(Score: 1) by notrandom on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:48AM (1 child)
All the Feynmann in the world will not convince me about the exzistence of virtual particles as anything more than a math device...
I'm sorry .. I'm dumb :D
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:38PM
Well come up with a different explanation then. The effect is observable.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.