Unit 3 neighbours in the sky

Almost every civilization that has kept a written history has recorded the sighting of strange objects and lights in the skies. Today, unexplained aerial phenomena are generally referred to as “unidentified flying objects” or flying saucers.

Text 1

Pre-reading task

Some people believe that Man’s progress on Earth has been watched by beings whose technological and mental developments make ours look primitive. What do you think?

Reading

Read the text quickly and answer the following questions.

1. Why was the name “flying saucer” chosen?

2. What is the significance of the following numbers in the text?

1) 1561; 2) 1,600; 3) 90 per cent; 4) 243.

Unidentified Flying Objects (ufo)

Descriptions of UFOs have ranged from glowing wheels, to colored balls of light, to cigar-, disk-, or crescent-shaped objects. One of the first well-documented UFO sightings occurred in 1561 in Nuremberg, Germany. A broadsheet published that year describes red, blue and black balls or plates, crosses, and tubes that appeared to battle each other in the sky over the city.

The term flying saucer was coined in 1947. A business-man named Kenneth Arnold told reporters that while flying a private airplane near Mount Rainier in Washington State he saw nine objects flying over the mountain in formation and at a speed of more than 1,600 miles (2,500 kilometers) per hour. Arnold described the objects as moving like “a saucers across the water”. After that first report, Arnold’s description was shortened and it soon became popular to call all UFOs flying saucers.

Early Days of UFO History.

The United States government has records of thousands of UFO sightings, including photos of alleged UFOs and inter-views with people who claim to have seen them. Since UFOs were considered a potential security risk, the report on these sightings was originally classified as secret. When the report was later declassified it showed that 90 percent of all UFO sightings could be easily explained. Most of the sightings turned out to be celestial objects, such as stars or bright planets like Venus, or atmospheric events such as auroras or meteors falling through the atmosphere. Many other sightings turned out to be such objects as weather balloons, satellites, aircraft lights, or formation of birds. Often these sightings were accompanied by unusual weather conditions.

Projects on UFOs.

In 1948 the United States Air Force began the government’s first official UFO panel, Project Sign, which studied 243 sightings. It was replaced by Project Grudge, which investigated another 244 sightings. In March 1952 the most ambitious of the UFO panels, Project Blue Book, was organized by the Air Force. The panel employed a number of scientists, including physicists, engineers, meteorologists, and an astronomer. Project Blue Book had three main goals: to explain all reported sightings of UFOs; to decide if UFOs posed a threat to the national security of the United States; and to determine whether UFOs were using any advanced technology that the United States could use.