65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_006

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FLYING SAUCERS
continued
Orderly processes
of natural laws
explain saucers
Gemini. Then, very suddenly, I realized that
Gemini was a winter object; the two stars had
to be something else.
Like most astronome1·s, I am always hope­
ful of finding a nova (exploding star) which
can be seen with the naked eye, so I rapidly
opened the window of the car for a better look.
I could bring neither of these objects into clear
focus, although near-by Antares was sharp.
Both hazy disks shone with a slightly bluish
light. They were, in a sense, "flying" simply
because they were elevated. Suddenly, alive to
the fact that I was seeing something unusual,
I asked the driver to stop. We climbed out of
the car ju.st in time to see the sauce1 • literally
fade away as mysteriously as they had ap­
peared. I reported the occurrence in detail to
the Air Force.
I later found thatan English meteorologist,
Edward J . Lowe, had recorded a similar phe­
nomenon as long ago as 1838-similar except
for the fact he saw four instead of two ghostly
images flying near the moon.
Perhaps you expect me to say, at this
point, that I can explain exactly what I saw
that evening. I am sorry to disappoint you. I
cannot. I have certain ideas on the suoject,
but they are only hypotheses-reasonable but
not yet fully confirmed.
I shall explain those ideas, but first let me
say what I do NoT believe. I do· NOT believe
that what I saw, or anything anyone has re­
ported seeing, were missiles or messenge1·s or
vehicles from the moon or Mars or space. I do
NOT believe they were missiles or messengers
or vehicles from Russia or any other foreign
country.
Indeed, how simple science and life would
be if every time we encountered some seem­
ingly inexplicable fact, we could blame it on
some outside force over which we have no
control. Such a mode of thoughtis as old as man
himself. Our prehistoric ancestors personalized
These are the Lubbock Lights, as photogrnphed Aug. 30, 1951, over Lubbock, Texas, by is-year-old Carl Hart, Jr.
alt the forces of nature. Gods blew the winds,
threw lightning bolts and stoked the fires that
belch forth from volcanic craters.
Brilliant showers of meteors have made
men fear that the end of the world was immi­
nent. The ancients have interpreted a solar
eclipse.as a dragon devouring the sun and re­
joiced when their beating drums and weapons
frightened the dragon away.
How simple this type of science. No labo­
ratory experiment to prove or test the hypo­
theses. No complicated mathematics to study
the details of the process. Nothing to ar·guc
about here. For each new and unexplained
fact, we invent a new god-or assume the exist­
ence of a superintelligence.
How simple-and how wrong!
Centuries of civilization have taught us
the futility of inventing mysterious forces and
superhuman beings. You could explain any­
thing that way. Such explanations, however,
are completely useless and nature falls into
chaos, subject to the whim of a pagan deity
instead of to the orderly processes of natural
laws.
"An Uncivilized Attitude"
As a scientist, I am not bothered if I can­
not give a complete, iron-clad explanation for
every phenomenon I meet. Unraveling the
puzzles of science is my business-as well as my
pleasure. I find the world still full of unsolved
problems. I took for th~ explanations, but I do
not arbitrarily invent forces that make expla­
nation unnecessary.
Why, then, have so many civilized people
chosen to adopt an uncivilized attitude toward
flying saucers? I think there are three reasons:
First, flying saucers are unusual. All of us
are used to regularity. We naturally attribute
mystery to the unusual.
Second, we are all nervous. We live in a
world that has suddenly become hostile. We
have unleashed forces we cannot control; many
pensons fear we are heading toward a war that
will end in the destruction of civilization.
Third, people enjoy being frightened a
little. They go to Boris Karloff double features.
But such analysis should concern the psy­
chologist rather than the natural scientist, so
let me hasten back to our flying saucers.
First of all, we must recognize that "flying
saucers," in the public mind, cover a wide va­
riety of objects and phenomena. Some of them,
we can almost immediately dispose of, al­
though the mere fact of their misinterpretation
has been one of the chief difficulties men have
encountered in getting at the basic truth.
A man sitting in the park on a calm sum­
mc1· afternoon scarcely realizes how intense
the winds aloft may be. Perhaps real gales
exist, with speeds in excess of 60 miles an hour,
different layers moving in opposite directions.
Light, flat objects such as newspapers or kites
can be caught in an occasional whirlwind and
lifted to enormous heights, where they may
fly for hundreds of miles before they again
reach the ground. Weather balloons, which are
often released in groups rather than singly,
are not at all uncommon. Indeed, most such
objects lose their true identity when viewed
against the sky. And it is extremely hard to
recognize them.
Occasional reflections from distant planes
or even from the backs of high-flying birds
account for some of the reports. The planet
Venus has, on many occasions, produced its
own series of sensations. Few people seem to
realize that this planet, when at greatest bril­
liance, can be plainly seen in the daytime. r
floating cirrus clouds overlie it, the planet m<1
give the illusion of being in rapid motion. M,
people find it difficult to focus theil' eyes o·
distant object: hence, they see a bright blur
the sky and thus give rise to another flyir
saucer story.
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