65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_SUB_A

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B E H I N D _ T ·H E · N E W S .-
.,
By RICHARD Ci\RTER
Th e swift-moving celestial lumi­
sky-watch ers ciaimed to havl
nosiUes which the American pub-
seen two flying cigar-shaped ob
has come to call "flying saucers" jccts.
·e phenomena with a recorded
Cigar-shaped objects havt: be
l ·story datin g back at least 200 spotted skyward by innumerab
ars and perhaps several thou-
participants in America's postwa1;
nd.
saucery.
I iThe 'Biblical Ezekiel's airborne
Flying ligh ts which differ in all
wheels, for example, h ad some of appa ren t respects from shoot.ing
the ·earmarks of wlrn.t modern stars. meteors. and the like, have
American science fiction readers, 'been seen by multitudes of sailors
televiewers and "cold worriers" are over th e centuries. and their ae­
on the V'erge of regarding as inter- .counts of the phenomena diffel
planetary scouts or missiles from hardly at all .from those contrib
Moscow.
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uted by recent viewers.
Dr. Donald H. Men zel, profes-
Some J>eople see white ligh ts
sor of astrophysics at Harvard
moving in formation: others .,ee
University, made this point in
kelly green £ire balls ; others see
i
n i11tel'View last month with
orange fire balls ; others '!;ee fly­
ime magazin e. He produced
fog disks ; others ,;ee the cigar­
ocumentary evidence that there
shaped mysterie_s_. Some of tlie
•as a saucer scare in Chicago
objects seem to hover, "irtually
n A.1~ i! JO_ 1'!97, wl1en man.f"r~nlinued on Pa§<. l.i l
nHJ ionfess. before darting in to a
cloud and disappearing forever[
others move at what seems t
·
an
ra te of speed
1 e
impa.;sible
eversing direction in~ta~tan~
usly. swooping and clnubmg 1
manner which no man-made
HLchine or human pilot. couhl
survive.
Since one or the foundations of
modern science is to believe noti­
i
ing that cannot be proved. mo t
eories
about
t he
skitteri R­
hatizzits have to be rejecLe .
a ny t heories which have gain d
1de currency are based on fac s
1ich are "probably true." But no
scientist
bases
conclusions
rm
things which only are probable.
The closest anyone has ~ome
no t only to expla ining the phe­
nomena. but duplicating th em. is
!
·of. Menzel. He
believes tf
auce1.·s are fancy mirages- actu, 1
1a.1es of lights. but displac
,rou!'.\h m iles of -space by refra ­
on. He explains that light mov
slower throug-h a dense medium
• like cold air than in warm air.
When it passes from a layer of
dense cold air into a layer of less
dense warm air at an appropriflte
ande. it is bent. and mav be :::e~n
11flies ain\Y, as if di1;'lluwoC1ied.
m oving a~fantast,ic speeds. or .iu:;t
overing, depending on conditio:1
Headlights. aerial searchligh t .
en street lights in a city can
1 fracted by the atmosphere an
b come " flying_saucers" ou t in th
untry miles away, he says.
To prove it. he has produced
startlingly similar phenomena in
h is own laboratory.
qne of the reasons the Air For ce
has felt impelled to take part t ·n
i
he puolic debate on the sub.it) t,
fter having s a t i s f i e d Its lf
rough research that the sauc ·s
e something akin to what Men I
[ escribes. is that radar scopes m
ashington have been describer!
as spotting the saucers at the ;ame
time pilots and ground observers
: :~·.e seeing them with the nal'"d
l
Until further returns are ;
the only ex1>lanation availah '
is one known to ·anyone who h.
e1· had anything to dq wit 1
du-you see all kin ds of im­
countable thing'., on it. It wa
nsider·ed noteworthy that "I
~01·ce radar in the sa me t'egio
failed to pick up the lmpuls ,
which the CAA now has adde
to flving sa,ucl\r lore.