Do you believe aliens have visited Earth?

[The_Karen_Cooper_Incident]

Do you believe aliens have visited Earth?

[petitepedal ★]

I think some have visited  this forum 

[KrAzY]

It could only explain half the general public..

[Wilbur ★]

I always hear about aliens sneaking into the US on the news so, yes. 

[Page Turner]

..."visited" implies they did not move in to stay. I'm more a believer in invasion than visitation. 

 

[Page Turner]

...did you know that you can go back and change all the "likes" you have given someone to "whatevers" ?  Not making this up.

[AirwickWithCheese]

5 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...did you know that you can go back and change all the "likes" you have given someone to "whatevers" ?  Not making this up.

[maddmaxx ★]

Petite nailed it with all the proof required.

[Parr8hed]

i think that it's very naive of us to assume that we are the only life forms in all galaxies capable of space travel.  

[bikeman564™]

6 hours ago, Wilbur said:

I always hear about aliens sneaking into the US on the news so, yes. 

we're working on it

[bikeman564™]

1 hour ago, Parr8hed said:

i think that it's very naive of us to assume that we are the only life forms in all galaxies capable of space travel.  

for as vast as space is, I agree

[AirwickWithCheese]

4 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

for as vast as space is, I agree

Parr8 is going to yell at me.  

[Parr8hed]

26 minutes ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

Parr8 is going to yell at me.  

Why, because you "whatevered" my post?

[AirwickWithCheese]

8 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

Why, because you "whatevered" my post?

Wilbur asked me to do it, Mr. Parr8.  

[JerrySTL ★]

2 hours ago, Parr8hed said:

i think that it's very naive of us to assume that we are the only life forms in all galaxies capable of space travel.  

There's probably millions of planets out there with life on them. Many could have lifeforms who are sentient and more advanced.

However there's that speed of light issue and the large distances between stars. To quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

So unless someone figured out how to go faster than the speed of light, I would think that we would received radio and TV signals first, such as a alien version of Captain Kangaroo, and short of them killing themselves off something more advanced constantly being broadcast before they actually arrive on Earth.

The exception would be some kind of intersteller-living species who live and travel through space and are constantly on the move.

[AirwickWithCheese]

Uh Oh.  I gave a whatever then immediately got the notification alert.  

I'm sorry, Jerry.  I best stay out of this thread.   

[a bunch of numbers]

[MickinMD ★]

I don't believe aliens have visited Earth. I don't disbelieve it either, but I think the odds are heavily stacked against it.

Clearly, intelligent aliens don't come from within our Solar System. The nearest other solar system is 4 light-years away and it is a binary star system, relatively unstable for maintaining planets that support life. The closest single star system with a sun whose radiation would be supportive of life as we know it is Tau Ceti, which is 12 light-years away.

When you're in a car and in turns on an entrance/exit ramp to a high-speed road, you feel yourself being thrown to the outside of the curve the car is turning along. That is an aspect of centripetal force called centrifugal force.  When the car comes to a stop, you feel your body trying to continue moving due to inertia and momentum.  Studies of the rotations of distant galaxies show the laws of physics that involve centripetal force and inertia work throughout the known universe.

Sp, if you're in a spaceship turning while traveling at the speed of light, you would feel the same forces.  Slowing down from the speed of light to 99% of the speed of light would apply more force to the body than a 200 mph car running into a mountainside rock.  In order to make a small turn, say 15 degrees, or to come to a stop would require months or years of time to do to prevent the amount of force from crushing your body.  A small pebble being struck by the spacecraft would involve massive amounts of force as well.

Of course, the aliens may have an advanced science and technologies that get around those problems: even the Starship Enterprise uses "inertial dampers" beyond today's science and technology to explain why it can chance speed and direction so quickly without destroying the people inside.

So we can't say alien visits can't happen because of the distances involved.  But we can say that if they do visit us, it would not likely be in flying saucers - which certainly involve the laws of physics.

[Further]

So, if we don't have aliens among us, how do I explain some of my co workers ?

[bikeman564™]

 

 

[MickinMD ★]

Having said I don't think aliens have visited Earth, let me also say I saw 5 strange objects flying in formation at impossibly fast speeds.

One day before dawn, I got my 12.5" telescope out to look at a comet and the planet Mercury.  As I was adjusting the scope I looked up to my north and there, streaking across the sky in a perfect V-formation, were five flying objects giving off a faint glow and moving eastward at an incredible speed.  I watched amazed as they headed toward the convergence of the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay.

If that had been the end of the story, I'd be telling people to this day I saw 5 unexplainable flying objects heading toward an unmistakable landmark.

But, after checking out the comet and Mercury, I put the telescope away in my shed as dawn began to break. As I began walking toward my house and looked up in the northern sky, there were the same five objects, now flying west, illuminated by daylight. They were ducks!

In my earlier darkness, the ducks were high enough to catch a little light from the rising Sun and that produced the eerie glow, but not enough to see them clearly. Their maintenance of a perfect V-formation made them appear to be mechanical objects.  Assuming they were aircraft or bigger size magnified the speed at which they seemed to be traveling.

Almost all UFO sightings are some variation of the same theme: unknown information about the objects and assumptions lead to false conclusions.

[Ltdskilz]

Dangit, Mick, I was just beginning to believe. ?

[jsharr ★]

11 hours ago, Couch_Incident said:

Do you believe aliens have visited Earth?

I believe I may be quoting one.

[JerrySTL ★]

1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

12.5" telescope 

Now I have telescope envy. The best that I ever owned was a 6" reflector without motor drive back in the day. If I ever need another hobby, I think getting a new telescope will be on the top of my list especially as I often wake up well before sunrise.

[JerrySTL ★]

1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

Almost all UFO sightings are some variation of the same theme: unknown information about the objects and assumptions lead to false conclusions. 

I've always thought that the jump from seeing something strange in the sky to extraterrestrials a rather long leap.

[jsharr ★]

2 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

I've always thought that the jump from seeing something strange in the sky to extraterrestrials a rather long leap.

alcohol will greatly shorten the length of that jump to a mere stumble.

[MickinMD ★]

54 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Now I have telescope envy. The best that I ever owned was a 6" reflector without motor drive back in the day. If I ever need another hobby, I think getting a new telescope will be on the top of my list especially as I often wake up well before sunrise.

I bought a 12.5" double-annealed pyrex disk and ground, polished, and figured the paraboloid mirror to with 2 millionths of an inch of perfection.  It was my 3rd Newtonian Telescope.

I built a Dobsonian Mount and made the tube out of thin sheet material.

It collects enough light that I can magnify it enough to see dust storms along the edge of the Martian atmosphere.

I have a 16" Pyrex blank I picked up cheap from a place that went out of business and may make another telescope with it, though it will have to be an f/4 focal length so I don't need a ladder with it, but f/4 has to have slight visual imperfections at the edges of the field due to stronger magnification.  My 12" is an f/6 with perfect images.

I've also considered making a Cassegrain telescope with a longer focal length - like the Hubble where there's a hole in the middle of the big mirror and a small convex mirror reflects light back through it, but I'd need a much more stable mount.

I've also considered getting one of those electric computer controlled automatic finder scopes, but I don't think you learn as much about the sky that way. I can find almost any major object - even those not visible with the eye - because I've used star maps for so long I know what stars they are between.

[jsharr ★]

[12string]

All of our understanding of "Aliens" and "life" and "speed" and "distance" are measured against human existence.  There could be hundreds of dimensions we don't know about, can't even fathom, there could be millions of versions of "life".  It's rather egotistical to think Alien life must be limited to what we can experience.

So, yes, they're here..  Maybe.

[The_Karen_Cooper_Incident]

3 hours ago, MickinMD said:

Having said I don't think aliens have visited Earth, let me also say I saw 5 strange objects flying in formation at impossibly fast speeds.

One day before dawn, I got my 12.5" telescope out to look at a comet and the planet Mercury.  As I was adjusting the scope I looked up to my north and there, streaking across the sky in a perfect V-formation, were five flying objects giving off a faint glow and moving eastward at an incredible speed.  I watched amazed as they headed toward the convergence of the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay.

If that had been the end of the story, I'd be telling people to this day I saw 5 unexplainable flying objects heading toward an unmistakable landmark.

But, after checking out the comet and Mercury, I put the telescope away in my shed as dawn began to break. As I began walking toward my house and looked up in the northern sky, there were the same five objects, now flying west, illuminated by daylight. They were ducks!

In my earlier darkness, the ducks were high enough to catch a little light from the rising Sun and that produced the eerie glow, but not enough to see them clearly. Their maintenance of a perfect V-formation made them appear to be mechanical objects.  Assuming they were aircraft or bigger size magnified the speed at which they seemed to be traveling.

Almost all UFO sightings are some variation of the same theme: unknown information about the objects and assumptions lead to false conclusions.

They were alien ducks.  They were probably from Canada. 

Couch 

[groupw]

They’ve been here. Found no intelligent life so they left. 

[groupw]

We tend to create alien life and physiology in our own image. A very limited vision. Look at the tardigrade- the “indestructible” creature. It survives and thrives in near impossible conditions. It can virtually suspend vital functions in hostile conditions only to return to normal when conditions are more favorable. If an alien culture possessesd or harnessed such characteristics, the rigors of space become less daunting. 

That’s not even accounting for life forms that may use a totally different biology than we understand.