The fascination with unidentified flying objects and government conspiracies has been going on for decades.  One former NASA official has decided to challenge the idea that aliens are visiting Earth.  Joseph Gutheinz, a retired senior special agent from NASA’s Office of Inspector General, thinks it's time to use science, not just stories, to talk about UFOs.

Gutheinz wants people to prove their claims about UFOs and aliens.  He points out that stories about UFOs have been around since the 1940s.  Many people believe that Area 51, a secretive U. S. military base, holds government secrets about extraterrestrials.  He suggests that if UFOs are real, someone should go in and check Area 51.  He has also received calls from people who believed they were abducted by aliens or had a chip in their brain from extraterrestrials.  He used to tell his students that the idea of aliens visiting Earth is very unlikely.

Gutheinz explains that the distances in space make it hard for extraterrestrial visitors to reach Earth.  There are up to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way and maybe one to two trillion galaxies in the universe.  The closest solar system to ours is Alpha Centauri, which is 4. 4 light years away, or 25 trillion miles.  Even if someone started flying to Proxima Centauri, it would take over 70, 000 years to get there.  He thinks it's unlikely that anyone is visiting us from another world.

When asked about sightings of UFOs, Gutheinz suggests that they could be natural or spiritual phenomena.  He also thinks they could be government testing.  He believes that historical military secrecy has played a major role in fostering UFO myths.  He suggests that the military was probably testing some aircraft in the 1940s and didn't want the Russians to know about it.  He thinks that the UFO cover has been used to hide a lot of things.

Gutheinz points to moons like Europa, Ganymede, Titan, and Triton as the only plausible places for primitive life in our solar system.  He thinks that if there is life on any of those moons, it's possible that it is primitive, like microorganisms, and nothing that's going to visit us in a flying saucer.

UFOs: The Truth Behind the Government's Secrets

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