If no physical canals marked the surface of Mars, their idea has left an indelible impression on literature and popular belief. In 1897, H. G. Wells drew on Lowell’s theory as the basis for his novel, The War of the Worlds, which assumed the Martians were intelligent enough to escape their dying planet and attempt a migration to Earth. This most famous alien invasion story provoked a major panic when Orson Welles broadcast a radio version in October 1938. A survival motive as the reason for extraterrestrials coming to Earth has appeared in the UFO literature from time to time, and is prominent in current speculations about the purpose of abductions.
A Dweller on Two Planets_(1899), dictated by the Martian Phylos to Frederick S. Oliver by automatic writing, tells of Martians coming to Earth in aerial craft to visit Atlantis and Lemuria, and prefigures the later “ancient astronaut” literature. Theodore Fluornoy wrote From India to the Planet Mars (1900) describing the visionary travels of a young woman who brought back an elaborate description of the Martian landscape and civilization, much like modern UFO contactees.
Life-on-Mars beliefs intersected with UFO reports from an early date. A report out of South America in 1877 alleged the discovery of a meteor containing the body of a being from Mars. Most 1897 airships were credited to an earthly inventor, but a minority opinion blamed the airships on Martians coming to Earth on an exploratory mission.
Several landing yarns included Martians, such as a St. Louis man who visited with two humans who looked like Adam and Eve but indicated they came from Mars before flying off in their airship; and the Aurora, Texas, crash, where a local expert in astronomy looked at the pilot’s body and said he must have been a Martian.
Mars was still a viable candidate for life in the 1950s, and many writers tied UFOs to that planet. Gerald Heard identified the UFOnauts as bee-like Martians in his book, Is Another World Watching? (1951). Some contactees claimed to have visited Mars or met Martians; and hoaxer “Cedric Alling-ham” gave away the origin of his contact in the title, of his book, Flying Saucer from Mars_ (1955).
More serious UFOlogists discerned a correspondence between 1950s UFO waves and oppositions of Mars, though from 1957 onward this relationship has broken down. A flurry of excitement began around 1960 when a Soviet scientist proposed that the moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, were artificial satellites. They seemed to behave like Sputnik. Moreover, they were not discovered until 1877, the same year as the canals, yet smaller telescopes could and should have detected these bodies. A reasonable conclusion would be that they were launched just prior to 1877; therefore Mars is presently home to a native civilization advanced enough to launch huge space stations and send probes to Earth, or a base for visitors from beyond the solar system. Further understanding of artificial and natural satellite dynamics exploded this notion.
With the landing of the Viking Mars probes in 1976, hope for life on the planet flickered out. Not even simple plant life or bacteria greeted the expeditions from Earth. Yet thanks to those probes, a new Martian controversy began over the so-called “Face on Mars”: a formation found in some Viking photos with a remarkable resemblance to a human face. The surrounding formation have impressed some people as artificial and city-like, and led to speculations that an ancient civilization once inhabited the planet.
Alas, now yet another Martian myth bites the dust. On April 5, 1998, the Mars Orbital Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft photographed these features at different sun angles and at ten times the resolution of the previous images. Even computer enhancements of the pictures show no resemblance to a “face” or anything else, except randomly scattered rocks and hills of the natural Martian landscape.
If present-day supporters of the extraterrestrial hypothesis have had to look beyond the solar system for the origin of UFOs, the legacy of the life-on-Mars controversy has accompanied the search. Ideas of superior alien intellects with body forms different from ours were boosted into popular consciousness as never before by scientific and literary treatments of Mars. Notions of a dying planet and aliens seeking out the Earth for purposes of their own have persisted in UFO lore down to the present.
—THOMAS EDDIE BULLARD
Mars rock Known technically as sample #ALH84001, this potato-sized Martian meteorite contains what most scientists believe is fossilized bacteria from the planet Mars.
What looks like a worm in this photo may be the first known example of life beyond the Earth.
In August of 1996, headlines around the world announced “Life on Mars.” Though disputed by some scientists, most support the conclusion that this 4.2-lb. chunk of basalt does indeed contain the first evidence of life beyond the Earth.
The meteorite, discovered in Antarctica in 1984, is believed to have arrived on Earth between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago; probably the result of a comet or asteroid impact to the planet Mars some 16 or 17 million years before that. With the explosive force of perhaps a million hydrogen bombs, the ejecta from the impact, according to this scenario, probably escaped the weak Martian gravity to assume orbits around the sun until encountering the Earth at the opportune point.
We know the rock is from Mars, because it contains chemical markers—known from samples taken by the Viking lander—that “fingerprint” the Martian atmosphere. The conclusion that the rock contains a 3.6 billion-year-old lifeform is drawn from four separate lines of evidence, which are highly technical in nature.
There is strong evidence, as well, that the early Mars had running water, and perhaps even oceans, covering much of its surface.
—RONALD D. STORY
Matthews, Tim (b. 1967). Tim Matthews is an English researcher of UFOs and the paranormal. He holds an Honours degree from the University of Lancaster in Classical Music as well as numerous music diplomas and awards. He is the Commercial Editor for Quest for Knowledge and Beyond magazines—both U.K. newsstand publications. His investigation into manmade UFOs has been both controversial and pioneering. Some of this work was published to critical acclaim in his book UFO Revelation: The Secret Technology Exposed? (Blandford, 1999) and concludes that some of the “classic” UFO cases (McMinnville, 1950; Mainbrace, 1952; Hudson Valley, 1980s; and Belgium, 1989/90) actually relate to the testing, development and operation of secret military aircraft of circular and triangular design.
Matthews is at the forefront of research into American and British secret military aircraft programs begun during the Second World War and which have been largely ignored by UFOlogists. He has obtained files and holds an archive of some 4,000 pages of Freedom of Information Act material from various U.S. archives.
He is a regular guest on Jeff Rense’s Sightings radio show and many U.K. radio and TV programs where his lively and hardhitting debating style is well-known.
He lives in Lancashire with his wife Lynda, daughter Alexandra Maia, and three Jack Russell Terriers. He is a keen soccer fan and sports fanatic.
Address:
c/o Discovery
BCM 4067
London WC1N 3XX
England
E-mail:
[email protected]
POSITION STATEMENT: I have investigated dozens of cases across the U.K., particularly those in Northern England. I believe that there are many causes for UFO sightings—not one simple “catch-all” explanation. My own research indicates that nine out of ten cases have a relatively simple explanation; misidentification of stars and planets, aircraft lights and so on. Nevertheless, a few cases indicate a much deeper mystery, some involving mysterious paranormal phenomena and “earthlights” of natural origin.
I have investigated cases which clearly point to the operation of secret military aircraft—often hidden from us by a combination of media fascination with fantastic alien stories and imagery, the extraterrestrial prejudices of the UFO community and the American government whose secret projects have been responsible for the growth in a multi-billion dollar, and largely unaccountable, underground economy.
—TIM MATTHEWS
McDonald,
James E. (1920-1971). The main proponent in the scientific community during the mid-late 1960s that UFOs probably represent extraterrestrial visitation, McDonald conducted intensive research on UFO data, both theoretical and in the field, interviewed hundreds of UFO witnesses, and attempted to interest other scientists in the data. He lectured widely on the subject to many scientific societies and played a key role in Congressional UFO hearings in 1968.
A critic of the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, and the methodology and conclusions of the Air Force-sponsored University of Colorado UFO study, McDonald analyzed all of the cases in the university’s Condon Report and concluded that many of the Colorado explanations were not well founded. Before his death in 1971, McDonald was granted access to the official Air Force UFO files from the former Project Blue Book, which were then housed at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Alabama. His analyses of these case files, many of which had only just been declassified, convinced him further that UFOs represented a physical phenomena of scientific importance, and that the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitation appeared to be the least unlikely in explaining many of the reports. He was also critical of J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force’s scientific consultant for over twenty years, for not bringing the data to the attention of other scientists. McDonald left no published book outlining his conclusions or thoughts on UFOs; he concentrated, instead, on the continuing analysis of UFO data. He privately published many short monographs based on his lecture presentations or specific UFO topics or cases.
James McDonald
Both before and after receiving his Ph.D. in physics at Iowa State College (now University) in 1951, McDonald taught meteorology there, first as an instructor (1946-49), then as an assistant professor (1950-53). He was a research physicist in the University of Chicago’s department of meteorology (1953-54), later joining the University of Arizona faculty, first as an associate professor (1954-56), then as a full professor (1956-71) in the department of meteorology (now atmospheric sciences). Concurrently, he was a senior physicist in the university’s Institute of Atmospheric Physics, of which he served as associate director (1954-56) and scientific director (I 956-57). McDonald was a consultant to numerous federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Office of Naval Research, and the Environmental Science Service Administration (now National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
His principal research interests related to physical meteorology, the physics of cloud and precipitation processes, meteorological optics, atmospheric electricity, and weather modification.
POSITION STATEMENT: If there were even a slim possibility that the Earth were under extraterrestrial surveillance in any form, that would be a matter of the greatest scientific importance, warranting the most rigorous investigation. In fact, the evidence that seems to point to the conclusion that UFOs could be such devices is far from negligible; yet because of the history of official and scientific response to the earlier UFO reports, we continue to see mainly neglect or ridicule on this intriguing question.
After examining around a thousand UFO reports and directly interviewing several hundred witnesses in selected UFO cases of outstanding interest, and after weighing alternative hypotheses, I find myself driven steadily further toward the position that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is the least unlikely hypothesis to account for the UFO. That hypothesis is, of course, not original with me; it has been urged for many years by persons knowledgeable with respect to the UFO problem, who spoke from outside scientific circles. Our collective failure to examine scientific aspects of the UFO problem will, I fear, be held against the scientific community when the full dimensions of the UFO evidence come to be recognized.
The type of UFO reports that are most intriguing, and point most directly to an extraterrestrial hypothesis, are close-range sightings of machinelike objects of unconventional nature and unconventional performance characteristics, seen at low altitudes, and sometimes even on the ground. The general public is entirely unaware of the large number of such reports that are coming from credible witnesses because ridicule and scoffing have made most witnesses reluctant to report openly such unusual incidents. When one starts searching for such cases, their number are quite astonishing. Also, such sightings appear to be occurring 0 over the globe.
The sooner we take a serious new stance and confront the UFO question with adequate scientific talent and staffing, the less embarrassing will be the ultimate admission that we have been overlooking a problem of potentially enormous scientific importance to a humanity.
—ETEP STAFF
(Position statement was abstracted and adapted from the monograph Are UFOs Extraterrestrial Surveillance Craft? The monograph was based on a talk given by McDonald before the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Los Angeles, California, March 26, 1968.)
McMinnville (Oregon) photos The photographer, Mr. Paul Trent, took two photos of an object which he claimed was flying past his farm (near McMinnville, Oregon) on May 11, 1950. These classic photos are important in terms of their quality and credibility, having withstood close scrutiny over time. The images are clear, and their investigation has been stringent.
Photo #1
The Trents (who both witnessed the UFO) originally treated the photos rather casually, waiting several weeks to have them developed, and then they only showed them to family members. A friend suggested they take the photos to their banker. The banker subsequently alerted a local newspaper reporter, William Powell, who interviewed the Trents in detail at their home. He analyzed the negatives in considerable detail at the newspaper office and then decided that, despite the incredible nature of the subject, it was beyond the capabilities of the Trents to have created such a hoax. He then published full-frame prints and blowups of the UFO in the (McMinnville) Telephone Register on June 8, 1950. The following week the now famous photos were published in Life magazine.
The basic history of this case (up to 1973) was summarized by William K. Hartmann in the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (edited by E. U. Condon and D. Gillmor, 1969) and by Philip J. Klass in UFOs Explained (1974)—except for the claim by the Trents that they were visited by two “FBI men” several weeks after the photos were taken. The FBI has denied involvement in the case.
Powell also claimed that the newspaper office was visited by two U.S. Air Force officers who confiscated all of his prints. There is a document that discusses the Trent case in the files of the Office of Special Investigations of the Air Force, now on microfilm at the National Archives.
Close-up of object in Photo #1
When Hartmann investigated the Trent case, he interviewed the witnesses and performed careful photometric and photogrammetric analyses of the original negatives. By use of a clever photometric argument, he was able to establish “to within a factor of four” that the object was about 1.3 km away from the camera in the first photo. At the conclusion of his analysis, he stated that “all factors investigated, geometric, psychological, and physical appear to be consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disk-shaped, tens of meters in diameter, and evidently artificial, flew within sight of two witnesses.” He then included the disclaimer that the evidence does not positively rule out a hoax, although certain “physical factors argue against a fabrication.” (Gillmor, 1969)
Robert Sheaffer, at the request of Philip Klass, analyzed blown-up prints and discovered shadows of the eave rafters on the east wall of the nearby garage. Sheaffer used these shadows to argue that there was a considerable time lag between the photos and that the photos must have been taken in the morning rather than in the evening, as claimed by the Trents. He also criticized Hartmann’s photometric analysis for failing to take into account the “spillover” of light (veiling glare) onto the UFO image if there were fingerprints on the camera lens.
Photo #2
The writer (Maccabee) obtained the original negatives in 1975, and found that the shadows on the gar
age wall did not provide any evidence for a long time lag between photos (the witnesses claimed that there was probably less than thirty seconds between photos). I also repeated Hartmann’s photometric calculation, but included corrections for veiling glare and the assumed illumination of the bottom of the UFO in photo #1 by ground reflected light in his analysis. I concluded that, if the bottom of the UFO were not itself a source of light, the object would have been more than 1 km distant, with resulting dimensions greater than 30 meters in diameter by 4 meters thick. In a computer-aided study of the negatives, William Spaulding (in Proceedings of the 1976 Center for UFO Studies Symposium) found no evidence of a wire or thread suspending the object (if it were hanging from the wires clearly visible over the object), and he also found an excessive fuzziness of the image which might be related to atmospheric effects if the object were distant.
In order to account for the excessive brightness of the bottom of the UFO in photo #2, I suggested and rejected the hypothesis of internal lighting, and then suggested that the upper part of the object might be translucent. I then proceeded to test the brightness distributions of the bottoms of various small UFO models made of paper and plastic.
Close-up of object in Photo #2
I found that under the lighting conditions similar to those expected at the time of the photos, the brightness of the bottom of a translucent UFO model would not be uniform, whereas the brightness of the image of the bottom of the object photographed by the Trents was very uniform. Thus I concluded that if the object was a hoax, the Trents must have suspended some nonuniform translucent object.
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters Page 61
