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PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
sume and his army saw strange globes of light dancing in the sky near
Kyoto, Japan. In 1561 a large number of objects were seen over Nuremberg, Germany, as if engaged in an aerial battle.
More recently, the U.S. Air Force has conducted large-scale studies of UFO sightings. In 1952 the Air Force began Project Blue Book,
which analyzed a total of 12,618 sightings. The report concluded that
the vast majority of these sightings could be explained by natural phenomena, conventional aircraft, or hoaxes. Yet about 6 percent were
classified as being of unknown origin. But as a result of the Condon
Report, which concluded that there was nothing of value in such studies, Project Blue Book was closed in 1969. It was the last known largescale UFO research project of the U.S. Air Force.
In 2007 the French government released its voluminous file on
UFOs to the general public. The report, made available over the Internet by the French National Center for Space Studies, included 1,600
UFO sightings spanning fifty years, including 100,000 pages of eyewitness accounts, films, and audiotapes. The French government stated
that 9 percent of these sightings could be fully explained, and that 33
percent have likely explanations, but that they were unable to follow
up on the rest.
It is hard, of course, to independently verify these sightings. In fact,
most UFO reports, on careful analysis, can be dismissed as the result
of the following:
1. The planet Venus, which is the brightest object in the
night sky after the moon. Because of its enormous distance
from the Earth, the planet appears to follow you if you are
moving in a car, giving the illusion that it is being piloted,
the same way that the moon appears to follow you. We judge
distance, in part, by comparing moving objects to their surroundings. Since the moon and Venus are so far away, with
nothing to compare them to, they do not move with respect
to our surroundings, and hence give us the optical illusion
that they are following us.
PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
sume and his army saw strange globes of light dancing in the sky near
Kyoto, Japan. In 1561 a large number of objects were seen over Nuremberg, Germany, as if engaged in an aerial battle.
More recently, the U.S. Air Force has conducted large-scale studies of UFO sightings. In 1952 the Air Force began Project Blue Book,
which analyzed a total of 12,618 sightings. The report concluded that
the vast majority of these sightings could be explained by natural phenomena, conventional aircraft, or hoaxes. Yet about 6 percent were
classified as being of unknown origin. But as a result of the Condon
Report, which concluded that there was nothing of value in such studies, Project Blue Book was closed in 1969. It was the last known largescale UFO research project of the U.S. Air Force.
In 2007 the French government released its voluminous file on
UFOs to the general public. The report, made available over the Internet by the French National Center for Space Studies, included 1,600
UFO sightings spanning fifty years, including 100,000 pages of eyewitness accounts, films, and audiotapes. The French government stated
that 9 percent of these sightings could be fully explained, and that 33
percent have likely explanations, but that they were unable to follow
up on the rest.
It is hard, of course, to independently verify these sightings. In fact,
most UFO reports, on careful analysis, can be dismissed as the result
of the following:
1. The planet Venus, which is the brightest object in the
night sky after the moon. Because of its enormous distance
from the Earth, the planet appears to follow you if you are
moving in a car, giving the illusion that it is being piloted,
the same way that the moon appears to follow you. We judge
distance, in part, by comparing moving objects to their surroundings. Since the moon and Venus are so far away, with
nothing to compare them to, they do not move with respect
to our surroundings, and hence give us the optical illusion
that they are following us.