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 Burkhead |
By Susan Williams
What is a UFO?
"For me, it means exactly what it says -- unidentified flying object," said Martin Burkhead, emeritus professor of astronomy at IU Bloomington, who specializes not only in the physical aspects of the universe, but its mythology as well.
"I get many calls especially this time of year and in the spring," he said. "It's as if with darkness coming earlier in the fall or the sky suddenly becoming clear in the spring after months of clouds, people are drawn to look at the sky, and they are unable to explain what they see."
Burkhead said that many sightings are obvious. Venus, he explained, is visible even in a clear, day-time sky. And if you know where to look, the space station Mir can be seen moving brightly and quickly across the starry night-time dome.
"When I'm called," Burkhead said, "I take the sightings seriously and try to figure out what is being seen. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes not. In most cases, in my own mind -- but maybe not the caller's -- I have been reasonably certain of my identification. Occasionally, I can't figure out what is being seen.
"I spend as much time as anyone outside in the night, and I occasionally spot something and say, 'What in the world was that?' No problem -- it's a UFO."
 Lowell |
"Lowell was a pre-eminent scientist -- there was no reason not to believe him," said Burkhead.
"He wrote several popular books on his observations and left no doubt that Mars was a dying planet. The civilization was on its last legs and had constructed this vast system of canals to carry water.
"There was absolutely no doubt that Mars was 'peopled.' There was a prize offered for the first communication with a civilization on other planets. Mars was excluded. They knew there was a civilization there. This was the Mars most people knew before the Mariner and Viking flights in the '60s and '70s."
So, why wouldn't people have been primed for young Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre broadcast of The War of the Worlds?
"I think that people don't really want to believe we are alone," Burkhead said. "But I don't know when the idea of aliens got started. There are references in Greek literature, and in the 1800s, sunspots were thought to be openings to the sun and that people were living in there."
As a scientist, does Burkhead believe there is other life "out there"?
"Believe? At present there is no observational evidence that there are other communicating civilizations out there," he said.
"But among all the stars, are we it? I simply do not know.
"We are finding what seem to be planets around a handful of the nearest stars. Could these planets support life? Must life be carbon and water based?
"Lots of questions may never be answered satisfactorily until we find conclusive evidence -- evidence we do not have."
Read Lowell's 1895 book, Mars, on line at:
http://www.bibliomania.com/NonFiction/Lowell/Mars/
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