UAPs, Formerly UFOs, If They Are Real How Can We Explain Their Arrival to Earth?

NOAA has a webpage with some interesting images of natural phenomena.  It is worth being familiar with these.  Look NOAA images sun dogs - Search Images.

In optics, a branch of physics, there are known to be quite a few strange things one might not be familiar with. The mirage phenomenon mentioned above is just one of them. When light passes through a pinpoint hole it spreads out and forms concentric circles of brightness and darkness. Light passing through a slit can appear as multiple slits. Light passing through a grating can fan out and separate into colorful bands. These have all been known in physics for years.

In meteorology ice needles act as prisms to separate the colors of light, and to redirect light. The results include halo arcs, sun dogs or mock suns, and sun pillars. Scientists understand all of these phenomena. The problem is other natural phenomena and combinations of natural phenomena can produce strange images.

Secret aircraft can also be behind some UAP observations. And governments are not likely to reveal information about them.

UAPs often are reported as abruptly changing direction, speeding at unheard of speeds, or disappearing. Well, a close object can change direction rapidly and appear to speed up if mistaken as a distant object. One thing that is often missing is the presence of a reference object with a known distance and a known size.

If the phenomenon is optical an apparent change in direction or strange movement can be achieved by changing the path of light, such as the angle of reflection of the light. Changes of atmospheric density associated with localized temperature fluctuations can abruptly change angles of refraction, which changes the light path to the observer.

There are five Lagrange points for the Sun-Earth system.  These are points where the gravitational force and the centripetal force balance for orbiting objects.  They are depicted below.

If a large planet sized object is located at a Lagrange point it could be a source of extraterrestrial visitors.  The two stable points, L4 and L5, offer the believers in life from outside Earth visiting their best argument.

Stable Lagrange points are L4 and L5.  The others are not stable.  Think of a terrain with mountains.  An object on top of a mountain can be balanced, but a slight disturbance will cause it to continue moving away from its initial position.  An object in a valley is stable and should wind push it up it would go back down when the wind abates.  L3 and L4 are analogous to the object in a valley, the others analogous to the object atop a mountain.

People have proposed the existence of a planet at L3 of the Sun-Earth system. It would be blocked from view by the Sun. However, L3 is an unstable Lagrange point. Over time Jupiter and Saturn should have perturbed the orbit of any planet enough that it would have drifted from L3. Also, even if a planet has been hidden for recorded history it would act noticeably on other masses in the solar system. Another feature would be its effect on the center of mass of the Sun-Earth system. It is unlikely there is currently a planet sized object at L3 of the Sun-Earth system.

Seeing footage of UAPs can be compelling. However, the footage must be actual footage taken at the time of the encounter, not a reconstruction of an event. Yes, verified footage is often claimed. It makes interesting viewing. And seems to be compelling enough that belief in space aliens seems to have been proven.

One problem here is that some people like playing hoaxes. Even the person who has taken a video may well have been duped.

On the surface it might appear there is a real solid case. But can a space alien presence really exist?

There is no apparent suitable location for intelligent life to exist in our solar system. Looking beyond our solar system presents a distance problem.  Even at L4 and L5 Lagrange points we must ask why gravitational interactions with other planets would not have been detected.

The nearest star to Earth other than the Sun is Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri is 4.24 light years away. It is impossible to go faster than light. So, a round trip from Proxima Centauri and back would take longer than 8.48 years. That is a long time to have an alien crew travel through space. A ship for such a trip would have to be enormous just to accommodate food and water for the crew. Such a large ship has not been reported. Yes, the mother ship could house smaller craft for exploration, but where is the larger ship needed for the journey?

The alternative is the trip is much shorter. Since there is no suitable location in this solar system for advanced life, the only feasible possibility is use of wormholes.

A wormhole is a theoretical tear in space through which two distant locations are connected via a tunnel which may be shorter than the distance is otherwise.

Another issue is that if aliens have found a wormhole that happens to come to Earth, for the aliens to be able to use it for space travel would require it to be stable. If a wormhole were to open it would likely collapse and disappear rapidly.

There are three distinct questions to be answered regarding extraterrestrials. Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? Have extraterrestrial visits to earth by intelligent life occurred?

As a pysicist I remain open and will consider evidence if it becomes available to the public. I remain very skeptical regarding the existence of space aliens. I also realize that to prove space aliens have not visited Earth is impossible, for we would have to explore the entire universe thoroughly to come up with proof. This is an impossible task.

Feel free to believe as you wish.

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