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From: United Kingdom UFO Network <ufo@holodeck.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 20:39:43 +0000
Fwd Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 08:55:54 -0500
Subject: {71} part 2 - United Kingdom UFO Network
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U K / / // ___/ / / ' March 24th, 1997
/ / // / / / / N E T W O R K part 2 Issue 71
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This issue comes in 2 parts. If any part is missing please mail:
ufo@holodeck.demon.co.uk giving the issue number. The issue will
be reposted to you. Please put the details as below in the subject
section e.g. Repost {71}
[W10]******
Source: Reuter
Date: 10th March 1997
Hale-Bopp could give clue to Earth's oceans
By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuter) - Two-tailed Comet Hale-Bopp, already
visible to the naked eye in much of the northern hemisphere, could
be one of the brightest comets ever, shedding light on how the
Earth's oceans formed.
``You can't miss it. It looks like a comet,'' astronomer Paul
Feldman of Johns Hopkins University said on Monday after his first
non-telescope view of the brilliant white smudge in the pre-dawn
northeast sky.
Feldman said he got up early and looked out over a large rural body
of water to see Hale-Bopp, but probably did not have to: he later saw
it after the sun rose from the parking lot of a well-lit convenience
store.
``This is not a hard object to see,'' said comet expert Michael
Mummo of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in suburban Maryland.
``Anybody in any major city in the world, presuming they're not
looking directly into a street light, can see this comet.''
That is not quite true yet: viewers in Australia and extreme
southern South America will not get a good look until after April 1.
But in the northern hemisphere, this week should be prime viewing
time because the predawn sky will be moonless until March 19 and the
comet will also be visible in the early evening sky. At this point,
Hale-Bopp never sets at some northern latitudes, including Alaska
and Scandinavia.
Hale-Bopp is already brighter than Comet Hyakutake, which streaked
across the sky a year ago, according to Sky & Telescope, an
astronomy magazine that operates a hotline and website for
late-breaking celestial news.
The comet's gassy tail takes up 20 degrees of the sky, Sky &
Telescope said, which is about twice the size of a human fist held at
arm's length and viewed against the heavens. Hale-Bopp has another
tail as well, a curved, shorter smudge made up of dust.
What is not visible to unaided eyes on Earth is Hale-Bopp's icy
heart, a 25-mile- (40.23 km) wide core more than 10 times the size of
the average comet and four times the size of the storied Halley's
Comet.
Unlike Hyakutake, a much smaller, dimmer comet that gave a great
show because it came within 9 million miles (14.48 million km) of
Earth, Hale-Bopp will not get any closer than 122 million miles
(196.3 million km) at its closest pass, on March 23-24.
Hale-Bopp -- the name comes from its discoverers, Alan Hale and
Thomas Bopp, who first spotted it in 1995 -- has the potential to
give clues to the earliest moments of the solar system, Feldman said
by telephone.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is launching a
series of so-called sounding rockets that will rise above Earth's
atmosphere to gauge the composition of the comet and then parachute
back down, Feldman said.
It could help confirm what many scientists already believe: that
water on Earth came from comets that hit Earth's surface. The comets'
frozen core melted to form oceans, according to the theory.
If the rocket data show the same trace elements present in the
world's oceans are also present in Hale-Bopp, this could go a long
way toward proving the theory, Mumma said by telephone.
Earth-based telescopes can get some great views of Hale-Bopp, but
the Hubble Space Telescope will not. The comet's path brings it too
close to the Sun and Hubble's mechanisms are not equipped to ``look''
directly into the Sun.
[W11]******
Source: The Times newspaper
Date: 9th March 1997
Comet promises a cosmic festival of light
by Steve Connor
Science Correspondent
AFTER 4,000 years, the world's night sky is about to be lit up by
the return of the comet Hale-Bopp, <FONT COLOR="#ff0000">a
25-mile-wide cosmic snowball of ice and dust.
>From today the comet, which is travelling at almost 100,000mph, will
start to reward hopes that it will be one of the most spectacular
sights in the night sky, growing from a smudge of light to the most
noticeable object among the stars.
Hale-Bopp, the brightest comet to enter the solar system for more
than 400 years, will come closest to Earth on March 22, at a distance
of 125m miles away. The last time it was visible from Earth was
around the time of the ancient Egyptians about 2,000BC.
As it flies past the Sun, the heat causes the frozen surface of the
comet's nucleus to vaporise, leaving a trail of gas and dust
particles that can form a tail many millions of miles long. This is
lit up by reflected sunlight.
Scientists believe that comets such as Hale-Bopp are "builders'
rubble" left over from the birth of the solar system more than 4.5
billion years ago and that they were responsible for delivering water
to planets like Earth.
Dr Michael Mumma, a comet expert at America's National Aeronautics
and Space Administration near Washington, said a third of the comet
was made of ice: "It would make a very good sized lake or ocean."
By studying the light spectra of the comet, scientists can determine
its chemical composition. This will help them to understand how the
planets formed from the condensation of a massive cloud of
primordial dust particles that existed at this time.
A number of new chemicals have been detected on Hale-Bopp , including
alcohol and some of the organic constituents of living organisms.
Two American astronomers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, discovered the
comet in 1995, independently but within minutes of each other.
Its sudden appearance in the sky raises the prospect that other
comets could come closer to Earth and even threaten to collide with
it, causing catastrophic damage. This was graphically illustrated in
1995, when comet Shoemaker-Levy slammed into Jupiter, causing ground
tremors that were witnessed from Earth.
"What has been new over the past five years is the regularity of
discovering Earth-approaching objects," said Mumma.
Dr Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen's University, Belfast,
said comet Hale-Bopp should become one of the best-studied comets:
"The important aspect of this comet is that it has been the
brightest predictable object, and so we've had time to get ready and
prepared to observe it in detail.
"It will be one of the most spectacular comets of our lifetime, but
then we don't know when the next one will appear."
Early morning would be the best time to see the comet as it glowed
low on the horizon in the northeast sky, he said. "I'm betting there
won't be many telescopes on Earth that won't be trained on this
comet. It is just going to get bigger and brighter. Anyone looking
out will be able to see it."
Although Hale-Bopp will become the most closely studied comet to
date, it was the return of Halley's comet in 1985 that stirred some
of the greatest scientific interest in these cosmic objects, not
least because it was met by a spaceprobe that managed to take
close-up pictures.
[W12]******
Source: The Times newspaper
Date: 12th March 1997
Tail of the century
BY NIGEL HAWKES, SCIENCE EDITOR
COMET Hale-Bopp is providing a brilliant show as one of the best
comets of the 20th century, clearly visible round the world in the
morning and evening skies.
Terry Platt, an amateur astronomer from Binfield near Bracknell in
Berkshire, took this photograph of the comet at 4am yesterday from
his garden. He says that it is easily visible with the naked eye, and
comparable in brightness with the brightest stars.
He used a telephoto lens, picking his moment between wisps of
early-morning fog. Amateur astronomers are a hardy bunch; he had been
up at 1am observing Mars, then managed to get three hours' sleep
before rising again to photograph Hale-Bopp.
It is not necessary to head for the hills to observe the comet. One
American astronomer, Paul Feldman, of Johns Hopkins University,
assures would-be watchers that he had no difficulty seeing the comet
from a well-lit supermarket car park, even after sunrise.
Astronomers both amateur and professional will spend much of the next
two months watching the comet, named after the two American
astronomers who first identified it in 1995. It is expected to go on
getting brighter for a further two weeks as it gets closer to the
Sun.
Hale-Bopp is already brighter than Comet Hyakutake, which crossed the
sky a year ago, according to the magazine Sky & Telescope. This
comet's tail takes up 20 degrees of the sky, about twice the size of
a human fist held at arm's length and viewed against the heavens.
Nasa, the space agency, is using Hale-Bopp'<FONT COLOR="#ff0000">s
passage to put to the test a theory about the origins of the Earth's
oceans. It will be launching sounding rockets that will rise above
the atmosphere to measure the composition of cloud around the comet.
The theory is that water on the Earth came from comets that hit the
Earth's surface fairly early in its history. Comets consist largely
of ice.
The rocket observations of the amounts of trace elements in the comet
will be compared with the amounts of the same elements in the oceans.
If they are the same, they will provide support for the theory.
[W13]******
Source: Associated Press
Date: 13th March 1997
Mars life theory gets a boost
By PAUL RECER
WASHINGTON (March 13) - A theory that microbes once lived on Mars is
boosted by two new studies of a rock that was blasted away from the
red planet and eventually landed on Earth.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and at the
California Institute of Technology said the new studies do not prove
that Martian microbes once lived in the rock. But they remove one
challenge based on the temperature history of the potato-size chunk
of Mars.
''We have ruled out the high temperature hypothesis'' that would
have made life impossible, said John W. Valley of the University of
Wisconsin. ''I still don't have final answers. There should still be
skepticism.''
Wisconsin scientists determined the range of temperatures the rock
was exposed to by analyzing the ratios of carbon and oxygen isotopes.
At Cal Tech, researchers traced the temperature history by measuring
magnetic fields within the rock. Both studies will be published
Friday in the journal Science.
NASA scientists last summer claimed that small globules of carbonate
found inside a Martian meteorite were the fossilized remains of
microbes or bacteria that lived on the red planet more than 15
million years ago.
Based on a microscopic and chemical analysis of the globules, the
NASA team theorized that the microbes lived and died in the rock,
leaving behind organic chemicals and fossilized remains. The rock was
then blasted from the Mars surface by a meteorite impact, spent
thousands of years wandering in space and then fell to Earth in the
Antarctic. The rock was recovered from an ice field and identified by
chemical composition as coming from Mars.
A major challenge to the theory has been that the carbonate globules
actually formed by inorganic processes at temperatures of more than
1,200 degrees, far too hot for life.
But the new studies show that temperatures of the globules never
exceeded 212 degrees - scalding, but still within the living range
of known life forms.
''Our work shows that there are no show stopper lines of evidence in
the temperature,'' said Valley. There are other reasons to be
skeptical, however, he said, ''and it will be difficult to convince
the world one way or the other.''
''Our results don't prove there was life,'' said Joseph L.
Kirschvink, head of the Cal Tech team. But the finding proves that
the possibility of life cannot be eliminated because of temperature,
he said.
The Cal Tech team determined the temperature history of the rock by
measuring the magnetic field direction of tiny parts of the samples.
The magnetic field direction in a rock will change slightly each
time it is heated and cooled.
''To make the measurement, we had to saw apart a specimen the size
of a grain of sand,'' said Altair T. Maine, a member of the Cal Tech
team.
Kirschvink said his team found that after the rock cooled from a
melt some 4 billion years ago, it was never again heated to a
temperature lethal to all life.
The Cal Tech study also showed that early in the history of Mars,
the planet had a magnetic field similar to that of Earth. Kirschvink
said this means the planet probably had an atmosphere. A strong
magnetic field allows a planet to retain an atmosphere.
Over billions years, however, Mars has lost its magnetic field and
most of its atmosphere, he said.
Kirschvink said the magnetic studies also show that the sampled part
of the Mars meteorite never heated up as it entered the Earth's
atmosphere and smashed into the Antarctic. This suggests that
microorganisms could survive a trip from Mars to Earth.
''An implication of our study is that you could get life from Mars
to Earth periodically,'' he said. ''In fact, every major impact could
do it.''
Earlier studies had suggested a Mars origin of life and Kirschvink
said his studies do not rule out this possibility.
Kurt Marti, an expert on the chemistry of the solar system at the
University of California, San Diego, said the two new studies may
lay to rest temperature challenges to the Mars life theory, but he
said there are other objections.
''These all have to be addressed one by one,'' he said. ''Until that
is done, we have to be careful about accepting or rejecting this
theory.''
Among the theory's other problems: the need for chemical evidence of
life based on carbon isotope ratios, and better physical evidence
that the carbonate globules are, in fact, fossils.
Valley said he hopes to start soon an analysis of the carbon
isotopes.
[W14]******
Source: The Jerusalem Post
Date: 13th Feburary 13 1997
Livnat, Knesset discuss extraterrestrial life
The Knesset's deliberations yesterday were out of this world, as
Communications Minister Limor Livnat stated that the existence - or
nonexistence - of unidentified flying objects cannot be verified by
scientific methods.
Livnat, the government's liaison with the Knesset, was responding on
behalf of the Science Ministry to a parliamentary question by MK
Avi Yehezkel (Labor) dealing with recent claims about the landing of
strangers from outer space. The latest one, revolving around a
little green thing found at a moshav, was proven by foreign
scientists to have terrestrial origins.
"No serious body in the world has authoritative evidence of
so-called visits by creatures from space," Livnat said. "It's true
that a lack of proof doesn't mean that something does not exist, but
in the absence of evidence, anyone is free to believe what he wants."
The minister noted with irony that despite the "intensive
'encounters' by extraterrestrial creatures with laborers, farmers,
housewives and pensioners, none of them have ever met a physicist,
biologist, chemist or astronomer to get an exact scientific picture
of the similarities and contrasts between our worlds."
The planet Earth "needed five billion years to develop intelligent
life; although other parts of the universe are older, there may be
heavenly bodies with life forms..., but consider the fact that the
average distance from another planet with the potential of life in
our galaxy is 400 light-years, and it would take a spaceship 8.5
million years to get here."
The US government established investigative committees on UFOs in
1948, 1949, 1952 and 1962, and they discredited 95 percent of the
testimonies, Livnat said, but "their conclusions did not weaken
popular belief in UFOs. We don't know anything more about them today
than we did 50 years ago, and that's true about the Loch Ness
monster, astrology, parapsychology, palm reading and other strange
and various notions."
[W15]******
Source: Associated Press
Date: 15th March 1997
Arizonans report strange lights in Thursday's sky
PHOENIX (AP) Strange bright lights over northern and northwestern
Arizona evoked bevy of telephone calls but drew no official
explanation.
Law enforcement agencies said their phones began ringing Thursday
night with questions from people wanting to know what the lights
were.
One Phoenix area man videotaped what appeared to be a string of nine
lights hovering above the desert floor. The video was highlighted on
the television news Friday evening.
So what were they?
The Arizona National Guard said Friday it has no earthly
explanation.
However, Capt. Eileen Bienz, spokeswoman for the state guard, said
an Apache helicopter pilot told a Phoenix television station that the
lights were caused by military flares sent up during a training
exercise.
The pilot also said Prescott residents erroneously identified a
formation of five military aircraft as a UFO, Bienz said.
UFO buffs didn't buy those explanations.
A spokesperson with a national UFO hotline in Washington state
called it a ``dramatic event.''
[W16]******
Source: The Daily Courier, Arizona
Date: 16th March 1997
UFO sightings in PV, other areas
Despite reports, Luke Air Force Base denies sending aircraft to
investigate
By LAURA HINCHEY
A man reported sighting UFOs above a shopping center in Prescott
Valley at about 8 p.m. Thursday night, according to Prescott Valley
police. Peter B. Davenport, director for the National UFO reporting
center in Seattle, said his organization's hot line received more
than a dozen calls last night from several areas of Arizona regarding
objects seen in the sky.
Davenport said the hot line began receiving calls for a sighting in
the Paulden area, then Prescott, then the Glendale area and the last
report was for objects seen over Tucson.
A man from Paulden called The Daily Courier and said he saw five
diamond shaped objects with wispy tails around 8 p.m. last night.
Upon hearing that other people have reported also seeing the objects,
he said, "I'm glad to know I wasn't the only weirdo."
Kurt Milam, spokesman for the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, said
they received some calls last night from people who saw low-flying
objects, but YCSO did not dispatch deputies to investigate.
A speaker at the Federal Aviation Administration said they had only
received calls from people wanting to know if any UFOs had been
sighted.
An astronomer called into the hot line office and told them he saw
the UFOs in northern Phoenix, five of them with lights.
According to the hot line speaker, Luke Air Force Base apparently
sent two jets last night to intercept the UFOs. The pilots recorded
the objects on camera, and returned to base. Allegedly one pilot was
shaken, and the base was locked down for the night.
Media liaison at Luke Air Force Base Sgt. Rolla Suttmiller said no
aircraft were sent out and there was no lock-down, adding that the
cameras on the aircraft's only take pictures of targets during
practice.
She said the base received no calls Thursday night regarding UFO
sightings. "We do not respond to something like this," she said.
"And we do not fly in the evening."
[W17]******
Source: The Associated Press
Date: 16th March 1997
It's just 2.5 miles of yarn
By MARCIA DUNN
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - For nearly a year, America's ``other
space agency'' - the super-secretive National Reconnaissance Office -
has been monitoring a bright, white object streaking through the
night sky.
Don't fret: It's not a UFO. It's 2 1/2 miles of knitting yarn.
The single strand of reinforced acrylic yarn has been orbiting
Earth, unwound, since last June.
The National Reconnaissance Office is intrigued by the possibility
of using tethers to connect clusters of small satellites so they can
communicate, much like a computer network.
Other tantalizing applications: using tethers to power spacecraft by
generating electricity as the conductive cords sweep through Earth's
magnetic field, to propel spacecraft into different orbits and to
drop experiments from a space station.
This is the longest-lasting space tether yet, a $4 million
experiment to demonstrate the motion and survivability of tethers in
low Earth orbit, littered with micrometeoroids as well as space junk.
It's also the first unclassified, ongoing space project in the
36-year history of the National Reconnaissance Office.
The NRO typically flies spy satellites.
``It's really fantastic to call people up on the phone and say, `Hi,
I'm Scott Larrimore and I'm with the NRO and I'd like you to track
my spacecraft. It catches a lot of open mouths,'' said Larrimore, an
Air Force captain who is program manager for the tether experiment.
Still, the NRO has some things to be closemouthed about.
The NRO refuses to say how or when the shoestring-like tether was
rocketed into orbit or how or when its next tether experiment will
fly. Until December, all NRO launches were classified for so-called
national security reasons.
What it will say, on the record, is this:
The Tether Physics and Survivability experiment, called Tips, was
ejected from a classified military satellite on June 20, 1996, into
a 635-mile-high orbit that swings as far north as Alaska and as far
south as Chile's Cape Horn. A few hours later, the yarn -all 2 1/2
miles - was unreeled from a spool. The tether, which weighs 12
pounds, was bowed and swung like a jump rope, but eventually
straightened and became more perpendicular to Earth.
Nine months later, the yarn still is orbiting Earth, intact. The NRO
knows so because of ground-based laser, radar and telescope
observations. Amateur astronomers also keep unofficial tabs on the
tether. (It's visible with binoculars on a clear night, although you
need to know exactly where and when to look.)
Tips has outlived its predecessors by months. NRO officials say if
the tether isn't broken by a micrometeoroid or other debris, it could
orbit for as long as 27 years before plunging through the atmosphere
and burning up.
The last time a tether flew, aboard space shuttle Columbia in
February 1996, the 12-mile conductive cord snapped within five hours
because of an electric discharge. The satellite-on-a-string drifted
away like a lost balloon. On the first flight of the $400 million
NASA-Italian Space Agency system, aboard Atlantis in 1992, a
protruding bolt caused the tether to jam a mere 840 feet out.
Despite all the trouble, the two missions proved electricity could
be generated by a tether system - easy power for spacecraft. And the
unintended severing of the tether demonstrated that the higher of
two objects goes up when a tether is cut and the lower one goes down
slightly - a fuel-free way to boost spacecraft into longer-lasting
orbits.
A shuttle, for example, could depart from the future international
space station via a tether. Once that tether is cut, the shuttle
would drop and the station would rise - a win-win situation.
NASA successfully flew three simpler and cheaper tethers on unmanned
Delta rockets in the early 1990s. The third test ended abruptly,
however, when the 12-mile line was severed, most likely by a
micrometeoroid, just three days and 17 hours after it was unreeled.
The only other orbiting tethers to date: 100-foot cords linking
manned capsules and Agena boosters during Gemini 11 and 12 in 1966.
NASA's next shot at a tether? Not until 1999 and most definitely not
on a space shuttle, where astronaut safety is paramount. The space
agency dumped a tether experiment that was to have flown on
Discovery this July.
``Things have really been ramped back because of the squeeze on the
budget and the bad experience we've had with tethers,'' said NASA
project manager Jim Harrison.
Added astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew on both tethered-satellite
missions: ``It's an emotional impact. What can you say? It would
have been better if it hadn't broken.''
Unlike NASA, the NRO wanted as plain a tether system as possible.
The 2 1/2 miles of white yarn is wrapped in braided Spectra 1000, a
tough, white fiber used in bulletproof vests and fish lines. The
resulting nonconductive cord is about one-tenth of an inch thick.
On either end of the Tips tether is an aluminum, hexagonal box
covered with 18 laser reflectors. The box containing the NASA-donated
unreeling device and long-dead electronics has a mass of 83 pounds.
The other box is 23 pounds.
The names of the boxes: Ralph and Norton, respectively.
Remember Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton of ``The Honeymooners?''
``It tickled my funny bone and I got away with it,'' said Bill
Purdy, program manager for the Naval Research Laboratory, which
designed and managed the Tips experiment for the NRO.
The NRO and NRL aren't the only ones picking up where NASA left off.
The engineer who developed the Tips tether, Joe Carroll of Tether
Applications in Chula Vista, Calif., has a 22-mile cord that's
supposed to ride on a European Ariane 5 rocket later this year. He's
also working on a tethered capsule that might be used to return
experiments from the future international space station.
And Rob Hoyt of Tethers Unlimited in Seattle is working on a fishnet
stocking-type tether. Why fishnet? If one string breaks, the tether
still holds.
Hoyt's most far-flung project: rotating tethers that work like a
bola to hurl payloads from Earth orbit to the moon.
As for the space elevator envisioned by science fiction writer
Arthur C. Clarke, lifting people and cargo to geosynchronous orbit
22,300 miles up, that's farfetched - for now.
No material currently exists that's strong enough, yet affordable,
for such a long, long tether.
``You get on an elevator and you push a button to go to geo,''
Carroll said. ``That's the 10-millionth floor. That's going to take a
while.''
A brief look at the eight orbiting tethers to date:
September 1966: 100-foot Dacron cord links manned Gemini 11 capsule
and Agena booster.
November 1966: 100-foot Dacron cord links manned Gemini 12 capsule
and Agena booster.
August 1992: 12-mile conductive tether with satellite on end jams
840 feet out while being unreeled from space shuttle Atlantis.
March 1993: 12 1/2-mile tether launched on Delta rocket,
intentionally cut two hours after being unreeled and re-enters
atmosphere and burns up.
June 1993: One-third-mile conductive tether launched on Delta
rocket, orbits for 1 1/2 months to two months before re-entering
atmosphere and burning up.
March 1994: 12 1/2-mile tether launched on Delta rocket, severed
three days and 17 hours after being unreeled, most likely by
micrometeoroid. Remaining tether and booster segment orbit for 59
days before re-entering atmosphere and burning up.
February 1996: 12-mile conductive tether with satellite on end
breaks while being unreeled from space shuttle Columbia. Tethered
satellite orbits for 23 days before re-entering atmosphere and
burning up.
June 1996: 2 1/2-mile tether ejected into orbit from classified
military satellite, still intact and flying.
[W18]******
Source: Los Angeles Times
Date: 24th February 1997
In Person: Looking into the alien ex machina
Physicist Bob Wood Wants to Know How UFOs Get Here
Attention extraterrestrial visitors: If your travel plans include an
Orange County flyover, you might want to stop by Bob's house.
Bob Wood, a former director of research and development at McDonnell
Douglas who holds a doctorate in physics, would like to chat. The
68-year-old Newport Beach resident has spent the last three decades
trying to answer a single, basic question: How did you get here?
"We're just a little bit behind in understanding all of the
technology used by the aliens, or visitors--or whatever you want to
call them," said Wood, research director of the 5,000-member Mutual
UFO Network and its Orange County chapter. "But there are ways to
figure it out and build such craft. I don't accept the idea that we
won't be able to replicate their capabilities."
But he does accept the idea that visitors from other worlds have
been coming to Earth for a long time. And in 1967, he managed to
convince McDonnell Douglas that the idea was worth studying.
The giant aerospace company allowed him to assemble a small team of
researchers to investigate reports of UFOs and alien encounters,
with the goal of discovering the underlying science that could make
their visits possible. The project ended after two years with no
definitive results, but the research made him a believer.
"I read a book, then I read another book, and pretty soon I'd read
about 100 books and I decided this was no joke, there was something
to it. The preponderance of eyewitness accounts was just so
overwhelming, I couldn't ignore it."
One of the most intriguing UFO accounts Wood has investigated was
reported in 1965 by Orange County highway inspector Rex Heflin. Wood
ranks it as the county's most significant UFO sighting to date.
"During his normal routine, somewhere near Dyer and Myford roads, he
saw this craft right in front of his windshield. He had a loaded
Polaroid camera on his front seat because that was his job, to
photograph things that needed to be fixed. So he took a shot right
through his front window."
Heflin took three photos before the hat-shaped UFO left the area.
"He drove farther and then got out and took a picture of the smoke
ring that was left behind after it accelerated out of sight."
The first three photographs were published in an Orange County
newspaper more than a month later. They were examined in 1967 by the
Condon Committee, a team of scientists from the University of
Colorado commissioned by the Air Force to conduct an independent
study of UFO reports.
"The Condon Committee declared that maybe it was a hoax, because of
their inability to prove that it couldn't have been a small model,"
said Wood, who first met Heflin in 1968. "He seemed quite credible
to me. And there were other things that were consistent with other
sightings: His radio crackled and went out just as the UFO was
close. And he described a wedge-shaped region of light on the bottom
of the craft. He never knew that this light was on his photographs.
It was only later that the researchers found it on the photographs."
Wood and Pasadena researcher Ann Druffel have obtained the original
photos, which were taken from Heflin in 1965 and mysteriously
returned to him in 1993.
Heflin said he'd given the photos to someone claiming to be an
official from the North American Air Defense Command. But NORAD
officials denied contacting him.
"He told me that he'd gotten a phone call from a female voice that
said, 'Have you looked in your mail box recently?' He said, 'No,' so
he went out and looked and there was nothing there. He went out and
looked a half-hour later, and somebody had left him his original
photographs inside an envelope."
Using the latest computer technology, Wood hopes to determine if the
photos are indeed genuine.
"You couldn't have done this five years ago. We will be using a new
technique for finding patterns in photographs--it's basically a
computer scan."
Of the 300 sightings reported to MUFON each year that are considered
unexplainable, about 10 are from Southern California. The 100-member
Orange County chapter gets only a few calls each month, and most
have earthly explanations.
"You have to think of multiple explanations for these anomalous
things. Many times there are reasonable explanations, and you don't
want to be led down the wrong path."
For those unexplainable accounts of UFOs and alien encounters,
Wood said there is no consensus on whether the visitors are friendly
or hostile.
"I'd say there are several civilizations that might be involved,
based on the in-depth interrogation of witnesses who are willing to
go on record. Extraterrestrial societies could be better at some
things, such as propulsion. But that wouldn't make them necessarily
better in ethics. There's significant evidence that people have been
abducted, but for the most part, the interest seems to be one of
curiosity and seeking understanding."
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Profile: Bob Wood
Age: 68
Hometown: Little Falls, N.Y.
Residence: Newport Beach
Family: Wife Charlotte; two grown children; two grandchildren
Education: Bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering, University
of Colorado; PhD in physics, Cornell University
Background: McDonnell Douglas Corp. researcher and executive for 43
years, including eight years as director of research and development;
director of advanced development for space station project
UFO research: Investigated reports of sightings and conducted
scientific research on possible methods of UFO space travel for
McDonnell Douglas, 1968-70; director of research for Mutual UFO
Network Inc. (MUFON) since 1993; founding director of research for
the Orange County section of MUFON since 1995
Who are those guys?: "I'd say there are several civilizations that
might be involved, based on the in-depth interrogation of witnesses
who are willing to go on record. Extraterrestrial societies could be
better at some things, such as propulsion. But that wouldn't make
them necessarily better in ethics."
Source: Bob Wood
Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Bob Wood: "We're just a little bit behind in
understanding all of the technology used by the aliens, or
visitors--or whatever you want to call them." PHOTOGRAPHER:
CHRISTINE COTTER / Los Angeles Times PHOTO: IN PERSON: Bob Wood, 68,
of Newport Beach used to be a director of research and development at
McDonnell Douglas. Now he uses his expertise investigating UFO
reports. GRAPHIC-CHART: Profile: Bob Wood / Los Angeles Times
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