THE CASE FOR UFOS
Robert Jastrow

    Can you imagine a form of life as far beyond man as man is beyond the worm? Science assures that such highly evolved beings must exist on the stars and planets around us, if life is common in the Universe.
      These extraterrestrials are not like the flower children in Close Encounters s of the Third Kind'or the cowboys of Star Wars. They are creatures whom we will judge to be possessed of magical powers when we see them. By our standards, they will be immortal, omniscient and omnipotent. They are the kinds of creatures who would be capable of a trip to the Earth from another star.
       How can these bizarre notions be supported by science? Here is the evidence. (1) One hundred billion stars like the Sun surround us in our galaxy alone; according to indirect but solid astronomical evidence, many have planets made of the same ingredients as the Earth; these planets have water and air and the same vicissitudes of climate as the Earth; the molecules on their surfaces enter into the same chemical combinations  subject to the same laws of cheer is try and physics, as molecules on our planet. All the necessary elements for the evolution of life are present -- simple, unthinking life at first and complex, intelligent life later on.
      On the basis of these considerations, I believe that life is common on the many planetary systems in the cosmos. Moreover ,recent discoveries in astronomy prove that if life exists on other planets in the Universe, most of this life is far older than life on the Earth. The discoveries relate to the so-called Big Bang theory, which holds that the Universe began with a gigantic explosion. The Big Bang theory has now been proved to be a fact by the Nobel Prizewinning work of Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who discovered the remnant of the primordial flash of light and heat that filled the Universe at the time of the great explosion. In other words, they discovered a relic of events that actually took place shortly after the beginning of the world. Although many astronomers had resisted the Big Bang theory. the Penzias-Wilson discovery has convinced very nearly the last doubting Thomas.
       The importance of the Big Bang in a discussion of UFOs and life on other worlds is that it tells us when the world began; it tells us the age of the Universe. An astronomer can calculate on the back of an envelope how long ago the Big Bang occurred. That moment marked the birth of the Universe. The result of the calculation is that the Universe came into being 20 billion years ago. The Earth. on the other hand, was born only 4.6 billion years ago. That result comes from measurements of the ages of meteorites~ and from the ages of the moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts. Since meteorites and the moon are relatively unchanged samples of solar-system material, dating back to the birth of the planets, their age is thought to give a good estimate of the age of the Earth.
      Thus, many planets circling distant stars are 5, 10 and even 15 billion years older than the Earth. (2) It follows that the Earth is a very recent arrival in the cosmic family of planets, and man is among the youngest denizens of the Universe.Of course, the fact that life elsewhere is older than man does not necessarily man that this life is more intelligent. However, other scientific evidence suggests that this is likely to be the case. Throughout the last 300 million years of life on Earth, only one seemingly universal trend can be discerned in evolution; this is the trend toward greater intelligence. (3) Since before the fishes left the  so water, the most intelligent form of life present on Earth in each era has been the rootstock out of which new and still more intelligent forms have evolved. The line of increasing intelligence stretches unbroken from the fishes to the reptiles to the mammals, the primates and man. Apparently, intelligence - which permits a flexible response to changing conditions -- has a greater survival value than any other single trait.
      Now we come to a critical point. Why should a line of evolution that has proceeded unchecked for hundreds of millions of years suddenly stop at the particular level of intelligence that we call "human"? Homo erectus had less brain power than Homo sapiens has; the successors to Homo sapiens should have more. If the past is any guide to the future, our descendants a billion years from now will surpass us in intelligence. (4) And if the Earth is typical of planets in the cosmos -- and everything we know in astronomy and geology tells us that it is -- intelligent beings who live on planets billions of years older than the Earth have already reached that advanced level of intelligence that our successors will only achieve in the distant future.
      This argument, proceeding step by step on the basis of evidence acquired in the basic scientific disciplines~, leads to the conclusion that life on other worlds is not only billions of years older than man, but also billions of years beyond him in intelligence.
      What does a billion years mean in the evolution of intelligence? For an answer, look again at the fossil record. One billion years ago, the highest form of life on the Earth was a simple, wormlike animal. The creatures who dwell on planets a billion years older than the Earth must possess an intelligence that surpasses ours by as much as we surpass the mindless, soft-bodied creatures who burrow through the soil of our gardens.
      These considerations bring me full circle to my opening statement: According to the best scientific evidence, intelligent life on other worlds is likely to be as far beyond man as man is beyond the worm. 
      Why is it so important, in a discussion of UFOs, to establish a scientific  foundation for the existence of races more intelligent than man? The answer is related to the fact that the distances between the stars are so enormously great. If a UFO reaches the Earth, its crew must have covered those enormous distances somehow; they must have started out from someplace beyond the edge of our solar system. They cannot come from the Earth's sister planets, because no  intelligent life exists in this solar system except on our own planet. All the evidence acquired by NASA spacecraft in the past few years regarding Venus, Mars and Jupiter points to that conclusion. It follows that UFOs, if they arrive here, have come from another star. There is the rub. The closest star to the Sun is 25 trillion miles away, and it would take one million years to cover that enormous distance with the fastest rockets known to man. Our science and engineering are not adequate to meet that challenge; a trip to the stars is beyond our reach at the present time. But in another billion years, our descendants -- possessed of highly evolved minds and  with a science and engineering far beyond ours -- should be able to undertake an interstellar voyage. (5) And what our descendants can do a billion years in the future, other races, a billion years older and more evolved than man  should be able to do today.
       My conclusion is that UFOs -- visitors from another star -- are a scientifically sound concept because science tells us that it is reasonable to believe in the existence of forms of life older and far more intelligent than man.
       Has the Earth already been visited by these older, more advanced beings? The first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel records a remarkable incident that took place several thousand years ago. After an account of what seems to be a landing and an exploration by unusual beings, apparently metallic in construction, verse 24~deseribes their departure: "And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters ..." Anyone who saw a Saturn V rocket~ take off will remember that the thunderous roar sounded like Niagara Falls. Nothing man-made except the launch of a rocket sounds like that.
      Are such visits occurring at this moment? Dr. Allen Hynek has made a study of reported UFO sightings and concludes that several are unmistakably UFOs Unidentified Flying Objects. He cannot say whether these unidentified objects have come from another star, but there are good reasons for believing that such extraterrestrial contacts -- either visitors or messages -- are more probable today than ever before in the history of our planet. Since about 1960, television stations scattered across the Earth have been spraying their signals into space at a million-watt level. In the course of the last 20 years, that expanding shell of television signals, moving away from the Earth at the speed of light, has traveled 240 trillion miles; it has now swept past more than 40 stars in the neighborhood of the Sun. Old Jack Para programs, moving away from the Earth at the speed of light, have carried the message to these stars that intelligent life exists on this planet. These television signals make the Earth the brightest radio star in our neighborhood of the galaxy at TV frequencies. For the first time in 4.6 billion years, our planet is a notable object in the heavens.
      If any of those 40 nearby stars harbor intelligent beings, our presence is now  known to them. As it took 20 years for our signals to reach these stars, it must take 20 years for their reply, traveling at the same speed, to get back. Unless man is alone in the cosmos, we can expect to receive a message -- or a visit - by the end of this century.
     And would these superior beings bother to talk to us? "In their eyes," one observer notes, "Einstein would qualify as a waiter and Thomas Jefferson as a busboy."
1 think they would. They are jaded/I): they have lived a billion years; they have done nearly everything; they are eager for fresh experiences. After all, where else in the galaxy have they seen a creature like man before?