Project Blue Book: Believable or Not, Science Itself Makes Alien Contact Unlikely

UFO researchers have often criticized Project Blue Book as an attempt at a government cover up. Despite the temptation to believe that there is life out there, it seems more likely that it would not be able to contact us. Nor does it seem likely that the government would have kept the attempt to find proof of UFOs as extraterrestrial objects would have gone on so long had they merely want to sweep it under the rug. Nor has the government tried to hide the results of the survey, they are available online for those who want to look at the documents.

The Air Force's project Blue Book started in 1952 and officially closed down in 1970 after finding no official proof for the UFO phenomenon. While many people even outside of the UFO conspiracy theories believe that something happens at Area 51, the likelihood that it is a facility where stolen alien technology was kept is small. A more likely explanation and one that cannot be proven either is that the area is used to test experimental aircraft, which seems to be supported by a higher number than average sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects in the area.

The closed nature of the government after Project Blue Book has been criticized, but the military has more important jobs than worrying about little green men who in all likelihood are the product of a hallucination or someone's overactive imagination. The fastest speed allowed for any object in the universe to travel is just under the speed of light. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the closer an object approaches the speed of light, the more it weighs and an ever increasing amount of energy is needed to move it. Once an object reaches light speed, it should become pure energy.

Even if the aliens could travel at near light speed, from the closest star it would take them approximately four years to reach the Earth. If there were aliens on Alpha Centauri capable of this achievement they would have visited us by now. Another project that scans the cosmos in a more mundane way looking for intelligent life, SETI would be communicating with the people of Alpha Centauri regularly if radio signals came from the direction of that star system. (The communication out of necessity would be letter like as it would be four years for a response.)

Project Blue Book may by some thought to be nothing more than a cover up, but the Air Force did make its documents available to the public, although after each time security personnel had to review the findings. Chances are that while many people do not believe "weather balloon" explanatoin of the Roswell incident that prompted the investigation, it was likely not an alien spaceship that crashlanded, although if I did, I hope it was the Ferengi as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine suggested.

Sources:

http://www.bluebookarchive.org/documentation/about_pbb.aspx

www.seti.org