The Search for ET

The possibility of life on other planets has always fascinated people here on planet earth and there has been a great amount of searching the skies for other life forms outside of our own . Is there really extraterrestrial (ET) life elsewhere or are the earth bound people just having some incredibly wishful thinking and are all alone in the vast universe? Some people believe adamantly that there is life other than our own and others do not . This paper will be discussing the history of extra terrestrial , mainly Stonehenge , what technology is used to aid in the research of finding extra-terrestrial and some of the controversial evidence that has spring up over time .

As long as human's have been looking at the night sky , it has always had significant meaning to people in terms of spirituality and being able to determine when the seasons were going to change , along with being able to tell what time it is and much more . Ancient Alien theorists believe that ET had superior knowledge of engineering and science and had landed on earth thousands of years ago . The history channel in their television show "Ancient Aliens" have talked about how the Mayan and many other cultures , who had no communication whatsoever produced paintings of what appears to be other worldly beings . Although depictions varied slightly from culture to culture , they all had similar features . Stonehenge is also believed by some that it was either inspired by or created by ET beings or humans had the assistance if ET to build it . The National Geographic channel (Nat Geo) says that "For 5 , 000 years , the purpose of this monument has remained a mystery , but archaeologists have uncovered a theory to explain this architectural riddle . " Some believe that the Druids ((dictionary . com) A druid is a member of pre-Christian religious order among the ancient Celts of Gaul , Britain and Ireland) possibly created Stonehenge and was a temple for the druids but may not be true because according to modern dating techniques , Stonehenge was manufactured at least 1 , 000 years prior to the Celts ever even stepping foot on that land .

For many people , it is difficult to fathom how you can "search for ET life" because the first thing that may come to someone's mind for many is having a dream and the individual waking up to find that he or she cannot move his or her body (paralyzed) , there are figures moving about the room or possibly looking over them (maybe both) , then the beings either walk out of the room and/ or abduct them , then return "days" later . Something like that can easily be explained away by saying that it is most likely sleep paralysis or some other type of sleeping or mental disorder . There are other times that something like this cannot be explained away quite so easily , for example , someone says that he or she was abducted by aliens and there is some sort of "chip" in the person's body that is not from this planet and the materials are not identified as something from this planet . SETI ( Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) as well as NASA at one point in time , have been doing research since about 1959 . In the beginning SETI began to search for radio signals from intelligent life in space . Today , SETI basically still uses the same system , although it is a little more advanced than when SETI was first founded , the same basic concept applies . SETI goes through various "radio waves" and frequencies , while the computers sample a countless number of narrow band frequencies in the radio spectrum to try and find something that the ET may have possibly said . As of right now , the only publicly known signal that has been found is the famous WOW signal that SETI found in the 1970's . There is a possibility that there may be other signals or other communications with the ET that the government has not released as of yet but until then , this is what we "have to go on . "

When it comes to evidence of the possible Extraterrestrial beings , there is always going to be controversy about its legitimacy or lack thereof . Weather a home movie of a possible Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) is easily debunked as the moon and a couple of planes peaking through the tree's or something as significant as seeing an aircraft leave Area 51; one has to know that a craft bigger than anyone has ever seen but is as silent as can be , one has to wonder but what is one of many controversial pieces of evidence? The WOW signal received in 1977 . The Ohio State University radio telescope had detected a strange reading from the constellation Sagittarius , or at least very close to it . There was a 37 second long signal that was very startling to the astronomer that was keeping an eye on the data and realized that the printout from the telescope had said "Wow!" The signal was received in a radio frequency that is banned on earth internationally . Furthermore , natural sources of radiation from space usually cover a wider range of frequencies . UFOcasebook . com says "...the nearest star in that direction is 220 million light years away , either a massive astronomical event - or intelligent aliens with a very powerful transmitter would have had to have created it . The signal remains unexplained . " It is a possibility that this is purely accidental that the cosmos had produced this specific signal but it is always possible that a person can find some sort of coded meaning in absolutely anything if he or she put forth the mental effort . So is the WOW signal wishful thinking? Many may say that it is wishful thinking because if other worldly beings supposedly have more advanced technology that humans do , then how is it possible that the ET are only able to send one small , 72 second signal that says "Wow!" or is the government hiding something from us? When it comes to something like this , a person has to use their own judgment on what he or she perceives to be real and what is imagination .

The search for extra terrestrial life is something that is endlessly fascinating . It can be difficult to stop writing about the subject after only a few paragraphs. The history , technology and controversial evidence are just barely touching the surface of the vast information and opinions that are out there under this specific umbrella .

References

1) "Ancient Alien Theory . " 2011 . The History Channel website . Mar 24 2011 .http://www . history . com/shows/ancient-aliens/articles/ancient-alien-theory .

2) "Stonehenge theories . " 2011 . National Geographic channel website . March 24 , 2011 .http://channel . nationalgeographic . com/episode/stonehenge-decoded-3372/overview#tab-stonehenge-theories

3) "druid . " Dictionary . com Unabridged . Random House , Inc . 24 Mar . 2011 . . com http://dictionary . reference . com/browse/druid> . \

4) "Stonehenge . " Encyclopedia Americana . 1997ed .

5) " Top 10 Controversial Pieces of Evidence for Extraterrestrial Life . " UFOCASEBOOK . COM 2010 . UFO CASEBOOK . MARCH 23 , 2011 .http://www . ufocasebook . com/2010/10controversy . html