Exploring the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and "visits" in Oxford
By: Lance Ingram
On May 25, 1977, the first Star Wars film was released, and went on to earn more than $11 million at the box office and captivated audiences about the possibilities of extraterrestrials.
However, Star Wars was not the first medium to capitalize on people’s curiosity of outer space and the idea that we are not alone.
In 1898, H.G. Wells released his novel, War of the Worlds, that depicted an alien invasion on earth. Later in 1938 the story was adapted and performed on the radio and led to mass panic.
Due to the public’s interest in the possibility of extraterrestrials and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), many have reported their interactions with them.
But Ole Miss Astronomy professor, Luca Bombelli, said that while he is skeptical of the possibility of extraterrestrial life, he does not believe we are alone in the universe.
“Just by studying astronomy and the other stars surrounding us and the immensity of the universe there must be other places where life has evolved,” he said. “However, I don’t think that aliens or extraterrestrial forms of life have traveled to us because the distances are so big.”
Bombelli said the nearest star with the capacity of the sun is four light-years away, which means traveling at the speed of light it would take someone from earth four years to get there.
“You cannot do what you see on Star Trek,” he said. “Its impossible. ”
He added that with our current technology it would take many thousands of years to reach something so far away.
“For a form of life to exist similar to ours they would have to be not too far from a star, like in our case, the sun, which allows the ability to grow and sustain life,” Bombelli said. “You can’t exclude microbial life, but we are fairly certain there is no large life form like us in our solar system.”
But what about the sightings and first hand experiences people have had throughout the years?
The latest sighting to be reported at a international level is a video released from Siberia in early April that shows an alien’s body after an apparent crash in the snow. It hasn’t been determined if the video is a hoax or not, but many claim to have seen the real deal.
Ole Miss sophomore, Blake Johnson, said one night while at Lamar Park in Oxford he saw something that can only be described as a UFO.
“There was a really bright light in the sky, and then this circular object zoomed away really quickly,” he said. “I never really believed there were aliens before, but I have no idea what that was and it was very convincing."
Johnson said that was his only experience with a UFO or extraterrestrial life but it has convinced him of the possibility that we are not alone.
Despite Johnson’s encounter, Bombelli is slow to assume that the student's sighting was a being from another planet.
He said that most UFO sightings tend to be clouds, airplanes or other things that may be in the sky and for some random coincidence have shapes that make people think of UFOs.
“There are cases of hoaxes, but even supposed pictures are a bit vague when you look at them,” he said. “If you look at these things thinking you’re going to see a UFO then you’re going to interpret them that way.”
Regardless of whether there is life on other planets, Bombelli said we do not have the technology to discover life on other planets yet. He said it could be thousands of years before develop the technology to determine if we have neighbors in this universe.
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