Miscellaneous

unexamined by the scientific establishment was to strong to resist. Last
f all Deardorf f t ook an early retirement and began devoting all his energy to
the question. "He bas a worldwide research reputation. We were very sorry
to lose h i m,n said w. Lawrence Gates, chairman of the atmospheric sciences
departmen t . " It was a complete surprise to most of us. I tried several
times to pursuade him to stay.fl In 1985 Deardorff added the flleaky embargott
theory to the scientific literature on extraterrestrials, publishing it in
the Quar terly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. The theory assumes
t h e presence of alien beings, an assumption Deardorff says he is inclined to
make . First of all, he says in his literature, there may be between 100,000
and 10 million independently evolved advanced societies on planets in the
Milky Way galaxy alone. Deardorff contends it is probable that one or more
of these advanced alien societies has traveled to Earth, and he says it's
even possible the planet is at any moment under observation by a number of
different alien emissaries.
Deardorff said he is inclined to accept the view of UFO experts that 10
percent to 20 percent of UFO sightings cannot be explained using terrestrial
explanations alone. "If they are physically around, using technology that
is tens of thousands of years in advance of ours, it would appear to be magic
to us," he said. Deardorff says the social shock of confronting
extraterrestrials could be avoided as long as the widespread disbelief among
governments and scientists was not jeopardized. "Awareness of what was taking
place would then proceed very gradually, no faster that humankind in general
was inherently prepared to accept the extraterrestrial messages!" Dea:dorff
wrote in his 1985 paper. In his own department, Deardorff received mixe~
reactions when it became clear he was heavily involved in research on alien
beings. "There were some who preferred not to talk about it at all, but
maybe three-t'ourths of the department were very interested," he said. "Only
one or two believed it was a totally silly waste of time." Despite the
raised eyebrows, Deardorff' is firm in his resolve to continue his enquiry.
The field cries out for serious treatment by reputable scientists, he says,
and it could lead to the greatest discovery of all. "The likelihood there's
something there is very high. Look at it this way: What are the odds that
s.11 this could be s. hos.z?" he said. "Why should we leave this up to science
f i ction writers? It's time that the scientists got involved in this."
. ;. ,
~k~k ~\IBL1..Sn:E.S S~'IE.LL1.~'E.' ~ S"lGliT1.'NG~--'fne National Aeronautics and Space
~~~n.istration. Eis ~ub'tishea results of a satellite's survey of the solar
~~stem., but it ~ill ta~e scientists ~ears to know ho~ many of the objects it
aigb.ted ~ere ~reviousl~ unkno-wn asteroids or comets. The catalog--published
on com~uter tape--lists 3S,bi8 unidentified objects sighted by the satellite
~hi. en photographed 9b percent of the sky during its i983 mission.
AUSTRALIA'S GREATEST AVIATION MYSTERY REMAINS UNSOLVED--On October 21,1978,
a mystery sound interrupted transmission between pilot Frederick Valentich
and Melbourne Flight Service which has never been explained, or identified.
Prior to the mystery sound, pilot Valentich had been reporting the approach
and description of an unidentified flying object similar to those reported
from all over the world by people from all walks of life. Eight years after
that fatal Saturday evening, no trace has ever been found of either the pilot
or his blue and white Cessna aircraft. Frederick Valentich was not the only
person who reported UFOs over and near Bass Strait {between Melbourne and
Tasmania) that day and night. Investigators have found more than 50 reported
observers from that area before, during and after his encounter. The period
of UFO activity around Bass Strait bad been building up for more than six
weeks prior to that famous encounter • . The activity reached a peak the
weekend the pilot and his aircraft disappeared.
TOP U.S. SENATOR SAW TWO UFOs--one of the most powerful U.S. Senators in
modern history actually eyewitnessed two UFOs while on a fact finding trip
through Russia in 1955--and the U.S. government has kept the sightings a
secret for more than three decades. The incredible encounter is detailed in
12 top secret CIA, FBI, and U.S . Air Force reports which have been obtained
by Phenomena Research. Those startling reports reveal that Senator Richard
B. Russell, Jr . (D•Ga .)--then chairman of the Armed Services Committee--was
on a Soviet train when he spotted a disc-shaped craft taking off near the
tracks. He hurriedly called his military aide and interpreter to the window
--and they saw the disc plus another one that appeared a minute later. The
as tonish ed trio reported the sightings to the u.s. Air Force as soon as they
wer e out or Russia. "The three observers were firmly convinced that they
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