Symposium on unidentified flying objects: hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, second session, July 29, 1968.

88
with another
dish, similarly
outfitted if
one
existed
at
the
incredible
distance
of
1,000 light
years
away,
a
light
year
being
about
6.6
trillion
miles,
and
the
distance
to
the
nearest
star
being
a
little
over
4
lightyears.
Now,
let
me
then
go
to
the
question
of
the
cosmic
perspective
of
where
we
are.
We
are,
of
course,
sitting
on a
planet,
the
third
from
the
Sun,
which
is
going
around
the
Sun,
which
is
a
star
-like,
and
the
other
stars
visible
on
a
clear
night to the
naked
eye.
The
first
small
slide
will
give
an
impression
of
what
happens
when
you
point
a
moderate
telescope
in
the
direction
of
the
center
of
the
Milky
Way
Galaxy.
This
is
a
photograph of
a
star
cloud.
You
are
looking
at tens
of
thousands
of suns
here.
In
fact,
the
number
of suns
in
our
galaxy
is
about
150,000
million.
They
are
collected
into
a
disk
-shaped
pattern,
shown
in
the
next
slide;
the
next
slide
will
show
a
photograph of
the
nearest
galaxy
like
our
own. That
fuzzy
spiral
thing
in
the
middle
is
M-31,
that
is
also
known
as the
Great
Galaxy
Andromeda,
and
if
that
were
a
photo-
graph
of our
galaxy,
we
would
be
situated
extremely far
out,
in
fact,
a
little
far
off
the
slide,
very
much
in
the
galactic
boon
docks.
The
Sun
is
nowhere
near
the
center
of
the galaxy.
It
is
a
very
out-of-the-
way
rural
location
we
happen
to
be
in.
Now,
in
collection
of
150,000
million
stars in
the
Milky
Way
Galaxy,our sun
is
just
one,
and
there are
at
least billions
of
other
gallaxies,
and
the
last
slide,
-
will
show
you
what
happens
if
you
point
a
tele-
scope
away
from
the obscuring dust
and
stars
in
the galaxy.
You
then
start
seeing
dozens
of
other
galaxies.
everyone of
those
funny
-shaped
spiral
and
irregular
-shaped things
there,
and some
of
the
spherical
-
shaped
ones, are other
galaxies,
each
of which
are containing
about
100
billion
stars
as
well.
So
it is
clear
that there are in
the
accessible
universe,
some
hundredsof
billions
of
billions
of
stars,
all
more
or
less
like
our
own.
Now,
if
we
want
to
assess
the
likelihood
that there are
intelligentcivilizations
somewhere
in
advance of our
own,
on
planets
of
other
stars
in
our
own
galaxy,
we
have
to
ask
questions
which
cover
a
variety
of
scientific
subjects,
some
of which
are
fairly
well
known, some
of
which
are
extremely poorly
known. For a
numerical assessment
of
whether
there
is
likely intelligence
in other parts
of the
galaxy
in
a
form
we
do
not have
at present,
let
me
indicate
the
kinds of
things
we
know.
It
depends
on
the
rate
of
star
formation.
It depends
on
the
likelihood
that the given
star
has
planets.
It de-
pends
on
the
likelihood
at
least
one of
those planets
is
at
a
position
from
the
essential
star
which
is
suitable
for the
origin
of
life.
It
de-
pends on
the
likelihood
that the
origin
of
life
actually occurs
on
thatplanet.
It depends on
the
probability
life
once
arisen
on
that planetwill
evolve to
some
intelligence.
It depends on
the
likelihood
that
in-
telligence,
once emerged,
will
develop
a
technical
civilization.
And
it
depends on
the
lifetime
of the technical
civilization,
because technicalcivilization
of a
very short
lifetime, will result
in very
few
technical
cvilizations
being around at
any
given time.
We
know
something about
some of
these.
There
is
some
reason to believe that planets are
a
reason-