It’s Official…No ET
The United States government has no knowledge that extraterrestrial life exists or that beings from other planets have made contact with humans, according to a formal statement issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In the statement, space policy expert Phil Larson declared, “The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.”
Some people believe UFO's are spaceships from other planets. However, investigators discover ordinary explanations for most UFO sightings. © Popperfoto/Alamy Images
The announcement was made in response to two online petitions addressed to “We The People,” a government website that promises to address issues raised by any petition with at least 5,000 signers. The petitions asked the administration of President Barack Obama for any government knowledge of contact with extraterrestrials (ET’s). One of the petitions insisted that, “The people have a right to know. The people can handle the truth.” Many people throughout the world believe that some unidentified flying objects (UFO’s) are spacecraft from other planets. Some people have even reported being abducted by aliens.
Larson acknowledged that the U.S. government has engaged in several projects to search for extraterrestrial life. In 2009, NASA launched Kepler, a space-based telescope designed to search for Earth-sized planets orbiting sun-like stars. The SETI Institute in California also scans the universe for signs of intelligent life. In November, NASA planned to launch a new Mars rover named Curiosity. It is designed to search for evidence that Mars has had elements that could support microbial life. In 1952, the U.S. Air Force established Project Blue Book, a program to investigate about 12,000 UFO reports to determine whether UFO’s were a potential threat to national security. The project was cancelled in 1969, after scientists at the University of Colorado advised the Air Force that further study was not likely to produce useful information concerning a security threat.
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