Why would aliens visit Earth? Nuclear physicist and renowned Ufologist Stanton Friedman discusses what would make intelligent extraterrestrial life visit our planet.
One of the questions I often come across when I review the overwhelming evidence that has convinced me, as a nuclear physicist, that Earth is being visited by intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft, is, ”Why would anybody wish to come to this insignificant planet in an obscure solar system?” A question often followed by comments from skeptics like “it would take too long”, “use too much energy” or “there wouldn’t be any purpose in them coming here”. My counter argument is that, having worked on very far out propulsion systems such as nuclear fission and fusion rockets, the trip probably is no more of a big deal than flying from New York to Hong Kong, which I have done in sixteen hours. Years ago it would have taken many months. Just think, it took Magellan’s ship three years to circumnavigate Earth around 1520. Jules Verne talked about going around the world in eighty days in a balloon in the mid-nineteenth century. Now it takes about ninety minutes to get to the space station, clearly illustrating that technological progress comes from doing things differently, in an unpredictable way. So in fact, if it is worth their while coming, it wouldn’t actually be that difficult. And I would argue it is in their interest to visit.
Any visit to a major airport would reveal many different reasons for travel: for a honeymoon or adventurous holiday, for a sports event, for business deals, the list goes on. Loads of people made their difficult way to California and the Yukon in the 19th century searching for gold and prosperity. The same goes for aliens. There may be many reasons and, like us Earthlings, it is likely they would make a difficult journey for something they really wanted. In Flying Saucers and Science I listed many reasons for aliens coming here, but I believe that the primary one is that we are now a threat to the local neighborhood.
There are, after all, more than two thousand stars within 55 light years of the sun. Some are, as it happens, much older than the sun. Just down the street are Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli, two stars a billion years older than the sun, only 39.3 light years from here, and only an eighth of a light year apart. One of the most exciting astronomical developments in history has been the launch and operation of the magnificent Kepler space satellite. Its results suggest that there are several billion planets in the Milky Way. Personally, I am convinced that the neighborhood is crawling with nearby civilizations able to visit each other and colonising, migrating and exploiting. I make one assumption about all advanced civilizations: they are concerned with their own survival and security. That means they must keep tabs on all the primitives in the neighborhood, but only close tabs i.e frequent visits, to those demonstrating any capability to visit other advanced civilizations or any threatening behaviour.
The data indicates Earth has been monitored for a millennia. Technology did not really blossom until about 1900. After that there was radio, airplanes, rockets, neutrons, DNA discovery, radars, atomic energy, lasers,nanotechnology etc. This explosion in technological advances would account for more frequent visits this last century. However, during the last century, there were also many demonstrations that we are a very primitive society whose major activity is tribal warfare.
We really showed our true colors in World War II. We Earthlings killed sixty million of our own kind and destroyed one thousand seven hundred cities, proving we can be an incredibly destructive and hostile civilisation. In July 1947, there were three signs that soon we might be able reach out into the galaxy, taking our brand of friendship, or rather hostility, with us. One was nuclear weapons and the second powerful rockets, such as the V-2, both used to sow death and destruction. The third was powerful radar, the beginning of the electronics revolution. There was then only one place on Earth where aliens could evaluate our progress in all three areas – Southeastern New Mexico, which is also where Roswell is. Our first atomic bomb was exploded at Trinity Site on the grounds of the White Sands Missile Range. That is also where we were firing and improving the German V-2 rockets. That is also where we had our best radar to track the rockets, which sometimes went south instead of north. The Russians exploded their first atomic bomb in 1949, and the U.S in 1945, releasing the energy of just under twenty thousand tons of explosive. Our first H bomb in 1952 produced a three mile wide fireball and released the energy of ten million tons of explosive. Since then we have demonstrated that we can use nuclear energy for propulsion. Nuclear submarines started being used in 1956. Other ships followed, as did nuclear power plants.
We today have nuclear powered aircraft carriers that can operate for eighteen years without refueling. We have operated fission nuclear rockets less than 8ft in diameter at a power level of 4400 megawatts, twice the output of Hoover dam. Several studies have shown that if we wished to spend the money, we could build fusion nuclear rockets ejecting charged particles in space having ten million times as much energy per particle as in a primitive chemical rocket. Much data has been collected by former missileman Robert Salas and investigator Robert Hastings, showing that aliens have paid a great deal of attention to our nuclear weapons installations. It is easy to forget that we have exploded two thousand nuclear warheads. Very fortunately, only two have been dropped on people. No sensible neighbors could afford to ignore our primitive society, whose major activity is tribal warfare and creating weapons.
Of course, whilst checking out any threat, one might also have use for picking up a shipment of very valuable minerals. Earth is, after all, the densest planet in the solar system, which means it has very valuable heavy metals, such as gold, uranium, tungsten, rhenium, osmium, etc. Over one thousand reports are on file of unidentified submerged objects, and there are many different nodules of metals, such as chromium and manganese, as well as diamonds at the bottom of the sea. If we have found use and value in all these metals, I have no doubt other civilisations would too. I feel certain that the local galactic federation has rules of behavior. They are probably also aware of other civilizations that were here many thousands or millions of years ago, about which we are still ignorant. They would also be aware of the likely outcome when a society doesn’t control its growth or its greed or pollution.
We Earthlings used to think we were at the top of the heap in the galactic neighborhood. Now we know we are not at the center of the galaxy nor the brightest civilization in the neighborhood. The challenge is to face up to the reality of alien visitation, and government lies about our visitors.There will be serious political, economic and religious implications as the truth is slowly revealed. No nation wants to lose its powers to a planetary society. But how else can we assure a safe future for our children and grandchildren?
 |  |
| 83% | 16% |
