The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
During the past year and a half we had had several astronomers visit
Project Blue Book, and they were not at all hesitant to give us their
opinions but they didn't care to say much about what their colleagues
were thinking, although they did indicate that they were thinking. We
decided that the opinions and comments of astronomers would be of
value, so late in 1952 we took a poll. We asked an astronomer, whom
we knew to be unbiased about the UFO problem and who knew every
outstanding astronomer in the United States, to take a trip and talk
to his friends. We asked him not to make a point of asking about the
UFO but just to work the subject into a friendly conversation. This
way we hoped to get a completely frank opinion. To protect his fellow
astronomers, our astronomer gave them all code names and he kept the
key to the code.
The report we received expressed the detailed opinions of forty-five
recognized authorities. Their opinions varied from that of Dr. C, who
regarded the UFO project as a "silly waste of money to investigate an
even sillier subject," to Dr. L, who has spent a great deal of his
own valuable time personally investigating UFO reports because he
believes that they are something "real." Of the forty-five
astronomers who were interviewed, 36 per cent were not at all
interested in the UFO reports, 41 per cent were interested to the
point of offering their services if they were ever needed, and 23 per
cent thought that the UFO's were a much more serious problem than
most people recognized.
None of the astronomers, even during a friendly discussion, admitted
that he thought the UFO's could be interplanetary vehicles. All of
those who were interested would only go so far as to say, "We don't
know what they are, but they're something real."
During the past few years I have heard it said that if the UFO's
were really "solid objects" our astronomers would have seen them. Our
study shed some light on this point--astronomers have seen UFO's.
None of them has ever seen or photographed anything resembling a UFO
through his telescope, but 11 per cent of the forty-five men had seen
something that they couldn't explain. Although, technically speaking,
these sightings were no better than hundreds of others in our files
as far as details were concerned, they were good because of the
caliber of the observer. Astronomers know what is in the sky.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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