What gave the name to the science of ufology. Unidentified flying objects from the standpoint of official science and ufology. Ufology in the USSR and Russia

The content of the article

UFOLOGY, a hobby that arose in the 1950s in many countries in the wake of public interest in UFOs. The term "ufology" (ufology or UFOlogy) first appeared in English language in 1959; it comes from the abbreviation UFO (unidentified flying object), which has a Russian counterpart - UFO, an unidentified flying object. Basically, the terms "ufology" and "ufologist" (ufologist) are used by means mass media and do not appear in the lists of scientific disciplines.

It is impossible to define unequivocally what ufologists do and how they do it. The range of specialists - scientists, engineers, military, as well as lovers of science and technology, who are interested in unusual phenomena associated with UFOs, is very wide, and the nature of this interest is heterogeneous - from strict scientific research to paranoid ideas and outright quackery.

The main occupation of ufologists is to collect reports of eyewitnesses of unidentified phenomena and participants in contacts with unusual sentient beings. These reports usually come from the media or as direct reports from eyewitnesses in scientific institutes, V public organizations ufologists and activists of this kind of activity. Sometimes ufologists visit eyewitnesses of mysterious events and clarify the circumstances of the incident. Some ufologists are developing special equipment for monitoring the sky in order to search for UFOs. Others are engaged in historical research, seeking to give a description of events that could be interpreted as a visit to Earth by aliens. Among ufologists, there are people who call themselves "contactees" and claim that they physically or mentally came into contact with aliens. There are also people who describe their visits to "flying saucers" and travel on them with aliens.

Among the ufologists themselves, there are different points of view on where and with what intentions the intelligent beings mentioned by eyewitnesses come to Earth. Their habitat, as a rule, is called other planets of our Galaxy or " Parallel Worlds”, “fourth dimension”, “spiritual spheres”, etc. There is also no unanimity regarding their intentions: ufologists name the purpose of visits and contacts with earthlings as a fraternal desire to come to our aid, as well as enemy intentions to kidnap and use earthlings for selfish purposes, experiments, etc.

There are public organizations of ufologists - national and international, for example MUFON - Mutual UFO Network (Universal UFO Network). UFO museums have been opened in some countries; Ufology is widely represented on the computer network Internet. Among foreign ufologists, Allen Hynek, Jacques Vallee, James McDonald, Philip Klass, and others are especially authoritative. At the same time, there are many scientists who have devoted articles and books to the scientific interpretation of those phenomena that uncritically thinking ufologists present as the result of an alien visit. Here are the statements of some scientists who defend different positions on this issue (quoted from the book by F.Yu. Siegel UFO phenomenon):

“We do not unequivocally reject the interplanetary hypothesis. But before accepting it, we want to consider other, more natural proposals.

Despite the huge number of cases that can be immediately attributed to hoaxes, the flight of balloons, clouds, birds, airplanes and the like, we must conclude that "flying saucers" are real - real in the sense that people are really something they saw it. The plates are not a matter of imagination or hallucination.

However, speaking of the reality of "flying saucers", I do not at all want to say that it is solid bodies or anything material at all. For example, I believe that the rainbow is real, although no one has ever touched it with their hand. I have not seen anything that even remotely proves the popular hypothesis that "flying saucers" are spaceships. In my opinion, the first real “flying saucer” was the famous satellite launched by Soviet scientists on October 4, 1957 ”(Donald Menzel, professor of astronomy at Harvard University, an opponent of Ufology).

“Careful examination of hundreds of controversial UFO reports and interviews with dozens of key witnesses in high-profile cases have led me to the conclusion that the UFO problem is scientifically extremely important. For a number of years, the US Air Force has kept the press and the scientific community under the mistaken impression that the UFO problem is being carefully studied. I found this to be the purest hoax. Highly unscientific explanations were attributed to important observations. Meanwhile, not only American radars tracked ultra-fast objects performing paranormal maneuvers, but also the radars of other countries.

I believe that very serious consideration should be given to the hypothesis that UFOs are some type of alien probe. If the nature of the phenomenon is somehow different, we need to know this. Present neglect, present ignorance, present ridicule are deplorable features of our general attitude towards what may be a matter of urgent importance for all mankind ”(James McDonald, professor of physics at the University of Arizona, ufologist).

“The question of whether UFOs exist should not be a battle of faith. It must become the subject of a calm, reasonable, scientific analysis. It is possible that we are dealing with some natural phenomenon which we still cannot explain or even imagine. After all, a hundred years ago we not only did not know anything about nuclear energy, but we did not even know if the atom had a nucleus. Who can predict what amazing facts we will know in a hundred years? (Joseph Allen Hynek, professor of astrophysics, director of the Dearbon Observatory, chief consultant of the US Air Force on the problem of UFOs, ufologist).

Ufology in the USSR and Russia.

It is believed that the study of UFOs in the Soviet Union began earlier than in the United States. In 1946, the engineer and science fiction writer A.P. Kazantsev hypothesized that the Tunguska explosion of 1908 was caused by an accident of an alien aircraft. The first discussions around this phenomenon began in 1947, in connection with the reading of the lecture-dispute "The Mysteries of the Tunguska meteorite" at the Moscow Planetarium (authors - F.Yu. Siegel and A.P. Kazantsev). This discussion took on a wide character, affecting scientific audiences and the press. In part, it contributed to the growth of interest in the Tunguska phenomenon and the organization in 1958 of the expedition of the Academy of Sciences, which found out that the explosion of the Tunguska body occurred in the air above the earth.

The emergence of an active interest in the USSR in the problem of UFOs, the beginning of the collection (1956) and publication of materials on this topic is associated with the name of the teacher of the Moscow Institute of Technology food industry Yuri Alexandrovich Fomin. In 1959, engineers B.V. Makarov and V.M. Gulikov joined him; in 1959-1960 they gave public lectures on the UFO problem. However, this met with disapproval from the authorities. Probably, such a reaction was caused by a regime of high secrecy in relation to everything related to aviation, and in particular rocket technology, since it was with the beginning of its operation that reports of UFOs began to appear. In 1961, Yu.A. Fomin was expelled from the membership of the All-Union Society for the Propagation of Political and Scientific Knowledge (Knowledge Society), and work on the study of UFOs in the USSR ceased for several years.

However, in the early 1960s, interest in astronautics and the search for extraterrestrial civilizations grew rapidly. A major role in this was played by the publication in 1962 of a book by the famous astrophysicist I.S. Shklovsky Universe, life, mind. Increasingly, scientific and educational institutions received reports from random eyewitnesses of UFOs (in those years, the frequency of launching and deorbiting spacecraft(). In the Ukrainian journal "Knowledge that Pratsya" No. 1 for 1967, on the initiative of student V.V. Rubtsov (Kharkiv), an article was published about numerous UFO sightings over Ukraine. May 17, 1967 in Moscow, in Central House Aviation and Cosmonautics (TsDAiK) named after Frunze held a meeting of the initiative group for the study of UFOs (45 people); Major General P.A. Stolyarov was elected its head, and the famous popularizer of astronomy, associate professor aviation institute Felix Yuryevich Siegel (1920–1988), with whose activities the second period of the development of ufology in our country is to a large extent connected.

On October 18, 1967, the first meeting of the UFO Department of the All-Union Committee of Cosmonautics DOSAAF took place in the TsDAiK, which brought together 350 participants and journalists. Siegel's article on the UFO problem was published in Smena magazine No. 7, 1967, and on November 10, 1967, Stolyarov and Siegel appeared on Central Television with an appeal to UFO witnesses to send their messages. However, at the end of November 1967, the DOSAAF Central Committee decided to dissolve the UFO Department.

In the 1970s–1990s, groups of enthusiasts in Moscow, Severo-Dvinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and others, led by V.G. Azhazha, A.I. Burenin, R.G. Varlamov, E.A. Ermilov, A.S. Kuzovkin, V.N. Semenov, Yu.G. Simakov, B.A. Shurinov and others. In 2000, the Association "Ecology of the Unknown", the Ufological Union, the Academy of Informationological and Applied Ufology, as well as a number of other public organizations uniting ufologists, operate in Russia.

Ufology as part of mass culture.

At present, ufology is a well-formed phenomenon of mass culture. Unfortunately, by the very style of their work, many ufologists promote an amateurish approach to scientific work and openly express disrespect for "official" (i.e. professional) science, stating that state organizations and "official" scientists deliberately hide from the public the truth about the extraterrestrial nature of UFOs and about contacts with aliens. Some ufologists work closely with psychics, parapsychologists, clairvoyants, dowsers (“dowsing” with frames), etc.

For the media, UFO reports have been a steady source of sensationalism since the late 1940s. They appear in a wide variety of publications, from prestigious publications that occasionally publish these messages for "detente", to tabloid publications that specialize in explicit pranks and fictional reports of "flying saucers and alien contact." Since 1989, UFO books and magazines have been actively published in Russia with collections of eyewitness reports of UFO sightings and direct contact with aliens. Most television channels use UFO stories in their news releases, and some channels systematically produce programs and show films on this topic. The theme of "flying saucers" has become one of the most important in the literary and cinematographic directions of "fantasy"; it is constantly present in comics, toy production, in modern folklore.

Professional scientists rarely work in contact with ufologists. But this does not mean that geophysicists, astronomers, meteorologists and other specialists do not attach importance to mysterious atmospheric and cosmic phenomena. Such phenomena are known, some of them are very clearly classified (for example, ball lightning, short-term phenomena on the Moon), and they are systematically studied, without sensational hype, not only by professional scientists, but also by real science lovers capable of systematic painstaking work. Some of them admit that some UFOs represent phenomena, the explanation of which is beyond the scope of modern scientific knowledge. Ufology has points of contact with traditional scientific problems the search for life in the universe and the search for extraterrestrial civilizations. Specialists working in these areas do not deny the fundamental possibility of visiting the Earth by aliens, but within the framework of rigorous scientific analysis, they have not yet found confirmation of this.

Vladimir Surdin

The term "ufology" is often found in the media today. Its meaning is not always clear to ordinary people. What is ufology? or an unrecognized fascination with groups of people around the world? We will try to find the right answers to these questions.

Ufology: is it a science?

Very often you can find an explanation of the term, starting with the phrase: "Ufology is the science of ...". However, in Russia, a special commission dealing with the fight against pseudoscience and the falsification of scientific research does not recognize the "scientific" nature of Ufology. The whole point is that given area knowledge and research does not have a number of features that any science should have.

The term "ufology" appeared in the middle of the last century in the United States. It was at that time that a large-scale study of UFO (Unidentified Flying Object - unidentified flying objects) began in this state. From this abbreviation, the word "ufology" appeared.

Today, ufologists have a different status in different countries of the world. But still, more often than not, these researchers are not recognized as scientists. Any science must have a clearly defined subject of study. In ufology, eyewitness reports of UFO sightings and material objects that are supposedly evidence of the appearance of these very objects are studied. At the same time, over the years of hard work, the very fact of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and visits by their representatives of our planet has not been proven.

Science must have a set of methods regularly applied to the study of what is being studied. Ufologists also do not comply with this rule - each of them uses their own technologies to verify the testimony of witnesses of unexplained phenomena and determine the authenticity of the available evidence. Theories that explain the origin and essence of UFOs are recognized by official science as pseudoscientific. Cause this definition- the inability to prove and carefully study them. Respectively, correct definition the term "ufology": this is an activity aimed at collecting information and studying the phenomenon of UFOs.

The first mention of "flying saucers"

Many ufologists believe that aliens have periodically visited our planet since ancient times. As evidence, the followers of this theory mention paleokanthes - drawings that have survived to this day, made at the dawn of the dawn of human civilization, illustrating contacts with representatives of extraterrestrial races. Ancient Egyptian papyri dating back to the 16th century BC are considered the oldest "evidence" of meetings with aliens from outer space. e. (the era of the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III). The Soviet scientist K. E. Tsiolkovsky is considered the founder of the theory of the historical connection of human civilizations with extraterrestrial ones. Curiously, stories about UFOs and aliens from outer space are found in the stories of various peoples dated different times. This is one of the arguments of those who believe that ufology is a serious science, which today simply lacks evidence.

Modern history of ufology

In the middle of the last century, reports began to appear in the United States of the observation of strange flying objects moving at an incredible speed for their time. There were so many appeals from the population that very soon the Air Force, and then other state bodies, became interested in this problem. It was at that time that the terms “ufology”, UFOs appeared, and even entire centers studying the phenomenon were opened.

Research was carried out for about two decades, and then was officially discontinued for federal level. At the same time, a significant number of reports of UFO sightings have not been considered and studied in an appropriate way. Some reports of unusual flying objects have been clarified as being based on known natural phenomena and human activities.

In 1969, all UFO research conducted by government organizations was discontinued in the United States. Since then, ufology has been an activity that exclusively independent "amateurs" are engaged in.

What does ufology do today?

Today, official science does not give an exact answer to the question: “Are there intellectually developed extraterrestrial civilizations?” Most experts agree that outer space is too large and little explored by mankind in order to confidently deny the existence of life on other planets. At the same time, no evidence and traces of alien intelligence were also found.

What does ufology study today? The main work is being done to collect information and new evidence of UFO sightings. Often, ufologists study places where unidentified flying objects were observed and are looking for material evidence of their existence. Many associations working in this area specialize in space exploration, attempt to detect extraterrestrial civilizations and establish contacts with their representatives.

Related sciences

The unrecognized ufology has much in common with several world-renowned sciences. Very often, ufologists work with people who claim to have witnessed a UFO, but can only confirm this event with their own testimony. In this case, to collect and verify information, psychological methods. First of all, the mental state and health of the eyewitness should be assessed. If a person suffers from some kind of psychiatric illness, the likelihood that he actually witnessed something unusual is minimal. With such sciences as astronomy and meteorology, ufology also has much in common. Eyewitnesses of rather rare meteorological or astrophysical phenomena often tell about aliens.

UFO - what is it?

Unidentified flying object - the definition is too vague and multifaceted. What exactly is commonly referred to and perceived as a UFO? Most often, this term is used to name objects moving in the sky at a speed or along a trajectory that does not coincide with those available to modern aircraft. Many eyewitnesses also describe the unusual shapes of UFOs or the bright light emitted by them. Cases of observation of the aliens themselves and even contacts with them are also considered by ufology. The unknown and unusual are always explored with special enthusiasm by ufologists. Perhaps someday ufology will indeed be recognized as a science and will prove the existence of the objects under study.

(See Case in the Cascade Mountains). The news of these "flying saucers" quickly spread throughout America, resulting in UFO eyewitnesses appearing almost every day. So many of them soon accumulated that the US Air Force raised the alarm, suggesting that they were being launched by the USSR. At the origins of the observations themselves and the collection of information about paranormal phenomena is the American publicist Charles Goy Fort.

After they began to investigate the UFO phenomenon, it turned out that "flying saucers" did not suddenly begin to appear in the second half of the 20th century. There have been reports of strange flying lights and objects during World War II and the Victorian era. Medieval church chronicles and chronicles of antiquity also mention heavenly signs.

The study of "flying saucers" by the Armed Forces

Early 1950s: Robertson Commission

The 2,199 documented cases selected by the US Air Force were studied by the Robertson Commission, each case independently investigated by two teams of scientists. If both groups gave identical explanations, then this explanation was approved; if it was impossible to give any explanation, then the case was discussed by scientists together, in in full force. As a result, of all the cases considered, 240 were eliminated due to lack of information, and 434 cases remained unexplained. The study of the characteristics of objects in these cases showed that the probability that all unknown phenomena are the result of unsatisfactory identification of phenomena known to science is less than 1%.

One of the commission's conclusions: "We are quite confident that there are no cases in which the phenomena could be foreign objects capable of performing hostile actions, and there is no evidence that the phenomena demonstrate the need to revise the modern scientific concept." It was also noted: “Concentration on reports of phenomena leads to a threat to the proper functioning of the protection authorities national policy”and programs were proposed to reduce the interest of the US population in unidentified flying objects. But A. Hynek was dissatisfied with the results of the meeting: “The attention of the commission, as it turned out, was mainly directed to defense and security issues, and not at all to scientific ones. This was to be expected, after all, the event was organized by the CIA, it was also instructed by it ... The bias of the “trial of UFOs” is obvious.

The Condon Commission in the late 1960s

So the government came to the decision to entrust the analysis of UFO reports to the University of Colorado at Boulder. This work was led by a specialist in quantum mechanics Edward Condon. In October 1966, Condon created his own team and set to work in full publicity (although many cases were not considered by the Condon commission).

Subsequently, some, apparently employees of Condon, familiarized the ufologists James McDonald and Allen Hynek with the Robert Lowe memorandum they had discovered, which stated that the commission's studies "will be carried out almost exclusively by impartial scientists who can and probably will find a lot of evidence that that recorded observations have nothing to do with reality. The whole trick, I suppose, is to present the project to the public as if it were objective ... ". The scientists who passed the memorandum outside the Condon commission were later fired, while some left themselves out of solidarity with them and familiarized the Look magazine with the memorandum, which immediately published it.

1976: Freedom of Information Act

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UFO organizations

United States Air Force

Some time after K. Arnold reported on his observation of a UFO in 1947, a group arose in the Air Force Intelligence Center (ATIS) subordinate to the US Air Force to analyze reports of "flying saucers" coming from secret facilities, from nuclear test sites in Nevada, New Mexico, California. Throughout the history of UFO research Air force three main hypotheses were in service: extraterrestrial, anthropogenic, and a version of their natural origin.

The Air Force considers it an indispensable duty to identify, study any thing that is in the airspace and poses a potential threat to the United States. By virtue of this obligation, back in 1947, we created the Sayn project, and then, as its continuation, another, more representative branched organization that studied about two thousand such reports ...

Our interest is not at all explained by intellectual curiosity, but by the desire to assess and determine a possible threat to the United States. And today we can say: there is nothing that was perceived even as a distant prospect, a distant warning that we could in any way identify with a threat. national security…

Project "Sine"

Project Graj

To resolve this issue, it was proposed to improve methods for identifying false ( "phantoms") and real goals ( military equipment enemy), investigate reports of UFOs for possible use in psychological warfare, and possibly limit public access to information about this subject. In January 1953, the Robertson Scientific Commission specially created for this purpose (see History of Ufology) decided that the interest of the population in UFOs, which had increased after the “wave” of UFO sightings in 1951, must be reduced, and all civilian UFO groups "should be controlled because of their possible strong influence on the opinion of the masses, if those who have adopted a wide scope of observation nevertheless give a positive result.

room 801

Room 801 located in the building Ministry of Aviation in London, allegedly became a place for collecting and processing reports of UFO sightings in the British Isles. This activity was announced in 1957 .

GEPAN

"Aquarius"

As if in the spring of 1983, secret documents provided for 19 minutes by an unknown person (dated July 14, 1977) were partly re-recorded and read into the recorder by the author of articles and books about the Roswell incident, Bill Moore. Moore claimed that the anonymous man had arranged to meet him at a New York City motel to show him a report that a certain "Project Aquarius" had 16 volumes of documented information collected since the start of the US investigation into Unidentified Flying Objects. (UFO)…".

"Zone 51"

The "Magnificent Dozen", allegedly reporting directly to President H. Truman, was mentioned in a 9-page report dated September 18, 1947 and marked with the signature stamp "TOP SECRET / EYES ONLY", copies of which were anonymously sent to several well-known ufologists. like the British ufologist Timothy Hood. In December 1984, producer Jaime Shandera, who was interested in the Roswell Incident, received an anonymous envelope containing this report, which was postmarked Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This group allegedly included 12 politicians and scientists, among whom were: nuclear physicist Vanivar Bush, one of the leaders of the CIA, Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenketter, former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, General Nathan Twining, CIA Director General Walter Smith, Professor Donald Menzel and etc.

The authenticity of the document was checked. Based on the fact that Truman's signature in this report is identical to his signature in some documents, one Joe Nickel and John Fisher concluded that it was a fabrication. Hence, the entire report can be considered a forgery. Another argument is the typewriter font used, which, having been introduced in the 1960s, seemed to have never been used in the 1940s.

Other investigations, notably by ufologist Stanton Friedman, have revealed the probable failure of the arguments in favor of the forgery of documents, from which the conclusion is made about the possible reality of the Majestic 12 group.

Unknown organizations

On the other hand, ideas were popular in the United States that explained the phenomenon to "contactees" (see History of the UFO Phenomenon) and UFO eyewitnesses of unknown visitors (like men in black), punishing them not to talk about these phenomena, the existence of some hidden organizations that prevent the spread and the study of reports of UFOs (the so-called "Silence groups").

In the USSR and Russia

It is believed that the initiative study of UFOs in the USSR began in 1946, when science fiction writer A.P. Kazantsev hypothesized that the cause of the Tunguska explosion in 1908 could be an accident of an alien aircraft. In 1947, the Moscow Planetarium hosted a lecture-debate "The Mysteries of the Tunguska meteorite", organized by F. Yu. Siegel and A. P. Kazantsev. The discussion took on a massive character, which resulted in a sharp increase in interest in the Tunguska phenomenon and the organization in 1958 of an expedition of the Academy of Sciences, which came to the conclusion that an explosion of an unknown body occurred in the air above the earth.

The beginning of the collection of information about UFOs in the USSR and the first publication of materials on this topic (1956) are associated with the name of Yu. A. Fomin, senior lecturer in the Department of Automation; together with B. V. Makarov and V. M. Gulikov in 1959-1960 he read a series of public lectures on this topic: 14. By this time, the leadership of the Moscow Planetarium had taken a critical position in relation to this problem, and all requests there caused a response in the form of a letter:

Dear comrade...
The phenomenon that you have observed seems to be related to one of the experiments being carried out to study the density of the atmosphere at high altitudes, with the launch of a sodium cloud (the same that was formed during the flight of space rockets).

A new surge in the growth of interest in the UFO problem was associated with the publication of I. S. Shklovsky's book "The Universe, Life, Mind" (). Numerous letters with reports of strange celestial phenomena began to arrive in scientific and educational institutions. In the Ukrainian journal "Knowledge and Practice" (No. 1, 1967), on the initiative of the Kharkov student V. V. Rubtsov, an article was published about numerous UFO sightings over Ukraine. May 17, 1967 in Moscow, at the TsDAiK im. Frunze held a meeting of the initiative group for the study of UFOs, consisting of 45 people. Major General P. A. Stolyarov was elected its leader, and the deputy was the author of many popular science books on astronomy, associate professor of the Moscow Aviation Institute F. Yu. Siegel, with whose activities the second period of development of ufology in the USSR was largely associated.

In agreement with the head of the TsDAiK, Major General L. D. Reino, it was decided to create UFO Department of the All-Union Cosmonautics Committee DOSAAF:15 . On October 18, 1967, its first meeting took place in the Central Committee of the Arts and Culture, which brought together 350 participants and journalists. In the journal "Smena" No. 7, 1967, an article by F. Siegel was published about the collection "Inhabited Space" that he was preparing for publication, where (provided with the permission of the Ministry civil aviation USSR), testimonies of pilots who observed unidentified flying objects were included. Having set themselves the goal of starting a mass collection of evidence, on November 10, 1967, Stolyarov and Siegel appeared on Central Television, asking viewers to send their messages. As F. Siegel later wrote, “the consequences of this speech were unexpected. Observations were received ... However, they could not be scientifically processed. At the end of November 1967, the DOSAAF Central Committee decided to dissolve the UFO Department.

Later, officially in the USSR, the appearance of UFOs was reluctantly explained by natural and man-made causes, or even simply rejected, and the publication of materials on this topic began to be censored. In official and scientific circles, instead of UFOs, the concept of euphemism began to be used. abnormal atmospheric phenomena(AAYA) .

Only sensational in connection with the mass observation of the so-called. The Petrozavodsk phenomenon (Petrozavodsk divo) of 1977 was, at the very least, covered in the press and explained by official organizations, first as an unexplored natural anomalous phenomenon, and much later (during the era of Glasnost) - by the activities of the military and highly secret Plesetsk cosmodrome at that time, however, binding to This phenomenon called the launch of a launch vehicle has a number of inconsistencies.

The second case, when information about UFOs did appear in the press and began to be widely discussed by the public, was the observation on September 7, 1984 by several crews and passengers of passenger aircraft with negative phenomena for some of the crew members. The event was announced by one of the most popular newspapers, "Trud" (Art. "Exactly at 4:10").

Famous ufologists

• Alexander Kazantsev is a famous Soviet science fiction writer, a pioneer of ufology in the USSR in view of his assumption about the Tunguska meteorite as an alien ship and research on paleocontacts.
• Albert Veinik is a well-known Soviet scientist, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Belarusian SSR, who created the Thermodynamics of Real Processes (TRP), which explains, among other things, the mechanism of movement of UFOs.
• Vadim Chernobrov (1965 - May 2017) - the most famous ufologist-researcher of anomalous phenomena in post-Soviet Russia, coordinator of the International Movement and the All-Russian Public Research Association (UNIO) Kosmopoisk, author of numerous books and other publications on ufology, etc. non-academic research.
• Vladimir Azhazha (November 7, 1927, Moscow) - a former sailor and engineer (scientific leader of the expedition on the Severyanka submarine). Thanks to lectures and samizdat, he became the most famous ufologist in the USSR, founding and leading the first unofficial ufological associations. In the post-Soviet era, he became the author of many books on the subject of UFOs and initiated discussions on UFO security at the parliamentary level.
• Joseph Allen Hynek - American ufologist, professor of astronomy at Ohio University, US Air Force consultant on unidentified flying objects. He began to study UFO reports at the suggestion of the US Air Force (see Ufological Organizations) in February 1948, at first he did not recognize the existence of “flying saucers”: psychosis and sincerely sympathized with our poor fellow citizens, fooled by such utter nonsense. Therefore, I accepted the invitation of the Air Force to the role of "astronomical censor" of reports of UFO sightings as a good chance to expose, crush, dispel this anti-scientific mirage. However, I failed to demonstrate the strength and power of our scientific methodology on the basis of letters and eyewitness accounts…” .
  Hynek was directly involved in the search and interview of eyewitnesses (see Case in Socorro), traveled to UFO observation sites (for example, to Papua New Guinea or the USSR to meet with F. Siegel). With the closure of the Blue Book project, he temporarily stopped ufological activities, until in 1974 he organized the ufological organization CUFOS, renamed after the death of Hynek into Joseph Allen Hynek Center for UFO Research .
  Hynek was convinced that the UFO phenomenon would still be explained and "when the UFO mystery is solved, it will not just be another step in the forward movement of science, but a huge, unexpected qualitative leap."
• Donald Keyhoe Donald Keyhoe listen)) is an American ufologist, retired Navy major, journalist, and writer.
  In January, "The flying saucers are real" appeared in True magazine, stating that:

1. The Earth has long been under the supervision of intelligent beings from another planet;
2. in the last two years, their presence in near-Earth space has noticeably increased;
3. aliens use three types of aircraft to observe us: small unmanned disks with television or impulse transmitters, as well as large disc-shaped, airship-like and wingless objects;
4. the methods of observation they use are essentially not much different from the promising American developments for the study of space, programs that we will master in fifty years. Therefore, there is reason to believe that an alien civilization ahead of us in its development, at least two centuries, if not more;
5. the authorities know everything, but they are afraid to tell people the truth, fearing panic.

In October 1950, Kiho's book The flying saucers are real! ". In Keyho, he appeared on television, and when he said, "Now I'm going to say something that hasn't been reported before," the transmission was interrupted. Subsequently, the authorities justified this act in the interests of national security. Until 1969, Keyho acted as director National Research Committee on Air Phenomena .

• Donald Menzel is an American scientist, professor of astronomy at Harvard University, ufologist, opponent of versions of the extraterrestrial and anthropogenic origin of UFOs.
  He became widely known in June 1952, when he began to publish in Time and Look magazines, criticizing articles appearing in the press about the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs and explaining their cases by observing mirages. Menzel's book "On 'Flying Saucers'" was even translated into Russian in the Soviet Union.
• Jacques Vallee - American ufologist, mathematician and astrophysicist, PhD for work in artificial intelligence (1967). Since 1962 he has been living in the USA. Since 1963, in Chicago, he collaborated with A. Hynek, and in 1977 he participated in the creation of GEPAN. denied extraterrestrial origin UFOs, believing that reports of “flying saucer” sightings are provoked by intelligent beings living on Earth hiding from humanity.
• Marina Popovich - prominent Soviet pilot, engineer and scientist, is a well-known enthusiast, researcher and author of a book on ufology.
• Felix Siegel is a Soviet scientist (mathematician and astronomer), writer and popularizer of science, also considered the founder of Russian ufology (semi-officially due to its unwelcome and secrecy of the UFO topic).
• Philip Klass Philip class) is a ufologist and former editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology. Klass became famous for denying the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs, looking for contradictions and evidence of a hoax in reports of UFO sightings. He defended the idea that the report of a UFO, at best, is the result of self-deception, did not tire of emphasizing the difficulty of assessing the position and size of an object in the sky, showed that any person is prone to mistakes. Media Klass was accused of spreading inadequate ideas about UFOs. The class adhered to the "ufological principles" developed by him:
• Edward Ruppelt (ur. Edward J. Ruppelt) - American ufologist, bombardier pilot, Air Force captain, head of the US Air Force project for the study of UFOs "Blue Book". The author of the book "The report on unidentified flying objects" (), according to him, the author of the term "unidentified flying object", allegedly introduced to replace the term "flying saucer". He adhered to the version of the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs: in 1954, when Donald Keyhoe asked his opinion on UFOs, he replied: "If 'flying saucers' exist, they must be of alien origin."

What is ufology

Ufology is a hobby that arose in the 1950s in many countries in the wake of public interest in UFOs. The term "ufology" (ufology or UFOlogy) first appeared in English in 1959; it comes from the abbreviation UFO (unidentified flying object), which has a Russian counterpart - UFO, an unidentified flying object. Basically, the terms "ufology" and "ufologist" (ufologits) are used by the media; they do not appear in the official lists of scientific disciplines.

It is impossible to determine unambiguously what and how ufologists do. The range of specialists - scientists, engineers, military, as well as lovers of science and technology, who are interested in unusual phenomena associated with UFOs, is very wide, and the nature of this interest is very heterogeneous - from rigorous scientific research to paranoid ideas and outright charlatanism. As a rule, ufologists call themselves people whose interest in objects and events associated, as they believe, with UFOs, manifests itself from a biased point of view about the visit to Earth of representatives of other civilizations or other, “parallel” worlds. Most specialists - geophysicists, astronomers, aviation and rocket engineers who study rare atmospheric and cosmic phenomena from a scientific point of view, avoid the term "ufology", which has a tinge of profanity and uncritical attitude to the subject of study.

The main occupation of ufologists is to collect reports from eyewitnesses of unidentified phenomena and participants in contacts with unusual intelligent beings. These reports usually come from the media or as direct messages from eyewitnesses to scientific institutions, public organizations of ufologists and activists of this kind of activity. Sometimes ufologists visit eyewitnesses of mysterious events and clarify the circumstances of the incident. Some ufologists are developing special equipment for monitoring the sky in order to search for UFOs. Others are engaged in historical research, wanting to find a description of events that could be interpreted as a visit to Earth by aliens. Among ufologists there are people who call themselves "contactees" and claim that they physically or mentally made contact with aliens. There are also people who describe their visits to "flying saucers" and travel on them with aliens.

Among the ufologists themselves, there are different points of view regarding where and with what intentions the intelligent beings mentioned by eyewitnesses come to Earth. As a rule, other planets of our Galaxy or “parallel worlds”, “fourth dimension”, “spiritual spheres”, etc. are called their habitat. There is also no unanimity regarding their intentions: ufologists name the purpose of visits and contacts with earthlings as a fraternal desire to come to our aid, as well as enemy intentions to kidnap and use earthlings for selfish purposes, experiments, etc.

There are public organizations of ufologists - national and international, for example MUFON - Mutual UFO Network (Universal UFO Network). UFO museums have been opened in some countries; Ufology is widely represented on the computer network Internet. Among foreign ufologists, Allen Hynek, Jacques Vallee, James McDonald, Philip Klass, and others are especially authoritative. At the same time, there are many scientists who have devoted articles and books to the natural interpretation of those phenomena that uncritically thinking ufologists present as the result of an alien visit. Here are the statements of some scientists who defend different positions on this issue (quoted from the book by F.Yu. Siegel "The UFO Phenomenon", 1993):

“We do not unequivocally reject the interplanetary hypothesis. But before accepting it, we want to consider other, more natural proposals.

Despite the huge number of cases that can be immediately attributed to hoaxes, the flight of balloons, clouds, birds, airplanes and the like, we must conclude that "flying saucers" are real - real in the sense that people are really something they saw it. The plates are not a matter of imagination or hallucination.

However, speaking about the reality of "flying saucers", I do not want to say at all that they are solid bodies or something material in general. For example, I believe that the rainbow is real, although no one has ever touched it with their hand. I have not seen anything that even remotely proves the popular hypothesis that "flying saucers" are spaceships. In my opinion, the famous satellite launched by Soviet scientists on October 4, 1957 was the first real "flying saucer"

Donald Menzel, professor of astronomy at Harvard University, opponent of Ufology.

“Careful examination of hundreds of controversial UFO reports and interviews with dozens of key witnesses in high-profile cases have led me to the conclusion that the UFO problem is scientifically extremely important. For a number of years, the US Air Force has kept the press and the scientific community under the mistaken impression that the UFO problem is being carefully studied. I found this to be the purest hoax. Highly unscientific explanations were attributed to important observations. Meanwhile, not only American radars tracked ultra-high-speed

other objects performing inexplicable maneuvers, but also the radars of other countries.

I believe that very serious consideration should be given to the hypothesis that UFOs are some type of alien probe. If the nature of the phenomenon is somehow different - and this we need to know. The present neglect, the present ignorance, the present ridicule are the deplorable features of our general attitude towards what may turn out to be a matter of urgent importance for all mankind.

James McDonald, professor of physics at the University of Arizona, ufologist.

“The question of whether UFOs exist should not be a battle of faith. It should be the subject of calm, reasonable, scientific analysis. It is possible that we are dealing with some kind of natural, natural phenomenon that we cannot yet explain or even imagine. After all, a hundred years ago, not only did we not know anything about nuclear energy, but we did not even know if the atom had a nucleus. Who can predict what amazing facts we will know in a hundred years?

Joseph Allen Hynek, professor of astrophysics, director of the Dearbon Observatory, chief consultant for the US Air Force

UFO problem, ufologist.

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V.G. Mute UFOs and Ufology in the late 1940s, and ended, as it seemed to me, shortly after cold war, i.e. in the early 1990s. But I was wrong: UFOs continue to plow our sky,

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It is safe to say that ufology is as close as possible to science if it meets the following requirements:

1. Every science must have its own subject of study. The subject of ufology research are reports of unidentified flying objects or UFOs - allegedly observed by people or objects fixed by film or radar or a glow that can be observed above the earth's surface, which have not yet been identified with any phenomenon known to science. Such a phenomenon continues to be the subject of ufology until a satisfactory explanation is given to it, that is, as long as it is unidentified.
2. Science must have evidence of the existence of the subject of its research. No one, not even UFO deniers, questions the existence of people who claim to have seen them. Even if the alleged UFO eyewitness report is not caused by the observation of some phenomenon existing independently of him (although there are still reasons to believe that UFO reports are caused by objective reasons, see "Arguments for the existence of UFOs"), then such messages should already be of interest at least for psychological science.
3. Science must develop its own research methods. Various ufologists apply various methods concerning the search and productive interrogation of alleged UFO eyewitnesses, establishing the reliability and veracity of their testimony, as well as verifying the authenticity of the evidence they provide: analysis of UFO photographs, their correspondence with the testimony of the author of the photo, etc..
4. Science must have scientific theories to explain the phenomena under study. In view of the fact that ufology deals with phenomena that have no explanation, it is not necessary to talk about the existence of any scientific ufological theories. However, there are a huge number of pseudoscientific UFO theories that do not give a satisfactory explanation and do not find practical application(Look "Hypotheses of the origin of UFOs").

Sciences related to ufology

Ufological research most of all affects the following areas of science:

1. Psychology. A key role in studying a case of alleged UFO sighting is played by establishing the sincerity of eyewitness testimony (for example, using a lie detector) and establishing the possibility of the real existence of the phenomenon observed by him (for example, by searching for other independent eyewitnesses). It is clear that the likelihood that the phenomenon actually took place is low if the UFO "reporter" is found to have some kind of mental disorder, accompanied by hallucinations.
2. Meteorology. There are many atmospheric phenomena that can mislead eyewitnesses: false suns, lenticular clouds, etc. (see list of identified flying objects). The ufologist investigating the case must first of all determine whether the UFO report was caused by the observation of any of these phenomena.
3. Astronomy. In parallel with atmospheric phenomena, many astrophysical phenomena (like the phenomenon of a comet, Venus) have been described in science, causing reports of UFO sightings. The most authoritative ufologists were just professors of astronomy (Allen Hynek and Donald Menzel).

In addition, a photographic specialist must be present in the ufology team to detect defects or manipulations with film depicting UFOs.

History of ufology

Late 1940s: the birth of ufology

After they began to investigate the UFO phenomenon, it turned out that "flying saucers" did not suddenly begin to appear in the second half of the twentieth century. There have been reports of strange flying lights and objects during World War II and the Victorian era. Medieval church chronicles and chronicles of antiquity also mention heavenly signs.

The study of "flying saucers" by the Armed Forces

To study the phenomenon, the US Air Force created various secret projects (see below, in "UFO organizations").

Early 1950s: Robertson Commission

One of the committee's conclusions: “We are quite confident that there are no cases noted in which the phenomena could be foreign objects capable of performing hostile actions, and there is no evidence that the phenomena demonstrate the need to reconsider the modern scientific concept”. It was also noted: "Concentration on reports of phenomena leads to a threat to the proper functioning of the organs of protection of national policy" and programs were proposed to reduce the interest of the US population in unidentified flying objects. But A. Hynek was dissatisfied with the results of the meeting: “The attention of the commission, as it turned out, was mainly directed to defense and security issues, and not at all scientific ones. This was to be expected, after all, the event was organized by the CIA, it was instructed by it ... The bias of the “trial of UFOs” is obvious ” .

The Condon Commission in the late 1960s

So the government came to the decision to entrust the analysis of UFO reports to the University of Colorado at Boulder. This work was led by a specialist in quantum mechanics Edward Condon. In October 1966, Condon created his own team and set to work in full publicity. (True, many cases were not considered by the Condon commission.)

Subsequently, some, apparently, Condon's employees acquainted ufologists James McDonald and Allen Hynek with the Robert Lowe memorandum they had discovered, which reported that the commission's research “will be carried out almost exclusively by impartial scientists who can and probably will find a lot of evidence that the recorded observations have nothing to do with reality. The whole trick, I suppose, is to present the project to the public as if it were objective…”. The scientists who passed the memorandum outside the Condon Commission were later fired, while some left themselves out of solidarity with them and familiarized the journal with the memorandum Look, who immediately published it.

1976: Freedom of Information Act

At the end of 1976, in connection with the passage of the Freedom of Information Act in the United States, state archives began to declassify numerous information about UFOs, including materials from the Air Force project. "Blue Book", which outlined 15,000 investigations of UFO sightings allegedly occurring from 1947 to 1969. .

UFO organizations

Since the late 1940s first in the United States, and then throughout the world, following the example of the United States, many groups appeared to collect and study reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects. In addition to countless amateur UFO organizations, individual UFO research projects were organized by the governments of various powers. Probably the first modern UFO study group was set up in 1943 by the British, preoccupied with flying fu fighters.

United States Air Force

Shortly after the message of K. Arnold about his observation in 1947 of a UFO in the jurisdiction of the US Air Force Center for Aviation and Technical Intelligence (ATIS) a group arose that analyzed reports of "flying saucers" coming from secret facilities, from nuclear test sites in New Mexico, Nevada, California. Throughout the history of the study of UFOs by the Air Force, there have been three main hypotheses: extraterrestrial, anthropogenic, and a version of their natural origin.

Project "Sign"

Project "Grudge"

Project "Blue Book"

These cases became known to the head of intelligence of the Air Force, General Cabell. Having convened a meeting on September 13 of the same year and interviewed T-33 pilots called to Washington, Cabell's headquarters decided to listen to a representative of the officially defunct UFO study project. "Grudge" Lieutenant Jerry Cummings, who was quick to attribute the incidents to probe sightings and a temperature inversion that caused radar interference. The general was dissatisfied with the news that reports of UFOs were practically not investigated, and an order was given to establish a new secret project to study "flying saucers".

CIA

According to ufologist Donald Keyhoe, “For a long time, the CIA kept a close eye on everything that had to do with UFOs, as well as the actions of the Air Force (as Admiral Hillenkotter admitted to me, this began in 1948, when he was director of the CIA)”. The CIA has long been suspected of covering up information about UFOs. After acceptance freedom of information law in 1976, documents were made public, from which it followed that, according to the CIA, unidentified flying objects did not pose a threat to the security of the United States, however, the enthusiasm of the country's population for them could be used by the Soviet Union.

To resolve this issue, it was proposed to improve methods for identifying false ( "phantoms") and real targets (military equipment of the enemy), investigate reports of UFOs for their possible use for psychological warfare, and possibly limit public access to information about this subject. In January 1953, the Robertson Scientific Commission, specially created by the CIA (see "History of Ufology") ruled that the interest of the population in UFOs, which had increased after the "wave" of UFO sightings in 1951, must be reduced, and all civilian ufological groups "should be kept under control due to their possibly strong influence on the opinion of the masses, if those who adopted a wide scope of observation still give a positive result" .

room 801

GEPAN

"Aquarius"

"Majestic-12"

The "Magnificent Dozen", allegedly reporting directly to Truman, was mentioned in a 9-page report dated September 18, 1947 and marked with the signature stamp TOP SECRET // EYES ONLY", copies of which were sent anonymously to several well-known ufologists, such as the British ufologist Timothy Hood. Timothy Good). In December 1984, producer Jaime Shandera, who was interested in the Roswell Incident, received an anonymous envelope containing this report, which was postmarked Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The document says: “Operation Majestic 12 is a top secret operation of the Experimental Research Committee and Intelligence, reporting exclusively and directly to the President of the United States. Project operations are conducted under the control of the Majestic 12 (Magic 12) group, created by special secret order of President Truman on September 24, 1947, on the recommendation of Dr. Vannevar Bush and Secretary James Forrestal ". And further: “To maintain secrecy, communication between the Sayn project and Majestic-12 was limited to two persons from the intelligence of the Main Technical Directorate. Their role was to convey information. In December 1948, the Sayn was converted to the Grudge project. The operation is currently being carried out under the code name Blue Book. Communication is maintained through an Air Force officer, project manager" .

This group allegedly included politicians and scientists, among whom were: a nuclear physicist Massachusetts technological university Vannevar Bush. Vannevar Bush), rear admiral, one of the leaders of the CIA Roscoe Hillenkoetter (eng. Roscoe Hillencoetter), former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal (eng. James Forrestal), General Nathan Twining, CIA Director General Walter Smith, Professor Donald Menzel and others.

The authenticity of the document was checked. Based on the fact that the signature in this report is identical to Truman's signature in some documents, one Joe Nickel and John Fisher concluded that it was a fabrication. Here and the entire report can be considered a forgery. Another argument is the typewriter font (as it turned out, brands "Smith Crown"), which, having been introduced in the 1960s, seemed to have no way of being used in the 1940s.

Stolyarov Commission

Unknown organizations

In the late 1940s employees of a secret US Air Force project to study military reports of UFO sightings "Sign"(Look "Ufological organizations") encountered a problem: arriving at the scene, Sayn employees found out that some unknown persons had already been there, presented themselves as intelligence officers or Air Force officers, interrogated eyewitnesses and told them not to divulge the details of their observations. Subsequently, the Pentagon admitted that another UFO group was operating at that time.

On the other hand, ideas explaining the phenomenon to “contactees” were popular in the USA (see "History of the UFO Phenomenon") and UFO eyewitnesses of unknown visitors (like men in black) that punish them not to talk about these phenomena, the existence of some hidden organizations that prevent the spread and study of reports of UFOs (the so-called Silence groups) .

Ufologists

Joseph Allen Hynek

Hynek was directly involved in the search and interview of eyewitnesses (see "The Case in Socorro"), traveled to UFO sighting sites (for example, to Papua New Guinea or the USSR to meet F. Siegel). With the closure of the Air Force Blue Book project, he temporarily stopped ufological activities, until in 1974 he organized a ufological organization CUFOS, after the death of Hynek, renamed Joseph Allen Hynek Center for UFO Research .

Hynek was convinced that the UFO phenomenon would still be given an explanation and “when the UFO mystery is solved, it will be not just another step in the forward movement of science, but a huge, unexpected qualitative leap” .

Donald Keyhoe

Jacques Vallee

He denied the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs, believing that reports of the observation of "flying saucers" are provoked by intelligent beings living on Earth hiding from humanity.

Edward Ruppelt

Donald Menzel

Philip Klass

Sheldon's stats

• in October 1986, astronomer Professor A. Sharif left London for