The Top UFO Story of 2011

There was a 67 percent increase of reported UFO sightings in 2011

2011 was a good year for aliens…or at least for UFO sightings. According to the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, there was an increase of 67 percent of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects in 2011, as compared to 2008. That’s quite an increase.  Are more unusual occurrences, are people are paying more attention, or are they just not afraid to tell others what they’ve seen?

The Huffington Post has issued a list of the Top 11 UFO stories for 2011. The top 11 includes stories about previously confidential government papers, a petition sent to President Obama asking for all UFO information held by the White House to be released, and a road marker erected on the site of the most widely publicized alien abduction story in history which occurred 50 years ago.

You Saw a UFO, Now What?

Things you should do if you see a UFO

Imagine you’re driving along a country road one night when suddenly you see a bright light in the sky. You pull off to the side of the road, wondering what the light is. Possibly, it’s a UFO. What should I do now? You wonder to yourself. No one will believe me. Well, if you follow these easy steps, you’ll have a greater chance of having your friends and family believe that you may have witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

First and foremost, remember that UFO stands for unidentified flying object. When someone sees a UFO, it does not necessarily mean that ET has come to visit. There could be a very logical explanation for the unidentified object. Nine out of ten of reported sightings are easily explained.

Investing in Space Exploration. A good Idea?

The introduction to this blog talks talks about how space is the final frontier. Personally, it is the topic that interests and excites me the most. So is investing in space technology and continuing to spend money on the discovery of new worlds and possibly even extraterrestrial life worth the investment. This is especially important right now amid all the economic problems and the debt crisis in the United States.

Let me start off by giving you my take on this whole issue. I know that most Americans are going to disagree with this, but I feel that private companies and NASA should step up their commitment towards learning about the universe. However, I think that private companies should lead the way and NASA should have less of a presence at this point in time. We have to get our priorities right and sort out the issues with healthcare costs, shelter and the people who have lost their standard of living due to this great recession.

Discovery of Higgs Boson "God" Particle May Be Close

Ever heard the law "mass can not be created or destroyed"? That's not entirely true.

Amid all of our news about celebrity breakdowns, market fluctuations, and apocalypse predictions, there is occasionally a moment in which the ultimate secrets of the universe grace a headline. Of course, those things are complicated, not nearly as digestible as Lindsey Lohan’s latest stint in rehab. However, these developments are the kind that change human understanding of the world. For that reason, and although I’m a shallow swimmer in the deep end of the intellectual pool, I’m going to attempt to explain why this Higgs Boson “God particle” is such a big deal.

On Tuesday, The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) hosted a conference in which two different teams of scientists announced they have reason to believe that the Higgs Boson particle may actually exist. The Higgs Boson (more commonly referred to as the “God Particle”) is actually a theoretical particle, a kind of quantum Rosetta Stone that would allow scientists to definitively explain why anything actually has mass, and gravity, two essential aspects in the field of physics. It would also put to rest a theory 50 years in the making because the Higgs Boson was originally hypothesized by Peter Higgs, of the University of Edinburgh, in 1960.

The “God particle” is important because it is the essential mass-creating particle that supposedly existed immediately after the big bang, the theoretical “birth” of the universe. Michael Lemonick, of TIME magazine, explains it this way.

Super Massive Black Holes Discovered The Size Of Billions of Suns

Big. Real Big.

As Douglas Adams writes in his popularly hilarious sci-fi farce, The Hitchhikes Guide to the Galaxy, “Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is.” In fact, space is so big that astronomers are forced to use words like “supermassive”. That is exactly the word used to describe two recently discovered black holes so large that they shatter previously held records. Ready for the “mindboggling” part? The smaller of the two is roughly large enough to fit 9.7 billion suns inside.

Fire In The Sky

The 1993 movie about an alien abduction is based on a true story

A lot of UFO sightings and alien abductions happen in Arizona. Maybe it's because the clear, unobstructed skies over Arizona make it easier to see UFO's, or because of our close proximity to Area 51 and Roswell, New Mexico, or maybe it's because the red rocks of Sedona and elsewhere in the state are said to have mystical powers. Whatever the reason, space aliens love Arizona and its inhabitants.

New Probe En Route to Mars

Curiosity to investigate mineral-rich area

 

While we may have thoroughly conquered the moon in the last century, this century is going to be all about the red planet as far as space exploration goes. We know a good deal about our neighbor planet--enough to have mapped it plenty--but there are still plenty of mysteries within that red soil. We've seen traces of water--does that mean there must have been some kind of tiny life on Mars once? Are we really Martians, brought over as microbes to Earth via wayward rocks? We're not sure, but NASA's latest exploratory bot is on its way to find out.

Carl Sagan's Cosmos - A Space Educational Tool to Start with

I felt that Carl Sagan’s Cosmos would be a great way to start familiarizing yourself with astronomy if you are a space enthusiast. This thirteen-part television series is really an enjoyable way to learn about space although it is three decades old. However, all of the episodes have an update at the end which shows developments that occurred in the early 1990s.

Unmanned Rover Headed to Mars

Once it reaches Mars, "Curiosity" will spend two years exploring red planet

An unmanned Atlas V rocket launched towards Mars from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, carrying the Mars Science Laboratory rover. The rover, dubbed Curiosity, will explore Mars's Gale Crater, looking for organic materials that might suggest life forms once existed on the planet.

It will take 8 1/2 months before Curiosity reaches the surface of Mars, more than 350 million miles away. It is scheduled to land on the planet's surface in August 2012.

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