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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extraterrestrial UFO hypothesis | 1/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_UFO_hypothesis | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:19:39.670231+00:00 | kb-cron |
The extraterrestrial UFO hypothesis or extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), synonymous with interplanetary aircraft and alien UFO technologies, proposes that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by intelligent extraterrestrial organisms (non-human aliens) from other planets, or probes designed by extraterrestrials. The scientific community has shown very little support for the ETH, and has largely accepted the explanation that reports of UFOs are the result of people misinterpreting common objects or phenomena, or are the work of hoaxers.
== Usage of the term == The term extraterrestrial hypothesis in printed material was used by Janine and Jacques Vallée in their 1966 book. It was used in a publication by French engineer Aimé Michel in 1967, by James E. McDonald (University of Arizona) in March 1968 and again by McDonald and James Harder (University of Berkeley) in July 1968. Skeptic Philip J. Klass used it in his 1968 book UFOs--Identified. Some UFO historians credit Edward Condon c.1969 with popularizing the term and its abbreviation ETH.
== Chronology ==
=== Antecedent pre-UFO extraterrestrialism === The concept of a Universe decentralized from Earth renaissanced from classical origin by Nicolas Copernicus (1543) gave impetus to debate on extraterrestrial life and a plurality of worlds, to which Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) contributed.
=== Introduction === Although the modern extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) owes much to the flying saucer sightings of the 1940s–1960s, its origins can be traced back to a number of earlier events, such as the now-discredited Martian canals and ancient Martian civilization promoted by astronomer Percival Lowell, popular culture including the writings of H. G. Wells and fellow science fiction pioneers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, who likewise wrote of Martian civilizations. In the early part of the twentieth century, Charles Fort collected accounts of anomalous physical phenomena from newspapers and scientific journals, including many reports of extraordinary aerial objects. These were published in 1919 in The Book of the Damned. In this and two subsequent books, New Lands (1923) and Lo! (1931), Fort theorized that visitors from other worlds were observing Earth. Fort's reports of aerial phenomena were frequently cited in American newspapers when the UFO phenomenon first attracted widespread media attention in June and July 1947. The modern ETH—specifically, the implicit linking of unidentified aircraft and lights in the sky to alien life—took root during the late 1940s and took its current form during the 1950s. It drew on pseudoscience, as well as popular culture. Unlike earlier speculation of extraterrestrial life, interest in the ETH was also bolstered by many unexplained sightings investigated by the U.S. government and governments of other countries, as well as private civilian groups, such as NICAP and APRO.
=== 19th century ===
==== Historical reports and speculation ==== A news article published November 25, 1896 retells (Colonel H. G. Shaw) of an experience of "strange beings" and "an immense airship" en route from Lodi, California. Shaw concluded the beings were in fact from Mars. Amongst other reports of "airships" from November 1896 (including December) - 1897 (only mid-March - April): containing people (sometimes with a dog, listening to music, landing to make repairs), the Dallas Morning News reported of April 17, 1897 in Aurora, Texas: an airship "much nearer the earth than ever before" destroyed in a crash, the consequently dead occupant subsequently described by a United States signal service office as “a native of the planet Mars”. Later, there was a more international airship wave in 1909–1912. An example of an extraterrestrial explanation at the time was a 1909 letter to a New Zealand newspaper suggesting "atomic powered spaceships from Mars".
==== Early science fiction ==== H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, published April 1897, is a story of alien invasion by craft from Mars.
=== 20th century === From the 1920s, the idea of alien visitation in space ships was commonplace in popular comic strips and radio and movie serials, such as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. In particular, the Flash Gordon serials have the Earth being attacked from space by alien meteors, ray beams, and biological weapons. In 1938, a radio broadcast version of The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles, using a contemporary setting for H. G. Wells' Martian invasion, created some public panic in the United States.