The question of whether we are alone in the universe has long fascinated scientists, philosophers, and dreamers alike. Today, with advanced technology and an expanded understanding of our own cosmos, the search for extraterrestrial life has become a sophisticated and multidisciplinary effort. This article delves into the current scientific endeavors and discoveries in the quest to understand if life might exist beyond Earth. I'll also reveal a secret about my family that I've kept to myself for almost four years now.
The Goldilocks Zone and Exoplanets: The discovery of exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, has been revolutionary. Especially significant are those found in the "Goldilocks Zone" – the habitable zone around a star where conditions might be just right for liquid water, a crucial ingredient for life as we know it. NASA's Kepler Telescope, which operated from 2009 to 2018, identified thousands of these exoplanets, with several of them potentially Earth-like.
James Webb Telescope Finds a Possible Inhabitable Planet: The planet, K2-18b, which is 120 light years away from Earth in the constellation Leo and nine times the size of Earth, was studied by the James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's leading observatory in space science. They found dimethyl sulfide (DMS) which can only be produced by living organisms (marine phytoplankton) on Earth. NASA has also detected methane and CO2 and a scarcity of ammonia in the planet's atmosphere, indicating that there could be oceans. The temperature, presence of carbon, and water in its liquid form are all life-supporting.
Astrobiology and Extremophiles: The study of extremophiles, organisms that thrive in extreme conditions on Earth, has broadened our understanding of where life might exist. From microbes in deep-sea hydrothermal vents to those in acidic lakes or frozen tundras, life on Earth has shown a remarkable ability to adapt. This resilience hints at the potential for life in seemingly inhospitable places elsewhere in our universe.
Mars and Moons: Microbial Life Closer to Home? Mars has been a primary focus in the search for past life due to evidence of liquid water in its history. Recent missions, including the Perseverance rover, aim to study the Martian soil for signs of ancient microbial life. Beyond Mars, some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, such as Europa and Enceladus, have subsurface oceans and could potentially harbor life. Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois found that dehydrated bacteria of Conan the Bacterium (Deinococcus radiodurans) may survive in the high radiation conditions found on Mars for up to 280 million years. This species is an extremophile and can survive radiation of 10,000 Grays, which is lethal to other bacteria.
SETI and Technological Civilizations: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) focuses on detecting signals from potential extraterrestrial civilizations. Using arrays of radio telescopes, scientists scan the cosmos for signals that might be artificial in origin. While there hasn't been a confirmed detection yet, the pursuit increases our understanding of the universe.
Annual Report on UFOs Released: In January of 2023, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. government office tracking UFO sightings, stated they had added nearly 400 sightings over the previous year - either due to adding previously reported sightings that were discovered from files or new ones. Their total of UFO sightings is now over 500. Previously, their 2021 report had only reported 144 sightings. An office within the Department of Defense determined approximately half were possibly drones, balloon-like objects, and aerial clutter. However, those that remain are unexplained and need further investigation. Most of the reports are from U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots and operators who report the events via their official protocols.
USS Nimitz: In 2004, the USS Nimitz, a nuclear aircraft carrier, recorded a UFO encounter. See the video from the History Channel here. The video was taken from a Raytheon Advance Targeting Infrared Pod on a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet. The object seen was oblong shaped, and later referred to as a Tic Tac shape. The object was seen shifting rapidly before blasting rapidly out of the view of the sensor at an unprecedented acceleration. Navy Cmdr. David Fravor (retired) during the hearing before US Congress in July of 2023, stated he spotted the object during a flight off the coast of Southern California in 2004. He had previously detailed the incident in 2021 on '60 Minutes,' where he described a training exercise about 100 miles southwest of San Diego. He detected what operators called 'multiple anomalous aerial vehicles' over the horizon, plummeting 80,000 feet in less than a second. David went on that four personnel in the jet witnessed the craft and had no exhaust plumes or wings, mimicking their actions before rapidly accelerating away - only to detect it 60 miles away in less than a minute later.
David Grusch's Testimony: David Grusch was a U.S. intelligence officer for 14 years. He first served in the US Air Force. Between 2021 and 2023, he reported to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (2021-23) where he was the civilian rank equal to a full bird Colonel (like my father, Col. Robert Blossman, MD). David became a whistleblower through an official document (PPD-19) that the organization was operating secretly regarding UAPs, above the level of the U.S. Congress. In July 2023, David Grusch testified to US Congress that the US has confiscated crashed UFOs and non-human biologics. He detailed a Non-Human Reverse Engineering Program that his revelations will be a 'catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities.'
Ryan Graves' Testimony: Ryan Graves is a former U.S. Navy F-18 pilot who testified before U.S. Congress in July of 2023 that he had witnessed 'advanced UAP on multiple sensor systems firsthand.' He also stated that he was there for many colleagues, aircrew, and military veterans, who had confidently reported their sightings to him. He testified that UAP sightings are not rare or isolated, but rather routine. Ryan described how there was a stigma attached to aviators who reported such sightings, which is a challenge to national security. He basically stated that the U.S. government is keeping the sightings classified and knows more than they are sharing with the public, which is 'fueling mistrust.'
Colonel Robert C. Blossman M.D.: My father came from a (double) Gold Star family and was a surgeon and full bird Colonel in the U.S. Air Force (as well as having served in the Marine Corps and the Texas National Guard). A few years before my father passed away, he confided in me that in 1986, while stationed in Hahn AFB, Germany, he had been given top-secret orders to transfer to Area 51. He told me that his orders were later changed only to visit Area 51 for one purpose. My father, who had a tested IQ of 165 and did his residency at the Mayo Clinic, had developed a bowel suture technique. Instead of moving him to Area 51, his superiors changed the orders to him training another surgeon from Area 51 on how to perform this procedure. I could tell he wanted to tell me more details but was reluctant, and said he was never allowed to tell anyone, including my mother. He stated he then wrote a fiction book, Vega 5, and couldn't publish it because 'they'd come after him.' I never found out who 'they' were. He teased me with the percentage of real life in the book and how much the narrative was and told me where the manuscript was at his home. I'm an author. Why else would he want me to know where it was?
There is a detailed surgery described as being performed on an alien being in this book - so maybe he was the surgeon instead of the one who trained the other surgeon on a procedure? Or, maybe he only got the orders to train the other surgeon, but wrote the rest as fiction? He wrote himself as the protagonist with his name slightly altered. The character's background is essentially his real life - except being single and with only one of our dogs at the time - but that was crucial to the narrative in the story, so I get why he did that. This book is definitely not 100% a true story, as it turns very James Bond-like, but where it cuts off from reality to fiction, we'll never know. When he died, I retrieved the Ziploc bag containing the yellowed manuscript my mother had typed back in 1986 from his handwritten notes. Was this story his way of telling her what had happened to him then? And why go to the trouble of writing this book, but never try to publish it? It's actually a good read! So, I plan to publish this book and let the public decide how much of it is real. But in the end, why would they need a surgeon with a specialized technique on the smooth muscle of the bowels to do surgery in Area 51 in the 1980s? If the Roswell crash was in the '50s - why would they be doing top-secret surgery in the 1980s?
Conclusion: While the existence of extraterrestrial life remains one of the most profound unanswered questions, our pursuit has led to breathtaking discoveries about our universe and our place within it. Each discovery, each mission, whether it confirms life or not, takes us a step closer to understanding the vast tapestry of the cosmos and our role in its grand narrative.