13:12:12 -- UFO's & The Fireball Phenomenon

Published on 10 Dec 2012

Director of the National UFO Reporting Center, Peter Davenport discussed the peculiar red, orange, and yellow fireballs that have been reported in unprecedented frequency, as well as other UFO cases, and his role at the Reporting Center. He brought on a witness, "Chelsea," who described seeing along with many other campers, a cluster of orange lights that moved above the Columbia River Gorge at Beacon Rock State Park in Washington on the night of June 2nd, 2012. The lights traveled silently in a V-pattern, had something like electric sparks coming from them, and disappeared in the tree line (for more, see her filed report).

Davenport talked about his mission as a conduit for UFO witnesses to report what they've seen, and then to make these reports publicly available. The Internet, he pointed out, has been both a boon and a bane to ufology, generating a gargantuan amount of material that has to be sifted through and evaluated. Often with sightings, people misidentify satellites and the International Space Station as UFOs, he noted. He cited as the most dramatic UFO incidents-- the Phoenix Lights, the Travis Walton abduction, and the Todd Sees case.

Biography:

Peter Davenport has been director of the National UFO Reporting Center since 1994. Additionally he has served as the director of investigations for the Washington Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network.

Peter has had an active interest in the UFO phenomenon from his early boyhood. He experienced his first UFO sighting over the St. Louis municipal airport in the summer of 1954, and he investigated his first UFO case during the summer of 1965 in Exeter, New Hampshire. Peter has been witness to several anomalous events, possibly UFO related, including a dramatic sighting over Baja California in February 1990, and several nighttime sightings over Washington State during 1992.

His graduate education was completed at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned an M.S. degree in the genetics and biochemistry of fish from the College of Fisheries, as well as an M.B.A. degree in finance and international business from the Graduate School of Business. Peter was the founding president of a Seattle-based biotechnology company, which currently employs over 300 scientists and technicians. In 1986, he was a candidate for the Washington State legislature, and in 1992, he was a candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives.

Fireball

A fireball is a brighter-than-usual meteor. The International Astronomical Union defines a fireball as "a meteor brighter than any of the planets" (magnitude −4 or greater). The International Meteor Organization (an amateur organization that studies meteors) has a more rigid definition. It defines a fireball as a meteor that would have a magnitude of −3 or brighter if seen at zenith. This definition corrects for the greater distance between an observer and a meteor near the horizon. For example, a meteor of magnitude −1 at 5 degrees above the horizon would be classified as a fireball because if the observer had been directly below the meteor it would have appeared as magnitude −6. For 2011 there are 4589 fireballs records at the American Meteor Society

An unidentified flying object, often abbreviated UFO or U.F.O., is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object, often associated with extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories.

Investigations

UFOs have been subject to investigations over the years that varied widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments or independent academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Peru, France, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are known to have investigated UFO reports at various times.

Among the best known government studies are the ghost rockets investigation by the Swedish military (1946--1947), Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from 1947 until 1969, the secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948--1951), the secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report #14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute, and Brazilian Air Force Operation Saucer (1977). France has had an ongoing investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN) within its space agency CNES since 1977; the government of Uruguay has had a similar investigation since 1989.

While technically a UFO refers to any unidentified flying object, in modern popular culture the term UFO has generally become synonymous with alien spacecraft; however, the term ETV (ExtraTerrestrial Vehicle) is sometimes used to separate this explanation of UFOs from totally earthbound explanations.