Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 205 In my opinion, these two processes—a need for wonder, and an all-too-easy ability to be fooled—account for the vast majority of UFO sightings. I am not a social psychologist, so I don’t want to ponder any further about the human desire to wonder. It’s fun to think about it, but I am not qualified to analyze it other than as a layman. But I am a scientist and an astronomer. So let’s take a look at the visual and physical phenomenon of UFOs. A lot of people claim to see strange things in the sky—moving lights, changing colors, objects that follow them. But let’s think about this for a minute: how many people are really familiar with the sky? I have found that there are things that happen in the sky about which people are completely unaware. Many have no idea you can see planets and satellites with the naked eye. When I talk to the public about such optical phenomena as haloes around the Sun and sundogs (teardrop-shaped glowing patches in the sky that are caused by sunlight being bent by ice crystals in the air), the vast majority has never heard of them, let alone seen them. If someone is not familiar with things that are in the sky all the time, how can they be sure they are seeing something unusual? This is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Venus, for example, can be amazingly bright, far brighter than any starlike object in the sky—in fact, it’s the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Seen low on the horizon, Venus can flicker in brightness and change color as the atmosphere bends its light. If you are driving, it can appear to follow you through the trees. It’s common to mistake brightness for size. I receive e-mails from people all the time asking me about the huge object they saw in the sky, and it usually turns out to be Venus. This planet is so far away that to the unaided eye it looks like a star, although a bright one. Unless you have unusually sharp vision, without at least a pair of binoculars you can’t see Venus as anything other than an unresolved dot. Yet, because of its tremendous radiance, Venus is commonly mistaken by people as a huge disk in the sky. That’s why it accounts for the majority of UFO sightings. If you are not familiar with the sky, any unusual object can make you jump to erroneous conclusions. But there is a group of
206 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE people who are very familiar with the sky—by some estimates there are as many as 100,000 amateur astronomers in the United States alone—who spend many hours every week doing nothing but looking into the sky. They own telescopes and binoculars and spend every clear night outside looking up. Think about that for a moment. These folks are looking at the sky all the time. Yet, of all the people I have had approach me or e-mail me to say they have seen a UFO, not one has been an amateur astronomer. As a matter of fact, I have never heard about any amateur astronomers seeing something in the sky they absolutely could not explain. Yet they spend far more time looking at the sky than lay people and statistically should see far more UFOs! How can this be? Easy. Remember, the amateur astronomers study the sky. They know what’s in it and what to expect. When they see a meteor, or Venus, or sunlight glinting off the solar panel of a satellite, they know it’s not an alien spaceship. Amateur astronomers know better and, in fact, all the amateurs to whom I have spoken about this are very skeptical about UFOs being alien spaceships. This is a very strong argument that there are mundane explanations for the vast majority of UFO sightings. PPP Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. However, UFO enthusiasts usually point out that we have far more evidence than these accounts. We have cameras. We have all seen footage of UFOs on television. Usually it’s an amateur photographer, perhaps someone on vacation with a video camera, who sees a distant object and quickly gets it on tape. I am always immediately suspicious of such sightings, specifically because of my own experience with the ducks. A blurry object seen from a great distance is a poor piece of evidence for extraterrestrial visitors. It could be any number of common things, from ducks to balloons. Airplanes headed straight at you can appear to hover for a long time (I once thought an airplane making an approach to an airport behind me was the planet Mars; it was stationary in the sky and glowing red). Helicopters actually can hover,
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I Bad
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CONTENTS vii Recommended Reading 25
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2 BAD ASTRONOMY luminous, against a
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4 BAD ASTRONOMY who fully well knew
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6 BAD ASTRONOMY But if they cannot
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PART I PPPPPP Bad Astronomy Begins
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1 PPPPPP The Yolk’s on You: Egg B
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 13 and they mak
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 15 ished announ
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 17 Of course it
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 19 with the wea
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2 PPPPPP Flushed with Embarrassment
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 23 much
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 25 Equat
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 27 still
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 29 press my heigh
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 31 friend about w
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 33 Incidentally,
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 35 So you might c
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38 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and t
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40 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON body
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42 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON red l
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44 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON top o
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46 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON photo
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5 PPPPPP A Dash of Seasons: Why Sum
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50 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Clear
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52 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Equat
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54 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Howev
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56 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the S
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58 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON These
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60 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the d
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62 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON That
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7 PPPPPP The Gravity of the Situati
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66 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON is co
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68 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON a poi
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70 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON you
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72 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Moon,
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74 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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76 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON galax
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78 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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80 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON exact
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82 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON The P
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84 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON But n
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86 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON of th
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88 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGH
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100 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIG
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13 PPPPPP Shadows in the Sky: Eclip
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16 PPPPPP When the Universe Throws
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PART IV PPPPPPP Artificial Intellig
Page 166 and 167: 17 PPPPPP Appalled at Apollo: Uncov
Page 168 and 169: APPALLED AT APOLLO 157 My question
Page 170 and 171: APPALLED AT APOLLO 159 Admittedly,
Page 172 and 173: APPALLED AT APOLLO 161 These belts
Page 174 and 175: APPALLED AT APOLLO 163 solid-state
Page 176 and 177: APPALLED AT APOLLO 165 However, you
Page 178 and 179: APPALLED AT APOLLO 167 flow well be
Page 180 and 181: APPALLED AT APOLLO 169 One of the m
Page 182 and 183: APPALLED AT APOLLO 171 The shadows
Page 184 and 185: APPALLED AT APOLLO 173 they put tog
Page 186 and 187: WORLDS IN DERISION 175 Many people
Page 188 and 189: WORLDS IN DERISION 177 Today, we wo
Page 190 and 191: WORLDS IN DERISION 179 do now for t
Page 192 and 193: WORLDS IN DERISION 181 This premise
Page 194 and 195: WORLDS IN DERISION 183 Venus’ orb
Page 196 and 197: WORLDS IN DERISION 185 or mainstrea
Page 198 and 199: 19 PPPPPP In the Beginning: Creatio
Page 200 and 201: IN THE BEGINNING 189 want to believ
Page 202 and 203: IN THE BEGINNING 191 squarely at th
Page 204 and 205: IN THE BEGINNING 193 tem started ou
Page 206 and 207: IN THE BEGINNING 195 it’s natural
Page 208 and 209: ( a.) ( b.) ( c.) IN THE BEGINNING
Page 210 and 211: IN THE BEGINNING 199 their lives, e
Page 212 and 213: IN THE BEGINNING 201 ence isn’t l
Page 214 and 215: MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 203 la
Page 218 and 219: MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 207 an
Page 220 and 221: MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 209 Ne
Page 222 and 223: MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 211 ni
Page 224 and 225: MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 213 Th
Page 226 and 227: MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 215 as
Page 228 and 229: MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 217 Mi
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Page 232 and 233: PART V PPPPPP Beam Me Up We’ve tr
Page 234 and 235: 22 PPPPPP Hubble Trouble: Hubble Sp
Page 236 and 237: HUBBLE TROUBLE 225 The Hubble Space
Page 238 and 239: HUBBLE TROUBLE 227 A DROP IN THE BU
Page 240 and 241: HUBBLE TROUBLE 229 for space telesc
Page 242 and 243: HUBBLE TROUBLE 231 staking your sci
Page 244 and 245: HUBBLE TROUBLE 233 also used to say
Page 246 and 247: HUBBLE TROUBLE 235 can assure you t
Page 248 and 249: STAR HUSTLERS 237 That’s a tall o
Page 250 and 251: STAR HUSTLERS 239 the names aren’
Page 252 and 253: STAR HUSTLERS 241 I’ll note that
Page 254 and 255: STAR HUSTLERS 243 The star “Phili
Page 256 and 257: 24 PPPPPP Bad Astronomy Goes Hollyw
Page 258 and 259: BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 247 ar
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 255 In
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 257 Si
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260 RECOMMENDED READING with the ma
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262 RECOMMENDED READING One of the
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264 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vergano, for gi
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266 INDEX “Astrology: Science or
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268 INDEX earthquakes, 130, 182 pla
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270 INDEX Islam, 58-59 “It’s Sp
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272 INDEX neutrons, 34 in stars, 98
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274 INDEX Sirius, 100, 107 size con
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276 INDEX triangles, 148 true scien
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