Evening star., 1952-08-03
Out Of This Wor|d-
If the Saucer Pilots Are Extra Terrestrial,
Here Are Places They Might Originate
By William Hines

w bbutSS
along an orbit that it takes more
than two centuries to travel.
From a moon? Not our moon, cer-
tainly. Astronomers know more about
our moon than most of us know about
the block we live on. They know it
has neither air nor moisture, that
it's daytime heat and nighttime cold
are lethal in intensity. True. they
have never seen the back 3/7ths Of
the moon, but they have no reason
to believe it is different from the
4/7ths they can observe. The moon
might be a jumping-off place for
visitors-just as the asteroids might
be-but as point Of origin 90. W
the 20 other moons in the solar sys-
tenn, none seems capable Of sustain
ing life.
Practically Vacuum
From comet? These members Of
the solar system have been objects
of SuperStitious awe since men came
down out of the trees. But except as
bogeys to scare the peasants, and as
pretty objects in the nighttime sky,
comets are unsubstantial things. The
heads are usually loose collections Of
rocks held together by their slight
mutual gravitational attraction; the
tails are unbelievably diffuse. 1t has
been calculated that there is more
actual substance in a cubic inch Of
ocean breeze than there is in 1000
cubic miles OF a comets tail.
An analysis like this does not take
into account the possibility of other
life Of high order in our solar sys-
tenn. There is, as matter of fact.
no particular reason to assume that
the kind of life we know is the only
kind possible. Mobile, intelligent life
OF plant-like nature is certainly
possible. Such life could exist on
Venus. Creatures of high intellectual
and low physical development-like
a smart oyster-are vaguely conceiv-
able, and such beings probably could
thrive on Mars.
Or perhaps life forms elsewhere in
the solar system are even more un.
usual. Plants and protozoa have one
thing in common with human be-
ingS-their existence is based on the
element carbon. But suppose, on
some other world, that another ele-
ment was the basis of life; an ele-
ment, say. like silicon. This element.
the chief ingredient of sand and
glass, is capable of forming complex
molecules, just as carbon is. Crea-
lures made of silicon molecules would
be as different from us as day is
from night. But they might be alive.
And they might, incidentally, be able
to withstand strains and temperature
extremes unthinkable to us.
Another System?
There is, of course, the additional
posSibility-if you accept the outer
space theory-that the saucers are
piloted by human beings exactly or
approximately like us. This is a
rather SOLDERING thought for an earth
ling to entertain, because, If the
saucer pilots are human and not Of
this earth, they must come from
another solar system entirely.
Among the hundreds of millions
Of stars visible through telescopes,
there must be other worlds-perhaps
some with conditions identical to
those that prevail here.
But when we speak glibly of hun
dreds of millions or miles from here
to Jupiter, or a few billion miles to
Pluto, we are not even beginning to
contemplate the distances that sepa-
rate us from even the nearest stars.
AS far as we know, our nearest stellar
neighbor is the Alpha Centauri sys-
tenn Of three stars. 1t is 26 trillion
miles from here-So far that light,
travelling at 10000 miles a second.
takes So months to cross the void.
Our theoretical physicists are bold
enough today to chart for us the
routes we must travel to Venus or
Mars; to tell us how big our ship
must be, and even how much fuel
we must use. But even the rasheSt Of
them has not plotted the course to
another star. If our visitors are
really interStellar travellers, they are
SO far ahead of us that the breadth
Of their scientific knowledge would be
difficult to comprehend.
But just because they might be
alien and infinitely superior to us, it
does not necessarily follow that they
would be hostile, any more than q
biologist Is hostile toward the para
mec1um that wriggles across the field
OF his microscope. They might Just
be curious. And curiosity-even
among the most brilliant of beings
is satisfied sooner or later, one way
or another.