Star Points for July, 1997; by Curtis Roelle Venus: Identified Flying Object (IFO) The upcoming 50th anniversary of the so-called "Roswell incident" has revived discussion of the UFO phenomenon in the popular press. The event involved the discovery of debris from the crash of a mysterious object on a ranch by its owner W. W. Brazel on June 14, 1947. The U.S. Air Force has disclosed that the debris came from DOD-classified balloon-borne experiments attempting to detect signatures from Soviet atomic bomb test explosions. A good investigatory source of information on the UFO phenomenon is found in "UFO's: The Public Deceived" (Prometheus Books, 1983) by Philip J. Klass. Klass was senior editor for the professional journal "Aviation Week & Space Technology". In his book Klass discusses Roswell and related writings. In "The Roswell Incident" (Grossett and Dunlap, 1980), Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore proposed the following scenario: On July 2, 1947 a UFO, struck by lightning, scattered debris across the Brazel ranch. Observe that the proposed crash date is more than two weeks after Brazel discovered the debris in the first place! Berlitz and Moore ask the reader to find flying saucers from other worlds to be more plausible than the ditching of weather balloons. In contrast Brazel himself was quoted in the July 9, 1947 edition of the "Daily Current-Argus" newspaper as saying he "was amazed at the fuss made over his discovery." A common source of UFO sightings are celestial objects such as bright stars and planets. In his book Klass states that "celestial bodies have for more than thirty years been one of the principal trigger-mechanisms for generating UFO reports." According to Klass, "UFO reports that prove to be IFOs [identified flying objects] show that intelligent people, including pilots, scientists, and law-enforcement officers, unwittingly embellish their accounts with inaccurate details and seeming cause-effects that are unrelated." Klass writes of numerous UFO sightings which turned out to be IFO sightings of Venus. Amazingly the original reports included descriptions such as a County Magistrate who saw "a rectangular object, looked like it was on fire...about the size of a football field," military officers who have reported numerous incidents of a bright object "hovering" over various air bases and nuclear arsenals, and several cases in which pilots reported their airplanes being paced by a bright yellow, white, or orange object. UFO sightings explained by a planet or a star are often reported by observers as moving randomly up-and-down or sideways. This is a documented psychological effect known as "auto-kinesis". In controlled experiments, subjects placed in dark rooms featuring a stationary pin-point light source reported perceiving motion of that light, usually within five seconds. It seems that the brain will create the illusion of motion even when there is none present. Several attributes make Venus a prominent root of UFO-turned IFO sightings. First, in the night sky the only natural object brighter than Venus is the Moon. Second, Venus orbits closer to the Sun than the Earth. Therefore Venus is usually observed fairly close to the horizon after sunset or before sunrise before disappearing either below the horizon (evening) or becoming lost in increasing twilight (morning). Third, when Venus is visible low in the West after sunset, people are still out and about thus increasing the chance that someone will spot it and conclude that it is a UFO. Fourth, since Venus changes its position slowly over the course of time, it will be visible night after night increasing the likelihood that it will be observed by chance. Indeed a UFO that appears nightly at the same time is a trademark of celestial body IFOs. As the evening temperatures cool following sunset this month, Venus hovers low in the West offering the opportunity to view what some have mistaken as a space ship from another world. The reality that when gazing at Venus one is in fact viewing an alien planet directly is even more marvelous than the confusion it has caused in terms of UFO sightings. In evening twilight Venus is a bright yellow-white light that is easily confused with an approaching aircraft with its landing lights on. However, unlike an aircraft, Venus will remain nearly motionless as it slowly sinks lower in the West until setting. Venus slowly climbs higher each night as its orbit causes the apparent distance from the Sun, as viewed from Earth, to increase until it reaches greatest elongation (greatest separation from the Sun) on November 6. Venus will continue to grow brighter until it reaches greatest brilliancy on December 14. To find Venus look low in the western sky about a half-hour after sunset, or about 9:00 p.m. EDT. Venus will be about ten degrees above the horizon, about the width of a fist at arm's length. In terms of size and mass Venus has been nicknamed Earth's "twin planet". Venus has a radius 95% of Earth's and its mass is 82% of Earth's making Venus slightly smaller than our world. Yet a year on Venus (the time required to orbit the Sun) is just 224.7 days and its distance from the Sun is only 72% of Earth's. Given Venus' relative proximity to the Sun and its greenhouse atmosphere of carbon dioxide, the average surface temperature is about 850 degrees Fahrenheit! In terms of extraterrestrial life, this temperature is far too hot for life as we know it to exist. Perhaps you are interested in learning more about the Summer sky? Then consider registering for the personal enrichment course being offered at Carroll Community College. "Understanding the Nighttime Summer Sky" (course PDE611WA3) meets on four Thursdays (July 10, 17, 24, & 31) from 8:00-9:30 p.m. For information contact the college at 410-876-9610 or preview the course outline on the Web at .