Extraterrestrial hypothesis

The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (sometimes shortened to ETH) is the hypothesis that UFO reports are best explained as creatures from other planets, occupying physical extraterrestrial spacecraft visiting Earth. This hypothesis has found very little support among mainstream scientists, some of whom argue it is pseudoscience. Nonetheless, there is also a substantial number of individuals and organizations that actively study UFO sightings and support the ETH.

Related Topics:
Hypothesis - UFO - Extraterrestrial - Earth - Pseudoscience - UFO

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jerome Clark credits physicist Edward Condon, in the 1969 Condon Report, with coining both the term "extraterrestrial hypothesis" and its abbreviated form, ?ETH?. Condon defined the ETH as any "idea that some UFOs may be spacecraft sent to Earth from another civilization, or on a planet associated with a more distant star." (Clark 1998, 213) However, Condon rejected the ETH in the most emphatic terms. (Although Condon may have popularized the term, he was not the first person to use it; for example, French engineer Aimè Michel used "extra-terrestrial hypothesis" in his book The Truth About Flying Saucers at least two years before Condon.)

Related Topics:
Edward Condon - Condon Report - Aimè Michel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock writes that for many years, ?discussions of the UFO issue have remained narrowly polarized between advocates and adversaries of a single theory, namely the extraterrestrial hypothesis ... this fixation on the ETH has narrowed and impoverished the debate, precluding an examination of other possible theories for the phenomenon.? (Sturrock, 255-256)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Most Ufologists accept this hypothesis at least as one of several proposed explanations for UFOs, although there is a smaller number of them who don't.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The ETH is vital to most versions of UFO Abduction reports.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~