The Great UFO Curfuffle

Working here at the SETI Institute has been an awesome experience. I've learned a great deal about radio astronomy, the planets, physics, the universe and ... myself. I've noticed something that catches me off guard every time. It's this very emotional attachment to UFO's. It's surprising, at least to me, that once you try an give a logical explanation for what someone has seen in the sky, you become the bad guy.

I recently explained in an email that what the person was seeing was possibly the International Space Station. I gave him the NASA website and the rough time when it would be in the sky, coincidentally it was the same time he saw a light in the sky.

He replied and said that he didn't think Space Stations would blink, or move that fast. That he knew it was an alien ship and that I was a unimaginative, close minded jerk. My retort: "Hey, you asked!"

Dr. Seth Shostak one of our Senior Astronomers was recently on Larry King Live, along with Bill Nye (the Science Guy). Larry loves UFO's, for unknown reasons, but he always has a panel of people on talking about the subject. The UFO people were talking about the blinking lights and what not, and when Larry asked Bill and Seth their thoughts, the UFO people just got very angry, and defensive, and belligerent. You can check out the Larry King episode here.

After his appearance, Seth received what could only be described as hate mail. And, not just from UFO nuts, but from people that really take a scientific look at UFO and from people within the skeptic community. He decided to write an article in his own defense, which I think bears reading:

UFOs: Flying Emotions

I think it is an interesting subject. So, my question to all of you, why do you think people are so emotional about this phenomena?