IN SEARCH OF EBE's*

Astrobiology, SETI, and Ufology

byWilliam F. Hamilton III

ASTROSCIENCES NETWORK

Abstract: In the last few years the scientific pursuit of extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial intelligence as embodied in the fields of SETI and Astrobiology share common interests with some of the concerns addressed in UFO and alien abduction studies. New findings in planetary science as well as new findings and theories in biology have a bearing on UFO studies and a convergence of knowledge is indicated by all of these studies. This paper explores the new perspectives offered by these findings and theories and their relevance toward resolving the mystery of UFO origins.

Introduction

Life on other planets in our galaxy and beyond has long been the object of speculation both in science and science fiction writings for over a century. John Wilkens, the Founder of the Royal Society in England was one of the first to write about other inhabited worlds. In 1638 Wilkins published his first book, which shows his interest in astronomy. He believed that the Moon is a habitable planet and predicts that one-day space travel to the Moon will be possible (1). He was but the first in a long list of writers who speculated about finding life on other worlds and had the foresight to predict future space travel.

The SETI Perspective

Cornell physicists Giuseppi Cocconi and Philip Morrison published an article in Nature in 1959 proposing the potential for using microwave radio to communicate between the stars. Young radio astronomer, Frank Drake, had reached the same conclusion on his own, and in the spring of 1960 aimed an 85-foot West Virginia antenna in the direction of two sun-like stars. Drake and other SETI scientists tune their radio receivers to a wavelength of 21 centimeters (1,420 MHz), which is the resonant frequency of atomic hydrogen and is affectionately called the “water hole”. This is the wavelength that might be most easily detected in the great ocean of interstellar space, and thus, reasoned Drake, the one most likely to be used by extraterrestrials who had advanced to the stage of radio technology and sending signals outward to other planets. Drake’s project was called Ozma, a take on the Wizard of Oz.

The former Soviet Union got involved with SETI projects in the 1960s and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California began to consider enhanced technology to improve the search for ET’s signals. This study was known as Project Cyclops.

Generally speaking, SETI scientists subscribe to the proposition espoused by physicists that faster-than-light travel is not possible, that the gulf separating worlds in light years is too large to be bridged by spacecraft, and that the fastest signals we know of, the modulation of electromagnetic radiation such as radio waves which travel at 186,282 mps will take years to reach us from their distant source so that we could only receive evidence of intelligent beings that once existed as some specified time of our past. This limitation on transport speed to the velocity of light has led SETI scientists to the belief that the only contact we will have with intelligent Extraterrestrials is through the medium of radio. As a consequence of this belief, SETI scientists are ill disposed to consider the UFO evidence as evidence of alien spacecraft and alien visitation to earth. Also, it is baffling to them as it is to all of us, why the aliens would visit our earth and not make their presence widely known through a public display or landing in front of the White House (despite over flight restrictions in our own laws).

After years of study, NASA decided on targeting 1,000 Sun-like stars in a targeted search that would be capable of detecting weak or sporadic signals. In 1992 the NASA program began on the much-heralded 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the New World. Within a year, no doubt considering it a wasteful expenditure of funds, Congress terminated funding for NASA’s new project.

A privately funded effort called Project Phoenix took up NASA’s strategy and continues this effort to the present day (2).

In a new twist on this search the Planetary Society in the US has funded projects in California and Massachusetts to look for short pulses of light from nearby stars similar to the Sun, as well as from globular clusters and galaxies. A third project will examine existing data from telescopes for steady, narrow-band signals. These two types of signal might be visible if extraterrestrials were pointing powerful lasers in our direction. It is the assumption of SETI that ET will broadcast radio signals or transmit information via powerful lasers from one planet to another. Most SETI scientists think it is more likely that we will make contact with ET through radio than to expect ET to land near Devil’s Tower. An active SETI program would involve sending signals toward target stars instead of passively searching for signals. Physicists have announced such a project and designed a message to be broadcast in the direction of nearby stars in order to search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. This is the first time in a quarter of a century that such a cosmic call will be attempted. This experiment is promoted by the Encounter 2001 project, an international space flight project to send messages and human artifacts into deep space by 2004. The complete message is about 400,000 bits long and will be transmitted three times over a 3-hour period in the direction of the four selected stars. Then, it will be followed by a series of greetings from people around the world. The transmission started on March 15 1999. This message is much larger in size, duration and scope than the one sent by Frank Drake on November 16th, 1974 from the Arecibo observatory, which consisted of only 1,679 bits sent over a 3-minute duration.

A sea of backyard satellite dishes stretching across an area the size of several football fields will be the latest attempt to listen for life on other planets, the Redding Record Searchlight reported early last year. The search, popularized by the movie "Contact," is usually done with massive satellite dishes, but this project will use the unique configuration of about 750 dishes in a remote Northern California valley.

Another means of establishing ETI contact is a suggestion for using the elusive neutrino. On earth, neutrino communications have lagged radio communications by about 100 years, during which time our ability to send and receive radio signals has increased drastically. We can hope for similar improvements in neutrino communications in the next decades. The suggestion is that the transmission of modulated neutrino signals would be a sign of an extraterrestrial civilization. We have not yet built neutrino receivers that could demodulate such signals, but it may be another means worth exploring. Even the Internet is being used to allow the wired public to participate in the sending of messages to anxiously awaiting ETs.

The Alien Contact Network found at www.alien-contact.net will capture your short typed message and transmit it into space for you. SETI@home is a grand experiment that harnesses the spare power of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). With SETI@home, computer users from around the world will participate in a major scientific experiment. Each participant will have the slight but captivating possibility that his or her computer will detect the faint murmur of a civilization beyond Earth. SETI@home can be found at this website: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ and has translations in several languages.

The SETI scientists are trying something new they call optical SETI or OSETI, which will search the heavens for laser signals sent by a planetary civilization or spacecraft signaling other stations. The optical spectrum covers wavelengths from far infrared to ultraviolet. OSETI’s magical optical wavelength is 10.6 microns, the wavelength for a CO2 laser. This last effort is something I will discuss further as it relates to making contact with UFO entities.

All efforts to detect extraterrestrial radio signals to date have not been successful with a possible exception of the “WOW” signal event that occurred on August 15, 1977 at the Ohio State Radio Observatory. Dr. Jerry Ehman wrote the word “WoW!” in the margin of the computer printout. No duplication of this event has ever been recorded.

Despite the promise, SETI has not delivered and has even been considered a waste of money. Politicians as well as members of the technical community have criticized SETI as a waste of time and money that could be better spent on other scientific projects. [1] Though a growing number of extra-solar planets have been detected giving encouragement to the probability of extraterrestrial life and intelligence, and the public has never waned in its interest, the political climate for expenditure of funds is still very cool.

SETI scientists do not collaborate with scientists and researchers engaged in UFO studies though they may have much valuable knowledge and thinking to contribute including various contact scenarios. Some UFO researchers also feel that SETI may be a waste of time and money when there are UFO reports that may be evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence within our atmosphere.

The Astrobiology Perspective

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.Titan, one of Saturn’s large moons, may serve as a model of a highly reduced early Earth atmosphere in which the first stages of organic chemical evolution could take place in the atmosphere. Laboratory simulations show that a Titan-like atmosphere, primarily a N2/CH4 mixture, under various energetic excitations forms not only HCN, (CN)2, and HC3N (observed on Titan as a result of photo dissociation reactions), but also CH3CN, (HCN)4, and finally, adenine, a component of DNA. Titan thus appears as an object of exceptional interest for astrobiology.

Water or ice has been found on Neptune, Europa, and even our own moon. Evidence for ancient channels of water exist on Mars. Though summer melts a thin layer of carbon dioxide frost at the poles, a thick layer of mostly water ice remains. At the north pole, the permanent ice cap is larger than Texas and more than a half-mile (1 kilometer) thick. Little critters, lathered in natural sunscreen and swathed in biological antifreeze, could be lurking just a few feet under the ice, scientists say. These microscopic Martians might hibernate for months or even thousands of years, waiting for a brief thaw, a personal spring vacation, a chance to go forth and make more Martians. Other life could be doing the backstroke, or whatever microbes do in their spare time, in languid pools of water melted by subsurface volcanic activity, all just a few yards down (4).

Though they might sound a bit like fish tales, these ideas are growing in popularity among scientists who have explored similar extreme environments, and the so-called extremophiles that inhabit them, on Earth. In the permafrost of Siberia, for example, a species of moss was found dormant but alive after 40,000 years.

The announcement by NASA that certain complex organic molecules were found in an Antarctic meteorite dubbed ALH84001 stirred up the public, the press, scientists, and religious leaders around the world. ALH84001 contains approximately 1 ppm PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons), found on fracture surfaces inside the meteorite. PAHs are large, complex organic molecules that are abundant in interplanetary dust particles, interstellar dust, and many organic-rich meteorites from the asteroid belt. However, the PAHs found in ALH84001 are thought to originate from the breakdown products of organisms that once lived in the ancient rock. This scenario assumes that the PAHs found in the Martian meteorite are not the result of terrestrial contaminants produced by power plants and automobile exhaust. However, the data for ALH84001 indicates that the PAHs are concentrated towards the interior of the rock which implies that terrestrial contamination is not likely.

Our solar system is part of a larger assembly that we all know as the Milky Way Galaxy.The center of the galaxy is towards Sagittarius. The Sun is moving in its orbit towards Cygnus. The distance from the Earth to the center of the galaxy is 25,000 light-years, and the orbital period of the Sun about the galactic center is 250 Million years. There are 200-300 billion stars in the Galaxy. The Galaxy's dimensions are 100,000 light-years in diameter and 1,000 ly thick. According to three recent independent studies, the Sun lies ~ 50.5 ly north of the galactic plane, towards Coma Berenices (Sky & Telescope 1996). Within this vast assemblage of stars, approximately 5% of this population are stars that have a similar spectral range as our sun. If any of these stars have planets within the life zones of their parent stars, then the likelihood for conditions necessary for the development of life go up. Astronomers now consider that Jupiter-sized planets within a system may be another necessary requirement (Jupiter-sized planets sweep away primordial debris from early solar system formation).

Would creatures arise having some sort of similarity to those on the Earth? The distinguished biologist, C.D. Darlington, suggests that this is by no means unlikely. To quote Darlington's own words:"There are such great advantages in walking on two legs, in carrying one's brain in one's head, in having two eyes on the same eminence at a height of five or six feet, that we might as well take quite seriously the possibility of a pseudo man and a pseudo woman with some physical resemblance to ourselves....”

This viewpoint seems to be supported by encounters with UFO entities. Recent results from Doppler shift measurements of the light from nearby solar-like stars reveal what appears to be low mass companions, typically with masses of several Jupiters. The discovery of these sub-brown dwarf companions around nearby stars, similar to our own sun, greatly increases the probability that planets suitable for the development of life may exist elsewhere in the galaxy.

NASA's Origins Program is directed towards answering among the most fundamental questions that we can ask: Where did galaxies, stars and planets come from? Are there worlds like the Earth around nearby stars? If so, are they habitable and is life as we know it present there?

What is the origin of the universe?

There is no doubt that NASA’s goals are ambitious to say the least. But why, in the pursuit of these goals, does NASA ignore the UFO evidence? Some believe NASA is complicit in the UFO cover-up.

Astrobiologists first want to understand how life becomes organized from matter into living systems on Earth and how life evolved on the molecular, organism, and ecosystem levels and how the biosphere evolved with Earth. Secondly, NASA wants to discover life elsewhere in the universe, what planetary conditions make life possible and whether it once existed on other planets in our solar system, determining how to recognize the signature of life on other worlds, especially Mars and Europa. There is a hunt on for extrasolar planets and one of the first recorded was for 51 Pegasi, the first planet detected around a star similar to our sun. The planet makes an orbit every 3.5 Earth days, at a distance of 4.3 million miles - less than a twentieth of Earth's distance to the sun.

A team of New Zealand and Japanese astronomers, working with Australian and U.S. partners observing from Australia's Mount Stromlo, discovered an earth-like planet in July 1999. The planet, which is around 30,000 light years away, cannot be seen directly and there was no way of confirming whether it has water or any of the elements that may support life.

Much of the evidence that will prove the existence of extraterrestrial life, NASA believes, is to be found on Earth. We already know that life can exist on our own planet under the most extreme conditions. The recent discovery of hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, which support whole ecosystems even in the absence of light, has demonstrated how versatile life can be. Some of the work will inevitably be done in space. NASA will look for the conditions that could support life, or could have supported life millions of years ago. Venus for example, although completely inhospitable now, could have supported some form of microbial life earlier in its evolution.

Astronomers are finding that the universe is apparently crowded with planets. Over 50 extra-solar planets have been found officially, new techniques have determined that almost 90% of the stars tested, wobble. The gravitational pull of planets orbiting the stars causes them to wobble. Early indications are that a large majority of the stars examined have planets and possibly solar systems similar to our own. There are an estimated 200-300 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and billions of galaxies in the visible universe. Recent calculations show there may be a population of 30 billion planets in our galaxy alone! I f only 1% of these were earth-like planets, there could be 300 million or more planets suitable for life and intelligence and a few of these millions may someday be in reach of ultra-fast space transport.

The French space agency CNES leads a group that is designing COROT (COnvection, ROtation and Transits). This small Earth-orbiting telescope will likely be the first space telescope dedicated to the search for Earth-like planets. Most other planet hunting so far has been done with ground telescopes or, when space telescopes have been used, time has been limited.

NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder is planned to launch in 2012. Over a five-year period, it will take a look at 250 stars to determine which ones may have orbiting, life-sustaining planets. The mission will also advance our understanding of how planets and their parent stars form by making thousands of images, all with a sharpness 10 to 100 times better than those of the Hubble Space Telescope. More information about Terrestrial Planet Finder can be found at: http://tpf.jpl.nasa.gov .

A team of scientists from NASA and Stanford University announced that they have created some of the chemicals essential for life in an environment similar to that found in deep space. This finding could shed light on the origin of life itself.

Astrobiologists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, and chemists at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, conducted lab experiments to simulate the conditions that exist in interstellar clouds of dust and gas. The dust in such clouds plays an important role in the life cycles of solar systems. It is the debris of previous generations of stars and the material from which new stars and solar systems will develop. To conduct their experiments, NASA scientists simulated the dust clouds of the interstellar medium by freezing and then irradiating the most common carbon-bearing molecules found there. The Stanford University researchers then analyzed the resulting chemical products. Their results confirmed the presence of organics that served as the building blocks for the development of life on Earth. The team reported its results in the Feb. 19, 1999 issue of the journal Science.

Data from instruments flown on airplanes during last year's Leonid meteor shower show that the seeds of life, long suspected to exist in comet dust, could have survived a fiery passage from space to Earth's ancient atmosphere. A range of findings, reported by an international team of NASA-led scientists, provide support for panspermia, which holds that life on Earth did not spring up spontaneously out of some primordial soup, but was instead seeded from space.

Recently, a group of scientists announced that they had found alien bacterium 10 miles above earth, an announcement that met with immediate skepticism. If true, this discovery lends support to Fred Hoyle’s hypothesis of panspermia which is a concept that the seeds of life are everywhere in space and are the source of life on earth.

Panspermia, now called the theory of Cosmic Ancestry, is obtaining growing support from Astrobiologists. One very forward Neuroscientist and Astrobiologist, Dr. Rhawn Joseph, has made the following statement laying down the gauntlet on new theories regarding the origin of life.

“The Origin of Life: The Earth is an island, swirling in an ocean of space, and life has been washing ashore since the creation. Cosmic collisions are commonplace, not only between meteors and planets, but entire galaxies, and life has been repeatedly tossed into the abyss... only to land on other planets. The genetic seeds of life swarm throughout the cosmos, and these "genetic seeds," these living creatures, fell to Earth encased in stellar debris which pounded the planet for 700 million years after the creation. And these "seeds" contained the DNA instructions for the metamorphosis of all life, including woman and man. DNA acts to purposefully modify the environment, which acts on gene selection, to fulfill specific genetic goals: the dispersal and activation of silent DNA, and the replication of life forms that long ago lived on other planets.”[2]

Beyond Rocket Science

The principal objection that skeptics hold regarding the presence of extraterrestrial space vehicles in the skies of earth is that long distances between stars takes years to traverse. Visualizing an alien spaceship crossing the gulf from a planet orbiting Zeta Reticuli to our earth, a distance of 32 light years has to be traveled. If we measured their technology by our standards and considered a speed of 24,000 mph for the alien spaceship, then it would take approximately 27,945 years for that spaceship to reach destination earth! Their opportunity for mission failure increases with the length of the journey. At the very least, they would be lost in space. The distance is a sizable barrier to overcome, but it contains some hidden assumptions that must be teased into the open. One assumption is that extraterrestrial UFOs seen traversing our skies just arrived from another star system. What incredible logistics! If more than a dozen are sighted in any one day in various parts of the world, how many arrived that day and where did they go when they left? A more reasonable premise is that such UFOs operate from concealed terrestrial or lunar bases and have only traveled short distances when they are spotted. That is one possibility. We could even consider looking for such bases. Some of them could be submarine bases as well as subterranean.

If our alien spaceship could move at velocities very close to the speed of light, another factor comes into play - time dilation. Now our spaceship traverses the greater part of 32 light years at .99c (c is the speed of light in vacuo). Einstein’s time dilation equation predicts that this journey of 32 ly will only take between 7 or 8 years due to time dilation for spaceships traveling at near the speed of light.

Recently, new concepts in space drives have been considered. Some of these are detailed here (from a web page on warp drives):Warp drives (ska inertial drives, reactionless drives, propellant-free drives, gyroscopicdrives, etc.) are currently a hot topic again, largely because of Alcubierre's paper. We don't know whether these things are possible in real life, but here are some of the ideas that people are currently looking into.

Background

What is a reactionless drive? - why people are so interested in "propellant-free" propulsion systems. "Reactionless drives" and Newton's Third Law - NL3 is the usual reason cited for why the idea of "reactionless" drives is wrong-headed. Not neccessarily. Reduced gravitation

Casimir effect - theoretically allows a form of FTL, but would also probably make you age faster (which rather defeats the purpose of the thing, unless you are only interested in FTL signalling).

Direct gravitational gradients

Exotic matter drives - use (hypothetical) exotic matter to generate gravitational gradients across an object so that it can free-fall in the direction that you want it to go in. Just don't ask how you are supposed to steer. Alcubierre - the most famous "exotic matter" piece Indirect gravitational gradients

DST "toroidal" warp drives - attempt to generate gravitational gradients with moving matter circulated around toroidal surfaces, generating two independent classes of independent perpendicular spin (major and minor axis spin). Ref: "gyro drives".

DST stands for "Double Spin Torus". This is the sort of configuration that keeps cropping up when people claim to have working prototypes.

See also GARfield Drives. Some other hypothetical ways of getting from A to B quickly wormholes - usually require exotic matter to keep them open. Some of the methods proposed are of interest to NASA engineers and scientists who would like to send a mission to the stars, especially a star with a planetary system, in quick time.

Marc Millis, an aerospace engineer in the Space Propulsion Technology Division, spends much of his free time examining the possibilities. He has presented his findings at two "Star Trek" conventions and recently at the Lewis Visitors Center. For warp drive to exist, Millis explained there must be two breakthroughs in physics--control over gravity and the ability to exceed light speed.

The UFO Perspective

UFOs continue to be reported from all over the world. We have often accepted the probability that some of these UFOs were somebody else’s spacecraft. Now that possibility and probability is strengthened by new discoveries by NASA, an organization that does not officially investigate UFOs, or UFO-connected aliens, or possible structures on other planets. We live in ironic times. Many inventors have experimented with anti-gravity, and even if they felt they got results worth examination, these experiments were generally ignored by engineers and scientists at NASA. With the advent of the Tampere experiment using a high-temperature bulk ceramic superconductor with composite structure which revealed weak shielding properties against gravitational force in the state of levitation at temperatures below 70 K, NASA scientists began constructing their own experiment.

Some reported UFO and alien events involve activities that seem to defy the laws of physics. We might as well call such events magical. Events of this nature are usually rejected by skeptics and not much is said about them. If material objects or entities can change shape or pass through material barriers that obstruct our best efforts, and we accept the possibility of such events, then we must consider a hypothesis beyond the conventional extraterrestrial hypothesis. This brings us into contact with a much more complex and obscure subject - the extra dimensions of theoretical physics or the extra dimensions of metaphysical research that indicate that other worlds beyond the visible, tangible world of our experience occupy places beyond our immediate detection and, further, are interacting with our normal world of experience in ways that amaze us. The only place we know that life survives is on planets, planets with air and water to support biological functioning. Life does not survive in isolation, but depends on a variety of life forms and species to be viable. Could life exist in other environments beside planets? That is a matter of speculation. What makes this question possible is the vast range of human paranormal experience with strange or alien life forms not found anywhere on Earth. The immediate conjecture is that an alien life form is from another planet outside of our solar system, however alien behavior and actions indicate that this may not always be the case.

Those reporting Close Encounters of the 4th Kind report seeing aliens come through walls, windows, and closed doors. Aliens have been reported materializing from orbs of light. These strange characteristics are suggestive of visitors from extra-dimensional worlds, worlds that may be further away from us than extra-solar planets, yet as close to us as our breath. Communicating with denizens of these extra-dimensional worlds would be expanding the parameters of these projects and would truly open the frontiers of exploration.

Differing from these various scientific efforts to make contact with ET is that category of UFO experience called CE-5 for Close Encounters of the 5th Kind [3]. CE-5 describes procedures for human-initiated contact. Dr. Steven Greer and his CSETI organization have done much to popularize this form of making contact with ET. However, an earlier pioneer started a project, which we now classify in this way. His name was John Otto and he used a light-beam transceiver to attempt initiating a dialogue between them and us. In 1958 several of us gathered in the desert north of Yucca Valley, California and initiated an experiment. Carol Honey, an electronics technician, had wired up a light beam transceiver to his car and used a car spotlight as the carrier. We took turns talking into a microphone asking ET to reply or fly-by. Within minutes a blue barbell-shaped object streaked across the western sky in front of us. We also learned that we could accomplish the same response by sending a mental message. I found that by one or more of us focusing on the visitors we could get them to fly over.

The light beam communicator, based on Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the photophone, utilizes a beam of light as a carrier for audio modulated signals. Dr. Greer's attempts are nothing new. Using light signals and telepathy were being used as means of contact in the 50s, however Greer is really the first to organize such an effort, define terms, and train groups to accomplish CE-5. Another old method was on-off signaling with a flashlight, directing it at a hovering or slow-moving craft.

Discussion

It seems evident to me that we have several independent efforts both inside and outside the scientific community searching for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. Many UFO sightings and close encounters with strange craft and their occupants cry out for greater scrutiny and an interdisplinary investigation of the evidence. While SETI scientists continue to work on their own projects, soliciting funding and favorable public relations, the UFO investigator has been given short shrift when it comes to funding projects and studies. It has been found that both scientific and UFO communities have been factionalized and disputes rage across the spectrum of beliefs. Since it is also evident that we are all seeking answers to the same questions, it seems that a greater spirit of cooperation and unification of effort should be promoted not just within the UFO field, but between these rival scientific studies so as to contribute toward a unification of effort and a realization of mutual goals.

Conclusions – Bringing it Together

The conclusion to be reached with an expanding database of new discoveries on all fronts is that the supporting evidence for extraterrestrial life is growing stronger with each new scientific discovery and each unexplained UFO incursion. This intertwining of information should be taken advantage of and some group formed with the task of liaison for analysis of evidence. The probability that UFO researchers may come up with biological samples as in the Australian case researched by Bill Chalker is all the more reason why we need the assistance of specialists in other fields in order to shed more light on the UFO mystery.

Book References[1] Beyond Contact: A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizationsby Brian S. McConnell
[2]Astrobiology, the Origin of Life, and the Death of Darwinism: Evolutionary Metamorphosis by Rhawn Joseph.
[3] Close Encounters of the 5th Kind by Dr. Richard Haines. Web Site References(1) http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Wilkins.html
(2) http://www.seti-inst.edu/general/history.html
(3) http://www.seds.org:80/~rme/seti.html
(4) http://www.space.com
(5) http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/origins/Origins.html
(6) http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/bluesilv/wd_home.htm
(7) http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/Other_Groups/PAO/warp.htm

Glossary:Astrobiology

Astrobiology seeks to understand the origin of the building blocks of life, how these biogenic compounds combine to create life, how life affects - and is affected by the environment from which it arose, and finally, whether and how life expands beyond its planet of origin.

EBE Extraterrestrial Biological Entity.
A term used in the Eisenhower Briefing Document of the MJ-12 documents.

ET Extraterrestrial

SETI Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
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