J. Allen Hynek

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J. Allen Hynek (left) with Jacques Vallée

Josef Allen Hynek (born May 1, 1910 in Chicago , † April 27, 1986 in Scottsdale , Arizona ) was an American astronomer who was best known for his work in the field of ufology .

Life

Hynek was born in 1910 to Czech immigrants. In the late 1920s he began studying astrophysics at the University of Chicago , which he completed in 1931 with a Bachelor of Science . Four years later, he obtained a Philosophiae Doctor degree from the Yerkes Observatory and then specialized in stellar evolution and spectroscopic binary stars at Ohio State University .

During World War II , Hynek was involved in the development of proximity fuses for military missiles at Johns Hopkins University . After the war he returned to Ohio State University and was appointed professor in 1950 .

In the meantime he was employed by the US Air Force in 1948 as a scientific advisor for Project Sign , the first state investigation into the UFO phenomenon in the USA. Even after the project was converted to Project Grudge in 1950 and finally to Project Blue Book in 1952, Hynek remained a project consultant. First, he was considered a "debunker" (debunker) alleged UFO sightings and was also a member of the CIA initiated Robertson Panel . This commission of scientists was supposed to deliberate on the UFO issue in terms of its implications for national security and the people of the United States. She concluded that UFOs pose no threat to national security and recommended a public relations campaign to lower public interest.

In 1956, Hynek moved to the observatory at Harvard University to develop a method for observing and tracking artificial earth satellites in preparation for the International Geophysical Year 1957/58 . After the end of the project, he was appointed professor of astronomy at Northwestern University in 1960 .

Since the early 1960s, Hynek's work on Project Blue Book has increasingly attracted public interest. Various biographers saw Hynek's change of heart at the time, away from an unmasking point of view and towards an open criticism of the Air Force's actions. While the majority of the cases evaluated by the project turned out to be false reports and errors and the Air Force declared the phenomenon to be void based on the statistical results, Hynek highlighted some inexplicable incidents where the objects had been sighted by police officers or astronomers.

In particular, Hynek emphasized the sighting by the patrol officer Lonnie Zamora , who in 1964 in Socorro (New Mexico) saw an egg-shaped flying object next to a road, which he initially thought was a wrecked car. Afterwards, however, Zamora saw two small creatures next to the object, which soon took off and flew away. The object had left marks in the ground and set some bushes on fire. The incident remains inexplicable to this day. A little later, Hynek hit the headlines when in 1966 he thought a sighting in Michigan was inflamed marsh gas , which in turn many "UFO believers" considered wrong in view of the eyewitness testimony and the judgments by Project Blue Book and Air Force in general and Hynek in the Specially thought to be skeptical.

Nevertheless, Hynek endeavored to take a scientific approach to the topic and became involved in various organizations such as the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) from the early 1970s . In 1973 he founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and gave a speech on the subject at the UN General Assembly in 1978. He has also written a number of books on the subject. In The UFO Experience of 1972, he proposed a classification system for UFO sightings that is often used today , which included different types of distant sightings and the well-known three levels of so-called " close encounters " .

In 1977, Hynek was the scientific adviser for Steven Spielberg's science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind , the title of which referred to Hynek's UFO sighting scale. He also took on a small extra role in the film. Even so, during the 1970s he was more of a skeptic of various UFO hypotheses. In the last decade of his life, Hynek was critical of the " extraterrestrial hypothesis" that has now become popular . Due to the high number of UFO close-up sightings and the described behavior of the humanoids (an apparent "no contact requirement"), he began to formulate his doubts about the fact that UFOs aircraft were of interplanetary origin and also considered an "interdimensional" origin (see What I Really Believe About UFOs. In: Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress. 1980).

Hynek died of a brain tumor in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1986 . He left his wife Mimi and three children. Hynek's son Joel is a special effects developer in the film business and won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects in Beyond the Horizon (1998). He was also on films such as Predator , Die Hard - Now more than ever and xXx - Triple X involved.

Hynek's Classification of UFO Sightings

In 1972, Hynek proposed in his book The UFO Experience to classify UFO sightings into different stages. Hynek's considerations were based on the case evaluations of Project Blue Book , in particular on statistical evaluations of the sightings. These stages were:

  • Nocturnal Light (NL, Nachtliche Lichterscheinung): Lights that appear strange to the observer are seen at night. Practically most UFO sightings belonged and still belong to this type, which in addition also often turned out to be errors (bright stars and planets, airplanes, meteorological phenomena, etc.).
  • Daylight Disc (DD, disc in daylight): During the day, the observer sees a solid, disc-shaped object similar to the classic " flying saucer ".
  • Radar / Visual (RV, visual and radar sighting): The observed object is confirmed by a radar device .
  • Close Encounter of the 1st Kind (CE-1, close encounter of the first kind): The object is sighted from a close distance (≤150 m).
  • Close Encounter of the 2nd Kind (CE-2, close encounter of the second kind): The object enters into physical interaction with the environment and leaves traces (landing marks, faults in electrical devices, etc.).
  • Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind (CE-3, close encounter of the third kind): The observer not only sees the object but also its occupant. These cases were the least common for Blue Book.

Later, various authors added CE-4 ( alien abduction ) and CE-5 (alien contact).

Publications

  • The UFO Experience: A scientific inquiry. Regnery, 1972
  • UFO. Encounters of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd kind. Goldmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-442-11205-2
  • The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. Together with Jacques Vallée , Regnery, 1975
  • The Hynek UFO Report. Dell, 1977
  • UFO report. A research report. Goldmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-442-11703-8

See also

literature

  • Jerome Clark: The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink, 1998
  • Curtis G. Fuller and the editors of Fate Magazine: Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress. Warner Books, New York 1977
  • Curtis Peebles : Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth , New York (Berkley Books, pp.) 1995. ISBN 0-425-15117-4 .

Web links

Footnotes


personal data
SURNAME Hynek, J. Allen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hynek, Josef Allen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1986
Place of death Scottsdale , Arizona