French space agency to publish UFO archive online
Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:16 AM ET
PARIS
(Reuters) – The French space agency is to publish its archive of UFO
sightings and other phenomena online, but will keep the names of those
who reported them off the site to protect them from pestering by space
fanatics.
Jacques Arnould, an official at the National Space
Studies Center (CNES), said the French database of around 1,600
incidents would go live in late January or mid-February.
He said the CNES had been collecting statements and documents for almost 30 years to archive and study them.
"Often
they are made to the Gendarmerie, which provides an official witness
statement … and some come from airline pilots," he said by telephone.
Given
the success of films about visitations from outer space like "E.T.",
"Close Encounters of The Third Kind" and "Independence Day", the CNES
archive is likely to prove a hit.
It consists of around 6,000
reports, many relating to the same incident, filed by the public and
airline professionals. Their names would not be published to protect
their privacy, Anould said.
Advances in technology over the past
three decades had prompted the decision to put the archive online, he
said, adding it would likely be available via the CNES website
www.cnes.fr.
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