研究生科技英语阅读课文翻译对照(47)

而美国人已经开始对 UFO 现象着迷。在 1952 年炎热的夏天，在华盛顿特区的国家机场附近发生了一系列令人激动的雷达和肉眼观测报告。虽然这些报告被归结于城市上空空气的温度反转现象，并不是所有人都能接受这个解释。同时，UFO 报告的数量攀升到历史最高。这导致了中情局提请美国政府组建一支由科学家组成的专家小组对这一现象进行调查。这个小组由加州帕萨迪纳市的加州理工学院物理学家 H.P. Robertson 领头，有数名物理学家、一名宇航员和一名火箭工程师。Robertson 小组在 1953 年开了 3 天的会议，访问了 Blue Book 计划的负责人和军方官员。他们也复查了 UFO 的胶片和照片。他们得出结论：（1）90% 的目击事件都可以简单归结为天文和气象现象（例如明亮的天体和星星、流星、极光、离子云）或者地球产物，例如飞机、气球、鸟类，和探照灯光；
（2）不存在明显的安全威胁；（3）没有支持外星人假说的直接证据。在 1979 年前这个小组的部分记录被分类存档，长时间的保密也给政府掩盖事实的说法起到了火上浇油的作用。
A second committee was set up in 1966 at the request of the Air Force to review the most interesting material gathered by Project Blue Book. Two years later this committee, which made a detailed study of 59 UFO sightings, released its results as Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects—also known as the Condon Report, named for Edward U. Condon, the physicist who headed the investigation. The Condon Report was reviewed by a special committee of the National Academy of Sciences. A total of 37 scientists wrote chapters or parts of chapters for the report, which covered investigations of the 59 UFO sightings in detail. Like the Robertson Panel, the committee concluded that there was no evidence of anything other than commonplace phenomena in the reports and that UFOs did not warrant further investigation. This, together with a decline in sighting activity, led to the dismantling of Project Blue Book in 1969.