The Zeta Reticuli Star System

   By: Robert M. Collins and William Moore
 

      Please Note: This report was originally published in "Focus"
magazine edited by Bill Moore dated
                                              1991.

                   REPORTER: "And what planet do the EBENS "aliens" come from?"

  INTELLIGENCE SOURCE CODENAMED "FALCON":
"(From) the Zeta Reticuli star group ... (there are) two
                                          suns together."

                      Q: "And is this the primary source of the alien visitors here?"
 

     A: "Ahh, to the best of my knowledge, yes."

  Q: "How long does the trip from Zeta Reticuli take....?"

 
  A: "They can... do it in about 91 days."
 

 Q: "How big is their home planet?"

            A: "(The) EBEN'S planet is similar to Earth, but the air is a bit thinner and contains a
            higher proportion of Argon and Helium. Also, the average temperature is a bit cooler
               than here. They like our high mountain regions where the air is thinner and the
                          temperature is cooler. They can't stand a lot of heat.

        Q: "Now, can we get into describing the physical
conditions and characteristics of the aliens?"

           A: "(They are) creature(s) about 3'4" to 3'8" tall. Their eyes are extremely large, almost
             insect style (with) a couple of different inner lids....Their skin structure is extremely
                ahhh... it's a very elastic skin, and hard. Probably hardened from their sun."
 
 

 The above was excerpted from interviews conducted with
U.S. intelligence agent codenamed "Falcon" in
 March, 1984 and February, 1987.

 Evidence gleaned from both the Betty and Barney Hill abduction
case and from intelligence sources (including
 "Falcon", above) has suggested that the home of at least one
group of supposed alien 'visitors" to Earth may
 well be the Zeta Reticuli system, a close pair of companion stars
(two stars traveling together in the same
 direction at the same speed, as opposed to a double or binary
star system wherein one star orbits the other)
 some 37 light years distant. Although this information is
NOT scientifically provable, it can be used to test the
 hypothesis that Zeta Reticuli has all the ingredients
(except for positive proof of planets) to support intelligent
 life at an advanced stage of development.

 The prime source of information about these stars is
L. DaSilva and R. Foy's paper "Zeta 1 and Zeta 2
 Reticuli: A Puzzling Solar-Type Twin System",
which can be found in Astronomy and Astrophysics (177,
 204-216 <1987>).

 The two stars, Zeta 1 and Zeta 2, are located in the southern
constellation of Reticulum (the net) and are thus
 never visible to most of the northern hemisphere.
Both are classed as old disk population II stars whose age is
 between six to eight billion years.
There is every indication that both had a common origin and are part of a
 relatively near-by old moving group
(or loose cluster) of stars which was first defined in 1958 and is known as
 the Zeta Hercules group.

 Our own Sun has an estimated age of only five billion
years and is classed spectroscopically as a G-0 star
 (yellow-orange dwarf). Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 are classed

as G-2 and G-1 respectively, with luminosities ("L") of
 0.7 and 0.9 (the Sun being L=l.O). This means that both Zeta 1
and Zeta 2 are very Sun-like and could well
 possess solar systems much like our own.

 In their highly technical paper, DaSilva and Foy offer
two very important conclusions about these stars which
 radically contradict earlier findings.
These are that neither star is metal-deficient and that neither is a close
 binary (or double). Earlier evidence (published by Bonneau et al., 1980) i
dentifying Zeta 2 as a very close
 binary turns out to have been mistaken
(Bonneau and Foy, 1986).

 The puzzling aspects of these "close" stars
(.1 light year apart) center around discoveries of higher than
 expected gravity and ultraviolet output when compared
to their apparently normal metal content (i.e. not
 metal-poor). The ultraviolet excess and kinematic
(proper motion and orbit) data suggest that these two stars
 belong to the old population II stars as mentioned earlier;
yet the apparent high gravity figure seems more
 typical of an unevolved, metal-poor condition.
Since DaSilva and Foy's work resulted in strong confirmation of
 a Sun-like (or "normal") metal content for these stars,
they began to look elsewhere for an explanation of the
 gravity paradox.
The answer came with the discovery of an apparent
overabundance of helium (twice as much
 as our own Sun) in the stellar photospheres.
This, when worked into the calculations, not only explained the
 high gravity, but also accounted for the observed problem
of the stars' high ultraviolet output but relatively low
 overall luminosity.
Another effect of the helium abundance would be to
slow the process of stellar evolution
 across the main sequence.

 Additionally, it should be noted that Zeta 1 was
one of the first stars ever to be used as a solar analog by
 astronomers. What might these findings signify as
far as Zeta 1 and/or Zeta 2 possessing planets with
 advanced intelligent life? Let's make a list
of the strong points which support this idea:

      (1)Both Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 are solar, or Sun-like stars.
(If one imagines a spherical section of our
      galaxy with a radius of 50 light years and centered upon our Sun,
only one star out of every eleven
      contained therein will have Sun-like characteristics.)

      (2) The previous objection that one and perhaps both
stars appeared to be close binaries has now
      been swept away. Stable planetary orbits in the so-called eco-zone
(i.e. close enough to the central
      fire to produce conditions conducive to life)
are more probable around single stars than in binary
      systems. (It is for precisely this reason that our Sun's nearest neighbor,
Alpha Centuri <Rigel
      Kent>, is considered an unlikely candidate for life-giving
planets even though the main star of that
      multiple system is a class G-4 sun.)

      (3) Both Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 have an average age of between
six and eight billion years. This makes
      them from one to three billion years older than our Sun
and suggests that any life on planets
      associated with them could be much further along in
its evolutionary process than we are.

      (4) In many reported UFO abduction cases, the "visitors" have
been described as having a thick
      epidermis and multiple eyelids. This is precisely the
sort of adaptation one would expect for
      creatures who evolved on a planet whose sun had
a high ultraviolet output. Curiously enough, these
      characteristics were also reported by the intelligence
source codenamed "Falcon" as early as
      1981.

 On the negative side, it must be admitted that there is
no direct observational evidence of planets around
 either Zeta 1 or Zeta 2. However, a Canadian group reported that
a Jupiter-sized planet appears to exist in
 orbit around Tau Ceti, a Sun-like star only about 11 light years away.
Those readers familiar with the star map
 developed by Marjorie Fish based upon information
from the Barney and Betty Hill UFO abduction case, will
 recall that Tau Ceti was identified as one of the stars on that map.

 Since the original 1991 publication of this report tremendous
strides have been made in the discovery of
 possible new solar systems and the detection of planets around other stars:
With each passing day there is
 more and more data that appears to strengthen the idea
that solar systems are quite common and very
 abundant.

 In the below report Livio maintains that carbon production
didn't peak until about 2 billion years before the
 sun-earth were formed and that advanced type intelligent life
didn't emerge on Earth until ~ 4 million years ago:
 Of course assuming estimate errors (perhaps large) this
more than leaves room for the Zeta Reticuli Star
 System with a current estimated age of ~ 7 billion years:
Or, the Zeta Reticuli Star System was in the formation
 process when this carbon production peaked according to Livio.

 Extraterrestial Civilizations: Coming of Age in the Milky Way

      http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1998/43/pr.html