March 7th, 2009 NASA launched the Kepler Space Telescope as part of a mission to detect Earth sized planets orbiting their parent stars in the “sweet spot” that allows a planet to be habitable. At 11am EST on Monday NASA will hold a Press Conference at the Ames Research Center to discuss new findings made by the Kepler Space Telescope. Nearly a year ago NASA held a similar press conference and announced the discovery of over 1,200 alien planet candidates. According to NASA officials, Monday’s conference will provide an update to statistical findings made by the Kepler mission. It will also “introduce a new confirmed planetary discovery”.

So far Kepler has discovered a confirmed 27 planets. Without detracting from the scientific importance of the Kepler discoveries, their announcement could hardly be called “disclosure”. Why then did I bandy about the D-word in the post title? The answer to that is buried in Space.com’s article announcing the conference. According to the article one of the participants in the press briefing will be Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute. From my brief research this is the first time that a representative of SETI has been included in a Kepler mission press conference (please correct me in the comments if I am wrong). To me, at least, this would seem to indicate that there may be more to the “new confirmed planetary discovery” than a simple “yup, we found another planet”.

This press conference may be the first step toward disclosing the truth about the UFO phenomenon and life outside of our planet. It is widely believed by many (myself included) that if the government were to come out and say that UFOs are real and they are not from our planet, there would be widespread panic that could have lasting negative effects on the entire planet. If instead, NASA were to announce that they have identified a planet that may contain intelligent life that is so far away travel would not be possible (as long as faster than light travel can’t happen) it would be a shock, but nothing that would have a direct impact on day-to-day Earth life and would be much easier news to hear. This would give us time to come to grips with the idea we are not alone before having to deal with more shocking truths. In the end, though, this is all just wild speculation and we will have to wait until Monday to find out what NASA has up their sleeves.

What was quite possibly the best opportunity for President Obama to announce the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life to the world has passed without a single word on the subject. Of all the supposed venues for announcement that have been theorized, today’s speech was the only event that would allow the President to make what would be the most important announcement in world history without any overbearing American nationalism. With this opportunity passed, I believe the chances of disclosure coming from President Obama or his administration are slim to none. Barring any action from the UN or another national government, it would appear the current tradition of silence and deception will, for the time being, remain the status quo as it has for the past 62 years.

We’ve all seen the posts in forums, twitter, and on blogs proclaiming that government is about to announce the existence of extraterrestrial life. I usually glance through them, take a moment to think about how cool it would be and move on. I just have never thought that the government would ever risk the fallout from such a world changing announcement. Lately though, I have heard more and more talk about disclosure happening sooner rather than later. In fact there is talk that the government might finally be ready to tell us the truth this year and I am starting to think that it may be a strong possibility.

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