UFOs

James P. Pinkerton is most likely right that “Something (Probably) Is Out There” (Commentary, July 9). However, it almost certainly is not in the form of metal ships that buzz Las Vegas at 2 a.m. with flashing lights or of bug-eyed beings that kidnap obscure Nebraska farmers for weird sexual experiments.

Because our radio and TV signals have been emanating into space for most of a century now, E.T. will hear, see and study us long before he replies by the same electronic means. If Einstein was right about light speed (as seems likely), the gulf of space may never be traversable, at all. We and they will talk long-distance long before we shake, um, hands.

THOMAS E. BRAUN

Glendale