Do aliens see in color?

So i'm not too sure if this has been brought up but do aliens see in color? black and white? If they see in color, do they have 'rods and cones' in their eyes? do aliens just see in shades of grey/shadows? Actually can aliens see at all, or are they blind?
edit to add: for instance their alien ship's often have colored lights, does this mean that they do in fact see color? but on the contrary out of all of the supposed ufo videos, has anyone ever seen one of the crafts in an actual color, other than the usual black/metallic...?
I mean even in all of the CARET stuff none of it was in color (other than black, grey-ish etc...)

[edit on 8/7/2007 by agent violet]

Originally posted by agent violet
So i'm not too sure if this has been brought up but do aliens see in color? black and white? If they see in color, do they have 'rods and cones' in their eyes? do aliens just see in shades of grey/shadows? Actually can aliens see at all, or are they blind?

First we would need to know if they even exist, before even thinking about this stuff, how would we know, haha and what alien would you be talking about, there could be millions of different aliens out there.

phoenix, any/all alien species can be included.

This is a very interesting question, even if only pure speculation. UFO sightings do often cite various different colours of lights which would suggest that they can in fact see in colour. However the only way to be sure would be to dissect a dead one (and hope that we can figure out their anatomy!).

Either way their eyesight should match the conditions of their home planet, it has often been suggested that greys wear "covers" of some kind over their eyes to handle the lighting conditions on this planet. It would make a lot of sense.

they see heat and different color with the intensity of the heat... they have adapted the bat like feature of using sound to manage objects that do not give off heat.... With their vast intelligence, in their brain they will see vary detailed picture down to the micron.

They are able to see the different patterns in wavelengths of light, being able to decyfer the color, but not as close detail as we do. But, they can redirect all light into a concentrated beam and use it as a weapon, like laser eyes. I know this because I made it all up... and i have never been wrong in my life but, I am very sarcastic.

It is possible that they do see in color depending upon how they evolved. I do know that on earth, all predatory animals, felines, canines, apes, birds of prey, us, etc., have our eyes fixed in the front and we see in color and all prey animals, deer, cattle, etc. have their eyes fixed on the sides. I noticed that when I feed the wild rabbits carrots, hell they had to sniff around for them and to me they were right in view, being orange and all. I know deer see in shades of grey and there are 256 shades. All the information that I have seen about Aliens, show their eyes fixed in front so it follows that they evolved as prey animals like us. Of course this is all guess work anyhow. Maybe oneday we'll find out.

wow very clever predator/prey equation i have never come to that.
although i must agree.
however the heat sense/bat like ability is quite clever as well.

i'm surprised this topic hasn't been brought up before.

Depending on the light conditions on their planet, it is possible that they could see in a different spectrum to us, in infrared or ultraviolet (bit like those Predator movies).

Well, if you look at this picture you'll see how little light we humans actually are able to perceive:



I don't know exactly which wavelengths is realistic for a biological being to be able to perceive but from the wikipedia it says that we humans responds to wavelengths at 400-700nm and some even at 380-780nm. Also that the bees, can see in the ultraviolet which is useful for them finding nectar.

Actually everything at above absolute zero-point gives out energy radiation which is possible to detect, the infrared cameras is very good at this. Here you can see some typical pictures taken by such a camera:



It doesn't matter if it's pitch black or if it's in the middle of the day when using these cameras, it only detects the energy radiated from the surroundings (not the light reflected), where hot objects (which contains much energy) will show up as white and cold (low energy) objects will be darker.

You can of course configure how this looks like on the screen and here is some interesting pictures:
www.nationalinfrared.com...

So maybe aliens can see like that? Or at least in some other light spectrums than us, maybe there is very little difference or very big difference; that depends on the species. Maybe they even are able to see stuff that we would never notice, like ghosts etc?

Here I'm going to show you a video of objects I suspect maybe travels from outside the cameras visible-wavelength and into its visible-wavelength by changing their energy level. This way it looks like they're just suddenly appearing or teleporting, but they was actually there the whole time:

Especially in the end you'll see something which is very interesting! This is also a way to demonstrate how limited our vision really is.

I too am fascinated about the whole philosophy in this; how different life forms perceives the world. And I'm trying to learn whatever I can.

some good points trapped soul.

now this is a bit off topic but since it was posted i figured i would just ask. trappedsoul in the vid you posted what happens suddenly at 1:06?


[edit on 8/9/2007 by agent violet]

Originally posted by agent violet
some good points trapped soul.

now this is a bit off topic but since it was posted i figured i would just ask. trappedsoul in the vid you posted what happens suddenly at 1:06?


[edit on 8/9/2007 by agent violet]

I assume that you are talking about the brilliant flash of light on Earth, which to me looks like a reallly big lightning flash.
As far as the other objects in the video, some are space junk, some are meteors and as far as I'm concerned there is at least ONE there whos movement doesnt look like either of those.

Interesting Thread Agent Violet!
Also, great points TrappedSoul thats what I was thinking about myself. Looking at nature again there is more that a few things that can be said about some animals/insects. For instance I know that Mosquitoes can see in infrared and, can see all the blood pumping around your veins! Birds of prey like the falcon can see 8 times more detail that Humans, obviously because of their hunting techniques. I'm sure there are alot more intersting examples from our animal world. It's pretty hard to speculate what kind of evolutionary stages Aliens have been through though, in regards to what they need to see for hunting or living conditions.

Another point to consider is I remember seeing in a doco, a person who could apparently see 'auras' around people, and the person he was looking at changed colour with mood. It also depended on the character or 'soul' of the person. Something like that anyway, ill google it soon Could aliens see such things? Thats more on the spiritual/telepathic side of things.

Back to the Predator reference, you remember he was wearing headgear that let him see in enhanced vision, which was infrared (good ol Arnie beat him by covering himself in mud!) but in the sequel they all wore cold suits so he couldnt see them, and the Predator just changed his headgear vision to a different setting and they were back in the Sh#%

Anyway a few more things to ponder!

[edit on 9-8-2007 by Hipocracy]

Another thought that I had about their eyesight was the enlarged eyes that are pictured in many examples. Could this be because they come from a planet system that has less light than ours. Their eyes would naturally be larger to compensate for the reduced sunlight on their planet. It would be more likely that they would not originate from a system with a massive white or blue star but a system with a yellow or red star. It brings my thoughts to the star Betelgeuse which is a red giant in the constellation Orion. So many inferences about the Giza pyramids being modeled after the belt stars of Orion as being home. Why not the entire constellation of Orion and Betelgeuse being their origination. Just more food for thought.

do aliens see in color?

The question seems fairly irrelevant to me, but I would guess that any civilization sufficiently advanced to do the things we generally assume 'aliens' do would be able to use technology to overcome their biological limitations. For example...I can't see very well into the infrared spectrum, but that doesn't stop me from looking at Hubble photographs.

has anyone ever seen one of the crafts in an actual color

Why assume that this is a limitation of theirs, rather than of ours? Isn't it possible that alien ships are all spray painted in great big, gaudy, shiny neon colors...but that are out of OUR perceptual range?

hmm well i guess theyr vision is similar to ours,but they have big eyes so i guess they have better vision maybe some nightvision capatibilities like the pics above....but i think they see in color

Originally posted by Unisol
"How can i sleep with ur wife while ur at work andmake wee wee in ur toilet....and sometimes i open the toilet can and wee wee inside so wee wee come out when u flush : D"

Off topic, but I had to ask... what in the world is that supposed to mean and why would you use it as a signature????

[edit on 8/11/2007 by pjslug]