Oct 30, 2021 02:31 AM
(This post was last modified: Oct 30, 2021 02:31 AM by C C.)
https://www.space.com/ufos-uap-history-s...-mysteries
EXCERPT: . . . UFOs are undeniably real; people often see things in the sky that they can't identify. But that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything exotic going on.
For example, the 1947 Roswell debris actually came from a high-altitude balloon lofted by the U.S. military as part of Project Mogul, a secret program that searched for evidence of atomic bomb tests by the Soviet Union. And the 1997 Phoenix Lights were likely caused by high-flying planes and a military flare-dropping exercise.
Alien-abduction stories are more complicated, as they tend to involve more psychological components. But some research suggests that at least some such reports may be explained by lucid dreaming, an odd sleep state in which people can control their dreams.
Project Blue Book got to the bottom of the vast majority of the 12,600 sightings it investigated, ascribing most of them to natural phenomena such as clouds, stars and bright planets. The Air Force researchers could not explain 701 of the encounters, but they concluded that none displayed evidence of otherworldly technology or posed a threat to national security.
The 2021 DNI report evinces less certainty, positively identifying just one of the 144 examined UAP. (That lone demystified object was a large, deflating balloon.) The investigators stressed that more data are needed to understand UAP, which likely have multiple explanations. For example, strange and seemingly inexplicable movement patterns "could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis," the report states.
Advanced technology developed by foreign adversaries is another potential cause. If foreign tech is indeed behind some of these sightings, UAP would "represent a national security challenge," the report adds.
This possibility has spurred the U.S. military to take the UAP issue more seriously than ever before. In 2019, for example, the Navy formalized its UFO-reporting guidelines, a revision that could remove much of the stigma that has long been associated with sightings, as Politico noted.
The 2021 DNI assessment does not explicitly mention the alien hypothesis; it's implicitly lumped into a catch-all "other" category of possible explanations. And there are good reasons not to leap to the E.T. conclusion, experts say.
For example, the Navy pilots' sightings in 2004, 2014 and 2015 occurred in coastal waters, which is where you might expect to find advanced reconnaissance craft operated by rival nations, pointed out Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California. (Flights over the U.S. mainland would be much easier to detect.) And some of the encounters apparently occurred shortly after the Navy jets' radar systems were upgraded, suggesting a glitch of some kind might be responsible.
Indeed, it may be telling that imagery of UFOs, no matter what era it was captured in, tends to depict the objects as fuzzy blobs. "The sightings always recede to the edge of what technology allows you to do," Shostak told Space.com in 2019. "The aliens are kind of keeping pace with technology."
Common sense also argues for relatively mundane, terrestrial explanations, and not just because of Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is usually the best one). For example, if some UFOs are indeed alien spacecraft, what exactly are they up to? "If the aliens are here, you gotta say they're the best houseguests ever, because they never do anything," Shostak said. "They just buzz around. They don't address climate change; they don't steal our molybdenum." (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: . . . UFOs are undeniably real; people often see things in the sky that they can't identify. But that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything exotic going on.
For example, the 1947 Roswell debris actually came from a high-altitude balloon lofted by the U.S. military as part of Project Mogul, a secret program that searched for evidence of atomic bomb tests by the Soviet Union. And the 1997 Phoenix Lights were likely caused by high-flying planes and a military flare-dropping exercise.
Alien-abduction stories are more complicated, as they tend to involve more psychological components. But some research suggests that at least some such reports may be explained by lucid dreaming, an odd sleep state in which people can control their dreams.
Project Blue Book got to the bottom of the vast majority of the 12,600 sightings it investigated, ascribing most of them to natural phenomena such as clouds, stars and bright planets. The Air Force researchers could not explain 701 of the encounters, but they concluded that none displayed evidence of otherworldly technology or posed a threat to national security.
The 2021 DNI report evinces less certainty, positively identifying just one of the 144 examined UAP. (That lone demystified object was a large, deflating balloon.) The investigators stressed that more data are needed to understand UAP, which likely have multiple explanations. For example, strange and seemingly inexplicable movement patterns "could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis," the report states.
Advanced technology developed by foreign adversaries is another potential cause. If foreign tech is indeed behind some of these sightings, UAP would "represent a national security challenge," the report adds.
This possibility has spurred the U.S. military to take the UAP issue more seriously than ever before. In 2019, for example, the Navy formalized its UFO-reporting guidelines, a revision that could remove much of the stigma that has long been associated with sightings, as Politico noted.
The 2021 DNI assessment does not explicitly mention the alien hypothesis; it's implicitly lumped into a catch-all "other" category of possible explanations. And there are good reasons not to leap to the E.T. conclusion, experts say.
For example, the Navy pilots' sightings in 2004, 2014 and 2015 occurred in coastal waters, which is where you might expect to find advanced reconnaissance craft operated by rival nations, pointed out Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California. (Flights over the U.S. mainland would be much easier to detect.) And some of the encounters apparently occurred shortly after the Navy jets' radar systems were upgraded, suggesting a glitch of some kind might be responsible.
Indeed, it may be telling that imagery of UFOs, no matter what era it was captured in, tends to depict the objects as fuzzy blobs. "The sightings always recede to the edge of what technology allows you to do," Shostak told Space.com in 2019. "The aliens are kind of keeping pace with technology."
Common sense also argues for relatively mundane, terrestrial explanations, and not just because of Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is usually the best one). For example, if some UFOs are indeed alien spacecraft, what exactly are they up to? "If the aliens are here, you gotta say they're the best houseguests ever, because they never do anything," Shostak said. "They just buzz around. They don't address climate change; they don't steal our molybdenum." (MORE - missing details)
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