Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), formerly referred to as UFOs, is a term the Department of Defense (DoD) and other government agencies now use to describe objects and behaviors of objects they can’t immediately identify.
Many try to link UAPs with evidence that extraterrestrial life forms, or aliens, exist. The U.S. Government has made a serious effort to effectively study UAPs. It can also explain and refute most, but not all, UAP sightings.
So far, every organization involved in UAP detection and research has made it clear that they have zero evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Reports, but no definite evidence, of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
For decades, military and commercial pilots, astronauts, and civilians have been reporting sightings of airborne objects they can’t identify. On 31 July 1952, USAF Intelligence Chief Major Gen. John A. Samford released a statement on flying saucers from the Pentagon.
Samford stated that since 1947, the Air Force had received “between one and two thousand” reports of UAPs from “various sources.” He added that they had been able to explain the majority of sightings as “hoaxes, as erroneously identified friendly aircraft, as meteorological or electronic phenomena, or as light aberrations.”
Samford also stated that the sightings were not connected with any secret development by any U.S. Government agency, nor did they pose a threat to the nation. However, he did describe how it was not always easy to identify Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. He described some reports made by “credible observers of relatively incredible things.” He explained further that they had no means of measuring some of these sightings, which made them difficult to explain.
National Archives Records on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) maintains a UAP Records Collection. It contains records from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the FAA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the DoD.
The DoD record contains a Fiscal Year 2024 UAP annual report. This document mentions that from 2021 to 2024, the Government’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) received 757 UAP reports. According to this document, the AARO has resolved 292 of the reports. It explained that the reports were due to a combination of balloons, birds, unmanned aerial systems, and aircraft. This leaves 465 reports that still need to be resolved.
The annual report contains a statement similar to Gen. Samford’s: “It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.”
Photographs, Images, and Sound Recordings of UAPs
NARA also maintains a collection of photographs, moving images, and sound recordings of unidentified anomalous phenomena. One example from this collection was the sighting of a flying object moving in a parallel path to an Atlas F missile that broke up during its flight in 1962. The record contains a fuzzy video of the event, which took place at the Atlantic Missile Range. This record does not contain an explanation for the sighting.
Another example (and this one was resolved) was the sighting of a UAP in December 2018 during an eruption of the Mt. Etna volcano in Sicily. A U.S. military uncrewed aerial system (UAS) took infrared video of the eruption. A round object appears on the video for four and a half minutes. It appears to be moving away from the volcano’s exhaust plume at a high rate of speed.
Detailed Analysis of UAP Finds Balloon as Likely Cause
AARO studied the object using full-motion video (FMV) analysis, 3-D modeling, pixel examination, and wind speed calculations. This detailed analysis determined that the object was likely a balloon and that it was actually 106 miles away from the volcano. It even showed that the object was about one foot in diameter.
Based on these results, AARO concluded with “moderate confidence” that the object was a balloon. It is interesting that they did not express a higher level of confidence.
With all these examples and discussions of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, it is undeniable that the U.S. has focused attention on whether there is evidence of extraterrestrial life. It is difficult to say if this is to refute all sightings, to prove that alien intelligence exists, or simply to study UAPs in the most scientific and logical way. This third option seems the most likely.
Scientific Method Key to Refuting Most UAP Sightings
According to NASA, a key part of their mission is “exploring the unknown using the rigorous process of the scientific method” and “exploring the unknown in space and the atmosphere is at the heart of who we are.” NASA also does acknowledge that one of its key priorities is “the search for life elsewhere in the universe.” As with the Air Force and AARO, NASA has made it clear that it “has not found any credible evidence of extraterrestrial life, and there is no evidence that UAPs are extraterrestrial.”
One possibly significant detail regarding UAPs is that pilots may be reluctant to report sightings. In a hearing of the GOP Oversight Committee on UAPs, Representative Robert Garcia stated, “a significant number of pilots of major airlines have witnessed UAPs…but have no real confidential way of reporting them to the government” because of “stigma or fear of retaliation.” The more one looks at this issue, the more obvious it becomes that the majority of UAP sightings are due to birds, UAS, satellites, and aircraft.
A report from AARO makes it clear that careful scientific research is essential and that “in the search for life beyond Earth, extraterrestrial life itself must be the hypothesis of last resort—the answer we turn to only after ruling out all other possibilities.”
