The space agency hopes to get to the bottom of the many sightings being reported.
NASA’s UAP study team and newly appointed director of UAP research represent growing efforts to study and declassify UFO-related data.
AP Photo/Terry Renn
Months after a military officer made sensational claims about unexplained objects in the skies, NASA released a report loosely outlining a scientific approach for analyzing UAP reports.
You’re not allowed to visit the part of Nevada known as Area 51. That’s because it’s a top-secret government facility. But the secrecy has to do with spy planes, not space aliens.
UFOs usually have non-extraterrestrial origins, but many have urged the government to be more transparent about UFO data.
Westend61/Westend61 via Getty Images
Whistleblower allegations that the government possesses UFOs may not be backed up by public physical evidence, but some argue that listening for extraterrestrial life is the first phase of contact.
A congressional subcommittee on unidentified anomalous phenomena met to hear testimony from military officers.
Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images
All who testified before a congressional subcommittee claimed that UFOs pose a threat to national security, though there’s still no public evidence that UFOs are extraterrestrial.
SETI has been listening for markers that may indicate alien life – but is doing so ethical?
Donald Giannati via Unsplash
While UFO videos might seem compelling, they’re rarely backed up with evidence. A sociologist explains why claims of alien life gain traction through both social and mass media every few years.
There are thousands of sightings of UFOs – or ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ as the US government prefers to call them – every year.
In this photo provided by the U.S. navy, sailors recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Feb. 5, 2023. A missile was fired by a U.S. F-22 off the Carolina coast to bring the balloon down.
(U.S. Navy via AP)
If there’s any silver lining to the aerial objects being shot down over North America over the last few days, maybe it’s that North Americans will recognize and appreciate the binational NORAD.
Launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket which resulted in reports being submitted GEIPAN.
John D Sirlin/Shutterstock
Vincent Costes, Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES)
If you see something mystifying happening in Europe’s skies, get in touch with France’s Study and Information Group on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena. They could well have a rational explanation for you.
The worldwide fascination with UFOs started in the late 1940s after a few incidents made the news in the U.S.
David Zaitz/The Image Bank via Getty Images
The history of UFOs weaves together public fascination, government secrecy and cultural phenomena. Recent news and shifts in the government’s stance on UFOs are giving new life to the mystery.
Screenshot from a Depart of Defense video of an unidentified aerial phenomenon.
US Department of Defense/US Navy
A new nine-page report, requested by Congress, doesn’t say what the 144 UFO sightings from 2004 to 2021 are, but does say that the government wants to learn more.
Unidentified aerial phenomena remain a mystery.
US Department of Defense/US Navy