What kind of evidence would we really need, before we could reasonably conclude alien contact had been made?
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.
The new government report describes 144 sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena.
U.S. 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
Some UFO sightings appear to demonstrate ‘advanced technology’. The Pentagon has confirmed some threaten flight safety, and potentially national security.
During a military mission, whether in peace or in war, the inability to identify an object within an area of operation represents a significant problem.
US F/A-18 footage of a UFO (circled in red).
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Parzival191919
Kevin Knuth, University at Albany, State University of New York
About 5 percent of all UFO sightings cannot be easily explained by weather or human technology. A physicist argues that there’s compelling evidence to justify serious scientific study and that the skeptics should step aside – for the sake of humanity.
An intricate crop circle spans a diameter of more than 45 metres in a barley field close to Barbury Castle near Wroughton, England, about 130 kilometres west of London, in 2008. The circle is noteworthy for its complexity, representing the first 10 digits of the mathematical constant pi, or 3.141592654.
Lucy Pringle
Crop circles are global phenomena gaining attention as paranormal culture becomes mainstream, along with a hybrid approach that emulates scientific investigation.
Basilica of San Vitale, a church in Ravenna, Italy,
kristobalite