detection of UFOs it has unleashed a veritable diplomatic crisis between the United States and China. Especially since, beyond the sightings themselves, it is not yet clear what they are, to whom they belong and what they are used for all devices detected to date. The United States claims that some of the downed objects are spy tools sent by the Chinese government. There are also those who argue that other of the intercepted ‘balloons’ are nothing more than meteorological instruments or probes designed for scientific purposes. The reality is that, for now, several of these sightings can only fit into the category of ‘unexplained phenomena’. But what exactly does this mean?
98% of cases have a clear explanation, according to Heather Dixon, director of the British UFO Investigation Association (BUFORA) in an article published in ‘The Guardian’. For understand the 2% of sightings that still cannot be explained you have to go back a step. The fever for sightings of this type of anomalous flying objects emerged in the late 1940s. At that time, the world was coming out of a Second World War especially marked by technological advances, aerial threats and nuclear danger and, in turn, it was entering a much more ‘silent’ conflict: the Cold War.
The sky thus became a new battlefield that had to be closely monitored to track the enemy’s footsteps. The study of so-called ‘unidentified flying objects’ began as a military tool spearheaded by the intelligence services of the great superpowers of the globe. Americans and Soviets deployed, on the one hand, their respective military and espionage programs to demonstrate that they could reach the enemy’s airspace without being spotted and, on the other hand, they strengthened their monitoring network to demonstrate that they could detect (and eventually defeat) the intrusions of their opponents.
classified reports
In 1952, US Air Force officers launched the so-called ‘Project Blue Book’: the first major scientific study on ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’. The investigation collected more than 12,600 reports on anomalous flying objects and analyzed on a case-by-case basis what could have caused those sightings. A large part of the cases could be related to natural phenomena (from the brightness of a celestial object to the presence of clouds or the flash of lightning). Another large part of the observations were attributed to the sighting of aircraft and military technology. there was only 6% of the cases which, at that time, were classified as unexplained.
The military reports on these sightings they spent many years filed away in a drawer. Especially since, beyond the speculations about aliens, the fact of explicitly acknowledging the lack of understanding about some of these sightings could also uncover possible gaps. for national security. For this reason, for decades, the UFO phenomenon continued to be investigated under the strictest secrecy through secret military programs.
five hypotheses
In 2021, after the ‘New York Times’ revealed the existence of a secret program dedicated to the study of UFOs, the United States was ‘forced’ to publish one of the most comprehensive reports to date on phenomena studied by the Pentagon. The (brief) document contained a total of 144 sightings of anomalous aerial objects carried out by the Armed Forces of the United States between 2004 and 2021. Its publication caused more controversy due to the doubts it left in the air than for the answers it provided.
The analysis pointed to five possible hypotheses to explain the UFO sightings detected to date: air disturbances, natural atmospheric phenomena, secret US military technology, foreign military systems, or “other” (where, between the lines, the possibility of extraterrestrial signals would be included). Of all these possibilities, the one that caused the most concern was the military hypothesis because, deep down, recognized the existence of military tools unknown tips for the United States.
enigmatic objects
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The new wave of sightings of unidentified flying objects over the United States and Canada has reopened the debate on these anomalous objects. According to information released to date, some of the intercepted objects were equipped with telecommunications antennas and tools to collect data on the ground. In some cases, it appears that they might have a link to spyware. In others, according to the newspaper ‘New York Post’, could be hot air balloon thrown by fans.
The US intelligence services have already launched an investigation to clarify what happened. President Joe Biden, for his part, assures that he will enter into a dialogue with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in order to “get to the bottom of the matter.” For now, some of the sightings are classified in that 2% of hitherto inexplicable aerial phenomena. It will be necessary to see if, with time, it is possible to find a clear explanation of who, how and why he has sent them to cross the skies.