The mere suggestion by a top government official that “aliens” could explain some UFO activity is the latest example of the government’s striking shift in tone regarding this issue.

This week, the director of the U.S. government’s UFO analysis office stated that there is “evidence” of concerning unidentified flying object activity “in our backyard.” According to physicist Seán Kirkpatrick, who heads the congressionally-mandated All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, this alarming UFO activity can be attributed to one of two extraordinary sources: either a foreign power or “aliens.”

To be sure, the ramifications of either would be significant. But Kirkpatrick’s comments, which come as he is about to retire after a 27-year defense and intelligence-focused career, are more intriguing because he also says that “none” of the hundreds of military UFO reports analyzed by his office recently “have been positively attributed to foreign activities.”

At the same time, Kirkpatrick and senior defense officials have ruled out the possibility that secret U.S. programs or experimental aircraft explain the phenomena.

  • Pons_Aelius
    16•1 year ago

    From everything we know interstellar travel in less than generational time scales is all but impossible.

    The only thing that is more improbable from our current knowledge of physics is…travel back in time.

    Occam’s razor: The explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct.

    So we have three possibilities.

    A foreign power

    Aliens

    Time Travel.

    …

    The boring reality is that it is the first one. A foreign power.

    • @jordanlund@lemmy.world
      11•1 year ago

      The trick with the foreign power angle is that it would be a foreign power with technology we don’t fully comprehend. I doubt Russia or China is at that level. We know for a fact that North Korea isn’t. Nor is Iran.

      So who would it be? Japan? Tech-wise they could surprise us, but why?

    • nicetriangle
      7•1 year ago

      It could also be US Skunk Works shit. IIRC a bunch of weird sightings in the US some decades ago ended up being the F-117 and that stealth bomber. The public didn’t know about them until years after their development.

      That seems more plausible to me than China or whatever.

      • @CeruleanRuinEnglish
        3•1 year ago

        A random government official not knowing what they are doesn’t say much if they’re black ops projects. By definition, nobody would know about them except the people directly working on them, and they’re not gonna say anything.

        I’m most interested in what makes them so sure these aren’t our own. They’re awfully naive if they think they’re allowed to know everything.

        • nicetriangle
          3•1 year ago

          Even if they did know what it was, feigning extreme ignorance like this would probably be the better strategy anyway. It would be in the US’ best interest for the waters around all of this to be extremely muddy.

    • Cosmicomical
      6•1 year ago

      Let me remind you tgat the universe has no obligation to do things as easily as possible. Occam’s razor is at best a way to prioritise your conjectures. It could easily be the dolphin spaceships coming to rescue their peers before climate change kills them.

      • Pons_Aelius
        7•1 year ago

        Sorry, I thought we were talking science not science fiction.

        As Carl Sagan said: Extraordinary claims require Extraordinary evidence.

        • Cosmicomical
          2•1 year ago

          Well yeah, i prob went too far there. I just don’t like people defending positions by saying “it’s the easiest explanation so this is it”

    • @IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      If the videos of the tic tac object are accurate, as in what was recorded was really there, I disagree. These things can drop from 80k feet to sea level in a second with no obvious signs of propulsion and no control surfaces.

      • Pons_Aelius
        6•1 year ago

        Leaving the solar system is less than 1% of the distance to the nearest star.

        The Voyager probes have left the solar system. It took about 30 years for them to do it…

        • @afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
          4•1 year ago

          The Voyager probes didn’t have a nuclear engine. They had a sad little rocket and some gravity assists. Nor were they designed to go as far as they did. The original mandate was only to Juptiet and Saturn.

          In any case nothing is going to happen until the boomers are dead so we can embrace nuclear power and propulsion.

          • Pons_Aelius
            7•1 year ago

            Nuclear thermal engines still need propellent.

            And while they have an ISP about 10 times higher than chemical rockets, they are still basically useless for interstellar distances.

            Simply because the more you accelerate the more you have to break and you have to carry the propellant for both.

            TLDR: the rocket equation is a merciless task master.

              • Pons_Aelius
                5•1 year ago

                No you can’t.

                Any craft that has enough mass for human travel and is accelerated to even 1% of c would need solar sails that are thousands of square Kms in area to have a hope of decelerating.

                That still ends up at a 500+ year trip to Alpha Centauri.

                And that is just more added weight you have to accelerate in the first place.

                TLDR: the rocket equation is a merciless task master.