UFOs and UAPs

Sightings of strange things in the skies are on the rise. You know them as UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) but experts call them UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).

Both UFO and UAP refer to anything in the sky that cannot be immediately identified or explained. These phenomena can come in various shapes and sizes, from shiny discs to peculiar lights. When people witness one of these events, it means they have seen something unusual but haven’t worked out its exact cause.

In the skies

There have been countless UFO sightings throughout history. More than 2,200 years ago, a Roman historian called Titus Livius wrote about “a spectacle of ships” in the sky. In Ireland, medieval annals (historical diaries) describe ships with crews that were seen in the air in AD749. Some people even believe that documents about the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III contain descriptions of “fiery discs”, although others have said this is a hoax.

The first modern sighting of a UFO is usually thought to be by a pilot called Kenneth Arnold, who spotted nine objects flying over the state of Washington, US, in 1947. This sighting introduced the term “flying saucer” and was shared around the world. Soon afterwards, hundreds of other people started reporting similar sightings. Later that year in Roswell, in the US state of New Mexico, a supposed UFO crash sparked stories of alien invaders. Initial reports suggested that a “flying disk” had been recovered, fueling stories of extraterrestrial spacecraft. However, later investigations revealed it was probably a weather balloon.

Scientists take sightings seriously and conduct investigations to understand their true nature. From 1947 until 1969, the US government’s Project Blue Book examined almost 13,000 cases in an effort to separate genuine mysteries from misidentifications. The UK’s Ministry of Defence ran its own UFO investigation team known as the UFO Desk. In its final year, it received nearly 650 reports. Carl Mantell from the Royal Air Force’s Air Command said no UFO sighting reported to the Ministry of Defence “has ever revealed anything to suggest an extraterrestrial presence”.

Down to Earth

Reports of UAPs can vary wildly but evidence of them is often poor quality, like shaky video from mobile phones or grainy photographs taken in low-light. Seth Shostak, an astronomer (space scientist) at the SETI institute (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) says sightings are always at “the edge of what technology allows you to do”, as if these phenomena are teasing the people who see them.

The term “UFO” might make you think of alien spacecraft, but the reality can be less exciting for ET fans. In most cases, sightings turn out to be unusual views of natural or human-made phenomena like stars, clouds, plumes of smoke or ordinary aircraft – but many still remain unexplained.

Even glitches in computer code can lead to UAP experiences. In 2014 and 2015, US Navy pilots spotted strange things on their radar systems (a location system that uses radio waves to work out distances from objects). Leon Golub, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the most likely explanation was “bugs in the code for the imaging and display systems”. They could also have been caused by atmospheric effects (weather). Rain, snow, hail, birds, insects and meteors can all affect radar performance.

In the winter of 1896, thousands of people in the US reported “mysterious airships”. Some thought that inventor Thomas Edison had created the first aeroplane, but a more likely explanation was swarms of fireflies (a type of beetle that can glow green in the dark) that looked like large objects in the sky.

YouFO

As space exploration and alien films have entered popular culture, these reports have skyrocketed, leading to a renewed “UFO fever”. It’s clear that UAPs continue to capture our imagination. Although most sightings have logical explanations, a small number remain unidentified.

The next time you gaze into the sky and see something you can’t explain, it might not be an alien spaceship – but it most certainly is a UAP…

Also

One peculiar visitor in 2017 captured the minds of scientists and astronomers. 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua (say: oh moo-uh moo-uh) was the first confirmed interstellar object to pass through our solar system. Interstellar means it came from outside our solar system.

Shaped like a sausage, its form and tumbling motion sparked questions about where it was from and what it was made of. Some think it could be a fragment from a shattered planet, part of a comet, or, as Professor Avi Loeb from Harvard University thinks, possibly extraterrestrial technology!

Because of the high speed at which it passed by, astronomers didn’t have much time to look at ‘Oumuamua, so it remains unsolved. Scientists continue to analyse data collected during its pass in the quest for answers.

First published in The Week Junior Science+Nature, issue 66, October 2023.