There have been supposed alien sightings for centuries. These observations of “unidentified flying objects,” or UFOs, have periodically surged, such as during the late 1940s and early 1950s as the Cold War began. There have been more sightings since the early 2000s, driven by advances in sensors and cameras that capture images in real time.
Over the last decade, since the work of a shadowy government program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was made public in 2017, there has been growing public pressure on the US government to release its files related to aliens. At the same time, UFOs have been rebranded as Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAP.
Amid the growing public outcry, the Pentagon and other officials have repeatedly stated that they have found no confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial beings or their technology visiting Earth. But we live in an era of conspiracy theories and an unbounded and increasingly unhinged Internet. No one trusts anyone. So there are plenty of people who believe aliens are real and the government is covering it all up.
Trump says open it up
In February, President Trump directed his government to, in his words, “begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”
And on Friday, the Department of Defense (which has renamed itself the Department of War without the required authorization from the US Congress) began releasing those files.
So what’s in there? You can see for yourself here. The short answer is “not much.”
The longer answer is that there are pages and pages of old FBI records, unresolved cases, eyewitness interviews, and the usual grainy, black-and-white images that show dots but nothing remotely conclusive about aliens, alien spaceships, or any alien technology.
In short, there is no truly meaningful evidence here for aliens, alien visitations, alien abductions, or anything like that.
Shocking, we know.
This is not extraordinary evidence
The release doesn’t preclude the possibility that aliens have visited Earth, of course. It’s a massive galaxy, and in recent years, scientists have confirmed that many of the billions of stars in just our Milky Way Galaxy alone have vibrant planetary systems. And there are billions of galaxies. So there are a massive number of worlds out there where life could have evolved and attained sentience and spaceflight capabilities. Perhaps we are alone. Perhaps we live in a “dark forest” universe. We just don’t know.
But we do know that claiming aliens have visited Earth is a major statement. Here, we should remember the words of Carl Sagan: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
The release of files by the US military on Friday is only the beginning. There is more to come. But what we have seen today falls far, far short of extraordinary evidence.
