Are unidentified flying objects aliens?

All UFO sightings are explicable by natural or human phenomena. If aliens existed they would have provided proof of their existence by now.

No, there are no alien spacecraft visiting Earth. It has not been proven that spacecraft can reach the speed of light and since the universe is expanding, it makes other planetary systems even more impossible to reach, even if we knew of planets that were compatible with any kind of life, much less technologically very advanced life.

There are many obstacles to space travel - killing radiation and heat/cold in space - plus the need for food, water, and any other materials that would be necessary to sustain life for many years. Humans who spend time in space have well-documented physical damage, including from weightlessness, so other creatures who visit outer space would presumably have the same or similar challenges. Since space travel could take generations, the knowledge to repair the spacecraft, plus the materials needed to do so, as well as medical and dental care, plus other specialists would be necessary - for example, to repair torn spacesuits so another specialist could go outside to repair damage in the spacecraft. One failure, like a small hole from a rock in space, could end the voyage.

How could such a weighty spacecraft even lift off of any planet or achieve the speed of light? And can any species survive a spacecraft moving at the speed of light? The practicalities are many, not just for earthlings.

Perhaps television shows and movies, like Star Trek and Star Wars, have made space travel look easy, but these media are fictional, encouraging magical thinking. There is some other explanation, if what spectators have seen is real.

What is important is not whether people regard UFOs as alien life or not. What is important is why they go one way or the other. If people simply "believe"one side or the other then we have a problem. If they are basing their beliefs on analysis of genuine data and have checked the validity of that data then that is fine and we are making progress. If their logic is valid and not simply "Belief" then both arguments are good.

It seems the folks reporting a UFO describe many different objects. To me that is informative data that some or even all of them are not from another planet. Unless they're all from different planets. That's an interesting idea.

Actually I have a long standing question I've never seen discussed: given the # of light years even the closest planet is how long ago was that and at that time in earths history what was the state of our civilization? Are we assuming they have FTL and/or knowledge of relevant wormholes? That's it. Thanks

Lifetimes are limited (death and taxes) but interstellar distances are virtually unlimited. It took 9.5 years for New Horizons to reach Pluto. It would take the New Horizons spacecraft roughly 78,000 to 80,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri at its current speed. There is no way for aliens from any nearby star to get to Earth. So UAPs are definitely not interstellar aliens.

No aliens have visited Earth and none are ever likely to do so. Thinking that aliens are piloting UFOs is like saying that all unsolved murders in New York were committed by robots!

The chances that intelligent life capable of interstellar space travel has emerged elsewhere in our galaxy is vanishingly small and harnising the energy necessary to get here is equally small

George Cassiday

Emeritus Prof of physics

U of Utah n

Back in the 1970s I was married to a man with strong science credentials similar to mine. Degrees in chemistry, math, and physics. We had a small 2-story farm, so we were collecting hay bales one night after dark.

Suddenly, our horses and goats began running around next to the south field fence, looking at the sky, obviously distressed. Our stallion was a really steady sort, and he was most distressed of them all.

We looked where they were looking and saw a huge dark cigar-shaped object about 700 feet up that had round colored lights at its middle. There was a top shaped like a flat-bottomed bowl. No lights. It hovered for some time, completely silent. We figured later it was over 500 feet across and about 170 feet overall height.

This was no hologram. Our neighbors were all adults, all farmers, and the terrain did not allow for people to park along the roads.

We took the tractor and bale wagon to the barn, the horses and goats following. They kept checking on the thing in the sky. A total of about 70 nonhuman and not foolable witnesses.

My man and I got in his car - a 1962 Buick convertible with a 5.7 L engine in excellent shape - and drove out to see if we could get more information. The thing played with us. It made no sound. It moved horizontally then a precise right angle vertical rise at great speed. It raced away then returned. It hovered over us about 500 feet up. And so on for almost an hour. We chased it on hairpin-curve roads at speeds up to 90 mph. Suddenly the car's electrical shut off completely. No engine, no lights. He hit the brakes of course. He was really scared. I, being spiritually gifted, was not, and figuring there was nothing to lose, spoke to it. I pointed out that we all knew we were no threat to it and it's operators; that we were merely curious. I said I figured they had gotten whatever information they wanted, so we'd appreciate it if they turn the car back on.

The engine did not start up; it was suddenly running and the lights were on as if the systems had never been off.

The UFO left, incredibly fast. My man turned the car around at the first access we came to, and we went home.

Our animals checked us, and the car (!), over. Lots of smelling and snorting. Our stallion checked us over in infinite detail to be sure we were ok. No Dr Doolittles, you know.. and horses are not stupid and neither are goats.

Neither my man nor I have ever used drugs or been drinkers. Our scientific credentials are solid.

Official investigations of UFO sightings have resolved 97 percent of them as ordinary phenomena. This alone is suggestive. The claim that some of the remaining 3 percent are alien creatures somewhat like ourselves visiting the Earth is not credible, because to be true would require outrageous amounts of coincidence. They would have to learned of us within the time we started broadcasting and then left their home world, meaning they must live in our galactic neighborhood, but having come all this way not want to communicate generally or hide completely? Absurd.

On the other hand, self-reproducing robotic probes could certainly have reached our solar system from anywhere in the galaxy, and it's possible that we are encountering them -- though if we are, there's no clear evidence of them.

It depends partly what you consider natural phenomena. A philosophical point, but it's anthrocentric to privilege what we think of as will or awareness or life.

There has been enough persistent and consistent reporting of similar anomaly for nearly a century now from both reputable and layman sources that the question of "Are there uap?" has an undeniable answer of "yes". What they are is a difficult question. Atmospheric, geologic, human, all likely explain the vast majority of sightings. But with such a volume and some of the observed characteristics, I lean towards there being something weirder going on as well.

Is it interstellar travel? Maybe. As consensus holds, that is extremely difficult, and ftl may be impossible (though I prefer to be optimistic). Occams razor would seem to shave away transtemporal or interdimensional explanations just in my opinion, as we don't yet observe anything like that. But we see virtually unlimited stars in just this galaxy, so interstellar would be most likely if it were some other life. Humans 5k years ago couldn't fathom what we can do today, so who's to say what is actually possible in another 5k years, or 5 million if we are still around and building new things. It seems like hubris to assume that because we don't know how or don't think something is possible, that that actually means it is impossible.

To comment on why another intelligent "species" would bother watching Earth, well why not? If you were capable of travelling great distances in whatever sense, why wouldn't you want to observe the progress of other life? Why does one make a trip to the grand canyon except out of an unexplainable interest for the sake of experience? And to comment on why something would play peekaboo with humans, well you can speculate forever. When we study something in its natural environment, we usually prefer to disturb it the least we can. But also, if seeing if something is intelligent, a limited interaction would be useful, maybe hence sometimes visible and showing itself but not being too overt.

None of this is to say that I believe it most likely is alien in any sense of the word. I only mean that we should stay humble and open to the possibilities when something appears to be greater than what we can imagine real at present. Some things may not be in a category we even have.

Given that it would be difficult to exceed the speed of light, it seems that if aliens were intent on visiting us they would be using some other method than spacecraft.

Good day!

In my opinion, it's simpler.

There is material evidence that there have been several civilizations on Earth.

"UFOs" could be technical devices that are technical evidence of a previous civilization.

Just think about how much of an advantage a civilization that developed 12-20 thousand years ago could have in terms of technology and knowledge compared to ours.

There have been many major extinctions during the 8 billion years of the Earth.

There are several objects among archaeological finds that show dinosaurs and humans together.

However, dinosaurs lived on Earth 50 million years ago.

But let's not look so far ahead, there is erosion caused by sea water on the foot of the Sphinx.

There was a sea in that region of Egypt 25,000 years ago.

But let's not go that far.

There is Göbekli Tepe, and Karahan Tepe which was proven to have been built 12,000 years ago.

At that time, there was no such organized crowd that could have done such a large job, they could have built it with food supply, organization and planning.

And this explanation also proves that aliens do not need to travel light years to observe us.

It is enough to build a base in the solar system, which is not such a serious technical problem at that technological level.

So I think our ancestors are visiting and studying us because they are curious, and their own memories have already worn out.

But it is also possible that they are watching us so that they can intervene so that we do not destroy them along with ourselves.

Think about it, this could also be an explanation, and it even has a basis.

Natural phenomenon. Why would any species with the technology to actually get here, want to.come here???

Wish the aliens would get here already before we destroy our beautiful planet that they have spent so much time manipulating.

We have no indisputable physical evidence, so I cannot believe in alien visitation until there is. Carl Jung proposed that peoples’ minds are projecting archetypes in the sky in response to uncertain times and accelerated social and technological change. We have a deep existential dread of being “alone” as an intelligent species. Belief in UFOs is indistinguishable from religion (at this time). That said, I want to believe, but my rational mind says I must wait for proof.

For me I was always open to UAP, but never had been an experiencer and had no ‘proof’. After retirement I started to watch Skinwalker Ranch, which lead me to read books, watch podcasts and listen to interviews especially Ross Coulthart on NewsNation. I’m now a believer and gone through a bit of ontological shock. Of course not all cases are legit, however Colares, African school children, Varginia/Brazil convinced me. There is too much associated information, too many experiencers… So many 20th century discoveries, kevlar, fiber optics, space travel and the numerous UAP/USO observables, abductions >NHI. Maybe they are extraterrestrials, extratempestrials, interdimensionals??? We have much to learn!! I dont think they necessarily have our best interests, but they haven't taken us out so far. Like with AI our future is unfolding now… I prefer knowing the truth asap

If aliens are so smart and resourceful that they can reach our planet, for me it is hard to imagine they choose not to communicate, attack, eat, or whatever they feel like. In addition, our sight and other sensory systems are notoriously erratic and unreliable.

Although the question of what UFOs are remains unanswered, we need more smoking- gun evidences to conclude it’s alien.

An alien society with the technology to cross interstellar distances surely has better things to do with its time and resources than playing peek-a-boo with Earthlings.

For most of my life I always thought that humans may be the only intelligent beings in the universe because we see no evidence of alien civilizations and the path to intelligence requires a very rare and improbable chain of evolutionary events. However, I did experience an encounter with a UFO that was eerie, uncanny and totally unexplainable by any possible atmospheric condition, atmospheric occurrence or known flying object.

They are ours and theirs..

Natural phenomena. As children, we called them “ginkies” or more completely, “ginkies from outer space”.

No way! First life that evolve to advanced space traveling levels are without doubt extremely rare. Second interstellar travel must be extremely dificult and propably non existent

I suspect the UFOs are not from this universe since their behavior is sometimes inconsistent with our laws of physics.

High concentrations of sightings showed aliens were looking and studying English speaking areas.

I actually saw an unexplained flying object way back in 1972. I was in a car with 4 other people. As we drove by a field we saw this large object hovering above a strand of trees. It had a ring of large rectangular lights on the rim. There was also a single light on top illuminating the clouds directly above. It was eerily silent. We stopped the car and all 5 of us ran toward it. Then it quietly went straight up into the clouds. We knew it wasn't a helicopter because of its shape and lack of sound. We were astounded. When we got back to the house some of us drew a picture of what we saw and they matched, as did our recountings of what we saw. The next day I called the police and asked if anyone else had reported something similar in the area and they said no. What was it? I don't know but I now believe that "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."