Was that flash of light a UFO?

Subscribe for your daily dose of unconventional business news 🚀

Please provide a valid email address.

On Tuesday, the House Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation Subcommittee held a congressional hearing on UFOs — which, BTW, are now known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).

Was that flash of light a UFO?

It was the first public hearing on the subject in 50+ years, per NPR, but cool your jets, Mulder. No evidence of aliens has been found (yet), according to Scott W. Bray, deputy director of Naval intelligence — though some incidents do remain unexplained.

Officials promised to declassify more information moving forward — like this video captured by a US Navy pilot — and revealed that the government’s UAP database contains ~400 reports dating back to 2004. Most of those are from military personnel.

But let’s say…

… you want as many reports as you can fit in your basement full of filing cabinets. That, my friends, is a job for the National UFO Reporting Center.

Its database contains over 138k+ reports and counting, most from the US and Canada during the 21st and 20th centuries (though there are a few outliers, like this clipping from an 18th-century London newspaper.)

Accounts are organized by date, state, and, oddly, shape. It turns out a majority of people saw a mysterious light in the sky, far more so than people who spotted a disc.

“Cigar” is a more popular shape than you’d think and includes things like Oumuamua, a mysterious object spotted in 2017. Scientists still don’t know what it was, but did conclude it was not aliens. Sounds like the truth is still out there.

BTW: Thanks to the Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study organization, you can listen to reports made by phone from 1974 to 1977 online.

Topics:

Space

Related Articles

Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop. Always free. 100% fresh. No bullsh*t.

Please provide a valid email address.

We're committed to your privacy. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information, check out our privacy policy.

This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.