Are UFOs real? All the recent news making it seem possible

After how 2020 is turning out, it’s not surprising that UFOs are appearing on our apocalypse bingo cards. The Pentagon is releasing information to the public on its UFO findings every six months, beginning with old surveillance footage. 

We guess Storm Area 51 had an influence since UFO information is being made public. It may have begun as a gag last year, but people still showed up. The Pentagon wants to keep us entertained with the question are UFOs real, but is it because they’re real, or is there another cover-up going on? 

Here’s everything we know about UFOs being real so far. 

What’s a UFO? 

A UFO is an unidentified flying object. It could be anything, like a blurry plane, a bird, or a weather balloon that doesn’t show up well on camera. If it doesn’t show up, it is unidentifiable, therefore a UFO. So the question isn’t whether UFOs are real, it’s whether they have anything to do with aliens. 

There are some UFOs that have no explanation whatsoever. It’s not a bird, not a plane, nor is it Superman. Since the postwar era, these UFO sightings have been linked to extraterrestrials. 

When did UFOs start capturing the imagination? 

After Roswell, when a UFO supposedly crash-landed in a small town in New Mexico, aliens rocketed through the cultural zeitgeist (pun intended). Before that, alien landings were still dreamt of. Science fiction pulps wrote of alien species in faraway worlds and authors like HG Wells scared audiences with books like War of the Worlds. 

While the possibility of life outside earth has always fascinated us, the Space Race fueled multiple UFO sightings. Over the years, “are UFOs real” has been a great conversation starter. 

Three leaked videos

It seems like the US Department of Defense answered that question. The Pentagon began releasing its findings with three surveillance videos of UFOs from the last twenty years. They’re short, grainy, black and white clips of unidentified objects flying past aircraft. The most prominent one looks like a flying saucer. 

Not only did they show the public these videos, but released a statement saying they were vehicles that were crafted “off-world.” Meaning, these UFOs are confirmed to be out of this world. 

Where were they filmed? 

The first UFO sighting released by The Pentagon was taken off the California coast in 2004. It’s a black, blurry shape on the camera, and the person who recorded it said it didn’t act like anything from earth. In 2015, pilots filmed an oval shape flying against the wind off the East Coast of the U.S. The third flew over the ocean. 

While this UFO footage was leaked before, the U.S. government neither confirmed nor denied they were UFOs until now. The Pentagon also released information about a task force, and plans to reveal more about UFOs to the public. 

Why is the Dept. of Defense saying something now? 

The U.S. Dept. of Defense released a statement explaining why they released the footage. “We wanted to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage was real … The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain classified as unidentified.” 

We think that since we’re living in the digital age, leaked UFO footage will become the norm. Sooner or later, the U.S. government will have to say something about their encounters with UFOs or too much information will leak to the public. 

The Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force

It’s apparently a new unit, responsible for collecting and reporting data on UFOs. This task force will gather data about UFOs and report it to the public every six months. To make it even more o0fficial, they’re axing the name UFO. 

Instead, UFOs are called UAVs, or unexplained aerial vehicles. They’re also called UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena. We think the name sounds more like what our sunscreen is trying to protect us from than a cool flying saucer. 

Are all UFOs real? 

Information was released a few years ago on Roswell. While it wasn’t a UFO or aliens, the “spacecraft” at Roswell was a secret U.S. project that had to do with The Cold War. The U.S. was testing weather balloons over Roswell that could detect Soviet aircraft. 

Astronauts who have been to space think these new UFO videos are similar: a classified U.S. military project that has nothing to do with aliens. Former NASA astronaut & USS commander Leroy Chiao believes the UFO announcement was a distraction from top-secret military projects, which is what he thinks the UFO videos show.