Are aliens real? Pentagon’s newly released UFO files suggest the truth is out there
So, how are we feeling about aliens these days? Real or not real? Maybe you want to believe in them, but would like some more evidence. Or maybe you don’t believe at all.
Well, your stance might change after you read this.
The Defense Department just released a batch of previously confidential files detailing unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP’s.
The department worked with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI to release the records, calling it an “unprecedented, historic undertaking.”
Why now?
In March, President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon and other departments to identify and release files related to alien and extraterrestrial life. He announced the order shortly after former President Barack Obama fielded questions — somewhat jokingly — about aliens on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama said, adding that they’re not being kept in Area 51, “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president.”
He elaborated a few days later after a clip from the podcast went viral.
The universe is vast, he wrote on Instagram, so life elsewhere is plausible. But, he insisted, “I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
That’s when Trump jumped into the conversation. He claimed Obama had shared classified information by discussing aliens and said he would get the former president “out of trouble” by declassifying files.
So what did the department actually share?
Now, the fun part. The department released hundreds of PDFs, detailing all sorts of UAP accounts dating back at least to the 1940s.
The Defense Department said all of Friday’s files are materials from unresolved cases, “meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena.”
One file includes paperwork from a 1947 FBI investigation into a flying disc spotted outside Chicago. It notes an 18-year-old woman reported seeing a disc flying over Lake Michigan at around 3:30 a.m.
Other files detail individuals across the country claiming to see strange lights, floating devices and other weird phenomena. In New Mexico in 1948, the Air Force recorded numerous instances of aerial phenomena, including green fireballs, discs in the sky, meteors and more.
“Since 1948, approximately 150 observations of aerial phenomena referred to above have been recorded in the vicinity of installations in New Mexico,” the files read.
In addition to files, the department shared something even more fun for those of us interested in all things extra-terrestrial: photos.
Some show weird black spots in the sky, and some are a little harder to make out. But the fact that the government hasn’t been able to identify these things is rather… spooky.
“Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people,” the department said Friday. But the age-old question remains. Aliens: are they real or not?
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
