02x06 - Citizen Scientists Tackle the Phenomenon

[bunniefuu]

-Do you believe that
our government is in

possession of UAPs?

-Absolutely, based on
interviewing over 40 witnesses

over 4 years.

-It had no visible wings
or any kind of engines...

-The United States government
has gathered a great deal of

information about UAPs
over many decades but has

refused to share it
with the American people.

[Bill Nelson] So, we
don't know what it is.

But it's something.

-The U.S. Navy has
finally acknowledged that

videos appearing
to show UFOS flying through

the air are real.

-We've seen testimony
from pilots.

We've seen the videos.

We've heard from the witnesses
that there is more to this.

-I think people who
had the experiences and

seen things like I've seen,

they're an integral part
of this entire phenomenon.

-As I first saw it,
it came into view,

glinting off the horizon.

-We’re gonna get to the
bottom of it dadgummit,

whatever the truth may be.

-But more and more
researchers believe that we

won't get to the
bottom of anything by

waiting for the
government's help.

-It's an intelligence
failure to not collect

the data and
not believe it.

-I know how the
government works.

They're not being fully
open and transparent.

An object is seen to
go into the water.

How about releasing that
video that was leaked?

-We've made a lot
of progress but we're

not there yet.

If we've learned anything
over the last 70 years,

it's that scientific study of
this phenomena will continue

whether the government
wants it to or not.

-We're seeing these
independent scientific groups,

that's where the action is.

And they're willing to
dive into this subject and

really try to get
some measurements.

-If we can gather enough
information and data from these

phenomena we might
be able to explain what

that technology is.

-Any life, happening
anywhere else,

would be the most
revolutionary discovery

in the history of humanity.

[♪ theme music playing]

-We get reports every night.

-I don't know
what the hell it is.

-Rotating right around it.

[♪ theme music playing]

-I was flying home
from Myrtle Beach

going into LaGuardia.

I was coming back
from a cheer competition

with my daughter.

It was just pretty outside.

It was such a
beautiful day out.

It was about 2:30.

I was looking at the bridge,

so I'm like,
let's just take some videos.

And then I noticed this
object going past really fast.

What is this?

That was really
close to the plane.

I was honestly like alarmed
with how close it was,

because what if that
did hit the plane?

When I got home that night,

I looked back at the
video and I just really

wanted to know
what the object was.

When I first saw it,

I thought maybe
a drone, possibly.

But it was so fast and
so close to the plane,

that I'm like, there's
no way it could be a drone.

My dad was in the
Navy and when he saw it,

he didn't know
what it was either.

He thought someone
should be aware of it

in case it's a
safety hazard.

He really encouraged
me to send it to the FAA.

So that’s what I did.

And they haven't
responded to me.

But I’m not this person that
goes down this rabbit hole of

UFOs and trying to
decipher what things are.

All I wanted was like an
answer to what it could be.

I honestly don't know
what it is til this day.

-What are we seeing up there?

I don't think there's going
to be a singular answer.

But I am proceeding as if
no one is going to tell us

anything and that we have
to get our answers ourself.

I think that is the
best path to lead us to real

answers in the future.

-If we really wanna
solve the UAP problem,

we need new data collected by

scientists working
independently.

And as scientists,

we are in a
different position today.

The technology to develop
your own independent UAP

search is available to
anyone and it's affordable...

...makes this now
in the domain of the

"everyman scientist"
and not purely in the

domain of government.

-This is the essence of science.
We have a question.

We need to go out and find
the answer to that question,

and we have the
instrument to do it.

-Oh my god.
It's coming at us, dude.

[Mitch Randall] For many years,

there was no good
data on tornadoes.

But we had an issue in
how to predict where these

storms were going to be,

so in the nineties,
we had an idea,

why don't we take our
radar to the tornado?

We were at the point
where we could miniaturize

the equipment and it
all fit into a truck,

and we could drive that to

these rare weather events
and get right in there and

get the data.

So that's where the
idea of these storm-chasing

trucks came, and
I was involved in that.

I'm Mitch Randall.

I'm an engineer and a physicist.

I've been interested in the
UFO subject for decades.

I got involved with
the Galileo Project,

which is a group of
scientists who wanted to

do an investigation of UAP.

I knew the ideal tool
for it would be radar.

Radar is a really ideal
instrument for detecting

objects in the atmosphere
at great distances.

It can measure,

quantitatively, the
position and velocity of

objects in space.

So over the decades,

people have
reported UFOs that make

these kind of crazy
motions like that.

And so that's what we're
looking for because airplanes

don't do that.

[Jacob Haqq Misra]
Mitch Randall has developed a

passive radar approach
to looking for UAP.

You're just looking
for signals that might be

emanating from the object,

and based on that,

you can determine
if there's something

anomalous going on.

[Mitch Randall] This is
a passive radar receiver.

So this antenna picks up
echoes that come off objects

in the sky,

and that signal that
they're getting is coming from

an FM transmitter that's


So suppose it's anytime,
day or night,

and a UFO flies somewhere
over in that area,

the signal from the FM
transmitter will echo off of

the UFO and come here and
get received by this antenna.

And then we'll be able
to see where that is,

see what kind of
velocity change it had,

and be able to track it.

Right now, I just
have one proof of concept,

but my vision is to
see thousands of them all

over the country.

If you're sitting in one place,

the chances of you
seeing a UAP is maybe

not so big.

So we need some kind of like
nationwide network that,

if an event occurs,

we got some instruments
there to take that data.

The idea is that citizens would
purchase a consumer product,

which they could easily
operate and plug in just like

they plug in a
printer and become part of

a big mesh network
over the whole

continental United States.

And then this data from
each one of these receivers

would be combined in a
server that would figure out

the position of the
objects being detected.

And then that would be
served to the community.

[Jacob Haqq Misra] You can
use machine learning algorithms

to sift through the
mountains of data you're gonna

collect with these.

And so really,

you're looking at
the sky all the time,

identifying all the
things that are there and

see what's left over.

[Mitch Randall] I think this
will answer such an important

question we’ve been asking
for years and years and years.

I don’t know of any
other scientific question

that has so little data,
and is so profound.

[Leslie Kean] We don't
know where they're from,

why they're here,
who they are,

but they need to be studied.

We need to find out.

-The events being
observed are real,

there's something
behind it that's beyond

our technology development.

I'm Hal Puthoff.

I'm a quantum physicist,

PhD from
Stanford University.

I set up EarthTech
International and

the Institute for Advanced
Studies in Austin.

UFOs have been a topic
that's kind of been off-limits

and fringy and a lot of
stigma associated with it.

I mean, there are still
a lot of physicists who

think that most of
the things that get, uh,

reported are nonsense or
misidentifications and so on.

But nonetheless, over
time we've been developing

better and better sensors.

So the stigma has
reduced quite a bit,

due to this increase,

I would say, in
scientific data collection.

So the general phrase is
that two kinds of people...

...people who don't look
into it and know it's nonsense,

and people who do look
into it and know it's real.

-If you're seeing something
in the sky with your eyes,

what if you can also actually
measure it through a piece of

equipment that's not your eyes?

So, now you have a recording
device that can accurately

determine what that
object is and give you much

more solid information.

I was a mechanical
engineer for almost 25 years.

When I transitioned into
an area of fringe science,

I was very fortunate to
land an internship at the

Institute for Advanced Studies

in Austin under
Dr. Hal Puthoff.

Part of what I did was
researching medical effects on

people spotting UFOs.

So we designed sensors
that specifically looked

for radiation present
when UAPs were there.

And then we also noticed
other things were happening.

-Jim Segala has developed
a sensor suite to measure

radioactivity in the vicinity
where there are eyewitness

reports of UAP sightings.

-I have been studying
the case of a resident in

New Hampshire who has been
seeing UFOs behind his house

for the past two years.

These are the
videos he recorded.

And you can see here where
it starts splitting off.

Now there's three
objects where it started off

as one object.

This is the original video
that piqued his interest.

So he mounted a trail
camera where he suspected

that these objects
were happening.

And one of the videos
is quite revealing.

The actual objects
ended up appearing right

where those trees were.

And then he eliminated the
possibility that it could be

just a natural phenomena
or a human-made phenomena,

like airplanes, satellites,
stars, drones and

things like that.

I suggested to this person
that we need to understand

what's going on
in the environment,

so we put a piece of
equipment there that would look

at all sorts of
different signals.

-So this device was designed
specifically to identify the

signals present when UFOs
fly by a particular area.

I put together as many possible
signal sensors as I could.

One being a high-level
camera that’s capable of

capturing visual and also
infrared spectrums.

Then at the same time,

I can look for these
electromagnetic signals

that come off of these UFOs.

All of those sensors
are mounted and they go

to this computer here,

which then sends all
that information over WiFi,

up to the cloud,

where you can view
them and you can run it through

any kind of models
and things like that.

-We put my device pretty
close to his house.

And there was a big spike
in some of the sensors that

indicated something was
in the environment that was

making a lot of
electro-magnetic noise.

One example is,

you have the magnetic
vector getting hit.

Now the magnetic vector
is the gravity.

It’s very difficult to do that.

You’d have to have some
very very massive object,

like a moon or something
like that to create this

kind of spike.

And it also happens with
the Gyroscope sensor which

is the indication
that these objects

were twisting around.

Those are just two examples.

The equipment collects
data all day long.

I have algorithms that
are looking at this.

And what this is allowing
me to do is understand a

pattern as these
anomalous events unfold.

So every time this
individual sees a UFO it is

followed with some changes
in the environmental signals.

Now I can see a correlation
which gives me the ability to

start predicting
some of these things.

[Leslie Kean] It's exciting
that these independent people

are coming on board because
they have a certain freedom to

explore and develop
their own particular approach

to studying this
UFO phenomenon.

But we're still left to wonder,
what clues have already been

gathered by the one
group that has been studying

UFOs since the beginning?

-The fundamental question
is whether the US government

has at its possession
materials or information.

If they do, I really wish
that they would share it with

scientists like myself because
the sky is not classified.

Our oceans are not classified.

If we do have a neighbor,

we'll have to find it ourselves.

-One of the very positive
impacts of the last few years,

involving the
government and UAP,

is that it has also made
the issue more palatable for

the academic community
and the scientific community.

But the scientific
community needs scientific data

to do serious work.

And the government
could be and should be

sharing more information

in its possession
to facilitate that.

-The government has a
legitimate interest in

protecting some
classified information.

It has an interest in
protecting the sources and

methods they use for
collecting intelligence.

I'm a journalist.

I don't want people
knowing my sources.

It's also the case that the
intelligence community in

particular often overstates
the risk to exposing sources and

methods that would come
from being more transparent

about any number of
topics with the public.

The government classifies
way too much information.

-Congress has wanted the
UAP subject investigated

to make sure that UAPs are not
a threat to national security.

And that's why the All Domain
Anomaly Resolution Office was

created in July of 2022.

[Shane Harris] AARO is a
government organization whose

job is to take all of the
information that the government

is collecting on UAPs and try
and figure out what it is.

[Robert Powell] AARO was
supposed to look at the history

of the UAP subject
from approximately 1945 up

until the modern period.

They were also supposed
to look at any data that

has been hidden.

-February 2024,

AARO comes out with
what I think is one of the

most important documents
that the government has issued

about UFOs and
UAPs in decades.

[anchor] And we have
breaking news now,

a Pentagon
review of decades of

government investigations
into UFO sightings has

found no evidence
any of those sightings

were extraterrestrial.

[reporter] They found no
evidence to suggest that the

United States government
or industry possesses

any alien technology.

[Robert Powell] The AARO
report was missing some of

the most important
sightings of the 21st century.

The November 14th,


one of the most difficult
cases to explain.

The same thing with the
Gimbal incidents from the 2015

and 16 cases.

[Shane Harris] The big
things that stood out to me

about the report was one,
how emphatic it was,

which was to say no evidence
that this is extraterrestrial,

which was a pretty
declarative statement.

I will say that the report
didn't read as much like

government reports that
I'm used to seeing.

It was a bit more
casually written.

And it didn't have tons and
tons and tons of footnotes.

It wasn't a terribly
long report.

[Robert Powell] AARO makes
the point that the conclusions

are always the same.

That Project Blue Book,

the Robertson Panel of 1953,

and that the
Condon Report of 1968,

all of these concluded
that there was no evidence

of extraterrestrial
intelligence.

And that's the main
point that AARO's making.

-The bottom line takeaway was,
"Nothing to see here."

But that flies in the face of
very interesting comments from

the former director
of that office.

-A very small percentage of
UAP reports display signatures

that could reasonably be
described as anomalous.

This is a spherical orb,

metallic, in
the Middle East,



This is a typical
example of the thing that

we see most of.

We see these all over
the world and we see

these making very interesting,
apparent maneuvers.

This one in particular,
however, I would point out,

demonstrated no enigmatic
technical capabilities and was

no threat to airborne safety.

While we are still
looking at it,

I don’t have any more
data other than that.

-They literally said, we
have these spheres moving

through our w*r theaters,
what metal ball do you know

that flies around?

I don't know of any.

So that could pretty easily
fall under the umbrella term of

a non-human intelligence.

[Robert Powell] In science,
before you can make that

statement that there is no
evidence of extraterrestrial

intelligence, you
have to define,

what is the evidence we're
looking for to determine

whether or not we've seen
extraterrestrial intelligence.

[Garry Nolan] If you’re
going to give a conclusion,

where is your data and
what are your methods?

[Robert Powell] Science
operates in the open.

We are never going to
get an answer until we

work with science and
not the intelligence or

military groups on
the UAP subject.

-As a scientist, I don't
need their permission to know

what I know.

I don't need their
permission to collect data.

We should stop waiting for
daddy government to make the

decision for us.

[Elizabeth Vargas] Avi Loeb
is a Harvard theoretical

astrophysicist and
professor of science.

[Chris Cuomo] Professor Loeb
has just come back from a trip

that he says has advanced
our understanding.

Doc, good to see ya.
What did you find?

-Well, I found that
it’s easier to recover the

truth about interstellar
space from the bottom of the

Pacific Ocean than
it is from government.

[Jacob Haqq Misra] Avi Loeb
and his collaborators went on an

expedition in the Pacific,
near Papua New Guinea,

where they thought that an

interstellar meteor crashed
down into the ocean.

-In 2014, the US government
satellites reported about an

object that collided with Earth.

Roughly a meter in size,

it originated from
outside the solar system,

and it was unusual
in that it was moving faster

than the speed
necessary to escape

from the solar systems,

so in other words,
that meant that it's

interstellar in origin.

[Jacob Haqq Misra] Serendipity,
you know, anomalies,

these are the kinds
of ways that we stumble

upon new discoveries
in science.

Even if you're looking
for something, uh,

you might find something
a lot weirder than

you thought you
were gonna find.

[Avi Loeb] So I decided
to lead an expedition to

the Pacific Ocean
to collect materials.

-Avi's expedition
off Papua New Guinea was

really exciting
because he was going after

the debris of the first-ever
observed interstellar meteor.

[Avi Loeb] When meteors
explode as a result of their

friction on air,

the fireball generated
releases so much heat that it

melts their surface,
creating spherules.

Spherules are molten droplets
from the surfaces of meteors.

In the case of the
interstellar meteor,

the amount of energy released
was a few percent of the

Hiroshima atomic b*mb energy,

and so we expected to
find some spherules on

the ocean floor.

The Department of Defense
localized the meteor impact site

to within seven miles.

[Tim Galludet] I’m an
oceanographer and I reached out

to Avi and he
welcomed me aboard.

I helped him determine how
far those fragments drifted

through the atmosphere
down to the sea surface.

I also gave him oceanographic
information to help him

determine how far the
materials drifted from the sea

surface to the sea floor.

[Avi Loeb] We built a sled
designed by engineers that has

magnets on both sides that
we placed on the ocean floor

and was able to collect
magnetic particles leftover

from the
expl*si*n of the meteor.

-Avi brought this
back and had several of his

collaborators analyze this,

and they found that
there are chemical anomalies

in some of these spherules
that they claim is different

from solar
system composition.

[Avi Loeb] And the
composition appears to be

different than anything
that humans produce.

But it's also different
from asteroids,

from rocks that
previously were analyzed.

And so that raised the
possibility that it may be

artificial in origin,

technological, a spacecraft.

[musical vocalizations]

-Avi Loeb and his
collaborators went on an

expedition where
they thought that an

interstellar meteor
crashed down into the ocean.

What they found were
spherules, very,

very tiny particles that
are from a meteorite.

-We had to examine whether
the relative abundances of

elements matches the
pattern that one finds

in meteorites from the solar
system or the Earth crust

or the moon or Mars.

And indeed we
find that 10% of them,

out of the 850 spherules
that we retrieved,

appear to have a composition
that was never reported before

based on meteorites
from the solar system.

It's the first time that humans
put their hands on materials

from a big object
that originated beyond

the solar system.

-The general consensus was
that it was a meteorite,

but Avi Loeb speculated
that it could potentially be

some kind of
extraterrestrial technology

[Avi Loeb] It had
material strength that was

tougher than iron.

And so that raised the
possibility that it may be

artificial in origin,
technological, a spacecraft.

-There was a lot of
pushback about Avi Loeb's claim.

[Leslie Kean] Even though
it was just an hypothesis,

it's just like people couldn't
handle the possibility that

that would be the case.

[Jacob Haqq Misra]
But to be honest,

this is how science works.

I don't even think
this is a bad thing.

If you're going to make
an extraordinary claim,

that is what a scientist
should expect is to have

a lot of pushback.

-Scientists are terrible
to each other because we

hold each other to
such high standards.

Because that’s how
science makes progress.

-I think altogether,

the criticism was not warranted,
because in fact,

we did find materials
of an unusual composition

that we believe originated
from an interstellar meteor.

As to the question of whether
it was natural or artificial,

the verdict will come from
the bigger pieces that we find.

If we find bigger pieces,

it's easy to tell the
difference between a

rock and a technological
gadget because a gadget may

have buttons on it,
for example.

And then the question
would be whether we should

press a button.

-I think if you're really
interested in looking for life

in the universe,

the right place to look is
where the life comes from,

which is going to
be alien planets.

-There are hundreds of
billions of planets in existence

in just this galaxy alone.

Wouldn’t it be possible that
some of those planets have

developed life to possibly
as high as ours is,

and maybe even beyond?

[Jacob Haqq Misra]
I'm an astrobiologist.

I think about life
in the universe.

One possibility is
to look far away,

to look at other
planets orbiting other

star systems, exoplanets.

[Adam Frank]
Scientists, including myself,

are studying the
atmospheres of alien worlds

looking for things
like biosignatures

and technosignatures.

Biosignatures are things that
a biosphere produces, right?

So the best example is oxygen.

If you saw oxygen in
a planet's atmosphere,

especially oxygen and
methane at the same time,

that would be a pretty
clear indication that there

was a biosphere there,

that there was life
that was pushing that

oxygen and methane out
into the atmosphere.

And then there's
technosignatures,

which would be the signatures
of technology on a planet.

[Jacob Haqq Misra] It
could be a satellite belt

around a planet.

It could be pollution in
the planet's atmosphere.

It could be radio waves
directed toward Earth.

But we also can think
about the possibility that

life on an exoplanet,

might send life or
technology elsewhere

in the galaxy.

We have done this ourselves.

So we have to then ask
ourselves if there's

extraterrestrial life out
there and they're interested in

looking for other life, they
would notice life on earth.

And they could
theoretically do that too.

-But planets are far away.

The distances between
the stars is psychotic.

So if we're going
to think about how to

get between the stars,
what are the options?

Einstein's theory of relativity
tells us that space-time

itself is malleable.

What you're doing is you're
bending space-time, right?

So if there's two points
are very far away,

you kind of bring those
two points together,

jump off and then
unfold, fold space,

and then unfold it.

-Just to try to make
this more physical,

you see a UFO coming
along and then it suddenly

does a right-angle turn.

And people on the
ground observing this,

they'll say, "Oh my God,"
you know.

"If there's anybody
inside that craft,

they're gonna be
squished like tomato sauce."

However, since space
and time have been

re-engineered and
manipulated in that situation,

time can be
running much faster.

And so the people inside
the spacecraft are looking

out the window,

and so they just take
a nice leisurely turn.

-There's also the
idea of wormholes that

maybe nature creates
these shortcuts between stars.

That's an exciting idea.

-It isn't that it's necessarily
beyond our physics.

It's certainly beyond
our engineering.

But an advanced civilization
may have figured a workaround.

[Leslie Kean] It's very
important to be open to looking

at all possible explanations
for the UFO phenomenon

because they all are
gonna point us towards what the

ultimate nature of
the phenomenon is and

what it actually means.

[Adam Frank] One possibility
that people talk about

a lot is that, you know,

you can just
give up on biology and

that anything we meet,
anything that's traveling

between the stars is actually
artificial intelligence,

that it's basically machines.

-I think the idea that they’re
all drones is one people are

comfortable with because
they don't have to go to

the next step of
actually saying,

“Okay, wow, there
are so-called aliens.”

Also, I’ll say existentially,

we have to be open to the
idea that we might be dealing

with something that we
would describe as very,

very inhuman in that
it wouldn't be evolved.

It might be
something described as more

machinic or non-organic.

It would be very dicey
for us to interact with it.

-How is it that we've arrived
at where we are and still

can't specifically say,
where does it come from?

Who's behind it?

So I took that on as a
challenge to say, oh,

maybe the problem is that we've
narrowed our scope too much.

So, maybe there's
some group that's,

uh, hidden out on,
on the planet with

these advanced technologies.

[Jeffrey Kripal] If we believe
that our reality is the story.

That the story we're
in is in fact the way the

world really is.

And when something
doesn't make sense,

that means that you're being
pushed outside of your story.

The UFO phenomenon is
trying to make us more aware

that the story you're
in is actually not true,

that there's another kind of
presence or another kind of

mind or another kind of
life force that is active

in the world.

-Let's open our blinders
a bit and not be afraid to

examine any
potential hypothesis.

Yes, it could be
E.T. coming from another

part of the galaxy,
but what are the other options?

And so I wrote a paper
called "Ultraterrestrials,"

which means that
they're hidden out here.

Maybe there was some
investigation of earth,

let's say millennia ago
by some other species,

and maybe they have hidden
bases on the ocean seabeds that

are very advanced.

We should be able to get
data that either permits us

to accept or reject
the hypothesis.

[Jacob Haqq Misra] What
could be hiding in the ocean

is a big unknown.

The oceans are
incredibly deep, vast,

incredibly difficult to
get to the deepest parts,

and we are constantly
surprised at what we discover

in the ocean.

[Garrett Graff] Several
of the incidents that pilots

have come forward
in recent years to talk about

have appeared to
be objects that are either going

into the water or
coming out of the water.

[reporter] Now we’re seeing
leaked photos apparently taken

from US fighter jets
showing a craft that military

pilots claim came
popping out of the ocean and

then sh**ting
straight up into the air.

[Lt. Ryan Graves] There have
been reports that we've received

at Americans
for Safe Aerospace

about unidentified
submerged objects.

They can transition
between various mediums

such as space,
the atmosphere, or water,

apparently without
any difficulty or change

in its flight mechanics.

It is harder to observe
these and there's less

of an incentive
to talk about it.

[Jacob Haqq Misra]
There's a famous case of a USO

or an unidentified submerged
object that was in a video.

And in this one,

you see an object
that's hovering and

then seems to
disappear into the ocean.

-The video from the USS
Omaha off Southern California

in 2019 is from the
Combat Information Center

that looks at radars
and checks for incoming threats,

missiles or aircraft.

I like this video because
the people on the ship,

they're all sailors.

So it catches their attention
'cause it doesn't look like

anything else they track,

and they've had a lot
of experience looking at things

that they can't explain.

-It splashed!
-It splashed!

Mark bearing range.

-The drop in speed is
very minimal as it moves

into the water.

So that, that is very unusual.

The key difference between
a USO and for example,

typical type of drones
that we've developed and some

of our adversaries
have developed is that

as the USO enters the water,

there is very little
interaction with the water.

[Tim Gallaudet] It does
lead you to wonder, well,

if there are these objects,
where are USOs coming from?

Is there undersea
infrastructure that

they reside in?

So why not be looking at
our sea floor for evidence

of their origin?

-Our ocean floors are an
enormous mystery to us,

just as much of a mystery
as are some of the moons

orbiting some of the
planets in our solar system.

And we have very
little knowledge about

all that's going on
in that other world.

[Tim Gallaudet] We have
not explored even 5% of

the ocean volume.

And we've only mapped about


So there's that much we
don't know nothing about.

The US has a very active
ocean exploration program,

the Okeanos Explorer,

NOAA's dedicated
ocean exploration ship.

They collect all sorts of
images and video of sea life,

geological features.

They're identifying
new species every year.

They've done thousands
of hours of exploration and

what they came
across on the seafloor,

were these rows of holes
that look entirely manmade.

And they were a
little over 2,000 meters

deep on the seafloor.

They were centimeters in size,

and they looked very
perfect geometrically.

It looks almost like you
took a rake and just like

dug it into the water
and it created holes

into something below.

The scientists
onboard the ship,

they had no
explanation for these.

I think we need a national
program to research USOs.

We're keeping our mind open,

our aperture open
for USO activity because

what is it,
what are we seeing?

That's the big question
'cause we still don't know.

[Michelle Reyes] When I say,
"I think it may be a UFO,"

I don't think it's
something like from

out of this world really.

I just don't know what it is.

But I also think that
if they ever did find like

life out there or
something like that,

I think, I don't know,

I don't think I'd be like
surprised but I think it would

be really scary but I also
think it's naive to think that

we are like the
only ones out there.

-As a personal matter,
I believe that there are

non-human forms of
intelligence in the universe,

I just, that doesn't
strike me as a remotely

controversial proposition.

But my job as a
journalist is not to just

believe something is true,
I want evidence that it's true.

And one of the reasons that
I like writing about UAPs and

writing about what the
government is doing to research

UAPs is the government
knows an awful lot about stuff

that is flying around in the
air or that is under the water.

I have not seen any evidence
that extraterrestrials

have visited the
earth that convinces me

that it's true.

That doesn't mean
I don't believe it,

I just haven't seen
the evidence for it.

[Adam Frank] Every 10 years,

astronomers get together and
they decide what's the most

important questions we
want to ask over the next ten,


what kind of zillion-dollar

telescope do we
want NASA to build?

And in 2020, the leading
project was something called

the Habitable
World's Observatory.

It’s going to be a telescope
that is going to be designed to

find life on distant
alien worlds.

And what that means is
astrobiology is going to be

one of the leading
concerns for astronomers.

It is a very exciting time.

-I don't think that physics
or history or literature or

biology is gonna
give us our answers.

I think all of it
together needs to create

some new order of knowledge,

some other way of
ordering higher education

around this topic to even
begin to get at this question.

[Marik Von Rennenkampff] The
UFO topic is remarkably complex.

There is the nuts and
bolts aspect where I'm more

comfortable as kind of a

national security-focused
analytic mind.

But there's also
the consciousness side

of it that deserves,

I believe, deep, objective,
unbiased analysis.

-There's a lot of
people that are telling the

same things about what
these things might be.

And I think it's
important to look into it

from the human side too,

because it's all part
of the bigger picture.

And it's important to the
answer we're going to get.

-As human beings,

we've had a couple of
really large revolutions

in our psychology.

We had in the 1500s,
the Copernican Revolution,

which took us out of the
center of the universe,

the Geocentric Model.

The Darwinian Revolution
in the 1800s,

which was man as
related to animals.

And then the Freudian
Revolution in the 1900s where

we really understood
that there are unconscious

motives and drives that
can determine human behavior.

And it strikes me that,
at this moment in time,

we're at another point
of a massive revolution

where for eons,

we all look up into the
sky and wonder, are we alone?

We're on the cusp of a
deeper understanding of our

place in the cosmos.

-Imagine what's going
to happen when we find,

if we find, that there's
life in the universe.

If we find life anywhere else,

it means that
we're actually part of a

galactic community of life.

And that changes
everything about who

we think we are,
what we think we are,

what we think
our future might be,

that I think it would
really force us to rewrite

philosophies and
religions and politics.

-I think what excites me
most about being involved

with this topic is just the
mystery of it and the

intense curiosity that
I have about wanting

to understand our world,
our reality.

And this is part of that.

It's part of the
unseen world out there

that we don't comprehend,
but it's very, very real.

So what does that
tell us about who we are

as human beings?

That's a very profound
question for me.

-Why it was so
impactful to me.

I have a profound thought
of humanity and how-manity,

humanity has to act to survive.

And sometimes I'm
really frustrated by that.

I'm frustrated that people
don't take the time to think

about what's
beyond the earth,

what's beyond the stars,
what's out there?

How can we get there?

And I just see all
the hate in the world.

And I think that's what
probably bothers me more than

having an alien put his
hand on my shoulder.

[Peter Skafish] We need to
be thinking about what the

meaning of this is for
different parts of humanity.

I personally would find
it very irresponsible to be

working on this professionally,
in a political capacity,

in an intellectual capacity,

and to not think
that going beyond w*r,

going beyond a global
condition in which we have

children who
are not educated,

who are not fed,
not having a world in which

human rights are respected.

You know, if we don't
care about those things,

then who cares about UAP?

[Jacob Haqq Misra] Let's say
we do a comprehensive search

and we find nothing.

All we find is evidence
that this is it.

All we have is life on Earth,

and it's just dead
out there in space.

No life, no technology,
nothing.

Well, that just makes
this all the more special.

If this is what we have,

if this is what
life is in the universe,

then we have an even greater
challenge to protect this life,

to preserve it,
maybe even to spread it

elsewhere in space.

So either way, this is a
really important question.

And the fact that we can answer
this question with science...

...is, I think, a
reason that we should

put resources into trying

to answer this
question with science.