Unidentified flying object (UFO) is a light or object in the air that has no obvious explanation. Some people believe UFO’s are spaceships from other planets. However, investigators discover ordinary explanations for most UFO sightings, largely because most witnesses are generally reliable individuals. UFO hoaxes are rare. Today, government agencies use the term unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), instead of unidentified flying objects.
Many reported UFO’s are actually bright planets, stars, or meteors. People have reported aircraft, missiles, satellites, birds, insect swarms, and weather balloons as UFO’s. Unusual weather conditions also can create optical illusions that are reported as UFO’s.
Investigators can explain all but a small percentage of UFO reports. The remainder may be due to an unknown phenomenon or merely to limitations in human perception, memory, and research. Most scientists believe that there is not enough reliable evidence to connect these sightings with alien life from other planets.
Some UFO’s are called flying saucers. This term was coined by the press in 1947 to describe a sighting by Kenneth Arnold, a civilian pilot, who reported unknown objects speeding through the air.
Beginning in 1952, the United States Air Force, in a program called Project Blue Book, investigated about 12,000 UFO reports to determine whether UFO’s were a potential threat to national security. In addition, from 1966 to 1968, the Air Force sponsored an independent study of UFO’s by scientists at the University of Colorado. The Colorado scientists advised the Air Force that further study of UFO’s was not likely to produce useful information concerning a security threat. As a result, the Air Force ended Project Blue Book in 1969.
Nevertheless, many people throughout the world continue to believe that UFO’s are spacecraft from other planets. Accounts of encounters with alien visitors have appeared in many books, newspaper articles, motion pictures, and TV programs. Some people have even reported that they have been abducted by aliens.
But even believers in alien encounters disagree over certain famous cases. Particularly controversial is the use of hypnosis to obtain previously unremembered, or perhaps imaginary, information.
