Key Highlights
- President Trump calls for release of government UFO files.
- Scientists express skepticism about evidence of alien life on Earth.
- Analysts discuss the potential benefits and drawbacks of releasing the documents.
- Federal interest in unidentified aerial phenomena continues to grow.
The Trump Call: Releasing Government UFO Files
President Donald Trump recently issued a call for the release of government files related to UFOs, or any “alien and extraterrestrial life.” His social media post sparked interest among both enthusiasts and skeptics.
According to Trump’s tweet, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other agencies should begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files relating to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
The Skeptics
Scientists like Sean Kirkpatrick, former director of the U.S. Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), express doubt about the existence of extraterrestrial life in our midst.
“There are going to be unsatisfied people,” Kirkpatrick told CBS News. “You’re going to have a bunch of people who are going to continue to cry conspiracy, they’re going to say there’s a cover-up.”
Kirkpatrick, a physicist, led AARO from July 2022 to December 1, 2023, and investigated unidentified flying objects. He believes his office “had to stand up anything they could declassify” but found no proof of extraterrestrial life.
Scientific Inquiry
Federica Bianco, an associate professor at the University of Delaware’s astronomy and physics department, echoed Kirkpatrick’s perspective.
“The probability that we are the only life form or even the only technical society in the universe is negligibly small,” she said. “As a scientist and a member of the NASA UAP panel, I haven’t seen anything that indicates that we have observed phenomena that violate the laws of physics.”
The Skeptic’s View
Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space, shares his skepticism.
“In science, skepticism is foundational to our profession,” he writes in his upcoming book. “Don’t take it personally, it’s how any and all objective truths have ever been established in this world.”
Realities and Hopes
Shelly Wright, an observational and experimental astrophysicist at the University of California San Diego, remains hopeful.
“I’m excited for the document release but don’t expect to find much after my experience on the independent study team,” she said. “Most of the documents are heavily redacted due to the sensitivity of the surveillance equipment used by the military responsible for sighting many UAPs.”
Loeb’s Perspective
Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist and Harvard researcher, suggests studying the documents from a scientific standpoint.
“There might well be a few incidents out of hundreds that would really be anomalous,” he said. “I am not interested in technologies manufactured by humans on Earth. The history of terrestrial technology does not interest me.”
Loeb leads the Galileo Project, which searches for artifacts from extraterrestrial civilizations near Earth.
“There’s a fundamental question to examining each incident with seeming anomalous data: Are the objects we see as anomalous operating under the fundamental abilities of humans?” he added.