Sean Kirpatrick, head of the Pentagon’s secretive All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office [AARO], threw some read meat to UFO fanatics, saying that recent sightings could be alien probes from a “mother-ship” looking to study earth. Far removed from the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico crashed weather balloon and wild speculation about aliens, Kirpatrick fed the UFO craze, where the public craves new information about UFO sightings and possibility of extraterrestrial life. Kirpatrick co-authored a new scientific paper on UFO sightings that defy physics, suggesting that new sightings could be “probes” from an extraterrestrial “parent craft.” Co-authored by Harvard Professor Ari Loeb explaining “oumuamua,” a cigar-shaped UFO that scientists observed flying through the galaxy in 2017. Kirpantrick and Loeb compared the observations to dandelion seeds separated from a parent craft.
Kirpatrick and Loeb’s paper said the Oumuamua “could potentially be a parent craft that released many small probes during its close passage to earth,” conjecturing way beyond most science. Most scientists are open of the possibility of UFO and extraterrestrial life but don’t make wild interpretations of unknown celestial events. UFO sighting by Navy pilots and others does not constitute proof of extraterrestrial life or as Kirpatrick and Loeb suggest “dandelion seeds” from a “parent ship,” leaping beyond all logic to conclusions not supported by evidence. :”Habitable planets would be particularly appealing to extraterrestrial trans-medium probes. But upon closer inspection, Earth would show spectral signatures of liquid water and vegetation,” Kirpatrick and Loeb conjectured. If nothing else, Kirpatrick and Loeb’s paper suggests the Pentagon wants to explore all sides of the UFO issue.
Pentagon’s AARO office wants to stimulate open debate about the UFO sightings, giving all sides the opportunity to make their cases. Harvard’s Loeb funds an academic effort in the Galileo Project designed to investigate UFOs links to extraterrestrial activity. “What would be the overarched purpose of the journey? In analogy with actual dandelion seeds, the probes could propagate the blueprint of their senders,” wrote Kirpatrick and Loeb. Kirpatrick, who worked in the Department of Defense and U.S. Space Command, speculates about the motives for extraterrestrial space probes seeking data about habitable planets. “As with biological seeds, the raw material on the planet’s surface could also be used by them as nutrients for self-replication or simply scientific exploration,” wrote Kirpatrick and Loeb. AARO was established last summer to investigate numerous UFO sightings.
Recent UFO findings by the U.S. government turned out to be a Chinese spy balloon, collecting data on U.S. military installations around the country. Shot down over Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the massive Chinese spy balloon, larger than the Empire State Building, spent five days collecting data across the Continental United States before 80-year-old President Joe Biden ordered it shot down. Kirpatrick and Loeb aren’t interested in known-known, a Chinese spy balloon, but unknown-unknowns, something requiring pure conjecture, like the analogy to a “dandelion pods,” sending out potential probes to ascertain habitability of the Earth’s surface for extraterrestrial life. Establishing AARO was the Pentagon’s way to show the public that it was not covering up the true nature of UFO sightings. Kirpatrick and Loeb’s unverified paper continues that government mandate.
Generations of pop culture depictions of flying saucers and aliens goes back to H.G. Wells 1898 novel “War of the Worlds,” made into a compelling radio drama Oct. 30, 1938 by Orson Welles. Welles’ broadcast was so realistic it sent listeners into the streets in pure panic. When the July 8, 1947 Roswell incident happened, the public was already primed for an extraterrestrial discovery, something denied by the Pentagon. Written about extensively in newspapers at the time, the public never believed the government, instead harking back to Welles 1938 broadcast, making government look like a nefarious cover-up. Government officials haven’t stopped the media and public for speculating about UFOs and extraterrestrials, something backed buy pop culture accounts. Pentagon’s AARO was designed to placate an insatiable public for information on UFOs and extraterrestrials.
Once Biden ordered the shoot down of the Chinese spy balloon, the Pentagon shot down three UFOs, two in the U.S. and one in Canada, fueling more speculation about what’s out there. Since shooting down the UFOs, the White House made no effort to explain to the public that the objects were most likely innocuous balloons sent into the skies by amateurs for whatever reason. Biden didn’t want Beijing to know that it was the only object shot out of the sky for no reason. White House officials never confirmed the nature of the three other UFOs shot down. “The Air Force is very good at bombing things, but as far as their research on UFOs, I think I trust them as far as I can throw them,” said UCLA astronomy Professor David Jewitt. “It’s not clear that the Air Force and military capabilities are best suited to the study of aliens,” Jewitt said, questioning why Kirpatrick co-authored anything.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
