Andy’s Astronomy: ET In the News

No, not ET from the mega hit movie of the same name, but Unidentified Flying Objects and whatever is controlling them.

As more government records are being declassified and released, it is becoming increasingly difficult to automatically discount UFO sightings, and if they exist there must be some intelligence behind them.

Last week, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the “newly declassified files are exposing years of strange aerial sightings that government agencies failed to seriously dig into.”

Among the still and video images is one reportedly of an F-16 Fighting Falcon shooting down a diamond-shaped object over Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes. That object was initially reported to be some type of balloon, and perhaps it was, but UFO sightings have been called “weather balloons” by government officials for a very long time.

Some of the declassified reports note Gemini and Apollo astronauts describing strange objects and lights in space.

The most concerning part of this is: if alien species are observing Earth and our civilizations, that means they are far ahead of us in technological achievement. If they are from within our solar system, they have done a masterful job of remaining concealed. If they are from outside our solar system, they must have mastered a faster-than-light propulsion system. Either way, they are far more advanced than we are.

Apparently, there are many more reports to be declassified and released.

Soon we will resume our exploration of planets in science fiction.

Keep your eyes on the sky for passing fireballs.

Meteors can flash across the sky anytime, day or night, with extraordinarily bright meteors referred to as fireballs — and they are spotted quite often.

On Wednesday, May 27, 82 people across Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada reported seeing a fireball.

The fireball was first reported at 5:20 am by a skywatcher in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The fireball was seen as far north as Orillia, Ontario, Canada, as far east as Kingston, Ontario, Canada, as far south as Eau Claire, PA, and as far west as Charlotte, MI. The fireball appeared to travel from northwest to southeast.

One skywatcher in Michigan wrote, “It was so bright and green it caught me off guard. I was shocked at how bright and beautiful it was.”

Five skywatchers reported hearing noise attributable to the fireball, 12 witnessed it

fragment into smaller pieces, and two captured videos of it.

Anyone seeing a fireball is urged to report the sighting to https://amsmeteors.org

Going outside and looking at the night sky can be fun and educational for the entire family.

There are a number of free apps available to help identify stars and constellations, and some of the apps will show satellites.

Happy skywatching!