Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter

Trouble viewing? View in your browser. View all Scientific American publications.

    

January 25, 2024

This week, we want to believe. I'm referring, of course, not just to the famous informal motto of Agent Mulder from The X-Files, but also to the sentiment's underlying conceit: The notion that aliens exist and furthermore regularly visit Earth is exciting—terrifying, even—for its world-changing potential. Confirming as much would unquestionably be one of the most important discoveries in human history. Unfortunately, however, in the opinion of Sean Kirkpatrick—the former top U.S. government official tasked with investigating UFOs—there is little evidence to support such "extraterrestrial" explanations for a spate of recent sightings, and much that instead suggests current federal policymaking on UFOs has been driven by sensational unsupported claims from a small group of paranoid conspiracists. Kirkpatrick makes his case in our lead story this week. Elsewhere, we have articles on troubled Japanese and U.S. lunar missions, new clues in the deep mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, a nomadic mathematical genius, a brown dwarf perhaps set aglow by a potential moon, and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Extraterrestrial Life Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter A forthcoming investigational report from an office of the Pentagon has found no evidence of aliens, only allegations circulated repeatedly by UFO claim advocates By Sean Kirkpatrick

Astrophysics Why 2024's Total Solar Eclipse Will Be So Special The last time North Americans caught a total solar eclipse, the sun was in a lull of activity. This year's eclipse will be very different By Meghan Bartels

Space Exploration Japan Reaches the Moon, but the Fate of Its Precision Lander Is Uncertain Japan's SLIM precision-landing spacecraft—a potential game-changer for upcoming lunar exploration—may expire on the moon before fulfilling its mission By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Space Exploration Peregrine, a Private U.S. Moon Lander, Burns Up in Earth's Atmosphere Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander, which endured a crippling postlaunch malfunction for longer than expected, could set a precedent for a coming wave of U.S. moon missions By Michael Greshko

Space Exploration NASA's Moon Program Faces Delays. Its Ambition Remains Unchanged If successful, the Artemis program promises to revolutionize travel to other celestial bodies. But many more tests of hardware remain By Michael Greshko

Space Exploration NASA Restores Contact with Mars Helicopter Ingenuity After an unexpected communications dropout, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter is back in business on Mars By Monisha Ravisetti,SPACE.com

Astronomy This Nearby Brown Dwarf May Have Auroras--And a Moon, Too Glowing methane on a brown dwarf dozens of light-years from Earth may signal the presence of a large lunar companion By Phil Plait

Dark Energy Unprecedented Supernova Survey Underscores Dark Energy Mystery The Dark Energy Survey has released a long-awaited analysis based on more than 1,500 supernovae. It suggests our laws of gravity just might be correct after all—or perhaps not By Ashley Balzer Vigil

Dark Matter Giant Ultrafaint Galaxy Could Offer Dark Matter Clues A ghostly giant galaxy called Nube may become a testbed for esoteric theories of dark matter By Sharmila Kuthunur

Dark Matter China's New Dark Matter Lab Is Biggest and Deepest Yet The world's deepest and largest underground laboratory is scaling up its search for dark matter By Gemma Conroy,Nature magazine

Mathematics A Wild Claim about the Powers of Pi Creates a Transcendental Mystery Mathematicians cannot determine whether multiplying pi by itself repeatedly might produce a whole number By Manon Bischoff

Mathematics This Nomadic Eccentric Was the Most Prolific Mathematician in History The bizarre life and legacy of Paul Erdős, the most prolific mathematician ever By Jack Murtagh

Astrophysics How Being Wobbly Gives Earth and Possibly Other Planets Their Seasons Thousand of exoplanets have been discovered over the past decades, and understanding how they wobble on their axes could tell us what their seasons might look like and how habitable they may be By Gongjie Li,The Conversation US

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Our efforts were ultimately overwhelmed by sensational but unsupported claims that ignored contradictory evidence yet captured the attention of policy makers and the public, driving legislative battles and dominating the public narrative." Sean Kirkpatrick, former director of the Department of Defense's UFO-studying All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, on his decision to step down from the position in December 2023

FROM THE ARCHIVE How Wealthy UFO Fans Helped Fuel Fringe Beliefs There is a long U.S. legacy of plutocrat-funded pseudoscience. Congress just embraced it By Keith Kloor | August 2023

LATEST ISSUES

Questions?   Comments?

Download the Scientific American App

To view this email as a web page, go here. You received this email because you opted-in to receive email from Scientific American. To ensure delivery please add newsletters@scientificamerican.com to your address book. Unsubscribe     Manage Email Preferences     Privacy Policy     Contact Us

Scientific American

1 New York Plaza, FDR Dr, Floor 46, New York, NY 10004

Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences