UFOs are no longer the domain of conspiracy theorists | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
July 10, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2025
UFOs are no longer the domain of conspiracy theorists

Tech

Sabyasachi Karmaker
03 September, 2022, 11:30 am
Last modified: 03 September, 2022, 11:41 am

Related News

  • James Webb telescope spots young exoplanet in distant dust disc
  • Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary launched on first space station mission
  • Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon
  • Huge planet discovered orbiting tiny star puzzles scientists
  • Trump pulls Musk ally's NASA nomination, will announce replacement

UFOs are no longer the domain of conspiracy theorists

Nasa and US government to study UFOs after years of denying their existence

Sabyasachi Karmaker
03 September, 2022, 11:30 am
Last modified: 03 September, 2022, 11:41 am
Illustration: TBS
Illustration: TBS

According to a report that was published in December 2017 by the New York Times, the United States Air Force had been conducting a covert investigation into a variety of unidentified flying objects that had been seen buzzing around US Navy vessels off the coasts of the United States between the years 2004 and 2015.

 

There are three recordings in specific that were collected by the US Navy that may be responsible for the surge in interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) [also known as unidentified aerial phenomenons or UAPs].

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The evidence of the first two incidents were leaked to the New York Times, which published them on the front page of the paper's print edition on December 17, 2017. The third was published a few months after the first one.

The first of these encounters is called the "USS Nimitz" sighting. It is termed as per the super-carrier the UFO take-off was observed by the pilot. This experience is considered to be the most important of all of these encounters.

In November of 2004, roughly one hundred miles off the coast of San Diego, Commander David Fravor and Lt Commander Amy Dietrich, asserted to have seen a "white tic-tac-looking object" with the surface area of an F/A-18 aeroplane that had no wings or any other markings.  The object was the size of an F/A-18 aircraft. 

According to Frabor, it turned abruptly and started mimicking him when approached and eventually it disappeared. He and along with his co-pilot Dietrich shared his full experience with Bill Whitaker in 60 Minutes' show.

A few seconds later and sixty miles distant, the encounter was recorded again by the USS Princeton, a cruiser operating in the area that issued the order to Fravor and Dietrich to investigate unusual aircraft occurrences and report their findings. Another flight crew used their forward-looking infrared camera (FLIR) to take a video of the object. This footage, which became known as the "FLIR1 video", became very popular.

After decades of being considered fringe issues, serious discussions are being held about UFOs by serious people. "There's footage and records of objects in the skies that - we don't know exactly what they are, we can't explain how they moved, their trajectory," former President Barack Obama told CBS's James Corden in May 2021.

Today's UFO moment is quite similar to how the UFO mythology developed in the 1950s. According to The Atlantic, the one of the first and widely discussed UFO contact was made by an amateur pilot named Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. The event then became a talk of the town all over the US.

Arnold said that he saw nine unexplained objects moving at a high speed in the area of Mount Rainier on that day. He added that the objects "flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water." The media covered the concept with craze, coining the phrase "flying saucers". And in no time at all, the whole nation was captivated.

A few months later the same year, a balloon-like military device had an accident and collapsed on a field in Roswell. While the device was in no way similar in appearance to a flying saucer, the wreckage apparently produced a chain of stories filled with sci-fi drama. All of these soon reached climax with narratives such as "alien bodies" or "reversed engineered alien spaceship".

Infographic: TBS
Infographic: TBS

As a direct consequence of Arnold's disclosure, people all throughout the US were now reporting seeing unidentified flying objects on a daily basis. For instance, in 1947 alone, there were over 850 reports of aerial objects in the US and Canada combined.

The postwar world's rapidly growing anxieties about atomic weapons and the Cold War with the Soviet Union helped place the idea of UFOs into the public consciousness. Many individuals who were caught up in the hysteria believed that the appearance of flying saucers signalled the end of civilization as they knew it, whether it was brought about by aliens or by the Russians.

Over the last seven decades, governments, the media and the armed forces ridiculed and condemned anyone who took UFOs seriously. In spite of everything, considerable allegations of cover-ups have been made in the United States Congress over the course of the last few years.

However, in May of this year, the US Congress convened for a hearing on UAPs for the first time in more than half a century. During the house hearing, many videos of strange aircraft sightings were shown demanding proper explanations.

Officials from the Pentagon spoke on the unexplained incidents, and lawmakers from both sides agreed to make an investigation into the claims of UAPs more open and accessible to the public. Top US defence officials testified before Congress saying that during the last two decades, there has been an increase in the number of unexplained flying objects that have been seen in the sky.

In addition to that, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) initiated fresh study in June of this year with the intention of recruiting well-known specialists to explore unexplained events in the atmosphere.

The investigation will start later this year. The focus of the study will be on locating data that is already available, determining how to gather further information data in the future, and determining how Nasa can analyse the results in an effort to advance scientific knowledge in the field.

Nasa personnel at the time say that the key goals would be to assess and define current information UAPs, design the most effective techniques to acquire observations in the future, and determine how the agency may use such data to advance our understanding of these mysterious sky sights.

However, why should policymakers be concerned about UAPs? An interesting hypothesis is that UAPs are really spacecraft from other worlds that have travelled to our planet. It's a widely held belief that stems from decades' worth of science fiction movies, popular ideas about what goes on in Area 51, and reports of supposed sightings.

Strange occurrences have been seen by individuals from all corners of the world for hundreds of years now. Nevertheless, the new investigation of UFOs being carried out by Nasa and the Pentagon should not be taken for proof of alien lives yet. In fact, they are not looking for alien-related objects at all. To tell the truth, they are not so much hunting for extraterrestrial life as they are looking for "explanations."

One hypothesis that is far more grounded in reality is that the US government and Nasa are interested in inexplicable aircraft events, especially those that take place within their airspace, since these phenomena could reveal weaponries that have been developed by rival nations.

Indeed, given that UAPs are a product of human ingenuity, the vast bulk of the discussion that took place at the recent hearing was on the potential risks posed by those. On the other hand, it is a lot more likely that the UAPs in issue are the consequence of natural occurrences that we do not yet fully understand.

Last year, for example, a US intelligence inquiry report gave five potential explanations: "airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, industry development programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall 'other' bin."

According to the Washington Post, UAPs are also caused by "natural atmospheric phenomena," which include "ice crystals, moisture, and thermal fluctuations that may register on some infrared and radar systems."

For example, last year the US intelligence committee provided plausible causes of UAP sightings, including "airborne clutter", "natural atmospheric phenomena", "foreign adversary systems" etc. According to the Washington Post report, "natural atmospheric phenomena" are probably the most common explanations for UFO encounters which may include "ice crystals, moisture, and temperature variations that may register on certain infrared and radar systems".

Top News

tech / UFO / NASA / Space exploration

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin/TBS
    SSC, equivalent results: Pass rate drops to 68.45%, GPA-5 also declines
  • In terms of stream of education, girls maintained their excellence as well. Photo: TBS
    SSC 2025: Girls dominate boys by over 5%
  • BBC reported that the phone call took place on 18 July last year while Hasina was at Ganabhaban in Dhaka. Photo: TBS
    How BBC verified Hasina’s leaked audio ordering deadly crackdown during July Uprising

MOST VIEWED

  • Graphics: TBS
    BB raises startup fund limit, drops upper age barrier
  • Workers pack undergarments at the packing section of a garment factory in Ashulia, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Fatima Tuj Johora
    After US tariffs, jobs hang by a thread in Bangladesh's garments sector
  • Global Islami Bank rectifies 2023 figures, reports Tk2,259cr loss instead of Tk128cr profit
    Global Islami Bank rectifies 2023 figures, reports Tk2,259cr loss instead of Tk128cr profit
  • Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. TBS Sketch
    Audit reports of most banks contain cooked up data: BB governor
  • File photo of containers at Chattogram port/TBS
    US buyers push Bangladeshi exporters to share extra tariff costs
  • CA orders law enforcers to complete all election preparations by December
    CA orders law enforcers to complete all election preparations by December

Related News

  • James Webb telescope spots young exoplanet in distant dust disc
  • Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary launched on first space station mission
  • Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon
  • Huge planet discovered orbiting tiny star puzzles scientists
  • Trump pulls Musk ally's NASA nomination, will announce replacement

Features

Women are forced to fish in saline waters every day, risking their health to provide for their families. Photo: TBS

How Mongla’s women are bearing the brunt of rising salinity

18h | Panorama
Dr Mostafa Abid Khan. Sketch: TBS

Actual impact will depend on how US retailers respond: Mostafa Abid Khan

2d | Economy
Thousands gather to form Bangla Blockade in mass show of support. Photo: TBS

Rebranding rebellion: Why ‘Bangla Blockade’ struck a chord

2d | Panorama
The Mitsubishi Xpander is built with families in mind, ready to handle the daily carpool, grocery runs, weekend getaways, and everything in between. PHOTO: Akif Hamid

Now made-in-Bangladesh: 2025 Mitsubishi Xpander

3d | Wheels

More Videos from TBS

How S Alam’s Global Islami Bank cooked Tk2,259cr loss into Tk128cr profit

How S Alam’s Global Islami Bank cooked Tk2,259cr loss into Tk128cr profit

9m | TBS Insight
Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize before

Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize before

1h | TBS World
Trump threatens to impose 50 percent tariffs on Brazil

Trump threatens to impose 50 percent tariffs on Brazil

3h | TBS World
Can India stop water flow to Pakistan?

Can India stop water flow to Pakistan?

4h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net