Unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) – government-speak for UFOs – are in the spotlight. But amid White House-level attention, breathless coverage of “aliens” and a rare focus on U.S. air defenses, new revelations are only deepening the UAP mystery.

Moreover, with six former presidential candidates, an ex-vice presidential nominee and the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence demanding that the U.S. government fully fund a “science plan” to study UAP that “exceed the known state of the art in science and technology,” scientists must engage with the genuinely perplexing data available to them.

In 2014 and 2015, for example, at least 50 to 60 naval aviators training in tightly controlled airspace off the U.S. East Coast observed unknown objects exhibiting extraordinary flight characteristics. Critically, aircrews observed the mysterious craft visually or via sensors on a daily basis. Pentagon officials ruled out secret U.S. technology, leading some analysts to surmise that the mysterious objects were foreign surveillance platforms. But recent reporting appears to undercut this theory.

To read more, click here.