When America’s most beloved popular science television program decides it’s time to deal with the UFO phenomenon, a lot of viewers are going to take notice. That’s because the answer to “What Are UFOs?” actually offers a few bits of information that’s absolutely new to me, and the 50-minute program is not simply regurgitating information that’s already well known to Ufologists.
The December 2024 timestamp on the most recent footage surprised even me. I notice that much information in television productions is usually outdated by broadcast time. Sometimes, the footage doesn’t make it to the mainstream until years later. Cellphone footage is difficult to validate, but the producers’ prompt action shows they take this subject seriously.
While the program’s first third covers familiar material, it successfully acquaints newcomers with the phenomenon’s beginnings and explains the preference for using “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAP) over the old term. And to recap the incident that really catapulted interest and put “closure” to the Roswell incident, even I’m skeptical. That’s because while Project Mogul is a plausible explanation, there’s still the question if aliens bodies were also found.
I believe scrutinizing the data to validate or invalidate the recorded information is crucial. Eyewitness reports can only go so far. Also, important is in how this episode shows how the law of thermodynamics and the parallax effect works. And when the segment about Mick West involvement in ongoing investigations comes in, I had to appreciate where he comes from. He was a computer programmer who dealt with simulating real world physics; to use that experience in the study of UFO aeronautics is a technique not even thought of before.
Many more well-known individuals are brought in to discuss what these UAPS are, and they include Jacob Haqq-Misra, an astrobiologist for the Blue Marble Space Institute and Michael Wong, Planetary Scientist from the Carnegie Institute for Science.
And to save the best for last, because interest is at an all-time high, Enigma Labs formed to gather data from the public. People can report their sightings and video footage either online or through their iOS app. There will eventually be an Android version, and I suspect limitations will exist because of requiring specific camera specifications to capture the best recording possible. When this episode says the technology to get evidence is really at the palm of everyone’s hands, the question is do these individuals know it’s best to turn off video/image compression, so what’s captured is as “raw” as possible?
Promotional Trailer for NOVA “What Are UFOs?”
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