Experts questioned the credibility of the Pentagon’s UFO investigatory office after its head co-authored a paper positing that unidentified objects could be tools for aliens to research Earth, according to Politico.
All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) leader Sean Kirkpatrick and Harvard professor Avi Loeb wrote in a draft article from March 7 that unidentified aerial phenomena could serve as “probes” from a “parent craft” operated by extraterrestrial beings, which was first reported by the Daily Caller. While experts recognize Kirkpatrick as a capable and intelligent scientist, some said Kirkpatrick’s willingness to assign his name to a hypothetical that has little substantive evidence supporting it could undermine AARO’s credibility, according to Politico.
“It’s a fine line because there’s ‘being open to speculative ideas’ like this, but that can be translated into an actual supporting of this possibility, and I think that’s where there needs to be more clarity,” Alejandro Rojas, a board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, told the outlet. “It does look like [DoD is] supporting some really wild ideas which thus far are felt to be unsubstantiated.”
Kirkpatrick has held senior positions in DoD, U.S. Space Command, the National Security Council and various intelligence agencies and formerly served as chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s missile and space intelligence center, according to Politico. (RELATED: Pentagon On ‘Heightened Alert’ As Fourth Unidentified Aerial Object Shot Down Near Michigan, NORAD Commander Says)
David Jewitt, a professor of astronomy at the University of California Los Angeles, called some of the paper’s claims “highly questionable,” according to Politico.
In a section titled “The Extraterrestrial Possibility,” Kirkpatrick and Loeb imagine a scenario where extraterrestrial beings have equipped vehicles with advanced propulsion technology and specialized Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“Electronic probes employing conventional chemical propulsion and refueling that we currently understand, would be a likely choice for travel within a planetary system,” the authors wrote. “Such autonomous systems could be designed to survive even if the senders are not able to communicate with them, and deposit probes upon arrival to the target planetary systems.”
A subsequent section discusses the logistics and physical limitations behind the objects and their hypothetical super-fast propulsion systems, as well as the signatures such objects would leave for earth-dwellers to observe, the article shows.
“Once an Earth-like planet is targeted, an interstellar device can plunge into its atmosphere. In principle, a multitude of tiny devices can be released from a mothership that passes near Earth,” the article reads.
Sean M. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), will be the sole witness at an open hearing (and then a closed hearing) on AARO’s “mission, activities, oversight, and budget,” on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 10:30 AM EDT, before the… pic.twitter.com/O2p2dv65Qm
— D. Dean Johnson (@ddeanjohnson) April 12, 2023
The Pentagon established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office in 2022 to investigate reports of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, some of which appear to operate outside the bounds of known physics.
A recent report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence compiling information from across the U.S. intelligence community determined that most, if not all, UAP sightings describe everyday objects or spying devices other countries have deployed. However, officials do not rule out the possibility of alien life when asked, according to Politico.
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