Page 30 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

30 A Word About Those UFO Videos

A Word about Those UFO

Videos

I’m an astrophysicist, but that

doesn’t mean I have a motivation
to debunk them

By Katie Mack

I’m not going to debunk the Pentagon’s
recently declassified UFO videos.

It’s not that I think they’re actually aliens.
It’s not even that I think they’re
unexplainable, or that they’re obviously

some particular thing or other. And
although science communication experts
frequently debate the effectiveness of
debunking as a strategy, that’s not the
source of my reluctance either. It’s
because for an astrophysicist like me,
there’s very little motivation to do it. few of the more adventurous of us moons of the gas giants, appear to have
astronomers. There are some very good liquid water trapped underneath their icy
You might be surprised at this. I’m a forum posts, videos and other places surfaces, heated by the tidal stretching
scientist! I want to know how things where those who are interested are and squeezing induced by their close

work! I am interested in mysteries, and breaking down the sightlines, speed orbits around the giant worlds. Enceladus
this is a mystery about space, right? vectors, and camera movements, famously has giant plumes of carbon
explaining how entirely human-made compound–rich water escaping its
Well, no. This is a set of videos recorded aircraft or balloons can look erratic and surface through cracks. There’s even
by instruments in a military aircraft, spooky on video in exactly this way. You evidence that some of these moons hide
showing indistinct objects within the can read those posts and get a feel for their own subsurface hydrothermal vents,
Earth’s atmosphere. The real explanation what the analysis involves. Maybe you’ll providing all the ingredients we currently
for them is almost certainly going to be be convinced, maybe not. But you’re think necessary for life as we know it.
something well outside my main area of unlikely to see a large number of
expertise, which includes cosmic astronomers jumping into the fray, for the And that’s just in our cosmic backyard.
phenomena such as the behavior of dark very reasons above; this just isn’t our Thousands of other stars in our Milky

matter in galaxies and the extreme bag. Way galaxy are known to have their own
conditions of the early universe. While planets, and estimates suggest that
I’m interested in technology and physics It’s not that we don’t think aliens exist. To something like one in 10 of those planets
in general, I’m not a military tech the best of my knowledge, most of us do. might have the kinds of surfaces and
aficionado, and while weird atmospheric Life appears to have arisen on our own temperatures that could potentially
optical effects are interesting, that’s not planet as a result of the extreme sustain liquid water. Which means that
really what gets me out of bed in the conditions of the early Earth, possibly in they, too, could harbor life. And that’s not
morning. the vicinity of an undersea hydrothermal even counting all the exomoons.
vent, where volatile chemicals and

I don’t know for sure that the explanation plentiful energy likely helped stray amino The idea that Earth is fully unique, the
will be a straightforward one, but any acids come together to make the first one inhabited world in the universe, or
attempt to figure it out will certainly simple lifeforms. even the Milky Way, seems a bit absurd.
involve a deep understanding of both
those realms. Because what I’d be We have good reason to believe such But I digress. We were talking about
working with are videos taken by conditions can exist elsewhere in the grainy movies of unidentified objects in
complicated, specialized instruments in universe—maybe even elsewhere in our the air, weren’t we?
an extremely unusual reference frame own solar system. While Mars may be the
(high-speed travel through the air), and poster child for the possibility of local (Continued on Page 31)
I’d have to tease out the geometry of all alien life, given the growing evidence
that, not to mention the instrumental that it once had a thicker atmosphere and DARE TO BELIEVE

effects that come along with whatever liquid water on its surface, Jupiter’s DARE TO BE HEARD
tech these cameras are using. That’s Europa and Saturn’s Titan and Enceladus ON
going to be a lot of work. might hold even more promise. THE ‘X’ ZONE RADIO SHOW
WITH ROB McCONNELL
People are doing it, of course, including a These, along with a handful of other WWW.XZBN.NET