UFOs and UAPs, explained
What the terms mean, the key history, and what governments have actually said.
A UFO is simply an 'unidentified flying object' — anything in the sky a witness cannot identify. The word says nothing about aliens; most UFOs turn out to be aircraft, drones, balloons, satellites or natural effects once examined. In recent years officials have preferred the term UAP, for 'unidentified anomalous phenomena'.
A short history
The modern UFO era began in 1947, the same year as the famous Roswell incident in New Mexico — a crash the US military later attributed to a classified balloon project. From 1952 to 1969 the US Air Force ran Project Blue Book, which investigated thousands of sightings and concluded that the great majority were explainable and none showed evidence of extraterrestrial craft.
Why the subject came back
Interest surged again in 2017, when reporting revealed a Pentagon programme studying military encounters and released Navy cockpit videos of objects pilots could not identify. Since then the US government has published assessments and held public hearings. Their conclusion so far is cautious: a number of cases remain unexplained, largely due to limited data, but no confirmed evidence of alien technology has been presented.
What would count as proof
'Unexplained' is not the same as 'alien'. It means only that a particular observation has not yet been matched to a known cause. Genuine proof would need clear, repeatable, physical evidence — not a blurry video or a single account. Keeping that distinction clear is the difference between honest curiosity and wishful thinking. See how we cover the unexplained.