Welcome to This Week in Outer Space, where you’ll find a roundup of the best space coverage from Yahoo News and our partners over the past week or so. Last week we found out about shadow behavior on the Sun and celebrated some important milestones for the future of space travel. This week we have black holes, a meteor over France, and a partially solved space laser mystery. But before we get into that, it’s time to address the elephant in the room:
Are these UFOs aliens or what?
In recent weeks, a new alien fever has gripped the nation. It started with a giant sphere hovering over Billings, Mont., which turned out to be a giant Chinese balloon that the US government says was being used for surveillance. There was a lot of back-and-forth about shooting it down, and when it drifted off the coast of South Carolina, the military did just that.
The incident became a major international uproar and the subject of much jokes (and the focus of more serious national security discussions). But no one seriously suggested extraterrestrial involvement.
Then three unknown objects were discovered and also shot down. Without a clear explanation, these flying objects were “unidentified flying objects” or UFOs – a term that through decades of pop culture has become more or less interchangeable with flying saucers piloted by green aliens.
So that’s where the conversation went. At a briefing at the Pentagon last Sunday, US Air Force General Glen D. Vanherck was unwilling to dismiss the idea when asked if he could rule out extraterrestrial origins. “I’ll let the intelligence community and the counterintelligence community find out. I haven’t ruled anything out at this point,” he told reporters.
But dodging the question isn’t the same as explaining that aliens just visited Earth.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answer questions about UFOs on February 13. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The White House went into damage control mode. “I just wanted to make sure we raise this from the White House. I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial activity in these recent takedowns,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a news conference Monday.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby added, “I don’t think the American people need to be concerned about aliens in relation to these ships, period. I don’t think there’s anything more to say.”
Speculation began to spiral out of control mid-week. On Thursday, President Biden held a special press conference to clarify the mystery objects. Along with more details about the first Chinese-made balloon and the delicate political implications of launching it, Biden clarified that the other three objects “were most likely balloons tied to private corporations, recreational or research facilities studying weather or conducting other scientific ones.” Research.”
Case closed. These UFOs were not aliens – although the US government is still keeping an eye out for such things.
Some breaking news about black holes
A team of physicists at the University of Michigan has found evidence linking black holes to so-called dark energy, a theoretical form of energy that counteracts gravity and offers a possible answer to one of the universe’s remaining mysteries.
To put it very simply, the universe is expanding faster and faster, and scientists don’t know exactly why. So there must be some yet-to-be-proven force or dark energy out there to explain this – but where it’s coming from is another big mystery. These new findings suggest that black holes could be the source, although not everyone in the scientific community is convinced.
Mystery (maybe) solved: space lasers over Hawaii
Green lights were seen over Hawaii on January 28th. (NAOJ/Asahi Shimbun via Storyful)
Bright green lights seen over Hawaii by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in late January turned out to be, you guessed it, space lasers. Astronomers initially believed the light show came from a passing NASA satellite, but further studies contradicted that theory. This week, a new leading theory points to Chinese satellites being used to measure pollution. However, some questions remain, including what the satellite was doing over Hawaii in the first place.
Bonjour, Madame Meteorite
A meteor was sighted across northern France around 4 a.m. local time on Monday. Numerous videos have been shared on social media by people lucky enough to catch a glimpse, including some from across the Channel in the UK. Unlike some of our other stories this week, there aren’t many mysteries here. The one meter space rock was discovered by the European Space Agency Hours before it entered Earth’s atmosphere. The only remaining unknown: Why were so many people out to see it at 4am on a Monday morning?
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