Report: UFO Sightings Coincide with Popular Sci-Fi Films, TV

by Nancy Atkinson on August 18, 2009

Scene from the movie "Independance Day." Credit: 20th Century Fox
The British Ministry of Defense released 4,000 pages of documents detailing hundreds of UFO sightings between 1981 and 1996. A summary of the documents by UFO expert David Clarke comes as no surprise to scientists and skeptics: many of the sightings coincide with the release of popular sci-fi movies or television shows.

609 UFO sightings in 1996, compared with 117 in 1995 correspond with the rise in popularity of the “X Files” television show and the release of the alien blockbuster film “Independence Day.” “Obviously, films and TV programs raise public awareness of UFOs and it’s fascinating to see how that appears to lead more people to report what they see to the authorities,” Clarke said.

The documents released include sightings reported by police officers and fighter pilots as well as young children, the Daily Mail reported Monday. 90% of the sightings could be explained by mundane objects such as bright stars and planets, meteors, artificial satellites and airship advertising.

The other 10% were listed as “unexplained,” mainly because of insufficient information.

For an excellent overview of what really happened in one of the most famous UFO stories of all, the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico alien spaceship crash, listen to Brian Dunning’s 365 Days of Astronomy podcast on the subject.

Source: Reuters, UPI


Tagged as: Free Desktop Picture, UFO

← Older Comments
  • Jon Hanford

    Any possibility of these sightings (such as by Aqua) being Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs)? The Boeing X-45 (see wiki page with similar vehicles listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-45 ), the McDonnell Douglas X-36, Lockheed Martin Polecat, Boeing Bird of Prey, etc. all have unusual shapes and some are/were quite large. Most were built to be stealthy and quiet to carry out their missions. Seems plausible that some of these may have been mistaken for ‘alien’ craft, FWIW.

  • Jon Hanford

    I think Quartz probably reflects what the majority of pro and amateur astronomers feel about this issue. ETL: yes. Visitations specifically to Earth: highly doubtful.

  • Aqua

    We’ve all reviewed mass media info. concerning UFO’s as that subject will continue to create interest in this day and age. Several of the TV shows I’ve seen specifically mentioned the military’s perogative to perpetuate UFO fanatisim as a way to ‘cover up’ undercover ops.

    Q: Just how far have they actually gone with these activities?

    Q2: Why did the military stop using the Shuttle back in the early ’90s?

    Q3: Have you ever seen an overhead/zenithal ‘Iridium flash’?

  • Aqua

    Notilescent clouds formed by the shuttle? Or??

  • Aqua

    I’m a Sci Fi fan.. can you tell? Sooo, don’t get you ‘hackles’ up about my statements OR your ‘thermally ablative scales’… My sole intention is to perpetuate thought. Drop a pebble in the pond as it were…

  • Aqua

    My earlier comments about seeing and hearing a strange craft ARE TRUE and not part of my tinkering.

  • Aqua

    Isn’t it interesting that with the broadcast of televsion shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate SG1, Independence Day, Twilight Zone, Outer LImits and that ilk, that today we have a nearly whirledwide population with an awareness of the possibility of interstellar travel, alien beings, time warps, laser canons etc., etc… AND as a result, might not panic too completely if those inventions were revealed as truth?

  • IVAN3MAN

    ElroyJetson:

    BTW, generally, sharp powerful telescopes are focused on objects in space, not in the atmosphere. Try tracking a moving object, say an airplane or satellite, with a telescope and keep it centered and steady…good luck!

    Amateur astronomer Ralf Vandebergh makes a hobby of tracking and photographing the International Space Station (ISS): Click here.

    So there!

    :cool:

  • ND

    IVAN3MAN,

    But the ISS is predictable.

    The fact that video and photography UFOs lack quality, is still an issue for those promoting alien visitations.

  • IVAN3MAN

    ND,

    ElroyJetson stated: “Try tracking a moving object, say an airplane or satellite, with a telescope and keep it centered and steady…”; I proved him wrong.

  • ND

    IVAN3MAN

    heh, I should have read better :)

  • ND

    If ElroyJetson is still reading this thread, I tried to post it earlier and it appears to not have gone through. Spamm filtering? 3rd attempt. I’m leaving out the URLs which I’ll post if this goes through.

    Regarding ElroyJetson’s comments in the UFO thread:
    “Schirra was the first to use the santa claus code, I believe, when he encountered more than one craft following along with his Mercury module while in orbit.”

    So I looked googled for “Schirra santa claus” and came up with the following page:

    link 1.

    Basically Schirra was playing a practical joke! He very seriously reported to Houston that he was seeing a large command module with eight smaller ones to get people’s attention. Well here’s what was said:

    ” “We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit…. Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon…. You just might let me pick up that thing…. I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.”

    Then ground controllers heard the strains, both familiar and otherworldly, of “Jingle Bells,” played on a harmonica backed byâwhat else?âminiature sleigh bells.”

    He was on Gemini 6 on an in orbit rendevouz mission with Gemini 7. Guess who was on Gemini 7? Jim Lovell!

    So what’s more plausible, Lovell referring back to the Gemini mission when he was on Apollo 8, or alien spacecraft?

    Google++

    According to the following page, Schirra was quite the practical joker:

    link 2.

    Any thoughts on this ElroyJetson?

  • Jon Hanford

    Great sleuthing there, ND :) . Some in the astronaut corps liked to play practical jokes to lighten the mood at some points in their missions, this being a good example. But over the years, it’s easy too see how this exchange could morph into something with an entirely new( and unintended ) interpretation. Hopefully, ElroyJetson might read your post to help put Schirra’s comments in perspective. Anyway, thanks for that interesting bit of trivia from the heady days of the Gemini program.

  • ND

    There wasn’t much of sleuthing needed with google at one’s fingertips :) I just wish EJ would google before taking anything she reads at face value.

    Just to reiterate here, verbal code words don’t make much sense when it’s technically possible to send encoded signals via the computer data stream.

← Older Comments

Previous post:

Next post: