MASSACHUSETTS — The government on Friday again dismissed the notion that U.S. authorities covered up extraterrestrial life aboard unidentified flying objects, a perhaps disappointing conclusion for Massachusetts residents seeking explanations for lights and other things they’ve seen in the sky.

In its 63-page report, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office offered numerous other explanations for the strange sightings in the sky. “Investigative efforts determined that most sightings were the result of misidentification of ordinary objects and phenomena,” according to the report of “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP.

More than 40 percent of Americans think UFOs are alien spacecraft from other planets or galaxies. The report from AARO, as the bureau investigating unidentified aerial phenomena is known, acknowledged that many people “sincerely hold versions of these beliefs” as truth.

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The report noted a consistent theme in popular culture is that the U.S. government, or a secretive organization within it, “recovered several off-world spacecraft and extraterrestrial biological remains, that it operates a program or programs to reverse engineer the recovered technology, and that it has conspired since the 1940s to keep this effort hidden from the United States Congress and the American public.”

So, what is the explanation for sightings Massachusetts residents have reported to the crowdsourced National UFO Reporting Center about strange sightings over local skies? Here’s a glimpse into what they’ve seen:

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Already in 2024, locals have reported at least nine occurrences in a variety of communities.

In Dennis on Cape Cod, someone reported «very bright, flashing lights going from east to west, which very rarely happens.»

In February in Worcester, there was another report of «a white pulsating light high in the sky going west to east. The object shot light in the direction it was going then split in two faded.»

Although many UFO reports remain unsolved, “most of these cases could be identified and resolved as ordinary objects or phenomena” if additional, reliable data were available, the AARO report said.

For example, the unidentified object may be a satellite or other data-gathering craft developed in secret by the government or private industry, the report noted.


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