In the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, chaos has been seemingly striking the world; adding to this chaos was the confirmation of UFOs. On April 27, the Department of Defense (DOD) released a statement verifying videos from 2004 and 2015 that have been “circulating in the public domain” after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017. 

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs), also known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), have been widely speculated for decades and even were officially investigated by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and 60s in a project called Project Blue Book. Since Project Blue Book there has been very minimal government involvement such activity. 

Attached to the DOD’s statement were downloadable versions of three videos taken by the Navy. These clips may also be found on YouTube. In one video, a pilot says “there’s a whole fleet,” and describes the UAPs flying against the wind and rotating. A second video shows the UAP quickly flying over the water and the pilot celebrating after catching it on auto-trace. 

The release of these now-confirmed videos by the DOD explains their intent behind releasing the videos was to “clear up any misconceptions by the public” about the authenticity of the videos and confirms the objects in the videos are still unidentified. 

These videos do not affect any investigations of “military space incursions” by UAPs, seemingly debunking any trace of extraterrestrial life, however, this news is still exciting to extraterrestrial theorists as the objects are unidentified. The concept of extraterrestrial life is fascinating to many and is commonly associated with UFOs. Crop circles and supposed abductions have fueled conspiracy theories about aliens and this new evidence only furthers these arguments. 

For others, however, the timing of this release is unsought as the coronavirus pandemic has caused many to feel like the world is falling apart adding to memes about how rough 2020 has been so far. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear we have much to worry about in terms of extraterrestrial life right now, so in the meantime, stay healthy, keep social distancing, and theorize about UFOs to your heart’s content.