Editing Extraterrestrial UFO hypothesis (section)

==Chronology==
Although the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) as a phrase is a comparatively new concept, one which owes much to the flying saucer sightings of the 1940s–1960s, its origins can be traced back to a number of earlier events, such as the now-discredited [[Martian canals]] and ancient Martian civilization promoted by astronomer [[Percival Lowell]], popular culture including the writings of [[H. G. Wells]] and fellow science fiction pioneers such as [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]], who likewise wrote of Martian civilizations, and even to the works of figures such as the Swedish [[philosopher]], [[mysticism|mystic]] and scientist [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], who promoted a variety of unconventional views that linked other worlds to the [[afterlife]].<ref name=Swedenborg>Swedenborg, Emanuel (1758) ''Concerning the Earths in Our Solar System ...''</ref>

In the early part of the twentieth century, [[Charles Fort]] collected accounts of anomalous physical phenomena from newspapers and scientific journals, including many reports of extraordinary aerial objects.  These were published in 1919 in ''The Book of the Damned''. In this and two subsequent books, ''New Lands'' (1923) and ''Lo!'' (1931), Fort theorized that visitors from other worlds were observing Earth.  Fort's reports of aerial phenomena were frequently cited in American newspapers when the UFO phenomenon first attracted widespread media attention in June and July 1947.

The modern ETH—specifically, the implicit linking of unidentified aircraft and lights in the sky to alien life—took root during the late 1940s and took its current form during the 1950s. It drew on [[pseudoscience]], as well as popular culture. Unlike earlier speculation of extraterrestrial life, interest in the ETH was also bolstered by many unexplained sightings investigated by the U.S. government and governments of other countries, as well as private civilian groups, such as [[National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena|NICAP]] and [[Aerial Phenomena Research Organization|APRO]].

===Historical reports and speculation===
A news article {{efn|The Evening Mail ([[Stockton, California|Stockton]]) <ref>{{cite news |author=Michael Fitzgerald |url=https://eu.recordnet.com/story/news/2015/03/27/fitzgerald-day-space-aliens-visited/34895899007/|website=|title=THREE STRANGE VISITORS "Who Possibly Came From the Planet Mars "Seen on a Country Road by Colonel H.G. Shaw and a Companion"|date=2015-03-27|publisher=Stockton Evening Mail: recordnet.com|access-date=3 May 2025|url-status=|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240627115338/https://www.recordnet.com/story/news/2015/03/27/fitzgerald-day-space-aliens-visited/34895899007/|archive-date=27 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/sn92069055/|website=www.loc.gov|title=The Evening Mail (Stockton, Calif.) 1892-1917 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=3 May 2025 |archive-url=|archive-date=}}</ref>}} published November 25, 1896 retells (Colonel H.G. Shaw)  of an experience of "strange beings" and "an immense airship" en route from [[Lodi, California|Lodi]]<ref name=HGW>{{cite web|author=H.G.. Shaw|url=https://archive.org/details/03_20240327_20240327_2253/01.jpg|website=archive.org|title=THREE STRANGE VISITORS "Who Possibly Came From the Planet Mars "Seen on a Country Road by Colonel H.G. Shaw and a Companion - They Boarded the Airship"|date=|publisher=|access-date=3 May 2025|quote=p.2 <small><small>THREE STRANGE BEINGS</small></small>: -went out to Lodi and Lockford-" p.5: "Mars"}}</ref> California.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.viamichelin.com/routes/results/lockeford-95237-_-dean_pass-united_states-to-lodi-95240-_-dean_pass-united_states|website=www.viamichelin.com [[Michelin]]|title=Lockeford > Lodi|date=|publisher=|access-date=|url-status=|archive-url=|archive-date=}}</ref> Shaw concluded the beings were infact from Mars.<ref name=HGW/> Amongst other reports of "[[Mystery airship|airships]]" from November 1896 (including December) - 1897 (only mid-March - April): containing people (sometimes with a dog, listening to music, landing to make repairs), the ''Dallas Morning News''  [[Aurora, Texas, UFO incident#The incident as reported|reported of April 17, 1897 in Aurora, Texas]]: an airship "much nearer the earth than ever before" destroyed in a crash, the consequently dead occupant subsequently described by a United States signal service office as “a native of the planet Mars”.<ref>{{cite book|author1=David Michael Jacobs|author-link1=David Michael Jacobs|chapter=The Mystery Airship|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/david-jacobs-the-ufo-controversy-in-america/page/13/mode/2up|location= |title=The UFO Controversy In America|url=https://archive.org/details/david-jacobs-the-ufo-controversy-in-america/mode/2up|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|publication-date=1975 |pages=3 (16) - 13 (26)|access-date=3 May 2025|isbn=0-253-19006-1}}</ref> Later, there was a more international airship wave from 1909-1912. An example of an extraterrestrial explanation at the time was a 1909 letter to a New Zealand newspaper suggesting "atomic powered spaceships from Mars."<ref>Jerome Clark, ''The UFO Book'', 1998, 199-200</ref>

===Early science fiction===
[[H. G. Wells]], ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', published April 1897,<ref>{{cite web |date=April 1897 |title=The War of the Worlds H.G. Wells |url=https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cosmopolitan-april-1897-first-ptg-war-1473079638 |website=www.worthpoint.com |trans-title= |format= |magazine= |language= |location=[[Irvington, New York|Irvington-on-the-Hudson]] |publisher=John Brisben Walker [[Cosmopolitan (magazine)#History|The Cosmopolitan Press]] |access-date=3 May 2025 |via=blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/12/h-g-wells-fighters-from-mars/: M. Queen |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250503082759/https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cosmopolitan-april-1897-first-ptg-war-1473079638 |archive-date=2025-05-03}}</ref> is a story of alien invasion by craft from Mars.<ref>{{cite web|author=James Welsh|url=http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/135/the-war-of-the-worlds/|website=etc.usf.edu|title=Lit2Go|publisher=Florida Center for Instructional Technology,  College of Education, [[University of South Florida]]|access-date=3 May 2025|archive-url=https://archive.today/20160913032938/http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/135/the-war-of-the-worlds/|archive-date=13 September 2016}}</ref> From the 1920s, the idea of alien visitation in space ships was commonplace in popular comic strips and radio and movie serials, such as [[Buck Rogers]] and [[Flash Gordon]]. In particular, the Flash Gordon serials have the Earth being attacked from space by alien meteors, ray beams, and biological weapons. In 1938, a radio broadcast version of ''[[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|The War of the Worlds]]'' by [[Orson Welles]], using a contemporary setting for H.&nbsp;G. Wells' Martian invasion, created some public panic in the United States.

===The 1947 flying saucer wave in America===
On June 24, 1947, at about 3:00&nbsp;p.m. local time, pilot [[Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting|Kenneth Arnold]] reported seeing nine unidentified disk-shaped aircraft flying near [[Mount Rainier]].<ref>Chicago Daily Tribune (June 26, 1947)</ref><ref>Arnold Kenneth, [http://www.project1947.com/fig/ka.htm Report on 9 unidentified aircraft observed on June 24, 1947, near Mt. Rainier, Washington], (October 1947)</ref> When no aircraft emerged that seemed to account for what he had seen, Arnold quickly considered the possibility of the objects being extraterrestrial. On July 7, 1947, two stories came out where Arnold was raising the topic of possible extraterrestrial origins, both as his opinion and those who had written to him. In an Associated Press story, Arnold said he had received quantities of [[fan mail]] eager to help solve the mystery.  Some of them "suggested the discs were visitations from another planet."<ref>Associated Press story, July 7, 1947, e.g., Salt Lake City ''Deseret News'', p. 3, "Author of 'Discs' Story To Seek Proof" [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19470707&printsec=frontpage]</ref><ref>Chicago 'Times', July 7, 1947, p. 3</ref><ref>Kenneth Arnold; Speaking to Journalist Edward R. Murrow (April 7, 1950), [http://www.project1947.com/fig/kamurrow.htm Transcript] care of [http://www.project1947.com/ Project 1947]</ref><ref>Spokane ''Daily Chronicle'', p.1, June 27, 1947, "More Sky-Gazers Tell About Seeing the Flying Piepans"[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ddB7do2jUx8C&dat=19470627&printsec=frontpage]; Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, p.1, June 27, 1947; Bremerton (Washington) ''Sun'', June 28, 1947, "Eerie 'Whatsit objects' In Sky Observed Here."</ref>

When the 1947 flying saucer wave hit the United States, there was much speculation in the newspapers about what they might be in news stories, columns, editorials, and letters to the editor. For example, on July 10, U.S. Senator [[Glen H. Taylor|Glen Taylor]] of Idaho commented, "I almost wish the flying saucers would turn out to be space ships from another planet," because the possibility of hostility "would unify the people of the earth as nothing else could." On July 8, [[R. DeWitt Miller]] was quoted by UP saying that the saucers had been seen since the early nineteenth century. If the present discs weren't secret Army weapons, he suggested they could be vehicles from Mars, or other planets, or maybe even "things out of other dimensions of time and space."<ref>Jerome Clark, ''UFO Encyclopedia'', p. 202-203</ref>  Other articles brought up the work of [[Charles Fort]], who earlier in the twentieth century had documented numerous reports of unidentified flying objects that had been written up in newspapers and scientific journals.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rUohAAAAIBAJ&pg=2393,814473&dq=charles+fort&hl=en |title=Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search |website=news.google.com}}</ref>

Even if people thought the saucers were real, most were generally unwilling to leap to the conclusion that they were extraterrestrial in origin. Various popular theories began to quickly proliferate in press articles, such as secret military projects, Russian spy devices, hoaxes, [[optical illusions]], and [[mass hysteria]]. According to journalist Edward R. Murrow, the ETH as a serious explanation for "flying saucers" did not earn widespread attention until about 18 months after Arnold's sighting.<ref name=uforaddocu>[[Edward R. Murrow]] (April 7, 1950) ''[http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/arch2004jan-june.html The Case of the Flying Saucer]'', CBS News (Radio Documentary available in MP3/Real Media), (October 2006)</ref>

These attitudes seem to be reflected in the results of the first U.S. poll of public UFO perceptions released by [[Gallup poll|Gallup]] on August 14, 1947.<ref name="jacko1">Jacobs David M  (2000), "UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge", University Press of Kansas, {{ISBN|0-7006-1032-4}}  (Compiled work: section sourced from Jerome Clark)</ref> The term "flying saucer" was familiar to 90% of the respondents. As to what people thought explained them, the poll further showed, that most people either held no opinion or refused to answer the question (33%), or generally believed that there was a mundane explanation.  29% thought they were [[optical illusion]]s, [[mirage]]s, or imagination; 15% a U.S. secret weapon; 10% a [[hoax]]; 3% a "weather forecasting device"; 1% of Soviet origin, and 9% had "other explanations," including fulfillment of [[Bible|Biblical]] [[prophecy]], secret commercial aircraft, or phenomena related to [[atomic testing]].<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=feST4K8J0scC&dat=19470815&printsec=frontpage Gallup poll in August 15, 1947, ''St. Petersburg Times'', p. 6]</ref>

===Evolution of public opinion===
The early 1950s also saw a number of movies depicting flying saucers and aliens, including ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film)|The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' (1951), ''[[The War of the Worlds (1953 film)|The War of the Worlds]]'' (1953), ''[[Earth vs. the Flying Saucers]]'' (1956), and ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' (1956). A poll published in ''[[Popular Science]]'' magazine in August 1951 reported that of the respondents who self-reported as UFO witnesses, 52% believed that they had seen a man-made aircraft, while only 4% believed that they had seen an alien craft; an additional 28% were uncertain, with more than half of these stating they believed they were either man-made aircraft, or "visitors from afar."<ref>{{cite web |title=Popular Science Archive |url=http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=lyEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=74&query=flying+saucer |publisher=[[Popular Science]] |access-date=2011-01-30 |archive-date=2016-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107005919/http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=lyEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=74&query=flying+saucer |url-status=dead }}</ref> By 1957, 25% of Americans responded that they either believed, or were willing to believe in the ETH, while 53% responded that they were not. 22% reported that they were uncertain.<ref name="50plus"/>{{Failed verification|date=February 2009}}<ref name="trendx1">Trendex Poll, St. Louis Globe Democrat (August 24, 1957)</ref>

A [[Roper Center for Public Opinion Research|Roper]] poll in 2002 reported that 56% of respondents thought UFOs were real, with 48% believing that UFOs had visited Earth.<ref>[http://www.scifi.com/ufo/roper/05.html Roper poll results] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203015119/http://www.scifi.com/ufo/roper/05.html |date=December 3, 2007 }}</ref>

===Religion===
{{Further information|UFO religion}}

Hunt describes the [[Aetherius Society]] founded by [[George King (Aetherius Society)|George King]] in 1955 as "probably the first and certainly the most enduring UFO [[cult]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Hunt |first=Stephen |title=Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing|Ashgate]] |year=2003 |isbn=0-7546-3410-8 |language=en}}</ref>

===NASA===
In June 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that he had directed NASA scientists to investigate Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon.<ref name="nelson1">{{Cite web |date=2021-06-08 |title=EarthSky {{!}} NASA and UFOs: Space agency to take closer look |url=https://earthsky.org/human-world/nasa-and-ufos-bill-nelson/ |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=earthsky.org |language=en-US}}</ref> During an interview at the University of Virginia, Bill Nelson explored the possibility that UAP could represent extraterrestrial technology.<ref name="nelson2">{{Cite web |date=2021-10-20 |title=Space Jam: Former Senator Talks Aliens, Asteroids and 'Star Trek' With Larry Sabato |url=https://news.virginia.edu/content/space-jam-former-senator-talks-aliens-asteroids-and-star-trek-larry-sabato |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=UVA Today |language=en}}</ref>

NASA scientist Ravi Kopparapu advocates studying UAP.<ref name="Ravi1">{{Cite news |title=Opinion {{!}} We're asking the wrong questions about UFOs |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/26/we-need-put-science-center-ufo-question/ |access-date=2023-05-04 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> {{blockquote|text=We need to frame the current UAP/UFO question with the same level of active inquiry, one involving experts from academia in disciplines including astronomy, meteorology and physics, as well as industry and government professionals with knowledge of military aircraft, remote sensing from the ground and satellite observations. Participants would need to be agnostic toward any specific explanations with a primary goal of collecting enough data — including visual, infrared, radar and other possible observations — to eventually allow us to deduce the identity of such UAP. Following this agnostic approach, and relying upon sound scientific and peer-reviewed methods, would go a long way toward lifting the taboo in mainstream science. }}

In August 2021, at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Aviation, Kopparapu presented a paper<ref name= "Mcdonald1">James E. McDonald, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona, (December, 1969) http://noufors.com/Documents/scienceindefault.pdfstating{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>  from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 134th Meeting General Symposium that supported ETH. Kopparapu stated he and his colleagues found the paper "perfectly credible".<ref name="Ravi2">{{Citation |title=Science of UAP: Past and Present ~ Ravi Kopperapu, Ph.D. AIAA AV21 UAP session | date=18 August 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJiFhazryiA |access-date=2023-05-04 |language=en}}</ref>

===Private or government studies===
Other private or government studies, some secret, have concluded in favor of the ET hypothesis, or have had members who disagreed in contravention with official conclusions reached by the committees and agencies to which they belonged. The following are examples of sources that have focused specifically on the topic:
{{anchor|Photo}}[[File:1948 Top Secret USAF UFO extraterrestrial document.png|thumb|upright|November 1948 USAF Top Secret document citing extraterrestrial opinion.]]
* A 1948 Top Secret USAF Europe document ([[#Photo|at right]]) states that Swedish air intelligence informed them that at least some of their investigators into the ghost rockets and flying saucers concluded they possibly had extraterrestrial origins.<ref name=GT07/> {{efn|"...[[Flying saucers]] have been reported by so many sources and from such a variety of places that we are convinced that they cannot be disregarded and must be explained on some basis which is perhaps slightly beyond the scope of our present intelligence thinking.  When officers of this Directorate recently visited the Swedish Air Intelligence Service... their answer was that some reliable and fully technically qualified people have reached the conclusion that 'these phenomena are obviously the result of a high technical skill which cannot be credited to any presently known culture on earth.' They are therefore assuming that these objects originate from some previously unknown or unidentified technology, possibly outside the earth."<ref name=GT07>Document quoted and published in Timothy Good (2007), 106–107, 115; USAFE Item 14, TT 1524, (Top Secret), 4 November 1948, declassified in 1997, National Archives, Washington D.C.</ref>}}
* West Germany, in conjunction with other European countries, conducted a secret study from 1951 to 1954, also concluding that UFOs were extraterrestrial. This study was revealed by German rocketry pioneer [[Hermann Oberth]], who headed the study and who also made many public statements supporting the ETH in succeeding years.  At the study's conclusion in 1954, Oberth declared: "These objects (UFOs) are conceived and directed by intelligent beings of a very high order. They do not originate in our solar system, perhaps not in our galaxy." Soon afterwards, in an October 24, 1954, article in ''The American Weekly'', Oberth wrote: "It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries..."<ref>[http://www.mufon.com/MUFONNews/znews_oberth.html Schuessler, John L., "Statements About Flying Saucers And Extraterrestrial Life Made By Prof. Hermann Oberth, German Rocket Scientist" 2002] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125162907/http://mufon.com/MUFONNews/znews_oberth.html |date=2010-11-25 }}; Oberth's ''American Weekly'' article appeared in a number of newspaper Sunday supplements, e.g., ''[[The Washington Post and Times-Herald]]'', pg. AW4, and [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Pm8xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MRAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5451,3094226&dq=herman+oberth&hl=en Milwaukee Sentinel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403125526/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Pm8xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MRAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5451,3094226&dq=herman+oberth&hl=en |date=2016-04-03 }}</ref>
* The [[CIA]] started their own internal scientific review the following day.{{when|date=July 2020}}<!--Does 'the following day' follow the day the above article was published by Oberth?--> Some CIA scientists were also seriously considering the ETH. An early memo from August was very skeptical, but also added: "...as long as a series of reports remains 'unexplainable' (interplanetary aspects and alien origin not being thoroughly excluded from consideration) caution requires that intelligence continue coverage of the subject." A report from later that month{{when|date=July 2020}} was similarly skeptical, but nevertheless concluded: "...sightings of UFOs reported at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos]] and [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory|Oak Ridge]], at a time when the background [[radiation]] count had risen inexplicably. Here we run out of even 'blue yonder' explanations that might be tenable, and we still are left with numbers of incredible reports from credible observers." A December 1952 memo from the Assistant CIA Director of Scientific Intelligence (O/SI) was much more urgent: "...the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention. Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of U.S. defense installation &#91;''[[sic]]''&#93; are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles." Some of the memos also made it clear, that CIA interest in the subject was not to be made public, partly in fear of possible public panic. (Good, 331–335)
* Extraterrestrial "believers" within Project Blue Book included Major Dewey Fournet, in charge of the engineering analysis of UFO motion, who later became a board member on the civilian UFO organization [[NICAP]].  Blue Book director [[Edward J. Ruppelt]] privately commented on other firm "pro-UFO" members in the USAF investigations, including some Pentagon generals, such as [[Charles P. Cabell]], USAF Chief of Air Intelligence, who, angry at the inaction and debunkery of [[Project Grudge]], dissolved it in 1951, established Project Blue Book in its place, and made Ruppelt director.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ruppelt's private notes |url=http://www.ufologie.net/htm/ruppeltwhoiswho.htm |access-date=2009-03-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100124112743/http://www.ufologie.net/htm/ruppeltwhoiswho.htm |archive-date=2010-01-24}}</ref> In 1953, Cabell became deputy director of the CIA. Another defector from the official Air Force party line was consultant [[J. Allen Hynek]], who started out as a staunch skeptic. After 20 years of investigation, he changed positions and generally supported the ETH. He became the most publicly known UFO advocate scientist in the 1970s and 1980s.
* The first CIA Director, Vice Admiral [[Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter]], stated in a signed statement to Congress, also reported in ''[[The New York Times]]'' (February 28, 1960): "It is time for the truth to be brought out... Behind the scenes high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. However, through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense... I urge immediate Congressional action to reduce the dangers from secrecy about unidentified flying objects." In 1962, in his letter of resignation from [[NICAP]], he told director [[Donald Keyhoe]], "I know the UFOs are not U.S. or Soviet devices. All we can do now is wait for some actions by the UFOs."<ref>Good, 347</ref>
* In 1967, Greek physicist [[Paul Santorini]], a [[Manhattan Project]] scientist, publicly stated that a 1947 Greek government investigation into the European [[Ghost rockets]] of 1946 under his lead quickly concluded that they were not missiles. Santorini claimed the investigation was then quashed by military officials from the U.S., who knew them to be extraterrestrial, because there was no defense against the advanced technology and they feared widespread panic should the results become public.<ref>Good (1988), 23</ref>
* Although the 1968 [[Condon Report]] came to a negative conclusion (written by [[Edward Condon|Condon]]), it is known that many members of the study strongly disagreed with Condon's methods and biases. Most quit the project in disgust, or were fired for insubordination. A few became ETH supporters. Perhaps the best known example is David Saunders, who in his 1968 book ''UFOs? Yes'' lambasted Condon for extreme bias, and for ignoring or misrepresenting critical evidence. Saunders wrote: "It is clear... that the sightings have been going on for too long to explain in terms of straightforward terrestrial intelligence. It's in this sense that ETI (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) stands as the 'least implausible' explanation of 'real UFOs'."<ref>David Saunders, ''UFOs? Yes''</ref>
* In 1999, the private French [[COMETA report]] (written primarily by military defense analysts) stated the conclusion regarding UFO phenomena, that a "single hypothesis sufficiently takes into account the facts and, for the most part, only calls for present-day science. It is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitors."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ufoevidence.org/newsite/files/COMETA_part2.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-05-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716113351/http://www.ufoevidence.org/newsite/files/COMETA_part2.pdf |archive-date=2009-07-16 }}</ref> The report noted issues with formulating the extraterrestrial hypothesis, likening its study to the study of meteorites, but concluded, that although it was far from the best scientific hypothesis, "strong presumptions exist in its favour". The report also concludes, that the studies it presents, "demonstrate the almost certain physical reality of completely unknown flying objects with remarkable flight performances and noiselessness, apparently operated by intelligent [beings] ... Secret craft definitely of earthly origins (drones, stealth aircraft, etc.) can only explain a minority of cases. If we go back far enough in time, we clearly perceive the limits of this explanation."
* [[Jean-Jacques Velasco]], the head of the official French UFO investigation [[SEPRA]], wrote a book in 2005, saying, that 14% of the 5800 cases studied by SEPRA were 'utterly inexplicable and extraterrestrial' in origin.<ref>[http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1627.htm Velasco quoted in ''La Dépêche du Midi'', Toulouse, France, April 18, 2004]</ref> However, the CNES own report says 28% of sightings remain unidentified.<ref>[https://cnes.fr/en/web/CNES-en/5866-geipan-uap-investigation-unit-opens-its-files.php CNES report, March 26, 2007]</ref> [[Yves Sillard]], the head of the new official French UFO investigation [[GEIPAN]] and former head of French space agency [[CNES]], echoes Velasco's comments and adds, that the United States 'is guilty of covering up this information.'<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc2008.htm |title=Official French Gov't UFO study project to resume with new director |publisher=UFO Evidence |website=www.ufoevidence.org}}</ref>  However, this is not the official public posture of SEPRA, CNES, or the French government. (The CNES placed their 5,800 case files on the Internet starting March 2007.)