Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2019

24 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 ASTROBIOLOGY that we will not cite here. The oldest video dates back to 2004 from the skies near San Diego (California) and involved a recording of a US Navy fighter plane and an unidentified at- mospheric phenomenon, or UAP, an acronym that indicates those manifestations that previously were generically defined as UFOs. Since UAP also includes “not objects,” the term “phe- nomena” was preferred as an al- ternative descriptor. The 2004 video was published in December 2017 in a NYT report on the US Defense Department’s “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program,” specifi- cally launched to study the nu- merous UAP cases being regis- tered and to prevent any dan- gers to military and civilian avia- tion. The other two videos were published in 2018 in similar ways, but even these did not have great resonance until the recent official confirmation of their au- thenticity by the US Navy. Beyond the belated and unmoti- vated enthusiasm that arose due to the re- vival of the news last September, the videos reveal nothing new about objects or phe- nomena (punctually blurred or grainy or amorphous) that appear on radar screens or in aircraft imaging devices. Anyone who asked Gradisher for his opinion on the possible nature of these phenom- ena was told that “The frequency of incursions has increased since the ad- vents of drones and quad- copters,” a clear reference to a terrestrial origin. Commenting on images that show nothing de- finitive is the official pastime of ufology, so everyone has been freed to hypothesize on alien presences, secret weapons, political con- spiracies, and any other unprovable scenario. THE ONE WITH FOUR LEGS MUST BE THE LEADER ... SERIOUSLY? YOU ARE THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN?