For generations, humans have wondered: What would alien life from another planet be like? But we rarely ask the opposite: What do they think of us?
It’s a question that can produce some, well, uncomfortable answers if you’re an Earthling.
“If I looked at Earth from a distance, I would be very disappointed,” says theoretical physicist Avi Loeb. “Most of our investments are dealing with conflicts to prevent other people from killing us or from killing others. Look at the Ukraine war on a bit of terrain. This is not a sign of wisdom.”
The debate over whether there are little green men or UFOs among us escalated in February when former President Barack Obama responded to a podcaster’s question by saying aliens were “real,” but that he “hadn’t seen them” and “they weren’t put in Area 51.” President Donald Trump later announced on social media that he ordered the release of government files due to “extreme interest.”
Interest in UFOs has also increased as the United States turns to the moon with Wednesday’s launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission. Four astronauts will fly around the moon before returning to Earth.
In a world filled with war, civil unrest, climate change and divisiveness, it’s easy to wonder what newcomers to planet Earth will make of us and our struggles. However, most Americans echo the sentiment of “The X-Files” slogan: “The truth is out there.”
A 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe their best guess is that intelligent life exists on other planets. About half of American adults say UFOs reported by people in the military are “definite” or “probable” evidence of extraterrestrial intelligent life.
“We don’t want to think that this is the only place in this extraordinary and incomprehensible universe where life and intelligence and technology have emerged,” says Bill Diamond, president and chief executive of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
“It says this about humans, ‘We don’t want to be alone.’
There is something. But what?
Since the recovery of debris near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, Americans have been fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrial life. The military initially said the material came from a flying disc, only to reverse course and tell the public it was from a weather balloon.
Hollywood ran with it. Flying saucers, little green men and eventually humanoid gray aliens became part of popular culture. April 5 is also celebrated as “First Contact Day” throughout the iconic “Star Trek” franchise, marking the date in 2063 when mankind first made contact with the Vulcans in the “Trek” canon.
A lot of popular culture suggests that any alien can be aggressive. Priscilla Wald, who teaches science fiction at Duke University, has a theory as to why.
“I think it’s a reflection of who we are, that we’re projecting onto the aliens the way we treat each other,” says Wald. “So aliens are coming down, they want to conquer us, they’re violent. Who does that sound like? It sounds like us.”
In 2024, the Pentagon released hundreds of reports of unknown and unidentified aerial phenomena. However, that review gave no indication that their origin was extraterrestrial.
On two separate occasions, Debbie Dimitro saw objects in the sky in southern Oakland County, Michigan. The green object Dmytro says he saw in the sky over Royal Oak, Michigan on March 1, looked neither like a plane nor a helicopter. Dmytro, a 56-year-old medical professional, admits it could be some kind of commercial or delivery drone.
What she saw in the same general area north of Detroit in 2023 is not easily explained.
“Four yellow lights, yellow golden lights and all of them flying very, very low,” Dmytro recalls. She says the lights were about 100 feet (30 meters) up at their closest.
“I’ve never seen anything fly so low in such perfect unison,” she says. “Is it a man-made thing? Isn’t it man-made? Who knows?”
Who really knows? UFOs, the term for unidentified flying objects, have given way in recent years to UAP – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon.
“Absolutely, there are things out there,” like UAPs and UFOs, says Diamond, whose SETI — the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — seeks to explore, discover and understand the nature of life and intelligence in the universe.
“People observe things in the sky that they don’t immediately recognize or identify as either human engineering, such as aircraft or drones or helicopters, or animals, such as birds, and therefore what they are,” says Diamond.
Time for the truth
Like most, Dmytro wants to know what the government knows. “I think there’s a lot of information out there. I’m open to learning more,” she says. “I have an open mind. It’s always about scientific evidence.”
Retired Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet says the evidence clearly shows that there are UAP zipping around the sky and in the oceans.
“The inhuman intelligence that operates them or controls them is absolutely real,” says Gallaudet. “We have recovered the crashed craft. We don’t know if they are alien in origin.”
Gallaudet served as acting administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He attended a 2024 congressional hearing on UAP disclosures and said Trump’s promised release of government files was of interest to people. He just expects the president to follow through.
There are billions of galaxies in the universe and billions of stars in each, so the potential for life to develop elsewhere is very high, according to University of Michigan astronomy professor Edwin Bergin, who teaches about finding life elsewhere. He believes that if intelligent beings navigate the vast distances to reach Earth, they will make themselves known – despite humanity’s desire to create chaos.
“I think they look at us like we’re crazy … but they’ll come out,” he says. “I mean, why come here unless you’re going to sit and observe.”
Loeb, director of Harvard’s Institute for Theory and Computation and head of the university’s Galileo Project, a systematic scientific search for evidence of extraterrestrial technological artifacts, believes in the possible existence of extraterrestrials.
“They might be laughing at us,” he says. “They may be watching us … to make sure we don’t become predators, we don’t become dangerous to them.”
In the interest of national security
According to Diamond, much of the government secrecy surrounding UFOs and UAPs is tied to national security concerns.
“We have very advanced technologies, satellites, ground-based that are for different purposes, mostly national security and defense that show things in the sky or on board aircraft,” says Diamond. “Sometimes these objects pick up. The technology behind it is sensitive and secure.”
Gallaudet, who spent 32 years in the Navy and has watched classified UAP video, says government data, including the “trove” of UAP video housed by the Navy, should be shared with scientists to better understand the characteristics of the objects.
“When you look at these things in our airspace having near collisions with our aircraft, it’s a real legitimate concern,” he says. “We’re not sure what they are and what they intend to do in their interactions with humanity. That may or may not be a national security threat.”
“When has ignorance ever been a good national strategy?” Gallaudet asks. “Whether it’s scary, harmful or not, or a mix, I think it’s in our best interest to find the truth.”
Meanwhile, Diamond doesn’t think any “true alien encounters can be kept secret.”
“If any civilization has mastered interstellar travel, they have technology and capabilities that are beyond our imagination,” he says. “If they want to interact, they will; if they don’t, they won’t. If they want to be seen, they will, and if not, they won’t!”
