UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots • Hacker News Board

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#71

Post by ohyes » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:52 PM UTC

brango wrote: post #33

I'm sold on the whole UFO cover-up thing. If you peel back the social ridicule (very successfully induced by US government collaboration with Hollywood) and consider the huge number of circumstantial reports from across the military and non-military it seems pretty clear there's stuff in the skies of non-human origin. Historical art suggests they've been flying for centuries. There's also the publicly acknowledged re…

Ok.

If it’s an extraterrestrial, how did it get here?

There’s no evidence that FTL is possible and even if it were it would probably require huge amounts of power. We’d notice it being used.

We may as well be saying that these are angels from heaven, I guess is my point. There are tons of reports of ‘divine’ stuff happening as well, but jumping to God existing being a likelihood is not something an objective observer would do.

What I really want to know is what the alien technology is that makes all of these videos grainy and impossible to make out details in, and how did Bigfoot acquire it?

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#72

Post by crispyambulance » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:53 PM UTC

jeiting wrote: post #9

Does anyone have a link to a "long read" taking this apart based on the evidence? The NYT article doesn't really provide a good skeptic's analysis.

Yeah, the NYT article was a thrilling read and quite unusual to see on the landing page (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-prog...).

Unfortunately, the sources in the story DO NOT inspire credibility...

  >"...said Harold E. Puthoff, an engineer who has conducted research on extrasensory perception for the C.I.A. and later worked as a contractor for the program [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]...

This guy has also been involved in "paranormal investigations" and "zero-point energy research" according to wikipedia. Nice fodder for the X-files, but not reality. It is a pity that the NYT reporter didn't take more skeptical view.

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#73

Post by neonhomer » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:55 PM UTC

justonepost wrote: post #36

gfodor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common retort (in my view, to make people feel better and not have to consider the implications otherwise) -- here's the pentagon official in charge of the program stating unequivocally that these are almost certainly not related to any aircraft in any national inventory https://www.npr.org/2017/12/19/571868263/secret-program-at-t... The thing that makes these interesting is the fact that they exhibit aeron…

Why would he necessarily know the complete inventory? Presumably there are top secret programs where it's all very much a need to know basis.

Exactly, it all goes back to the movie Independence Day, he doesn't know everything so he has "plausible deniability!"

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#74

Post by Waterluvian » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:55 PM UTC

ethagknight wrote: post #53

icc97 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pilot was witnessing it too

My brother is in the Navy, and lots of his friends are pilots.. those guys are jokesters, and I could absolutely see them pulling a prank along the lines of "oh my, thats a UFO! oh, its a smudge of cream cheese on the display."

Followed by deadpan "yes sir, no sir" all the way to the media. No admission that it's a prank, making it an ultimate prank.

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#75

Post by cmurf » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:55 PM UTC

pqh wrote: post #7

"Possible UFO" is a silly phrase if you think about it.

Linguistically it suggests it might be identified or identifiable, which belies the whole first word, unidentified, of the acronym. It's not just silly, it's an oxymoron.

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#76

Post by ghostbrainalpha » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:57 PM UTC

dsacco wrote: post #57

brango wrote: post #33

I'm sold on the whole UFO cover-up thing. If you peel back the social ridicule (very successfully induced by US government collaboration with Hollywood) and consider the huge number of circumstantial reports from across the military and non-military it seems pretty clear there's stuff in the skies of non-human origin. Historical art suggests they've been flying for centuries. There's also the publicly acknowledged re…

I’m open minded to what you’re saying, and I agree that dismissing alien contact due to popular zeitgeist is silly. But here’s my problem with what you’re saying: where did they come from then, and how did they get here? Why do we not have any evidence of their planet in any reasonable distance from Earth? Given what we understand about modern physics, we have three conclusions we can arrive at: 1. We fundamentally m…

Isn't it much more likely that an Alien society developed an artificial intelligence capable of exploring the universe AND self replicating.

A satellite program like this could easily monitor distant parts of the galaxy without travelling faster than light, or require a generational ship.

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#77

Post by colanderman » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:57 PM UTC

There's an angle displayed near the top of the screen, which counts down to 0° L and then starts counting up from 1° R.

That transition happens at precisely the moment that the object rotates.

Count me as convinced by the "speck of dust on gimbal-mounted camera" idea [1].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15961848

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#78

Post by OhDagny » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:57 PM UTC

Oh look, a blob.

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#79

Post by colanderman » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 5:58 PM UTC

kristaps wrote: post #18

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #14

At first I thought it was a spec of dirt stuck on the window, because it kept its position constant relative to the moving airplane. But then when it twisted, I had to give up that explanation.

Camera could be gimbal mounted, behind a fixed glass dome - if the speck is on the dome and the camera gimbal moves, it would appear like "the UFO" rotating.

Watch the angle displayed near the top of the screen. It passes 0° precisely when the object rotates. I say you're the winner.

(I think the speck would have to be on the lens itself though; a speck on the dome would stay fixed during gimbal rotation. Speck on the lens rotates by virtue of the DSP compensating for the camera rotation to keep the world level.)

I suppose also the "shape" of the object could be lens flare (or another imaging artifact) due to the object being very bright. At least some portion of such an artifact would track with the lens as well.

Re: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

#80

Post by jl6 » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:00 PM UTC

deepnotderp wrote: post #63

jl6 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could also be a genuine error like a fly on the lens or a bug in the viewfinder software.

That's a thermal camera, so I'm a little bit doubtful it's a bug, plus there were apparently multiple witnesses and computers there.

This story got picked up because there’s actual video footage. But unfortunately only one video. If there were multiple observers, why can’t we see multiple videos?