Pentagon study: Have aliens been watching us all this time?

A draft paper released by a Pentagon official along with an astronomer from Harvard University has claimed that aliens may be sending small spacecraft to explore our planet.

The paper has been published by Avi Loeb, an astronomer at Harvard University, and Sean M. Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was set up in July 2022 by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to study "objects of interest" present in space, the sky, and underwater.

It claims that an alien mothership in the solar system could be sending out these tiny probes to study planet Earth.

"An artificial interstellar object could potentially be a parent craft that releases many small probes during its close passage to Earth, an operational construct not too dissimilar from NASA missions," read the report.

"These 'dandelion seeds' could be separated from the parent craft by the tidal gravitational force of the Sun or by a manoeuvring capability," it said. "Equipped with a large surface-to-mass ratio of a parachute, technological 'dandelion seeds' could slow down in the Earth's atmosphere to avoid burnup and then pursue their objectives wherever they land," it added.

The paper titled "Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," is not an official document that is yet to be peer-reviewed.

It goes on to suggest that the alien civilisation that created these tiny probes may have sent out these tiny spacecraft long before earth even came into existence.

Loeb is also known for his study of the first known interstellar object, Oumuamua, which was discovered in 2017. Loeb created quite a stir in 2018 when he and his colleague Shmuel Bialy wrote a paper claiming that the interstellar object spotted by astronomers in Hawaii back in 2017, dubbed "Oumuamua", which is Hawaiian for "scout," is a piece of extra-terrestrial spacecraft technology.

"['Oumuamua] is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment," he and Bialy wrote in a paper published in 2019.

Since its discovery, Oumuamua has been the object of fascination and study for scientists around the world.

Apart from it being an interstellar traveller that is shaped like a cigar, the object's make-up was also a bit strange. Researchers have said the surface of the rock was made of a mushy carbon-enriched material so soft that if one were to stand on it, one's boots might sink by a few centimetres.

The object was first thought to be a comet, then an asteroid and later the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as something new entirely, an interstellar object. Nobody knows where Oumuamua came from; except that it has been travelling between star systems for an inordinate amount of time, maybe millions of years, says NASA.

Meanwhile, the AARO is continuing its probe into the origins of several alleged UAP encounters. The organisation has launched more than 360 new investigations, according to Live Science.

This is not the first time that claims have been made about the existence of aliens. Several UFO experts over the years have made several claims about aliens visiting our planet.

UFO expert Malcolm Robinson, who has spent most of his life studying extraterrestrial sightings, believes that aliens do not come with a "peaceful agenda." Robinson is one of the UK's top extraterrestrial specialists. He has written 10 books on aliens and UFOs over the years.

Belief in UFOs is a global phenomenon, with millions of people subscribing to ideas of unidentified flying objects, aliens, abductions, and government conspiracies. Last year, a report claimed that the oldest UFO sighting in the UK was recorded in 1742, during the reign of King George II of Great Britain.

The alleged UFO was spotted by a physician named Cromwell Mortimer, who was also secretary of the Royal Society.

In December 1742, Mortimer was on his way home from Westminster when he spotted a shiny object. Another UFO expert, Anna Whitty, also made quite astounding claims about aliens last year and said that they have always been on the planet and live under the oceans for protection.