Every once in a while, the Pentagon appears to like to stir up controversy. It's in these moments when the U.S. government tends to release information about the possibility of extraterrestrial life visiting our planet. And it's just happened again: The Pentagon has just released a study that analyzes material from a suspected alien spacecraft.
The news. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), an office in the Pentagon charged with investigating UFOs, has just released a new report on the origins of what was long thought to be a piece of an extraterrestrial aircraft. Apparently, the office sent a sample of the suspected craft to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 2022. The material was studied there for two years. In April, the laboratory sent a final report to AARO.
The conclusion? The report says that the sample is probably not from an alien structure. It may be just another in an extensive line of experimental 20th-century materials used to build lighter, stronger airplanes.
Pentagon official poses with debris from the Roswell UFO site on July 8.
Official press release. As AARO explains in its official press release, “This specimen has been publicly alleged to be a component recovered from a crashed extraterrestrial vehicle in 1947, and purportedly exhibits extraordinary properties, such as functioning as a terahertz waveguide to generate antigravity capabilities.”
However, the Pentagon office explains that with the available evidence, the research team “assesses that this specimen is likely a test object, a manufacturing product or byproduct, or a material component of aerospace performance studies to evaluate the properties of Mg [magnesium] alloys.”
A magnesium compound. The report also clarifies that although “the chain of custody and ultimate purpose of this sample remain unclear,” the subsequent analysis the researchers performed was robust enough to identify “its composition, chemical and structural properties,” all of which “did not indicate that its origin was non-terrestrial, nor did the data indicate that the material examined ever had the pure single-crystal bismuth layer that could potentially have acted as a terahertz waveguide.”
To The Stars. Behind that name is the source of the sample the lab studied. To The Stars is an independent research organization headed by Blink-182 band leader and UFO fan Tom DeLonge. The organization had released a statement earlier explaining that “the material is clearly engineered with distinct layers of MgZn [magnesium zinc alloy] and Bi [bismuth] in structured thicknesses of only microns” and “there is no precedent for this structured combination of materials.”
After the uproar over this information, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory agreed to look at the material and explain why it decided to conduct a study. In a press release, Oak Ridge details that while “the long chain of custody of this sample cannot be verified,” the public and media interest in the sample more than justified a transparent investigation “that adheres to the scientific method.”
A special material. AARO and ORNL note that the material was probably one of the earliest tests of new aerospace alloys in the 20th century. “There was extensive national research on [magnesium] alloys for aircraft structures, engines, weapons, and launch systems beginning in 1915 and peaking during World War II,” the organizations report.
Unidentified flying objects don’t have to be aliens. NASA reminded us of this with this example of a high-resolution photo of Apollo 16 that looked like a flying saucer but was eventually identified as one of the lights for the EVAs.
According to AARO, many of these experimental magnesium alloys failed for reasons that weren’t well understood at the time of testing, “e.g., stress corrosion cracking.” This Pentagon office adds that “not surprisingly, records of failed [magnesium] alloy designs are sparse. Neither AARO nor ORNL could verify the historical origin of the specimen. In addition, conflicting and unverifiable personal accounts complicate their undocumented chain of custody.”
The specimen’s origin remains to be determined. None of the communiqués mention Roswell, New Mexico. Still, they point out that the material was recovered in 1947, which makes it likely that whoever gave the sample to To The Stars claimed it came from the famous enclave. We’re referring, of course, to the fundamental myth among UFO fans and conspiracy theorists.
Roswell and the colorful lights. The myth claims that something crashed in the desert outside of Roswell, New Mexico. The Air Force supposedly recovered pieces and declared it was a weather balloon. Still, legions of people believe it was an alien spacecraft.
That interest has resurfaced in recent years after a series of high-profile sightings by Navy pilots and the release of declassified videos of strange aerial phenomena. U.S. lawmakers then asked the Pentagon to investigate the alleged strange lights in the sky. In response, the Pentagon formed the AARO in 2022 and has been investigating unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) ever since.
Images | Rudi Riet | Jimmy Emerson | UTA Libraries | NASA
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