Footage shot by an Arabic news station has people around the world talking. It’s speculated that the news team caught an image of an alien spacecraft flying in front of the moon. If true, the implications would be world-changing.
The images have since been picked up by UFO bloggers who are analyzing the photo, trying to determine what it could possibly be. Thus far, no one has been able to definitely figure out what it is, which is a good thing for people interested in alien life.
The first thing that was ruled out was an airplane. An airplane has a distinct shape and looks much bigger than this image. It’s clear that whatever this is, it’s a bit smaller and moves much faster than an airplane.
It’s also much closer to the moon than an airplane would be. Obviously, planes don’t leave the atmosphere when flying. Whatever this object is, it is in outer space.
Other people speculated that it may be a piece of “space junk.” These are objects like old satellites or pieces of debris that are caught in the Earth’s gravitational pull. They orbit the planet just like the moon.
There’s actually a surprising amount of debris orbiting the planet. In fact, there are millions of pieces of debris currently orbiting the Earth, from spent rockets boosting a spacecraft to tiny pieces of metal that simply fell off during a mission. NASA is trying to collect and remove some of this debris, but it’s an incredibly difficult task.
Thus far, no one has been able to state whether this is space junk, a UFO, or something else entirely. But UFO hunters were also pleased by a recent announcement from NASA that a new solar system was discovered that has seven Earth-sized planets in it. This means that it may have extraterrestrial life.
The star with the orbiting planets is called TRAPPIST-1. At least three of the planets in this solar system are in the “Goldilocks zone,” which means the conditions are just right for life on the planet.
This solar system is 39 light years away, making it reasonably close to Earth but still far enough away that we can’t reach it. Scientists have used powerful telescopes to observe them and found that they may have oceans of water on their surface. If there is water, there is almost certainly some form of life on the planet.
Stars and planets like this are probably common throughout the universe, but it’s rare that we find them. This is part of what’s known as “Fermi’s paradox.” That paradox states that because the universe is so massive, there’s almost certainly intelligent life somewhere else out there. But that same size makes it almost impossible that we’ll ever find it.
Discoveries like TRAPPIST-1 and photos like the one captured by the Arabic news channel, however, give people hope that someday we’ll find other intelligent life out there. Until then, we’ll just have to keep looking to the sky and wondering.
