The UFO 'cookbook': How the American government investigates the unexplainable

The U.S. in 2022 launched the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), as part of the Defense Department to continue to investigate findings on UFOs, also called unidentified anomalous objects (UAPs).

Jon Kosloski, AARO director, said their first step in investigating a possible sighting is to look at the data to see if there's an obvious explanation.

"Sometimes our narratives, for example, will state in the narrative, we think it's a balloon and it behaved like a balloon. OK, well then it's probably a balloon, but most times it's not that simple."

Kosloski spoke with PBS News' Casey Kuhn about UFOs and how to watch out for common things - like satellites - that could be mistaken for UAPs.

To explain the perplexing, astonishing or downright seemingly impossible videos that come to his office, Kosloski said AARO pulls in all the data they can from sources like the Federal Aviation Administration. Sometimes, they have to invent a whole new methodology of analysis to debunk videos where the anomaly seems to be happening. Other times, there is no clear answer.

"We have to keep them on the shelf," he said, pointing out that of the over 1,800 cases AARO has, only 2% "have sufficient scientific evidence that we can conduct a thorough investigation" on.

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