Is there something more out there?
President Trump pledged on Thursday "to begin the process of identifying and releasing government files related to aliens and extraterrestrial life … and unidentified flying objects."
It comes after he accused former President Barack Obama of revealing classified information when he was asked about aliens on a podcast:
Podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen: Are aliens real?
Barack Obama: they're real, but I haven't seen them, and they're not being kept in, what is it?
Cohen: Area 51
RELATED NEWS | 'They're real': Obama clarifies statement on aliens
"He gave classified information. He's not supposed to be doing that," President Trump said.
Obama later clarified on instagram he "saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us... Really!"
The idea of life beyond earth has long fascinated the public.
In 2022, Congress held public hearings on UFOs, and later that year the Pentagon created an office to investigate them.
It published a report in 2024 saying it "has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology."
But Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist who heads a Harvard project searching for extraterrestrial life, think there's still more work to be done:
"If the government tells us that there are anomalies that they cannot figure out, it is the duty of scientists like myself to help them figure it out," Loeb said. "My guess is that the most exciting data or evidence was never disclosed."
