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Comment by the__alchemist | Hacker News Reader

> What a scientist needs are precise measurements from multiple viewpoints provided by devices that register various wavelengths (visual, infrared, radar).

Fighter jets (Like the Navy HUD showed in the article?) have radars, targeting pods with high zoom, IR, TV, and laser-range-detectors, and fly in formation. These radars show the altitude and airspeed of anything they pick up. They also are always recording displays that would save this information.

My building's concierge loves talking about UFOs. I try to steer him towards articles etc on the latest exobiology info. Real stuff can capture that desire for something exotic just as well. Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is a great read for the psychology and history behind the UFO phenomenon.

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Exobiology is more accurate but less impressive -- it's chemicals not little green men.

UFOs are more inpressive (advanced flight tech, little green men) but fictional.

Since neither will ever affect the average non-exobiologist's real life on earth, being isn't negative factor.

>UFOs are more inpressive (advanced flight tech, little green men) but fictional.

The only people who believe this haven't studied the data, or dug any deeper than surface level. If we disqualify all single-witness events and only select for highly credible individuals the evidence is still overwhelming.

Evidence of what?

Isn’t it an argument to ignorance to claim UFOs are fictional? To confidently say they don’t exist would require you to be aware of all parts of the sky at all times.

The other side has to prove that they exist, not vice versa.

By that reasoning, You cannot actually prove that anyone else exists except you. The burden of proof is on you to prove you are not the only being in existence. Have fun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)#S...

Like the spaghetti monster, it's certainly not impossible they don't exist. It's also not impossible that they're indeed here, unfailingly remaining just beyond our ability to confirm their presence, and they look exactly as they appear in the popular imagination -- except with bowler hats.

prove they are fictional. or not. it's still open.

> Fighter jets (Like the Navy HUD showed in the article?) have radars, targeting pods with high zoom, IR, TV, and laser-range-detectors, and fly in formation.

Yes. Also very possible that they have something else that's classified but gives an extra layer of plausibility.

I think most people assume the U in UFO stands for alien, but I think it's more likely it stands for "top secret military aircraft (manned or unmanned) of human origin that the overwhelming majority of military pilots and air traffic controllers aren't going to have clearance to know about".

If the SR-71 could go as fast as it did using 50s technology I don't see why modern classified tech wouldn't be similarly impressive. Just look at how far racing cars have come since then for example, largely due to the rise of computers.

Pulling between 500-800Gs is a huge feat as that force would instantly kill any human being and would obliterate any constructed craft we're capable of building.

My bet is those turns are a no-lock targeting pod track without reliable range information, or biting off on something else mid-track.

Why put a person in it? There a place for human pilots when decisions need to be made but for (say) an SR-72 there's no need.

Regardless, our craft materials could not withstand that force either.

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