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00:00 Are we alone in the universe?
00:02 Or do we share space with something else?
00:05 And are they closer than many would care to imagine?
00:08 In this video, we'll explore multiple theories as to why we might be surrounded by other
00:12 life and alien worlds, including an in-depth look at the Dark Forest Hypothesis, made famous
00:18 by the three-body problem novelist Liu Cixin.
00:23 And at the end of the episode, we'll count down 10 UFO sightings that have happened on
00:27 Earth that still haven't been explained.
00:31 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; are we surrounded
00:36 by alien civilizations?
00:38 Do you need the big questions answered?
00:40 Are you constantly curious?
00:42 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:45 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:52 By some measures, we know our place in the universe.
00:55 We live on Earth, in the solar system, in the Milky Way Galaxy.
00:59 We're about 25,000 light-years away from our galactic centre, and our planet speeds
01:03 around the sun at about 66,000 miles per hour.
01:07 But beyond all of that, we're still trying to add detail to the rest of the cosmos…
01:12 particularly when it comes to the question of whether we share it with other lifeforms
01:16 or not.
01:21 Let's get straight to it with reason number one; the commonality of life in the universe.
01:30 When looking at instances of life, we of course have only one sample to draw upon; life on
01:35 Earth.
01:36 And there are plenty of studies and theories - including the Rare Earth Hypothesis - to
01:39 suggest that maybe that's all there is.
01:42 But equally, and in more recent times, we've seen more and more papers published arguing
01:46 that life actually could be all around.
01:49 One such paper was published in May 2020 by the Columbia University astronomer David Kipping,
01:55 with a key takeaway being that it's potentially nine times more likely that life is common
01:59 in the universe than rare.
02:01 The study models the likelihood of abiogenesis - of the emergence of life - on other planets
02:06 as per what we know to have happened on Earth, and concludes that there's good reason to
02:10 believe that it would happen again, on another Earth-like world.
02:14 For Kipping and his team, however, the likelihood of intelligent life isn't as high, with
02:19 close to a 50/50 chance.
02:21 But still, the suggestion is that if there are any alien species out there, then some
02:26 of them will have developed into an advanced civilization.
02:28 So, what are the chances that they're close by?
02:31 Reason number two as to why we could be surrounded is the growing list of potentially Earth-like
02:36 exoplanets.
02:38 Exoplanets are planets outside of the solar system, and charting them is actually a relatively
02:42 new prospect for astronomers - with the first official detection of an exoplanet coming
02:47 as late as 1992.
02:49 Meanwhile, the topmost predictions for how many there could be in the Milky Way claim
02:53 that there are multiple billions of other worlds in just this galaxy.
02:57 Of course, not all of those will be Earth-like.
02:59 But according to a June 2020 paper by a team at the University of British Columbia, we
03:04 can estimate that one in five sun-like stars does have an Earth-like planet in its habitable
03:09 zone… which amounts to around six billion celestial masses within the Milky Way that
03:13 are something similar to our pale blue dot.
03:16 If we then imagine that, first, life can exist somewhere other than Earth - and, again, reason
03:21 that it's nine times as likely that it's common than not - we could estimate that something
03:26 lives on at least 5.4 billion planets that aren't our own.
03:30 Then, if the chances of intelligent life really did turn out to be roughly 50/50, we're
03:35 talking more than two billion alien civilizations.
03:37 What's important to realise, though, is that this is still just one conclusion we
03:42 could reach.
03:43 It still stands that we haven't discovered even one alien lifeform so far, intelligent
03:48 or not.
03:49 But a growing number of scientists and astronomers do argue that the galaxy really could be bursting
03:54 with life nonetheless… it's just that we need to work out how to access it.
03:59 On to reason number three as to why we're probably surrounded; time.
04:03 We know that the Milky Way has been around for around 13.5 billion years.
04:08 And we also know that it hasn't always been the exact same cosmic mass as it is today.
04:12 It's shifted and developed over time, and indeed, the evolution of our galaxy to this
04:17 precise point is one of many key reasons why we can exist right here, right now.
04:22 In the search for alien life, we so often speak of habitable zones… but we're usually
04:27 contemplating them as a physical space; as a band around a star where a life-supporting
04:32 planet could orbit.
04:33 Alongside all of that, though, there are temporal habitable zones; moments in, and periods of
04:39 time when conditions align to create the best chances to form life.
04:43 And the interesting thing is that, according to one study, the Milky Way's optimum time
04:47 for life was long ago, to the tune of five and a half billion years back in cosmic history.
04:52 A December 2020 paper by Caltech calculated that the probability of life in the Milky
04:57 Way peaked around eight billion years after it formed, and around 13,000 light-years from
05:02 the galactic centre.
05:04 Earth and the solar system are now almost double that, at around 25,000 light-years
05:08 away from the heart of the Milky Way, and five and a half billion years further down
05:12 the timeline.
05:13 But, say there was a population boom at an earlier stage in our galaxy… then couldn't
05:18 we now expect there to be various ancient civilizations dotted around us?
05:23 And if they've potentially been evolving for billions of years longer than life on
05:26 Earth has, then could they potentially be far, far more advanced than we are?
05:30 Again, there's no way to know for sure until we encounter one… but the thought begins
05:35 to make the whole of human history feel really quite small, alongside the potential for everything
05:40 else.
05:41 But, even though there has seemingly been time enough, there are potentially planets
05:45 enough, and studies show that the likelihood is that alien life does exist somewhere, the
05:50 disappointing reality remains that we still haven't discovered anything.
05:54 A growing number of scientists believe that there must be extraterrestrial intelligence
05:58 in the universe - and probably in our galaxy - but nobody has found it.
06:03 So, reason number four why we're probably surrounded is because we're not yet advanced
06:07 enough to know what's really going on.
06:10 Across the many ecosystems of Earth, humans reign supreme.
06:13 We've built towns and cities across most of the world map, and we've travelled to
06:17 almost all Earthly locations.
06:19 And yet, our successes outside of Earth's atmosphere are… limited.
06:23 There's no doubt that our space travel achievements thus far should be celebrated… but they
06:28 still only amount to a small number of far slower-than-lightspeed machines.
06:32 Only two of which, the Voyagers, have ever broken out into interstellar space.
06:37 And a handful of human travellers making it onto the next closest thing to us, the moon.
06:41 Our impact on the wider universe is, then, at this stage, very small.
06:46 The Great Filter is an often-debated concept whenever talk of advanced civilizations comes
06:50 up.
06:51 It proposes that there's something, at some stage of civilization development, that puts
06:56 a halt to it all.
06:57 There's some kind of biological or technological hurdle that very few civilizations can pass…
07:03 and that's why space appears to us to be so… silent.
07:06 The next question is; has humankind already passed the Great Filter?
07:10 Or are we yet to encounter it?
07:12 If that second scenario is true, then it could be that we're just not at the required level
07:16 to engage with alien civilizations yet… and we might never be.
07:20 Meanwhile, those select few alien groups who have passed the filter have steadily grown
07:25 and grown all around us, despite us being naturally oblivious to them.
07:29 Finally, filter or no filter, it could simply be that we haven't allowed ourselves enough
07:34 of an opportunity yet to encounter and understand any potential alien groups.
07:39 In a joint-authored 2016 paper by Cornell University students Evan Salamonides and Yervon
07:44 Tersian, it's argued that we could be waiting fifteen hundred years before any real progress
07:49 is made toward first contact with aliens.
07:52 The study, entitled "A Probabilistic Analysis of the Fermi Paradox", reminds us that we've
07:57 only truly been searching in earnest for aliens for about a century… and also predicts that
08:02 less than one percent of the Milky Way has been reached in any way, by anything.
08:07 Which offers one explanation as to why we so far haven't crossed paths with aliens,
08:11 but also opens up the possibility that there could be plenty of them out there.
08:15 It's just so unlikely at this stage that we'll have clocked them, or they'll have
08:19 clocked us.
08:20 So, there we have it.
08:21 It can be argued that it's statistically likely that aliens abound.
08:25 It's becoming clearer and clearer that there are enough exoplanets in the Milky Way to
08:29 host them all.
08:30 According to one recent study, there's been comfortably enough time for them to have emerged
08:34 in this galaxy… and the final explanation as to why we've not spotted them yet is
08:38 because we're not advanced or clever enough ourselves.
08:42 Or we're just too impatient.
08:47 Where are all the aliens?
08:48 It's a question that humankind has seriously grappled with for decades, but we've yet
08:53 to find a truly satisfying answer.
08:56 Now though, there's a new approach in town.
08:58 A new way of addressing the issue of those apparently absent extraterrestrials.
09:03 And it might just be the one that finally opens our eyes.
09:14 In fiction, and often in real life, forests are seen as mysterious places; as shadowy
09:20 and intimidating worlds, full of beauty but also fear and doubt… and sometimes monsters.
09:25 There's the mystical "Old Forest" in The Lord of the Rings, the aptly named "Forbidden
09:29 Forest" in the Harry Potter books, and there are countless examples used in horror movies
09:33 - such as in The Blair Witch Project, which is mostly set in the woods.
09:37 It's so often a case, then, of trees, trees everywhere, but still no place to hide.
09:42 The Dark Forest Theory takes this idea and applies it to the universe as a whole.
09:47 We're not still talking trees here, but we are still thinking about vast, unknowable
09:52 and potentially dangerous landscapes, this time stretching from star to star and planet
09:56 to planet.
09:57 The theory first appeared under its current guise in the 2008 novel The Dark Forest by
10:01 the award-winning sci-fi writer Liu Shixin.
10:04 And it offers one solution to that most depressing of scientific predicaments, the Fermi Paradox.
10:09 The Fermi Paradox was first posed by the physicist Enrico Fermi in the 1950s.
10:14 It highlights the contradiction between the number of alien civilisations we expect there
10:18 to be in the universe and the number we've actually found evidence of.
10:22 Based on various estimates, we expect there to be thousands of alien species… but based
10:26 on various studies, we've found none of them.
10:29 Zero.
10:30 Not a single otherworldly being anywhere.
10:32 So, what gives?
10:34 Well, according to the Dark Forest Theory, fear gives.
10:37 And caution is the key.
10:39 For whenever any advanced enough civilisation moves through space, it does so slowly, and
10:43 it's ready to defend itself at a moment's notice.
10:46 Imagine again that you find yourself travelling through an unknown stretch of woodland.
10:51 Imagine if you like, that you're a hobbit walking past trees that legend says might
10:54 be enchanted.
10:55 You might feel exposed, or apprehensive, or ready to turn back around and head in the
11:00 opposite direction.
11:01 The Dark Forest Theory suggests that this is similar to how intelligent enough extraterrestrials
11:06 feel, too.
11:07 And that's why we've never heard or seen anything from them… because they simply
11:11 don't want to make themselves known.
11:13 They tread super-carefully through space, shuffling through the leaves and branches
11:17 of the cosmos, hoping never to attract the attention of anything else.
11:21 In many ways, it goes against most stereotypical science fiction.
11:24 The Hollywood storylines usually involve aliens that aren't exactly shy to reveal themselves.
11:29 They come, they see, they capture and destroy everything in their path.
11:33 But isn't all guns blazing mothership really the best way to go about conquering galaxies?
11:37 Wouldn't the lights and sounds and signatures of something like that actually render you
11:41 a sitting duck to anybody else looking in?
11:44 The Dark Forest Theory says that any alien civilization seriously hoping to survive doesn't
11:49 want to be quite so loud.
11:51 But that doesn't mean that the Dark Forest is safe.
11:53 It certainly isn't.
11:54 Mostly because of that other key aspect to it; survival.
11:58 Survival at all costs.
12:00 To exist in this universe, any alien civilization has to be prepared and able to swiftly eliminate
12:05 any other civilization that they encounter.
12:08 It's kill or be killed in this particular version of the cosmos.
12:11 So, while a Dark Forest civilization tries its best to avoid detection first of all,
12:16 it's also ruthless.
12:17 And it presumably carries instant, existence-ending superweapons, too.
12:21 Which, when you think about it, is a pretty frightening prospect.
12:25 It means that any alien civilization that's clever enough to succeed in the Dark Forest
12:29 A) is invisible, and B) could kill us all at any time.
12:33 Any time like now.
12:34 Or now.
12:35 Or now.
12:37 Hopefully we're all at least still here for the next part of this video, though.
12:40 Because what does this all mean for humans and life on Earth?
12:43 And should we more seriously consider the Dark Forest Theory as we move forward with
12:47 space travel?
12:48 For some, we really should.
12:50 In the twenty-first century, Earth is a noisier planet than ever before.
12:54 For any alien species that's passing through the Milky Way, this green and blue marble
12:58 - this world that's three worlds away from the sun and in the habitable zone - is emitting
13:02 various signals to let everyone know that we're here.
13:05 That we exist.
13:06 So, why not drop by to visit sometime?
13:09 And annihilate us all while you're at it?
13:10 Sure, that's a somewhat irrational and inflated conclusion to reach, but it is true that we
13:15 are making ourselves more and more noticeable.
13:18 First off, to some degree, there's the oxygen.
13:21 Earth's oxygen levels are high, and continually refilled by all the plant life that covers
13:25 our planet.
13:26 Would an alien civilization ever clock our particular atmospheric setup, then?
13:30 They could quickly realise that the chances of life existing on this rock are good.
13:34 As a result, they might decide to take a closer look… at which point they'd find further,
13:39 even stronger evidence that we're here.
13:41 We're now talking radio signals.
13:43 Over the last one hundred years or so, Earth has been beaming radio signals across its
13:47 own surface, but also out into space.
13:50 As our technology has advanced, so too has the size of our cosmic footprint… with scientists
13:55 calculating that our earliest radio signals are now detectable literally hundreds of trillions
14:00 of miles away from us.
14:01 A few hundred trillion miles actually isn't especially far in the grand scheme of the
14:05 entire universe, but those distances are always growing… and the whispers of our existence
14:10 are reaching further and further out.
14:12 There's also the physical evidence that a sufficiently advanced alien civilization
14:16 might spot.
14:17 One scenario is that, somewhere out there, there's an ultra, ultra-powerful telescope,
14:22 zooming into our towns and cities, and even into our homes.
14:25 The idea being that even our buildings and roads could give us away if anything is watching
14:30 closely enough.
14:31 Failing that, there's the growing fleet of satellites that now circle our planet.
14:35 Or, there are specific, targeted space missions that we've set off.
14:39 Like the Voyager probes, which famously carry golden records containing various pieces of
14:43 information for any alien species that might discover them.
14:46 For aliens conforming to the Dark Forest universe, all of this information, all of the signs
14:51 and signals, are priceless, because they allow them to safely watch us from a distance without
14:56 risking revealing their own selves.
14:58 They remain hidden in the forest.
15:00 They can proceed with caution, a key aspect of the Dark Forest theory, and they need only
15:04 decide what to do with us if we ever get too close to discovering them.
15:08 So, if they really are intent on quickly destroying any civilization which poses a potential threat,
15:13 it's really better to hope that we never discover alien life.
15:17 Because if we do, we're dead.
15:19 But let's finish with a slightly less gloomy outlook.
15:22 Because it's not as though the Dark Forest theory is definitely correct, and there are
15:25 plenty who go against it.
15:27 Perhaps the strongest counter-argument is that it doesn't allow for much by way of
15:31 cooperation.
15:32 In the Dark Forest universe, every single hypothesized alien species is solely out for
15:37 itself, and is hell-bent on removing anything else from its path.
15:41 But, for that society to have become advanced enough to even attempt interstellar missions
15:45 at all, it's a good bet that first it will have had to have learnt the value of cooperation
15:49 within itself.
15:50 So, why wouldn't it prefer to at least try to peacefully communicate with another species,
15:54 rather than just blasting it away by default?
15:57 Perhaps the strangest thing is that the Dark Forest theory doesn't allow much time at
16:00 all for first contact.
16:02 It does provide one solution to the Fermi Paradox, and it implies that there could be
16:06 countless alien civilizations out there.
16:09 It's just that they're all tentatively hiding away from each other, biding their
16:12 time for the best moment to strike.
16:14 But, when it comes to actually crossing paths with and recognizing extraterrestrial species,
16:19 the suggestion is that it would be all over before it had even begun.
16:22 It's an idea which forces us to consider our own position and impact on the universe
16:26 around us.
16:27 Should we, the citizens of Earth, take more notice of the Dark Forest theory?
16:31 Or could it be that we've already been spotted by some far-off group and we're doomed anyway?
16:35 So, in the meantime, why worry?
16:38 Or is there yet another, better solution to the Fermi Paradox?
16:41 One that doesn't require quite so much existential paranoia?
16:58 This is Unveiled, and today, we'll be counting down our picks for the top ten UFO incidents
17:02 that have still yet to be explained.
17:20 Number 10.
17:21 The Mount Rainier UFO Sighting This sighting, also called the Kenneth Arnold
17:26 UFO Sighting, is the one that gave us the phrase "flying saucer."
17:30 Kenneth Arnold, a pilot, was flying near Mount Rainier in Washington State in 1947, when
17:35 he encountered a series of unusual flashing lights.
17:38 Arnold, a civilian pilot, sees bright objects flash across the sky during a flight in Washington
17:44 State.
17:45 He then spotted multiple flying objects shimmering as if they were made out of mirrors.
17:49 He followed the objects for a while until they eventually flew away from him, much faster
17:54 than his plane.
17:55 Arnold had said that they moved as though like they were saucers skipping on the water,
18:01 and that phrase got turned into "flying saucers."
18:04 When papers reported on it, the name "flying saucer" was coined to describe what he saw,
18:08 and the military eventually investigated.
18:11 But with no evidence other than Arnold's own testimony, we might never know what the objects
18:15 were.
18:16 Arnold's sighting makes front page news.
18:19 In the days that follow, several hundred sightings of flying objects are recorded across the
18:24 country.
18:25 9.
18:26 The New Jersey Turnpike People stopped in their cars to get a better
18:29 look at a V-shaped UFO that was spotted over the New Jersey Turnpike in 2001.
18:48 These lights were supposed to be gold and appeared at night, and were even seen by local
18:52 cops and filmed.
18:53 They were compared extensively to the similar V-shaped UFO formation seen in Arizona in
18:58 1997, the so-called "Phoenix Lights."
19:01 And again, some people thought military flares were responsible.
19:17 Decades on, and we still don't know what they were.
19:20 Maybe another military exercise was to blame, but when similar formations of light in the
19:24 sky keep appearing, perhaps something more is going on.
19:36 8.
19:37 The Hill Abduction The most famous alien abduction case of all
19:40 time, the abduction of Barney and Betty Hill, established many of the hallmark characteristics
19:45 of the alien abduction myth.
19:47 The Hills were driving through New Hampshire in 1961 when they saw a flying saucer following
19:51 them.
19:52 Eventually, the saucer landed, and they approached to investigate, seeing humanoid figures within.
20:14 They then returned home with missing time and missing memories.
20:27 Betty started to regain her memories through dreams, and came to believe that she and her
20:31 husband had been abducted by aliens and experimented on, though the aliens were friendly.
20:36 She said that they came from Zeta Reticuli.
20:39 To this day, it's not clear what actually happened to the Hills that night.
20:54 7.
20:55 Aurora UFO Incident This alien encounter is often taken to be
21:00 a bit of local color down in Texas, but it's still not clear where the strange story came
21:05 from or what happened.
21:07 According to local legend and a Texas historical marker, this is the burial site of an alien.
21:26 Two days later, it made the front page of the Dallas Morning News.
21:30 But Wheeler says it's not something that many of the townspeople wanted shared.
21:34 It's plausible that the entire story was fabricated and to great effect, since it remains a popular
21:39 if absurd legend in the area.
21:41 But they do say that there's a kernel of truth in every story, and maybe a spaceman did crash
21:46 down in the old west.
21:55 6.
21:57 Halftime This UFO sighting was experienced by countless
22:00 people, all watching a friendly soccer game in Florence, Italy in 1954.
22:05 As the story goes, the match had to be stopped partway through because a large number of
22:10 UFOs appeared in the sky.
22:12 Thousands of people were witnesses, and they variously described an object that looked
22:16 like an egg or a cigar, but it was brilliant white and left a strange residue behind when
22:21 it departed.
22:22 Scientists believe that the entire object was a unique weather phenomenon involving spider
22:27 webs getting pulled into the atmosphere, which would also explain the residue, but it was
22:31 over far too quickly to be studied in detail.
22:34 5.
22:35 Westall UFO Now on to Australia.
22:39 This famous sighting happened in 1966 and also boasts a great many witnesses.
22:44 "Westall high students and teachers insist they saw UFOs triggering a massive government
22:52 cover-up."
22:53 "In Melbourne, a group of schoolchildren and their teacher all saw a flying saucer fly
22:57 over the top of their school one morning, supposedly being chased by airplanes."
23:02 "By climb, one landed in a park, then took off."
23:06 "I could feel a heat and hear this buzzing sound, and I could see purple lights all around
23:13 it."
23:14 "The Royal Australian Air Force had no records of any such event, at least not any it's ever
23:19 made public, but to be seen by so many people, it's definitely worth further study."
23:24 Some have blamed a weather balloon for the sighting, as they often do, but even sixty
23:28 years on, and nobody really knows what happened or what the UFO was.
23:32 "Do you think you'll ever find out about the mystery?"
23:35 "No, I doubt it very much."
23:38 4.
23:39 Flatwoods Monster Part UFO encounter, part cryptid, the Flatwoods
23:44 Monster is today a staple of West Virginia folklore.
23:47 Supposedly, in 1952, a bright object flew across the sky and crashed down to Earth.
23:53 "And there were a number of young people going off into the woods and saw some kind of fiery,
24:00 glowing object that descended or came down."
24:04 Some people went to investigate, and eventually came across an alien figure, perhaps ten feet
24:09 tall, that glided across the ground and created a foul smell that left them unwell.
24:14 "I do recall seeing the May family sketches.
24:17 They weren't extremely detailed, but they were similar.
24:22 The family members all drew the same thing, which was interesting."
24:26 Usually people blame a large barn owl for the sighting, thanks to the detailed description,
24:31 but no owl is ten feet tall.
24:34 Owls also don't leave burn marks on the ground or crash to Earth on comets.
24:38 "People were thinking maybe it was mass hysteria, maybe it was fake, maybe it was just made
24:43 up."
24:44 3.
24:45 Mothman
24:47 Another incident that toes the line between a fantastical monster and an extraterrestrial,
24:51 and which also took place in West Virginia, were the sightings of Mothman in 1966 and
24:56 1967.
24:57 "They claimed to have seen a large, winged creature, six to seven foot tall, grey in
25:06 collar, and two large red eyes."
25:08 Alien or not, this mysterious creature was an unidentified flying object, in the true
25:13 sense, spotted by numerous people.
25:16 The sightings culminated with the 1967 Silver Bridge Collapse, in which 46 people lost their
25:21 lives.
25:22 "They said that the Mothman appeared before the bridge fell.
25:26 It's like a legend."
25:28 "Although I'm fairly certain a flying cryptid didn't cause this disaster, the Silver Bridge
25:34 did collapse."
25:36 Some blame Mothman for this, or believe that he was providing a warning, but it's still
25:40 not clear what those actual sightings were.
25:43 Maybe it was a large bird of some kind, a crane is usually mentioned, or maybe he was
25:48 something not of this world.
25:50 "Skeptics have attributed the Mothman sightings to a misidentification of giant owls, or even
25:56 a crane that is local to the area.
25:59 There's all kinds of other explanations that have been given."
26:01 2.
26:02 Phantom Airships
26:04 Again we have a UFO sighting that predates the Second World War, which is unusual.
26:08 This bizarre craze of sightings happened in the 1890s, as members of the public began
26:13 to see "mystery airships" in the sky.
26:15 This was still a few years before the first successful airplane, where the only ways to
26:19 fly were in airships or balloons, so it makes sense that people would see a UFO and determine
26:24 that it must be some kind of airship.
26:27 The panic then re-emerged fifteen years later, just before World War One.
26:31 Some believe the whole thing was made up to sell newspapers, while others point to it
26:35 as proof that aliens have been on Earth for centuries.
26:39 1.
26:40 The Invasion of Washington
26:41 In 1952, America was under attack.
26:44 The capital city, Washington, D.C., was besieged by unexplained aircraft, visible to both the
26:49 naked eye and to radar equipment.
26:52 In the skies over the heart of the United States government, multiple unidentified flying
26:57 objects are picked up on radar by air traffic controllers at Washington National Airport
27:03 and Andrews Air Force Base.
27:05 Even the most experienced airmen and aviation workers saw bright lights and strange objects,
27:11 including one described as a "ball of fire."
27:13 Basically it was all over the news, all over the entire world.
27:18 So it happened twice on two consecutive weekends, meaning that more and more people saw the
27:26 same thing.
27:27 It was so alarming that the CIA investigated, setting up the Robertson Panel under the President's
27:32 orders because they thought the event represented a threat to national security.
27:36 It remains such a unique encounter because it lasted for multiple days and had so many
27:41 witnesses, and it might be the UFO encounter that the U.S. government has taken most seriously
27:47 of all.
27:48 The Air Force created Project Blue Book to investigate the growing number of sightings
27:52 and contact events.
27:55 But was this simply an attempt on the part of the U.S. government to suppress the truth?
28:01 So what do you think?
28:03 Could we be surrounded by alien civilizations?
28:05 By some measures, the chances may be high.
28:09 It's statistically likely that aliens exist in high numbers.
28:13 There are easily enough worlds in the universe to host them, and there's surely been enough
28:17 time since the Big Bang for them to emerge.
28:20 On top of all of the above, there's the ever more popular Dark Forest Theory to consider,
28:25 which suggests that the only reason we haven't met aliens yet is because the smartest ones
28:29 are keeping well hidden.
28:31 And finally, there's the long and always growing list of bizarre experiences on Earth
28:37 that seemingly point to otherworldly beings.
28:40 [MUSIC]
28:50 Do aliens exist?
29:12 Do they know about Earth?
29:14 Will our paths ever cross?
29:16 Is it safe if they do?
29:18 These are constant questions as we peer out into space, forever searching for someone
29:22 else who's looking back, searching for us.
29:25 What do you think?
29:26 Is there anything we missed?
29:28 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
29:32 subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.