The US Shot Down Several UFOs & Here's How They're Answering Questions About 'Aliens'

The U.S. government says it has shot down multiple unidentified flying objects in the days since it first took out a Chinese spy balloon, and officials still aren't quite sure about where some of these mystery UFOs are coming from.

Of course, social media users have already jumped to the baseless conclusion that these things are aliens. Officials haven't confirmed any such speculation, but they've been asked the question and have been slow to shoot down the possibility. Instead, they're leaning on the "unidentified" bit of the UFO idea.

The U.S. military shot down its fourth flying object in a span of eight days on Sunday, Time reports.

The latest object was seen flying over Lake Huron near a "sensitive" military base, the Pentagon confirmed. U.S. President Joe Biden personally gave the order to shoot it down, according to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

“Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation,” read the DOD statement. "The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected.”

The airborne object was unidentified and it had not been recovered as of Monday at noon, but that's only fuelled theories that it might be something strange.

It's also not the only flying object in recent days.

The Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the Atlantic on February 4. Nearly a week later, the U.S. shot down a UFO over Alaska on February 10 and another over Canada on February 11, the New York Times reports. Both of those objects were small, but their exact nature was unclear.

Naturally, people are wondering what the objects are, where they came from and what they're doing in North American airspace.

A few journalists even came right out and asked senior officials if these UFOs might be alien in origin.

“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,” said the commander of NORAD, General Glen VanHerck. “I haven’t ruled out anything. At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.”

However, VanHerck’s comments were quickly contradicted by an unidentified U.S. defence official who told NBC News there was “no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns."

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, also admitted on Monday that officials "have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are."

Kirby later shot down a direct question about aliens.

"I don't think the American people need to worry about aliens," he said Monday.

The U.S. government has been more open in recent years about discussing so-called "unidentified aerial phenomena," their word for UFOs. They even released a report about it a few years back, though that report did not reach any conclusions about whether we've got aliens showing up in our skies.