Last Updated on March 13, 2026 by Daily News Staff

Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina

Most of us still call them UFOs – unidentified flying objects. NASA recently adopted the term “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP. Either way, every few years popular claims resurface that these things are not of our world, or that the U.S. government has some stored away.

I’m a sociologist who focuses on the interplay between individuals and groups, especially concerning shared beliefs and misconceptions. As for why UFOs and their alleged occupants enthrall the public, I’ve found that normal human perceptual and social processes explain UFO buzz as much as anything up in the sky.

Historical context

Like political scandals and high-waisted jeans, UFOs trend in and out of collective awareness but never fully disappear. Thirty years of polling find that 25%-50% of surveyed Americans believe at least some UFOs are alien spacecraft. Today in the U.S., over 100 million adults think our galactic neighbors pay us visits.

It wasn’t always so. Linking objects in the sky with visiting extraterrestrials has risen in popularity only in the past 75 years. Some of this is probably market-driven. Early UFO stories boosted newspaper and magazine sales, and today they are reliable clickbait online.

In 1980, a popular book called “The Roswell Incident” by Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore described an alleged flying saucer crash and government cover-up 33 years prior near Roswell, New Mexico. The only evidence ever to emerge from this story was a small string of downed weather balloons. Nevertheless, the book coincided with a resurgence of interest in UFOs. From there, a steady stream of UFO-themed TV shows, films, and pseudo-documentaries has fueled public interest. Perhaps inevitably, conspiracy theories about government cover-ups have risen in parallel.

Some UFO cases inevitably remain unresolved. But despite the growing interest, multiple investigations have found no evidence that UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin – other than the occasional meteor or misidentification of Venus.

But the U.S. Navy’s 2017 Gimbal video continues to appear in the media. It shows strange objects filmed by fighter jets, often interpreted as evidence of alien spacecraft. And in June 2023, an otherwise credible Air Force veteran and former intelligence officer made the stunning claim that the U.S. government is storing numerous downed alien spacecraft and their dead occupants. https://www.youtube.com/embed/2TumprpOwHY?wmode=transparent&start=0 UFO videos released by the U.S. Navy, often taken as evidence of alien spaceships.

Human factors contributing to UFO beliefs

Only a small percentage of UFO believers are eyewitnesses. The rest base their opinions on eerie images and videos strewn across both social media and traditional mass media. There are astronomical and biological reasons to be skeptical of UFO claims. But less often discussed are the psychological and social factors that bring them to the popular forefront.

Many people would love to know whether or not we’re alone in the universe. But so far, the evidence on UFO origins is ambiguous at best. Being averse to ambiguity, people want answers. However, being highly motivated to find those answers can bias judgments. People are more likely to accept weak evidence or fall prey to optical illusions if they support preexisting beliefs.

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For example, in the 2017 Navy video, the UFO appears as a cylindrical aircraft moving rapidly over the background, rotating and darting in a manner unlike any terrestrial machine. Science writer Mick West’s analysis challenged this interpretation using data displayed on the tracking screen and some basic geometry. He explained how the movements attributed to the blurry UFO are an illusion. They stem from the plane’s trajectory relative to the object, the quick adjustments of the belly-mounted camera, and misperceptions based on our tendency to assume cameras and backgrounds are stationary.

West found the UFO’s flight characteristics were more like a bird’s or a weather balloon’s than an acrobatic interstellar spacecraft. But the illusion is compelling, especially with the Navy’s still deeming the object unidentified.

West also addressed the former intelligence officer’s claim that the U.S. government possesses crashed UFOs and dead aliens. He emphasized caution, given the whistleblower’s only evidence was that people he trusted told him they’d seen the alien artifacts. West noted we’ve heard this sort of thing before, along with promises that the proof will soon be revealed. But it never comes.

Anyone, including pilots and intelligence officers, can be socially influenced to see things that aren’t there. Research shows that hearing from others who claim to have seen something extraordinary is enough to induce similar judgments. The effect is heightened when the influencers are numerous or higher in status. Even recognized experts aren’t immune from misjudging unfamiliar images obtained under unusual conditions.

Group factors contributing to UFO beliefs

“Pics or it didn’t happen” is a popular expression on social media. True to form, users are posting countless shaky images and videos of UFOs. Usually they’re nondescript lights in the sky captured on cellphone cameras. But they can go viral on social media and reach millions of users. With no higher authority or organization propelling the content, social scientists call this a bottom-up social diffusion process.

In contrast, top-down diffusion occurs when information emanates from centralized agents or organizations. In the case of UFOs, sources have included social institutions like the military, individuals with large public platforms like U.S. senators, and major media outlets like CBS.

Amateur organizations also promote active personal involvement for many thousands of members, the Mutual UFO Network being among the oldest and largest. But as Sharon A. Hill points out in her book “Scientifical Americans,” these groups apply questionable standards, spread misinformation and garner little respect within mainstream scientific communities.

Top-down and bottom-up diffusion processes can combine into self-reinforcing loops. Mass media spreads UFO content and piques worldwide interest in UFOs. More people aim their cameras at the skies, creating more opportunities to capture and share odd-looking content. Poorly documented UFO pics and videos spread on social media, leading media outlets to grab and republish the most intriguing. Whistleblowers emerge periodically, fanning the flames with claims of secret evidence.

Despite the hoopla, nothing ever comes of it.

For a scientist familiar with the issues, skepticism that UFOs carry alien beings is wholly separate from the prospect of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Scientists engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have a number of ongoing research projects designed to detect signs of extraterrestrial life. If intelligent life is out there, they’ll likely be the first to know.

As astronomer Carl Sagan wrote, “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”

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Barry Markovsky, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of South Carolina

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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In the vast digital landscape of the internet, strange phenomena occasionally emerge that leave investigators, tech enthusiasts, and everyday viewers scratching their heads. One of the most puzzling cases appeared in 2015, when a mysterious YouTube channel called Unfavorable Semicircle began uploading an astonishing number of cryptic videos.

Within months, the channel had published tens of thousands of bizarre clips, many of which seemed random, incomprehensible, and visually chaotic. But as internet detectives began analyzing the content more closely, they discovered that these videos might not have been random at all.

The Sudden Appearance of an Internet Mystery

The Unfavorable Semicircle channel reportedly appeared in March 2015, with its first uploads arriving in early April.

Almost immediately, the channel began publishing videos at an incredible pace. Observers estimated that the account uploaded thousands of videos per week, sometimes multiple videos per minute. By the time the channel disappeared in early 2016, researchers believed it had uploaded well over 70,000 videos, possibly far more.

The scale alone made the project seem impossible for a human to manage manually.

Strange Visuals and Cryptic Titles

Most of the videos shared similar characteristics:

• Extremely short or very long runtime
• Abstract visuals such as flashing colors, static, or distorted imagery
• Little or no audio, or heavily distorted sounds
• Titles made of random characters, symbols, or numbers

To casual viewers, the videos looked like pure digital noise. However, online investigators suspected something more deliberate was happening.

Hidden Images Discovered

The mystery deepened when researchers began extracting individual frames from some videos.

When thousands of frames from certain clips were stitched together, the results sometimes formed coherent images. One of the most famous examples involved a video titled “LOCK.” While the footage appeared chaotic at first, combining the frames revealed a recognizable composite image.

This discovery suggested the videos were carefully constructed rather than random uploads.

Theories About the Channel’s Purpose

Because the creator never explained the project, several theories emerged across Reddit, YouTube, and internet forums.

Automated Experiment
Many believe the channel was created using automated software that generated and uploaded content at scale.

Alternate Reality Game (ARG)
Some viewers suspected the channel might be part of a hidden puzzle or digital scavenger hunt.

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Encrypted Communication
Others compared the channel to Cold War “numbers stations,” suggesting the videos could contain coded messages.

Digital Art Project
Another theory suggests the channel was an experimental art project exploring algorithms, data, and visual noise.

Despite years of investigation, no single explanation has been confirmed.

Why the Channel Disappeared

In February 2016, YouTube removed the channel, reportedly due to spam or automated activity violations.

By that time, the channel had already become a minor internet legend. Fortunately, some researchers managed to archive a large portion of the videos before they disappeared.

Even today, archived clips continue to circulate online as investigators attempt to decode them.

Other Mysterious YouTube Channels

The Unfavorable Semicircle mystery is not the only strange case on YouTube.

One well-known example is Webdriver Torso, a channel that uploaded hundreds of thousands of videos showing red and blue rectangles with simple beeping sounds. Internet speculation ran wild before Google eventually confirmed it was an internal YouTube testing account.

Another example is AETBX, which posts distorted visuals and unusual audio that some viewers believe contain hidden patterns or encoded information.

These cases highlight how automation, experimentation, and creativity can sometimes blur the line between technology and mystery.

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A Digital Mystery That Remains Unsolved

Nearly a decade later, the true purpose behind Unfavorable Semicircle remains unknown.

Was it a sophisticated experiment? A piece of algorithmic art? Or simply an automated test that accidentally captured the internet’s imagination?

Whatever the explanation, the channel stands as a reminder that even in a world filled with billions of videos and endless information, the internet can still produce mysteries that challenge our understanding of technology.

Why Internet Mysteries Still Fascinate Us

Stories like Unfavorable Semicircle capture attention because they combine technology, creativity, and the unknown. They invite people from around the world to collaborate, analyze patterns, and search for meaning hidden in the noise.

And sometimes, the most intriguing part of the mystery is that the answer may never fully be known.

Related Coverage & Further Reading

• Atlas Obscura – The Unsettling Mystery of the Creepiest Channel on YouTube
• Her Campus – Top 5 Most Obscure Internet Mysteries
• Medium – Unfavorable Semicircle: The YouTube Mystery No One Can Solve
• Gazette Review – Top 10 Strangest YouTube Channels Ever
• Decoding the Unknown – Unfavorable Semicircle YouTube Mystery Archive
• Wikipedia – Unfavorable Semicircle

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Last Updated on February 28, 2026 by Daily News Staff

For decades, the idea of aliens visiting Earth has lived in a cultural no-man’s-land: too fascinating to ignore, too stigmatized to study seriously, and too easy to dismiss with a joke. But that posture has shifted in a measurable way over the past several years.

Physicist Kevin Knuth (University at Albany, SUNY) argued in a 2018 essay for The Conversation that the question of whether some UFO reports could represent something truly unknown is worthy of serious scientific study — not because we have proof of extraterrestrials, but because a small portion of cases appear to resist easy explanation and involve trained observers, multiple sensors, or unusual performance claims.
Article: https://theconversation.com/are-we-alone-the-question-is-worthy-of-serious-scientific-study-98843

That argument gained new oxygen in late 2017, when The New York Times reported that the U.S. Department of Defense had funded a program known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). The reporting described roughly $22 million spent to examine military reports of unusual aerial incidents. Former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo became a central public figure in the story, saying he left his role amid frustration over secrecy and limited support for deeper investigation.

Around the same time, the Pentagon confirmed and released several now-famous military videos showing encounters recorded on forward-looking infrared (FLIR) systems from Navy aircraft — clips that reignited public debate and pushed the topic out of late-night-TV territory and into mainstream news.

What we’ve learned since (2018–2026)

The biggest “update” since your original post isn’t a single smoking gun. It’s the fact that the U.S. government and scientific institutions have increasingly treated the issue as a data and airspace-safety problem—and, potentially, a national security one.

A few key developments:

• The language changed: “UFO” has increasingly been replaced by UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), a term meant to reduce stigma and widen the scope beyond “flying saucers.”
• Regular reporting became normalized: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has issued public-facing UAP reporting in recent years, and the Department of Defense has continued formal tracking through dedicated offices.
• NASA stepped in: NASA convened an independent UAP study team, releasing a final report in 2023 that emphasized something simple but important: if you want answers, you need better data, consistent reporting standards, and transparent methods. (NASA’s stance was not “aliens confirmed,” but “this is a legitimate area for structured inquiry.”)

The Carl Sagan test still applies

Carl Sagan’s line remains the guardrail here:

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

In other words: eyewitness testimony alone — even sincere testimony — isn’t enough. A personal story, a viral clip, or even a dramatic encounter doesn’t automatically equal proof of extraterrestrial visitation. If the claim is “non-human intelligence is visiting Earth,” the evidence has to be strong enough to survive serious scrutiny: repeatable analysis, multi-sensor confirmation, chain-of-custody, and independent review.

So where does that leave us?

If you strip away the hype, the most reasonable position in 2026 looks something like this:

• Something is being observed in a small percentage of cases that isn’t immediately identifiable.
• That does not automatically mean “aliens.”
• But it does mean the topic is no longer intellectually off-limits the way it once was.

After leaving AATIP-related work, Elizondo became associated with To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, a group founded by musician Tom DeLonge that aimed to blend public interest, aerospace ideas, and advocacy for further investigation. Whether you view that effort as serious research, public outreach, or a media-adjacent project, it reflects the broader reality: the conversation has moved from fringe forums into public institutions.

The next step shouldn’t be louder claims. It should be better instrumentation, better reporting, and better science—because if there’s a prosaic explanation, rigorous study will reveal it. And if there’s something genuinely novel in the data, that’s exactly what science is for.

More STM Daily News science coverage: https://stmdailynews.com/category/science/

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