What Was That In The Southern Utah Skies Last Night?

Last night an unexplained aerial phenomenon was floating around the skies of Southern Utah.

Well, it was unexplained for a little while, anyway.

Online posts went like this: "Did anyone else just see that UFO bright white light with almost a luminous gas cloud being contained by a force field around it ? it was in the south west sky. happened about 10 minutes ago."

And this: "I saw it yesterday at that same time. My neighbor and I were trying to get a picture. Definitely not a rocket but it was weird!!!"

And: "Yes I did and then thr object just disappeared the weird part is about a minute after the object disappears if you keep looking a gas like vapor must thing spears without the object and evaporates it’s some sort of hazy gas cloud. You described it perfectly I saw one a couple of nights ago as well."

I hate to be a buzzkill, but (from Space.com): "The SpaceX launches just keep on coming. A Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 more of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (May 23), at 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 GMT on May 24). It was the third mission in the past two days for the company. The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth about 8 minutes after launch. It made a powered, vertical touchdown on the droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 13th launch and landing for this particular first stage, according to a SpaceX mission description. Half of its 12 flights to date have been Starlink missions."

It seemed like maybe we were finally going to get some definitive answers to questions like "Are we alone in the Universe?" or "Has some advanced species visited us from another galaxy?"

Unfortunately, what we got was more hearsay, second-hand accounts and mystery.

“The sheer number of reports, whistleblowers and stories of unidentified anomalous phenomena should raise real questions and warrant investigation and oversight. And that’s why we are here today,” said committee chair Rep. Robert Garcia. "UAPs, whatever they may be, may pose a serious threat to our military or civilian aircraft and that must be understood."

So the House Oversight subcommittee brought on some experts.

But it seemed like the same old song and dance.

David Grusch, a former Intelligence official, made many claims, saying that there was government money, earmarked for other programs, that was being diverted to maintaining programs dealing with UAPs, and that secrecy was still required as the information was classified.

Grusch said he had specific knowledge of these programs and that he was absolutely certain the government had possession of UAPs, and even alien "biologicals."

Did he see them? Well, no, but he heard about them.

He told the panel that he knows of "multiple colleagues" who were injured by UAPs. He also said he has interviewed individuals who have recovered "nonhuman biologics" from crashed UAPs.

He added: "I have to be very careful here ... [but] what I personally witnessed, myself and my wife, was very disturbing."

Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves told the committee that he had seen many things he couldn't explain while flying, but he has no words to specifically describe them as  potential alien aircraft.

He also told the panel that the stigma of being ridiculed "silences" pilots who fear "professional repercussions."

However, David Fravor, a former Navy commander, said he's not afraid to say what he saw.

"The technology that we faced is far superior to anything that we had," Fravor said. "And there’s nothing we can do about it, nothing."

I think I'm not alone in saying that I hope these accounts are real and that it would be humbling and a little scary to think about an alien world with technology far beyond our own ... but until I see some kind of proof, I will remain skeptical.

By the way, this is a huge graphic, but I love the way the folks at Information is Beautiful wrapped it all up together: