WASHINGTON — The United States shot down another unidentified flying object on Sunday, this one over Lake Huron in Michigan, U.S. officials said.

This time the Pentagon used an F-16 fighter but took down the object with a Sidewinder air-to-air missile, the same missile used on the other three objects that have been shot down recently.

The latest turn in the aerial show taking place in the skies above North America comes after a helter-skelter weekend involving what at times seemed like an invasion of unidentified flying objects.

The incursions seemed to become so common that Biden administration officials have found themselves issuing private assurances that there is no evidence that they involve extraterrestrial activity. But officials also acknowledge privately that the longer they are unable to provide a public explanation for the provenance of the objects, the more speculation grows.

On Friday, after tracking an unidentified object 40,000 feet in the air across Alaska and into a fairly congested air traffic route for commercial flights between the United States and Asia, the United States shot down the object. It used the same type of airplane (an F-22) and weaponry (a Sidewinder air-to-air missile) that was used to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon a week earlier.

But soon after recovery teams began the effort to locate and identify the debris in the Prudhoe Bay area, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which is operated by the United States and Canada, began tracking a second unidentified object. This one moved across Alaska on Friday night and crossed into Canada on Saturday before it was shot down by an American fighter jet over the Yukon Territory.

The second object, Canadian authorities said, was cylindrical. The first object, American officials said, was the size of a small car, though one official said it was also cylindrical.