The White House on Monday shot down speculation that there may be an extraterrestrial component to recent aerial objects shot down in U.S. airspace in recent days.
“There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing.
The U.S. military shot down three separate aerial objects over the weekend, roughly one week after shooting down a Chinese surveillance balloon near the South Carolina coast after it had traversed some of the country.
Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command, made waves on Sunday when he was asked if officials had ruled out the possibility that the objects taken down over the weekend were connected to extraterrestrials.
“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything at this point,” VanHerck said.
Biden administration officials have provided limited details about the three objects taken down over the weekend, in part because the weather and the way they were taken down have made it difficult to recover the objects.
The U.S. on Friday shot down an object at 40,000 feet over Alaskan airspace after it posed a “reasonable threat” to civilian flight safety.
The military on Saturday shot down another unidentified, cylindrical object over frozen territory in northern Canada.
On Sunday, the military shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron, which stretches from Michigan to Ontario, Canada. The object was first detected over Montana.
John Kirby, a national security spokesperson for the White House, said officials are still trying to learn more about the objects. He noted that it’s possible there is nothing nefarious about the objects, and they could be connected to a private company or research institution.
Officials have said the three objects shot down over the weekend differed from the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the water earlier this month. The three most recent objects were flying at lower altitudes, Kirby said, and were noticeably smaller than the balloon taken down near the coast of South Carolina.