What does the term UAP mean and how does it differ from UFO?

Recently, the term UAP has become more common, and people have the feeling that this is just another name for UFOs. Is it true? Let's figure it out.

Why did you decide to abandon the term UFO?

Scientists say the term UFO has discredited itself. It all started at the end of the forties when interest in any flying objects was repeatedly increased (the reason is clear-the war). The war was over, but people were still staring up at the sky and watching for more bombers or scouts. Gradually, the people calmed down, but they still looked at the sky. Suddenly, it turned out that not all flying objects could be classified. So the term UFO appeared.

An interesting history of this term. It is believed that it all began in 1947. Then the pilot Kenneth Arnold decided on his plane to find the wreckage of the crashed other aircraft— for information about this, the government promised a reward. He didn't find any wreckage, but he did find some unknown flying objects — nine flattened disks with transparent cockpits. The distance to the objects was about 30 kilometers. Kenneth told me about it after he got back, but they didn't believe him.

They said that the guy had hallucinations, that it was just an optical phenomenon. However, a little later, anti-Soviet hysteria began: some suspected that this was a secret weapon of the USSR. The panic began. Later, other experts came forward, claiming that these were tests of secret American weapons. Then they refuted that, too. Finally, someone suggested that they were alien ships. And the panic began again. Interestingly, Kenneth Arnold himself didn't think they were aliens. He suspected that these were natural phenomena unknown to science.

Interestingly, the air defense forces did not notice anything like this. And this guy would be ridiculed, but there are always enthusiasts who want to get to the bottom of it. And here and there new reports of flying saucers began to appear. In 90 percent of cases, this was the fiction of sensationalists and journalists. However, the facts were no longer dismissed, and the saucers were called UFOs, unidentified flying objects.

Over time, there were many attempts to explain UFOs, but in 5 percent of cases, this was never done. On the other hand, many UFOs were not flying saucers, but simply natural phenomena. Can a laser installation be considered a flying object? And the Aurora borealis? Therefore, we decided that the term UFO does not cover all the observed phenomena and introduces confusion. In addition, the term itself has been discredited by comic book developers, science fiction creators, and various hoaxers. UFOs have become the heroes of jokes. Therefore, we decided to introduce a new term.

So what is UAP?

The name stands for unidentified aerial phenomena. These can be not only flying objects, but also various optical illusions, and natural phenomena unknown to science. So, a certain percentage, about 5, of all known UFO sightings have not been able to get an adequate explanation.

Сases are not uncommon. when one object is described differently by different witnesses. Can we definitely say that this is an alien ship? If you've been in contact with aliens, then yes. But from a distance, not everyone can identify an object, distinguish it from an airplane, from an optical phenomenon to a kite-all that cannot be explained by the above categories. As a researcher, I am more interested in the UFO phenomenon than in UAP. UAP is not introduced by chance, there is an opinion that in this way they want to mislead novice researchers so that they write off their observations on banal ignorance. Be vigilant.

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About author:

Serg Toporkov Ufologist, Ph.D., blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon. Write to me

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UFO  UAP  ufo sightings  term