As massive as Jupiter. That’s the size of an exoplanet spotted by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft. Some context: Jupiter is equal to about 318 Earths, so this thing is huge. The exoplanet, Gaia 4b, is 244 light-years away and 64% as big as the sun. A year there? About 570 Earth days.
Mysterious drones over New Jersey: Are they aliens?
© Yuliya Pauliukevich | Dreamstime.com, © Serhii Kuznietsov | Dreamstime.com
The drones hovering over New Jersey fly lower than commercial planes, a few thousand feet up, and produce a slight electric hum. Most are two to three feet long, but some are the size of an SUV.
The internet is bursting with conspiracy theories. Are they military tech? Foreign surveillance? Something not of this world?
I called up my radio pal, George Noory
He’s the host of Coast to Coast AM, heard on over 600 U.S. radio stations, and he’s a leading voice of the unexplained. I asked a question millions of people are wondering: Could this be alien technology?
“It’s bizarre,” Noory agrees. “It just doesn’t sound like the work of a hobbyist — some guy in his backyard with about 50 drones. There’s something else very, very nefarious about this.”
But alien tech? He says it doesn’t add up. “I’m going to rule out [the] extraterrestrial,” he says. “It sounds more like a military effort than anything else.”
What the heck is going on?
The drones gather in clusters at night and fly with their lights off. We’re not talking about little hobby drones or the bigger ones you’d find at tech expos. Reports describe these as massive, multirotor, helicopter-like drones.
The CEO of a remote aircraft company dropped a viral TikTok video claiming the only reason to fly an unmanned drone at night is if you’re “looking for something.” His theory? They’re sniffing out a gas leak or radioactive material. This freaked out podcaster Joe Rogan.
How do we figure out what they are?
There’s some pretty incredible tech that can help:
- Radio-frequency (RF) detection: It sniffs out the communication signals between a drone and its controller to pinpoint its make and model.
- Radar systems: Think of these as high-tech sky-scanning systems that track drones by analyzing their size, speed and flight patterns.
- Robin Radar: This one’s impressive. It uses 360-degree radar combined with AI to detect and track drones within a five-kilometer radius. In other words, it sees everything.
- Remote ID technology: Some drones are required to broadcast identifying details, including the location of their operators. It’s like a digital license plate for drones.
- Declassified radio wave tech: This reads electronic registrations and can track a drone right back to where it lands.