Everything We Know About The Objects Entering America's Airspace (So Far)

Throughout February of 2023, United States officials have been on high alert. A mysterious white balloon hovered over the states for nearly a week before the military shot it down, despite orders from President Joe Biden to do so days before. It turns out that the balloon was from China, a country with which the U.S. already has strained relations. China quickly denied speculations that they used the balloon to spy on the U.S. and claimed that they did not intend for it to drift over as far as it did. China's foreign ministry accused the U.S. of "overreacting" in shooting the balloon.

Just a week later, three more unknown objects entered American and Canadian airspace. As of February 13th, 2023, American officials from the White House and the Pentagon along with Canadian officials are tight-lipped about what they believe these items might be. Shooting down unidentified objects is unusual. Similar events did not even occur during the cold war, according to CNN. 

American fighter jets first shot down a strange object in Alaska near the state's Canadian border on February 10th. After the assessment, they found no surveillance equipment. A "cylindrical object" was shot down near Alaska as well, but further into Canadian territory on February 11th. A fighter jet brought down the third object on February 12th near Lake Huron in Michigan, calling it a flight hazard rather than a military threat. Each item was flying between 20,000 and 40,000 feet above the ground.

With Canada as an ally to the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to President Joe Biden over the phone before allowing a U.S. aircraft to take out the "cylindrical object" that appeared above Canada's Yukon Territory. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police vow to report their investigations of the now-grounded object to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the U.S. (per ABC News).

American military and defense personnel have not revealed any findings regarding the purposes or appearances of any of the four objects. What officials have revealed is that these objects share few similarities with the Chinese balloon from a week prior, deepening the mystery. Despite the balloon being confirmed to be from China at the beginning of February, not all fingers are pointing at China for these three objects shot down consecutively. With so much unknown, and with people often associating the words "unidentified flying object" with extraterrestrial beings, naturally, the question of that possibility has been posited — but officials are not pointing fingers at extraterrestrials.

CNN muses that perhaps the balloon scare is making U.S. military pilots more worried about items that would usually not cause a stir. Mystery still shrouds these objects, but the issue has already turned partisan. Republican congressman Mike Turner believes that the Biden administration was previously too relaxed on tackling the balloon before these three even more strange items (per The Hill).