Scientists assessing reports of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the US say some of these “highly manoeuvrable” UFOs seem to defy physics.

Researchers, including those from the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), say these UFOs do not show the tell-tale signs that normally appear when objects moving at such speeds experience friction with air.

The new study, which remains to be peer-reviewed, did not delve into more philosophical questions such as whether there is proof of intelligent life forms on other plants, but instead scrutinised the physics behind reports of “highly manoeuvrable” UFOs.

From the UAP observations, the researchers said the friction of UAP with the surrounding air or water is expected to generate a bright optical fireball, “ionization shell and tail” implying radio signatures.

For an object observed to be moving in such fashion at high speeds, scientists say ionisation and associated radio frequency signatures are expected as they move through the atmosphere “in addition to the thermal, shock, and associated optical signatures”.

However in the reports of such “highly manoeuvrable” UAPs, there were no signs of these signatures.

Scientists speculate that the lack of these signatures could be due to more mundane reasons, including that human-instruments may not be sensitive enough to record these changes.

“The lack of all these signatures could imply inaccurate distance measurements (and hence derived velocity) for single site sensors without a range gate capability,” researchers wrote in the study.

“Typical UAP sightings are too far away to get a highly resolved image of the object and determination of the object’s motion is limited by the lack of range data,” they added.

The findings suggest some of these sightings of fast-moving UFOs could be sensor-induced optical illusions.

“This inevitably leaves open the debate on what some objects are, and whether or not they exhibited truly anomalous behavior,” researchers noted.

“Claims of objects exceeding the transonic to supersonic range should be evaluated against the above known physics of ionization, radar reflectivity, temperature, sonic booms, and fireballs,” they added.

The new research, scientists say, can lead to better estimates of the size, shape, and mass of such unidentified objects.