Is the government concealing proof of UFOs? UT scientist says it's unlikely

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Three former military officials testified before the House Oversight subcommittee Wednesday, saying that the United States Government is concealing evidence of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, also known as UAP or more commonly UFO.

Retired Maj. David Grusch testified the U.S. has a longstanding program that conceals and reverse engineers UFOs. The pentagon has rejected Grusch's claims, according to the Associated Press. Wednesday's hearing was part of a push for more transparency and research into UAPs.

"What they're really talking about is that they want to see what are actually the communication channels going on. Because currently they have this concern, that there's actually an incredible amount of evidence out there," said Michael Endl, an associate professor for astronomy and physics at Austin Community College and a lecturer with the University of Texas.

Endl teaches an introductory course in astrobiology at UT Austin. "There is a scientific effort to find extraterrestrial life. And we haven't found any yet. So it's a in a way, it's funny, it's a course about nothing."

Instead, the course is focused more at looking at how life formed on Earth and the search for similar circumstances on other worlds.

"We don't know if it is extraterrestrial life activity on earth," Endl said when referring to UAPs. He says the public assumes that UFOs are aliens, but more likely something else. "It's really, truly unidentified."

Is there proof of UFOs out there?

Endl said there is very little scientific study of UFOs. This is partly because very little of the evidence is viable. "We have to study eyewitness reports."

Endl said these reports, however, are not reliable. "We make up stuff in our memories, which is just absolutely amazing."

Endl said that the photos and videos that do show UFOs are easily explained as something else. "This is, you know, actually an infrared plume of a very far away aircraft and normal things like an airline."

Endl admits he'd love if these hearings revealed proof of alien life, but he doubts they will.

"The thought that they would just pop in like this, and fly around in our skies, just to fake us out and to produce some cellphone videos, that are usually really blurry and low quality... This seems so impossible."