So far in 2025, there have been 2,174 Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) sightings reported in the United States. This, according to the National UFO Reporting Center. One local news station reporting this went with the headline, "We Are Not Alone".
Of course, this assumes some of those UAPs have pilots, intelligent beings from other planets flying the craft. One of the biggest challenges to this assumption is the most basic: where could they possibly have come from?
Intelligent life can't be from a planet like Mars, where maybe there are micro organisms buried in ancient rock. It's got to be a place where life can thrive for thousands of years, allowing technology time to develop. At the very least, there must be liquid water, which means this planet must orbit its star in what we call the habitable zone.
We've looked hard for examples. Currently, the closest we've found are extremely far from Earth -- prohibitively far.
In July, a team of astronomers from the University of Montreal discovered a habitable planet orbiting a star called L 98-59. Of the billions of stars to choose from, there was a good reason the Montreal researchers picked this one. This newly discovered planet was no less than the fifth one discovered orbiting L98-59 that could support life. Of all the solar systems out there, this one is among the most intriguing as a possible home to intelligent life. And it's one of the closest to Earth.
The challenge -- in terms of this system being the source for UAPs -- is that "closest to Earth" does not mean it's all that close. L98-59 is 35,000 light years away.
Keep in mind, a single light year is 5.9 trillion miles. Even if the star was "just" one light year away, it would be impossible for any living thing to survive the trip. Imagine the Apollo 11 mission that put men on the moon kept going, until it travelled one light year. At the speeds that rocket travelled, it would take 26,000 years. To travel one light year.
Now recall, this "closest" star is 35,000 light years away. The distance is absurd. The idea any craft could travel that far -- let alone with a living pilot inside -- it's beyond belief. Enough to dismiss all those UAP sightings as weather balloons and top secret dronesand give up on E.T. ever making an appearance.
Except a new study from researchers at Princeton University found something that offers a new possibility.
They weren't looking for alien planets. They weren't even looking outside our solar system. They were studying the Kuiper Belt, the vast region beyond Neptune filled with icy bodies, dwarf planets, and remnants from our solar system's formation. The goal of the study was straightforward. The team wanted to confirm the orbits of Kuiper Belt objects were in the same general flat plan as the solar system. This had been looked at before, but the Princeton researchers brought new methodology to the table that promised more accurate results.
They didn't expect the results they found.
The objects orbiting within the Kuiper Belt did not, in fact, travel in a flat plane, as expected. There was a warp.
It wasn't in the classic Kuiper Belt region, between 50 - 80 au (astronomical units -- one "au" is the distance from the Earth to the Sun). Objects in this orbit travelled in a flat plane that aligned with the planets in our solar system. And, oddly, the region furthest out -- between 200 - 400 au -- was also in a flat plane.
It was in the middle of the belt, between 80-200 au, where researchers found a significant deviation. The Kuiper Belt unexpectedly tilts about 15 degrees. Despite the team's best efforts, most potential explanations failed to account for the unusual warp, save for one: the potential existence of an unknown body the researchers dub "Planet Y."
There's been no direct observation of this theoretical planet. But something is out there, and to create the amount of warping, the team calculates it's between the sizes of Earth and Mercury, positioned deep in the outer reaches of our solar system.
According to the lead scientist in their paper published this month in 'Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society', "this paper is not a discovery of a planet, but it's certainly the discovery of a puzzle for which a planet is a likely solution."
Is it a hidden planet? Or some base from which UAPs can launch to Earth that accounts for the thousands of sightings? It's certainly close enough.
Whatever is out there bending the Kuiper Belt, it's doing a good job staying hidden.