Pentagon researched how to talk to aliens and planned first contact with ‘4,590 space civilizations’, secret docs reveal
THE PENTAGON researched the best way to contact aliens and communicate with a possible 4,590 extraterrestrial civilizations, according to secret US files.
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document, which was obtained by The Sun as part of a massive Freedom of Information request, is a scientific study into SETI - an acronym for search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The report, commissioned by the US government, states its goal is to "ascertain whether alien civilisations exist in the universe, how far from us they exist and possibly how much more advanced than us they may be".
It adds: "As of 2009, the only physical tools we know that could help us get in with with aliens are the electromagnetic waves an alien civilisation could emit and we could detect."
However current technologies mean the government cannot search for aliens "beyond a few hundred light years away".
It states that in the past 50 years of SETI searches, no extra-terrestrial civilisation was discovered because: "Quite simply we did not get far enough!"
READ MORE ON UFOS
Communicating with aliens "demands the construction of much more powerful and radically new radio telescopes", which the 2009/2010 files state were being designed and should have been completed around 2020.
The report then focuses on how far away alien civilisations are and how long it will take humans to get there.
It concludes that there could be 4,590 extraterrestrial societies in the universe and the distance of the nearest one is likely between 1,933 and 2670 light years away, based on advanced calculations from the past and present.
It adds that the scientific equations may become a "huge computer code" which would end up being "Humanity's first Encyclopedia Galactica".
Most read in News
The report named "An introduction to the Statistical Drake Equation" was one of 52 reports - a total of 1,574 pages, obtained this month.
The Sun first requested a copy of all "files, reports or video files" related to the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP) on December 18, 2017 - under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) just days after the existence of the programme had been made public.
Finally after more than four years, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) handed over 1,500 real-life X-Files documents - including government commissioned scientific reports and letters to the Pentagon regarding the programme.
Other documents included in the FOIA haul include reports on the health effects of UFO sightings which include burns, hair loss, insomnia and even abduction, sexual encounters and unexpected pregnancy.
AATIP was a secretive Pentagon programme that ran between 2007 and 2012 to study UFOs.
It was outed by whistleblower Luis Elizondo, who headed up the programme, back in 2017.
