UFO BUZZ

Eight UFO cases that generate buzz
Investigators see references to rockets and aliens going back 6,000 years
4/8


Justin Norton / AP
1947: The Roswell incident
Did UFOs crash-land in the desert outside of Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947? According to the official line from the U.S. military, the answer is no. At the time, fragments of strange debris collected by a local rancher were explained away as an experimental weather balloon gone awry. In 1994, the military changed its story, saying that the balloon was actually part of Project Mogul, a covert operation to monitor Soviet nuclear blasts.

Oberg is satisfied with that explanation, but some members of the UFO community view the military's explanation as a cover-up of another kind. MUFON's Easter, for example, lends credence to a theory that the military shot down two spaceships that were checking out nuclear weapons being developed and tested in New Mexico. One crash site was cleaned up before it leaked to the press; the other became known as the Roswell Incident.

Amid the buzz, one thing is certain: The mystery has generated income for merchants in Roswell who play up the incident, including this unquestionably fake alien on display at a local museum.