- The word UFO, unfortunately, has become a taboo word within the scientific community.

It's actually been a disservice to our community and our society for not trying to teach and communicate about what actually is in the night sky.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] There's no shortage of things in the night sky that can seem strange.

Some are natural, like the colors of the northern lights, the beauty of a meteor shower, planet Venus in the night sky, even clouds that form strange, saucer-like shapes.

And plenty that are not-so-natural wonders.

- Right now, above my head, are planes, you can hear helicopters flying over, there's probably some drones up there too.

And if you're in the right place at the right time, you can probably even see some satellites up there, 'cause there's a lot of stuff out there that might not be as strange as you think it is.

- [Speaker] So weird.

- [Speaker 2] That's not a plane.

- The number of things that are in our sky today are thousands.

- [Speaker 2] Oh my God.

- [Speaker] Now it's not moving at all.

It's hovering right there.

- We have weather balloons.

1800 of them are launched daily around the world.

- You can actually see things in Earth's orbit from the ground.

You can see, for instance, the International Space Station at night, flying overhead.

- [Narrator] And if you see a cluster of lights traveling across the night sky, they're probably part of a satellite system called Starlink.

- When Starlink launches a 60-satellite string, people look at that and go, I don't know what that is, and it looks really weird and concerning.

- Technology, I think, has created much more clutter in the sky and an ability for us to misinterpret things.

- [Speaker 3] There's a lot in our sky, and if we're studying UFOs, of course, you have to know what's in the sky that is known before you can identify what's unknown.