Harvard UFO study claiming aliens could be on Earth disguised as humans is a 'thought experiment,' expert says

A recent paper published by Harvard and Montana Technological University which speculates that an unidentified, technologically advanced population could possibly be living secretly among humans on Earth seems to be more of a "thought experiment" than an attempt to prove it so, a UFO expert said. 

The team that wrote the paper hypothesized that sightings of UFOs, or UAP, unidentified anomalous phenomena, "may reflect activities of intelligent beings concealed in stealth here on Earth … and/or even walking among us."

The beings could be disguising themselves as humans to blend in, and may have come from Earth’s future or might have descended from intelligent dinosaurs, the researchers said. 

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"I see this more as a thought experiment. Just putting some ideas out there in a way to try and break away from this rather binary ‘either it’s aliens or it's just a misidentification,'" Nick Pope, who ran the British government’s UFO program, told Fox News Digital. "They're not claiming to have found any evidence of this, but they're trying to kickstart a debate about this, not just with the public but inside science and academica, which has traditionally been very stuffy and skeptical about all this."

The academics at Harvard and MTU admitted that their research may be regarded with skepticism by many, but urged the scientific community to consider their claim "in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness."

The scientists explained the hypothesis of aliens on Earth.

They believe that "remnant forms," which are beings from an ancient, highly advanced human civilization, are walking among humans on earth. The researchers also shared the possible existence of a non-human underground civilization that may be "descendants of unknown, intelligent dinosaurs."

Third, there could be hidden occupants, likened to earthbound angels or fairies, on Earth that have traveled to Earth.

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Despite the assumption in popular lore that UFOs could be spaceships, many are just objects that can't be readily identified, such as drones and satellites, said Pope, who analyzed UFO sightings while working for the British Ministry of Defense. 

"We looked at about 200 to 300 reports each year," he said. "Most were misidentifications, but some were more interesting, particularly when our pilots saw them."

The federal government has for decades been tight-lipped about information on UFOs, which has fueled conspiracy theories about what it knows. During a May 23 Congressional Oversight Committee, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., asked Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm about "suspicious occurrences" of UFOs around nuclear facilities. 

She said the Department of Defense concluded there's no evidence of UFOs or aliens. 

"But there may be drones that may be nefarious," said Granholm, who emphasized there are safety protocols and defenses in place. 

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Pope said governments hide things from the public all the time, but whether they possess crashed UFOs or aliens in a hanger somewhere isn't known. 

"I don't know that but I know a lot do believe it and take it seriously," he said. "That's why I think it's interesting after years of ignoring this subject, Congress is now looking into it more closely. And they've had some classified briefings, but they've also had some public hearings. So there's no smoke without fire." 

Fox News Digital's Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Chris Eberhart contributed to this report.