Project Condign facts for kids
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Project Condign was a secret study about UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects). The British government's intelligence group, called the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS), worked on this project between 1997 and 2000.
The results of Project Condign were put into a big report. It was called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region. This report looked at about 10,000 sightings and reports. These had been collected by a special part of the intelligence group. The report was made public on May 15, 2006. This happened after UFO researchers David Clarke and Gary Anthony asked for it using a law called the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We don't know who wrote the report.
Contents
What Project Condign Found
Explaining UFO Sightings
The report said that UFOs definitely appeared in the sky. But it also said there was no proof that they were "dangerous or controlled by anyone." The people who wrote the report believed that most UFO sightings happened because people mistook normal things for something else. These normal things could be planes or balloons.
The report suggested that other strange reports were probably caused by natural weather events. Scientists don't fully understand these events yet. The report called this event "Buoyant Plasma Formation," which is a bit like Ball Lightning. It was thought that this plasma could create an energy field. This field might make triangle shapes appear by bending light. The report also suggested that these energy fields might explain why some people felt strange or saw things that weren't there during close encounters. The Condign report said that more study into how this plasma could be used by the military was needed. It also noted that scientists in the former Soviet Union had found a link between UFOs and plasma technology. They were looking into it for possible military uses.
Close Encounters Explained
The report talked about people who believed they had close encounters with UFOs. It said these people were sure about what they saw or felt. However, the report also said that these stories were not proof that such encounters were real. It suggested that some cases happened because people were very close to "plasma-related fields." These fields, it said, could "negatively affect a vehicle or person."
How People Reacted
According to David Clarke, the report didn't share much new information about UFOs. But it did show that the intelligence group had been studying the topic much more than people knew. Because the report was secret, it wasn't checked by other experts. Some people think that the idea of "buoyant plasma" might not have been accepted if it had been reviewed by other scientists.
