Quiz of the Day
UFOs & The Unexplained
Thursday, 2 July 2026
World UFO Day — Roswell, famous sightings, extraterrestrial science
1. In what year did the famous Roswell incident occur in New Mexico?
- 1947
- 1961
- 1942
- 1952
A rancher named Mac Brazel found unusual debris on his property near Roswell. The US Army initially announced they had recovered a 'flying disc,' then quickly changed the story to a weather balloon. Declassified documents later revealed it was Project Mogul — a top-secret surveillance balloon.
2. What does the acronym 'UFO' stand for?
- Universal Flight Observation
- Undetected Flying Obstacle
- Unidentified Flying Object
- Unknown Flying Object
The term was coined by US Air Force officer Edward Ruppelt in 1953 to replace the more sensational 'flying saucer.' The US government now officially uses 'UAP' — Unidentified Aerial Phenomena — to sound more scientifically neutral.
3. Which US government programme investigated UFO sightings from 1952 to 1969?
- Project Mercury
- Project Blue Book
- The Manhattan Project
- Operation Paperclip
Project Blue Book investigated 12,618 UFO sightings and concluded that most were misidentified natural phenomena or conventional aircraft. However, 701 cases — about 5.5% — remained officially 'unidentified.'
4. What is the 'Drake Equation' used to estimate?
- The speed of light travel
- The distance to the nearest black hole
- The age of the universe
- The number of communicable civilisations in our galaxy
Astronomer Frank Drake devised the equation in 1961. Depending on the values used, estimates range from just our civilisation alone to millions of others. Carl Sagan famously estimated about one million communicating civilisations in the Milky Way.
5. Which country had a widely reported mass UFO sighting in the Westall suburb in 1966?
- South Africa
- Australia
- United Kingdom
- Brazil
Over 200 students and staff at Westall High School in Melbourne reported seeing a silvery disc-shaped object descend into a nearby field, then fly away. Witnesses claim authorities quickly arrived and told them not to discuss what they saw. It remains unexplained.
6. What is the name of the signal detected by SETI in 1977 that has never been explained?
- The Deep Space Chirp
- Signal X-1
- The Beacon Pulse
- The Wow! Signal
Astronomer Jerry Ehman circled the data printout and wrote 'Wow!' in the margin. The 72-second signal came from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius at exactly the frequency scientists predicted an alien transmission would use. It was never detected again.
7. What is the Fermi Paradox?
- The paradox of time travel to the past
- The impossibility of faster-than-light travel
- The contradiction between the high probability of alien civilisations and the lack of evidence for them
- The theory that aliens built the pyramids
Physicist Enrico Fermi reportedly asked 'Where is everybody?' during a 1950 lunch conversation. Given billions of stars older than our Sun, any spacefaring civilisation should have colonised the galaxy by now — yet we see no evidence. Over 50 proposed solutions exist.
8. Which US Navy pilot videos of UAPs were officially released by the Pentagon in 2020?
- Phoenix and Falcon
- Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie
- Roswell and Tic Tac
- FLIR1, Gimbal, and GoFast
The 'Tic Tac' object in the FLIR1 video reportedly accelerated from a hover to supersonic speed with no visible propulsion, dropped 80,000 feet in under a second, and showed no heat signature. Navy Commander David Fravor called it 'the most incredible thing I've ever seen.'
9. What is the habitable zone around a star commonly called?
- The Life Ring
- The Goldilocks Zone
- The Sweet Spot
- The Safety Belt
Just like in the fairy tale, conditions must be 'just right' — not too hot, not too cold — for liquid water to exist. NASA's Kepler mission found that roughly 20-50% of Sun-like stars may have an Earth-sized planet in their habitable zone.
10. Which famous location in Nevada is associated with UFO conspiracy theories and secret aircraft testing?
- Area 51
- Fort Knox
- White Sands
- Cape Canaveral
The US government didn't officially acknowledge Area 51's existence until 2013. In reality, it was used to develop spy planes like the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird. Many 'UFO sightings' in the area were likely these classified aircraft being tested at extreme altitudes.
11. What did pilot Kenneth Arnold describe seeing in 1947, coining the term 'flying saucers'?
- A triangular object hovering over Phoenix
- Nine bright objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier
- Glowing orbs over Washington DC
- A cigar-shaped craft over the Atlantic
Arnold actually described the objects' movement — 'like a saucer skipping across water' — not their shape. A reporter misinterpreted this and wrote 'flying saucers,' and the term stuck. Arnold himself said the objects were more crescent-shaped.
12. Which planet in our solar system has been considered the most likely candidate for hosting microbial life?
- Venus
- Jupiter
- Mars
- Neptune
Mars once had liquid water, a thicker atmosphere, and a magnetic field. In 2024, NASA's Perseverance rover collected rock samples from an ancient river delta that show signs of organic molecules — though organic doesn't necessarily mean biological.
13. What is the term for the search for signs of life beyond Earth using radio telescopes?
- SETI
- SONAR
- LIDAR
- CERN
SETI — Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — has been scanning the skies since 1960. The SETI@home project let millions of home computers analyse radio telescope data, becoming one of the largest distributed computing projects in history before it shut down in 2020.
14. Which ancient monument is sometimes (incorrectly) attributed to alien builders by fringe theorists?
- Stonehenge
- The Great Pyramid of Giza
- The Colosseum
- The Parthenon
Attributing ancient wonders to aliens actually discredits the ingenuity of ancient peoples. Archaeological evidence clearly shows how the pyramids were built using ramps, sledges, and an organised workforce of about 20,000 skilled labourers — not slaves, as commonly believed.
15. What golden record was placed aboard the Voyager spacecraft as a message to potential extraterrestrial life?
- The Earth Disc
- The Galactic Greeting Card
- The Voyager Golden Record
- The Cosmic Playlist
Curated by Carl Sagan's committee, the gold-plated copper record contains 115 images, greetings in 55 languages, 90 minutes of music (including Chuck Berry and Beethoven), and the brainwaves of a woman in love. It will survive for over a billion years in space.