Hellfire missile hit a 'UFO' over Yemen. Scientist suggests what it really was - 'Not alien, but...'

A Congressional hearing on September 9 saw a video showing an Unidentified Anomalous Object (UAP) being hit by the Hellfire missile shot from an MQ-9 Reaper drone. Despite being struck, the object continues to move, as seen in the video. This footage was shared by Rep. Eric Burlison, who got it from an anonymous whistleblower. But was it really a UFO? Or could it be a man-made weapon? Harvard scientist Avi Loeb, who is known for his views on extraterrestrial life, thinks that this UAP was a drone fired by Yemen towards Israel. The video is dated October 30, 2024 and was shot off the coast of Yemen, Loeb says. The MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft is armed with a variety of weapons, including AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. He cited news reports to state that on October 29, the Yemeni Houthis announced that they had attacked Southern Israel with multiple drones. Loeb says that this reasonably hints at the possibility that this UAP was a drone. Also Read: 'No way, not going to happen': Acting NASA chief Duffy says China will not beat US to the Moon

Why Loeb thinks it is not an alien UFO

The reason why he does not think this object is of extraterrestrial origin is that its size is consistent with the Samad drones the Houthis use. Also, he points to its speed and movement. Loeb wrote in his blog that at about 20 seconds in the video, the Hellfire missile hits the object, but only manages to scrape off a few pieces as the warhead failed to detonate. He says that given the size and dimension of the Hellfire missile, which has a mass of about 45 kilograms, the UAP appears to be "a few meters in size." He says this is about the same scale as the Samad drones, which weigh "about 200 kilograms, about 4.4 times larger than the mass of the Hellfire missile." Also Read: WHAT! Earth has been sharing its orbit with a cosmic body for 60 years. We have only now seen it

However, the missile moves much faster than the drone. He says that looking at the video, the Hellfire missile "is moving about 6 times faster than the target in the video’s projection. The known speed of the Samad drones goes up to about 70 meters per second, which is about a sixth of the speed of a Hellfire missile." Loeb says going by this data, the size and speed of the UAP hints at the likelihood that it wasn't a UFO, but a Samad drone launched by the Houthis.