Somewhere in the Skies - UFO Conspiracies with Astrophysicist, Sarah Cruddas

Episode Date: January 16, 2022

On episode 248 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we are joined by astrophysicist and space journalist, Sarah Cruddas. Cruddas joins forces with BBC favorite, Craig Charles to search for possible evidence that could prove the existence of UFOs in their new Sky History series, UFO Conspiracies. In each episode, the pair tackle a famous major UFO sighting by scrutinizing never before heard witness testimonials, whistleblowers, UFO experts, video footage and more. By sifting through the evidence and separating fact from fiction, Cruddas and Charles attempt to provide answers to the UFO mystery. Cruddas shares some of the cases they'll investigate, her personal thoughts on UFOs, and where our science and technology is leading us in finally answering the age-old question; are we alone?  Craig Charles: UFO Conspiracies premieres on Sky HISTORY Tuesdays at 9pm. All episodes will be available on catch up services. Learn more at: https://bit.ly/3qsOUHu  Follow Sarah Cruddas on Twitter at: @sarahcruddas Read Ryan's latest article, "Encounters in a Cornfield" : https://bit.ly/3HPcrbN Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Somewhere in the Skies Coffee: CLICK HERE Order Ryan’s book in paperback, ebook, or audiobook by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Somewhere in the Skies Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/SomewhereSkiesPod/ Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE Copyright © 2021 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV! Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free. The truth is ours. It's just so beautiful.

On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 NX files, may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never. Today on the show, astrophysicist and space journalist, Sarah Crudders. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Brian Sprigg. We have a really fun interview today for you guys. I'm going to be talking to Sarah Kredas.

She is an astrophysicist, a space journalist, and the co-host of a new show on Sky History in the UK. And that is UFO conspiracies with Craig Charles, who I know my UK. K-based knows very well. So without further ado, I'm going to bring her in live from Phoenix, Arizona. Sarah, welcome to somewhere in the skies. How are you doing? Thank you for having me. Absolutely. I'm excited to talk to you. Now, Sky History was kind enough to send me the first three episodes of the show that you're doing. And man, you guys really, you really hit the gamut. You went worldwide. This isn't, you know, just, you know, all the Pentagon UFO stuff here in the States. you guys were all over the place. So I'm excited to talk to you about that. But before we even do that,

I'd love to just get a feel for who you are, how you got interested in space, in astrophysics. And what led you to where you are today? What's the origin story? Oh, gosh, that's just a long story. So I'll try to paper it down for you somewhat. So I, my background's in astrophysics and also journalism as well. So quite an unusual background. But for me, you know, space. is as much about a search for meaning and philosophy as it is about science. And my first memory as a kid was looking up at the moon and then I used to love reading magazines about UFOs and Roswell and all that kind of stuff as a kid. And learning about the planets in school, the planet Venus. I remember learning about this almost alien like Earth evil twin, you know, with this thick, choking atmosphere. And I was just hooked on space science and space exploration from a young age. It's been a lifelong passion. And I would always say to people, why would you, not be interested in space because it's, you know, space science is about profound questions, you know, as much about philosophy as it is science. You know, why do we exist? Where do we come from? What is our destiny? And of course, are we alone in the universe? And for me, it's a lifelong passion.

I, you know, studied astrophysics at university, specialising an active galaxy nuclear detection. And then I studied broadcast journalism. And I was a presenter with the BBC for some time. And now I work half within the commercial space sector and half on television. television and and for me it's a you know also write books about space so I've written for um I've got a fifth book coming out this year 2022. How is it 2022 already? But for me it's very, it's scary, isn't it? But for me, you know, the one thing all of us having common pretty much and all of us having common with our ancestors is at some point in your lives, all of us have looked up at the night sky and wandered. And I love that notion of, you know, when you look up at the night sky,

we now know that for pretty much every single star you can see when you look up in the night sky, there's at least one planet walking around it. There are likely more planets than stars in our universe. And I love the notion that you could be looking up at the night sky, looking at one of those stars that just twinkle that all our ancestors have looked at. You know, that's the one thing you have in common with cavemen pretty much, is that looking up and that wandering. And you could be looking up at the night sky,

and there could be someone or something on a platform, planet orbiting one of those stars that we've seen for an eternity of human existence, looking up and seeing our sun in their night sky and I'm wondering the same question, you know, are they alone? Is there something else out there? And I, you know, the universe is too vast, too beautiful and too complex for us to be alone. And it's something which all of us have pondered at some point. And it goes back to that search for meaning in philosophy as much as it is science, because we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what is out there. You know, we've explored our Earth and now the next step, you know,

is no different to what we've done on Earth in terms of like governments go first, private industry follows. That's what we're seeing in space exploration right now. The only thing different is the playing field and all of us are living really in the best time for human exploration because it's no longer something which is fiction or even beyond fiction. It's something which is a reality and something which is happening right now. Just last month I was with Blue Origin when one of my close friends actually flew to space aboard the Blue Origin and New Shepard Rocket, you know, space is becoming something which is more and more relatable to more and more people. We're living in the best time and to bring this, I guess, onto UFOs and UAPs and the search for life elsewhere,

this is something which has gone from the realms of science fiction to, you know, or something which was stigmatized, you know, or just laughed at, something which people are starting to take seriously because the vastness of the universe and the fact that, you know, I'll give you a great example. If you were to condense all the oceans, oh, sorry, all of the universe, down to the size of all the oceans on Earth. 10, 20 years ago,

if you were to scoop a fimbled full of water up, of the oceans, all the oceans on Earth, and they represent, you know, all of our universe. That's how much we'd searched of our universe. And today, I'll use this Starbucks milk, but other drinks are available. But today it's more like a Starbucks mug size, you know, a grande,

size of water that we've searched. We're slowly going to edge out into our cosmos and there's great advances in space science and technology. We know that it's a case of, you know, it's very likely mathematically a case of when not if, we'll find out we're not alone within our own solar system, even though the answer will likely be evidence of past microbial life, perhaps on Mars or on Celadus or Europa. But we're just beginning to cast off from that east side in the same way that our ancestors who explored Earth could not imagine what they found. exactly the same thing is happening now. You know, and we're the ones which have that front row seat in potentially, you know,

it's our generation, which could be the generation that is part of making that discovery, which changes everything for humanity. It's no longer science fiction. It's science prediction. And it's better than any science fiction movie because it's a reality, which is happening now. Right. Yeah, it is exciting times. And like you said, I feel so lucky to live in a time where we could possibly find

some of those answers, you know, things like the James Wed Telescope and Blue Origin and all these privatized companies exploring space. It's exciting. It's really exciting time to live in. And then you have, on the other side of that, you have people who believe that we have been visited, that these UAPs or UFOs are an intelligent civilization from elsewhere that have visited our planet. And that's kind of what brings us up to today, the show that you're on, UFO conspiracies with Craig Charles, who does believe we have been. Yeah, we're not the mold and scully of television. Exactly.

I've got more of this scientific background where Craig, and let me get this right. So particularly if your British viewers, Craig's a household name in the UK, and Craig, I grew up watching Craig on a show called Red Dwarf. You haven't seen it. I highly recommend it. It's this space science fiction comedy. But, you know, it's no longer science fiction. And Craig is a smart guy.

His character on Red Dwarf was very different. to how Craig is in real life, but he's got this passion and this curiosity and this wonder about the universe. And then I kind of bring in the, yeah, but Craig, we can prove it. Because from my point of view, there's less of a stigma associated with saying you've seen a UAP, you know, or a UFO, the stigma is changing and I think that's a good thing. But at the same time, it's okay to say, I saw something in the night sky and then find out, find out it can be explained by something more down to earth, because all these sightings are not all going to be aliens, but it's looking for those diamonds in the rough, those things that we cannot yet explain,

those things where you've got multiple witnesses, where you've got credible witnesses, where you can say, okay, let's trust and try and verify, let's take that approach. That's what's really exciting. And I think it's important that people see things that they can't explain, that they do come forward and talk about it. But also on the flip side, accept that some things can be explained by an earthly thing. What we're looking for is a really exciting stuff. What we're looking for is the stuff which has those credible witnesses.

You know, there's a case with the pilots over Ireland, I think it was British Airways and a Virgin Atlantic flight, and they saw something they can't explain in the night sky, or in the daytime sky, the sunrise sky, the dawn sky. And you just think pilots, they spend a lot of the time in the sky. They know the sky more than any other person because, you know, they fly for a living. So when they see something they can't explain, and they're likely, you know, many of these pilots are ex-military. You know, they're going to get stigmatized for coming forward. If they're coming forward and saying, I see something that I can't explain and I know this guy's better than anyone, we need to start taking those sightings seriously and we need to remove the stigma towards people who come forward and say, I can't explain something. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's what you and Craig do throughout the series is you do legitimize this topic and you do empower pilots and even civilians and military to come forward with their stories.

you did interview people involved with the famous TikTok event or the Pentirk event, which I'd love to briefly touch on with you here, tease a couple of the episodes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Phoenix lights, of course, because I'm in Phoenix. I've spent time in Phoenix before for previous shows that I've worked on. You know, it's a great city. I love Phoenix, but, you know, this was the largest, you know, and we talk about this on the show, UFO conspiracies with Craig Charles.

You know, the Phoenixites was the largest ever mass sighting of a UFO. And this is back your multiple objects, actually, in the 1990s. And I think we need to, and it still remains one of the greatest mysteries. And we need to, and what we try and do in this show is give a voice to people who've seen something that you can't explain, apply scientific analysis, but also try and broaden it to a mainstream audience as well. Because I think we're seeing less of that stigma. Perhaps if you go back to the 1970s, the 1960s, the 1960s, project blue book and the disinformation campaigns, we're seeing less stigma now. And I think what happened or what helped actually is when the US government came out with the Nimitz. do you know what, and we talk about the limits of the show, do you know what, we can't explain this?

Whether it's Russia or Chinese technology or whether it's something not of this earth, we cannot prove just yet. But the fact that governments are starting to legitimise sightings, particularly for military personnel, that makes it more credible. And it makes people, I think often for people who have seen something they can't explain, they must feel quite alone. And a show like this is a voice to those people to say, you are not alone.

You are not the only one who's experiencing something like this. I'm not going to tell you it was probably aliens. However, I'm going to tell you it's not alone. And we're going to apply the best scientific analysis that we can to see whether there's some validity in this, whether we can find you an answer one way or the other. And what's so exciting about this show is we can't find the answers for everything. Yep. Yeah, they're yet to be answered.

And that's what makes this mystery so exciting for me. I love the journey. It's not really the destination. I love meeting people. I love meeting witnesses. and one of those witnesses was Kaz Clark, who was a witness to the very controversial Pinturk event in South Wales. So I'd love to get kind of just your brief thoughts on that investigation, Sarah.

What was it like hearing that story? Had you known about that event? This was quite recent if 2016 this happened. What do you make of that whole event? I think the event's interesting. I think I was personally more skeptical than Craig, and I'm sure you've seen on the show. but I think it's important that we give people a voice and give people a platform in this

and start telling those stories because, you know, I'm a journalist as well as a scientist and giving people a voice, giving people an unbiased way to talk about their experiences and then allowing people to make up their own conclusions. We've applied the scientific evidence or we've applied as much scientific analysis to this particular case as we can possibly. And actually, you know, as I mentioned before, it's okay to come forward and say, do you know what this one can be explained away i'm not too sure about it because there's so many other uap UFO sightings out there that cannot be explained but it's almost good that we can say no

this one can be explained this one isn't credible because it leaves us with all the other great stuff that can't be explained exactly yeah i know it's just always that like 5% you know probably 95% of it can be explained in some conventional way but that 5% is like what we crave and what keeps us curious One day the answer will be aliens. We don't know whether that's tomorrow, whether that's, you know, a thousand years from now, whether, you know, and not just aliens, it will be an intelligent civilization because you look at the vastness of the universe and you look at how, although we feel old and vast and big and great, actually we're tiny.

We're about a speck in the cosmos, our civilization is relatively young as a technological civilization. We're only about 100 years old, you know, as a technological-faring civilization. And you look at how exponential that technological curve. is for humans. You look at the world a hundred years ago and the world of today, our world of today seems like science fiction to only a great-grandparents generation. And it's just going to change and change and change. And you imagine if there are civilizations out there and you hope the civilizations out there and they're much older than us,

much more advanced. We, it would seem beyond the imagination. So there's some stuff we can rule out, but I think it's important to keep an open mind with this and just to be, you know, one of my favorite cases was a Murmua, which is, the extra solar object, which was discovered passing through our, it was the first ever extra solar object that we'd discovered passing through our solar system. And I'm sure all your listeners and viewers know, but extra solar object basically means an object which did not come from our solar system. And we expected this object to be spherical, because that goes with what we know about planetary formation. And a moor and moor was cigar-shaped. It was very long and very

thin. And there is this hypothesis that potentially, because of the way it accelerated as well as it came through our solar system, potentially it was an alien space crash. And we will never know for certain because that object has now passed us by. I mean, you look at the way humans have started to explore the solar system. We've gone, you know, to the moon 50 years ago. We've gone to Earth orbit. And that's about it. And then what's gone furthest is robots. You know, robots are our eyes and is in the solar system. You look at the two voyages space craft, they've left our solar system. And when our Earth is gone, our solar system has gone, our sun has died, you know, millions from years now, where there's no relic of our existence, those two voyages spacecraft will be cosmic messages out there in the

cosmic ocean, like, you know, messages in a bottle, the last relics of human history, and they both at some point will reach two stars, two separate stars that we can see in our night sky. So humanity, no matter what happens to us, no matter if we can stop exploring that, will have finally, literally reached the star. So there's always going to be this robotic evidence of our existence as a species. and then you apply that same kind of logic to an alien civilization. And perhaps it's the case that the first aliens we ever make contact with, or if an alien spacecraft is ever proved to contour. Perhaps it's robotic and not, you know, life as we know it, carbon-based life,

perhaps it's something robotic because it makes sense. You know, the only concrete example we have of life anywhere in the universe is one. It's all of us and all the species that live on this planet. So maybe the first, and we know we send robots out, and maybe the first aliens we discover a robots, or maybe, you know, we speak with SETI, I've done a lot of work with SETI, the team at SETI are amazing,

and Seth Shostak, who I'm sure you're aware of Bill Diamond, who's the CEO of Zeti, and they talk about how, you know, should they get a signal, and should that signal be proved to be from an intelligent civilization? And we've got a few close signals,

but, you know, which couldn't be explained, but should that be from an intelligent civilization and somehow we're as a very divided planet, work out a way to actually send a signal back and communicate, you know, and have to represent Earth, because even though we're dividing on Earth, we are one planet, one species in the vastest of the cosmos. Say we send a signal. Say that signal comes from somewhere 50 light years away, so it takes 50 years to get to us, more than 50 years, and then we send a signal back, and it'll take another, you know,

we're talking over 100 years, and then it becomes almost like archaeology, because you're talking to their past, and it's going to be a case of not aliens visiting us, but finding a signal and then we have a case of space archaeology going on in the same way that we communicate with our ancestors through relics that they've left behind and signals that they've left behind. Is that going to be the case? We just don't know. And it goes back to that. There's a great quote by this evolutionary biologist called JBS Holdain and I'll paraphrase it. But the universe is not only as strange as you can imagine. It's stranger than you can imagine. And that's what's so exciting about things are beyond the imagination. And that's why, you know, I'm so proud of the UFO community

for coming forward and talking about things that they cannot explain. And going up against that stigma as well, because there is a lot of stigma associated with saying you've seen a UFO sighting, but also being willing to accept that some things can be disproved. And it's great to see this subject becoming more mainstream. Absolutely. Not in my lifetime. Did I think I would see that when I first got involved with you? What got you involved? What got you involved? I actually had a sighting when I was 12 years old. Yeah, I saw a triangular formation of lights over a body of water that I couldn't explain. I saw it with my father, actually.

So I had another witness with me. And we just could not make sense of it. It just floated over, silently, disappeared, and changed my life. So, I mean, that's what this topic can do to people when they can't process what they're seeing and try to find answers. So, again, I think you're right. We live in a time where this is becoming more accepted. And maybe we will find some of those answers. Hey guys, Ryan here.

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Do you like stories of the strange, the weird, and the unexplained? Then we want you to check out Jim Herald's campfire. The concept is pretty simple. Jim talks to regular people about strange stuff that happens to them. And yes, that includes UFOs, along with cryptids, ghosts, and head scratchers. He doesn't exaggerate or play a lot of spooky music, kind of like I'm doing right now. The stories speak for themselves. Ones like a ghost story involving serial killer Ted Bundy,

or the young man who encountered an eight-legged demon. Then there's the story of an alien abduction by what could be considered a reptilian. Now, not all the stories are horrifying. Some are actually pretty heartwarming, like a visit from a past loved one or a peaceful near-death experience. Regardless, these are true and fascinating stories told by ordinary people who've had extraordinary experiences. tune in to Jim Harold's Campfire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to somewhere in the skies. And remember, stay spooky.

Well, Sarah, I know you have limited time. I'd love to ask you two listener questions if you don't mind before we wrap things up. I can talk about it. Oh, gosh, no. That's what we love here. No, please. We had over on Twitter, Limburner Todd, on Twitter asked, this kind of has to do with what you were just talking about.

What are your thoughts on if the energy release of the Big Bang was not the start of something, but the end of something? Do you have any thoughts on that? So like almost like the bubble theory that you have a universe, then there's a big crunch, and then it forms another universe. We know so little. So quantum mechanics is kind of like the limit of our understanding of physics. And we know there's like the theory of physics beyond quantum. So quantum, you know, classical mechanics explains why if I drop my cell phone it falls quantum mechanics explains the technology which is inside your cell phone but we don't quite understand it and we know there's four fundamental forces within the universe the weak

the strong the electromagnetic and gravity and ironically gravity is the weak as the forces and we can't get what is known as a grand unified theory we can't unite those four forces with our understanding of physics thus far with classical mechanics and quantum mechanics so we know there's likely a theory of physics beyond quantum and you know quantum mechanics even though we don't fully understand it has transform technology. So it's very exciting to think that's a theory beyond that. So when it comes to the Big Bang, when it comes to our existence, there's almost an element of, faith might be the wrong word, but there's an element of we can't explain everything just yet. And that's, that's exciting and it's terrifying. And there is this possibility that there could have been a

universe before, you know, our universe could be a child, another universe. We could be living in multiple universes and then the colliding, you know, touching of two universes then, like, creates another universe and you get into M theory, string theory, all this kind of mind-boggling stuff. And we do not know. We do not know whether we are in some smart kids school projects and we are just a computer simulation. We know so little. We don't know whether we're being watched. We don't know whether like if you were walking down the street and saw a colony of balance, you likely wouldn't talk to them. And it's the same. There could be such more higher intelligence out there that they just know of us but don't care of us because we're just too dumb to them. Like, you know, there could be alien, you know, the motto for humans when looking for life elsewhere is follow the water because we know three key things for life is energy, raw materials and water. We have all three on Earth. You know, there could be a species out there that it's hunting for us because they need water or that they, you know, life formed in a similar way. We just don't know. So they thought that there was a big crunch and then another big bang. It's a thought. But that's at the very limit of our understanding of universe and physics. And it's. It's exciting and it's terrifying.

I think if you think about it too much, we can't get our heads around it. It's almost the curse of the human condition that we want to know more. We want to understand, you know, we have this urge to explore and to go over the next hill. It's why we have all the benefits and almost the flaws that we do today because we question things, we explore. You know, humans are designed to go over the hill and explore. We want to go to space to paraphrase Kennedy because it is there. And it's that next step for us. We want to know why we exist.

We want to answer those fundamental questions. and they bring about technological advances which benefit all of us on Earth. But it's a hypothesis, the fact that there might be a universe before our universe, but we just don't know yet. There could be multiple universes out there. It's crazy high-end physics of which no one yet had the answers. And I think it's going to take a long, long time. Perhaps you might never have the answers.

Perhaps that is something you leave to the realm or something beyond us that we can't yet understand. Exactly. Definitely makes you humble when you think of it that way. Our slogan is... When I was a kid, because I loved physics so much, I would lie in bed, and I'd be like, do I want to be an astronaut, or do I want to be a cosmologist and find out what he exists? I know. There's a very fine line between the two, but very different, profound conclusions. I love that. Well, you mentioned species. My last listener question for you, Sarah.

UFO reality check on Twitter asks, what do you think about the phosphine and ammonia findings on Venus? and what are your thoughts on the future of the James Webb telescope? So yeah, is Venus where we're going to find life? What do you think? It's funny because I've heard the hypothesis that potentially there could be life in events of clouds of Venus for quite some while. I feel like that study came forward, but it's a case of when someone comes up with an idea in science, you don't just accept it.

You try and disprove it. And then if you can't disprove it, you're kind of left with okay the possibility. So what I would say is the only sample of life we have is one. It's life on Earth. But we know that life can exist in my life. much more extreme environments on Earth than we previously thought possible. Look at the Marliana's trench, for example, the depth of the ocean, you and I would be crushed to death, you know, not forget the fact there's no air for us to breathe, but say we could get down there, we'd be

crushed to death. And then you've got these alien-like fish. You've got, you know, extremophiles, you know, extreme environments on Earth where life wasn't meant to survive, and it does. So there's a lot more science and a lot more research, which needs to be done into the phosphine and Venus, but I think, you know, it's full of surprises. And saying hypothetically, life was found to exist in a very simple form in Venus. And then we found microbial life on Mars, which wasn't related to life on Earth, because there's a hypothesis that actually during the early universe, during the early solar system, when Earth, when Mars was much warmer and wetter, life on Earth was actually seeded by a meteorite from Mars, so we could be the Martians we've

been looking for. But say there is life on Mars, simple microbial life or evidence in the past, it's independent of life on Earth. Say there is some very very, very, you know, simple life on Venus. Say there's life on Enceladus, which is an icy moon of Saturn or Europa, which is this icy moon of Jupiter. Say there's life on, you know, other moons, Titan, for example, which is the only moon in our solar system, you know, orbits around Saturn, but it's the only moon with an atmosphere. Say we find lots of places for life, which is independent of life on a, one average solar system. You only have to do the math to wonder how much different life is out there. And I think just because we've got one sample,

What we do know and what we are starting to conclude is that life can, you know, survive in much more extreme environments than we first thought. It won't be life like you and I or the animal species we know, but life can exist in different ways. And then to the James Webb. Yeah. Oh my gosh, I remember going to visit James Webb and there's a picture on my Instagram at Sarah Crotter TV and pictures on my Twitter as well at Sarah Credit us. And it's just incredible. This is the, you know, the pinnacle of human engineering, yeah, you know, because I always like to say scientists dream it.

engineers are the ones who have to go out and do the hard work and make it. And this is just, you know, and the hats off to Ariane, Arrian Group, Ariane Spass, who successfully launched this rocket as well, this space telescope as well, because that is a terrifying task to do. And it's going to be in a cosmic parking spot known as LaGrange 2, so it's where it won't move around so much. And it's, this is going to enable us to look back to see the first galaxies, which are very the form.

This is going to help us to help us. discover more and more exoplanets. And for those who might not know an extra planet, stands for extra solar planets, which is a planet which exists around another star, which isn't our sun. And, you know, if you can imagine it, it probably exists out there. And all the things you can't imagine probably exist as well. And it's just going to be, I like to think of our understanding of the universe, almost like a cosmic jigsaw puzzle. And with each scientific mission, each bit of evidence, we're kind of getting another jigsaw puzzle piece to try and put that puzzle together to try and understand all the answers.

And of course, we probably never had the answers because the more answers we get, the more questions we're left with. So James Webb is going to give us a new window, excuse the pun, on the universe. It's going to give us a new understanding of what else is out there. It's going to help us understand more about planets beyond our own solar system, the possibility of life on these other planets, you know, help us again, because we're at the point now where we can not only detect planets in other solar systems, but work out whether they could have the right conditions for life as we know it. So it's another step forward.

And it's just, you know, we are living in the best time because we can't predict the future, but we are living in the best time right now in terms of what else could be out there, what else it is that we're a part of. And it's just such an exciting time. And, you know, I think it's summer, maybe slightly early than summer that we're going to start getting the first images out. And just like, you know. I can't wait. It's like going to be Christmas all over again.

It really is. Just think about it. It was only in the last century that we knew what we looked. look like that our own earth life. Yeah. Yeah, you know, a hundred, you know, say you were born in the year 1900, imagine what you saw in your lifetime that, you know, the Wright brothers flying, two world wars, commercial aviation, advances in medicine, humans in space, humans on the moon, images of our earth as a planet rising in front of the moon, earth rise, you know, which changed, you know, astronauts who went to the moon could literally stick out their thumb and cover all of

humanity the entire history of our species with a human thumb, you know, and then the world we're in today of computing in cyberspace. And you know, I was like to joke, you jumped into cyberspace, not outer space. It's just, it's incredible to think how far we've come. And then you look at great images Hubble gave us and the fact that more people can travel to space. My friend Dylan and Taylor, who went to space in December, he was 602. Of all the hundreds of millions of humans that have ever existed, he was, you know, hundreds of billions of humans that have ever existed, he was 602. But we're going to mint more and more astronauts. And we're going to mint more and more astronauts from different backgrounds. I sit on a board of a non-profit called Space of Humanity,

which is looking at funding flights to space for people from different backgrounds, because if we're going to succeed in exploring space, it needs to be about everyone. It can't just be about the rich. It can't just be about certain nations. It needs to be about everyone. So we're going to see more astronauts minted. We're going to see more people experiencing that. We're going to see through James Webb more images of our solar system, or of our universe, which we cannot yet imagine. I mean, and I talk a lot, so I apologize, but look at New Horizons, the mission to Pluto. We didn't really know what Pluto looked like. We thought it was this boring lump of rock, which got downgraded towards all planet, although

Pluto doesn't care what we call it. We didn't know what it looks like, and now it's this world where volcanoes spew out ice instead of lava, and it's just this incredible, incredible world. There is so much out there waiting to be discovered, and people need to, you know, and I love what you're doing with somewhere in the skies, and it's great. People need to look up more, and, you know, my latest book was actually called Look Up, our story with the stars and it had a forward by Michael Collins, who was the, it was the last piece of work he did before he died actually. He was the command module pilot for Apollo 11. And

he talked about how humanity needs to be outward bound and continue to be outward bound. Yes, we need to look back and protect her, but we need to keep moving forward. We need to keep, you know, outward bound. And that's what we do as a species. And it's just, it's a huge, exciting time for the space community. And they include ufology and the UFO community in that, because it's all about searching for meaning, and it's all about saying we can't see things that we've seen things that we can't explain. We don't have all the answers. We are not that important to have all the answers

and understand everything that is out there. I love that. Yeah, the UFO world is merging with the scientific world more than ever. And that's what we strive for for so many years. I mean, and I'm sure you're aware, like if you look at the Chilean government, they've taken UAPs very serious. Yeah. A lot of countries have, yeah.

Because aid is a defense thing. I know when I've worked on Nimitz and some of the people I've interviewed have we moved to tears. And these are military personnel who are serving their country. And we thank them for their service. But if they're in tears because they feel like they can't defend their country because they're seeing things that they cannot explain, we need to take that. And whether it is enemy technology or whether it's something not of this earth, you just don't know yet. But we need to take these sighting seriously. And it's great that governments are adding that validity.

Yep. Finally, finally. We're going to maybe get some answers. I'm loving it. I am riding the way of Sarah. Well, last question for you before we go here. We only scratch the surface of what the show covers, but what can we expect in the future of UFO conspiracies if you don't mind teasing a little bit before we go here? And of course, where can we find everything you're up to? You can find out everything I'm up to on my website, sarahcritus.com, or on my Twitter at Sarah Critus or my Instagram at Sarah Critus TV. I'm apparently on Facebook as well,

but I don't really use it. So I'm not the best at social media. You know, teasing what's coming up on UFO conspiracies with Craig Charles. There is so much. And I, I, is this molder and a scholarly dynamic. Craig is definitely the, the Fox Mulder character. I'm definitely the Danish Scully character. Maybe I need to like, she was British as well, but maybe I need to redden up my hair is a little more.

You know, it's this show. There are cases where I'm actually more on the believer side than Craig. And when I say believer, I say with added scientific evidence. We are talking with scientists. We are talking with SETI, we are talking with military personnel. We are looking at everything from the Phoenix lights to Nimitz to the island case with the aviation incident. We're pilot saw it to. We're looking at global UFO sightings.

So this is not, you know, I live in America. I'm obviously British, as you can tell by my accent, but I'm very proud of New American. And often a lot of the UFO sightings are American. And I think that goes a lot back to the American. culture and the American, you know, ability, I guess, of Americans to question things more. But this is a global thing. And we make this a global show. So we are looking at cases from around the world. And I think you can almost look at potentially patterns to see that this is no longer something which is about a niche community, but this is something that so many people have experienced and so many people have the right to

answers. And even if those answers aren't the answer they want, we're trying to get those answers and investigate as many cases as possible with the most thorough, up-to-date research. And I should also shout out to all the production team at Fryfell Films and to A&E networks as well, because there's a huge amount of research which goes on behind the scenes of people spending months and months researching these cases and to the best of their ability and trying to find the best, most unexplained cases that are out there. And I just think, keep watching. This is a show for the UFO community, but it's also for people who just looked up, you know,

all looked up, people with that curiosity, that wonderlust who know that we can't explain everything because, you know, if we're to succeed in finding answers, this needs to be about everyone. It can't just be about a niche group of people. It can't just be about a niche community. So this is both a mainstream show and a show which will keep the UFO enthusiasts excited. And actually, UFO enthusiast is the wrong world because I think if you've experienced something that you cannot explain, that's more than enthusiast. And that's about someone like yourself included, who has had an experience that you want answers for. And it would be myopic and short-sighted to believe that we're the only thing out there in the university. It's

just we can't prove it just yet. And to say conclusively it would almost be faith and not science. But this is the century. And just as the last century, so much changed, so much is going to change in this century. And this show is the most up-to-date investigation into some of the biggest and some of the most unknown UFO sightings which have ever happened. And when we apply science to it, I'm not afraid to say no. I feel like Craig would want to say yes to everything, but there are stuff in this show, which even I can't explain. And that's why you keep watching.

Yep, that's all we want is to hear a skeptic say, I don't know. That's all we want, Sarah. Well, I don't know everything. Exactly. And I also say we need to get rid of the skeptics and believers, because it's about evidence. And a skeptic isn't someone who says, oh, aliens don't exist because I actually think, you know, a lot of us know mathematically and scientifically that likelihood of us being alone is very slim, but it's more, it's about looking for evidence. And it's more about, say, you know, some people who say, I've seen something that I can't explain. And then people say, I'm suddenly can't explain that, but we need more evidence. And I think this whole pitching two sides against each other, which we're seeing in the world right now politically and socially, we need to stop doing that. And we need to find that middle ground and realize there is stuff out. there that cannot yet be explained. Exactly. And UFOs are going to bring the world together. Sarah, you were very gracious with your time. I have to thank you for coming on. I can't wait to see

what else you and Craig got going on. Again, it's UFO conspiracies on Sky History in the UK, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Hopefully we'll get it here in the States, not soon after that. But I want to wish you the best of luck on your press jacket for this. It's a great show. I really, really dig it. And I love what you guys are doing. So Sarah, once again, thank you for coming on Summer in disguise. Thank you so much for having me.