PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS ON UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA
Draft version March 7, 2023 Typeset using LATEX default style in AASTeX631 PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS ON UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA Abraham (Avi) Loeb1 and Sean M. Kirkpatrick2 1Head of the Galileo Project, Astronomy Department, Harvard University 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 2Director of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office 1010 Defense Pentagon Washington DC 20301, USA ABSTRACT We derive physical constraints on interpretations of “highly maneuverable” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) based on standard physics and known forms of matter and radiation. In particular, we show that the friction of UAP with the surrounding air or water is expected to generate a bright optical fireball, ionization shell and tail - implying radio signatures. The fireball luminosity scales with inferred distance to the 5th power. Radar cross-section scales similarly to meteor head echoes as the square of the effective radius of the sphere surrounding the object, while the radar cross-section of