THREE objects shot down by the US military could be extraterrestrial in origin, according to a science expert.

Dr David Whitehouse said the latest objects shot down by the US appear to be of a different type of aircraft from the large white Chinese spy balloon downed last week.

A mystery object downed over Michigan yesterday was described as possibly having a propulsion system and an unmanned octagonal structure with strings attached.

Asked if they could be extraterrestrial in nature, astronomer and author Dr David Whitehouse told GB News: “We shouldn’t be dismissing it.

“I mean, there have certainly been in the last few years objects called ‘Tic Tac’ UFOs, which have been seen by fighter pilots which move in strange ways, peculiar ways, which cannot be explained by what we know at the moment.

“Presidents have admitted this, Clinton, Obama, Bush – they’ve all admitted that we cannot explain what those objects are and they are a great mystery.

“Whether or not they turn out to be technology or extraterrestrial remains to be seen.

“So the question is, are these latest three objects related to that type of Tic Tac UFO object? That is extremely interesting.

“What we’re probably talking about is spying using new technology, some sort of drone technology.”

In recent years, US navy ships off the west coast have been buzzed by aircraft that look like large Tic Tac mints and can perform manoeuvres that appear to defy the laws of physics.

Speaking to Mark Longhurst during GB News Live, he said: “We have to see the wreckage to determine but we do not know what an extraterrestrial spaceship looks like.

“When we see these strange things that are moving around, logic would tell us that it’s something we haven’t recognised before because our space situational awareness has been lacking.

“There’s a gap that China has been using to spy with these, you cannot logically say this is 100% definitely not alien.”

Asked why China uses high altitude balloons for spying missions, he said: “Satellites are very important, but they’re relatively high altitude; they are 25,000 feet or higher than that. They pass over places very regularly. They’ve got accurate cameras.

“There are also signal intelligence satellites sucking electromagnetic data, cell phone information, radio communications.

“Satellites are the mainstay, but there are many advantages of using balloons because you’re not only lower to the ground, and you can pick up cell phone communication, say between military personnel at an American base.

“You can also to a lesser extent take better pictures but the pictures from satellites are so good.”

“It was perfectly obvious to intelligent analysis that the first balloon that was shot shut down was a large signal intelligence gathering device, principally because of the size of it and principally because of the solar panels that were spread out either side of it, providing the energy it needed.”

Dr Whitehouse said: “These other three three objects, it is a bit more difficult to say but the fact is that you can get a lot of information if you’re close and hovering over a region and balloons can hover because you can take advantage of the winds.

“There’s a difference between buoyancy, and propulsion in the sense you can move around by just a joint adjusting your buoyancy and taking advantage of winds and jet streams.

“But if these three new recent objects are different in kind, then that is a real puzzle because without buoyancy without some sort of balloon, it’s difficult to see how something of the size they say, could stay airborne for any length of time.

“It just wouldn’t have the energy capacity to do that.”