In an era captivated by unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and government conspiracies, one former NASA official is cutting through the noise and casting doubt on aliens coming to Earth.

Joseph Gutheinz, a retired senior special agent with NASA’s Office of Inspector General and current criminal defense attorney, said it’s time to apply science, not speculation, to the debate.

“Prove it. Honestly, prove it,” he said to those who believe in the presence of UFOs on Earth.

“They’ve been claiming that there have been UFOs since the 1940s. And, you know, Area 51 supposedly houses UFOs,” he told Fox News Digital. “Have someone go in, look at Area 51.”

He pointed to moons like Europa, Ganymede, Titan, and Triton as the only plausible places for primitive life in our solar system. 

“If there is life on any of those moons, it’s possible. Again, it is primitive, it is microorganisms, it’s nothing that’s going to visit us in a flying saucer.”

When asked whether such sightings could be explained as natural or spiritual phenomena, he suggested that it could be government testing.

“If you’re seeing something up there, and it’s real, it’s coming from the Chinese or the Russians or your next-door neighbor flying around with their drone,” he said.

A NASA logo is displayed at the entrance to the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building on June 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

Historical military secrecy, Gutheinz suggested, may have played a major role in fostering the UFO myths.

“I believe early on in the 1940s when all these UFO stories started coming up, it was because the military was probably testing some aircraft, and they didn’t want the Russians to know about it,” he said. 

“And so, if the UFO cover worked, and I would not be surprised if there are some people in the military and the government that played along with that in order to conceal our stealth technology, that is really remarkable, and they just don’t want to share that with other countries.”

“The bottom line is, I think that we use the UFO cover to hide a lot of things.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to NASA for comment.