--- title: "Astronaut Speculates That UFOs Are Time Travelers From the Future" description: "A British astronaut teased the idea that UFOs are not alien visitors to Earth but could instead be human time-travelers coming back from the future." date: "2022-06-15" modified: "2022-06-15" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronaut-ufos-time-travelers" categories: - "Space" tags: - "european space agency" - "the digest" - "Time Travel" - "uaps" - "ufos" --- # Astronaut Speculates That UFOs Are Time Travelers From the Future ![A British astronaut teased the idea that UFOs are not alien visitors to Earth but could instead be human time-travelers coming back from the future.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## Doc Brown It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... a human time traveler from the future? That's the theory, at least, that British astronaut Tim Peake says he's heard from pilots who've encountered what the US government calls "unexplained aerial phenomena," or UAPs. In an interview with "Good Morning Britain," Peake diplomatically responded to questions about UAPs — better known as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, to the average non-nerd — by regaling the hosts with a particularly strange theory he'd heard. "What's your private theory?" host Richard Madeley asked the European Space Agency astronaut. "Do you think these are things from realms beyond \[or\] the development of secret weapons?" The astronaut admitted that, having seen some of the US government's UAP videos, he doesn't believe they show secret weaponry. "I heard one theory," Peake added, "where a pilot was talking about, potentially, in the future they've developed time travel. Is it something that's come back from the future?" This elicited polite laughter from the GMB hosts, and the astronaut conceded that in spite of "all these theories going around" about the nature of these unidentified and unexplained phenomena, "ultimately, we do not know." https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1536243721490075648 ## Future Vision Though it sounds even more outlandish than the concept of extraterrestrial visitors, the theory has been floated before. In early 2020, Montana Technological University professor and author Michael Masters [released a book positing that UFOs are "us" from the future](), and that the future humans piloting these unidentified objects could be abducting people to study them in an anthropological sense. "The alleged abduction accounts are mostly scientific in nature," Masters [told ]()*[Space.com]()* in an interview about his book. "It's probably future anthropologists, historians, linguists that are coming back to get information in a way that we currently can't without access to that technology." "I think the simplest explanation," Masters added, "is that it is us." The truth is out there — and it just may be closer to home than one would think. **More on UFOs:** *[NASA Says It's Officially Investigating UFO Reports]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()