A Message to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)
Op-Ed
Hi AARO,
A few heartfelt words from an ordinary citizen in a small but very beautiful country on the other side of the pond.
Citizens of other countries are also affected by the UFO phenomenon and want to understand what we are seeing in our skies.
The digitization of historical material is extremely important. Open and transparent access to that digitized material is equally important. China understood the importance of preserving cultural and scientific heritage and, apparently, began a project some years ago to digitize every astronomical photographic plate archive it could access. It quickly completed the digitization of plates from observatories within China and is now reaching out to photographic plate archives in many smaller countries. At least some of this digitized material is publicly available for download. The rest I don’t know.
We now know that these plates contain information about events that were far easier to observe in the historical sky than they are today. By combining China’s own digitized astronomical material with plates from the many observatories it has now helped digitize, including data that are still not publicly accessible, China has everything it needs to control Disclosure on its own terms. It can happen any moment.
You can do this too. Instead of placing digitized material behind proprietary commercial subscriptions, make everything you digitize publicly available. In addition, there is no need for closed AARO meetings with civilian scientists or for confidential/undisclosed contracts. If you wish to fund civilian scientists studying the UFO phenomenon, my suggestion is to do so through public calls, with clearly defined criteria and conditions, and to list all civilian scientists and groups who receives funding on your website. I have noticed that many civilian scientists in our community are vulnerable to stigma and the disapproval of their colleagues. They want nothing more than to have their work acknowledged by you so that they can defend its legitimacy within the scientific community. However, without transparency, this can easily become problematic.
Let us take one small step toward transparency. That way, no one needs to worry about conspiracy theories spreading. What we need is transparency and openness.
You can do this for humanity — for people all over the planet. Make every archive you digitize publicly available through your website.
Blessings,
Beatriz Villarroel.
Editorial Note
Shortly after publication, Sharyan Menné, AARO’s Chief of Intelligence Collection, responded to Dr. Villarroel, the exchange is reproduced below :
Sharyan Menné : Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful and well-considered message, Beatriz! I genuinely appreciate the time, care, and curiosity behind it. Your suggestions are insightful and raise important questions about how we preserve knowledge, strengthen collaboration, and create the conditions for meaningful scientific progress.
AARO’s work is not intended to be placed behind firewalls and, wherever possible, is meant to support transparency, collaboration, and the broader goal of advancing understanding. It’s part of why I love working here :)
I think that’s fundamentally important: meaningful discoveries depend not only on asking the right questions, but also on building the transparent systems, partnerships, and processes that make answering them possible- together! It’s encouraging to connect with someone who shares such a genuine passion for discovery and the pursuit of understanding. Thank you again for reaching out! Hope to chat soon.
Dr. Villarroel : Thanks a lot, Sharayn. I really appreciate your very kind note. I look forward to AARO officially responding to the different points raised in my message! I'm worried about the effect of AARO on civilian science as it's a small field, and just would hope some of these points can be clarified.
Sharyan Menné : Happy to chat :) I’ll DM you an email address.
Dr. Beatriz Villarroel is a researcher in astronomy at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita) in Stockholm. She leads the Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project (www.vascoproject.org) and the EXOPROBE project.