Unidentified objects shot down: Aliens not ruled out, general says

(FOX 2) - As officials work to identify three objects shot down by the military recently, speculations about what they are have arisen.

An object shot down over Lake Huron near Michigan's Upper Peninsula on Sunday is the fourth object shot down by U.S. fighter jets in eight days, along with ones over Alaska and Canada and a suspected Chinese spy balloon.

READ: Everything we know about the unidentified object over Lake Huron

When asked if the objects could be aliens or something else extraterrestrial-related, Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, didn't have the answer.

"I haven’t ruled out anything," he said.

Officials are still working to recover the object from Lake Huron.

More: US working to identify 3 objects shot down from sky

VanHerck said he doesn't know if the unidentified objects were balloons, and he isn't categorizing them as balloons until they can be studied.

"What we’re seeing is very, very small objects that produce a very, very small radar cross-section," he said.

The object shot down Sunday was moving at about the speed of the wind. While officials don't believe it posed a kinetic threat to the military, it was traveling at an altitude that could have been dangerous for civilian aircraft.