President Joe Biden's administration has steadfastly refused to explain what, exactly, the "unidentified flying objects" are that were recently shot down by fighter jets in U.S. or Canadian airspace over three consecutive days.

Given the loaded history of that particular phrase, there naturally was wild speculation that the "objects" could be extraterrestrial in origin, but the White House has now firmly and repeatedly denied that possibility, Fox News reported.

Instead, the Biden White House has put forward a range of other plausible explanations for what those unknown "objects" might actually be, and none of them are alien in nature.

However, the outlet noted that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced last week that he would head up a special interagency task force to closely study the developing issue of unidentified flying objects being spotted over U.S. airspace.

"There are no UFOs. This is not an invasion of the aliens."

Fox News obtained a recording of a roughly half-hour-long briefing delivered by the White House to state governors across the nation on Monday about the recent incidents in which unidentified "objects" were shot down -- the first over Alaska on Friday, the second over the Canadian Yukon on Saturday, and the third over Lake Huron on Sunday.

"There are no UFOs. This is not an invasion of the aliens," White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall told the governors. "I mean it's funny, but it's not funny, because people are communicating this on platforms that are widely viewed, and it's creating fear that is unnecessary."

Unfortunately for her, it was the administration itself that, at least initially, contributed to unnecessarily "creating fear" and confusion among the public about the unidentified objects, in part due to the decidedly vague manner in which those objects were described.

On top of that, during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday, the commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, Air Force Gen. Glenn VanHerck, when asked directly if the unknown objects were extraterrestrial in origin, the general replied, "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything."

Objects are likely just "balloons" or "weather experiments"

"We are dealing with a number of objects that are not well characterized," Sherwood-Randall reportedly said in the call with the governors. "It's true that there are things that are being identified that don't resemble anything else, that largely don't present a threat, and we have to figure out what to do about them. And it turns out, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them."

She went on to suggest that some of the "objects" could be nothing more than "used car lot balloons" or small aircraft launched for commercial or research purposes.

A similar tale was told on Tuesday to Fox News by an unnamed senior Defense official, who suggested that the "objects" could also be "sky trash" or "weather experiments," among other possibilities -- but certainly not extraterrestrial.

"Across all of the objects over the weekend, there are certain similarities in terms of characteristics or size but they are all unique and different in their own way," the official explained.

Jean-Pierre says "no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity"

Also joining in on the effort to tamp down talk of a potential extraterrestrial invasion were White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby during Monday's White House press briefing.

At the top of the briefing, Jean-Pierre announced to some laughter from the press pool, "I just wanted to make sure we address this from the White House. I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no -- again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity -- with these recent takedowns."

"Again, there is no indication of aliens or [extra]terrestrial activity with these recent takedowns. Wanted to make sure that the American people knew that, all of you knew that. And it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it," she added.

At the end of the briefing, a reporter pressed Kirby to countenance the difference between the general saying nothing was ruled out just one day prior, in terms of the possible extraterrestrial origin of the objects, and Jean-Pierre's definitively ruling that possibility out at the start of that day's briefing.

Kirby replied, "I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens, with respect to these craft. Period. I don’t think there’s any more that needs to be said there."