NASA on Thursday promised a new transparent and scientifically rigorous study of UFOs and announced that it had appointed a director of research on the subject, although the agency has since kept the name of that person secret.
This new position is part of NASA’s response to recommendations by an independent research team assembled by NASA. The panel discussion considered how to more effectively gather and study information about “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAPs, modern UFO terminology).
panel reportThe paper, published Thursday, did not attempt to provide a definitive answer to whether extraterrestrial life forms roaming the Earth’s skies. But it suggests a larger role for NASA in tackling the issue.
“NASA will do this transparently,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., discussing the report.
During the press conference, Nelson first talked about NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. The rover is collecting rock samples that may contain traces of life that lived on Mars billions of years ago. He then turned to the James Webb Space Telescope, where he conducts research. planets around distant stars In search of clues that they might be habitable or even harbor life.
UAP research follows similar aspirations to learn about the possibility that life exists elsewhere in the universe, he said. “This is the first time NASA has taken concrete action to seriously investigate UAPs,” Nelson said.
Nicola Fox, deputy administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said the person serving as the new director of UAP research had been in the role “for some time,” but declined to identify the person. “We will not release his name,” she said.
NASA officials said they kept their identities secret in part because of the harassment some of the independent committee’s 16 members, including university professors, space industry officials and science journalists, suffered during the study. said.
“Some of them were actually exposed to real threats,” said Daniel Evans, deputy assistant administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Yes, that’s also part of the reason why we don’t release the new director’s name to the public. Because science needs to be free.”
Federal knowledge about UAPs has recently been the subject of proposed federal legislation. At a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing in July, lawmakers questioned a former intelligence official who claimed to have knowledge of the government’s cover-up of extraterrestrial technology.
UAPs often turn out to be innocuous objects such as weather balloons. Most experts believe it is unlikely that an alien spacecraft could explain any of the events. However, some of what was observed could be a test of yet-to-be-discovered atmospheric phenomena or advanced weapons systems.
“One of the main purposes of what we’re trying to do here today is to steer speculation and conspiracy in the direction of science and sanity,” Dr. Evans said. “And we do it with data.”
The committee recommends that NASA use Earth observation instruments to collect environmental data at the same time as UAP reports and ask the public to help send a broader range of observations, perhaps through a smartphone app. are doing.
“It always comes back to the data that you put into the analysis,” said astrophysicist David Spergel, president of the Simmons Foundation and chair of the UAP committee. “You can’t learn things without the right data.”
Smartphones can take clear images, record precise locations, measure magnetic fields, and record sound. “Mobile phones store a lot of data,” Dr. Spergel says. “If you don’t understand something, collect the data. We aggregate the data and learn from it.”
Broader data collection could also reduce the stigma and ridicule that many people fear when talking about what they see. “Stigma limits pilot reporting in both the civilian and military sectors,” Dr. Spergel said.
The panel also suggested using advanced computer algorithms, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to look for subtle patterns in UAP reports that could help identify underlying phenomena.
Some of the questions were directed toward the bizarre and surreal. A journalist asked about a UFO researcher who displayed what he called two alien corpses in Mexico’s Congress on Tuesday.
“Has NASA been in touch with Mexican authorities about the rather sensational revelations about two supposedly non-human corpses that came to light earlier this week?” the journalist said. “And what, if any, importance do you place on these findings?”
Dr. Spergel responded, “I know this is something I’ve only seen on Twitter.”
He drew an analogy to the moon rocks collected by NASA during the Apollo moon landings 50 years ago and available for study by scientists around the world.
“If you see something strange, please give a sample to the global scientific community so we can see what’s out there,” Dr. Spergel said.
The UAP study was announced in June last year by Thomas Zurbuchen, then deputy administrator of the Science Mission Directorate.
Dr. Zurbuchen said that investigating UFO reports can be a “high-risk, high-impact type of research,” with the potential to discover entirely new scientific phenomena or come up with nothing entirely new or interesting. He said there is a possibility that there will be no.
At a public hearing in May, the committee attempted to explain some of the material that fascinated the public. I used some of them (a little tricky) In one video taken by a Navy plane in 2015, “go quickly” was not fast, traveling only 40 miles per hour, by illustrating how the perspective of an object can be a visual trick.