NASA will form a scientific team to study UFOs

Worker pressure washes the NASA logo off the Vehicle Assembly Building before SpaceX sends two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. May 19, 2020. REUTERS/ Joe Skipper

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – NASA on Thursday announced plans to assemble a team of scientists to examine “unidentified aerial phenomena” – commonly known as UFOs – in the latest sign of how seriously the U.S. government is taking the issue.

The US space agency said the focus will be on identifying what data is available, the best ways to collect future data, and how it can use that information to advance scientific understanding of the matter. NASA brought in David Spergel, who previously headed the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University, to lead the science team and Daniel Evans, Principal Investigator in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, to orchestrate the study.

A team of scientists is to be convened by the fall and then will spend about nine months putting together a public report on its findings, Evans said. NASA will spend “a few tens of thousands of dollars” to no more than $100,000 on the effort, Evans added.

The announcement comes a year after the US government released a report, compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in conjunction with a Navy-led task force, detailing sightings primarily by Navy personnel of “phenomena Unidentified Aerials”, or PAN. Two Pentagon officials testified May 17 in the first congressional hearing on UFOs in half a century.

“We’re looking at Earth in a new way, and we’re also looking out the other side, up into the sky, in a new way,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA science unit chief, told reporters during the briefing. a conference call. “What we’re really trying to do here is launch an investigation with no results in mind.”

US officials have described UAPs as a national security issue, which NASA echoed.

“Unidentified phenomena in the atmosphere are of interest to both national security and aviation safety. Establishing natural events is a key first step in identifying or mitigating these phenomena, which is one of the NASA objectives to ensure the safety of aircraft,” NASA said. said in a press release.

Last year’s report said U.S. defense and intelligence analysts lacked sufficient data to determine the nature of UAPs observed by military pilots, including whether they were advanced ground, atmospheric, or extraterrestrial origin. The two Pentagon officials acknowledged last month that many of the sightings remained beyond the government’s ability to explain.

NASA said in a Press release: “There is no evidence that UAPs are of extraterrestrial origin.”

The agency’s involvement is aimed at providing more data, with the goal of leveraging NASA’s scientific talent, satellites and sensors otherwise tasked with monitoring Earth’s climate or observing atmospheric conditions, a Zurbuchen said.

“The first step is to figure out what data is available,” Evans said.

NASA’s involvement in Pentagon efforts to characterize UAPs has already been acknowledged by US officials.

The Pentagon has released video of enigmatic objects exhibiting speed and maneuverability beyond known aeronautical technology and lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight control surfaces.

Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Will Dunham

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