NASA officially joins the hunt for UFOs.
The space agency on Thursday announced a new study that will recruit leading scientists to study unidentified aerial phenomena — a topic that has long intrigued the public and recently garnered high-level attention from Congress.
The project will begin early this fall and last about nine months and will focus on identifying available data, how more data can be collected in the future, and how NASA can analyze the results to try to move the needle to scientific understanding .
“Over the decades, NASA has answered the call to address some of the most perplexing mysteries we know, and this is no different,” Daniel Evans, the NASA scientist responsible for coordinating the study, told reporters a call.
As NASA probes and rovers scour the solar system for fossils of ancient microbes and its astronomers search for signs of intelligent civilizations on distant planets for so-called “technosignatures,” this marks the first time the agency has studied unexplained phenomena in Earth’s skies.
With its access to a wide range of scientific tools, NASA is well positioned not only to demystify UFOs and deepen scientific understanding, but also to find ways to mitigate the phenomena, an important part of its mission to keep aircraft safe to ensure, said NASA chief scientist Thomas Zurbuchen.
The announcement comes as the field of UFO studies, once a little-noticed research backlog, is gaining more mainstream traction.
Last month, Congress held a public hearing on UFOs, while a US intelligence report last year cataloged 144 sightings that it said could not be explained. It did not exclude a foreign origin.
The NASA study will be independent of the Pentagon’s Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, but the space agency has “broadly coordinated with the government on how to apply the tools of the science,” the statement said.
A lack of UFO observations is currently making it difficult for the scientific community to draw any conclusions.
Therefore, said astrophysicist David Spergel, who will lead the research, the group’s first task would be to determine the extent of available data from sources including civilians, governments, nonprofits and companies.
Another overarching goal of NASA is to increase credibility in this area of study.
“There is a lot of stigma associated with UAP among our naval aviators and the aviation community,” Evans said.
“One of the things we’re tangentially hoping to do as part of this study, just by being open about it, is removing some of the stigma attached to it, and obviously that’s going to lead to better access to data, more reports, more.” sightings.”
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