The independent study team charged by NASA to investigate the ever-changing acronym once simply referred to as UFOs held a public meeting Wednesday to lay out its progress toward its final report expected this summer.
UFO, as in unidentified flying object, is a dated term that the U.S. military began referring to as UAPs, as in unidentified aerial phenomena, which has since been further relabeled as unidentified anomalous phenomena, meaning it could be some sort of aircraft or something natural.
The study team commissioned by NASA last fall includes 16 experts ranging from former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly to university physics professors to officials with the Federal Aviation Administration. The panelists laid out their approach noting the panel’s purpose isn’t to delve into the unexplained sightings of the past, but instead create a scientific plan on how to assess future sightings.
“Above all, objectivity when we approach UAPs, from a scientific perspective, we do not come in with an agenda,” said Daniel Evans, NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for science research. “We come in needing a roadmap. Indeed, the primary objective of this incredible team of experts is not to go back and look at grainy footage of UAPs but rather to give us a roadmap to guide us for future analysis.”
While UFO sightings have been in the collective public mindset since the end of World War II, unclassified military footage taken in the last two decades of naval aviator encounters including one off the coast of Florida swelled more public and government interest. That interest prompted NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to call for a scientific evaluation to ensure keeping skies safe, no matter the explanation.
Panelists explained the challenges they were facing with the data they’re assessing while hearing from government officials that have a vested interest in UAPs.
A big key is that since the panel is public, it’s not looking at classified footage, so the majority of the data is coming from civilian observations.
Another hurdle facing not just this panel, but the military as well, is the stigma associated with those reporting unexplained phenomena.
Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the federal government’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), presented examples of the UAP sightings reported, and what sort of conclusions can be drawn, as well as the challenges behind it. AARO’s charge after its creation in 2022 with the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act, is to synchronize efforts across the Department of Defense with other U.S. federal departments and agencies like NASA to to detect and identify objects like UAPs and mitigate their potential threats to national security.
In one recently declassified video, he showed a spherical metallic object seen from an MQ-9 reconnaissance aircraft over the Middle East in 2022.
“This is a typical example of the thing that we see most of. We see these all over the world and we see these making very interesting apparent maneuvers,” he said. “This one in particular, however, I would point out, demonstrated no enigmatic technical capabilities and was no threat to airborne safety.”
He said that it remains unexplained with no other data from which to draw any conclusions.
“It’s going to take time, until we can get better resolved data on similar objects that we can then do a larger analysis on,” he said.
He showed more footage reported by a training flight pilot that looked like three objects in the sky in fixed positions that turned out to be just airplanes on an approach corridor farther away than what the pilot thought.
“This is the kind of thing that can spoof and or provide misperception of both very highly trained pilots as well as sensors,” he said, but noted the good news. “When they’re not sure, they’re reporting it now, and that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. And then we have to go look at it.”
Kirkpatrick emphasized that most of the reports his office receive feature “mundane characteristics of readily explainable sources.”
And while the office’s queue of what he called “technically unresolved” observations has climbed to more than 800, he said it’s “primarily due to a lack of data associated with those cases.”
“Without sufficient data we are unable to reach defendable conclusions that meet the high scientific standards we set for resolution,” he said. “Meanwhile for the few objects that do demonstrate potentially anomalous characteristics, AARO is approaching these cases with the highest level of objectivity and analytical rigor. … AARO’s work will take time if we are committed to doing it right.”
He noted part of the challenge is impatience, and noted his office has faced harassment just as NASA’s review board members reportedly have been subject to, because he said many don’t understand the scientific method approach to this.
“People want answers now, and so they are actually feeding the stigma by exhibiting that kind of behavior to all of us. That is a bad thing,” he said. “Where can NASA help? I made that recommendation on NASA should lead the scientific discourse, we need to elevate this conversation.”
The idea government is tackling what some believe to be just science fiction is still a hurdle within institutional leadership as well, he said.
“The stigma has improved significantly over the years since the Navy first took this on some years ago,” he said. “It is not gone and in fact, I would argue the stigma exists inside the leadership of all of our our buildings.”
The NASA study group’s report aims to nail down which data sources can be leaned on to better explain UAPs as they are reported. The goal would be to explain the things that can be explained quicker, and clear the path for further investigation into those that cannot be explained. They also don’t want to duplicate the DOD efforts, but complement them.
And to do it transparently.
“NASA prides itself on making its data and images available to the public to learn and explore on their own,” the agency posted ahead of the meeting “By holding public meetings like this one, we aim for open and honest dialogue with the public. We recognize that public interest in UAPs is high and the demand for answers is strong. conversations like this one, are the first step to reducing the stigma surrounding UAP reporting or over transparency is essential for fostering trust between NASA, the public and the scientific community.”
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