NASA is setting up an independent research team to study UFOs in the interest of “both national security and aviation security,” the agency said Thursday in a press release.
Through this study, NASA said it hopes to advance our scientific understanding of UFOs.
UFOs, or so-called unexplained aerial phenomena (UAPs), have long captured the public’s imagination through science fiction films and urban legends. But recently, governments and agencies have begun to seriously investigate the phenomena.
Last month, the U.S. held its first public hearing on the issue in more than 50 years after a report found that U.S. military pilots had encountered more than 144 UAPs since 2004. Marina announced during the hearing that, in fact, this number had increased to 400 meetings. .
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NASA is not directly collaborating with the U.S. military or government in its research, but will collect and analyze unclassified government data.
In fact, data collection will be the first order of the work of the study team, which will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, former chair of the astrophysics department at Princeton University.
“Given the scarcity of observations, our first task is simply to gather the most robust data set we can,” Spergel said. “We will identify what data (of civilians, governments, non-profit organizations, companies) exists, what else we should try to collect and how to best analyze it.”
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NASA expects the study to last about nine months and will begin in the fall. There will be experts in aeronautics, data analysis and other relevant scientists to advise the team.
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The results will also be made public, according to Daniel Evans, NASA’s research administrator who will oversee the team.
“All of NASA’s data is available to the public, we take that obligation seriously, and we make it easily accessible for anyone to see or study,” Evans said.
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NASA, however, is aware that this decision to study the UAPs may turn some heads.
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington, acknowledged that the wider scientific community may view the decision as NASA’s “kind of exhaustion,” but disagrees.
“We’re not shying away from reputational risk,” Zurbuchen said during an event at the National Academy of Sciences. “Our firm belief is that the biggest challenge of these phenomena is that it is a field with little data.”
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In a similar vein, Spergel said during a press conference that “we must approach all these questions with a sense of humility.”
“I spent most of my career as a cosmologist. I can tell you that we do not know what constitutes 95 percent of the universe, “he added.
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Spergel said the only preconceived notion he brings with him to the study is that UAPs are likely to have multiple explanations. Although NASA said in a precautionary statement in the press release that “There is no evidence that the UAPs are of extraterrestrial origin.”
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According to The Associated Press, the nine-month study will only cost $ 100,000.
“NASA believes that the tools of scientific discovery are powerful and are applied here as well,” Zurbuchen said.
“We have the tools and the equipment that can help us improve our understanding of the unknown. That’s the very definition of what science is. That’s what we do.”
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