NASA’s UFO research team released its long-awaited first report today, and although experts found no signs of extraterrestrial origins for the reported sightings, the space agency has appointed a new head to study the phenomenon.
NASA commissioned an independent panel of experts in 2022 to brief NASA and other government agencies on how to collect and analyze better data in an effort to identify UFOs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), as they are now known (the term used to be adopted by the US Department of Defense to include not only objects or events in the air that cannot be immediately identified, but also those underwater or in space or that move between domains).
“The most important conclusion from the study is that there is much more to learn,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Thursday (Sept. 14) in releasing the report. “NASA’s independent research team has not found any evidence that UAP has an extraterrestrial origin, but we don’t know what these UAP are.”
To further research, NASA is appointing a director of UAP research to develop and oversee UAP research, Nelson announced. “We will use NASA’s expertise to work with other agencies to investigate UAPs,” he said.
Related: UFOs will remain mysterious without better data, NASA study team says
The first report from NASA’s UAP study team sheds little light on the UFO mystery, but does offer recommendations on how NASA can help move the topic forward. In its conclusion, the report states that NASA can best contribute to this topic by using its Earth observation satellites to help provide better data and evidence of UAP.
“Currently, analysis of UAP data is hampered by poor sensor calibration, lack of multiple measurements, lack of sensor metadata, and lack of baseline data,” he says. is stated in the report. “Making a concerted effort to improve all aspects is vital, and NASA’s expertise should be deployed extensively as part of a robust and systematic data collection strategy within the whole-of-government framework.”
During a press conference on Thursday (September 14) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, Nelson described the lack of data surrounding the subject, adding that because UFO sightings are often unpredictable and fleeting, they are difficult to study scientifically are.
“Think about it: most UAP observations result in very limited data. That makes it even more difficult to draw scientific conclusions about the nature of UAP,” Nelson said during the briefing. “And so this independent research team brought together some of the world’s leading scientists, data and artificial intelligence experts, and space security specialists, all with a specific mission for me, which is to tell how the entire focus of science and data can be applied to UAP.”
Other NASA leaders echoed this, noting that suspected UAP often remain unidentified solely due to the lack of clear data collected on them. “UAP is one of our planet’s greatest mysteries,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. “Although there are numerous eyewitness accounts and images associated with UAP, they are inconsistent, not detailed, and are not composite observations that can be used to draw definitive scientific conclusions about the nature and origins of UAP.”
Meanwhile, Dan Evans, deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, framed the agency’s UAP study efforts in terms of airspace safety. “The presence of UAP raises serious concerns about the safety of our airspace. And it is this country’s duty to determine whether these phenomena pose potential risks to the safety of our airspace,” Evans said. “Let’s remember that the first ‘A’ at NASA is aviation. By understanding the nature of UAP, we can ensure that our skies remain a safe space for everyone.”
To do this, the group’s report recommends that NASA use the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its own Aviation Safety Reporting System to help design identifiers that can help shed light on the UAP puzzle. The paper also recommends the use of artificial intelligence to sift through massive data sets to identify possible abnormal phenomena.
The report also includes several images of alleged UAPs, both those that have been identified and those that remain unexplained, including one that appears to show a metallic “sphere-like” object flying without known methods of propulsion. “Due to limited data, the object remains unidentified,” the report said.
By approaching the subject with serious scientific research, the report said, the agency could help remove the taboos and stigma associated with the study of UFOs, which has long been considered pseudoscientific. “NASA’s involvement in future data collection will play an important role in reducing the stigma associated with UAP reporting, which is currently most likely to result in data loss,” the report said. “NASA’s long-standing public trust, which is essential for communicating findings about these phenomena to citizens, is crucial to destigmatizing UAP reporting and scientific research.”
UFOs, or UAPs, have been the center of U.S. government attention in recent years as former intelligence and military personnel have come forward to share what they claim are encounters with unidentified objects or anomalous phenomena in the sky.
Several former U.S. military pilots have gone public in recent years in the news media and cable television documentary series about their observations of objects that appear to defy the conventional understanding of aerodynamics and materials science, and behave in ways that are difficult to explain with known technologies.
A former Pentagon intelligence officer and U.S. Air Force veteran even testified before a Congressional subcommittee in July 2023 that the U.S. government concealed evidence of a downed UAP and evidence of biological “non-human intelligence.”
No conclusive evidence has been put forward to support these claims, but several members of the US Congress have nonetheless expressed support for investigating them. Despite these claims, the head of the Pentagon’s new UFO study organization, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), testified before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2023 that his office “has no credible evidence to date of extraterrestrial creatures’. activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics.”
Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 11:15 a.m. ET with comments from NASA leaders during the agency’s media briefing on September 14.
