NASA held its first public meeting Wednesday (May 31) to discuss the findings of the independent UAP study team.
The group, founded in June 2022, aims to examine data related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), a new term that encompasses airborne, underwater or space objects or incidents that cannot be immediately identified. The group, which has $100,000 in funding, is made up of former astronaut Scott Kelly and 15 other researchers from a wide variety of fields, including astronomy, oceanography and even journalism.
On a conference call after the meeting, astrophysicist David Spergel, chair of the study group and former member of the NASA Advisory Council, compared the study of UAP to fast radio bursts (FRBs), powerful bursts of radio waves from distant galaxies that were originally thought to be are anomalies. “Sometimes anomalies are really interesting and point to a new physical phenomenon. And I think some interesting lessons have been learned from that,” Spergel told Space.com. “You have to decide how to do targeted observations and optimize your observation strategy to be able to do that. And I think as we think about UAPs, we’re informed by past successes and identifying anomalies.”
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During the opening speech at Wednesday’s hearing, team members stressed that the biggest obstacle to understanding these unidentified phenomena is a lack of data. Nevertheless, NASA’s Daniel Evans, deputy assistant research administrator in the agency’s Science Missions Directorate, noted that because public interest in UAP is seemingly at an all-time high, it is NASA’s responsibility to keep the subject “rigorous scientific research.” to give. it deserved. “First and foremost, it gives us the opportunity to expand our understanding of the world around us,” said Evans. “This work is in our DNA.”
Evans emphasized that the research is primarily about gaining a better understanding of what’s in the air and making the air safer. “It is the duty of this country to determine whether these phenomena pose potential risks to airspace safety,” Evans said.
Nicki Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said the independent UAP research team was tasked “to create a roadmap on how to use scientific tools to evaluate and categorize the nature of UAPs in the future.” This roadmap is obviously going to help the federal government gain actionable data to explain the nature of future UAPs.”
However, Fox noted that accessing high-quality data is difficult because the sensor platforms used to capture data are often classified.
“If a fighter jet took a picture of the Statue of Liberty, that picture would not be classified because of the subject in the picture, but because of the sensors on the plane,” Fox said.
She emphasized the need for high-quality, unclassified data, which “enables our team to communicate openly to advance our understanding of UAP, not just with each other, but within the scientific community and with the public.”
Spergel echoed that sentiment, adding that “current data collection efforts related to UAPs are unsystematic and fragmented across agencies, often using instruments that are not calibrated for scientific data collection.”
Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), agreed, saying that while most of the UAP reports reviewed by the office are easily explained, some still remain unsolved “mainly because of a lack of data related to those cases. .”
One of the most disheartening moments in the opening statements came when both Fox and Evans pointed out that many members of NASA’s UAP study group have been subjected to harassment as a result of their involvement.
“A NASA security team is actively addressing this issue,” Evans said. “We at NASA are well aware of the significant public interest in UAP. However, it is critical to understand that any form of harassment towards our panelists will only detract from the scientific process, which requires an environment of respect and openness .”
Speaking on the post-meeting teleconference, Spergel added that it is critical to stay rooted in UAP’s scientific study, based on the available data and without jumping to conclusions. “To claim that we have seen anything that is evidence of non-human intelligence would require extraordinary evidence,” Spergel said. “And we have not seen that. I think that’s important to clarify.”
