Weeks after the first public hearing on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in more than half a century, NASA is about to begin a scientific study of these mysterious celestial visions. The US Space Agency has announced plans to set up a scientific team to study high-risk science. The space agency says its goal is to organise available data, identify the best way to collect future data, and how they can use that information to improve scientific understanding of the problem. An independent group will review publicly available data and try to assimilate what is needed to determine the validity of the mysterious findings.
“We do not avoid reputational risks.” “We firmly believe that the biggest challenge of these events is that this is a bad data field,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA’s scientific mission at the National Webcast Academy of Sciences, and acknowledged that NASA’s traditional scientific community can look like this. “kind of salesman” by dealing with a controversial topic he fundamentally disagrees with.
NASA sees this as a first step in explaining mysterious celestial visions, known as UAPs, or unknown aerial phenomena. NASA said the group would be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation for the Advancement of Scientific Research. At a news conference, Spergel said the only known idea that went into the study was that the UAPs probably had more explanations.
“We must answer all these questions with humility.” I have spent most of my career as a cosmologist. I can tell you that we do not know what makes up 95% of the universe. So there are things we don’t understand, “said Spergel. During a public UFO briefing last month, Scott Bray, deputy director of Naval Intelligence, said that they were increasing the number of unauthorised and/or unauthorised known aircraft or controlled objects in airspace since the beginning of the 21st century.
Last year, the US government published a report compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, along with a naval task force and detailed observations by most naval personnel, regarding “unidentified air phenomena,” or UAPs.