No more stigma and lack of transparency in the investigation of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), better known as UFOs (unidentified flying objects).. Or at least that is what NASA has intended by commissioning a commission of independent experts to produce a report that was presented this Thursday at a press conference and that evaluates how to approach its study and what type of data can be collected to understand nature. and the origin of UAPs – which this commission considers “one of the greatest mysteries of our planet” – with the technologies and scientific tools available. In the words of NASA director Bill Nelson, they intend to move from “sensationalism to science.”
NASA defines UAPs as observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or, from a scientific perspective, as natural phenomena: “At this time there is no reason to conclude that existing reports of UAPs have an extraterrestrial origin,” the experts say at the end of the report before adding, with a long and convoluted explanation, that it is not something they can rule out as plausible either “if we recognize that it is a possibility that these objects could have traveled through the Solar System towards us.”. or that the galaxy goes beyond our Solar system”, among other arguments.
The formation of this commission of 16 experts in 2022 generated great expectation, although NASA warned, before the publication of its conclusions this Thursday, that the document is not “a review or assessment of previous unidentified observations”. And in fact, they have not offered any major conclusions, beyond admitting that they still have no explanation for some of these sightings and that, although they cannot affirm that any of them have extraterrestrial origin, they cannot affirm the opposite either.. Currently, says the US space agency, there is a limited number of high-quality observations of UAP, which makes it impossible to draw firm scientific conclusions about its nature, which is why this research is approached “with an open mind” considering that “there are “a lot to learn”. The US will have a director of research on UAP but it has not yet been revealed who will have that position.
“Recently, many credible witnesses, often military aviators, have reported seeing objects they did not recognize in US airspace.. Most of these sightings have been explained, but a few have not been identified as man-made objects or natural phenomena.. “These are the events that we call Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAP,” details the document, made with unclassified data from government and civil entities.. And by understanding their nature we can ensure that they are safe,” said Daniel Evans, deputy director of research in NASA's Science Mission Directorate.. And this report, he added, shows “NASA's commitment to transparency and knowledge.”
That these experts have not accessed classified data on classified sightings contrasts with the transparency that has been mentioned so much during the press conference.. When asked why they only used declassified information, Daniel Evans pointed out that “one of the reasons they restricted the study to unclassified data was so they could speak openly.”
The object photographed in the Middle East that could not be identified “due to limited data”
The report includes examples of objects or phenomena studied, some that have been identified as aircraft components and others that have not yet been identified.. These include a silver spherical object photographed by an MQ-9 in the Middle East that “due to limited data, remains unidentified”. Another example is the famous video published in 2020 by the Department of Defense of a mysterious flying object (a phenomenon they call 'GoFast), for which they have calculated data such as the speed at which it was going but which remain unidentified.
“The independent commission has not found any evidence of the extraterrestrial origin of UAPs, but we do not know what UAPs are, and we are going to try to find out. Whatever we discover, we are going to reveal it,” said Nelson, who stressed the need to obtain higher quality data.
The phenomenon known as 'GoFast', whose video was published by the Department of Defense in 2020, has not yet been clarified
According to the director of NASA, “there is something fascinating” about UAPs: “On my trips, one of the questions I am asked the most is about sightings,” said Nelson, who has given his personal opinion on the existence of extraterrestrial life. “If you ask me if I believe there is life in the universe, outside of Earth, my answer is yes…The universe is so vast that there could be a replica of life on Earth in another solar system, of course I would.” I think,” he said.
Nelson also recalled that NASA's job “is to discover the unknown”. “Exploring is in NASA's DNA, as is asking why things are the way they are.. “We want to make sure that anything we find is transparent to everyone,” he said.
recommendations
Meanwhile, what this independent committee of experts presented this Thursday has been a kind of roadmap with recommendations to be able to study them better from now on.. The commission is led by David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation and former director of the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University.. Asked if they are concerned about the regulation of AI, Nelson responded that he personally does believe that AI needs some limits.
Bill Nelson and Nicola Fox, during the press conference AFP
According to this report, another critical aspect of understanding UAPs will be “engaging the public” because a negative perception of UAPs is an obstacle to collecting data on these phenomena.
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At the end of May, NASA held a briefing in which experts from the UAP commission explained that, after investigating 800 sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena, they confirmed that in none of them had they seen evidence of something extraordinary, of something that was not appropriate. of human intelligence”, in the words of David Spergel.
NASA also remembers that it is not actively searching for UAP, but it does finance numerous missions to research exoplanets and biosignatures, that is, substances that may indicate the presence of some type of life on these exoplanets.. “One of NASA's key priorities is the search for life elsewhere in the universe.”
The 16 members that make up the independent commission