by NASA’s Independent Study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) begins today and we have the names of all 16 people on the team. First announced in June, the task force is charged with identifying how unclassified data collected by civilians, government entities, commercial organizations and other sources can potentially be used to “shed light on UAP” as well as provide a roadmap. for future studies and analysis. The project is expected to last nine months, with the findings due to be released to the public in mid-2023.
“Exploring the unknown in space and the atmosphere is at the heart of who we are at NASA,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in today’s official announcement. “Understanding the data we have on unidentified aerial phenomena is critical to helping us draw scientific conclusions about what is happening in our skies. Data is the language of scientists and makes the unexplainable explainable.”
[Related: Congress has concerns about UAPs.]
The team is chaired by David Spergel, founder of the Flatiron Institute for Computational Astrophysics and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, and includes members from the SETI Institute, astrophysicists, oceanographers, science journalists, AI theorists, as well as former NASA commander and astronaut. the International Space Station. , Scott Kelly.
“Without access to a large data set, it is nearly impossible to verify or explain any observation, so the focus of the study is to inform NASA of what possible data could be collected in the future to scientifically discern the nature of UAP,” he says. NASA announcement.
[Related: UFO conspiracies can be more dangerous than you think.]
The government and military renamed UFOs unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) a few years ago as part of an ongoing effort to destigmatize genuinely puzzling and, to some, concerning sightings, both by the public and other credible experts. Headline-grabbing alien invasion and conspiracy theories aside, a series of dramatic and as yet unexplained events in recent years present significant challenges to national security officials, with unidentified objects apparently capable of traversing environments. terrestrial and aquatic seamlessly, as well as moving at speeds and in ways that our known technology cannot handle.
Ongoing public developments, such as the launch of today’s task force, indicate that the government is still very concerned about getting to the bottom of these sightings and takes many of them seriously. Once the NASA investigation presents its findings, we hope to get additional information on how these issues will be handled and analyzed in the years to come.
