NASA has held its first public meeting on UFOs, officially referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), after analyzing around 800 mysterious reports of unidentified flying objects collected over 27 years.
The four-hour televised hearing featured a panel of 16 independent experts, including retired US astronaut Scott Kelly, who shared their findings and commitment to transparency. The panel’s primary objective during the public session at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, DC, was to engage in final deliberations before publishing a report, anticipated for release by late July, according to panel chair David Spergel.
Spergel emphasized the importance of high-quality data, noting that the current collection efforts surrounding UAPs lack systematic and cohesive approaches across various agencies.
“If I were to summarise in one line what I feel we’ve learned, it’s we need high-quality data,” Spergel said during opening remarks on Wednesday.
“The current data collection efforts about UAPs are unsystematic and fragmented across various agencies, often using instruments uncalibrated for scientific data collection,” Spergel said.
The panel members, who were carefully selected by NASA, will continue their work for several more months. However, they have faced online abuse and harassment since the inception of their investigation, as acknowledged by Dan Evans, a senior research official at NASA’s science unit.
This panel’s inquiry is unprecedented within the realm of the US space agency, as previous investigations into UFOs were typically conducted by military and national security officials with limited public involvement.
NASA’s study is distinct from the Pentagon’s newly formalized investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena observed by military aviators and analyzed by defense and intelligence officials. The parallel efforts of NASA and the Pentagon, both conducted with some level of public scrutiny, represent a significant shift for the US government, which historically dismissed, discredited, or debunked UFO sightings dating back to the 1940s, often associated with concepts of flying saucers and extraterrestrial beings.
Although NASA’s scientific mission signaled a more open-minded approach to the subject, the agency made it clear from the outset that it would not jump to conclusions.
“There is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin,” NASA said in announcing the panel’s formation last June.
“I want to emphasise this loud and proud: there is absolutely no convincing evidence for extraterrestrial life associated with” unidentified objects, panel member Evans said after the meeting on Wednesday.