In a news conference, Spergel said the only preconceived notion going into the study is that the UAPs will likely have multiple explanations. NASA said the team will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation for advancing scientific research. It will be entirely open, with no classified military data used.
The study will begin this fall and last nine months, costing no more than $100,000. NASA considers this a first step in trying to explain mysterious sightings in the sky known as UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena. “Our strong belief is that the biggest challenge of these phenomena is that it's a data-poor field.” “We are not shying away from reputational risk,” Zurbuchen said during a National Academy of Sciences webcast. NASA's science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen acknowledged the traditional scientific community may see NASA as “kind of selling out” by venturing into the controversial topic, but he strongly disagrees. KaF9IyDUB7- Thomas Zurbuchen June 9, 2022 This team will focus on identifying and collecting available data to scientifically understand UAPs. However, Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, said he doubted that NASA would again spend millions of dollars on SETI, given the 1993 cancellation of its last program.NASA is commissioning a study team to start early fall to examine unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) - observations in the sky that cannot be identified. “We’ve deliberately included that into our research portfolio,” Dr. Such signs could include air pollution in the atmospheres of distant planets.
Zurbuchen pointed to NASA research that is trying to identify potential “technosignatures” - signs of a technological civilization - in astronomical observations. That initiative at Berkeley SETI Research Center is financed by Yuri Milner, a Russian-born billionaire technology investor who lives in the United States.ĭuring the news conference, Dr. Since then, systematic searches for alien civilizations have been mostly privately financed efforts like those conducted by the SETI Institute in California and by Breakthrough Listen. In 1992, NASA started a radio astronomy program to search for radio signals from alien civilizations, but Congress canceled that effort the following year. In 1978, Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin bestowed one of his “Golden Fleece” awards on NASA’s modest SETI program, highlighting what he called a waste of taxpayer money. The vacuum reflects decades of Congressional skepticism. NASA now has a robust program in astrobiology - looking at life elsewhere in the solar system and galaxy - but does almost no work on the possibility of intelligent civilizations sharing our universe. research as “not actual science,” tackling controversial questions is important, Dr. While many scientists might consider U.F.O. “It’s for a research program that we can then implement,” he said. The NASA study will also consider other explanations like natural phenomena or unknown advanced technology developed by Russia, China or other countries. NASA has not yet chosen the other scientists who will participate on the study. NASA’s effort will be independent of the Pentagon’s and will be led by David Spergel, an astrophysicist who is currently president of the Simons Foundation in New York, which finances fundamental research work in mathematics and the sciences. The officials said there was no evidence that these phenomena were extraterrestrial in nature. In 2021, the Pentagon announced it would form a new task force to look at the issue after a Congressionally-mandated report found there was insufficient data for many incidents that had been observed.Īt a House subcommittee hearing last month, Pentagon officials testified about military reports of unexplained phenomena, including a reflective spherical object speeding past a fighter jet. The Pentagon has said the program was shut down in 2012, but backers of the program said its work continued. For years a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, ran a little-noticed group within the Pentagon called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.
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