On Thursday, June 9, NASA announced it will soon have an independent research team dedicated to studying UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) sightings. The agency refers to it as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) which are "observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena from a scientific perspective," said agency representatives. 

The researchers will come together this Fall to begin studying UFOs and gathering new data to potentially uncover the truth about the mysterious sightings that have captivated the imagination of people across the world for decades. Some space enthusiasts would like to believe that UFOs/UAPs are evidence of otherworldly aliens but NASA says that there is currently "no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin."

Any sightings in Earth's atmosphere are of interest for U.S. national security and airplane traffic safety. Though, this research team is not part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force or its successor, it will be an independent NASA team led by astrophysicist David Spergel. 

Spergel is president of the Simons Foundation in New York City, and previously the chair of the astrophysics department at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. He will work with Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, who will serve as the NASA official responsible for organizing the UAPs study. 

The researchers will have a budget of around $100,000 USD and have around 9-months to figure out how to use NASA's available tools to collect new UFO data in an effective way to understand the unidentified phenomena. “Given the paucity of observations, our first task is simply to gather the most robust set of data that we can,” said Spergel. “We will be identifying what data – from civilians, government, non-profits, companies – exists, what else we should try to collect, and how to best analyze it.”

“NASA believes that the tools of scientific discovery are powerful and apply here also,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. “We have access to a broad range of observations of Earth from space – and that is the lifeblood of scientific inquiry. We have the tools and team who can help us improve our understanding of the unknown. That’s the very definition of what science is. That’s what we do.”

Mr. Evans assured that the data they collect and their potential findings will be released to the public. “Consistent with NASA’s principles of openness, transparency, and scientific integrity, this report will be shared publicly. All of NASA’s data is available to the public – we take that obligation seriously – and we make it easily accessible for anyone to see or study,” he stated in a press release.

Featured Image Source: Artist depiction of a UFO via Shutterstock