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NASA taking ‘concrete action’ to explore UFOs after landmark report | Science & Tech News

NASA is taking “concrete action” to explore the potential threat of UFOs following the release of a landmark report into the phenomena.

The agency’s administrator, Bill Nelson, said it was time to “shift the conversation from sensationalist to science”, having received the recommendations of an independent panel tasked with looking into years of sightings.

Scientists have released findings on ‘UAPs’ – live updates

While the 16-team panel stressed there is “no reason to conclude” that any sightings have been alien in origin, their report warned any mysterious flying objects were a “self-evident” threat to American airspace.

The U.S. Department of Defense launches a sounding rocket from NASA's launch range at Wallops Flight Facility carrying hypersonic weapon experiments in Virginia

Their 33-page report said NASA should play a larger role in detecting such phenomena – and the agency has already appointed its first director of UFO research to lead the way.

NASA is also seeking to rename UFOs to UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena) to remove a “stigma” that can prevent people from reporting sightings.

Mr Nelson told a news briefing after the report’s release: “We are looking for signs of life, past and present, and it is in our DNA to explore and to ask why things are the way they are.”

He said “we all are entertained by Indiana Jones in the Amazon finding the crystal skull”, citing the impact of Hollywood and pop culture on people’s fascination with the topic.

“There’s a lot of folklore out there. That’s why we entered the arena: to get into this from a science point of view.”

Mr Nelson acknowledged that with billions of stars in billions of galaxies out there, another Earth could exist.

He said: “If you ask me do I believe there’s life in a universe that’s so vast that it’s hard for me to comprehend how big it is, my personal answer is yes.”

His own scientists put the likelihood of life on another Earth-like planet at “at least a trillion”.

The Nasa panel at the  Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Report
Image:
Bill Nelson (far left) led the news briefing

NASA given recommendations to help demystify UAPs

Thursday’s report came over a year after the space agency announced it was forming an independent team of scientists tasked with looking into UFO sightings.

It held its first public meeting back in May, where the panel said while there had been a rise in reported sightings, barely any could be deemed “anomalous”.

Previous sightings have been put down to drones, while others have ended up being satellites.

The report made a number of recommendations for how NASA should approach the topic in future.

They included:

• Utilise its Earth observation tools, like the James Webb Space Telescope, to investigate whether there are environmental conditions associated with UAP

• Leverage the private space industry’s vast constellations of satellites to look out for UAPs, so we are less reliant on grainy camera footage for potential sightings

• Consider how AI and machine learning can be leveraged to help detect UAP and gather more data

• Improve public engagement, perhaps by looking into the development of a smartphone app to gather images from citizen observer

• Better leverage the existing reporting system for commercial pilots

An image released by NASA in its 2023 report into UFO sightings