Illustration of the artist of “cubes inside spheres” reported by some Navy pilots. The illustration is based on a story by former Navy pilot Ryan Graves, who said that one of the sites passed directly between two F-18 fighters. What do you think? An illusion? Error? Right? Will the new UAP study shed light? Illustration by Andrew Pierce.
New UAP study
NASA announced on June 9, 2022, that it had commissioned a research team to study unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs, also known as UFOs) from a scientific point of view. The study will begin in the fall of 2022. It appears to be in response to recent interest in the UAP by the US military. A task force of the Department of Defense – called the Task Force on Unidentified Aviation, established in 2020 – appeared before the US Congress on May 17, 2022 with reports of more than 400 “observations” since 2004, mostly from Navy pilots who are so far inexplicable. NASA said its independent study:
… Will focus on identifying available data, how best to collect future data, and how NASA can use that data to advance the scientific understanding of UAP.
The limited number of UAP observations currently makes it difficult to draw scientific conclusions about the nature of such events. Unidentified atmospheric phenomena are of interest to both national security and air safety. Identifying which events are natural provides a key first step in identifying or mitigating such phenomena, which is in line with one of NASA’s goals to ensure aircraft safety. There is no evidence that UAPs are alien in origin.
It will be guided by an astronomer
The NASA study will be led by astronomer David Spergel, who is president of the Simons Foundation in New York and previously chairman of the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. Spergel commented:
Given the lack of observations, our first task is simply to collect the most stable set of data possible. We will identify what data – from citizens, government, non-profit organizations, companies – exist, what else we need to try to collect and how to best analyze it.
This in itself makes the NASA study different from the study of the Ministry of Defense task force, which focuses only on reports from the military.
The NASA study is expected to take about nine months.
Thomas Zurbuchen, assistant science administrator at NASA’s Washington headquarters, said:
NASA believes that scientific discovery tools are powerful and are being applied here. We have access to a wide range of Earth observations from space and this is the lifeblood of scientific research. We have the tools and the team that can help us improve our understanding of the unknown. This is the very definition of what science is. That’s what we do.
Read more from NASA
Finally: NASA is commissioning a new UAP study to study unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs, also known as UFOs) from a scientific point of view. It will start early in the fall of 2022.
Deborah Bird
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Deborah Byrd founded the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as editor-in-chief of this website. She has won a host of awards from radio and scientific communities, including owning an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A scientific communicator and lecturer since 1976, Bird believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. “Being an EarthSky editor is hosting a big global party for cool nature lovers,” she says.
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