Audio: Media telecon on new Aerial Phenomena Study
NASA is commissioning a study team to start early in the fall to examine unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) – that is, observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena – from a scientific perspective. The study will focus on identifying available data, how best to collect future data, and how NASA can use that data to move the scientific understanding of UAPs forward.
The limited number of observations of UAPs currently makes it difficult to draw scientific conclusions about the nature of such events. Unidentified phenomena in the atmosphere are of interest for both national security and air safety. Establishing which events are natural provides a key first step to identifying or mitigating such phenomena, which aligns with one of NASA’s goals to ensure the safety of aircraft. There is no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin.
“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 in Washington. “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.”
The agency is not part of the Department of Defense’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force or its successor, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group. NASA has, however, coordinated widely across the government regarding how to apply the tools of science to shed light on the nature and origin of unidentified aerial phenomena.
The agency’s independent study team will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, who 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. Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will serve as the NASA official responsible for orchestrating the study.
“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.”
The study is expected to take about nine months to complete. It will secure the counsel of experts in the scientific, aeronautics, and data analytics communities to focus on how best to collect new data and improve observations of UAPs.
“Consistent with NASA’s principles of openness, transparency, and scientific integrity, this report will be shared publicly,” said Evans. “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.”
Although unrelated to this new study, NASA has an active astrobiology program that focuses on the origins, evolution, and distribution of life beyond Earth. From studying water on Mars to probing promising “oceans worlds,” such as Titan and Europa, NASA’s science missions are working together with a goal to find signs of life beyond Earth.
Furthermore, the agency’s search for life also includes using missions such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and Hubble Space Telescope, to search for habitable exoplanets, while the James Webb Space Telescope will try to spot biosignatures in atmospheres around other planets – spotting oxygen and carbon dioxide in other atmospheres, for example, could suggest that an exoplanet supports plants and animals like ours does. NASA also funds space-based research that focuses on technosignatures – that is signatures of advanced technology in outer space — from other planets.
Learn more about NASA’s astrobiology program online at:
https://www.nasa.gov/astrobiology/
Last Updated: Jun 9, 2022
Editor: Michael Bock
I remember a policy wonk once saying, “we’ll never pay off our debt unless the Ferengi with tons of Latium show up suddenly.” Here’s their chance to issue some Solar System bonds, which I guess would be donated in Sols…Either that, or they’re going to want a whole lot of water…
It’s nice to see NASA getting back to its roots.
I am sure when they get all the data they will thoroughly homogenise it and edit the past data thoroughly to ellicit the required signal – presumably positive enough to ensure that more funding is needed. Running this would be a great job for Gavin Schmidt and a real boost for Area 51.
They’ll under count magic carpets since they are small and non-metallic, so difficult to detect.
I’ve seen some of the video on Fox – it’s mostly grainy and of very low quality, which is frankly disappointing in this era of gazillion dollar weapons platforms. I think this is a colossal waste of resources and a diversion from real issues.
I agree. Most, if not all of it is video of radar or night vision image screen grabs, not visual. (Videos of the sky don’t have arrows and lines on them,). This means that they are easily corrupted by clutter.
I recall that long before everyone carried high resolution cell phone cameras, occasional actual photographs of UFOs would show up. Now none are ever shown on TV. Maybe it’s because the UNIDENTIFIED flying objects can actually be identified in high resolution.
The images being shown nowadays appear to be using 1947 technology.
Also, these are computer generated images made from multiple inputs. I’m more of the opinion the images are artifacts of earlier objects which are being called out of stale memory.
Albeit it is proposed, some of the objects seen were seen on instruments and with the naked eyes too.
technosignatures – I like it, very objective. Exactly what is needed for a fruitful investigation.
“NASA also funds space-based research that focuses on technosignatures – that is signatures of advanced technology in outer space — from other planets.”
How about UAPs that have the following properties:
1) Independently observed in multiple ways simultaneously including:
2) highly skilled, highly trained military aviators
3) Radar
4) IR sensors
5) are visibly aircraft of some sort
6) have flight characteristics far outside anything mankind is capable of creating.
7) can go underwater
Would any or all of these factors taken together constitute a technosignature?
Nahhh. That would be too hard. We need a different explanation.
But what???????
Factors 1-7 above taken together are just an “Atmospheric Disturbance” of a new type.
All natural, not to worry.
An Atmospheric Disturbance caused by what, exactly??
Wait for it…..
Wait for it…..
Wait for it…..
Climate Change!!!!!
From the photo, it appears that someone at ISS has lost their lampshade! Now they have to put up with extra glare when reading. So, problem solved, we have a syndrome of people losing their lampshades, then they have spots in front of their eyes and all..
That is actually a nice lampshade, a shame they were so careless with it.
Aliens travel light years to buzz humans on Earth
They don’t appear to have an energy crisis
Yes, it’s absurd. So we can conclude with certainty that they are human time travelers from our distant future. They can only be observed long enough that their detection changes the timeline and causes them to never have existed. Isn’t it obvious?
For once I will use /sarc
It is not about the cat in the box observing you, is about you observing the cat in the box without opening the box.
🙂
Besides the article is very interesting, as it is not about extraterrestial humanoid or future human visitation events… perse.
🙂
cheers
If you say so, whiten. Who am I to say what should interest you? On the other hand, my tax money swirling down the commode.
Very very nice of you Rich, to put it that way,
regardless!
Like you mate.
🙂
cheers
It is about what interest us, not me, Rich!
Our interest, mate.
cheers
It’s because our current oligarchy doesn’t want us to use most effective fuels.
Literally 100 years ago everyone was researching Aether field, including people like Nicola Tesla. Now instead we have a failed Einstein’s “relativity”.
Also hydrogen is 70%+ of the planet. Largest uncontrolled energy release in the last century was a Hydrogen bomb explosion. Only used a small amount of Hydrogen.
They don’t really want us to research any of this.
A couple typos in your post, which I herewith fix:
“Now instead we have a successful Einstein’s ‘relativity’.” (I am aware of no demonstrations that either Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity or his General Theory of Relativity have failed, and lots of demonstrations that they succeed in describing reality. There are issues with how they interact at the quantum level with quantum physics.)
“Also hydrogen is 1.4% of the planet” (it’s 70% of the Sun by mass)
“They do really want us to research any of this.” (There’s tons of money going towards research into controlled hydrogen fusion, some would even say too much.)
When it comes to failure, whether right or wrong, I can tell you this, many many will be found wrong and failing, but Einstein will not be one of them sillies.
That is me, maybe biased, but hey, what not to like there!
Better the idiots and stupids get this, regardless of their unworthy PhD(s).
cheers
Yeah sorry a lot of typos.
Quoting: “ Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, constituting roughly 75% of all normal matter”
Just 2/3 of water as H2O etc.
What percent of the earth’s mass is water? It’s pretty small.
What is the percentage of hydrogen in granite or sandstone? They make up most of the crust.
As to the mantle and the core, those are mostly iron and nickle. No hydrogen there.
You really need to learn how to quit when you are behind.
Umm, no.
Hydrogen comprises 2/3 of the atoms, but only 1/9 of the weight of water. Most of the earth’s water is in a very thin (relative to the earth’s diameter) layer of the surface.
Many billions of dollars have been wasted over the past nearly 70 years trying to produce controlled terrestrial fusion of hydrogen (usually heavy isotopes). It’s a technology that most sane and disinterested observers recognize will never be commercially competitive in the next few generations at least, and is yet to be even shown to be technically achievable at exorbitant cost.
Hydrogen is not a chemical fuel, either, any more than we can consider carbon as a fuel that we extract from carbon dioxide. There are no significant natural sources on earth of hydrogen as an unreacted gas that could be burned like natural gas. Water is the combustion product of hydrogen, like CO2.
Much more energy must be put in than can be extracted later if hydrogen is split from water by electrolysis, then compressed and/or liquified for transport.
You have apparently been fed a load of crap science.
70% hydrogen? You gotta be trolling or off your meds. SMH!
From the ever trustworthy Wikipedia:
“by mass, it [Earth] is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%); with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements.”
I meant universe more or less. Although this is I am sure just a theory.
“Why Is Hydrogen the Most Common Element in the Universe? Together, helium and hydrogen make up 99.9 percent of known matter in the universe, according to Encyclopedia.com.
Even so, there is still about 10 times more hydrogen than helium in the universe“
https://www.livescience.com/58498-why-is-hydrogen-the-most-common-element.html
Earth’s iron crust , I am sure , may also be an unproven theory, so who knows. But at least it makes sense that smallest and simplest element should have largest presence.
“Why is Hydrogen prevalent in the universe?”
Perhaps because it is the most basic atom possible. Any smaller and it wouldn’t be an an atom…or an element.
The clay!
I would guess that most of the world’s gold is in its interior. How is that useful knowledge? Likewise most of the universe mass is in stars that are mostly hydrogen. How is that relevant? There’s almost no hydrogen that is not already burned that is accessible to us as a fuel.
planet =/= universe; planets are condensed matter, mostly “dust” from supernovas, although the lighter elements (like carbon) can come from red giant stars.
As for whether it’s a theory that most of the universe is hydrogen, with helium in second place, a century and a half ago there was no way to know. In fact the philosopher Auguste Comte claimed that we could never even in principle know what stars were made of. Then spectroscopes were invented. We now know what stars are made of because we can compare their spectral lines with spectral lines of known elements in laboratories.
And hydrogen is indeed abundant in stars; that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s abundant in planets. Helium is also abundant in stars (although less so than hydrogen), but it is much rarer on Earth because (unlike hydrogen) it does not react chemically with other atoms, and it’s a very light gas, so it escapes from the Earth as fast as it’s created by radioactive decay (although there’s a small amount that comes from some unknown source). Helium was actually discovered in the Sun (through its spectral lines) before it was found on Earth.
And the Earth’s crust contains relatively little iron–fortunately enough to be useful. While we can’t touch its core (nor can we use a spectroscope on it), it’s reasonable to think that it contains a lot of iron, because we know that iron is relatively abundant in the solar system (e.g. iron meteorites), iron can explain the Earth’s magnetism (although it’s not quite the same as iron magnets, since the Earth’s core is far too hot for that), if there were iron in the primeval molten Earth, it would have mostly sunk towards the core because it was heavy (along with other heavy elements), etc.
They must have oodles of windmills then
LOL! Now NASA has been ordered by the Biden administration to prepare us for an Alien False Flag Operation Invasion! For the past year now, we’ve been inundated with Pentagon staged video of UFOs/USOs.
When the 3-D satellites’ image of Motherships arrive over Washington, DC and other capitals, remember it’s just a pretty picture in the sky.
By the way, the only life in the universe is on Earth, otherwise the last century we’d have been bombarded with zillions of signals intercepted by amateur radio operators.
Oh good grief. “…we’ve been inundated with Pentagon staged video of UFOs/USOs.” I’m not sure how the United Services Organizations fit into this, but as for UFOs, there have been hardly any videos of UFOs from the Pentagon since the ones released back in 2017 (and only more recently were these confirmed by the Pentagon).
“3-D satellites”: What?
“otherwise the last century we’d have been bombarded with zillions of signals intercepted by amateur radio operators”: There’s something called an inverse square law. Besides, we have no idea whether advanced aliens would use radio frequencies for anything, and if they do, it would only be for nearby communications, like within or just outside their solar system–the speed of light is too slow for it to be useful for much else. I guess if aliens slightly more advanced than us sent a probe to a star system near theirs (like we might some day send a probe to the Alpha Centauri system), they might have it beam back data by radio, but it would be a highly directed beam, because of the aforementioned inverse square law. Even our probes to places like Jupiter use directional antennas.
When the motherships arrive we can send Will smith to slap them silly.
UAP: Unlimited American Paranoia
an’ we all know that squirrels did it, ain’t tattafakt Shirley
“Phone home?”
That photograph on top is such an obvious photoshop.
I recognize that ship as I am sure most people here do. That is a Vogon scout craft. Probably surveying routes for interplanetary flyways and noting where hyperspace bypasses need to be installed.
In the picture the craft is tilted away from the sun. Vogon craft always fly in a planetary system with the upper surface fully facing the local sun because that is where the solar shield is. So why is the shield colored so dark? Typical Vogon engineering.
Fake, fake, fake.
An embarrassment for WUWT to go with such poorly made fake.
I have a dirty one of those Vogon scout crafts in my sink that I thought was a black plastic bowl
with a clear lid. I haven’t seen it move so it may need repairs. Who knew!
Wonderful to see more money pissed away by the Brandon Maladministration on useless nonsense. However…It’s better that they focus on fantasies of Vogon poetry than mythical Climate Change ™
Now the jurpling slayjid agrocrustles – Vogon poetry
The only “progress” I see here is “identifying” them as UAP’s, which they definitely are and always have been. The UFO monicre has always bugged me. It assumes they are Flown, i/e piloted, Objects. Perhaps a better term for UFO would be Unidentified Funding Obfuscators.
Otherwise, we’re right back to the “heady” days of Project Bluebook.
It is telling that no spy satellite has reported observation of aliens or their craft. Remember, satellites that can report package branding. Neither have FlyEye telescopes reported.
Doug, it just means you don’t have the correct level of security clearance.
Don’t you know that THEY are hiding all the evidence and erasing memories on anyone who comes across it? Cmon man! What do you think Area 51 is all about?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8lcUHQYhPTE
Then there are the “Men in Black” documentaries.
Yeah that’s what I’m talkin about.
“Openness, transparency, and scientific integrity” went away a long time ago. Even though I do not believe in bug eyed monsters, NASA has been a bad example of a bureaucracy controlled by Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy since Apollo ended.
NASA to Set Up Independent Study on Unidentified Aerial PhenomenaI looked up meaning of Aerial and it says: existing, happening, or operating in the air.
Since there is no air above about 100km up, these rascals don’t come from distant planets, they probably come out of abandoned deep ground mines, and before those become available they lived in dead volcano craters. Therefore it is not unreasonable to conclude they are ex-terra, or ex-terrestrial, i.e.come out of the ground.
UAPs as UFOs are delivered by Stork, at the time of coincidence, just like human babies. Let us bray for progress: one step forward, two steps backward.
STORK… wasn’t that the other, 3rd rate organization in Bond movies that was headed by an evil, but mediocre megalomaniac intent on World domination? Kind of a SPECTRE lite.
Instead of a Persian cat on his lap, the guy had a dust bunny he fished out from under the bed.
It is both comforting and gratifying to know that they are re-learning what actual science is.
Perhaps they could apply this newfound knowledge to the field of climate.
One can dream, can’t one?
Should not be surprised, as it still could be going that way.
Especially as this a new approach to observing and monitoring atmospheric phenomena, with a huge margin for jumping the gun there.
Where still human CO2 emissions will be the only explanation for some weird founding in the data.
cheers
I just think it was cruel of ET to give us a taste of flying bicycles without giving us the knowledge of how to make them.
I’d just settle for a flying car in my garage, dammit!
We were supposed to have them by now.
“No evidence?”
How do they explain the fairly well-documented extraordinary performance of the UAP observed in the “Tic Tac” incident of 2004?
“There I was: X-Files edition”
I for one am very happy about all this attention to UFOs or whatever they call them now. It gives credibility to the short story I wrote “A Truth Revealed by Timothy Brown (shameless plug, pen name)) which chronicles the difficulty I had with being abducted by aliens all my life. I MAY have exaggerated the ending a tad, well a bit more than a tad, but it is based on true events. I am working on the sequel now. Perhaps some one will “discover” the stories and make them into a screen play.
Was that the difficulty you had because of being abducted by aliens or the difficulty you had in getting the aliens to abduct you? Couldn’t tell.
Well, simply matter of delusion, there!
Both
When shooting the sun with a modern sextant, you always checked for a false sun by putting your
hand in front of the lens- if light shone on your hand, you had the real sun. This was due to all the
mirrors used in making the sextant. It’s possible these hi-tech cameras may have the same problem.
Some of these cameras are on a gimbal & when viewing the images, you have to watch the data in
the image to see the reference frame of the camera. This can explain away some of the UAPs.
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/06/if-a-smart-guy-on-youtube-can-explain-these-alien-videos-why-cant-the-department-of-defence/
I remember some of the explanations for artifacts from video cameras in the 90s or around there. Some models of camera would display a ghost aperture, or something like that, which would appear as a bright diamond shaped object in the sky.
Well, at least they’re not investigating UFO’s anymore. UAP’s are so much more credible.
Perhaps NASA has additional tools at its disposal, but that doesn’t mean that they will release to the public all that they discover. There are still still some UFOs whose disclosure to the public may never happen.
There still is that “Need to know” issue that trumps any perceived “right to know”.
NASA, simply engaging their tools in consideration of better observing and better monitoring of atmospheric events.
In principal, as a scientific approach, very very interesting… beautiful.
But only if;
the usual idiotic stupids do not mess it up!
or as the saying goes, that the;
Oh, well for as long as the usual idiotic-stupid usual PhD suspects do not frack it up!
Dissemination is still limited by the “Official Secrets Act”.
The Monkeys Act of Secrecy…
Doing what others doing… regardless.
Monkey see Monkey do, a Monkey schist thingy… for monkeys!
cheers
As a safeguarder of information covered by the official secrets act, I can only lament your juvenile “free-rider” attitude.
I really dear you there! Monkey….
🙂
Give it a go, pal, let see.
🙂
💰💵Because $30 trillion in debt is not enough.💵💰
UFO’s are the security blanket for scientists struggling with understanding the origin of life on earth and the fact that the observation is that we are alone.
I am 82 years old. I flew military aircraft for twenty-five years. I flew over a lot of the Northern Hemisphere in both day and night conditions.I have seen things in the sky that, at first, caused me ask myself “what the Hell is that?”. After a few seconds I have been able to identify everything I saw. Everything was a terrestrial object or illusion.
Yes. And I imagine there are a lot more weird, but perfectly terrestrial, things flying around now than there were when you were flying.
This works for me but no additional money for NASA. It can use the money it would have wasted on CAWG to investigate UAP.
CAWG?
My guess is it should read CAGW – catastrophic anthropogenic global warming!?
Klaatu barada nikto.
“There is no evidence that UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin.”
The 144 multi-capture military sightings examined recently & reported on to Congress by the Director of National Intelligence found that only one could be explained. Of the remaining 143, the behaviour & attributes of 14 were said to require “new physics”. It seems to me rather curious to disregard repeated demonstrations that the laws of physics are not, in fact, laws. Clearly, it isn’t we who are responsible for these phenomena; to all but the most obdurately closed minds, this leaves only one alternative.
Let me guess. After an exhaustive 9 month study NASA will conclude, based on the evidence , ET is here to tell us climate change is real and we are all doomed. Send more money right away before it’s too late.
More likely they will eventually reveal themselves, show us that fossil fuels are a dead end, enlighten us with all their technological advances and welcome us to visit their world. After all, they are here to serve man.
The blue protomolecule has again altered physics as we know it.
Greetings from Mars
I witnessed a UFO in 1967. A friend was flying a kite really high. We were talking and watching it when a shiny metallic looking disc shaped object came into view. We assumed it was a plane until it came to a stop above the kite. There was no way to tell if it was a small object close or a larger one farther away. It made no sound. After about 15 minutes it moved off on a vector, abruptly changed directions 90 degrees and shot out of sight in an upward direction at an unbelievable rate of speed. I have no idea what that was but it didn’t move like anything humans have developed to my knowledge.