Can explain many sightings but some remain mystery, says NASA's 'UFO' panel

Washington, United States

A panel of NASA, which is studying what has been termed by the government as "unidentified aerial phenomena," commonly called as UFOs, held its first public meeting on Wednesday to discuss their findings since the panel was established last year.

The 16-member panel, which includes experts from fields ranging from astrobiology to physics, was established last June to study unclassified UFO sightings, which have been referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) or the sightings "that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena from a scientific perspective".

"If I were to summarise in one line what I feel we've learned, it's we need high-quality data," stated panel chair David Spergel in his opening remarks.

NASA stated that the four-hour public session held at the agency's headquarters on Wednesday was focused on holding "final deliberations" before a report is published by the team, which Spergel confirmed will be released by late July.

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Explained and mysterious sightings

"We have 50 to 100-ish new reports each month," stated Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). He added that only 2 per cent to 5 per cent of the sightings collected in the database are "possibly really anomalous”.

During the public meeting, a video taken by a naval aircraft was shared which showed a series of dots slowly moving across the night sky in the United States. The object was not intercepted by the military plane and it later turned out to be a commercial aircraft which was flying towards a major airport.

However, some sightings remain more mysterious. A report published by Pentagon in 2021 had stated that out of 144 sightings noted by military pilots since 2004, one remained unexplained. Officials have not rejected the possibility of objects being extra-terrestrial.

The head of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office stated said that they cannot rule out the existence of intelligent alien life but that no sighting till now has been observed which can be considered as evidence of extraterrestrial origins.

Privacy limits investigations of NASA

Kirkpatrick further stated that privacy concerns have been limiting the investigations carried out by the agency. "We can point the largest collection apparatus in the entire globe at any point we want," he stated.

"A lot of what we have is around the continental United States. Most people...don't like it when we point our entire collection apparatus at your backyard,” he added.

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Harassment and stigma hamper research

Senior research official at NASA's science unit Dan Evans said that the team has "several months of work ahead of them”, and further added that the members of the panel have faced harassment and online abuse since they started their work.

"Harassment only leads to further stigmatisation of the UAP field, significantly hindering the scientific process and discouraging others to study this important subject matter," said NASA's science chief Nicola Fox.