NASA Launches Study of UAPs

JUN 10 2022·Updated AUG 5 2022

Story

Image credit: AP [via Al Jazeera]

The Facts

On Thurs., NASA announced the establishment of an independent team to study available public information on UFOs and gaps in knowledge about the phenomena.
NBC
The agency's science mission chief stated "We are not shying away from reputational risk" to improve data to better understand the so-called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).
NBC
While NASA has conducted studies searching for life within the solar system and beyond, this is the first time the agency will examine unexplained phenomena within Earth's skies.
Al Jazeera
This "high-risk, high-impact" research is separate from efforts led by the Pentagon to study UAPs and will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, who currently holds a post as president of the Simons Foundation in NY. Other scientists haven't been selected to support the effort yet.
nytimes
Spergel affirmed he's keeping an open mind, and that his only preliminary assumption is that UAPs will most likely have multiple explanations. The study itself is scoped to use no military data, cost $100K or less, and last nine months.
Snopes
Last month, Congress held its first hearing on UFOs in more than half a century, with top US intelligence officials and members of Congress agreeing that UAPs are real, but remain a mystery.
ITN

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

This is a cosmic wild goose chase at the taxpayers' expense. Government agencies are clamoring for sensors, databases, and personnel when explanations as mundane as planets and stars can explain "UAPs." No matter how uneventful the true causes probably are, there will be a clamoring for a gravy train of public money on this questionable endeavor.

SpaceNews

Narrative B

Statistically, it's much more likely that UAPs are a national security threat emanating from advanced technologies deployed by US adversaries. Our early combing of the galaxy has turned up no aliens so far. While we keep searching the Cosmos for signs of life, odds suggest these are human technologies snooping in our airspace.

The Conversation