A NASA team of experts is starting a study of UFOs or as they have recently rebranded " Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (UAPs).  And the NASA study is only the first step in developing a “roadmap” for long-term research.  

The space agency announced on June 9th that the project will launch in the early fall. 

The 9-month-study will start compiling all available data. They will use images, telescopes, satellites, and atmospheric data as a baseline for UAP research.

The study will have researchers identify all public UAP data in existence. It will determine best practices to collect UAP data moving forward. And develop methods to best study UAPs, from scientific and aerospace defense perspectives.

The team will be working through the NASA Science Mission Directorate. 

The NASA study project will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, the president of the Simons Foundation in New York City. And Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

NASA study to see what’s out there

Dr. Sperger and his team are not convinced that UAPs represent intelligent extraterrestrial life forms. And says that “the only preconceived notion I have coming into this is we should be open to the idea we’re looking at several different phenomena.” 

“One of the most exciting things in science are things we don’t understand,” Sperger added.

“Over the decades, NASA has answered the call to tackle some of the most perplexing mysteries we know of, and this is no different,” Daniel Evans said in a press call. 

“I do want to underscore that NASA is uniquely positioned to address UAPs, because who other than us can use the power of data and science to look at what’s happening in our skies? And quite frankly, this is why we do what we do.”

Evans explained that “The first step in any investigation is to figure out what data is at hand; that’s all this study is doing.”

 “This is just step one. What data is out there that can be brought to bear?”

Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, acknowledged NASA’s ongoing research into “techno-signatures.”  And says it is looking for signs of alien technology.

“Part of our task at NASA given to us by Congress is not only to do fundamental research in the skies and so forth, but as part of that also to find life elsewhere,” Zurbuchen said.

 “And that’s why we’ve built astrobiology programs in many disciplines across this summary field that looks at both extinct life on Mars, for example, but also looks at the patterns of life elsewhere, perhaps in Europa, or perhaps in Enceladus.”