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Alamogordo has a direct connection to the space program and NASA. Alamogordo is home to the New Mexico Museum of Space History.
With that local connection all eyes are on NASA as it hosts a press conference at 10 am September 14th to release a report and findings on UFO’s now referred to as UAPs.
NASA commissioned a study team to examine unidentified anomalous 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 focused 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.
“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 Anomalous 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 anomalous phenomena.
The agency’s independent study team is 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.”
Around 30 minutes before the briefing, NASA will publish the team’s full report online for the public to read.
“Consistent with NASA’s principles of openness, transparency, and scientific integrity, this report will be shared publicly. 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,” Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement last year when the study was announced.
UAP sightings were once the domain of conspiracy theorists and sci-fi, but they have been reignited with a renewed sense of legitimacy following a number of high-profile sightings by the US military that have been made public.
National security threats are a prime reason why US authorities are starting to take UAPs seriouslyas it’s possible some sightings are experimental aircraft being tested by a foreign rival like Russia or China.
Extraterrestrial life is also another possibility. However, while NASA is keeping an open mind on all eventualities, we shouldn’t be expecting any bombshell evidence of alien lifeforms visiting Earth from this week’s announcement.
Instead, the report is likely to outline some new protocols that will help the agency gather data on UAP observations in the future.
The briefing will take place at 10:00 EDT (14:00 UTC) on Thursday, September 14, at the agency’s headquarters in Washington DC. You’ll be able to watch a live stream of the discussion on social media via NASA feeds.
Source: NASA, Defense.gov, IFLScience.com
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