![]() ![]() "We are not shying away from reputational risk," Zurbuchen explained. Zurbuchen made it clear that NASA is not doing this to pander to public interest but because there are sound scientific reasons for inquiry. Until relatively recently, mainstream scientists largely refused to accept that reports of UFO sightings should be taken seriously. NASA's science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, acknowledged during a webcast to the National Academy of Sciences that some establishment scientists may view NASA as "kind of selling out" by launching this study. "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." "Consistent with NASA's principles of openness, transparency, and scientific integrity, this report will be shared publicly," Evans explained. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.ĭaniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, also claimed in the statement that the team's findings would be open to the public. ![]() "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." "Given the paucity of observations, our first task is simply to gather the most robust set of data that we can," astrophysicist David Spergel, who is leading the independent study team, said in the official NASA statement. Over a period of nine months, experts in aeronautics, data analytics and a range of relevant scientific disciplines will analyze information about UAPs from a comprehensive spectrum of sources. Their stated mission is instead to protect national security make sure that UFOs don't endanger aircraft and otherwise serve practical needs. The US space agency is not claiming that extraterrestrial life exists, they note. RELATED: Scientists are studying whether Cold War-era photos of the night sky contain clues of alien life In NASA's own words, when this team gets started in the autumn, it will "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." Three years later, we may not know much more about the secretive Area 51 military installation, but NASA is creating an investigative team animated by the same curious spirit as that Facebook group. With varying degrees of sincerity, they insisted that the government had a responsibility to disclose what it knows about the possibility that UFOs have visited Earth. Back in September 2019 (during what some might call "the before times,"), half a million people joined a half-serious Facebook group called "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us." The group's name was self-explanatory: These people had heard the notorious conspiracy theory that the American government possesses evidence of extraterrestrial life at the Area 51 facility near Groom Lake in southern Nevada. ![]()
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