An ‘independent study group’ formed by NASA last year will hold its first public meeting on Wednesday discussing what government officials call ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ (UAP) commonly known as UFOs.
The purpose of the panel’s meeting, according to a statement by the space agency, ‘is to hold final deliberations before the agency’s independent study team publishes a report this summer.’
The panel — which will go live on NASA TV, the agency’s official YouTube channel, at 10:30 am ET, 14:30 GMT on Wednesday, May 31 — will also answer written questions put to them by the public, which can be voted on via a dedicated NASA page here.
In addition to a broad discussion of NASA’s ‘science perspective’ on UAP, the meeting is slated to include more specific and exotic presentations.
Astrobiologist David Grinspoon who advises NASA on space exploration strategy is slated to present ‘relevant observations’ of anomalies ‘beyond Earth’s atmosphere’ shortly after midday.
NASA’s independent UAP study group, as well as officials from both the Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration’s UAP investigative teams, will present their latest UFO findings
NASA’s study group of 16 experts ranging from physicists to astronauts was formed last June to examine unclassified UFO sightings and from civilian government and commercial sectors
UFO reports will also be delivered by both the head of the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), physicist Sean Kirkpatrick, and an advisor to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Surveillance Services Office, Mike Freie.
NASA’s study group, an assemblage of 16 experts ranging from physicists to astronauts, was formed last June to examine unclassified UFO sightings and other data collected from civilian government and commercial sectors.
The study group represents the first such inquiry ever conducted by the US space agency into a subject the government had previously consigned to the purview of military and national security officials, when accorded respect or attention at all.
Today, these parallel NASA and Pentagon efforts, both undertaken with some semblance of transparency, mark a turning point for in the government’s public stance on UFOs or UAP.
After decades spent deflecting, debunking and discrediting sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, dating back to the 1940s, Pentagon officials now say that their recent push to investigate such sightings has led to hundreds of new reports that are under examination.
Most, Pentagon officials maintain, remain categorized as unexplained.
While NASA’s science mission was seen by some as promising a more open-minded approach to a topic long treated as taboo by the defense establishment, the US space agency made it known from the start that it was hardly leaping to any conclusions.
‘There is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin,’ NASA said in announcing the panel’s formation last June.
In its more recent statements, the agency presented a new potential wrinkle to the UAP acronym itself, referring to it as an abbreviation for ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena.’ This suggested that sightings other than those that appeared airborne may be included.
Still, NASA in announcing Wednesday’s meeting, said the space agency defines UAPs ‘as observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena from a scientific perspective.’
