WASHINGTON — NASA said it plans to launch a scientific study on unidentified aerial phenomena one month after congress held its first hearing on UFOs in half a century.
The purpose of the study will be to examine UAPs from a scientific perspective. The administration will examine all available data to determine what these phenomena are and how best to study them in the future.
NASA said that there is currently no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin in the statement released Thursday.
The study will be conducted by an independent research team composed of scientists, engineers and other experts. The team will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, who was previously the chair of the astrophysics department at Princeton University. Daniel Evans, who is the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will help orchestrate the study.
In May, the House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation subcommittee held a hearing on UAPs. It was prompted by the release of a report by the government’s intelligence community that disclosed investigations into flying objects that had been seen in restricted military airspace over the past several decades.
The report said there have been 144 instances of “unidentified aerial phenomenon” investigated. Of those, only one was explained.
It also did not find any evidence of whether the objects were extraterrestrial or if they were technology developed by a country such as Russia or China.