UFOs, What in the World Are They?!

"We're looking at the Earth in new ways, and we're also looking the other way, at the sky, in new ways."

"[Examining UFO reports could be] high-risk, high-impact kind of research."

"What we're really trying to do here is start an investigation without an outcome in mind."

Dr. Thomas Zurbuchan, head, NASA Science Unit

NASA says it wants to provide a 'scientific perspective' on UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena

Once head of Princeton University astrophysics department, David Spergel is set to spend roughly nine months in the development of a public report on findings with a team of scientists to be assembled for the purpose of examining UFOs. An enterprise that speaks as clearly as any other of the seriousness of Washington's intention to discover illuminating details leading to a closer understanding of exactly what these mysterious airborne objects regularly reported by pilots among others, truly represent.

 

The focus, explains NASA, is to be on the identification of data currently available, optimum ways of gathering future data, and how it can best be used in the advancement of scientific understanding of the strange phenomena whose provenance and purpose has yet to be understood.

 

A year earlier the U.S. government had issued a detailed report on these mysterious observations reported by navy personnel of "unidentified aerial phenomenon" (UAPs), the new preferred nomenclature for what has always been referred to as "unidentified flying objects". That report outlined some of the information that had been gathered, but no revelations as to their origins was forthcoming.

 

The US Defense Department says it now has reports from military personnel of at least 400 UAP encounters, it released excerpts of footage and pilots' cockpit audio last year

Some videos taken of these enigmatic objects seen to exhibit speed and maneuverability far in excess of any known aviation technology, without any visible means of propulsion had been released by the Pentagon for public view. A month ago two officials from the Pentagon testified at the initial congressional hearing on UFOs to take place, in a half-century.

 

What they clarified was that many such observations remain beyond the capacity of any government agency or any in the legitimate scientific-astrological-astrophysics community to explain beyond conjecture. This new initiative is to be launched in an effort to explicate the situation to the best of the ability of the yet-to-be-assembled team of scientists. 

In this photo taken on April 28, 2020 this video grab image courtesy of the US Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified aerial phenomena.

Enlighten Us, Please Do: What ARE They?!

"[There have been some sightings that U.S. officials] can't explain. There are a small handful of cases in which we have more data that our analysis simply hasn't been able to fully pull together a picture of what happened."

"[These have involved unexpected] flight characteristics."

"When it comes to material that we have, we have no material, we have detected no emanations, within the UAP task force that would suggest it is anything non-terrestrial in origin."

Scott Bray, deputy director, U.S. naval intelligence

"We know that our service members have encountered unidentified aerial phenomena, and because UAP pose potential flight safety and general security risks, we are committed to a focused effort to determine their origins."

"We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there."

Ronald Moultrie, head, Pentagon-based UAP investigation unit

"UAPs are unexplained, it's true. But they are real."

"[Pentagon officials focused in the past on cases relatively easy to explain while] avoiding the ones that cannot be explained."

"Can we get some kinds of assurances that your analysts will follow the facts where they lead and assess all hypotheses?"

Andre Carson, subcommittee chairman, U.S. House of Representatives intelligence subcommittee

US Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray shows a video of a UAP  Getty Images

 

The Pentagon -- two top defence intelligence officials have assured a Senate subcommittee -- is adamant that it intends to discover what is behind the countless reports over the years of strange flying objects whose presence defy all reasonable explanations. Committed completely to determining the origins of what the U.S. government now labels "unidentified aerial phenomena". They spoke before the first public congressional hearing in over fifty years concerning a phenomena fascinating to the public commonly referring to them as UFOs.

Almost a year following a report documenting over 140 cases of sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) reported by U.S. military pilots since 2004. Those unidentified flying objects more familiarly referred to as UFOs so fascinating to the world at large yet defying identification, have always been associated in the popular imagination with the belief that they are associated with extraterrestrial beings flying highly technically advanced spacecraft.

The subcommittee panel was introduced by their two visitors to two UAP video clips, one of which showed flashing triangle-shaped objects in the night sky. These were determined to be visual artifacts of light passing through night-vision goggles, an obviously logical explanation of light refraction in a dark background. While the second showed a shining, spherical object flying past a military aircraft's cockpit window. "I do not have an explanation for what this specific object is", Bray commented of the second video.

The Pentagon, the hearing was informed, was determined to remove the stigma associated with the sighting of unexplained flying objects through encouraging pilots when they observe such phenomena to report them. Last June's UAP presentation made no mention of the idea behind alien spacecraft. Focusing instead on possible implications for U.S. national security and aviation safety. 

 

In this image from 2015 video provided by the Department of Defense, an unexplained object is seen as it is tracked soaring high along the clouds, traveling against the wind   Department of Defense via AP

Some UAPs previously revealed in Pentagon-released video footage of airborne objects of an enigmatic nature where speed and maneuverability exceeded known aviation technology, lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight-control surfaces were, however, made mention of. Which led the chairman of the subcommittee to comment on the importance involved that the Pentagon take the issue of UAPs seriously.

"Absolutely. So, we're open to all hypotheses", responded Moultrie. "We're open to any conclusions that we may encounter. We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there." Senior U.S. officials stated last year when their report was released, that defence and intelligence analysts have yet to rule out an extraterrestrial origin in any of the sightings.

Following decades of deflection, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and "flying saucers" dating back to the 1940s, the Senate subcommittee hearing represented a remarkable turnabout for the U.S. government. A previous inconclusive UFO program code-named Project Blue Book was terminated by the U.S. Air Force in 1969.

 

Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray, left, and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie speak during a hearing of the House Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee hearing on "unidentified aerial phenomena" on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.   Alex Brandon / AP