Image courtesy of: Ben Collins via Unsplash
On June 9th NASA held a media teleconference to announce a new commissioned study team which will investigate unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). The aim of the study is to examine instances of unidentified objects or occurrences in the sky and attempt to provide a scientific explanation for their existence. So… it kind of seems like the team is definitely investigating the idea of alien phenomenon taking place in the skies. After the last two years of the pandemic and a lot of existential dread, maybe we leave the alien chasing alone?
Unidentified phenomena in the atmosphere are of keen interest to both national security and ongoing air safety initiatives. Working to determine which of these occurrences are natural provides a key first step to identifying or mitigating such phenomena, which directly aligns with NASA’s goals to ensure the safety of all aircraft in the skies. And while joking about aliens and UFOs is a lot of fun, there is no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin.
However, while there may be no evidence of such intelligence in our direct solar system; we know very little of the systems and galaxies beyond. That’s why NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, which departed our solar system in 2012 and 2018 respectively, each carry golden records etched with coded sounds and pictures from Earth—a proverbial message in a bottle to any civilization that might one day encounter the our ships and want to learn more about the curious species that launched them.
So, is NASA looking for UFOs? Yes AND no. They are investigating any occurrence in the skies and space which may not have a current explanation and if we should happen to discover aliens along the way… why not?
The study is set to begin in fall 2022. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for some juicy news coming from the skies in the future!