Reply to the Comment on Strange Lights, Strange Lenses, and Dark Matter” by J.D. Nelson and R.C. Evans

The main problem, Nelson and the report’s authors stressed, is that while there are plenty of eyewitness accounts of strange lights in the sky, very little high-quality, standardized data has been collected from these incidents. Most of the time, a fleeting encounter and a single chance to take pictures is what we see. As the report puts it: “The nature of science is to explore the unknown, and data is the language scientists use to discover our universe’s secrets. We don’t have the data needed to make a final scientific conclusion because of the lack of consistent, detailed, andcurated observations. Poor sensor calibration is one of the reasons that analysis is hampered, it continues.

“We want to shift the conversation about UAPs from sensationalism to science,” says NASA administrator Bill Nelson, a former senator from Florida who once flew in the space shuttle Columbia.

Nelson stressed that “the NASA independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin,” and noted that they don’t know what these UAP are. The mission of NASA is to find out the unknown.”

In the past, NASA has emphasized that the space agency “has not found any credible evidence of extraterrestrial life,” and it has no evidence that any UFO sightings are extraterrestrial.

NASA officials embraced the idea of a new position, a director for UAP research, which was created to help guide and coordinate their efforts, after the agency received a new report on how it could contribute to this area of research.

They didn’t name the person appointed to that position. Dan Evans said they wouldn’t reveal the person’s name because they wanted to protect him or her from being hassled by people with strong feelings about alien life forms.

Some of the harassment and threats made towards some of thePanelists have been beyond the pale according to Evans. “That’s why we’re not splashing the new director’s name out there.”

Unexplained Airborne Observations: NASA, NASA, and the Nature of Unidentified Observed Objects

While unearthly-seeming sightings in the sky aren’t uncommon, the report says that the “vast majority” can be attributed to mundane airborne objects like airplanes, drones, and weather balloons.

Still, not all can be easily explained, and the NASA advisors say that any sightings that appear to deviate from known technology’s constraints on velocities and accelerations “are scientifically interesting.”

The Pentagon has an office to investigate unexplained occurrences, as well as recent attention to the topic in Congress. Earlier this year, for example, a former government worker made headlines when he told lawmakers that officials had recovered alien “biologics” from crash sites, but a Pentagon spokesperson said such claims could not be substantiated.

The 16 researchers and other advisers who drafted recommendations to NASA didn’t have to tell the agency about the nature of previous unidentifiable observations, but they did have to tell them about the data that was currently available.

Already-planned large-sky surveys by telescopes such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory could look for unusual objects beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, the report says. And programs to look for near-Earth objects, such as potentially dangerous asteroids, collect a lot of information about phenomena close to the Earth’s atmosphere.

There are some data gaps, such as lack of a standardized system that would allow civilian pilots to make reports of unusual spotted aircraft. Currently, civilians get advised to contact local law enforcement or other organizations. “As a result, the collection of data is sparse, unsystematic, and lacks any curation or vetting protocols,” the report notes, adding that NASA could offer guidance to other government agencies on the best ways to collect such data.

Also, smartphone-based apps might offer a way to crowdsource observations from the public, the panel noted, saying that NASA should explore the viability of this kind of public engagement and data collection.

The advisors think that NASA has a good record of openness and public trust, so it could help the study of ufos, since they could be more robustly studied.

People call unidentified flying objects, also known as UAPs, by a polite government name. I think it would be a good thing for scientists to do further investigations into unexplained flying objects. But let’s be clear about what’s happening here: this is a government agency that’s noticed UFO boosters are in Congress, and it wants some damn funding.

I think we are not alone in the universe. I think there’s probably plenty ofbacteria on the planets. The question of whether there’s intelligent life is a trickier one, but I am a little skeptical because I’m not even sure we’ve got intelligent life on earth. I think there is some weird shit going on, we haven’t explained yet, but I’m very doubtful that whatever we call them are aliens.

One thing that is still going on is aliens. Conspiracy theories are being stonewalled. This tends to be used as evidence by the true believers that they just don’t want you to know. When I see the Pentagon forming a task force to examine unexplained phenomena, I tend to think it’s a corrective measure. We will look. Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, said in a press release that NASA will do this work transparent for the benefit of humanity.

Most UFO (or UAP, or whatever you want to call them) sightings don’t have real data behind them. I don’t mean that as a knock — that’s what Nelson said in a press conference. That’s one of the challenges here! Some military pilots claim to have seen strange things while flying. I think they did. I have no idea what they saw. It could be anything — secret spy planes from some other country, weather balloons, bizarre atmospheric phenomena, or something else we haven’t yet figured out.

Getting data takes funding and the budget for NASA is decided by Congress. Why shouldn’t NASA get a budget for things like ufos? Hats off to management for the decision that makes sense. Nelson wants to shift the conversation about UFOs “from sensationalism to science,” he said in the press conference. And you know what science always needs more of? Money.