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A group of NASA scientists studying unidentified anomalous phenomena, or U.A.P.s, reported on Wednesday that they are struggling with limited data to explain unexplained events that have garnered the public’s attention.
A Pentagon official who spoke at the meeting stated that the defense department has looked into more than 800 cases over the past 27 years. But only 2 to 5% of these cases are considered mysterious. The statistics represent new findings that the Federal Aviation Administration shared with the Pentagon and increased reporting triggered by a Chinese spy balloon transiting the United States.
Why It Matters: Public fascination with these events is high.
People are always fascinated by the prospect of life beyond Earth; however, these puzzling events are not necessarily extraterrestrial visitations–they are primarily drones, balloons, and wind-blown trash.
Nadia Drake, a panel member, science journalist, and former contributor to The New York Times, said, “There is no conclusive evidence suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for U.A.P.s. Collecting more high-quality data from the scientific community for peer review is necessary to make progress in this field.”
One reason for the lack of reliable information on these phenomena is that military cameras, radar, and other sensors that detect video are typically set to perform other duties, such as bomb targeting, rather than gathering data to identify non-hostile objects.
Consequently, many members of the public subscribe to the belief that some of these strange occurrences may be of extraterrestrial origin. Many panel members have reportedly received online harassment. Despite such hostility, the panel attempted to clarify the material that has fascinated the public. They employed some tricky high school geometry to illustrate how the object in one video taken by a Navy plane in 2015 known as “GOFAST” was not moving quickly but instead traveling at a mere 40 miles per hour- an example of how a vantage point could be merely an optical illusion.
Scott J. Kelly, a former astronaut, stated that optical illusions are commonplace while flying, whether in the air or in space. As a former F-14 Tomcat pilot, he recalled an incident where the flight officer at the back of the plane saw a UFO. Upon investigating, it was discovered that the object was a balloon shaped like Bart Simpson.
Background: Most examples have logical explanations
While many military videos of these phenomena initially appear interesting, regular explanations often emerge over time.
Sean M. Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, displayed a video recorded by a P-3 surveillance plane that showed three points moving in a back-and-forth motion. Upon further review, it was discovered that the dots were three airplanes waiting to land at an airport roughly 40 miles away.
