U.F.O.s almost certainly are not alien visitors buzzing Earth's skies, but NASA is financing a study that will look at unexplained Sightings with an Open Mind.
During a presentation to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, said the study would try to scientifically examine what the federal government calls U.A.P.s.
The study will focus on identifying available data, how to best collect future data and how NASA can use these data to move the scientific understanding of U.A.P.s forward.
According to Dr. Zurbuchen, examining U.F.O. reports could be high-risk, high- impact kind of research.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was run by Luis Elizondo for years. The program was shut down by the Pentagon, but its backers said it continued. There was insufficient data for many incidents that had been observed, which led to the creation of a new task force by the Pentagon.
Pentagon officials testified about military reports of unexplained phenomena at a House subcommittee hearing last month. There was no evidence that these phenomena were alien.
The leader of NASA's effort will be David Spergel, an astronomer who is currently president of the Simons Foundation in New York. The other scientists who will participate in the study have not been selected by NASA.
Natural phenomena, unknown advanced technology, and other explanations will be considered by NASA.
There is new science to be discovered.
The nine-month study period ended with no definitive answers. He said the effort would help catalog the data and ask what else should be gathered.
He said it was for a research program that could be implemented.
It is important to tackle controversial questions in U.F.O. research.
NASA has a robust program in Astrobiology, looking at life elsewhere in the solar system and galaxy, but does not seem to be interested in the possibility of intelligent civilizations sharing our universe.
Congressional skepticism is reflected in the vacuum. Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin gave one of his Golden Fleece awards to NASA for its SETI program. Congress canceled NASA's effort to search for radio signals from alien civilizations in 1992.
Privately funded searches for alien civilizations have been conducted by the SETI Institute. The Berkeley SETI Research Center initiative is funded by a Russian billionaire who lives in the US.
Dr. Zurbuchen pointed to NASA research that is trying to identify signs of a technological civilization in the sky. Air pollution can be seen in the atmosphere of distant planets.
Dr. Zurbuchen said that they included that into their research portfolio.
According to the astronomer at the SETI Institute, he doesn't think NASA will spend millions of dollars on SETI again.
NASA has stayed out of the SETI game because it believes it doesn't have room in its budget for a program that was seen as a metal duck at a shooting gallery.
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