NASA has made its latest statement on the issue of UAP sightings. ©RockedBuzz via EuronewsA new report commissioned by NASA has outlined how the US space agency can do more to help explain mysterious flying objects spotted around the world – this at a time when theories and claims about extraterrestrial visits to Earth are suddenly circulating widely once again.
The paper on Unidentified anomalous phenomenaor UAP – the US government’s preferred term for what are popularly called UFOs – argues that although many of the sightings recorded in recent years have turned out to be nothing out of the ordinary, there are many that cannot be explained by current data .
NASA’s role, the authors write, is to use the full spectrum of its technological power to improve the monitoring and study of these phenomena – and to lend its unique credibility to an issue where rigorous scientific inquiry is still hampered by stigma.
“The negative perception surrounding the reporting of UAPs constitutes a barrier to collecting data on these phenomena,” the report authors write.
“NASA’s own involvement in UAP will play a vital role in reducing the stigma associated with UAP reporting, which almost certainly currently leads to data attrition. NASA’s long-standing public trust, which is essential to communicating findings about these phenomena to citizens, it is crucial to destigmatize UAP reporting.”
The stigma is so severe, according to the report, that even some of the same scientists NASA commissioned to write about it have suffered directly as a result of their association with the UAP issue.
“At least one scientist serving on the study group reported receiving negative (hate) mail from colleagues because of their membership,” the report reads. “Others have been ridiculed and criticized on social media…These experiences further confirm the negative stigma associated with the study of unusual or unexplained phenomena. Such criticism, from both detractors and supporters of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, is anathema to the scientific method, which NASA has always and will continue to promote in an objective and open-minded manner.
“As a federal agency, NASA can make it safer for researchers to explore data in civil aerospace by starting such work within the Agency itself.”
However, the authors of the NASA report are careful to point out that they still have no definitive explanations for the UAP sightings that have not yet been explained.
They also offer evidence that an object shown in a well-known video clip released by the U.S. Navy was almost certainly not moving at an unusually high speed, but was “most likely drifting with the wind.”
This June 2023 image provided by the Space Telescope Science Institute shows the planet Saturn and three of its moonsSpace Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach/APShattered Silence
The question of how to overcome UFO-related stigma and encourage greater reporting of sightings to authorities has become paramount in recent years, as the U.S. government has opened up dramatically on the topic of UAPs.
Groundbreaking stories published in American media since 2017 detail how the money went to fund detailed Pentagon investigations into service members’ dealings.
Since then, numerous members of Congress from both parties have worked hard to examine the issue in public, with the goal of freeing the issue as much as possible from the restrictions of government secrecy and classification.
As a result, it has emerged that the number of UAP sightings by US military personnel around the world is dramatically higher than previously known, although the stigma against reporting them is still very much alive.
Many congressional efforts to address the issue have focused on the risk that UAPs are evidence of ultra-advanced technology that could be developed by a land-based adversary of the United States, such as China.
However, this summer, a House of Representatives committee held a hearing with a military veteran and former intelligence official, David Grusch, who told the surprisingly sympathetic bipartisan committee that he had been shown evidence and heard testimony that confirmed that the United States was in possession of crashed planes. alien spacecraft and “non-human biological products” recovered from the wreckage.
He produced no evidence to support his claims, but promised to share them with the commission within the confines of a secure facility.
He further stated that he, along with other military personnel aware of the alleged extent of US government activities in this area, were harassed and threatened to dissuade him from making his claims public.
