The US capital hosted an unusual public meeting on Wednesday, featuring a panel of experts commissioned by NASA to look into the sensitive issue of UFOs.
The specialists hammered home the need to gather more data to come up with an explanation for the UFO phenomena in the future.
Existing data, and witness accounts are insufficient to provide conclusive evidence about the nature and origin of each event, said David Spergel, the astrophysicist tasked with chairing the work. “We need high-quality data.”
A report due to be published in the summer should detail how this can be achieved.
NASA announced the launch of the initiative last year, and in October it appointed no fewer than 16 experts to lead it. They include eminent scientists, as well as officials from US civil aviation regulator FAA and former astronaut Scott Kelly.
Their aim is not to review “unidentified anomalous phenomena” — the official term used — in an attempt to explain one by one the events observed in the past. It is to make recommendations to NASA on how to study them rigorously in the future.
Some 800 unidentified aerial phenomena have been collected so far, Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the office dedicated to the issue within the US Ministry of Defence, said on Wednesday.
But perhaps only between 2% and 5% are “truly anomalous,” he said.
The subject is very serious, NASA stressed on Wednesday, poiting out that it concerns both national security and air traffic safety.
