UAPs are defined as phenomena or observations of events in the air, sea, space, and land that cannot be identified as aircraft or as known natural phenomena. The acronym UAP seeks to provide separation from the assumptions about extraterrestrial life and other associations in popular culture with the older acronym UFO ("unidentified flying object"). UAP originally stood for "unidentified aerial phenomena", but was expanded at the end of 2022 to mean "unidentified anomalous phenomena". To complete their work, the independent NASA team identified how data gathered by civilian, commercial, and government entities as well as any other sources can most effectively be analyzed to shed light on UAPs.
The study team started work on October 24, 2022, and held its first public meeting on May 31, 2023. The team's report was released on September 14, 2023, and did not find evidence that extra-terrestrial life was responsible for the unexplained phenomena of UAP sightings. Unlike the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) under the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense, the NASA independent study team focused solely on unclassified data.
Scope and objectives
The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Independent Study Team (UAPIST) was formally established by Karen St. Germain, the director of NASA's Earth Science Division, as a subcommittee of the Earth Science Advisory Committee (ESAC). The terms of reference establishing the group were signed on May 24, 2022.[1]
In its June 2022 announcement of plans to form the UAPIST, NASA named astrophysicist David Spergel as the chair of the team, and Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, as the official responsible for orchestrating the study. The team's objective, according to Spergel, was to gather the most robust set of data possible, given the lack of observations, and "to identify what data – from civilians, government, non-profits, companies – exists, what else we should try to collect, and how to best analyze it." NASA summarized this objective as securing "the counsel of experts in the scientific, aeronautics, and data analytics communities to focus on how best to collect new data and improve observations of UAPs". They further noted that "consistent with NASA's principles of openness, transparency, and scientific integrity", the findings will be shared publicly as "all of NASA's data is available to the public" and "easily accessible for anyone to see or study". NASA clarified that this new study was unrelated to their "active astrobiology program that focuses on the origins, evolution, and distribution of life beyond Earth". Finally, the announcement specified that NASA's UAP study team would be a second and independent undertaking from the program under Department of Defense direction, saying, "the agency is not part of the Department of Defense's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force or its successor, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group" although NASA has "coordinated widely across the government regarding how to apply the tools of science to shed light on the nature and origin of unidentified anomalous phenomena".[2]
Further terms of reference were signed on May 18, 2023, extending the UAPIST and renaming it by changing "Aerial" to "Anomalous".[5] In its first public meeting on May 31, 2023, Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Defense Department's AARO task force, was invited to give the opening remarks. Kirkpatrick said that "though NASA and AARO are taking on different aspects of the UAP problem set, our efforts are very much complementary" as both are committed to the scientific method and a data-driven approach. According to Kirkpatrick, "NASA is evaluating unclassified data sources for its study", while "AARO's data set includes classified material with a focus on national security areas". In contrast, "NASA brings unique capabilities, world-class scientists, and a wealth of academic and research linkages" with "access to earth sensing satellites, radiological sensors, tools for gravitational wave and geomagnetic detection and means of analyzing crowd-sourced data that may assist AARO and NASA in their UAP efforts". AARO is "grateful for the partnership", said Kirkpatrick, and welcomes "the opportunity to join with NASA to share our collective findings with the public as the U.S. Government moves towards greater transparency on this issue".[6]
According to Merriam-Webster, "the term UAP first appeared in the late 1960s, while unidentified flying object has been around since 1947".[7] As summarized in ETC: A Review of General Semantics, "aside from UAP's more encompassing description, this term avoids the heavy cultural baggage attached to UFO, whose initial association with extraterrestrial origins ...sets up a narrow and inflexible framework for honest scientific research."[8] The term UFO now has decades of association with aliens across many areas of culture, popular entertainment, conspiracy theories, and religious movements as considered in American Cosmic by Diana Walsh Pasulka.[9] "Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), formerly referred to as UFOs, in theory, could include alien spacecraft, but the two aren't synonymous."[10] At the start of 2023, NASA updated the name of its independent study team from "unidentified aerial phenomena" to "unidentified anomalous phenomena" to be "consistent with the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, signed into law on December 23, 2022".[5]
Team members
Scott Kelly, former NASA astronaut, left, and Anamaria Berea, associate professor of Computational and Data Science at George Mason University, during a public meeting of NASA's UAP independent study team on May 31, 2023.
NASA's UAP study team members were announced on October 21, 2022.[11]
Warren Randolph (deputy executive director of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Accident Investigation and Prevention for Aviation Safety Department)
Walter Scott (vice president and chief technology officer of Maxar Technologies)
Joshua Semeter (professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University)
Karlin Toner (acting executive director of the FAA's Office of Aviation Policy and Plans)
Greg Eghigian, a history professor at Penn State who has written about the history of the UFO phenomenon,[12] noted that the NASA study team represents "a sea change," as "close to a majority of academics now believe that the study of UFOs warrants scholarly research", that the team can establish "a roadmap for looking into UAPs", and that this activity is "unprecedented [because] NASA, historically, wanted nothing to do with UFOs, and [now] these civilian scientists are asking scientifically informed questions".[13]
Team member commentary
In their first public meeting on May 31, 2023, the NASA team faced a wide range of general questions, primarily focused on UFOs. The team reported that their priorities include methods of collecting empirical data on, and improving analysis of, UAPs. Spergel said that "many of the UAP events can be attributed to commercial aircraft, drones, and research balloons, as well as weather and ionospheric phenomena," adding that "there remain events that we do not understand" and that these events "tend to be characterized by poor quality and limited data". Noting the value of further investigating such unknowns, Spergel pointed to the "history of fast radio bursts" because when "examination confirmed the bursts were cosmic in nature, emerging from astrophysical cataclysms scattered across the universe" this demonstrated how "sometimes anomalies are really interesting and point to novel physical phenomenon."[14][15]
Regarding David Grusch's claims of a government coverup(s) regarding UFOs, team member Joshua Semeter said that, absent more information, little can be said about the Grusch claims, adding that the NASA team is "working in collaboration with the Defense Department's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," with his panel's specific objective being "to create a roadmap for how NASA assets and expertise can contribute to determining the origin and nature of UAP."[16]
NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team Report
The independent study team's final report was published on September 14, 2023, with NASA also announcing the appointment of a director of UAP research. The study team reported that no evidence of extra-terrestrial life was found. The report also stated that the absence of reproducible data makes it challenging to draw conclusions about some UAP origins. It was recommended that a "rigorous, evidence-based approach" be used to study UAP and that data collection methods include artificial intelligence and citizen observers, and stated that NASA is "well-positioned" to lead this study of UAP.[17][18] According to its 2023 terms of reference, the team was dissolved upon the completion and submission of its final report.[5]
An unidentified flying object (UFO), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.
Ufology is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins. While there are instances of government, private, and fringe science investigations of UFOs, ufology is generally regarded by skeptics and science educators as a canonical example of pseudoscience.
The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) proposes that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by extraterrestrial intelligence or non-human aliens, or non-occupied alien probes from other planets visiting Earth.
The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDSci) was a privately financed research organization based in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and operated from 1995 to 2004. It was founded in 1995 by real-estate developer Robert Bigelow, who set it up to research and advance serious study of various fringe science and paranormal topics, most notably ufology. Deputy Administrator Colm Kelleher was quoted as saying the organization was not designed to study UFOs only. "We don't study aliens, we study anomalies. They're the same thing in a lot of people's minds, but not in our minds." NIDSci was disbanded in October 2004.
David Nathaniel Spergel is an American theoretical astrophysicist and the Emeritus Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation at Princeton University. Since 2021, he has been the President of the Simons Foundation. He is known for his work on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) project. In 2022, Spergel accepted the chair of NASA's UAP independent study team.
Project Condign was a secret unidentified flying object (UFO) study undertaken by the British Government's Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) between 1997 and 2000.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was an unclassified but unpublicized investigatory effort funded by the United States Government to study unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP). The program was first made public on December 16, 2017. The program began in 2007, with funding of $22 million over the five years until the available appropriations were ended in 2012. The program began in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
The Pentagon UFO videos are selected visual recordings of cockpit instrumentation displays from United States Navy fighter jets based aboard aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2004, 2014 and 2015, with additional footage taken by other Navy personnel in 2019. The four grainy, monochromic videos, widely characterized as officially documenting UFOs, have received extensive coverage in the media since 2017. The Pentagon later addressed and officially released the first three videos of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) in 2020, and confirmed the provenance of the leaked 2019 videos in two statements made in 2021. Footage of UAPs was also released in 2023, sourced from MQ9 military drones.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is an office within the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense that investigates unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and other phenomena in the air, sea, and/or space and/or on land: sometimes referred to as "unidentified aerial phenomena" or "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP). Its director is physicist Sean Kirkpatrick who reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, also known as the UAP Report and colloquially named the Pentagon UFO Report, is a United States federally mandated assessment, prepared and published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on June 25, 2021, summarizing information regarding unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs) which include unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Substantial public attention had been given to the mandated June 25 report, fueled by statements by former high level officials in the U.S. government, including former president Barack Obama, who stated in June 2021 "...there's footage and records of objects in the skies, that we don't know exactly what they are."
On 17 May 2022, members of the United States House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation held congressional hearings with top military officials to discuss military reports of unexplained aerial phenomena (UAPs). It was the first public congressional hearing into UFO sightings in the US in over 50 years.
Kevin H. Knuth is an associate professor of physics at the University at Albany (SUNY). Knuth conducts research in information physics, foundations of quantum mechanics, and Bayesian analysis with applications towards various problems in physics. He also conducts research into UFOs.
The Galileo Project is an international scientific research project to systematically search for extraterrestrial intelligence or extraterrestrial technology on and near Earth and to identify the nature of anomalous Unidentified Flying Objects/Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UFOs/UAP).
Sean M. Kirkpatrick is an American laser and materials physicist and currently director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office at the United States Department of Defense. Kirkpatrick is also an adjunct assistant professor of physics at the University of Georgia.
In 2023, United States Air Force (USAF) officer and former intelligence official David Grusch was interviewed by various media outlets and testified in a U.S. House of Representatives congressional hearing. Grusch claimed that he had conversations with unnamed officials that led him to believe that the U.S. federal government maintains a secretive UFO recovery program and is in possession of "non-human" spacecraft along with their "dead pilots". In 2022, Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) to support his plan to share classified information with the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He also filed a complaint alleging retaliation by his superiors over a similar complaint he made in 2021.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 is a proposed bill in the 118th United States Congress.
Investigation and analysis of reported UFO incidents under the federal government of the United States has taken place under multiple branches and agencies, past and current, since 1947. In spite of decades of interest, there remains no evidence that there are any purported UFOs with extraordinary provenance and, indeed, those identified all have been shown to be natural phenomena, human technology, misapprehensions, delusions, or hoaxes.
Ryan Graves is the founder and executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace and a former F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot with the United States Navy.
The Director of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) oversees investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The Administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, announced the creation of the position on September 14, 2023. It was created upon the recommendation of NASA's UAP independent study team. Nelson stated that the identity of the person who holds this position would be kept secret to prevent harassment. However, hours later, NASA announced that the position would be held by Mark McInerney.
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