NASA maintained that it currently possesses no credible evidence that suggests the presence of extraterrestrial life or non-human intelligence. David Spergel, astrophysicist and leader of a special NASA team, stressed during the space agency’s first public meeting on the topic that assertions of such phenomena would demand extraordinary proof, which has not yet surfaced.
Formed last year, the team led by Spergel is tasked with investigating unexplained occurrences that cannot be easily attributed to recognized aircraft or natural phenomena. The purpose of the public meeting was to address public inquiries and concerns about potential extraterrestrial life in relation to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). NASA made it clear during the meeting that no persuasive evidence linking UAP to alien life has been discovered. The team emphasized that UAP studies differ from the pursuit of extraterrestrial life. UAP, a broad term, encompasses unidentified objects or anomalies observed in the sky, inclusive of both man-made and natural phenomena. The term UFO, or Unidentified Flying Object, specifically relates to sky-bound objects that remain unidentified and cannot be readily explained by conventional means.
The briefing, which lasted four hours, covered preliminary findings of the board’s report, scheduled for publication in July. Among the attendees were numerous scholars, officials from the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and NASA. During the meeting, Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of the All-Fields Anomaly Resolution Office of the Ministry of Defense, disclosed that they have received over 800 UFO reports, averaging 50 to 100 reports each month, with only a small number considered unidentifiable abnormalities.
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Highlighting the difficulties of global surveillance due to international restrictions, Kirkpatrick presented an image from a recent recon flight over the US, featuring a bright three-dot object which turned out to be landing planes that appeared closer than they actually were. Mike Freie, Technical Advisor at the FAA Office of Air Traffic Surveillance Services, noted a surge in UAP reports following SpaceX’s Starlink launch and a February incident involving a Chinese balloon entering US airspace.
Addressing the topic of extraterrestrial intelligence, Anamaria Berea, Associate Professor of Computing and Data Science at George Mason University, reiterated that the team’s mission was to follow the data and establish a framework for further investigation into anomalous images.
Spergel, while recognizing NASA’s ongoing search for life beyond Earth, confirmed that no evidence of non-human intelligence or extraordinary proof of it had been found. Despite ongoing inquiries, he said, the existence of life beyond Earth remains one of the most significant questions in human history.
