Promising a new, transparent, scientifically rigorous look at UFOs, NASA said Thursday it had appointed a director of research on the subject — and then kept the director’s name secret for nearly seven hours.
The new position is part of NASA’s response to recommendations made by an independent study group convened by the agency. The panel looked at how to better gather and study information about “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP – the modern term for UFOs.
The panel report, released Thursday, doesn’t attempt to provide a definitive answer on whether galaxy-trotting extraterrestrials have zipped through Earth’s skies. But it suggests a bigger role for NASA in tackling the question.
“NASA will make this very clear,” Bill Nelson, NASA’s administrator, said at a news conference Thursday morning at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC, discussing the report.
During the news conference, Mr. Nelson first talked about NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars, which is collecting rock samples that may contain hints of life that lived there billions of years ago. Then he turned to the James Webb Space Telescope, which was studying planets around distant stars for clues that they might be inhabited or even inhabited by life.
UAP’s work, he said, follows a similar desire to learn about the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe. “This is the first time that NASA has taken concrete action to take a serious look at UAP.” said mr. Nelson.
Nicola Fox, the associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, said the person serving as the new UAP research director has been in that role “for a while now,” but declined to be identified. “We will not give his name,” he said.
On Thursday night, the agency identified the director as Mark McInerney in an updated news release. He previously served as NASA’s liaison to the Defense Department for UAP issues. In the news release, NASA said he also worked in various positions at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Hurricane Center.
In a post on Xthe social network formerly known as Twitter, writes Dr. Fox, “As we continue to dig into the study team’s report and findings, treat him with respect in this very important role to help us better scientifically understand UAP”
NASA officials said that part of the reason for the initial secrecy of Mr. McInerney was the harassment experienced during the study by some of the 16 members of the independent panel, which included university professors, space industry officials and a science journalist.
“Some of them have actually risen to actual threats,” said Daniel Evans, assistant deputy associate administrator for research in NASA’s science mission directorate. “And yes, that’s part of why we don’t say our new director’s name there, because science has to be free.”
The federal government’s knowledge of UAPs has recently been the subject of proposed federal legislation. At a House oversight subcommittee hearing in July, lawmakers questioned a former intelligence official who claimed knowledge of the government’s cover-up of extraterrestrial technology.
UAPs often appear to be innocuous objects, like weather balloons. Most experts consider alien spacecraft an unlikely explanation for any of the events. But it is possible that some of those observed may be undiscovered atmospheric phenomena or tests of advanced weapons systems.
“One of the main goals of what we’re trying to do here now is to move speculation and conspiracy toward science and sanity,” said Dr. Evans. “And you do that with data.”
The panel recommended that NASA use its Earth observing instruments to collect environmental data to coincide with the UAP reports and enlist members of the public to transmit a wider range of observations, perhaps through a smartphone app.
“It always comes back to the data you feed into your analysis,” said David Spergel, an astrophysicist who is president of the Simons Foundation and served as chair of the UAP panel. “If you don’t have good data, you can’t learn things.”
Smartphones can take sharp pictures, record specific locations, magnetic fields and record sounds. “There’s a lot of data that a cellphone captures,” said Dr. Spergel. “If you see something you don’t understand, collect data. We aggregate the data and we learn from it.”
Greater data collection could also reduce the stigma and stigma that many people fear if they talk about something they’ve seen. “Stigma has limited reporting by pilots, both civilian and military,” said Dr. Spergel.
The panel also suggested using sophisticated computer algorithms, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to look for subtle patterns in UAP reports that could help identify underlying phenomena.
Some of the inquiries veered towards the strange and surreal. A journalist asked about the ufologist who on Tuesday showed the Mexican Congress what he described as two corpses of aliens.
“Has NASA been in contact with Mexican authorities regarding the rather gruesome revelations earlier this week of two alleged non-human corpses?” said the journalist. “And what, if any, significance do you attach to these discoveries?”
Dr. answered. Spergel, “It’s something I know I just saw on Twitter.”
He provided analogies of the moon rocks collected by NASA during the Apollo moon landing 50 years ago, which are available for study to scientists around the world.
“If you have something unusual, make samples available to the scientific community and we’ll see what’s there,” said Dr. Spergel.
The UAP study was announced in June last year by Thomas Zurbuchen, then the associate administrator of the science mission directorate.
said Dr. Zurbuchen that the analysis of UFO reports may be “high-risk, high-impact type of research,” possibly turning up some completely new scientific phenomenon, or possibly nothing new or interesting.
At a public hearing in May, the panel tried to explain some of the material that has gripped the public. It uses some (it’s a bit confusing) high school geometry to explain how the object was captured in a video by a Navy plane in 2015, known as “HURRY UP” is not moving fast but only at 40 miles per hour by illustrating how the vantage point on an object can be a visual trick.
