NASA Names Chief of UFO Research; Panel Sees No Alien Evidence

NASA on Thursday said it has named a new director of research into what the government calls “unidentified anomalous phenomenon,” or UAP, while the U.S. space agency’s chief said an expert panel that urged deeper fact-finding on the matter found no evidence of an extraterrestrial origin for these objects. You can read the study team’s full report here (PDF). Reuters reports: Administrator Bill Nelson made the announcement about the new research chief — without disclosing the person’s identity — after the independent panel of experts recommended in a new report that NASA increase its efforts to gather information on UAP and play a larger role in helping the Pentagon detect them. […] The NASA panel, comprising experts in fields ranging from physics to astrobiology, was formed last year and held its first public meeting in June. “The NASA independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, but we don’t know what these UAP are,” Nelson said, adding that a goal of the agency is to “shift the conversation about UAP from sensationalism to science.”

“The mission of NASA is to find out the unknown,” Nelson said. “Whatever we find, we’re going to tell you,” Nelson added, promising transparency on any discoveries. The new UAP research director will handle “centralized communications, resources and data analytical capabilities to establish a robust database for the evaluation of future UAP,” NASA said. Nelson told Reuters he does not know the name of the new director. Dan Evans, a senior research official in NASA’s science unit and a member of the study team, said harassment that other panel members had received from the public during their work was “in part” why the new director’s identity was being kept secret.