Reuters-NASA installs new chief of UFO research after expert panel report
September 14, 2023 4 min 791 words
这则报道涉及NASA对于不明飞行物（UAP，或称UFO）研究领域的新任主管以及美国政府对此现象的态度。首先，NASA选择了一位新的UAP研究主管，但并未透露其身份。这个决定是基于一组独立专家建议NASA加强对UAP信息的收集，并在帮助五角大楼侦测这些现象方面扮演更大的角色。这些不明飞行物被公众更为熟知为不明飞行物（UFOs）。 重要的是，NASA行政主管比尔·尼尔森（Bill Nelson）在新闻发布会上表示，他个人认为地球之外存在生命。这一言论强调了全球对UAP的极大兴趣，以及因其未知性而引发的好奇心。尽管专家组未发现UAP具有外星起源的证据，但NASA仍然坚持追求科学的方法，试图将关于UAP的讨论从煽动性的报道转向科学研究。 专家组报告指出，NASA拥有各种现有和计划中的地球和空间观测资产，以及大量历史和当前数据集，可以直接用于了解UAP。尽管NASA的地球观测卫星通常无法探测到小型物体，如UAP，但它们的传感器可以用来探测与UAP首次通过其他方法检测到的某些特定环境因素相关的地球、海洋和大气条件。这一报告称UAP是地球上最大的谜之一。 然而，报告也指出，尽管有大量的目击报告和视觉资料，但缺乏一致的、详细的和经过筛选的观测数据，因此我们目前无法对UAP做出科学上的明确结论。报告还提到了2021年的一份政府报告，其中包含了一些在美国东西海岸海军飞行员发布的视频中出现的UAP案例，这些飞行物表现出超越已知航空技术的速度和机动性，同时又缺乏可见的推进或飞行控制表面。 总的来说，这篇报道表明NASA正在采取行动，以科学的方式研究UAP现象，并将其从神秘事件转变为科学研究。这也强调了人们对地外生命和宇宙的兴趣，以及科学方法在解决未知问题方面的重要性。虽然尚无确凿的证据表明UAP具有外星起源，但这一领域的研究仍然充满了悬念和挑战。
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 more fact-finding on the matter found no evidence of an extraterrestrial origin for these objects.
Administrator Bill Nelson made the announcement of the new research chief - though he did not disclose the person's identify - after the independent panel of experts recommended that NASA increase its efforts to gather information on UAP and play a larger role in helping the Pentagon detect them. UAP are better known to the public as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.
Nelson during a news conference also gave his personal opinion that life exists beyond Earth.
"There's a global fascination with UAP. On my travels, one of the first questions I often get is about these sightings. And much of that fascination is due to the unknown nature of it," Nelson said.
"If you ask me do I believe there's life in a universe that's so vast that it's hard for me to comprehend how big it is, my personal answer is, 'Yes,'" Nelson added.
The U.S. government in the past few years has made several disclosures of information it has gathered regarding a subject that once was met by virtual official silence. The government issued a watershed report in 2021 compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in conjunction with a Navy-led task force encompassing numerous observations - mostly from military personnel - of UAP.
"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 NASA panel, comprising experts in scientific fields ranging from physics to astrobiology, issued the report after holding 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 NASA is to "shift the conversation about UAP from sensationalism to science."
NASA said the new director of UAP research will handle "centralized communications, resources and data analytical capabilities to establish a robust database for the evaluation of future UAP."
"NASA has a variety of existing and planned Earth- and space-observing assets, together with an extensive archive of historic and current data sets, which should be directly leveraged to understand UAP," the panel's report said.
"Although NASA's fleet of Earth-observing satellites typically lack the spatial resolution to detect relatively small objects such as UAP, their state-of-the-art sensors can be directly utilized to probe the state of the local earth, oceanic, and atmospheric conditions that are spatially and temporally coincident with UAPs initially detected via other methods. Thus, NASA's assets can play a vital role by directly determining whether specific environmental factors are associated with certain reported UAP behaviors or occurrences," the report said.
The new report called UAPs "one of our planet's greatest mysteries."
"Observations of objects in our skies that cannot be identified as balloons, aircraft or natural known phenomena have been spotted worldwide, yet there are limited high-quality observations. The nature of science is to explore the unknown, and data is the language scientists use to discover our universe's secrets," the report stated.
"Despite numerous accounts and visuals, the absence of consistent, detailed, and curated observations means we do not presently have the body of data needed to make definitive, scientific conclusions about UAP," it added.
The 2021 report included some UAP cases that previously came to light in the Pentagon's release of video from naval aviators showing enigmatic aircraft off the U.S. East and West Coasts exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies and lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight-control surfaces. The report said defense and intelligence analysts lacked sufficient data to determine the nature of some of the objects.
The NASA panel studying UAPs held its first public meeting in June, comprising experts in scientific fields ranging from physics to astrobiology. Challenges panel members cited to their work included a stigma attached to the subject as well as a dearth of scientifically reliable methods for documenting UFOs.
Two senior U.S. defense intelligence officials told a 2022 congressional hearing that the Pentagon was committed to determining the origins of UAPs. Another congressional hearing was held in July that included testimony from retired military personnel, though no government officials appeared.