NASA Report Finds No Evidence of 'Extraterrestrial' UFOs

Facts

• In a finalized 36-page report issued on Thursday, an independent group of NASA scientists said they had found no concrete evidence to suggest that UAP — unidentified anomalous phenomena, NASA's preferred term for UFOs — is extraterrestrial.¹
• NASA's top administrator Bill Nelson said the team 'did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin,' though the experts accompanied the report's release with the acknowledgement that 'the collection of data is sparse, unsystematic, and lacks any curation or vetting protocols.'²
• At the same time, the experts stated that eyewitness accounts can often be unreliable. They suggested that, 'a rigorous, evidence-based, and data-driven scientific framework' to understand UAP should be followed.³
• Nelson has additionally stated that new science techniques and artificial intelligence (AI) will be needed to better understand the phenomenon and its origins.⁴
• Amid the report's publication, the space agency also announced it was appointing Mark McInerney — who previously served as its liaison to the Defense Department — as its first research director of UAP.⁵
• This news comes shortly after the Pentagon launched a website to allow current and former US government employees, service members, and contractors to report their alleged UAP sightings.⁶

Sources: ¹CBS, ²NPR Online News, ³CNN, ⁴Evening standard, ⁵Politico and ⁶Washington examiner.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Wall street journal. Though this study neither approves nor rejects the existence of aliens, it does offer a roadmap for NASA to develop a standardized system for collecting civilian reports and using AI to analyze UAP and its origins. There's no reason to conclude that extraterrestrial sources are behind UAP but, scientifically, we can't rule out that possibility.
• Cynical narrative, as provided by Guardian. While NASA is endeavoring to shift discourse about extraterrestrial life from 'sensationalism to science,' the scale of online abuse received by the panel during the reporting process already suggests that efforts may be hampered. While transparently opening up the scientific process to the public is admirable, it is optimistic to believe faithful, widespread engagement will undo entrenched conspiratorial narratives surrounding extraterrestrial life.

Predictions