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During a first public meeting, a group of experts from the US space agency NASA spoke out for more and better data on sightings of unidentified flying objects. The research on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” (UAP for short) is “extremely important”. Partly for safety reasons, NASA manager Dan Evans said Wednesday at the press conference after a four-hour meeting.

Where most UAPs are spotted

Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), kicked off the press conference with a rundown of reported sightings of UAPs to date.

On a map, he shows where in the world the most UAPs were observed and reported between 1996 and 2023. It shows five major hotspots:

An image also shows the altitude at which most objects in the sky were seen. The majority were at altitudes between 5,000 and 30,000 feet. There were hardly any sightings between 40,000 and 100,000 feet. AARO also has space data, but it is not shown in the chart.

At 47 percent, most people saw objects in the shape of spheres, followed by 19 percent ‘ambiguous sensory contacts’. Lights were the third most viewed at 16 percent.

As Kirkpatrick goes on to explain, her team receives between 50 and 100 reports per month. Overall, however, only between 2 and 5 percent of all sightings in their database are actually anomalous in nature.

Mysterious sightings and dates explained

He shows them a video fragment that was sent to them and is supposed to show abnormal objects.

The video shows three glowing dots moving back and forth jerkily and in sync. However, it is not the dots – as you might think at first glance – that move in this way, but the camera. A military aircraft’s sensors and cameras tried to pick up the signals from the objects, but failed, Kirkpatrick explains the move. The reason: the distance between the objects was much greater than initially assumed.

Because no signals could be picked up, this sighting was reported as a strange grouping of three UAPs. But Kirkpatrick adds:

As Kirkpatrick explains, analysis of air traffic control data indicated that the target was likely an aircraft.

Another anecdote is told by David Spergel, head of NASA’s UAP team. Data related to UAPs is often difficult to interpret, Spergel said. For example, when researchers in Australia suddenly picked up a burst of radio waves.

As it turned out: the researchers’ sensitive instruments picked up signals from a microwave oven that was used to heat up lunch.

Actually mysterious objects

Last year, an unresolved sighting occurred in the Middle East. The object, which Kirkpatrick calls the MQ-9, is a metallic, spherical sphere.

However, the bullet showed no mysterious technical capabilities and posed no apparent threat to aircraft safety.

But he couldn’t say exactly what it was. Kirkpatrick explains that there is still too little data for a definitive assessment.

Experts argue for more efficient research

This is exactly what Spergel emphasized during the press conference: many past UAPs could not be cleared up because the data on them was too small and of poor quality. In the future, therefore, more and better recordings and data will be needed. So far, there’s no evidence linking UAPs to extraterrestrial life, Spergel stressed.

16 experts selected by NASA will now present a study on how to proceed in researching UAPs. According to NASA, the investigation was agreed with the U.S. government, but worked with the Secret Services independently of the work of the U.S. Department of Defense.

In recent years, the Pentagon has presented reports that there are no explanations for dozens of celestial phenomena from the past two decades – but also no evidence of secret technology from other countries or extraterrestrial life. The Pentagon also criticized insufficient data. For the first time in decades, there was also a hearing in Congress.

AARO intends to present a report at the end of July with the results of the investigation into unexplained phenomena.

With material from the SDA and DPA news agencies.