CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – NASA launches UFO study as part of a new impetus for high-risk, high-impact science. The space agency announced Thursday that it is setting up an independent team to look at how much information is available to the public on the subject and how much more is needed to understand the unexplained views. Experts will also consider how best to use all of this information in the future. The head of NASA’s scientific mission, Thomas Zurbuchen, acknowledged that the traditional scientific community may see NASA as a “kind of sell-out” by getting into the controversial issue, but strongly disagrees. “We are not avoiding the risk of fame,” Zurbuchen said during a national broadcast on the National Academy of Sciences. “Our strong belief is that the biggest challenge of these phenomena is that it is a data-poor field.” NASA considers this to be a first step in trying to explain mysterious views of the sky known as UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena. The study will begin this fall and will last nine months, costing no more than $ 100,000. It will be completely open, without the use of secret military data. NASA said the team would be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation, to advance scientific research. In a press conference, Spergel said the only biased idea for the study is that UAPs are likely to have multiple explanations. “We have to approach all these questions with a sense of humility,” Spergel said. “I spent most of my career as a cosmologist. I can tell you that we do not know what makes up 95% of the universe. So there are things we do not understand. “ The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
