Washington:

NASA on Thursday officially joined the search for UFOs — but reflecting the stigma attached to the field, the US space agency kept secret for hours the identity of the person heading a new program tracking mystery flying objects.

The official’s appointment is the result of a year-long NASA fact-finding report into what it calls “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP.

“At NASA, it’s in our DNA to explore — and to ask why things are the way they are,” agency chief Bill Nelson said.

An independent team of 16 researchers concluded in the report that the search for UAPs “demands a rigorous, evidence-based approach.”

NASA is well positioned to play a prominent role, thanks to its satellite capabilities and other technical assets. But the agency stressed in its report that any findings of possible extra-terrestrial origin “must be the hypothesis of last resort — the answer we turn to only after ruling out all other possibilities.”

“We want to shift the conversation about UAP from sensationalism to science,” Nelson said.

While initially withholding the program leader’s name, NASA ultimately relented Thursday evening, saying in an updated press release it had appointed Mark McInerney as director of UAP research.

In government positions since 1996, McInerney has served as NASA’s liaison to the Pentagon on UAP issues.

Even if NASA has long explored the heavens, hunting for the origin, identity and purpose of a growing number of unexplained flying objects over planet Earth is bringing unprecedented challenges.

Military and civilian pilots keep offering a multitude of reports on strange sightings. But decades of movies and sci-fi books about aliens mean the entire topic is mostly laughed off by the public as the territory of cranks.

That atmosphere explained the unusual decision by NASA to initially withhold the lead UAP official’s identity.

“We need to ensure that the scientific process and methods are free,” said Daniel Evans, who worked on NASA’s report leading to the announcement.

“Some of the threats and the harassment have been beyond the pale, quite frankly,” Evans said.

800 events

There have been more than 800 “events” collected over 27 years, of which two to five percent are thought to be possibly anomalous, the report’s authors said in May.

These are defined as “anything that is not readily understandable by the operator or the sensor,” or “something that is doing something weird,” said team member Nadia Drake.

The US government has begun taking UAP issues more seriously in recent years, in part due to concerns that they are related to foreign surveillance.

One example of a still-unexplained phenomenon was a flying metallic orb spotted by an MQ-9 drone at an undisclosed location in the Middle East. Footage of the UAP was shown to Congress in April.

NASA’s work, which relies on unclassified material, is separate from a parallel Pentagon investigation, though the two are coordinating on how to apply scientific tools and methods.

In July, a former US intelligence officer made headlines when he told a congressional committee he “absolutely” believes the government is in possession of unidentified anomalous phenomena — as well as remains of their alien operators.

“My testimony is based on information I’ve been given by individuals with a longstanding track record of legitimacy and service to this country — many of whom also shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation and classified oral testimony,” David Grusch told lawmakers.

Earlier this week, the alleged bodies of two “non-human” beings were presented during a congressional hearing in Mexico, generating a mixture of surprise, disbelief and ridicule on social media.

The purported mummified remains, which had a grayish color and a human-like body form, were brought by Jaime Maussan, a controversial Mexican journalist and researcher who reported finding them in Peru in 2017.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Thursday released a new report on what it calls the “unidentified anomalous phenomenon” (UAP), better known to the public as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. In response to a recommendation by an independent study team for NASA to play a more prominent role in understanding UFOs, the US space agency announced that it is appointing a director of UAP research. 

During the press conference, NASA officials were also asked questions about the UFO hearing in Mexico’s Congress that featured the presentation of alleged remains of non-human beings. David Spergel, the former head of Princeton University’s astrophysics department and chair of the UAP report, said he did not know the nature of the samples but urged transparency.

“This is something that I have only seen on Twitter. When you have unusual things, you want to make the data public,” Mr Spergel said.

“We don’t know the nature of those samples,” he said.

“If you have something strange, make samples available to the scientific community,” he told the Mexican government.

‘Alien Bodies’ Presented In Mexican Congress

Mexican journalist and long-time UFO enthusiast Jaime Maussan showed politicians at the hearing on Tuesday two tiny “bodies” displayed in cases, with three fingers on each hand and elongated heads. 

He said in the presentation that the specimens were recovered near Peru’s ancient Nazca Lines and had been carbon-dated by Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) and concluded to be about 1,000 years old. 

Maussan claimed they were not related to any species on Earth.

“I think there is a clear demonstration that we are dealing with non-human specimens that are not related to any other species in our world and that all possibilities are open for any scientific institution… to investigate it,” Maussan said.

“We are not alone,” he added.

The images from the congressional hearing — featuring purported “alien” bodies — have now gone viral on social media platforms.