NASA hosts first public meeting on UFO research

(ABC 6 News) – Last year, NASA announced its goal to build a uniform, scientific process for studying “UAP” also known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, more commonly referred to as – UFOs.

The independent panel of UAP experts held their first public meeting Wednesday.

“We haven’t found life beyond Earth yet. I mean, let’s be clear about this – we haven’t found it yet. But we’re looking,” said David Spergel, the chair of NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team.

Spergel says they’re looking exclusively at public, unclassified data. Further explaining – data from the military and the government is often classified. NASA did not use that data in this report.

Statistician and Vice President of the Rochester Astronomy Club John Attewell says extraterrestrial life is highly unlikely, but it’s still important to look for answers to UFOs.

“The probability that there are little green men from outer space is, as I say, it’s laughably small. But – something caused it. People see things and there’s a reason for that. And it would be really interesting to find that out,” Attewell said.

Both Attewell – and the entire 16-member NASA research team agree — as long as people are seeing unexplainable things in the sky, it’s our job to look for answers.

“It might alleviate a lot of psychology amongst our population to know that the government is looking into things like that,” Attewell said.

“These questions touch on something that I think is really a deep question for humanity – are we alone in the universe?” asked Spergel.

The team plans to publish an official report of their findings later this summer.