NASA scientists held their first public meeting on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UFOs), calling for a more rigorous scientific approach to investigate hundreds of mysterious sightings.

The truth is out there, but we’ll need to look harder.

Scientists at NASA’s first-ever public meeting on “unidentified anomalous phenomena”- commonly called UFOs – called Wednesday for a more rigorous scientific approach to clarify the origin of hundreds of mysterious sightings.

The space agency announced last year it was analyzing observations in the sky that can’t be identified as aerial or natural phenomena—a subject that has long fascinated the public but was shunned by mainstream science.

An independent team of 16 scientists is due to report their findings in a report by the end of July, with Wednesday’s working meeting a forum for its final deliberations.

More than 800 events have been collected over 27 years, of which two to five percent are thought to be possibly anomalous, said science journalist Nadia Drake, part of the study.

These are defined as “anything that is not readily understandable by the operator or the sensor” or “something that is doing something weird.”

Metallic orb

In a presentation, Sean Kirkpatrick, director of Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution office, showed a new video of two distant dots moving back and forth on a screen, as recorded by a P3 military aircraft in the western United States, which became three dots.

The P3 could not intercept the dots, and the pilot reported the event. But later analysis revealed the objects were very far away and likely commercial aircraft on a significant flight corridor.

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, added Kirkpatrick, replaying a video first shown to Congress last month.

While NASA probes and rovers scour the solar system for the fossils of ancient microbes and its astronomers look for signs of intelligent civilizations on distant planets, this is the first time NASA is investigating unexplained phenomena in Earth’s skies.

The agency’s posture in the past was to “debunk” such sightings—reinforcing the stigma over the hunt for alien life.

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

“To date, in the refereed scientific literature, there is no conclusive evidence suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAV,” summarized Drake.

Miroslava Salazar with AFP