NASA Releases Independent Study Findings and Takes 1st ‘Serious Look’ Into UFOs

Space chief says agency wants to ’shift the conversation about UAP from sensationalism to science’

The silhouette of U.S. engineer and NASA astronaut Megan McArthur is seen past the space agency's logo in the Webb Auditorium at NASA headquarters in Washington on June 7, 2022. Stefani Reynolds/via Getty Images

NASA released an independent study on Sept. 14 that Administrator Bill Nelson described as the first time the agency took “concrete action to seriously look” into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).

The study was ordered in 2022 and with its publication came an announcement of NASA’s new commitment to investigating UAP, formerly known officially as unidentified flying objects (UFOs).