On Thursday, NASA will release the results of a long-awaited study of mysterious flying objects in Earth’s sky. The U.S. space agency announced last year that it was reviewing evidence of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP, which has replaced the term “UFO” in official language.

Although this topic has long fascinated the public, it has escaped the notice of mainstream science. In May, an independent panel of 16 researchers shared preliminary observations, finding that existing data and eyewitness accounts were insufficient to draw definitive conclusions, while calling for more systematic collection of high-quality data.

Thursday’s report is unlikely to change those conclusions, but it could ultimately mark the beginning of a new mission for the agency. While NASA probes and rovers comb the solar system for fossils of ancient microbes and astronomers search for signs of intelligent civilizations on distant planets, its historical goal is to “disprove” observations on our home planet.

The report’s authors said at a meeting in May that more than 800 “events” had been collected over 27 years, and two to five percent of them were considered likely abnormal. They are defined as “anything that is not easy for the operator or sensor to understand” or “something that does something weird,” team member Nadia Drake said.

In recent years, the U.S. government has begun to take the problem of UAPs more seriously, in part because of concerns that they are linked to foreign surveillance. NASA’s work, based on declassified materials, is separate from the Pentagon’s research, although it coordinates the application of scientific tools and methods. In July, a former US intelligence official made headlines when he told a congressional committee that he “absolutely” believed the government had the remains of extraterrestrial operators as well as unknown anomalous phenomena.

“My testimony is based on information provided to me by individuals who have a long history of legitimacy and have served this country, many of whom also shared compelling evidence in the form of photographs, official documents, and confidential oral testimony.”—David Hrush . he told lawmakers.

Earlier this week, the presentation of the alleged bodies of two “non-humans” at a hearing in the Mexican Congress sparked consternation, disbelief and ridicule on social media. The supposedly mummified remains, which have a grayish color and a human-like body shape, were brought by controversial Mexican journalist and researcher Jaime Maussan, who reported finding them in Peru in 2017. Source