For many years, unexplained and mysterious occurrences, known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), have captivated the attention of governmental bodies, military establishments, and scholars across the globe.
The aim of investigating Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) is to gain a deeper understanding of these occurrences and determine whether they may pose potential national security risks or hold scientific significance.
Brian Helmuth, a professor specializing in marine and environmental science at Northeastern University, has proposed broadening the quest for UFOs to include the enigmatic underwater realms of our world.
The immense oceans of Earth conceal some of the most captivating and least explored regions on our planet.
“If I were investigating an alien planet like Earth, the ocean would definitely be the place to start. Not only does it comprise the vast majority of living space and living organisms on Earth, but it also is comparatively unpopulated by the one species, humans, that seems intent on destroying the planet,” Helmuth said in an official report released by the university.
“It would be a great place from which to observe,” he added.
While most UFO sightings are associated with aerial phenomena, there have been reports of unexplained objects splashing into Earth’s oceans.
Helmuth says it makes sense that the 16-member NASA panel that issued Thursday’s report included Paula Bontempi, “an oceanographer who also spent 18 years at NASA.”
“She is highly respected in our field and in many ways the ideal person for this committee,” he says.
The scientists and experts on the panel led by astrophysicist David Spergel called for taking a scientific, not sensational approach to the perceived phenomena.
They recommended using AI and machine learning to distinguish between unknown and documented phenomena, ground sensors to observe the skies and the use of crowdsourcing to gather data.
During the NASA press conference Thursday, officials also announced the appointment of an unidentified director of research to lead studies into the phenomena.
All this is a long way from the official disdain in which the government and scientists have held the UFO phenomenon until recent years.
By 2022, the acronym for the phenomena already had undergone an official change from UFO for unidentified flying object — a term still popular with the public — to UAP for unidentified aerial phenomena.
But in December of that year, Pentagon officials said they were changing the terminology to unidentified anomalous phenomena to expand “the scope of UAP to include submerged and trans-medium objects.”
