UFOs and UAPs have long interested science fiction fans, screen writers, conspiracy theorists, and, yes, scientists. But now there鈥檚 a new player in town, and it鈥檚 a game changer鈥擭ASA.
What are UFOs? UFO stands for聽unidentified flying objects. They are sometimes also referred to as unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP. Some people believe that sightings of UFOs and UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. In a聽, Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of at the 暗网吃瓜, disagrees:
To date, there is simply no data鈥攏o evidence鈥攕trong enough to link them [UFOs] to alien life. Fuzzy videos and personal narratives, as engaging as they may be, are simply not enough to support such an extraordinary claim.
Now though, America鈥檚 space agency has it is convening a commission to investigate UAPs. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 handled well, the commission could do more than shed much-needed light on UAPs,鈥� writes Frank.聽鈥淚t could also give Americans a masterclass in the most basic, most important, and unfortunately, most boring topic in science: standards of evidence.鈥�
As Frank explains, scientists have the technology to detect biosignatures, which occur when a distant planet is clothed in a biosphere whose life alters the host world鈥檚 atmosphere biosignatures鈥攊n other words, signs of life.聽鈥淏ut as exciting as this prospect is, we won鈥檛 ever be able to claim we’ve found life without those all-important standards of evidence,鈥� Frank writes. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 those standards, stated clearly and followed precisely, that have everything to do with UFOs and NASA.鈥�
If鈥攐r perhaps when?鈥擭ASA detects life elsewhere in the universe, the finding will come with the weight of the standards of evidence embodied by the agency. According to Frank:
The real opportunity lying in the proposed NASA study is not just about what it finds. Instead, it鈥檚 about showing the American people how NASA, and science in general, goes about the business of finding. Showing people how science and those standards of evidence work in a transparent way, and on a subject everyone is interested in, could be a powerful moment.
- Read the full Newsweek .
Astrophysicist Adam Frank
A self-described 鈥渆vangelist of science,鈥� Frank regularly writes and speaks about subjects like intelligent life forms in the universe, high-energy-density physics, space exploration and missions, climate change, and more.
