Workers on scaffolding repaint the NASA logo near the top of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 20, 2020. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
The space agency televised the hourslong hearing featuring an independent panel of experts. The team includes 16 scientists and other experts selected by NASA including retired astronaut Scott Kelly, the first American to spend nearly a year in space.
Several committee members have been subjected to “online abuse” for serving on the team, which detracts from the scientific process, said NASA's Dan Evans, adding that NASA security is dealing with it.
“It’s precisely this rigorous, evidence-based approach that allows one to separate the fact from fiction," Evans said.
The study is a first step in trying to explain mysterious sightings in the sky that NASA calls UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena.
The group is looking at what unclassified information is available on the subject and how much more is needed to understand what's going on in the sky, according to astrophysicist David Spergel, the committee's chair who runs the Simons Foundation.
No secret military data are included, such as anything surrounding the suspected spy balloons from China spotted flying over the U.S. earlier this year.
The meeting was held at at NASA headquarters in Washington with the public taking part remotely.
A final report is expected by the end of July.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a new report providing multiple options for how the world can survive and adapt to climate change.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the weekend announced that the state has secured a contract with CIVCA to make $30 insulin available to all who need it. He also announced that the state will start manufacturing Naloxone, an emergency medication used to rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
The global bottled water industry is booming, and it's coming at a steep environmental cost, according to the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
A new gel that helps stop bleeding for both emergency care and surgical procedures in animal medicine is being sought for FDA approval for a human version.
In this photo provided by Henry Danner, Omari Maynard sits with his children, Khari, left, and, Anari, holding a photo of their late mother, Shamony Gibson, at home in the Brooklyn borough of New York on April 9, 2022. Gibson passed away in 2019, two weeks after giving birth to Khari due to a pulmonary embolism. “She wasn’t being heard at all,” said Maynard, an artist who now does speaking engagements as a maternal health advocate.
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new plan to lower the cap on the amount of harmful "forever chemicals" allowed in drinking water across the country.
