SETI CHAT: UAPs – Are They Worth Scientific Attention?

by Carl Kruse

The following post is an excerpt from an announcement by the SETI Institute for their upcoming online chat “UAPs: Are They Worth Scientific Attention” This SETI chat is sponsored by Carl Kruse, the curator of the Carl Kruse Blog, and is slated for Wednesday, November 21, 2021 at 7:00PM PST.

“UAP” – unidentified aerial phenomena — is the more current term used for what are often called UFO’s — unidentified flying objects. Carl Kruse recommends followers of the blog to check out what should be an excellent discussion.

A few months ago the U.S.government shared a non-classified study on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The report talked about encounters that could not be explained by U.S. military ships and aircraft and the study’s conclusion was that the vast majority of UAPs probably represented physical objects, and their surprising moves in the air were not caused by any technology owned or researched by the USA. The report was quick to point out that neither were these encounters evidence that those objects came from outer space. Ok, so what is going on?

Recent UAP viewings have until now failed to interest the scientific community. Part of the reason could be the discrimination around UAP phenomena, which is often linked to the kooky or pseudoscientific. Should researchers care about these sightings?

To tackle these issues and talk about how best to research UAPs, the Seti Institute has brought together Dr. Ravi Kopparapu, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Dr. Jacob Haqq Misra, an astronomer and researcher at the Blue Marble Space Institute. These two scientists co-authored articles, one in Scientific American that appeared in the July 2020 edition and another article in the Washington Post, published in June 2021, calling for more research of UAPs. Kopparapu and Haqq-Misra say that removing the taboo around this phenomenon could increase real scientific work in learning more about UAPs.

Molly Bentley of the SETI Institute moderates the chat, which will focus on the apparent scientific taboo regarding UAPs and what would a proper scientific approach to UAPs look like. Right now we do not really know what UAPs are, which is why the two scientists on the panel say we should research them.

SETI Talks are offered to the public for free and are produced via donations from members and the audience. Anyone interested in helping with a futurechat can contact development AT seti DOT org .

On a separate note, and to be clear, while Carl Kruse is sponsoring this chat, it is his position, given the evidence, that UAP’s are probably not of extraterrestrial origin.

This chat will be online only so if you would like access please register, which can be done with Eventbrite.

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Contact: carl AT carlkruse DOT com
Other SETI Chats covered by the Carl Kruse Blog are here, and here, and also here.
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Carl Kruse SETI Profile and Carl Kruse on the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.