- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
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- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
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- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
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- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
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Once hostile, NASA holds first public meeting on UFOs
The truth is out there -- but we're going to need to look harder.
Scientists at NASA's first ever public meeting on "unidentified anomalous phenomena" -- more commonly called UFOs -- called Wednesday for a more rigorous scientific approach to clarify the origin of hundreds of mysterious sightings.
The space agency announced last year it was analyzing observations in the sky that can't be identified as aerial or natural phenomena -- a subject that has long fascinated the public but was shunned by mainstream science.
An independent team of 16 scientists are due to report their findings in a report by the end of July, with Wednesday's working meeting a forum for its final deliberations.
"The current existing data and eyewitness reports alone are insufficient to provide conclusive evidence," astrophysicist David Spergel, chair of the study, said in livestreamed remarks.
"One of the lessons we've drawn is the need for more high quality data and data that is, measured with well calibrated instruments, multiple observations, and there's a need for high quality data curation," he added.
There have been more than 800 events collected over 27 years, of which two to five percent of them are thought to be possibly anomalous, said science journalist Nadia Drake, part of the study.
These are defined as "anything that is not readily understandable by the operator or the sensor," or "something that is doing something weird."
- Metallic orb-
In a presentation, Sean Kirkpatrick, director of Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution office, showed a new video of two distant dots moving back and forth on a screen, as recorded by a P3 military aircraft in the western United States, which became three dots.
The P3 was unable to intercept the dots, and the pilot reported the event. But later analysis revealed the objects were very far away and likely commercial aircraft on a major flight corridor.
"This is the kind of thing that can spoof and/or provide misperception of both very highly trained pilots, as well as sensors," said Kirkpatrick. "When they're not sure, they're reporting it now, and that's what they're supposed to be doing."
One example of a still unexplained phenomenon was a flying metallic orb spotted by an MQ-9 drone at an undisclosed location in the Middle East, added Kirkpatrick, replaying a video first shown to Congress last month.
"This is a typical example of a thing we see most of. We see these all over the world, and we see this making very interesting apparent maneuvers."
While NASA probes and rovers scour the solar system for the fossils of ancient microbes, and its astronomers look for signs of intelligent civilizations on distant planets, this is the first time NASA is investigating unexplained phenomena in Earth's skies.
The agency's posture in the past was to "debunk" such sightings -- reinforcing the stigma over the hunt for alien life.
Several of the study's scientists have been subjected to online harassment as a result of their participation in the panel, revealed Dan Evans, who is coordinating the research.
"It's critical to understand any form of harassment towards our panelists only serves to detract from the scientific process, which requires an environment of respect and openness," he added.
NASA's work, which relies on unclassified material, is separate from a Pentagon investigation, though the two are coordinating on matters of how to apply scientific tools and methods.
"To date, in the refereed scientific literature, there is no conclusive evidence suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAV," summarized Drake.
J.Oliveira--PC