A new Scientific Advisory Council has begun investigating government records and videos of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) to determine the origin of unexplained aerial sightings. The council is reviewing more than 155,000 pages of documents and first-person accounts released by the government over the last eight months. Members aim to analyze whether these objects represent non-human intelligence, adversarial foreign technologies, or other phenomena.
The investigation follows decades of reported sightings, dating back to 1950 when residents like Evelyn Trent reported metallic disks over Oregon farms. Interest in the topic remains high among the public, with a CBS News poll finding that 17% of Americans claim to have seen a Unidentified Flying Object (UFO). Recent momentum for a formal scientific review grew after 2023 congressional testimony from military personnel who reported encounters with objects that appeared to defy conventional physics.
The council is led by Avi Loeb, a Harvard University astronomy professor, and includes members such as Matthew Szydagis, a physics professor at the State University of New York at Albany, and Ryan Graves, a former U.S. Navy pilot. Graves testified to Congress that during a training mission off Virginia Beach, two F-18 Super Hornets were split by an object described as a dark cube inside a clear sphere. The group aims to apply scientific rigor to data that has historically been dismissed.
The results of this study may influence future federal policy regarding aerospace safety and national security. If the council identifies human-made technologies from adversarial nations, it could help the intelligence community identify their origins. While the discovery of non-human intelligence would be a significant scientific event, council members note that they are currently "starved of data," as much of the high-quality sensor information remains classified. This lack of data limits the ability of scientists to move beyond claims such as those from former intelligence officer David Grusch, who testified about "biologics" recovered from crashed crafts—claims that remain classified and unverified by public evidence.
What happens next: The Scientific Advisory Council will continue to deliberate on the seven tranches of data already released by the government. Members are currently working to gain access to higher-quality infrared sensor data to reduce the ambiguity of current records. Ryan Graves stated he anticipates reaching a point of confirmation regarding these phenomena within his lifetime, though no specific deadline for a final report from the council has been announced. Future congressional hearings or further document releases may occur as the council seeks to move the conversation toward scientific confirmation.