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2022 Could Be a Turning Point In the Study of UFOs (space.com) 121

Posted by BeauHD from the what-to-expect dept.
In 2021, there was an upsurge in peculiar sightings reported, thanks to people with smartphones or other video gear that captured these strange glimmers in the sky. In 2022, UAP will get more attention from both the scientific community and the federal government, experts told Space.com. From the report: One potential major development in 2022 will be UFO detection, according to Mark Rodeghier, scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. "The effort to detect, track and measure the UFO phenomenon in the field, in real time, has recently entered a new phase," Rodeghier told Space.com. "The technology has gotten better, software tools have improved and the current interest in UFOs has attracted new, qualified professionals. "While one can't predict how soon we will gain new, fundamental knowledge about UAP/UFOs, I believe that these efforts are very likely to succeed and set UFO research onto a new foundation of reliable, physical data," Rodeghier added. "And as a consequence, we will have even more evidence -- as if it was needed -- that the UFO phenomenon is real and can be studied scientifically."

One upcoming initiative, called the Galileo Project, will search for extraterrestrial equipment near Earth. It has two branches. The first aims to identify the nature of interstellar objects that do not resemble comets or asteroids -- like 'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object to visit the solar system. The second branch targets UAP, similar to those of interest to the U.S. government. "The Galileo Project's data will be open to the public, and its scientific analysis will be transparent," said Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who is spearheading the project. "The related scientific findings would expand humanity's knowledge, with no attention to borders between nations." The Galileo research team includes more than 100 scientists who plan to assemble the project's first telescope system on the roof of the Harvard College Observatory in spring 2022. "The system will record continuous video and audio of the entire sky in the visible, infrared and radio bands, as well as track objects of interest," Loeb said. "Artificial intelligence algorithms will distinguish birds from drones, airplanes or something else. Once the first system will operate successfully, the Galileo Project will make copies of it and distribute them in many geographical locations."

Currently, there is a lack of coordination among organizations involved in UAP detection equipment, but that may change this year, said Robert Powell, an executive board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) in Austin, Texas. "I believe that will improve as we go into 2022," he said. A number of SCU members are involved with the Galileo Project, and the organization has partnered with several groups, including UFODATA, the UFO Data Acquisition Project (UFODAP) and UAPx. "UFODAP already has a working model that has been sold into the marketplace and is reasonably priced in the $2,000 to $5,000 range, depending on the accessories desired," Powell told Space.com. "This system has already been used by a group known as UAPx to collect data. Our goal is to coordinate these activities in a way such that we use a system with standardized equipment set to collect data." But before that happens, Powell said, the groups need to plot out exactly what that equipment is trying to measure and verify that the system can achieve that goal.
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2022 Could Be a Turning Point In the Study of UFOs More

2022 Could Be a Turning Point In the Study of UFOs

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  • fusion power, Linux on the desktop, UFOs (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @03:38AM (#62196537) Homepage
    Coming soon. Any time now. *taps foot*

  • Kookery (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tailhook ( 98486 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @03:40AM (#62196539)

    Is this Slashdot now? Not enough scamdemic and climate mongering; we need UFO garbage?

  • Pretty cool to see UFOs get some real interest and move out of tinfoil theory land
    • They didn't. Tinfoil theory land is growing.

      • > Tinfoil theory land is growing.

        How is it possible that this even has to be stated?

        If anyone ever needs evidence that it is possible to have too much of a good thing and/or idle hands are the devil's playthings, the rise of anti-science BS is it. Of course, the people involved don't believe in evidence, so...

    • Re:Hope it works (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @06:53AM (#62196673) Homepage

      Pretty cool to see UFOs get some real interest and move out of tinfoil theory land

      It's a complete waste of money and effort.

      It's obvious by now that the tinfoil people won't change their minds with any amount of new evidence to the contrary.

      • It's a complete waste of money and effort.

        I would be fine with spending the money and effort if they put "No, it's not aliens" in big letters at the top of the page. Figuring out the cause of UFO/UAPs could add to our knowledge of basic physics (if they're some kind of electrical or optical effect), maybe climatology/meteorology (if they're caused by some oddity in the composition of the atmosphere), or international relations (if they're aircraft developed by other nations).

      • It's obvious by now that the tinfoil people won't change their minds with any amount of new evidence to the contrary.

        You're not any smarter or more know-y than they are; you still think you can prove negatives!

        They're right to reject complaints like yours. They're stupid to believe claims with low quality, conflicting evidence that has better explanations. But they'd be even stupider to believe in negative evidence.

        You think that how strongly you believe should result in other people changing their minds! That's completely irrational. The exact problem is that people don't understand the likely causes of various visual ef

    • It will leave tinfoil theory land the same time Bigfoot does.

      • There is no such thing as a "black bear," they're a myth invented to distract people from the widespread presence of Sasquatch.

        I'm not even joking. People don't comprehend how words work. There are lots of idiots who don't understand synonyms. There are lots of idiots who think that using a synonym is "wrong." Look up the controversy of Armenian Blackberry vs Himalayan Blackberry; lots of idiots with letters next to their names insisting other people are using the "wrong" word even though they already (supp

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      Objection: assumes facts not in evidence. It's still solidly in tinfoil theory land. The headline might just as well say "2022 Could Be A Turning Point In Natalie Portman Pouring Hit Grits".

  • Is there an app for this ? (Score:3)

    by drewsup ( 990717 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @04:12AM (#62196559)

    A tracking app where multiple people with mobile phones can upload and send location data ?

  • Wow, year of the linux desktop, year we crack UFOs, 2022 is set for all sorts of totally plausible and realistic surprises.

    • Wow, year of the linux desktop, year we crack UFOs, 2022 is set for all sorts of totally plausible and realistic surprises.

      You forgot "the year Windows updates don't wreck systems."

  • 2022 is going to be the turning point for UFOs, and crypto and fusion, and cancer, and covid, and ... and ... This is just going to be the turning point for everything. Orrrr, civil war is going to break out in the US, China is going to invade Taiwan, Russia is going to invade Ukraine, Iran is going to nuke Israel and North Korea is going to nuke South then the alians are going to move in and take everything after we're all dead.

    • You really set a high bar for 2022. If we do all that this year, what will be left for next season?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by splutty ( 43475 )

      It's scary that your second list of events is far more likely to happen than your first one.

    • Israel is an order of magnitude more likely to nuke Iran than vice versa. Firstly, Israel allegedly actually has nukes & secondly, Israel has historically had what one could best describe as aggressive paranoiac foreign policies. Hope that Russia will show restraint if that happens.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      For us to all be dead probably would make the planet pretty uninteresting for aliens too. What with the global nuclear winter and all that radiation...

      And if that doesn't happen... truthfully? At this point I'm not sure it would be that much worse under alien rule :D.

    • Well, along with your prognostications, I do believe that there was a recent article here discussing that this could finally possibly maybe the year of Linux on the Desktop(tm). OTOH we may have finally turned the corner on the heartbreak of psoriasis.

  • More like people with too much time (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @05:48AM (#62196619)

    So no "turning point". Just more disconnected fantasies.

  • Aliens would make themselves known instead of watching us secretly. I mean, the only possible value we can provide to aliens is comedic entertainment, but it is safe to say that if they have spaceships that can traverse across light years they probably have a well developed entertainment industry too. Same thing with food, they probably have synthetic food that tastes a lot better than us.

    • Every Alien is different. Different thoughts, idea's, and preferences. None of which would want to go to a government and "Make themselves Known". :)
      • But hey, if we wanted to signal potential aliens in our own galaxy, the quickest and most effective way would be to broadcast something very very very loud, something that would induce electrical fields so massive they would burn anything conductive like electronics from miles away, like the emp from a nuclear detonation.

        Don’t worry, we have already sent the signals and any aliens with intelligence are probably already on their way. We won’t even see their ships, we will just get bombarded wi
        • So, you're saying within a century's worth of light years out there is a hostile civilization with FTL (needed to get here anywhere close to 100yrs) intent on destroying us? Got any rationale for that?

          • So, you're saying within a century's worth of light years out there is a hostile civilization with FTL (needed to get here anywhere close to 100yrs) intent on destroying us? Got any rationale for that?

            I said signal potential. Our nuclear bombs can be heard in a radius of 76 light years already perhaps 50 star systems as of “today”. Any alien civilizations within ten light years or so, around 12 star systems, with slower than light drives could already be pulling in. The bubble demonstrating our violent nature just keeps expanding at the speed of light. Just Give it another 50-100 years and we still likely won’t have any defenses for deflecting multiple impacts and yet the chances just

            • You are commenting from the perspective of a hostile intelligence though. If they are a peaceful intelligence, then extermination is the final recourse, better to contain us.

              • You are commenting from the perspective of a hostile intelligence though. If they are a peaceful intelligence, then extermination is the final recourse, better to contain us.

                I think you are getting it backwards. We have demonstrated hostility, bar none, broadcast it in a cosmic gunshot and detailed the horrors in a long whisper. A peaceful intelligence would see the threat because of our clear murderous intent and proclivity to expand and consume exponentially. What is a tiny uneven blister can spread deep enough into space and metastasize in a way that’s very difficult to remove. A cancer to be stopped because it was spotted early. But why destroy? Because herding

      • Neither you nor anyone else knows what they are, think or want.

    • OTOH: Wildlife documentaries usually hide the cameras... or even build robots to blend in with the natives.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      They came, they observed, and they decided to mark the solar system uninhabitable and without useful resources once they understood us. They're made out of meat! [mit.edu]

    • Unless they have a common origin to life on earth they probably couldn't eat anything here anyway. If aliens are here then they're either here to study us or they're here for our art.

  • So literally nothing will change. Unless a UFO lands somewhere and aliens get out to get definitive proof of existence, trying to prove they don't exist is a waste of time and money, because the UFO "enthusiasts" won't believe anything anyone says. Ever.

    • trying to prove they don't exist is a waste of time and money, because the UFO "enthusiasts" won't believe anything anyone says.

      The problem is people being credulous, but your complaint is that they're credulous of somebody else, instead of you.

      You don't prove negatives. People saying that are lying liars who aren't half as sciencey as they wish they were.

  • This is news for teenage boys

  • A very easy prediction (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sique ( 173459 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @07:55AM (#62196733) Homepage
    I predict that the number of recorded alien visits will increase tenfold in the next decade, from Zero to Ten Times Zero.

    Seriously. There have been none, and there will be none. And everything else is the equivalent of a speck on the lense. In biochemistry, there are substances called PAINS: Pan Assay INterference compoundS. When looking for potential drug substances, there are methods to sort hundreds and thousands of experiments, often automatically performed, in those worth a second look, and those dismissed outright. There are some substances that bind to the chemicals used for sorting. They thus trigger a positive response while sorting, and not in the original experiment. They interfere with the pan assay. Curcuma is a famous example for PAINS. It once was famous for being a potential wonder drug. In the end, it proved to be coupling to the sorting substances without actually having a measurable influence on the original test, thus none of the potential uses materialized after having a closer look.

    UFO zealots look to me like people who are easily jumping to conclusions just because there is a less well understood side effect of some recording setup. But if your base line is close to zero, the probability of each positive to be a false positive rises up to nearly one. And just throwing more recording setups at a baseline of zero produces nothing else than more false positives.

    • > I predict that the number of recorded alien visits will increase tenfold in the next decade, from Zero to Ten Times Zero.

      No need to predict: the amount of photocathode coverage of the sky has increased perhaps 100 billion times since 2000, yet the UFO stories are all about things that happened years/decades ago.

      I recall back in the crop circle era (yup, that old) someone who charted the number of crop circles to the number of news stories of crop circles. After a short period where the number of circle

  • I would say that anything that gets people outside and off their smartphones is a good thing, but all of this will happen on smartphones.

  • Still waiting for any sort of pics that aren't just fuzzy weird light patches, or obvious fakes. I think I'll be waiting a while longer. Seriously, with modern cell cameras, if there were any UFOs flying around, we'd have 10megapixel pics of them all over the Internet.

    How do people simultaneously believe in aliens from outer space, and in a flat earth that is the center of the universe, and in...never mind, let's just stop there...

  • [blockquote]"The effort to detect, track and measure [b]the UFO phenomenon[/b] in the field, in real time, has recently entered a new phase," Rodeghier told Space.com. [/blockquote]
    This statement implicitly assumes a unified explanation for all of the unexplained observations.

  • All that is necessary is a critical mass of idiots.

  • The world is finally getting ready to the fact UFO's do exist. It's been kept quiet because if it would be known aliens really do exist, a lot of people would panic.

    • Unidentified sightings exist. Aliens near earth do not exist.

      • Yeah, keep being ignorant. I'm confident we aren't the only ones in the universe, and I'm also confident we've been visited by aliens many times over.

  • Yes, we have larger population, more phones with cameras, social media... idiots believing the long debunked nonsense of UFOs will increase. So will old half-senile astronauts or pilots looking for a moment of fame pushing debunked nonsense.

  • There does seem to be a change coming. The US Navy and Air Force have obviously made a decision to release more information and they have been kind of "softening us up" for a few years. What I mean by that is they seem to be moving toward an end point in a slow and deliberate manner so that we can adjust to the motion and not freak out. I am NOT saying that alien technology exists or that it doesn't. I am just pointing out that high level policy changes seem to have occurred.
  • and neither of Bigfoot. But then someone may actually get clear photos of a spacecraft* from another world and video too. But the damn phones these days are more difficult to transfer off the phone (or worse off, Apple or Google will trademark the pic). Of course techies have the know-how but I'm thinking the zillion smucks out there without that expertise. *Probably not want to say alien spacecraft because a Russian Soyuz taking off and landing in Kazakhstan is an alien spacecraft.

  • I hope the turning point is huge masses of people realizing "Unidentified" means "I don't know" and not "aliens".

  • In other news, unicorn tracking technology is advancing at a rapid rate, and unicorn proponents think we are better positioned than ever to detect these ellusive creatures.

  • Bring me an actual extraterrestrial being, preferably live, and I'll bother myself to pay attention to any of this anymore. Otherwise go get counseling, folks.

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