'Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us,' was a half-serious Facebook group that had half a million members back in September 2019 (the before times). Those in the group had heard the famous conspiracy theory that the government possesses extraterrestrial evidence near Groom Lake in southern Nevada. The group's name is self-explanatory. In varying degrees of sincerity, they claimed that the government is responsible for disclosing what it knows about UFOs visiting Earth.

Even three years after that Facebook group was created, we still know very little about the secretive Area 51 military installation, but NASA is creating an investigation team with the same spirit of curiosity. NASA says that a team of scientists will set up in the autumn to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) - namely, observations of events in the sky that can't be explained by aircraft or natural phenomena.

They note that the US space agency does not claim extraterrestrial life exists. As a result, their stated mission is to protect national security, keep aircraft safe from UFOs, and serve other practical purposes. A comprehensive spectrum of sources will provide experts in aeronautics, data analytics, and a range of other scientific disciplines with information about UAPs over the next nine months.

In an official NASA statement, astronomer David Spergel, who is leading the independent study team, said, 'Given the limited number of observations, our first priority is simply to gather as much data as possible.' 'We will identify what data is available - from civilians, governments, non-profits, businesses - what else we should try to collect, and how to analyze it.'

According to the statement, NASA's Science Mission Directorate's assistant deputy associate administrator for research, Daniel Evans, also claimed that the team's findings would be publicly available.

This report will be made public in accordance with NASA's principles of openness, transparency, and scientific integrity, Evans explained. 'NASA makes its data available to the public - we take that responsibility seriously - and we make it easily accessible so everyone can see or study it.'

UFO sightings were largely dismissed by mainstream scientists until relatively recently. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's science mission chief, admitted during a webcast to the National Academy of Sciences that some establishment scientists may view this study as NASA 'selling out.' NASA, according to Zurbuchen, is not conducting this investigation because of public interest, but rather because of sound scientific reasons.

The company is not afraid of reputational risk, Zurbuchen said. The biggest challenge for these phenomena is that the field lacks data. NASA characterized this program both in their official written statement and during a press conference as being in the same spirit as their other ongoing astrobiology and outer space exploration projects.

During the press conference, NASA's Evans said, 'Nasa has answered the call to tackle some of the most baffling mysteries we've encountered over the years.' Several prominent news items contributed to the recent shift in public attitudes toward UFOs. An elongated interstellar object known as 'Oumuamua passed through the solar system five years ago. Some experts like Harvard physicist Avi Loeb believe the object had all the characteristics of a spacecraft from another galaxy.

AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) program director Luis Elizondo resigned in 2018 after releasing videos of fast-moving, unidentified aircraft observed by the government. In 2014 and 2015, five Navy pilots engaged in training maneuvers off the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt reported seeing UFOs. This was outlined in a 2019 Pentagon report. 

More than 1,500 pages of AATIP documents were declassified in April, revealing that UFO encounters were often accompanied by heart ailments, sleep disturbances, and injuries similar to those caused by electromagnetic radiation (such as burns). Additionally, the documents revealed that former Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who served as Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015, repeatedly attempted to learn more about UFO technology, which he believed government contractors were concealing from the public. 

In one document, Reid requests a 'restricted special access program' for work being done by BLASS, which won a $12 million contract to study 'advanced aerospace weapon threats over the next 40 years.' In spite of BLASS claiming to have discovered 'several highly sensitive, unusual aerospace technologies,' Reid couldn't conduct the level of investigation he felt was needed. Moreover, he suspects that Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace company, has recovered fragments from a UFO that crashed in the United States.