Inside NASA’s UAP Report with Commission Chair David Spergel & Neil deGrasse Tyson 

What do you think the UAPs might be?

I'm happy to see that this scientist running this program at NASA takes the conversation of UAP's more seriously than Neil and his other guest

So my question would be if Mr Spergel doesn't have access to all the data ie classified material, then how can he provide an accurate report to NASA?

'So David, how did you step in to this?' Folloween by laughter and snickering by the co-hosts. I love that David Spergel kept a straight face and let them finish giggling before he answered the question. David not playing along with the stigma. Kudos David

I like how the guys stays calm and doesn't get upset good job not letting your emotions get involved great conversation

There is a difference in accepting the possibility of extra terrestrial life and believing they already visited earth. Nowadays I see many people arguing that the first is proof for the second.

I believe the content of this video helps to increase the stigma around those who do sightings of unidentified objects as pilots. The attitude of science is to collect data and experiment, not to spend most of the time laughing at other people who may naively have a credulous attitude.

Also, if they crossed vast distances of outer space, there's no need for lights out there. The question shouldn't be if they have lights, it should be WHY WOULD they have lights? Just because we put lights on our craft, does not mean that they would want lights on theirs. Especially if they don't serve a purpose

my favorite episode. StarTalk can you please interview Commander David Fravor?

The whole reason why the images are classified really opened up my perspective, Thanks for making that clear.

As scientists you guys must be more curious and ask government to investigate and not the common man. When you believe in science then you should know our understanding is very limited. Anything completely out of our current understanding is actually an opportunity to learn and take a giant leap instead of laughing at it. Galileo was also laughed at.

I hope NASA gets the app going, when I was a kid (the 90s) me and my dad listened on the scanner to the local cops flip out about a UFO, eventually they found the local farmer who had built a helicopter to spray his crops.

I just want to say how happy I am that this exists. I've always been horrible at science, always got bad grades, and my partner is the one who listens to StarTalk. It took a few years but I'm finally starting to listen to these out of my own curiosity about what's really out there. Thanks for making this stuff interesting

My husband and I saw a UAP in the 1990's. Before cell phones. It was at night, and happened so fast, that there was no time to get a camera. We didn't know of any technology at the time that could fly like that. It was incredibly fast, and moved abruptly, changing angles, and then was gone. Cell phones, even in our hands, would not have been fast enough to capture it before it was gone. We assumed it was a secret military craft, with technology that we were not familiar with.

I swear whenever Chuck isn't there, a bit of me dies 😢😢. Especially for this topic.

"Tell military HD cams exist" - military does have HD content (e.g Senators see them behind the scenes). As discussed, military is inteterested in not revealing those images and capabilities, and they release a lower quality image on purpose.

At 20 mins and 14 secs, David says he has no clearances. Does that apply to his ability to access classified data on UFO’s as-well? Love the show ❤

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...' Isaac Asimov

Lt Ryan Graves, in 2014 stated, "We were trying to figure out what the heck these things were. We were seeing them pretty much daily. We would go out there and they would be out there in the morning, they would be out there in the evening." Of course, the military would be very interested in the technology, so how are we to believe that they haven't rigged jets with imaging devices that can gather incredible images, video and other critical data.

1. I appreciate David taking this seriously instead of just chuckling and mocking. 2. David says he doesn’t have a clearance; perhaps the lead of the panel should have a clearance so they can look at all the data. 3. Regarding the question of why “every image is classified”, which isn’t true, when they are classified (I say this coming from 30 years in the Intelligence Community (IC)) it is most often “to protect sources and methods”. For example there is radar data, but the nation does not want our adversaries to know how well (or poorly) it works. There are documented cases of sources, in this case people, being identified as spies by adversaries and killed because a picture that leaked was traced to the source. 4. It’s more than a stigma. Even reporting an unknown flashing light can and has caused flight surgeons to ground pilots - not just a stigma, but a loss of livelihood. 5. I suggest starting with the “Tic Tac” incident. Happened in daylight and perfect flying conditions, was visually observed by six people (3 pilots, 3 WSOs, from three different aircraft with different perspectives), was seen on multiple sensor types (human visual, camera visual, IR, and radar) from multiple platforms (3 F-18s, USS Nimitz, USS Princeton an Aegis cruiser with one of the most sophisticated radars, and an E-2 Hawkeye), reportedly actively jammed one aircraft (technically an act of war), appeared to have insight into our systems (it moved to the CAP point of the operation), and exhibited no means of propulsion and moved at near hypersonic speed. (Again, I like David, but the lead needs a clearance and should see all the data. It also took place in 2004, 3 years before the first iPhone FYI. 6. The Gambler’s Fallacy: just because there have been many debunked incidents, does not imply this one is wrong and the laughter at the subject tells me that a biased view has been normalized. 7. I’m definitely not saying this is alien in origin, not at all. I am saying that scientific rigor and national security suggests this should be investigated seriously. Being a huge Carl Sagan fan Neil will probably know the quote better than my recollection, but didn’t Carl say we should investigate such things even if we think it is ludicrous (and it was in context of UFOs)? I am highly skeptical of 99% of UAPs, but there are enough odd events happening that warrant investigation - and please don’t tell me it’s swamp gas or ball lightening.

I really appreciate David giving extremely level headed perspective on this topic which seems wild that its takes Neal's platform before we can get sensible answers. THANKS!

The triangle 'artifact' is called bokeh... Normally they are circular, but when the camera only has 3 aperture blades, you get a triange. But the point of that video was, I think, that there was something there... It wasnt just the sun, imho, because it was flashing on and off...

We miss Chuck Nice

As a person whom had the experience of seeing a very fast moving object similar to the one in the “tic-tac” video (I don’t have F16 cameras for of eyes), I find it disheartening that some respected scientists spend more time looking at camera glitches and all other potential issues with equipment rather than trying to take it slightly more serious when so many believable witnesses are reporting the same matter while nuking they’re on carriers in doing so.

Took an online class taught by David. Learned a lot.

The SMUG laughter is not what this subject needs. Its sober reflection and examination.

To me it makes sense that UAP’s are more likely to be unmanned drones/ robots. I can’t imagine they would choose to send a pilot and resources, light years away

My favorite UFO cartoon: A couple standing in their front yard, and the man points at the sky, saying, "Look Marge, a UFO! Run inside the house and grab the crappiest camera we have."

The app should start recording in a standardized camera mode as soon as it’s opened, and that’s all it does, with the option to opt in a feature that alerts you when someone nearby is recording something. Enjoyed the interview.

What I would love to see is a round table discussion with the Nimitz crew and Neil and allow Neil to ask every question he wants and allow all of us to ascertain wether human eye witness accounts are in fact a level of evidence that can’t be overlooked. The day before every major discovery in history there has been a large cohort of humans who have said no I will only believe it when I see it.

I'm impressed that you gave this a thorough re-visit and I admire your reflection on the feedback from your past attempts to address the UAP hearings.

"What is it?" "I don't know!" "OH MY GOD IT'S ALIENS!!!"

At the start, I wasn’t sure how this conversation was going to go, but I really enjoyed it a lot. Hearing scientist discuss a Once taboo subject. This was great.

I think the main reason why we don't have one single clear photo of a UAP is because if we did, it would be identifiable...

until I see physical proof I'm still skeptical. don't get me wrong I welcome aliens honestly. think it would help our human species if we know we're not the only species in our universe

I flew for a number years for a living and saw several very strange sights. And then worked as an air traffic controller for 25 years, during which I saw many odd sights either while looking out of the tower windows or observing on radar. I even had the public calling to report UFO’s. Every time without exception if I waited long enough the strange sight would reveal itself, it was never an alien ship or probe.

They should totally look into using fireball/meteor observation networks! I might be biased because I'm a researcher who studies meteors/fireballs, but the cameras record the entire night sky covering continents. Also there are already fireball recording apps that exist that are essentially already doing what you are describing.

About the quality pictures, I tried filming satellites, the auto focus at night just does not work that well. You can see the objects, but not really a quality movie even though you film them in 4k. Sometimes you get good ones, sometimes bad ones, but I too started thinking that the issue is mainly auto focus does not work at large distances with the mobile phones and smartphones and if you zoom in it gets even worse.

The UFO/UAP/Star Wars app would be cool if it can automatically make the camera settings ready for long-distance quality picture taking for the moon or planes and even when attached to a telescope (you can buy attachments for your phone to connect to your telescope), so it can double up as an astrophotography app. Which would be part of the tools to find UAPs. This could potentially make smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, Apple, etc, to make phones specialized just for this.

Leaping from "unidentified thing" to space aliens, is like jumping from "cold breeze" to ghost hauntings. There are a million other explanations for these phenomenons before landing on aliens (or ghosts).

I love rewinding the video to hear the question again after an ad completely interrupts my focus gained after only 3 minutes since the last ad.

Humans will never believe in UFO or UAP until one of the well known scientists directly experience it 😂

I think the stigma against people reporting UAP comes not so much from the act of reporting but the unbelievable set of adjectives and acclamations they add to their sentences. If people would just stick to the basic facts and plain descriptions, then it wouldn't be so ridiculed. I totally agree with the collecting good/better data bit.

David Spergel and NASA should have a CGI expert on the committee. They are experts at being able to detect flaws in video evidence that would fool even scientists.

The idea of a standardized app with basic meta data and imaging features is a great idea

What about the other two "Balloons" that couldn't be recovered???

“The complete waste of time committee”. Yeah….so funny I forgot to laugh.

Are we all forgetting that there has been a reporting center for UAP's since 1974 named NUFORC :)

I don’t remember the last time I was this bored with a discussion

StarTalk has 2.45 Million subscribers. Somebody gotta develop that app, man.

I respect these guys but the idea that people are being tricked by camera artifacts; especially trained millitary personal who are very familiar with thier own equipment, - and then to chuckle about it, is extream hubris. They know so much that they don't have room for different ideas. It's a classic full cup scenario.

That's how the Chinese were able to spy with their balloons for so long, people were afraid to report the sightings because of the stigma.

Spergel's situation with regards to his committee analysing unclassified data is analogous to him sampling a cup of water from the ocean and saying, yep, there's no fish, ergo there are no fish in the ocean. 😂

You guys avoided the question... what do scientists think the videos presented in the congressional hearings are? I know you won't say it is ... blank, but what do think it is most likely...? other?

Billions to train high IQ pilots, yet they can't identify a slow balloon?😂 Great argument

Corridor Digital has taught me you can't trust UAP images and video from the public anymore.

The way a good teacher operates, is to present the class with unanswered questions and answers to different circumstances that may compliment or contrast with the stage of development already achieved. A Teacher taking reasonable precautions for the safety of the students will present them with an overwhelming reaction to stop excessive destructive behaviour.., like playing with unstable politics of nukes and such.

Nothing like having an open mind. Mr. Tyson, I loved your Cosmos series. In particular I empathized with the scientists who had theories about the universe but were persecuted for it. Do you see the ridicule of this topic as a similar behavior pattern in humans when someone comes up with an idea that isn't mainstream? I'm neither a UFO believer nor a skeptic, but enough people with good reputations have come forward with some interesting information. Should we just ridicule them?

Regarding the camera idea, I have a better solution! Make sure that the default camera app on every phone has a simple switch you tap and bang, science analysis mode and instead of just one photo it takes a sequence of photos and video, preferably while providing instructions on improving the users phone pointing etc

Great to see you back again Paul

I’m so glad I found your channel. You dumb it down for people like me 😉

A question I have for David is, science depends on repeatability and observability, ideally in a controlled environment. How do you approach a relatively rare event like UAP sitings? Are videos/photos of UAP 'good enough' to make certain claims, or will we require physical materials in the end. In what ways can we rely on science principles to study UAP?

This episode places UAPs in the proper perspective. As an amateur astronomer, I often get asked if I’ve seen a UFO. Years of looking up and I have never anything unidentifiable. It’s either a celestial object, bird, bat, insect, satellite (they are everywhere!), plane, ballon or helicopter.

"WHAT??? HD cameras exists?" everyone in a underground base

I have a really hard time believing that aliens would let us study their equipment much less their people.

There's a saying in Western medicine: "If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." It refers to the tendency of (usually new) doctors to see a set of symptoms that could either be some mundane ailment or a rare exotic disease, and immediately gravitate toward that rare illness as the diagnosis. It also applies to UFO/UAP matters. If you see something you can't identify that's maneuvering quickly, and you eliminate the possibility of it being image artifacts, etc, and know that something is actually there, but you tend to only see it in military operations areas, think spy drones, not aliens.

Hello Dr.Tyson, I would like to say that really appreciate the fact you have a new co-host. Nothing Personal against the last guy, I just felt as though he was clueless in whatever subject you were talking about more often times than not. I appreciate having a collective group of geniuses explain these complex and pertinent topics as opposed to 2 geniuses and a comedian. All around great episode none the less, I appreciate the vast sea of information that resigns in this video. Please continue this structure of interviewing

"Why are images classified" - Isnt it interesting how the general public (myself included) likes to treat the word 'classified' as an analogy to 'conspiracy'? Im not sure where I learned to treat that term with such pessimism, but from now on i'll make an effort to think differently. I hope others do too. Thanks team!

There is a saying that if we both agree, we're both wrong. Amazing.

A commercial pilot, a military pilot, and a scientist walk into a bar….

Finally, an official report review of this

Some of the images we've seen are grainy because we are looking at forward looking infrared camera footage.

The government literally said they found ET ships, and bodies, and these guys are like, yeah, whatever, I need more data. Seriously!? They didn't even address the data presented!!

If we ever decide to travel in universe we may send machines with AI instead of going by ourselves

I was standing on the top of the 2200 foot mountain near the Santa Cruz California coastline. it was a clear night and while watching the stars I locked in on a red dot traveling inland bound. Based on the fact that it appeared as just a red dot and the rate of travel my wild guess is that it was at about 80,000 feet up and traveling at about 3 times the pace of a satellite. What made it something other than some kind of whatever...LOL is that, while I was staring straight at it, the one red dot split into 2 red dots and the two dots hung sharp 90 turns away from each other with one heading up the coast line and the other heading down the coast line. I tracked them until they faded away in a crystal clear sky.

"AAA: people with no joy in their life, desperately need aliens..."

Excellent conversation; whoever that unscientific fellow in the middle is, please have him on more often!

😂 I love how every question was 100% distilled arrogant skepticism. A top gun pilot chased an object that dropped down from space in 2004, before it flew back up into space. Aliens are literally the ONLY OPTION. "Any advanced civilization would have technology we couldn't recognize" - crazy right? It's not like there are black cubes in translucent spheres flying around. Or metal spheres flying in and out of the ocean. I love this podcast, I'm a massive fan, and I'm very much grounded in science and reality. What's blowing my mind is how "scientists" are ignoring blatant evidence of advanced technology. Also the Gimbal video that showed the UAP rotate was not due to the camera pod 😂😂 yeah the camera rotated, making the object rotate, while the horizon magically stayed in its position. I'm assuming that's what he meant when he talked about those triangles. Because the only triangle video I've seen in the UAP sphere was not recorded by F16s, it was recorded by sailors on the deck of a ship. Edit: Also, I don't know why people are saying there's no good footage out there. Is there great footage? Absolutely not. But its interesting how this phenomenon has been around for at least 2 centuries. In one or maybe even two of the original FLIR videos, you can see literal ring like structures around the object. One video shows an object that is almost morphing in the air, but in an unnatural way. Could it be debris? Could it be fake? Yes, absolutely. But when multiple navy vessels track multiple objects, dropping down "like snowflakes" from at least 80,000ft to practically 0 within seconds. Hovers around for a few hours before flying back out of the atmosphere.... that is literal smoking gun evidence right there that the government admitted to at least having evidence for alien technology at a minimum, even if they don't acknowledge the data from it. You cannot seriously believe that any group of humans on this planet would be able to manufacture anything close to that level of tech.

Thank you for this information. Another excellent podcast.

The flashing light explanation from david is so simple but so rational at the same time, we need more people like him in society.

I like how you completely ignore all of the data that's out there.

I CANT WAIT FOR THE ALIENS TO PROVE NEIL WRONG.

Very interesting conversation! It was great to hear from dr Spergel, especially on the topic of national safety, very important points. Just a little thing I've been meaning to say to dr Tyson in light of the recent events, and please let me preface it by saying 2 things: 1. I do not personally believe those reports to indicate aliens either. I'm not from the hype circle, although I sure am curious to know what these things are (or aren't)! 2. I've been a long-time fan, and I really appreciate what you do for the widely understood popular science in social media, kindling curiosity (reviving Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series - brilliant!) - in my humble opinion it's one of the most honorable things we can do as scientists and science enthusiasts (cognitive sci bachelor here, hey :D). This is important moving forward in my comment below. What I've been meaning to say, and I hope I can express myself correctly, is that there seems to be a certain amount of what I've been struggling to avoid calling ridicule coming across in many of the recent discussions on this topic. That 'vibe' also present in Startalk's episodes on UAPs, while of course fitting the comedy-popsci format of the show and bringing some laughs, does several - I believe unintentional, but very unfortunate - things: It increases the gap between the seekers (people who want to try to understand something) and the explainers, that is figures like yourself, who have the specific knowledge of stuff we laymen might not even realize half of what we don't know about (courtesy of the Dunning-Kruger effect) solidly grounded in the scientific method. By that I mean it carries that unfortunate element of ostracism where it's not ok to have a different starting point of view on things, because one will be laughed at and the discussion will be over with a nil result, with no encouragement to go further and look deeper, which seems to go against what I've been taught by my alma mater. Again, this is not about who's right or wrong or whether aliens have or haven't visited us. I'm sure if you're anything like me, you'd LOVE to see or talk to aliens, you'd be absolutely extatic to find out that here, yes, demonstrably we are not alone in the universe, the whole thing is greater than we thought (or just AS great as we imagined!), share the technological and cultural achievements etc. I'm saying this to touch base, and to signal I'm on the same side of cautious skepticism when it comes to the recent situation. But: While there are many who just slap the alien label on stuff very willingly, come any shape of semi-credible testimony or second-hand witness material, to satisfy their (powerful, as we know) confirmation bias, there are people in that same community who genuinely, sincerely wish to see this thing under the magnifying glass of science, who look to scientific figures of authority such as yourself, and want to see there a willing conversationalist, who - as he was academically trained - looks at ALL the categories of the presented material (not to say 'evidence' yet), avoiding cherrypicking, patiently explaining all the bits and bobs of WHY something doesn't classify as proof, of what exactly would be required to make it so. Instead of repeating a catchphrase about fuzzy aliens for example, why not do a detailed look into what might have caused 2 navy officers to testify that an unknown shape appeared between their crafts? What possible phenomena could explain such an event (if it was an alien craft, what could it be doing there, and how?), or what could motivate people to conjure up such claims in high stress environments? I'm talking deep-dive! I know very intelligent people who happen to be part of that community, who want to explore these phenomena and see what there is to learn about them (and the US and other countries' government's politics regarding said reports). People with interest in - say - the military technology, and a good dose of common scientific knowledge, while not being scientists themselves. These people sadly turn away from your content, because of the ridicule I've mentioned, and the lack of multi-layered approach, whereby we would consider some "what if"s for example, or talk about what would need to happen for it to demonstrably BE aliens, and why it is so. I just think the discussion around this topic needs a bit of work in order to make it a more constructive environment - while again I don't think we're looking at aliens here, I just sincerely believe that those who happen to exercise that possible scenario in their minds shouldn't be thrown in the same bag as the conspiracy theorists who deny hard scientifc facts. I hope my little essay here will not cause any grief on either side of the fence, I just wanted to voice my opinion on the importance of how science communicators' input in such discussions might shape future discourse, how we should strive to remain kind and open to one another, and go through those interesting times as colleagues in curiosity, emphasizing the crucial aspects of good science and discovery, while maintaining a healthy discourse regime that encourages both sides to actively listen to one another, with respect, even when faced with extraordinary claims :) Keep looking up! Love the app idea btw

We are often obsessed with the idea that there is an answer as in a specific phenomen that's happening yet it's key to remember that we are looking up at a Universe full of mysteries, that being said, a host of phenomenon are likely to be happening all at once.

We get crystal clear Reaper Drone footage a couple days after a Russian jet hits it with flares - same platform has it’s images classified for UAP event .

What I think is interesting, as a kid I saw these believe it or not shows on cable that had these guys that claimed to be WWII era pilots that saw these metal/translucent spheres that seemed to be able to move any direction at any speed. As a kid I was a little skeptical. As an adult I didn’t think about it much but being low budget cable TV in the 90, I would write it off as a complete fabrication. But now, the physics defying, metallic/translucent spheres are back.

Im so glad the sceptics are documented...so later on when they get egg on there faces, they cant say.." i never said that😂😊

A group of 4 recently graduated HS students in the mountains of Colorado very far up a trail from Meredelith (no cell service) is shown a lighshow from space at 2am that they could only see because they just put out the campfire. They seem to be stars moving at impossible speeds and then splitting up into patterns that aren't possible to replicate from that distance, directly over their campfire. All denied it at first, but as the stars started to move and come together repeatedly, everyone agreed that it's very incredible. Seemed to be purposefully targeted at their group of 4, nobody else in any direction would be able to see them, and the stars seemed to shoot thousands of miles toward just their campfire before dancing back up. They were very alone up the trail and very much alone for miles and miles. The stars would appear to actually be in our atmosphere or very close, then they would shoot towards the group of 4, 3 at a time, and dance backward again. Aliens must know that their group couldn't have been legitimate whisle blowers, their cameras could barely see stars, if it was aliens then they had to have known that. They showed them just enough for every one of them to really believe it was very much aliens, then they came together into what looked like one star and turned off the shimmering rainbow lights and once again disappeared, we all knew they were still up there. Cole frantically asked me to take a picture after I suggested that people have been claiming to see ufos in this area, and I told him right away that the camera wouldn't be able to see it.

That's great, now please provide a reasonable explanation to what my father in law saw along with another coworker: the setting is near the Merced River at Gallo Winery around 4am while taking a smoke (tobacco) break in the grape fields adjacent to to the river. I'll be brief. Bright light in the sky begins to approach them. Comes within 100ft of them. It lands in the river. They are looking directly at it. It's a metalic disk with an array of windows around the circumference. They eminate light from within but cannot see anyone or any feature inside. Craft then lifts above the trees and shoots off completely silent at all times. The tree branches sway. They feel a breeze reach them and they heard a "swoosh" as it left. There was a vapor trail left behind that was lingering and still slightly visible as the dawn broke. What could that have been?

Neil...you make me smile...

We don't try to teach english to cockroaches because we think they couldn't possibly have the capacity... To think any advanced life form would try to contact us is laughable. At best they are fascinated by the depth of our hubris.

The weirdest thing I've ever seen was a tiny, solo cloud with a ton of lightning bouncing around in it. Identifiable, yes, but weird.

So 3 guys without the clearance are trying to discredit David who has the highest clearance?

Healthy skepticism at all times, not especially when the claims seem wild. A good persuader will never make wild claims.

The Senate is introducing legislation giving contractors & government entities 6 months to willfully produce retrived tech or biologicals.

I don't understand why Mercurio got away with equating educated skepticism of unfounded conclusions of alien involvement with "narrow-thinking" and "insecurity": There isn't nearly enough stigma against "must be aliens".

They updated UAP to now stand for unidentified anomalous phenomena to include things they see in the ocean and not exclusively airborne.

What about the tic tac ufo seen by both the navy pilots and the cameras on their f18's? That's hard data.

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena It's used because it covers all forms of unknown sightings.

Dr. Tyson these young people are believing this stuff . We need your voice of reason with reputable sources. Thanks.