Drake says a key question in the report has been to define what it is scientists are actually looking at.

She says it's a "very slender needle in a very big haystack", and that the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has collected "about 800 events over about 27 years".

About 2.5% of those events "display signatures that could be described as anomalous," she says, adding that's defined as anything that's not readily understandable by "the operator or the sensor".

Essentially "something that is doing something weird", she tells the room with a smile.

Image source, University of Sheffield

Nadia Drake, science journalist, is now addressing experts and members of the public.

Drake says credible witness reports of UAPs can be interesting and compelling, but Nasa is working on how to corroborate data from various sensors.

The challenge Nasa has is that "the data needed to explain these anonymous sightings often don't exist," but as a panel they're thinking of the types of data that could add value to those witness reports.

Image source, Nasa

Nasa's public meeting on its study of UAPs is about to continue now as the panel return from their lunch breaks.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest out-of-this-world updates.

You can also click the play button at the top of the page to watch along.

After the Pentagon’s UFO report was released in 2022, we asked Americans if they believed in aliens.

Here's what they had to say:

Image source, NASA

The Nasa panel on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) has spent the morning outlining some recommendations for the best way to study the objects and why it is so important to do so.

The panel is breaking for lunch now, but we will continue to bring you more from the panel after that.

• Researchers at Nasa have been telling the public about their work categorising unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) for the first time. UAPs are essentially what you think of when you hear the word UFO, an unexplained object.
• There is widespread public interest, but researchers think the objects are actually under-reported due to the stigma around them
• Some Nasa scientists have faced harassment online for their work on UAPs

• There have been more than 800 cases of UAP sightings, but only 2 to 5% of them are thought to be "possibly anomalous"
• Nasa has been telling us about the difficulties in telling the difference between UAPs and objects like aircraft

Image source, Reuters

While aliens have not really been discussed so far, on its website Nasa goes to great pains to tell the public that it has found no evidence of alien life.

But it does say one of its key priorities is “the search for life elsewhere in the universe”.

“Nasa is exploring the solar system and beyond to help us answer fundamental questions, including whether we are alone in the universe,” reads a statement.

The agency has also said is has funded “uncountable” research programmes, including several that have specifically looked for evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

Kirkpatrick says his department have tallied more than 800 cases of UAP sightings.

"We have 50 to 100-ish new reports each month."

But the number of those sightings which are "possibly really anomalous" are 2 to 5% of the total database.

Image source, Nasa

Nasa's research into UAPs is limited by the number of sensors it has available.

This is partly the result of the fact that there are privacy concerns on the part of the US public.

"We can point the largest collection apparatus in the entire globe at any point we want," says Sean Kirkpatrick.

"A lot of what we have is around the continental United States," he adds.

"Most people...don't like it when we point our entire collection apparatus at your backyard.

“It's not allowed."

The panel has just been shown a newly-released video showing a series of dots moving across the night sky.

The video was taken by a P-3 naval aircraft in the Western US, which was unable to intercept the objects.

Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) said there was no "oddity" about them, "except that they weren't able to catch them".

The objects, it turned out, where much further away than the aircraft thought.

Later on, it was discovered the lights belonged to commercial aircraft going to a major airport.

The incident, Kirkpatrick said, shows that even highly trained-personnel can misperceive UAP.

This is a Nasa graphic which shows trends in sightings of UAPs.

Image source, Nasa

UAP-related data is often difficult to interpret and decipher - and in some cases can be easily skewed.

Spergel says that's what happened in Australia, where researchers mistook a microwave for radio bursts.

"They had really strange structure. People couldn't figure out what was going on. Then they start to notice a lot of them bunched together around lunch time," he says.

"What had happened was that the people in the observatory would heat up their lunch in the microwave," Spergel adds. "It produced a burst of radio signals that was picked up by sensitive detectors."

Commercial pilots are very reluctant to report anomalies, says David Spergel, chair of the Nasa team looking into UAPs.

Overall these cases are underreported, he says, because "there is a stigma among people reporting UAP sightings."

“One of our goals is to remove the stigma,” he adds, “because there is a need for high quality data to address important questions about UAPs.”

Nasa's research into UAPs relies on unclassified data that can be released to the public.

Classified data, according to Nasa associate administrator Nicola Fox, is often kept secret because of the "sensor platforms" involved on the side of the US military.

"If a fighter jet took a picture of the Statue of Liberty, than that would be classified," she said. "Not because of the picture, but because of the sensors on the plane."

Unclassified data also allows NASA to "communicate openly" within the organisation, across the scientific community and with the public.

Scientists working on the study of UAPs have faced harassment online because they are studying this topic.

Dr Nicola Fox from Nasa says this is "disheartening" and that it stigmatises the UAP field of study.

The public have a right to know what is happening, she says, and the harassment of these scientists hinders that.

Image source, Nasa

Speaking at the beginning of the event, Evans noted that the agency is aware of widespread public interest in UAPs.

Publicly available and transparent research, he added, aims for "open and honest" dialogue with the public.

"The demand for answers is strong," he said, adding that scientific data is key to "separate fact from fiction."

Image source, NASA

Dan Evans from Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate is explaining why the space agency is looking at the presence of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

One reason, he says, is that they “raise concerns about the safety of our skies”.

"We have to determine if they pose any risks to air safety, to ensure our skies remain safe."

Nasa's first ever public meeting on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena is underway, stay with us as we bring you all the key updates and don't forget you can watch it live at the top of this page.

Ask anyone how E.T. made it to planet Earth, they would probably tell you that he made the voyage in a UFO, or an Unidentified Flying Object.

However, Nasa has a new word for it.

They’re calling them UAPs, or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration made the switch “to be consistent with the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA),” according to a list of FAQ on the organisation’s website.

The word “anomalous” replaces the term for flying in the three-word acronym, which broadens the scope of what the independent study group may consider as unusual.

Public fascination with flying saucers, glowing lights and otherworldly aircrafts has been ongoing for generations.

• US public hearings into the issue began in 1966, when Republican congressman - and future president - Gerald Ford convened a pair of hearings to discuss UFO sightings following one in Michigan that was observed by more than 40 people, including a dozen policemen.
• In 1969, an Air Force investigation into UFOs called Project Blue Book closed after determining that no flying object had ever been confirmed or deemed a threat to US national security.
• Blast forward to 2017, when US media reported on the Pentagon's secretive efforts to probe testimony from pilots and other US military members who had reported seeing strange objects in the sky.
• In 2020, a Covid relief bill signed by Donald Trump included a provision requiring US intelligence agencies to deliver an unclassified report on UAP within 180 days.
• In June 2021, the US Director of National Intelligence released a report saying it had no explanation for dozens of unidentified flying objects related to 144 incidents dating back to 2004.