NASA panel calls for agency to play larger role in studying UFOs

Workers pressure wash the logo of NASA on the Vehicle Assembly Building before SpaceX will send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., May 19, 2020. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A NASA panel recommended in a report issued on Thursday that the U.S. space agency increase its efforts to gather information on unidentified objects in the sky - labeled "unidentified anomalous phenomenon," or UAP, by the government - and play a larger role in helping the Pentagon detect them.

The agency, in a statement accompanying the report, said it was evaluating the independent study team's findings and recommendations but nonetheless created a new role, director of UAP research. The NASA panel, comprising experts in scientific fields ranging from physics to astrobiology, issued the report after holding its first public meeting in June.