NASA confirm 'concrete action' being taken to explore UFOs

The move from the agency comes as they seek to 'shift the conversation from sensationalist to science'. The report has pushed NASA to turn to the recommendations of an independent panel that will explore years worth of sightings, having been consulting on the matter for over a year.

The report included recommendations like investigating whether there are environmental conditions associated with UAPs, using the private space industry's satellites to get better sightings, and exploring how AI and machine learning can detect UAP and gather more data. They also included advice to improve "public engagement" and encourage more people to come forward, as they urged NASA to look into the development of a smartphone app to gather images from citizen observerations.

The 16-team panel has already warned that there is "no reason to conclude" that any sightings have definitely been aliens, but they did warn in their 33-page report that any mysterious flying objects could be considered a "self-evident" threat to American airspace.

Bill Nelson, an agency administrator, explained: "We are looking for signs of life, past and present, and it is in our DNA to explore and to ask why things are the way they are."

He added that "We all are entertained by Indiana Jones in the Amazon finding the crystal skull", as he mentioned the impact of Hollywood and pop culture on people's fascination with the topic.

"There's a lot of folklore out there. That's why we entered the arena: to get into this from a science point of view."

NASA is also seeking to rename UFOs to UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena). The renaming will seek to remove a "stigma" that can prevent people from reporting sightings.

In his press statement, Nelson also acknowledged the potential existence of another Earth in space. Nelson said: "If you ask me do I believe there's life in a universe that's so vast that it's hard for me to comprehend how big it is, my personal answer is yes."

But before anyone gets their hopes up that there could be another planet like ours, Nelson added that his own scientists put the likelihood of life on another Earth-like planet at "at least a trillion". So not hugely likely.