Nasa appoints UFO research chief and plans to crowdsource help with sightings

Agency aims to eliminate stigma that surrounds reporting of sightings and shift conversation from sensationalism to science'

Nasa is to engage a global army of citizen sky watchers to help it solve the mystery of unidentified anomalous phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, and search for life on other worlds.

The space agency has also appointed its first director of UAP research - a de facto chief of UFO studies - to coordinate its efforts to help explain the unknown, it announced on Thursday, as it unveiled a science-based road map" to collect future data.