UFO investigators are in Socorro — and they're not here to visit the site where an Unidentified Flying Object reportedly landed in 1964.

The Mutual UFO Network will hold a panel discussion on the UFO phenomenon on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2-5 p.m., at the Socorro Public Library. The meeting is open to the public and free of charge.

"It'll be a panel discussion involving field workers, who will be talking about some of the cases they've investigated," said Dr. Donald R. Burleson, who heads the group's state chapter. "And we'll get a little philosophical by asking, 'What makes this important?' and 'What have we learned?'"

Burleson said the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, is an international organization dedicated to UFO research. Its mission statement is "Scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity."

Burleson said the group takes its scientific study seriously.

"We're very careful in trying to separate things out and we try to be as scientific as we can," he said. "If we don't know what it is, we say so."

Burleson said there's an average of about one UFO sighting per week in New Mexico. Members of the panel will discuss some of the most recent cases that appear most genuine.

"There's a series of what appears to be a landing circles in the earth near Angel Fire," he said. "They're not crop circles. They're circles in the earth that are still very visible. We don't know what to make of them."

Another recent case still under investigation involves an aerial sighting by law enforcement officers near Deming, Burleson said.

Socorro's famous UFO case also involved law enforcement officials. On April 24, 1964, Lonnie Zamora of the Socorro Police Department spotted a UFO he said landed on the south side of town. Zamora reported that he saw two small-sized beings outside the egg-shaped object before it shot off out of sight. New Mexico State Police Sgt. Sam Chavez arrived at the scene a short time later, and also saw four impressions on the ground and scorched brush that corroborated Zamora's story.

The report touched off an inquiry by government agencies, and included two visits by the noted Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astrophysicist and astronomer who served from 1948 to 1969 as a consultant in astronomy to the United States Air Force. Hynek went on to become the founder of the Center for UFO Studies, in 1973.

The Socorro case remains as one of the most intriguing of all UFO cases.

"Socorro is probably one of the best attested cases on record," Burleson said, who did some investigative work on the incident himself, testing for evidence of radiation on film used to take photos at the site. "There were solid witnesses and their stories were well correlated."

Burleson noted the city is working toward placing a marker at the Socorro landing site. If it does, he said Socorro will become the first municipality to officially recognize a UFO incident.

Socorro's UFO incident isn't the only reason New Mexico's MUFON likes coming to town.

"We've begun holding most of our meetings in Socorro because it's so centrally located and the town has been very good to us," Burleson said. "Socorro really has been tremendous."