Over the last decade, since the work of a shadowy government program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was made public in 2017, there has been growing public pressure on the US government to release its files related to aliens. At the same time, UFOs have been rebranded as Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAP.

A congressman teased a "holy c--p" moment in the UFO files, which are being released over several weeks in different waves

The president's interest has been embraced by a small group of Republicans in Congress who say the Pentagon has failed to provide transparency around mysterious aircraft reported near U.S. military installations.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He is the author of “Take Me To Your Leader: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter.”