In the coming weeks and months, the phrase “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon”—the rebranding of the old, loaded term “UFO”—is going to enter the popular lexicon as Congress begins a series of unprecedented public hearings on the topic. Unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, are a mainstay of pop culture, but have long been considered fringe by both scientists and the media. There have been groups of people who believe that the government and various corporations are in possession of alien technology and bodies since July 1947 (or in some cases, even earlier), when it was claimed that a flying saucer of extraterrestrial…