Neil deGrasse Tyson Offers His Uniquely Humorous Perspective on the Pentagon’s UFO Video

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the wonderful astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium went onto the CNN morning program New Day to talk about the 2004 video of an unidentified flying object that was released by the Department of Defense and offered his uniquely humorous, scientific and logical view of the situation. When asked if he knew what it was, Tyson hilariously replied that it was unidentified, hence the name.

People I think, have conflated the concept of a UFO with whether we’re visited by aliens. UFO means unidentified…flying…object. This is a highly non-specific term. It is so non-specific that it admits that you don’t know what you’re looking at. The universe brims with mysteries. Just because you don’t know what it is you’re looking at doesn’t mean it’s intelligent aliens visiting from another planet…Call me when you have a dinner invite from an alien.

The fascinating 2004 footage from a now-defunct Department of Defense program that tracked UFOs.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.