After decades of secrecy, stigma, and sometimes silliness—like the conspiratorial tales about recovered spacecraft and alien remains at a place known as Area 51 in Nevada—the government has at long last begun taking things seriously. What used to be called UFOs and now go by the more decorous handle of UAPs—or unidentified anomalous phenomena—are being given the full investigatory treatment. Read more: time.com/article/2026/08/06/america-taking-extraterrestrials-seriously Subscribe to TIME’s YouTube channel ►► ti.me/subscribe-time Subscribe to TIME: ti.me/3E3UCqt Get the day’s top headlines to your inbox, curated by TIME editors: ti.me/48dFNwQ Follow us: X (Twitter): ti.me/3xTVwSk Facebook: ti.me/3xWI2Fg Instagram: ti.me/3dO9Rcc 0:40 Government UFO Files Begin to Be Released 1:10 How UFOs Became UAPs and a Serious Government Issue 2:25 The Push for UAP Disclosure and Transparency 3:38 The USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” UFO Incident 4:...