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(NewsNation) — UFOs and UAPs have become common acronyms in news headlines as members of Congress lead a bipartisan effort to investigate and declassify government documents containing information regarding such unidentified phenomena.

More recently, an independent panel urged NASA to improve the data it collects about unidentified aerial phenomena.

But what exactly do these acronyms stand for, and why have they become such a hot topic of conversation?

What are UFOs?

UFOs, or unidentified flying objects, have captured the nation’s imagination for decades, creating conspiracies and theories about extraterrestrial life outside Earth.

Alleged UFO sightings can be dated back 76 years ago to Roswell, New Mexico, when the first incident took place in 1947. Military personnel announced they were in possession of a “flying disc” after a local rancher found strange debris on his land.

Decades later, conspiracy theorists claimed that the disc was a UFO and the government covered up the incident.

“I think there’s always this anticipation of, did something really happen in Roswell and are there really extraterrestrial beings,” said Juanita Jennings, public affairs specialist for Roswell.

The term UFO was added to the world’s lexicon by the U.S. Air Force in 1952, just five years after the Roswell sighting, USA Today reported.

Since then, the term UFO has been affiliated with the belief that there is extraterrestrial life or aliens outside Earth. People have called those flying objects all sorts of names, such as flying saucers, hovering lights and floating discs, according to HowStuffWorks.

However, it’s important to note that UFOs don’t necessarily mean aliens are visiting Earth, either, BBC reported. UFOs can also refer to other objects in the sky such as weather balloons or drones, the BBC report said.

But the technology of some of these objects has been seen as too advanced for modern day — some claiming the saucers can suddenly zip off or disappear into the night.

In an interview with NewsNation in July, Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett even claimed UFOs had the ability to fly underwater and don’t show a heat trail.

The phenomenon gained so much popularity that even NASA created its own team in 2022 to study the unidentified phenomena.

What are UAPs?

UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena, is used to describe unexplainable sights in the sky, not just unidentified flying objects.

While still a fairly new term, it has become more popular among officials, studies and investigations when discussing sensitive information regarding potential UFO/UAP sightings.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration coined the acronym UAP to describe observations of the sky that can’t be identified as a known object or phenomena, USA Today reported.

While both acronyms refer to the same unidentified events reported in the sky, government agencies began using UAPs instead of UFOs in 2021 in hopes of muting some of the conspiracies flooding the public.

The issue with using UFO is that most people correlate it with aliens or extra-terrestrials. The goal of using the term UAPs is to eliminate the baggage the term UFO carries.

In 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) used the term UAP in its Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena report — which did not use the term UFO once, nor did it mention anything about extra-terrestrials, HowStuffWorks reported.

“Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects given that a majority of UAP were registered across multiple sensors, to include radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon seekers and visual observation,” the report said.

However, the report also reiterated that while it might be easy to dismiss eyewitness reports of physical objects, it’s a lot harder for agencies to deny eyewitnesses of UAPs that have been corroborated on a radar, HowStuffWorks reported.

UAPs can also be classified into five categories, according to the report. Those categories include airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, USG or U.S. industry development programs, foreign adversary systems and other, USA Today reported.

Why have UFOs and UAPs become a hot topic of conversation?

Since making headlines, there has been a huge, bipartisan push for the Pentagon to collect and declassify UFO/UAP data.

Congress has moved forward with its investigation into them after claims made by David Grusch, a former member of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Grush spoke in June to investigative journalist Ross Coulthart on NewsNation about his time in Congress’ Unidentified Aerial Phenomena task force, which is now called the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO.

Congress held a hearing on threats posed by unidentified flying objects and unexplained aerial phenomena on June 6, marking its first hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years.

Lawmakers from both parties have claimed UFOs/UAPs are a national security concern. Sightings of what appear to be aircraft flying without discernible means of propulsion have been reported near military bases and coastlines, raising the prospect that witnesses have spotted undiscovered or secret Chinese or Russian technology.

But the sightings are usually fleeting. Some appear for no more than an instant on camera — and then sometimes end up distorted by the camera lens. The U.S. government is believed to hold additional technical information on the sightings that it has not disclosed publicly.

The Pentagon has said there is no information “to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”

However, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced he was introducing new legislation to declassify government records related to UFOs. The Senate majority leader said the measure will be an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act and be modeled after the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act.

A highly anticipated House Oversight subcommittee hearing on UAPs was held in July and Congress left the hearing with homework to do, promising a bipartisan bill and more hearings to come.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said the hearing was the “first of many” on the government’s handling of information related to UAPs.

The Associated Press, Taylor Delandro, Mystery Wire contributed to this report.