J. Allen Hynek

Josef Allen Hynek (1910-1986) was an American astronomer and the scientific consultant to the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigations for more than 20 years. He began as a skeptic hired to explain sightings away. He ended as one of the most credentialed advocates for serious scientific study of the phenomenon. He created the close encounter classification system and founded the Center for UFO Studies.

Hynek was born May 1, 1910, in Chicago. He earned a doctorate in astrophysics at the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory. He taught at Ohio State University, and later chaired the astronomy department at Northwestern University from 1960 to 1975. His mainstream scientific career included work on the U.S. satellite tracking program during the early space race.

In 1948 the Air Force hired Hynek as scientific consultant to Project Sign, its first UFO investigation. He continued through Project Grudge and then Project Blue Book from 1952 until it closed in 1969. His job was to determine which reports had ordinary astronomical explanations. Most did. A stubborn residue did not.

In March 1966, Hynek suggested that mass sightings in Michigan might be explained by "swamp gas." The explanation was widely ridiculed, angered witnesses and Michigan congressmen, and became a symbol of official dismissiveness. Hynek later described the episode as a turning point. He grew publicly critical of the Air Force's approach, arguing that a real scientific question was being buried under bad debunking.

After Blue Book closed, Hynek founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in 1973 to continue civilian scientific investigation. He addressed the United Nations on the subject in 1978.

His 1972 book The UFO Experience introduced the close encounter scale. A close encounter of the first kind is a sighting at close range. The second kind involves physical effects. The third kind involves observed occupants. The system gave ufology a shared vocabulary and gave Steven Spielberg the title of his 1977 film, in which Hynek has a brief cameo. Hynek never claimed UFOs were extraterrestrial. His position was narrower: a small percentage of reports resisted explanation and deserved rigorous study.

Criticism came from both directions. Some scientists accused him of lending credibility to a pseudoscience late in his career. Some in the UFO community accused him of two decades of debunking on the government's behalf. Hynek's own account was that his views changed gradually as unexplained cases accumulated, and he said so in public.

Hynek died on April 27, 1986, in Scottsdale, Arizona. CUFOS continues to operate. His files and framework remain foundational to the field.