Astronomer J. Allen Hynek (left), author of The UFO Experience, with Jacques Vallee United States Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Northwestern astronomer J. Allen Hynek, long a scientific consultant to the Air Force's UFO projects, published The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. It sorted reports into close encounters of the first, second and third kind, a scheme later echoed in Spielberg's 1977 film.
