NASA officials began the agency’s long-awaited public hearing on UFOs on Wednesday with a plea for people to stop bullying the agency’s UFO experts. Nicola Fox, an associate administrator for NASA, said that the agency’s 16 expert panelists had faced a wave of online harassment for their research into unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, which NASA classifies as sightings that can’t be ruled out as aircraft or known natural phenomena. “It is really disheartening to hear of the harassment that our panelists have faced online all because they are studying this topic,” Fox said. “Harassment only leads to further stigmatization of the UAP field, significantly hindering scientific progress and discouraging others to study this important subject matter.” Daniel Evans, another NASA official, expressed hope that “conversations like this one are the first step to reducing the stigma surrounding UAP reporting.”