Neil deGrasse Tyson 'really hopes' the Pentagon is investigating UFOs -- but not for the reason you think

Funny physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson told CNN Wednesday that he hopes the Pentagon is looking into UFOs they see zooming over the United States.

During a hilarious interview with "New Day," Tyson encouraged those seeking life outside of the Earth to "keep looking" and to call him when they find something. He emphasized that while we think "aliens" immediately when we think UFO, the acronym means an unidentified flying object.

"I would hope somebody is checking it out!" Tyson exclaimed. "I hope there's a program from our Defense Department to make sure they do not pose a threat. Sure enough, that's what the program was."

"It's a highly non-specific term," he explained. "It is so non-specific, it admits that you don't know what you're looking at... the universe brims with mysteries. So, just because you don't know what it is you're looking at doesn't mean it's intelligent being, aliens from another planet. You just said you didn't know what you're looking at! So, you can't, as a next sentence, say, 'Therefore, it must be anything.'"

Host Alisyn Camerota noted that Tyson stares at the cosmos for a living. Tyson joked that he's not authorized to say anything about that. Speaking more seriously, he talked about the budget for this program in the scheme of the astounding money used to run the Pentagon already operates under. According to Tyson it would be .0001 percent of their entire budget.

He went on to explain the world in which scientists live is mysterious because there exists "the circle of knowledge that we have, and then there's beyond that circle is the unknown. Despite that parameter growing consistently, so does a parameter of ignorance.

"It's touching this wider and wider area, so people are uncomfortable not knowing," the astrophysicist said. Scientists, however, aren't afraid of not knowing, he said, because they live in the unknown searching for discovery.

"Call me when you have a dinner invite from an alien," he said. His interests lie in other pursuits and urged others to continue the search for ET.

Watch the full interview below: