Top secret government files reveal astonishing UFO encounter with 13 fighter jets for first time

• MORE: FBI files reveal reports of 'four-foot tall' beings emerging from UFOs 
  

By CHRIS MELORE, DEPUTY SCIENCE EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Hundreds of top-secret UFO files have been made public after a decades-long legal battle with the US intelligence community.

The Disclosure Foundation, a nonprofit pushing the US government for UFOs, has obtained 334 pages of intelligence reports from the National Security Agency (NSA), the country's electronic eavesdropping service.

The records include radar-tracking reports, focusing on military and intelligence messages about what showed up on screens around the globe during the Cold War.

Although the files were heavily redacted, one incident detailed how 13 fighter jets were sent to chase a single UFO, which had been spotted by military radar.

Dozens of incidents involved Soviet-made fighter aircraft known as MIGs pursuing swarms of unknown objects, including one sighting over China and another where six MIGs were dispatched and were seen 'attacking said UFO.' 

Another encounter revealed how witnesses saw a luminous star-shaped UFO moving up and down at great speed, showing abilities that made it 'impossible to be an aircraft.' 

Although dozens of the newly released files claimed that the unidentified objects were likely balloons, every report was marked as 'Top Secret Umbra' - one of the highest security levels the NSA used for its most secret messages.

Moreover, the agency fought for over 40 years to keep these reports from reaching the American people, fighting a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act and continuing to deny access to the entire report once the case was over.

The Pentagon has begun releasing files related to UFOs and extraterrestrials as part of the disclosure campaign ordered by President Trump

New files released by the National Security Agency revealed hundreds of incidents involving UFOS which were classified by the intelligence community

The files have now been disclosed, marking the latest batch of top-secret documents to be released following President Trump's order to unseal all information tied to UFOs and extraterrestrials.

The new trove of intelligence reports revealed that for an unknown length of time, military radar officers regularly tracked objects described as star-shaped, disc-like, spheres, bright balls and even a blimp or cigar-shaped dirigible.

In one of the last reports released, witnesses saw an 'elongated ball of fire' moving in the distance before it split into three separate 'balls of fire.' 

The intelligence agency did not convey in any of the reports what country these events took place in, what year the UFOs were spotted or who saw the objects.

However, it is believed that at least one incident may have taken place in the Soviet Union or a country within Russia's sphere of influence during the Cold War.

During one UFO encounter, 13 fighter jets reportedly scrambled to chase a UFO. The intelligence report noted that the aircraft were MIGs, a military jet often associated with Soviet or allied air forces.

Other encounters reported seeing strange craft flying without making any noise, as if they did not have an engine.

'The UFO had two yellow lights, was flying at low altitude, and changed its heading from north to west over this point. No noise was heard,' the report, made at 8pm local time, revealed.

Declassified reports revealed how witnesses saw a star-shaped object moving vertically into the air in an 'impossible' manner for a human aircraft

Above the horizon of the lunar surface, as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12 in 1969, an area of interest points to apparently unidentified phenomena 

Another described an object which looked 'like a large star' which witnesses revealed was 'going up and down at a fast speed and at a very high altitude.'

The report of the star-shaped object appeared to be similar to a newly released video by the Pentagon, which captured an eight-pointed object on radar images in 2013.

The newly disclosed documents had been under lock and key since a citizen group sued the NSA in 1980, demanding that the government reveal what it had learned about alien life since the end of World War II.

The NSA fiercely fought the lawsuit, with the agency's Chief Policy Officer, Eugene Yeates, filing an official argument with the court that the UFO files needed to be viewed by the presiding judge in private before ruling on the case.

That legal fight ultimately ended with the NSA only being forced to release a summary of the entire 334-page report, called the Yeates Memo, which still remained classified until 2009.

Hunt Willis, chief legal officer for the Disclosure Foundation, said: 'The actual information and collection data referenced in that memo have never been released.'

However, the nonprofit picked up the Cold War-era lawsuit and recently filed a new FOIA request specifically asking for the top-secret 'supporting materials' which the NSA mentioned in the Yeates Memo.

In May, NSA officials released a heavily redacted copy of the UFO files they were sued over in 1980

Although the NSA initially denied the request, Willis revealed that the intelligence agency's own appeals board ruled they wrongly kept the documents secret and overturned the decision. 

Just ten days after the first tranche of files on UFOs and investigations into alien life were disclosed by the Pentagon, the Disclosure Foundation announced that they had received the NSA and released them all to the public as well.

Willis added that the Disclosure Foundation was now fighting to have all 334 pages unredacted so the missing information on where these events took place and when gets revealed publicly.

'It is simply unacceptable for security classification exemptions to remain on government documents that pre-date the Civil Rights Act,' the legal expert said.

'We are committed to having the courts review the legitimacy of these redactions and holding these agencies accountable to the public transparency that Congress intended.' 

Live: Pentagon Releases Declassified UFO Files — Aliens Or Advanced Tech Revealed To World?

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

 By Taylor Penley Fox News

"Non-human" bodies of varying species have been recovered from crashed UFO craft, filmmaker Dan Farah told Fox News on Monday, citing accounts from senior intelligence officials interviewed for his new disclosure documentary.

"A number of the people I interviewed in my film — senior intelligence officials — went on the record saying that there have been dozens of crashed craft of non-human origin over the years," Farah said on "Jesse Watters Primetime."

"Elements of our government have recovered those crashes, and they've gotten out of that technology of non-human origin, and in some cases, non-human bodies that were on these craft."

Farah claimed the bodies on the craft being discussed were deceased.

• UFO HEARING: EX-PENTAGON OFFICIAL SAYS GOVERNMENT 'CABAL' IS HIDING 'THE FACT THAT WE ARE NOT ALONE'

He added that several officials involved in the alleged recovery efforts claimed the bodies "were not all the same type," fueling speculation that multiple forms of extraterrestrial life may have visited Earth.

This comes as the Trump administration has placed pressure on government agencies to release files related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) and alleged extraterrestrial encounters to the public.

The Department of War subsequently declassified never-before-seen material related to the request, including dozens of PDFs, images and videos.

• TOP DEM APPLAUDS TRUMP UFO FILES RELEASE IN RARE SHOW OF SUPPORT

Farah alleged, however, that resistance inside the federal government has slowed broader public disclosure efforts.

"The people who have gatekept this information for 80 years, they don't want to share it. They've gotten a lot of power and control over the years, and it's just frankly not human nature for people to want to give up power and control, so there's a tug-of-war happening behind the scenes," he said.

"There are a number of other reasons guiding their desire to keep this secret, including a general belief that the public can't handle the truth.

Farah argued that continued secrecy surrounding alleged UFO programs would not meaningfully disadvantage the United States against foreign adversaries because rival nations likely already know about the phenomenon.

"I think our adversaries know we're not alone in the universe," he said. "They know we've been recovering craft of non-human technology, non-human origin. Saying it out loud wouldn't give them any new information."

{ https://www.foxnews.com/  }

Is there intelligent extraterrestrial life? Catholic thinkers give their opinion

But Catholic theologians and scientists have also reflected on its implications for the way humanity perceives itself in relation to its Creator.

Among scholars researching this topic, the general consensus seems to be that the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent beings does not upset the Church's theology of creation.

Christopher Baglow, director of the Science and Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, addressed this question in a lecture given in 2021 for the Society of Catholic Scientists Annual Conference, a version of which he published in Church Life Journal. 

Humans and extraterrestrials share God as their creator

His starting point was that humans and extraterrestrials share God as their creator, which gives extraterrestrials “the capacity for a special relationship with God in which they can know Him and respond to Him with freedom and love.”.

“God would love them and want to share his life with them,” he said.

St. John Paul II is said to have expressed a similar idea when a child asked him if extraterrestrials were real. “Always remember,” the late pontiff reportedly said. , “they are children of God, just as we are».

Could the Church baptize extraterrestrial beings?

Although the Catholic Church does not offer a definitive teaching on extraterrestrial life, Catholic intellectuals have reflected on the subject over the centuries. In the 15th century, the German Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, philosopher and theologian, speculated that God's creativity made the existence of intelligent life on other planets probable. 

Much more recently, Jesuit astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno posed a key question bluntly in the title of his 2014 book:“Would you baptize an alien?”. 

Written in collaboration with Jesuit Father Paul Mueller, the book addresses various issues of faith and science through a question-and-answer format. As for the question that gives the book its title, it answers in the affirmative, but only if the alien requests it, since it is a sacrament that must be freely given and received.

Brother Consolmagno, a Detroit native, is president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation and served as director of the Vatican Observatory for a decade, from 2015 to 2025. “Any entity, no matter how many tentacles it has, has a soul,” he declared to The Guardian in 2010, adding that he would be “delighted” if intelligent extraterrestrial life were discovered.

Are there other “sons of God” in the universe?

The observatory's current director, Jesuit Father Richard D'Souza, shares a similar opinion. 

“They would be children of God,” D'Souza said, referring to the extraterrestrial beings in 2025. “I believe in a benevolent Creator. He is behind everything.”.

Jesuit Father José Funes, another former director of the Vatican Observatory, leads the OTHER Project, which brings together scientists, theologians and philosophers at the Catholic University of Córdoba, Argentina, to study the possibility and potential impact of the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial beings.

“Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on Earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent ones, created by God. And this does not contradict faith, because - and it is important to understand this - we cannot place limits on God's creative freedom,” he said in a article 2023 published by the Vatican Observatory. 

Neither necessary nor excluded

“The existence of intelligent life on planets other than Earth is neither necessary nor excluded by any theological argument. Theologians, like the rest of humanity, must wait and see.”.

In a 2021 interview with Catholic News Service, Father Funes urged Catholics and others to consider the issue from an academic perspective, not from conspiracy theories.

Among the questions theologians-including the celebrated 20th century Jesuit theologian Father Karl Rahner-have asked is whether the Incarnation would have been repeated on other planets for other intelligent species. Both Father Funes and Dominican Father Thomas F. O'Meara, retired professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and author of “The Incarnation of the Incarnate Word", and "The Incarnation of the Incarnate Word".“Vast Universe: Extraterrestrials and Christian Revelation”, they told CNS that the incarnation of Jesus was a “unique” event that would not necessarily take place beyond Earth.

This is a question that the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, Anglican author best known for his “Chronicles of Narnia” series, explored through fiction in the late 1930s and 1940s with his “Space Trilogy”. The books - ”Out of the Silent Planet,” “Perelandra” and “That Hideous Force” - tackled the alien theme, popularized in the culture by other writers such as H. G. Wells, best known for “The War of the Worlds,” a novel first published in 1898 and infamous for its 1938 radio adaptation.

Would extraterrestrial beings need the Redemption?

Lewis' work raises the possibility that rational beings from other planets may continue to live in a relationship with God that has not been affected by the fall and, therefore, do not need redemption in the same way that human beings do.

Lewis“ trilogy was also a focal point in a 31-minute documentary entitled "¿?What should Catholics believe about UFOs?”from Notre Dame's McGrath Institute. Produced by Brett Robinson of the same institute, the documentary brought together a number of scientists, theologians and other scholars to discuss the title question.

In the documentary, Lewis scholar Michael Ward points to Lewis“ own doubts about whether the current cosmological model could be overturned by new discoveries. Noting that Christian anthropology has accommodated other scientific advances, such as the Copernican system and Darwinian biology, Ward asserted, ”There is nothing new under the sun that cannot be integrated into the existing framework.".

Wisdom in dealing with non-human intelligence

Among the experts interviewed was Diana Walsh Pasulka, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and author of. «American Cosmic, published in 2019 by Oxford University Press, which explores the phenomenon of belief in intelligent extraterrestrial life.

“A lot of people think that acknowledging the existence of non-human intelligences would change religion, eradicate it or discredit it altogether, but I don't believe that at all,” Pasulka said in the documentary. “Within the major religions there is wisdom on how to deal with non-human intelligence.”.

Pasulka, a practicing Catholic, sees a connection between contemporary reports of unidentified aerial phenomena and medieval descriptions of celestial phenomena, and her work has led her to correspond with aerospace engineers and members of the U.S. Space Force seeking explanations for their own experiences or research.

Are UAPs angels? demons? or something else?

In an interview published in March in the Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’, Pasulka said: “In the U.S. government right now there are many people who believe in UFOs, in unidentified aerial phenomena. That's a fact. They use taxpayer money to study it. But they have different interpretations.

“By the way, there is a high percentage of devout Catholics in the military who study this,” he added. “They believe that there are probably a variety of phenomena. Some would classify them as being caused by angels and demons. And then there are those they consider a threat, coming from an unknown extraterrestrial civilization. They just know they're here, and they treat them as a threat because they're military: if there's something in their airspace, they want to know what it is.”.

In March, Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic, called attention to the theory that aliens are fallen angels, saying in a podcast interview that. thought that the alleged extraterrestrials are demons, and that spiritual warfare is the easiest explanation for «alien phenomena».

Paul Thigpen, a theologian who passed away earlier this year, also explored that possibility in his 2022 book , Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith: Are We Alone in the Universe with God and Angels?”. But he concluded that the spiritual realm was an unlikely explanation for all unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). And he expressed concern that human contact with extraterrestrials could lead some to substitute their reality for that of God or to mistakenly regard them as a source of salvation.

“The Church could welcome this new scientific knowledge.”

“The Church could embrace this new scientific knowledge, just as it did with the scientific revolution of the 16th century that proved that the Earth is not the center of the solar system,” he said in an 2022 interview with the National Catholic Register. 

“If we were to encounter directly an alien species, with the ability to communicate, the Church would, of course, have many questions about its spiritual and moral condition. The answers to those questions would determine the Church's response to such creatures.”.

“In examining the issues involved, we are forced to delve much deeper into the meaning of traditional Catholic teaching on the omnipotence and creativity of God, the image of God in humanity, the fall of the human race, the nature of the Incarnation, the means and scope of redemption, and the reality of the ‘end times.’”.

Aliens are not impossible for Catholics, but they imply a different way of thinking.

On May 5, Will Rahn of The Free Press published a podcast episode titled “Ehese two Catholics see signs of God in UFOs” featuring Pasulka and New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat for a series titled “What Should Smart People Think About UFOs?”.

Douthat did not subscribe to any particular theory about the nature of extraterrestrial life, should it exist. However, he did acknowledge the tension Catholics might feel if it were proven to exist.

“Most Catholics are quite comfortable with a set of categories that are real but invisible,” Douthat said. “And it would be a change, say, if the Church were to say, ‘By the way, some of these supernatural beings can appear on Air Force cameras.’ That wouldn't be impossible, but it would involve a different way of thinking about these things than most Catholics currently have.”.

Maria Wiering is the editor-in-chief of OSV News.

{ https://www.omnesmag.com/en/section/news/experiences/initiatives/ }

The FBI file contained never-before-seen memos and witness reports connected to UAPs

(Apostoli Rossella/Getty)

'Alien' message to the world uncovered in newly released UFO records

 Rebekah Jordan

An 'alien' message to the world has been uncovered in newly released UFO records.

The anticipation surrounding any official acknowledgement of extraterrestrial life has been building for years. President Donald Trump promised to address the question of alien life when the 'time is right,' yet one US congressman claims that contact has already been made.

Meanwhile, Stephen Hawking's theory has surfaced on social media that if intelligent life does exist out there, humanity might be better off hoping it never finds us. In other words, things sometimes stay hidden for a reason.

Now, the Trump administration's latest UFO disclosure release has revealed something pretty chilling.

The release was published on Friday and included never-before-seen memos, witness reports, photographs and videos connected to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).

Among them was a memo dated January 12, 1955, originating from the Detroit Flying Saucer Club, one of the earliest UFO organisations in the US.

Club member Randall Cox told FBI agents that the group had been in contact with 'outer space people', and that those beings had delivered a series of warnings about humanity's place in the universe, the document read.

According to the FBI memo, the beings stated that all planets had conquered outer space except Earth and that humans were the ‘lowest form of universal existence.’

A further message stated that the purpose of contact with Earth at that time was simply to prepare people for future landings from outer space.

Featured Image Credit: Apostoli Rossella/Getty

{ https://www.uniladtech.com/ }

Breaking the Silence: UFO Disclosure and its Global Impact

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{ https://alienatedmedia.com/ }

by Samantha Martin, University of York

A view of DK-G South, facing north-west, from December 2023, highlighting the complexity of the standing architecture at Mohenjo-daro. Credit: Adam S. Green/Antiquity (2026). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2026.10359

For decades, historians have generally agreed that the progress of small villages as they evolved into cities came at the price of widening inequality. A small group of leaders, kings and priests, would inevitably seize control of the wealth and the gap between rich and poor would grow.

But a new study at the University of York delves into the archaeology of the 4,000-year-old Mohenjo-daro, the Indus civilization's largest city, and shows the opposite was true. By analyzing house sizes across the ancient city, researchers found that Mohenjo-daro was not only more equal than its neighbors in Mesopotamia and Greece, but it actually became more egalitarian over time.

Entirely different

The lead author, Dr. Adam Green from the University of York's Department of Archaeology and Department of Environment and Geography, said, "Legacy data from the ancient city shows that as the city matured, the gap between the largest and smallest homes narrowed. In fact, by its later years, the wealth gap in this massive urban center had dropped to levels typical of the first farming villages.

"While ancient Egyptians were building pyramids for god-kings, and the Greeks were constructing massive palaces at Knossos, the people of the Indus were building something entirely different.

"Instead of gold-filled tombs and huge temples, Mohenjo-daro focused on sophisticated brick-lined drains and organized street layouts. Instead of allowing the perks of society to accumulate with a tiny elite, the city's amenities were widely distributed among the everyday households."

Credit: Antiquity (2026). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2026.10359

Indus seals

This was particularly true with regard to the distribution of the famous Indus seals, which were tools of business and trade. Indus seals were typically found in ordinary homes and not in public buildings, with no palaces to monopolize these tools of government.

It was evident that rather than a single ruler hoarding resources, the city's inhabitants worked together to ensure fair access to a good standard of life.

Investment in very practical things, like drainage and street maintenance, was also a sign of working collectively for the public good. The use of a standardized system of weights and measures across the region ensured that exchange remained fair for all citizens.

Mohenjo-daro and its excavation areas. Credit: Antiquity (2026). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2026.10359

Rising productivity

The findings, published in the journal Antiquity, challenge the modern assumption that rising inequality is an unavoidable side effect of economic growth. Mohenjo-daro, the researchers say, stands as proof that a society can be technologically advanced and highly productive while also ensuring its prosperity is shared by the many, rather than the few.

Dr. Green said, "Mohenjo-daro is often cited as being famous for what it doesn't have, such as the absence of palaces for kings, gold-filled tombs, and no statues of rulers. But what it does have is so important.

"In the period when inequality appears to be lowest, productivity appears to rise. It challenges the idea that prosperity requires us to concentrate decision-making powers in the hands of the few.

"It is quite an interesting lesson for modern societies, as the Indus civilization demonstrates clearly that an urban society can be highly productive and inventive at scale, while also ensuring that resources and power are shared equitably. In fact, doing so may even have been essential to sustaining prosperity over the centuries."

Publication details

• Adam S. Green et al, Inequality declined in the Bronze Age city of Mohenjo-daro, Antiquity (2026). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2026.10359

• Journal information: Antiquity 

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Earth’s oceans ruled by aliens? Former US Admiral’s explosive claims sparks UFO debate

'We are being visited and surveillance by a higher order of intelligence,' Tim Gallaudet says

By Aqsa Qaddus Tahir

Earth’s oceans ruled by aliens? Former US Admiral’s explosive claims sparks UFO debate

The existence of aliens is no longer confined to extra-terrestrial space. Now non-human intelligence rules Earth’s oceans, as claimed by a former US Navy Admiral.

The video showed a fast-going object appearing little more than a white dash on the aircraft screen.

According to Gallaudet, the object was something different because the speed at which it was moving went against the laws of Physics.

“So far, we have not built anything that can go that fast in the water and does not change speed from water to air. Many have had super-fast acceleration and made right-angle turns. We have not yet been able to engineer vehicles that can do that,” Gallaudet explained.

Gallaudet also convinced that these crafts are impossible to be operated by humans. These are only controlled by high-order intelligence and do not belong to a natural world.

“They may come from Earth, but I don’t believe they belong to the plant and animal kingdoms as we know them,” Gallaudet told Popular Mechanics.

This is not the first time, Ex-US Navy Admiral has dropped such explosive claims. Earlier this month, ex-Oceanographer of the Navy with 32 years of service, issued a stark warning, stating, “We are being visited and surveillance by a higher order of intelligence, one we do not understand and whose intentions remain completely unknown.”

“It’s happening very frequently, in our airspace and in our waters,” he added.

He also linked unidentified submersible objects to aerial sightings and has testified before Congress in 2024 and 2026 for greater transparency on military sensor data.

{ https://www.thenews.com.pk/ }

Ex-CIA expert claims there are 4 types of aliens recovered from UFOs including Reptilians

Former Pentagon-linked advisers Dr Hal Puthoff and Eric Davis have revived claims that US “crash recovery” programmes retrieved craft and 'at least four' alien species

BY Andréa Oldereide - Senior Reporter

These are the alleged four alien species

A former CIA boffin has claimed that US agents investigating recovered UFO craft have identified four different types of alien species. In a new episode of the Diary of a CEO podcast, Dr. Hal Puthoff, a former CIA-funded researcher and Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) advisor said he had been told by “high-level sources” involved in such programmes that there are “at least four” distinct alien species linked to recovered craft.

When talking on the 'Diary of a CEO' podcast alongside Age of Disclosure director Dan Farrah, the former CIA researcher was asked for details on what aliens had been found.

“Four separate types,” he said.

Representation of a Grey, a Nordic, a Reptilian, and an Insectoids

He added: “Now I have not had direct access to that, but I believe the people I talked to, four separate types of life at least.” The “four types” described have been attributed publicly to Dr Davis, a longtime collaborator of Puthoff, Brobible reported.

At a 2025 UAP Disclosure Fund conference, Davis reportedly categorised the alleged beings as “Grays”; small, hairless figures with large eyes, “Nordics”; said to be human-sized and resembling Northern Europeans, “Insectoids”; described as tall, mantis-like humanoids, and “Reptilians”; portrayed as humanoid figures with scaly skin and tails.

Puthoff also claimed there has been a longstanding culture of secrecy around the subject.

Dr. Hal Puthoff

(Image: YOUTUBE)

This reportedly includes what he characterised as a CIA strategy of spreading disinformation designed to deter serious public interest in UFOs.

Separately, Davis has for several years asserted that he has examined “off-world” wreckage and biological material from craft he says “we couldn’t make ourselves”.

On the podcast, Dr. Puthoff also alleged there had been a “CIA meeting where people got together and said, ‘Okay, in order to not have people be pursuing this area, let’s go out of our way to spread what we would call now disinformation.'”

Chaos

The alien claims remain anecdotal and unverified in public. Neither Dr. Puthoff or Davis have produced physical evidence, such as photographs, independently testable materials, or biological samples, to support the specific classifications being discussed.

Furthermore, Puthoff’s comments were explicitly presented as secondhand information based on conversations rather than direct access.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/latest/alien-1 }

This image captured during NASA’s Apollo 17 moon mission in December 1972 contains three “dots” in a triangular formation in the lower right quadrant of the lunar sky that is clearly visible upon magnification of the image.   (Image credit: NASA/DoD)

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Defense released what it termed "new, never-before-seen files" on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), tagging it as a historic effort in transparency.

The UAP release came courtesy of the Trump administration's Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, or PURSUE for short.

The posting involves 158 files — documents, photos and videos from NASA, the FBI, Defense Department, and State Department. Additional files are forthcoming, to be issued by the Department of Defense (DoD) "on a rolling basis." In a press statement, DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth remarked that his department is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unparalleled transparency regarding the government's understanding of UAP.

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"These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it's time the American people see it for themselves," Hegseth said.

But just what are we seeing here? Space.com reached out to specialists to unravel what's behind sightings of UAP — or, as they used to be known, unidentified flying objects (UFOs).

'A useful beginning'

For some, there is a "so what" — maybe a ho-hum — reaction to the UAP data release. Those familiar with UFO records, documents, or even astronaut sightings note that almost all of the "never-before-seen" files have long been known.

"I would view this first tranche as a useful beginning in what I hope becomes regular releases of documents not previously available, well documented sighting investigations and videos that aren't stripped of all necessary information," said Mark Rodeghier, president and scientific director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies.

Many of the FBI and other government files were already available, Rodeghier said, but fewer redactions and centralized access are still valuable.

"They allow researchers to check details more carefully and better reconstruct how official agencies received, evaluated and sometimes simply filed away UFO reports," Rodeghier added.

"Short videos and unresolved case summaries can be intriguing, but without the supporting metadata, investigative history and analysis, they are hard to evaluate," he said. "The real test will be whether future tranches provide complete case files, not just provocative fragments. True transparency means context, not just clips."

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Similar in view is Robert Powell, an executive board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies.

"Recent government UAP disclosures have been valuable. They have confirmed that the public and the media regard this phenomenon as a matter of genuine importance," Powell said.

"But redacted files and the absence of credible scientific evaluation are not answers. They are a mandate," said Powell. "Academia and the scientific community can no longer afford to leave this field to institutions that operate in secrecy. The science of UAP must be conducted in the open, by those whose obligation is to the scientific evidence," he said.

More questions than answers

Also taking on "does it matter and who cares" is Alejandro Rojas, a consultant for Enigma Labs, a group appraising UAP via the use of cutting-edge technology and social intelligence.

"The UAP transparency movement didn't start with this administration," said Rojas. "It's been building in Congress for several years, driven by bipartisan oversight and persistent public pressure. What we're seeing now is the continuation of that effort, not the origin of it," he said.

As for the recent DoD release, "it feels somewhat unfinished," Rojas said. "There are many cases with minimal context, missing sensor data, and little accompanying analysis, as if the priority was getting something out the door rather than something useful."

But imperfect data released publicly, Rojas added, is still more valuable than perfect data sitting in a vault. "Even a messy dataset reveals patterns over time, and every case added to the public record is one more data point researchers and citizens can work with. The question is what comes next, because this release raises more questions than it answers," he said.

Missing: context and data

On the lack of context and data, Rojas said that, for any meaningful scientific analysis, you need more than a grainy infrared clip and a one-paragraph summary.

"These reports are largely missing the basics — coordinates, sensor parameters, altitude, speed confirmation. Many cases appear to have been flagged as UAP simply because there wasn't enough data to identify them, rather than because they exhibited genuinely anomalous behavior," said Rojas.

"That's not a criticism of the release," he added, "it's just the reality of what we're working with. Real analysis requires real data, and hopefully future releases include more of it."

Enigma Labs has built a website offering anyone  — researchers, journalists, curious members of the public  — the opportunity to search and explore these files as they come out, rather than hunting through a government portal.

"We're also collecting public sighting reports and giving people a community to discuss and analyze what's being released," Rojas added. "The goal is to make this process as open and accessible as possible, because transparency only works if people can actually find and use the information."

Real and inexplicable phenomena

For the first time in history, the White House and a number of government agencies "have acknowledged that there is a real and inexplicable phenomena occurring on a global basis that demands attention," said Michael Gold, president of Redwire Space, a space and defense company focused on advanced technologies.

Gold has experience delving into uncanny oddness in the skies. He served on NASA's UAP Independent Study Team that ran from 2022 to 2023. He said he's particularly grateful that the DoD (which the Trump administration has unofficially rebranded the Department of War) and NASA acknowledged that the object in the Apollo 17 imagery was real and unknown.

"The most powerful words in science are 'I don't know,' and I appreciate NASA and the Department of War being modest enough to acknowledge when a good explanation doesn't currently exist," said Gold. "Acknowledging anomalies is the first step to discovery, and is how scientific progress is made."

Gold emphasized that it's important to acknowledge the unprecedented nature of the White House's treatment of UAP. "I would like to compare the White House release to similar actions by prior administrations, but I can't, since there are none," he said.

The Trump administration and the agencies involved, Gold said, "should be applauded for supporting transparency despite what I'm certain were incredible and historic challenges to not just releasing information, but even just treating the UAP issue with the seriousness that it deserves."

Beginning, not an ending

In his 2024 testimony before Congress, Gold urged NASA to conduct a review of its archives for UAP.

"Another recommendation I made to Congress and supported by the NASA UAP Independent Study Team was for UAP to be added to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System [ASRS]," said Gold.

ASRS provides the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration with confidential data relative to safety anomalies. ASRS has provided the federal government with hundreds of thousands of confidential reports and has successfully operated for years, Gold said.

If UAP were added to the anomalies that ASRS collects, Gold said, every commercial pilot, crew member, and even passengers could act as sensors for UAP, providing a treasure trove of data.

"I hope that more files will be released soon that will show even more definitively anomalous behavior," Gold concluded. "I expect we are at the beginning, not an ending, of a very important moment in the history of science."

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Earth's sinking cities: Study reveals the urban areas plummeting toward sea level – leaving millions of residents at risk of being plunged underwater

• READ MORE:2026 on track for 'extraordinary extreme weather'

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Rising sea levels are already putting millions at risk of flooding – but a study now warns that land subsidence is making the danger even greater.

Earth's sinking cities are slipping towards sea level at an alarming rate, experts from the Technical University of Munich have warned.

A study showed that subsidence more than doubles the rate of sea level rise for some areas of the coastline.

To make matters worse, researchers say that this affects the largest and most densely populated cities more than anywhere else.

Between rising seas and sinking land, heavily urbanised areas of coast experience a relative sea level increase of about 6mm per year on average.

That is three times more than the global average for relative sea level rise, which stands at 2.1mm per year.

Likewise, land subsidence roughly doubles the absolute sea–level rise of 3.15mm per year, which measures the actual increase in volume and height of the ocean.

Lead researcher Dr Julius Oelsmann, of Technical University of Munich, says that this can 'significantly amplify the effects of climate–driven sea–level rise'.

Scientists have found that land subsidence is doubling the rate at which the water level rises in some of the world's biggest cities, putting millions at risk of flooding. Pictured: Rate of uplift (red) and subsidence (blue) in coastal areas 

Jakarta is the world's fastest–sinking city, subsiding at a rate of 13.7mm per year. This puts the megacity's 42 million residents in extreme danger of flooding. Pictured: Flooding in Jakarta following heavy rain in 2024

As the climate gets hotter, melting glaciers and the expansion of warming water are gradually raising the level of the world's oceans.

However, Dr Oelsmann and his co–authors warn that the surface of the sea only tells half the story.

'If we want to understand sea–level rise along coastlines and respond effectively, we must not only observe the ocean but also the land itself,' Dr Oelsmann says.

This is because a mixture of human activity and natural forces is combining to sink some of the world's biggest cities into the ocean.

The biggest factors driving this subsidence are excessive groundwater and oil extraction, which remove underground resources that previously stabilised the surface.

Dr Oelsmann points out that the 'sheer weight of cities' is also driving urban areas below sea level.

As cities grow larger and taller, heavier buildings are constructed, which compacts the ground beneath and slowly sinks the city relative to its surroundings.

Combined with climate–change–driven sea level increase, urban areas are seeing the waterline rise a lot faster than the rest of the world.

In the UK, the US, and Europe, areas of the coastline are sinking into the sea due to land subsidence. This is leading to a significantly faster rate of relative sea level increase 

Earth's sinking cities 

Prominent subsidence hot spots include:

• Jakarta (–13.7 mm/year)
• Tianjin (–13.5 mm/year)
• Bangkok (–8.5 mm/year)
• Lagos (–6.7 mm/year)
• Alexandria (–4 mm/year)

Countries where relative sea levels are rising the fastest include Thailand, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, China, and Indonesia, where the ocean is getting seven to 10 millimetres higher each year.

The US, the Netherlands, and Italy also experience exceptionally rapid increases, with relative sea levels rising by around four to 5mm per year.

Due to the strong influence of city size, many countries also featured intense 'hot spots' of subsidence.

The 42 million residents of Jakarta, Indonesia, the world's most populous city, are in particular peril as the megacity slips towards the ocean at a rate of 13.7mm per year.

This is closely followed by Tianjin, China, home to 13.8 million people, which is seeing 13.5mm of subsidence per year.

Similarly, Bangkok, Lagos, and Alexandria are all experiencing well above average rates of subsidence with 8.5, 6.7, and 4mm per year, respectively.

Even within cities, the different rates of subsidence meant that one neighbourhood might be falling towards the ocean while others rise out of it.

In Jakarta, for example, some parts of the city are sinking at a staggering 42mm per year, while other regions actually see uplift.

Densely populated urban coastal regions are experiencing around 6mm of relative sea level increase per year (red regions)

This means that millions of people in some of the world's biggest cities are being put at risk of severe flooding.

Even if their homes don't fall completely below sea level, every millimetre of relative sea level increase creates a bigger risk that storms or extreme weather will lead to severe floods.

This is especially concerning for Jakarta, where about 40 per cent of the city is below sea level.

Studies estimate that nearly half of the city could be inundated and uninhabitable by 2050 if sea levels continue to rise at the current rate.

These dense, urban regions stand in stark contrast to Scandinavia, where natural geological processes are gradually lifting the land out of the sea.

During the last Ice Age, these northern latitudes were weighed down with vast ice sheets that pushed the land into the ocean, much like coast megacities do today.

As these ice sheets have retreated, that weight was removed, and the land masses are still 'rebounding' towards a stable position.

That means, even as absolute sea levels increase, the relative sea level in Finland and Sweden is actually getting lower each year.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, there are no geological processes to pull cities back out of the water.

However, the researchers point out that proper city planning can dramatically slow the rate of subsidence.

Co–author Professor Florian Seitz, of the Technical University of Munich, says: 'In many large coastal cities, groundwater extraction is a major driver of land subsidence.

Read More

• Earth's worst-case climate scenario laid bare: Global temperatures could rise by 3.5°C by 2100 

'This means that local political and water–management decisions can make a significant difference.'

In Tokyo, Japan, for example, subsidence rates once exceeded 10cm per year, reaching peaks of 24cm per year in the worst areas.

However, through government intervention and the introduction of new water sources, those rates were dramatically reduced.

'Improved groundwater management, stricter regulation of withdrawals, or targeted recharge of aquifers can at least slow subsidence rates and, in some cases, largely halt them,' says Professor Seitz.

SEA LEVELS COULD RISE BY UP TO 4 FEET BY THE YEAR 2300

Global sea levels could rise as much as 1.2 metres (4 feet) by 2300 even if we meet the 2015 Paris climate goals, scientists have warned.

The long-term change will be driven by a thaw of ice from Greenland to Antarctica that is set to re-draw global coastlines.

Sea level rise threatens cities from Shanghai to London, to low-lying swathes of Florida or Bangladesh, and to entire nations such as the Maldives.

It is vital that we curb emissions as soon as possible to avoid an even greater rise, a German-led team of researchers said in a new report.

By 2300, the report projected that sea levels would gain by 0.7-1.2 metres, even if almost 200 nations fully meet goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Targets set by the accords include cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in the second half of this century.

Ocean levels will rise inexorably because heat-trapping industrial gases already emitted will linger in the atmosphere, melting more ice, it said.

In addition, water naturally expands as it warms above four degrees Celsius (39.2°F).

Every five years of delay beyond 2020 in peaking global emissions would mean an extra 8 inches (20 centimetres) of sea level rise by 2300.

'Sea level is often communicated as a really slow process that you can't do much about ... but the next 30 years really matter,' said lead author Dr Matthias Mengel, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in Potsdam, Germany.

None of the nearly 200 governments to sign the Paris Accords are on track to meet its pledges.

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Scientists have managed to hatch live chicks from a fully artificial egg – marking a de–extinction breakthrough that paves the way for resurrecting long–dead species.

Experts at Colossal Biosciences, the company planning to bring back the woolly mammoth, have created the first ever shell–less incubation system that mirrors a natural egg 'as much as possible'.

The team were able to take early bird embryos, place them into an artificial shell and incubate them for 18 days while they developed.

Once the chicks were ready, they hatched from their cosy home and are now living happy, healthy lives.

The company said the development marks a critical milestone for their plans to de–extinct the South Island giant moa – an enormous bird that stood at 11.8ft (3.6 metres) tall and weighed 507lbs (230kg).

It also provides a 'stepping stone' for the eventual development of an artificial womb.

Colossal Biosciences said: 'This device changes everything. We're showing the world that we can grow this whole bird in an incubator outside of an eggshell.

'It's a complete game–changer. Life finds a way.'

Experts have created the first ever shell–less incubation system that mirrors a natural egg 'as much as possible'

The artificial egg features a 'window' on the top, allowing for real–time visibility into every stage of embryonic development

The artificial egg device consists of a 3D–printed strong outer shell structured like a lattice to provide protection and rigidity.

Within this layer is a silicone–based membrane that allows oxygen to diffuse into the system.

Over the last 40 years there have been several attempts to create artificial eggs, but they required supplementation with large volumes of pure oxygen which caused DNA damage and impacted long–term animal health.

The permeable membrane of this new design allows oxygen to naturally transfer from the atmosphere into the egg.

This mirrors the real–life process of oxygen entering eggshells through microscopic pores.

'How do we replicate nature but also improve upon it?' Colossal said. 'This is the first time the core engineering problem of artificial eggs has been solved.'

The artificial egg also features a 'window' on the top, allowing for real–time visibility into every stage of embryonic development.

Colossal said its device is compatible with standard commercial incubators, is manufacturable at scale and is adaptable to eggs at any size.

One of the chicks emerging from its artificial egg. Colossal said it marks a de–extinction breakthrough that paves the way for resurrecting long–dead species

Once the chicks were ready, they hatched from their cosy home and are now living happy, healthy lives

To begin the process, experts collected real chicken eggs right after they had been laid.

An embryology team thoroughly examined each egg and selected the embryos that looked most likely to hatch.

They then cracked the egg open very gently and transferred the contents into the artificial egg, which was then placed in an incubator.

Scientists 'sprinkled' in a nutrient that helped the embryo continue to develop. Roughly 18 days later the chick started tapping against the egg to indicate it was ready to hatch.

After hatching, all chicks were put in groups and eventually moved to a 'graduation pen' outside before being relocated to a large farm.

Colossal said its design could also benefit endangered animals at a time when more than half of bird species are in decline.

'Imagine a future where we have hundreds or thousands of eggs in laboratories growing critically endangered species,' it said.

'These are the stepping stones that an artificial womb will be built on.'

The device consists of a 3D–printed strong outer shell structured like a lattice to provide protection and rigidity

Colossal said its device is compatible with standard commercial incubators, is manufacturable at scale and is adaptable to eggs at any size

The company said its plan to bring back the South Island giant moa has presented an incubation challenge unlike any other species in their portfolio.

Moa eggs are estimated to have been approximately 80 times the volume of a chicken egg and roughly eight times the volume of an emu egg, placing them entirely beyond the capacity of any available avian surrogate.

No living bird is large enough to serve as a host. A size–scaled artificial egg, therefore, is critical for the de–extinction of this species.

Colossal Biosciences will use genes extracted from moa bones to engineer modern birds until they very closely resemble the extinct species, which disappeared from New Zealand roughly 500 to 600 years ago.

This is the same technique that was used to transform grey wolves into animals closely resembling dire wolves.

The edited embryos will then be placed into an artificial egg to develop and eventually hatch.

'We've created a novel shell–less culture system that is fully scalable and biologically accurate,' said Professor Andrew Pask, chief biology officer at Colossal. 'It's a new system designed for long–term, healthy avian embryo development.

'The genome is the blueprint, but without a place to build, it's meaningless. The artificial egg gives us that platform: controlled, scalable, and completely independent of a surrogate.'

The company said the development marks a critical milestone for their plans to de–extinct New Zealand's South Island giant moa – an enormous bird that stood at 3.6 metres (11.8ft) tall and weighed 230kg (507lbs)

The moa went extinct in the 15th century due to hunting and forest clearing by the first Māori settlers. Colossal Biosciences said restoring this megafauna species will help restore New Zealand's ecosystem 

Some outside experts have cautioned that there is no published scientific paper along the announcement, which limits scientific scrutiny. However, others hailed the advance as an 'impressive act of bioengineering'.

Carles Lalueza–Fox, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona and a specialist in DNA recovery techniques, said: 'Colossal has succeeded in developing an artificial egg, something for which there are no comparable precedents.

'The most significant breakthrough lies in the permeability of the membrane, which allows gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) to pass through.'

Alongside the moa, he said the device could be used to de–extinct other birds such as the Carolina parakeet.

Dusko Ilic, Professor of Stem Cell Sciences at King's College London, said: 'Recreating an extinct species such as the moa would require far more than an incubation platform, including accurate genome reconstruction, appropriate development, physiology, behaviour, welfare and ecological context.

'Even then, the result would likely be an engineered proxy rather than a true restoration of the extinct species.

'The most credible translational value may therefore lie in applications such as embryo rescue, endangered bird conservation and controlled generation of genome–edited avian lines, particularly if it proves reproducible, scalable and compatible with normal long–term health, rather than in de–extinction itself.'

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

An unusual post, shared by US President Donald Trump on his social media account TruthSocial and reposted by Donald J Trump Posts TruthSocial , appeared to show an gray humanoid alien in handcuffs being escorted beside the President and his security personnel. No explanation was provided regarding the purpose or meaning of the AI-generated image. 

Many believe the post may be referencing the recent release of UFO-related files connected to the US Department of Defense, commonly known as the Pentagon UFO disclosures. 

One day the public is told that members of Congress have witnessed things during classified briefings that they cannot openly describe, and the next day the President is sharing an image of himself walking beside an alien figure. It blurs the line between entertainment, speculation, and a subject many people believe deserves serious attention. 

Like the Pentagon UFO files themselves, this AI-generated image does not represent true disclosure. To many observers, it feels more like political theater surrounding one of the biggest questions in human history. If there is genuine truth behind the UFO phenomenon, the public deserves transparency and seriousness rather than symbolism and viral spectacle. 

For decades, UFO sightings, encounters, and unexplained reports have often been mixed with media sensationalism, distraction campaigns, or psychological narratives. Some even speculate that imagery like this could be preparing the public for future narratives involving staged extraterrestrial scenarios or a so-called “fake alien invasion.” 

Those theories intensified further after another images posted on Trump’s Truth Social account appeared to depict a large-scale space conflict connected to the US “Space Force.” 

Such images are rarely posted without purpose, they often carry a deeper message, one we may soon begin to understand. 

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{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

Fresh wave of UFO files to be released after Trump sparked chaos with alien picture

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The second phase of the Trump Administration's UFO disclosure is underway, with officials saying the next batch of files is expected to be released 'very soon.'

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Monday on X that the materials are currently 'actively being processed' for publication.

The first release, published on May 8, included never-before-seen photos, videos and government documents tied to unidentified anomalous phenomena, also known as UAPs.

Lawmakers previously noted that the initial disclosure was only the beginning, teasing that far more explosive material remained hidden from the public.

Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett, one of Congress’ most outspoken advocates for UFO transparency, fueled speculation after the May 8 release by claiming: 'The 1st drop will be big, but in comparison to what is coming, they will be a drop in the bucket.'

'I would say "Holy Crap" is coming,' Burchett added.

The latest update arrived just one day after President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself standing beside a handcuffed alien at a US military base, further intensifying online discussion surrounding the administration’s disclosure campaign.

The surreal image, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account, showed the president and his security detail escorting the extraterrestrial figure across the tarmac while armed military personnel looked on.

The President and bodyguards flank the handcuffed extraterrestrial at a US military base, in the image posted on Truth Social Sunday

News of the second release flooded social media, where one user said: 'Finally! The government's processing UFOs faster than my laptop processes a software update.

'Either we're getting disclosure or the world's longest episode of coming soon. Either way, grab your tinfoil hat, things are getting interesting.'

Others, however, are not sold on the notion that the files will be released soon.

One X use posted: 'The phrase "actively being processed" is classic government doublespeak, suggesting momentum while committing to absolutely nothing, keeping the UFO hype alive without releasing a single page. 

'It's the perfect way to acknowledge public curiosity without ever having to deliver, turning transparency into an endless process rather than an event.' 

READ MORE

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• I'm a pastor who attended a secret UFO disclosure meeting. We saw images of 'translucent beings' that chilled me to the bone... the files could fulfil a dark biblical prophecy

Burchett also made similar statements in a video posted on Monday, suggesting the files could be withheld.

'The problem we have right now is that the Deep State's fighting a president on release. And he kept his word,' he told Morell Media.

'I suspect some of our not-so-friendly comrades in some alphabet agencies are slow-walking a lot of information. It's about power, it's about control. That's kind of what runs Washington.'

Above the horizon of the lunar surface, as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12 in 1969, an area of interest points to unidentified phenomena. This image was released on May 8

A reported sighting of a UAP in Japan, resembling a football, from a 2024 US military video. This image was released on May 8

The release of the first batch was teased the evening of May 7 by Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who posted cryptic messages suggesting it would happen the next day at 8am ET. 

The documents were made public months after the President ordered the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to declassify government records related to UFOs and alleged extraterrestrial activity.

Among the most striking materials were images and transcripts linked to NASA's Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 missions. One photo taken from the lunar surface appears to show three unexplained dots hovering in the dark sky above the moon.

The disclosure also included FBI images from New Year's Eve 1999 that appear to show unidentified objects near US military aircraft, along with photographs captured by military pilots allegedly showing fast-moving objects streaking past planes mid-flight.

A bizarre glowing object resembling an 'eight-pointed star' streaking across the sky was among the most chilling videos released in Friday's bombshell UFO disclosure.

The eerie infrared footage, captured by US military personnel in 2013, appears to show something darting through the darkness with uneven, shape-shifting arms.

Interest surrounding the disclosures intensified after Luna, chair of the House Oversight Task Force on Declassification, previously said dozens of military UFO videos remained hidden from the public.

One image released in the first batch appeared to show a bright circular object within a military targeting reticle, although officials said the description should not be interpreted as confirmation of the object's nature or significance

Luna had requested the release of 46 classified UAP videos earlier this year, including footage allegedly captured near military bases, war zones and restricted airspace.

The Pentagon missed an April deadline to release the materials, later attributing the delay to what officials described as a clerical issue.

Officials have not confirmed whether the second phase will include additional videos, radar data, pilot testimony or classified intelligence assessments.

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Scientists are baffled by mysterious blue flashes coming from deep space that are 'unlike anything we have observed before'

• READ MORE: Scientists say dark matter created a wormhole IN the Milky Way 

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

For almost a decade, scientists have been baffled by a series of mysterious blue flashes emerging from deep space.

Since the first lit up astronomers' telescopes in 2018, only 14 of these strange pulses have been detected, making them some of the rarest astronomical events on record.

Known as Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs), these lights burn faster and up to 100 times brighter than anything else scientists have seen.

Now, a group of scientists think their origin lies in the unlikely collision between a black hole and an ultra–hot sun.

LFBOTs come and go astonishingly fast, reaching their dazzling peak and fading into oblivion over days compared to the weeks or months of most stellar explosions.

Strangely, they also maintain their unique blue glow over the entire course of their brief display, which suggests they must be extremely hot the whole time.

Lead author of a new paper investigating these flashes, Dr Anya Nugent, from Harvard & Smithsonian, says this makes them 'unlike anything we have observed before'.

However, Dr Nugent now believes that LFBOTs' origins are just as violent, unusual, and unlikely as their spectacular effects.

Scientists have been baffled by mysterious blue flashes emerging from distant galaxies for almost a decade. Now, researchers say they could be caused by black holes hitting bright stars. Pictured: A blue flash coming from AT 2024wpp, a galaxy 1.1 billion light–years from Earth

In their pre–print paper, Dr Nugent and her co–authors examine the kinds of galaxies that the few confirmed blue flashes have been seen in.

By measuring the rates of star formation, mass, and levels of metallic elements in these galaxies, the researchers paint a picture of how LFBOTs might form.

This data suggests that they could be caused by ultra–dense objects like black holes or neutron stars colliding with an exceptionally bright sun called a Wolf–Rayet star.

Wolf–Rayet stars begin their lives as one part of a binary star system, in which two stellar giants orbit around a central point.

As these stars creep closer together, the larger of the two starts to feast on its neighbour's outer layers.

If they are just the right size, the 'donor' star's outer hydrogen layer is stripped away without destroying it completely, leaving the bright helium core known as a Wolf–Rayet star.

At the same time, the cannibal grows so fat on hydrogen stolen from the donor that it collapses under its own enormous bulk.

The star collapses inwards and detonates in a supernova explosion that leaves behind a stellar remnant, in the form of a black hole or neutron star.

Known as Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs), these lights burn faster and up to 100 times brighter than anything else scientists have seen (artist's impression) 

Scientists now say that LFBOTs may emerge from Wolf–Rayet stars, a massive class of stars that form when a black hole strips away the sun's outer hydrogen layer. Pictured: A Wolf–Rayet star 15,000 light–years from Earth that is 30 times the mass of the sun

That black hole continues to feed on its neighbour until, over hundreds of thousands of years, it falls into the stellar core and destroys it, triggering an LFBOT.

Co–author Professor Brian Metzger, of Columbia University, told the Daily Mail: 'When the compact object plunges into the Wolf–Rayet star, it can rapidly accrete the stellar [material] and release a huge amount of gravitational energy.

'Some of that energy drives powerful outflows or jets, which then collide with material around the star.

'That interaction can produce a very hot, bright flash of light on a short timescale.'

Wolf–Rayet stars are ideal candidates for producing LFBOTs for a few critical reasons.

First, the light from LFBOTs doesn't show the telltale signature of elemental hydrogen, which suggests they should come from stars that have lost their hydrogen layer.

Wolf–Rayet stars are also massive and dense, which allows the black hole to feed as fast as possible and produce a colossal burst of light.

Finally, Professor Metzger adds: 'They can also have dense material around them from earlier episodes of mass loss, which gives the explosion something to crash into and helps power the observed emission.'

When a black hole falls into its neighbouring Wolf–Rayet star, the destruction releases a massive burst of energy which briefly appears as LFBOT, such as this one spotted by NASA in 2023

Previously, scientists had thought that the bright surge of light could either come from an unusual type of supernova explosion or from a large star being torn apart by gravitational forces.

However, the LFBOTs that scientists have seen don't come from galaxies where either of these would be likely.

These galaxies either tend to have a rate of new star formation that is either too fast or too slow to fit with known types of supernovae.

Additionally, the black hole collision theory also helps to solve the biggest mystery surrounding these blue flashes.

LFBOTs are often found in the very outer reaches of their host galaxies, far away from the densely packed galactic centre.

For example, one flash was spotted breaking out from a region some 55,000 light–years away from its galaxy's core.

Another known as 'The Finch', found by NASA in 2023, was spotted on its own more than 50,000 light–years from the nearest spiral galaxy.

This is extremely unusual because, if they are being triggered by stars, you would expect to see them more often in regions where stars are the most tightly packed.

Scientists had thought that the bright surge of light could come from an unusual type of supernova explosion, but the galaxies where LFBOTs are found don't match those where these explosions are likely 

Dr Nugent says: 'We think it's because their progenitors must have received a "kick" to push them out of their birthsite and away from these regions in their host galaxies.

'Stars can get strong kicks from supernova explosions, and if LFBOTs do indeed come from compact object–Wolf–Rayet star mergers, it is more than likely that the star that created the compact object underwent a supernova that gave the binary system the kick.'

The researchers admit that, since the number of LFBOTs is still so small, this is far from a 'closed case'.

Many more observations will be needed before scientists can be absolutely certain what is triggering these bizarre explosions.

However, they expect that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and its newly started decade–long Legacy Survey of Space and Time should help provide those answers.

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Huge asteroid with the potential to obliterate an entire city will skim past Earth TONIGHT – here's how you can watch the narrow miss live

• READ MORE: NASA successfully changed asteroid's orbit around the sun 

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

An enormous asteroid with the potential to destroy an entire city will skim past Earth this evening.

Astronomers say the space rock, called 2026 JH2, is up to four times the size of a London bus and will get 'as close as you can without hitting'.

It is expected to zoom by our planet at an estimated distance of around 56,000 miles (90,000km) at 10:23pm BST.

This is exceptionally close – the equivalent of just a quarter of the distance between us and the moon.

Estimates place the size of the space rock between 52 and 115ft (16 and 35 metres) in diameter, and it is racing towards Earth at around 20,000mph (32,000 kmph).

Despite having enough mass to wipe out a city, simulations suggest there is no chance of impact for at least the next 100 years.

While it will be too faint to see with the naked eye, it may be visible through amateur telescopes under dark sky conditions. But for those without access to stargazing equipment, you can still watch the unusually close encounter.

Astronomers in Italy will be sharing a livestream of the flyby, recorded through a telescope, on The Virtual Telescope Project's YouTube channel. The broadcast will start at 8:45pm BST.

This illustration shows the orbit of asteroid 2026 JH2 (grey) relative to Earth's orbit (light blue). Its oval–shaped orbit takes it nearly as far out as Jupiter

Thankfully, simulations suggest there is no chance of an impact for at least the next 100 years (stock image) 

People in the UK will have the best chance of spotting asteroid 2026 JH2 from dark–sky locations with a clear northern horizon.

Around closest approach, it should be moving through the region of Ursa Major, fairly high in the sky.

Binoculars probably won't be good enough unless they are very large. However, it should be visible with small telescopes.

It will look like a faint moving dot, rather than a dramatic streak.

The asteroid was first discovered on May 10 by astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Observatory near Tucson in Arizona.

Data suggests it likely circles the sun every 3.7 years on an oval–shaped orbit that takes it nearly as far out as Jupiter.

The size of the asteroid is an estimate based on the amount of light reflecting off its surface, which means that measurements cannot be entirely certain.

If the asteroid is made of a particularly dark or unreflective material, then it could be nearer to the higher end of the estimate range or potentially even larger.

2026 JH2 is expected to zoom by our planet at an estimated distance of around 56,000 miles (90,000km) tonight

Estimated to be between 16 and 35 metres (52 to 115ft) across, 2026 JH2 is a similar size to the 20–metre Chelyabinsk meteor (pictured), which exploded with 30 times the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima 

Asteroid 2026 JH2

Estimated size: 16 to 35 metres (52 to 115ft) in diameter

Closest pass to Earth: 56,000 miles (90,000km)

Time of closest pass: May 18th 10:23pm (BST)

Risk of hitting Earth: None

How to watch live: Astronomers will be sharing a livestream of the flyby, recorded through a telescope, on The Virtual Telescope Project's YouTube channel. The broadcast will start at 8:45pm BST.

However, even at the lower end of its estimated range, the asteroid still carries a huge destructive potential.

'It's the kind of thing that would ruin a city quite efficiently, if it hit,' Mark Norris, from the University of Lancashire, told New Scientist.

Experts say if 2026 JH2 did strike Earth, it would cause an event comparable to the Chelyabinsk meteor.

In 2013, an 18–metre (59ft) meteor exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia, near the border with Kazakhstan.

The resulting explosion was 30 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, producing a shockwave that travelled twice around the world.

Directly beneath the explosion, 28 miles (45km) above the ground, the heat was so intense that people were left with burns and retinal damage.

Around 1,500 people were injured and over 3,600 homes were damaged, even though only 0.05 per cent of the original rock made it to the ground.

With a potential size up to 35 metres (115ft) in diameter, 2026 JH2 has the potential to be even more destructive – possibly even ranking it as a 'city killer' size asteroid.

However, although the asteroid will pass extremely close to the planet, it poses no threat whatsoever to Earth.

READ  MORE

• What would it have been like to experience the dinosaur–killing asteroid? Scientists reveal a blow–by–blow account of one of the most catastrophic events in history

Thanks to careful study by the network of planetary defence telescopes, astronomers are able to make very precise calculations of asteroids' orbits

The next sizable space rock that will get this close to Earth will likely be the 'God of Chaos' asteroid, 99942 Apophis, which will fly within 20,000 miles (32,000 km) of Earth on April 13, 2029.

After Apophis, the next major flyby will be from 2024 YR4, also known as the 'city killer' asteroid, which will zoom past the moon at a minimum distance of around 13,200 miles (21,200 km) in 2032.

POTENTIAL METHODS FOR ELIMINATING THE THREAT OF AN ASTEROID  

DART is one of many concepts of how to negate the threat of an asteroid that have been suggested over the years. 

Multiple bumps 

Scientists in California have been firing projectiles at meteorites to simulate the best methods of altering the course of an asteroid so that it wouldn't hit Earth. 

According to the results so far, an asteroid like Bennu that is rich in carbon could need several small bumps to charge its course.

'These results indicate multiple successive impacts may be required to deflect rather than disrupt asteroids, particularly carbonaceous asteroids,' researchers said.  

Nuke 

Another idea, known simply as 'nuke', involves blowing up a nuclear explosive close to the asteroid.

However, this could create smaller but still potentially dangerous fragments of rock that could spin off in all directions, potentially towards Earth. 

Ion Beam Deflection

With Ion Beam Deflection, plumes from a space probe's thrusters would be directed towards the asteroid to gently push on its surface over a wide area. 

A thruster firing in the opposite direction would be needed to keep the spacecraft at a constant distance from the asteroid. 

Gravity tractor 

And yet another concept, gravity tractor, would deflect the asteroid without physically contacting it, but instead by using only its gravitational field to transmit a required impulse. 

Professor Colin Snodgrass, an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh said: 'There have been a few concepts suggested, such as a 'gravity tractor' to slowly tow an asteroid away instead of pushing it with a kinetic impactor.

'But the kinetic impactor is definitely the simplest technology to use on the sort of timescale that is most likely to be of concern for this size of asteroid, i.e. years to decades warning time.'

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This unusual cloud phenomenon involves a 6,000-kilometer-wide wave front that travels around Venus over just a few Earth days, and scientists believe it could potentially affect future space missions.

A Weather Aberration on Venus

Japan’s Akatsuki Venus orbiter first observed Venus’s enormous, 6,000-kilometer-wide atmospheric wave move across the planet’s equator at tremendous speed in 2016. Now, a decade later, the University of Tokyo team has some answers about this peculiar feature.

Compared to Earth, Venus is a slow mover, with its rotation even slower than its 243-day orbit. Despite this, Venusian clouds move at an incredible pace, 60 times the planet’s rotational speed in what is known as “superrotation,” a phenomenon also observed on Mars, the Sun, and Earth’s supersonic atmosphere.

“We identified the phenomena, but for years we couldn’t understand it,” said lead author Professor Takeshi Imamura from the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo. “However, thanks to this research, we’re now able to show that this cloud disruption is caused by the largest known hydraulic jump in the solar system.”

A Natural Weather Lab

The Venusian atmosphere is hot, dense, and toxic, being composed of almost 97% carbon dioxide. This results in constant cloud cover, which rains sulfuric acid. While this creates a deadly environment for humans, at a distance, it’s a perfect natural weather laboratory. This extreme cloud density makes hard-to-spot weather patterns and processes more readily apparent than they would be on a planet such as ours.

The strange formation in the Venusian atmosphere resulted from a sudden slowdown of the fluid, known as a hydraulic jump, produced when a large atmospheric Kelvin wave moving east across Venus becomes unstable in the lower to middle cloud region. The Kelvin wave’s sudden slowing produces an updraft, pushing sulfuric acid vapor into the upper atmosphere, where it can condense into clouds. As though clouds trail, they form the enormous wavefront spotted by Akatsuki Venus.

“Venus has three distinct cloud layers, and the dynamics of the lower and middle layers are not so well understood,” said Imamura. “Our discovery of a hydraulic jump on Venus connecting a very large-scale horizontal process with a strong localized vertical wave is unexpected, as in fluid dynamics these are usually disconnected.”

Analyzing Venusian Weather

The Japanese researchers used a fluid-dynamic model to simulate the hydraulic jump observed on Venus, combined with a microphysical box model to track air flow through the atmosphere. In their analysis, the University of Tokyo researchers identified how the cloud disturbance maintains the Venusian atmosphere’s superrotation.

“Up until now, we used a global circulation model (GCM) for Venus that is similar to Earth’s, but this model doesn’t include the hydraulic jump which we have now identified,” explained Imamura. “Our next step will be to test this discovery within a more inclusive climate model that includes other atmospheric processes. We will face challenges due to the significant processing power required to run such simulations. Even with modern supercomputers, it isn’t easy.”

• Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
  

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Mount Roraima: Evidence of Ancient Cutting Technology?

mariusalbertsen

Rising abruptly from the lush, untamed jungles of southeastern Venezuela, Mount Roraima is a geological behemoth that defies logic. With its perfectly flat plateau and sheer, vertical cliffs plunging thousands of feet into the mists below, it looks less like a natural mountain and more like a colossal, ancient fortress. For decades, alternative researchers and mystery enthusiasts have looked at these impossibly straight geological lines and asked a controversial question: could Mount Roraima be the result of artificial cuts? This massive tepui, surrounded by a harsh and isolated landscape, continues to capture the imagination of explorers and scientists alike.

The sheer scale of Mount Roraima is breathtaking, with its summit covering roughly 31 square kilometers (12 square miles) and its highest point reaching 2,810 meters (9,219 ft). The walls of the tepui are so remarkably vertical and smooth that they appear to have been sheared off by advanced machinery. This visual anomaly has fueled endless speculation about ancient, highly advanced civilizations or even extraterrestrial architects who may have terraformed the region in the distant past. However, distinguishing between the myths of ancient builders and the harsh realities of geological time requires a deeper look into both the stone and the people who live in its shadow.

A traveler sitting on the rocky, alien terrain of Mount Roraima's plateau, looking out over the clouds and sheer cliffs. 

Pixabay Free/Emilio17

The Monolithic Mystery of the Tepuis

To understand the intense speculation surrounding Mount Roraima, one must first look at its baffling geography. The mountain is part of the Pacaraima chain, a series of tepuis, table-top mountains that dominate the Gran Sabana region. When clouds roll in, obscuring the base of the mountain, Mount Roraima appears to float in the sky like a solid island of rock. It is this otherworldly appearance that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous 1912 novel, "The Lost World." The stark 90-degree angles of the cliff faces look distinctly non-natural, leading many to draw comparisons to ancient megalithic structures like Stonehenge or the perfectly cut stones of Puma Punku.

A dramatic view of a tepui's vertical stone walls rising out of the mist. Visually represents the "artificial cuts" debate.

 Pixabay Free/JohannaWallace

Proponents of the artificial cuts theory point to the immense, block-like formations that litter the plateau and the base of the cliffs. Some of these gigantic stone blocks appear uniformly rectangular, resembling quarried masonry on a scale far beyond human capability. Could a lost civilization have used advanced technology to mine this mountain for precious minerals? While this theory is incredibly compelling and makes for fantastic lore, modern science offers a different, yet equally fascinating, explanation for these supposedly artificial features.

Geological studies have consistently shown that the secret to Mount Roraima lies in the immense power of deep time. According to a comprehensive 2019 study by Sauro et al., the tepuis are composed of ancient Precambrian quartz arenite sandstones. Over millions of years, a unique weathering process known as "arenization" slowly dissolved the quartz. This relentless chemical and physical weathering, combined with massive structural collapses, naturally creates the sheer vertical walls and the giant, block-like sinkholes that mimic artificial cuts. Nature, given enough time, is the ultimate master mason.

Myth of the Tree of Life

While modern science attributes the shape of Mount Roraima to the slow dissolution of quartz sandstone, the indigenous peoples of the region have their own profound explanations. For the Pemon and Kapon tribes, who have inhabited the Circum-Mount Roraima landscape for centuries, the tepui is deeply woven into their cultural DNA. They do not see the mountain as an artificially cut quarry, but rather as the sacred remnants of a cosmic event. Anthropological research, including recent ethnographies by Riris et al. (2025), details the rich oral traditions that view Mount Roraima as the stump of the mighty "Tree of Life."

Blue-tinted ancient rock art showing human and animal figures. Represents the region's indigenous presence and ancient myths. 

Pixabay Free/MikeGoad

According to local folklore, this colossal tree once bore all the fruits and vegetables of the world, providing endless sustenance for humanity. However, a legendary trickster figure named Makunaima chopped down the tree in a moment of greed or folly. The massive trunk crashed to the earth, unleashing a terrible flood, and the sheer, flat-topped stump that remained became Mount Roraima. This powerful myth beautifully explains the "cut" appearance of the tepui without the need for alien lasers or lost technological empires. It highlights a profound spiritual connection to the geological landscape.

The folklore surrounding Mount Roraima is not merely a collection of ancient bedtime stories; it is a vital part of indigenous identity. The mountain is considered sacred ground, heavily protected by spirits, and historically, scaling its walls was strictly forbidden. The mists that perpetually shroud the summit are said to be the smoke from the fires of the spirits. This deep-rooted reverence demonstrates how ancient humans naturally created complex, mythical frameworks to make sense of the awe-inspiring and intimidating geological anomalies of their environment.

A lush, dense tropical waterfall in the Venezuelan jungle, representing the impenetrable Gran Sabana surrounding the tepuis.

Pixabay Free/Atlantios

Prehistoric Footprints in the Gran Sabana

While the theory of artificial cuts remains firmly in the realm of alternative history, there is undeniable evidence of ancient human presence in the shadow of Mount Roraima. Recent archaeological expeditions have begun to reveal that the seemingly impenetrable Canaima National Park complex was not entirely devoid of early human activity. Although the brutal environment makes the preservation of organic material difficult, researchers have found enduring marks left in stone. A 2026 study by García et al. documented the exciting discovery of new rock art sites and lithic tools in the region.

A wide landscape shot showing the massive scale of the tepui plateau rising above the savanna.

(Pixabay Free/jplenio)

These recent findings provide a tangible link between the modern indigenous populations and their prehistoric ancestors. The newly discovered petroglyphs feature intricate geometric patterns, human figures, and representations of the diverse local fauna. The presence of these ancient artists suggests that the area around Mount Roraima has been a site of cultural significance for thousands of years. The lithic tools found nearby indicate that these ancient people were not just passing through, but were actively hunting, gathering, and surviving in this challenging environment.

A moody, dramatic shot of ancient stone monoliths under a stormy sky (Stonehenge style). A thematic image to accompany the "ancient builders" or megalithic theories. 

Pixabay Free/ELG21

The discovery of prehistoric rock art adds a crucial layer of authenticity to the region's historical narrative. It shifts the focus from unsubstantiated claims of advanced ancient engineering to the very real, hard-fought survival of indigenous groups in South America. These ancient people did not need advanced machinery to leave their mark on the world. Their legacy is etched into the stone faces of the Gran Sabana, proving that the true magic of Mount Roraima lies not in hypothetical artificial cuts, but in the enduring relationship between the mountain and the humans who have revered it since antiquity.

Ultimately, Mount Roraima stands as a testament to the staggering power of geological forces and the boundless capacity of human imagination. Whether viewed as the petrified stump of the Tree of Life, a naturally sculpted masterpiece of quartz sandstone, or a canvas for prehistoric artists, it remains one of the Earth's most mesmerizing mysteries. While the vertical cliffs were carved by water and time rather than ancient saws, the true wonder of Mount Roraima is that it continues to inspire a profound sense of awe in everyone who gazes upon its towering walls.

• Top Image: A beautiful, wide-angle shot of the neighboring Kukenan tepui at sunset, showing the massive, seemingly "cut" flat top and vertical walls glowing in golden light. Excellent representation of the tepui structure.
• Source: Paolo Costa Baldi/CC BY-SA 3.0

By Marius Albertsen

FAQs

• Is Mount Roraima artificially cut? No, the sheer vertical cliffs and flat top of Mount Roraima are the result of a natural geological process called arenization. Over millions of years, chemical and physical weathering dissolved the ancient quartz sandstone, causing massive structural collapses that created straight lines resembling artificial cuts.
• What is the indigenous myth of Mount Roraima? The local Pemon and Kapon indigenous peoples believe Mount Roraima is the petrified stump of the legendary "Tree of Life." According to folklore, this massive tree once held all the fruits of the world before it was chopped down by a trickster spirit, leaving behind the flat-topped mountain.
• Are there ancient archaeological sites near Mount Roraima? Yes, recent archaeological studies have uncovered prehistoric rock art, petroglyphs, and lithic (stone) tools in the Canaima National Park region surrounding the tepuis. These discoveries confirm that ancient humans lived and hunted in the shadow of Mount Roraima thousands of years ago.

References

• García, L. et al. 2026. Prehistoric Landscapes of The Canaima Complex: New Rock Art Sites and Lithic Tools in Southeastern Venezuela. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169555X19302648
• Riris, P. et al. 2025. Indigenous Folklore in the Circum-Mount Roraima Landscape. Available at: Taylor & Francis Online https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015587X.2025.2539607
• Sauro, F. et al. 2019. Genesis of giant sinkholes and caves in the quartz sandstones of tepuis (Venezuela). Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/400086051_Prehistoric_Landscapes_of_The_Canaima_Complex_New_Rock_Art_Sites_and_Lithic_tools_in_Southeastern_Venezuela

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EXCLUSIVE - I'm an exorcist... Here's the chilling encounter that made me believe UFOs are the work of Satan

By ROB WAUGH

A Catholic priest and exorcist who has encountered demons first-hand has revealed a chilling experience that led him to believe UFOs are actually the work of the devil. 

Father Carlos Martins, an Ontario-born priest who has performed exorcisms around the world, believes the UFO phenomenon is part of a larger spiritual deception designed to undermine Christianity and cast doubt on the Bible.

The priest said a longtime friend who later converted to Christianity once witnessed a gigantic spacecraft hovering silently over a suburban park before it shot away 'instantly to the speed of a bullet.'

The object was allegedly so enormous that the two witnesses could see details on its surface and estimated it stretched across 'many football fields in size.' Yet despite the extraordinary sighting, no one else in the town appeared to notice the object, and there were no local news reports about the alleged encounter.

Years later, after converting to Christianity, Martins' friend came to believe the vision had not been an alien craft at all, but a supernatural illusion sent by the devil.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Martins said Satan could use belief in extraterrestrial civilizations to create 'a competing account' to Christian scripture and weaken belief in divine revelation.

He also claimed modern UFO encounters, particularly alien abduction stories, often mirror the psychological and physical torment seen during cases of alleged demonic possession.

'If the devil brings it about, he can put it into the human imagination that there is extraterrestrial life, that there are civilizations out there, then he can cause doubt in the Scriptures,' Martin said.

Father Carlos Martins has encountered the Devil and his minions in many forms

'What he's done then is set up a competing account to the Christian scriptures, something the Judeo-Christian scriptures cannot account for, and so there's an indirect repudiation of the truth of revelation. He's accomplished that.'

The idea that UFOs may have demonic origins has gained traction in some conservative religious circles in recent years.

Vice President J D Vance said on a podcast in March: 'I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons.'

Martins converted from atheism to Christianity while studying as an undergraduate and says one of his closest friends experienced an encounter that radically shaped his understanding of UFOs.

The priest recalled: 'I have a good friend who is a convert. He converted to the Christian faith in his late teens or early 20s. We grew up in the same hometown.

'[My friend] was walking with another friend on a weeknight along a trail in a suburb that ran between two homes and opened into a large park. 

'They looked up into the sky and saw this enormously large spaceship. It was immensely large, many football fields in size.'

The two men allegedly watched the giant craft hovering silently overhead and were close enough to make out details on its surface.

Father Carlos Martins, an Ontario-born priest who has performed exorcisms around the world, believes the UFO phenomenon is part of a larger spiritual deception designed to undermine Christianity and cast doubt on the Bible  (stock)

Martins said: 'They look at one another, and then they look back at the ship, and it would have been less than a minute.

'All of a sudden, it takes off with a speed that's just unfathomable, instantly to the speed of a bullet. So it just shot out of the sky. There wasn't an acceleration, it was just instant darting away.'

According to Martins, the most disturbing aspect of the encounter was that nobody else seemed to have witnessed the gigantic craft.

There were no reports in local newspapers, no emergency calls and no indication anyone else in town had seen the alleged spacecraft.

For years, his friend struggled to understand the experience until later converting to Christianity.

'My friend, when he converted, or after he converted, we talked about this again, Martins said.

'I remember a couple of times, and I said to him, "Look, what do you think that was?" He said, "No question. It was the devil."'

'He said, "If I were to buy into this concept, then of their being ET life, then it would cast a doubt on the Christian account of what exists in the universe of God's plan for it."'

He said reports involving UFOs and alien encounters have increasingly appeared alongside exorcism cases during the last decade.

'There's definitely been a rise, I would say, in the last 10 years of integration of UFO and extraterrestrial, alien life stuff and exorcism,' Martins explained.

'I wouldn't say that it's common, but I would say it's definitely on the rise.'

Above, a still from a video released in the Trump administration's disclosure appears to show a glowing object resembling an 'eight-pointed star' with uneven arms moving across the sky, which almost seemed to shape-shift in mid-air

Martins believes many UFO sightings are elaborate illusions created to deceive human senses.

'The senses can be deceived. Fake sense experience can be produced. That's the point,' he said. 'So an illusion, a mirage, which I've seen many times.'

The priest said he witnessed this phenomenon firsthand while performing an exorcism on a firefighter he believed was possessed.

Martins said he secretly flicked a tiny amount of holy water onto the man's clothing while walking behind him.

According to Martins, the man suddenly reacted violently.

'He shot up out of his chair and started hissing, and his teeth seemed to grow some two inches, like there were fangs at that moment,' Martins said. 'For a split second, the fangs were protruding from his mouth.'

Martins believes the apparent transformation was not physically real, but rather a visual illusion generated by demonic forces.

'The devil is perfectly capable of bending light. He's perfectly capable of causing a mirage and illusion,' the priest said. 'I mean, he is by far the greatest magician, the greatest sleight of hand performer that has ever existed.'

The priest also argued that alleged alien abductions closely resemble accounts of demonic oppression and possession.

'When you read accounts of abductions of people that have been allegedly abducted, very similar to ones that are demonically tortured,' Martins said. 'There are large gaps in memory.'

He added: 'The phenomenon, the experience of the victim, is kind of always the same. Across the board, there's an abuse of the body, an abuse of the person.'

Martins believes modern fascination with extraterrestrials emerged during the Space Age and gradually replaced older supernatural folklore.

'This is the modern-day folk account of leprechauns, tooth fairies and pixies,' he said. 'It was only when we entered the Space Age. 

'Then the view of man changed, and that became kind of the new realm, the blank slate by which the devil could approve and kind of begin to dictate a new story.'

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