Five biggest revelations from UFO files from ‘alien encounters’ to ‘flying orbs’

 Luke Alsford

Bombshell files documenting alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects and aliens have been published by the US Administration.

Donald Trump ordered the Department of War to release hundreds of never-before-seen classified files.

The first tranche of 169 items included State Department cables, FBI documents and NASA transcripts of crewed flights into space.

This is only the first batch of files from the Pentagon – with many more to come – but they have already created a storm of unanswered questions about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Strange lights seen from the Moon

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12, featuring five highlighted areas of interest (Picture: NASA)

The files contain a string of unexplained sightings made by astronauts on the lunar surface.

A string of reports were made during the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon in 1972.

Pilot Ronald Evans told mission control: ‘Now we’ve got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver.’

Harrison Schmitt, another pilot on the mission, added: ‘There’s a whole bunch of big ones on my window down there – just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window.’

Then the next day, mission commander Eugene Cernan said he had seen a ‘very brihgt spot hat flashed right between my eyes like a very bright headlight’ just as he was falling asleep.

A photograph showing three dots above the Moon was even snapped, sparking an investigation by the Pentagon.

Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, also repoted ‘unusual sights’ while on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, including as he was going to sleep.

Astronauts from different Apollo missions reported seeing unexplained bright lights while on the Moon (Picture: NASA)

According to a transcript in the files, the astronaut said: ‘The first unusual thing that we saw I guess was one day out or something pretty close to the moon. It had a sizeable dimension to it, so we put the monocular on it.

He went on: ‘The other observation that I made accumulated gradually. I don’t know whether I saw it the first night, but I’m sure I saw it the second night. I was trying to go to sleep with all the lights out. I observed what I thought were little flashes inside the cabin, spaced a couple of minutes apart.’

The Apollo 12 mission later in 1969 also observed ‘unidentified phenomena’ from the moon’s surface, the files revealed.

Chilling FBI reports about ‘aliens’

The Pentagon also made public hundreds of pages from an FBI case file of reports of UFOs and paranormal activity from 1947 to 1968.

One of these included a chilling picture of a figure holding its arms up and looking towards the sky.

A handwritten letter from a man from Virginia asked the FBI to comment on the image.

There were also testimonies of encounters with apparent occupants of these craft.

One memo reads: ‘A few witnesses have reported seeing crewmen who had landed from the objects.’

One of the most unnerving photos released in the UFO files

The beings were described as ‘three and a half to four feet tall, wearing what appear to be space suits and helmets.’

The sighting was detailed in a book titled Flying Saucers – Serious Business authored by Frank Edwards in June 1966. 

In a different report, a ‘young white female’ informant came forward to the force claiming she had met a being from another planet.

That being ‘had assumed earthly form. He allegedly ‘gave her certain information, then was picked up and departed from earth.’

Mysterious footage and pictures of UFOs

The tranche of files released on Friday included a host of pictures and images showing bizarre-looking objects in the skies.

These included footage of a triangular-shaped UFO, which has gone viral on social media.

The documents also feature an FBI graphic made from eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky.

According to the report, several witnesses claimed to have seen ‘orbs launching other orbs’ in the distance, along with a large glowing sphere hovering in place and a semi-transparent object compared to a ‘translucent kite.’

Claims that Nazis built a UFO

One FBI document alleged that a man named Paul Peyerl claimed he was a member of the German Air Force in 1944 and that the Nazi’s built a UFO during the war.

The FBI put together a graphic based on witness reports of a UFO from September 2023 (Picture: U.S. Department of War)

The document claimed: ‘During this period he observed the aircraft described above. It was saucer shaped, about twenty-one feet in diameter, radio controlled, and mounted several jet engines around the exterior portion of the craft.’

Going into detai about the craft, the file continued: ‘He further described the exterior portion as revolving around the dome in the center which remained stationary. It was PEYERL’s responsibility to photograph the object while in flight. He asserted he was able to retain a negative of a photograph he made at 7,000 meters (20,000 feet).

‘A Xerox copy of the negative, as furnished by PEYERL, appears on the last page of this communication. Also, a still photograph he allegedly made “at the risk of my life”, illustrating the object parked in a hanger, appears on the last page.’

‘Super-hot’ orbs chased US fighter jets

Unidentified flying orbs allegedly chased the US military (PIcture: via REUTERS)

One of the heavily redacted FBI reports included a bombshell allegation about quick unidentified objects that were able to outrun military helicopters.

In the file, a senior US intelligence officer recounted a nighttime mission in a remote mountain range.

After local staff repeatedly claimed they had seen strange glowing ‘orbs’ intelligence personnel, federal agents and helicopter crews were dispatched to investigate.

When they arrived, they allegedly saw swarms of highly maneuverable objects that came up as extremely hot on their thermal cameras.

The orbs were said to have outpaced a military helicopter and then pursued a fighter jet trying to intercept them.

A co-pilot in the lead helicopter even claimed he watched an orb split into two before another object ’emerged’ and shot away.

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The six times Americans saw UFOs in Greece, three of them on video – What the files released by the Pentagon say

They were sighted either on mainland Greece or in the Aegean Sea

• The U.S. Pentagon released files containing reports of unexplained phenomena, including three from Greece.
• Two Greek reports from October 2023 describe small, circular objects moving over the sea and disappearing from tracking systems.
• A third unresolved UAP report from January 2024 involved a diamond-shaped object visible only through an infrared sensor.
• These reports document sightings of unidentified phenomena, not confirmations of extraterrestrial life.
• The collection of files, some dating back 80 years, is available on WAR.GOV/UFO.

At least three of the six reports related to Greece include video footage and are part of the files released by the U.S. Pentagon regarding UFO sightings around the world.

In essence, these do not constitute confirmation or denial of extraterrestrial life, but rather incidents in which civilians or members of the U.S. Armed Forces saw, observed, detected unexplained phenomena on the horizon, or encountered unidentified flying objects that cannot be explained based on the available evidence.

The collection is hosted at WAR.GOV/UFO, and it is noted that additional files will be released “on a rolling basis.” It is worth noting that the collection includes files dating back as far as 80 years. The documents were published as part of the Trump administration’s initiative for greater transparency regarding records that had remained restricted for years.

The first batch includes 162 folders. Among them are documents from federal agencies, old diplomatic cables, and transcripts from NASA crewed missions. Of particular interest to the Greek public are the reports of sightings from Greece, either inland or in the Aegean.

According to the released information, two of the Greece-related reports recorded on video are from late October 2023, while the third dates from January 2024.

In the first case, on October 27, a small, apparently circular object was reportedly detected moving very low over the sea and was said to perform sudden maneuvers before disappearing from the tracking system.

Video description according to the report:

00:02: The sensor narrows its field of view to focus on a high-contrast area near the center of the screen.

00:03–00:19: The sensor tracks the high-contrast area as it moves against the backdrop of the sea.

00:20: As the background transitions from mostly water to land, the high-contrast area becomes difficult to distinguish.

The second case, on October 29, also concerns a small circular object which, according to the report, moved over the sea toward land before disappearing from view.

Video description according to the report:

00:04: A contrast area enters the sensor’s field of view from the lower-left quadrant of the screen.

00:07–00:19: The contrast area moves horizontally back and forth within the field of view while the sensor pans to follow it.

01:00–02:01: The sensor marks the contrast area with a blue crosshair, synchronizing its movement with the relative position of the contrast area.

02:02–02:21: The sensor activates a contrast filter to better distinguish the contrast area from the background.

02:22: The contrast area becomes indistinguishable from the background, and the crosshair loses focus.

02:27–02:57: After losing focus, the sensor rapidly changes zoom levels and contrast thresholds.

The same files also include a third unresolved UAP report, filed in January 2024. Based on the available information, no further details emerge regarding the circumstances of the observation or the nature of the object.

Video description according to the report:

00:04: A contrast area becomes distinguishable from the background in the center-right frame.

00:10: The display switches to a full-screen SWIR feed view for better focus on the contrast area.

00:55: The contrast area generally remains centered in the sensor’s field of view. It visually resembles an inverted teardrop with a vertically linear mass hanging below it.

00:56: The operator switches the sensor mode to the visible spectrum, causing the object to disappear into the background.00:57–01:05: The operator switches the sensor back to SWIR (Black-Hot) mode but is unable to reacquire the contrast area.

The following document is a Mission Report (MISREP) from the U.S. military documenting the circumstances surrounding operations conducted from Greece in January 2024.

A U.S. Armed Forces operator reported observing a UAP, estimating its speed at “approximately 434 knots (800 km/h).” The observer described the UAP as diamond-shaped, with a probe-like feature underneath that did not maneuver. The observer noted that the UAP was visible only through an integrated Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) sensor. The observer stated that the incident lasted approximately two minutes.

{ https://en.protothema.gr/greece/ }

How to access UFO files — and dodge the Men in Black

(Image credit: Getty Images)

• See the UFO files at the US Gov website today (May 8)
• View UFO files anonymously with NordVPN - 75% off + 3 months extra free
• UFO files drop – 8am ET / 1pm BST

The UFO files are set to go live today at 8am ET / 1pm BST according to Rep. Luna, and we'll show you how to access the declassified UFO videos safely, securely and privately with the right VPN.

Washington’s long-promised UFO file dump starts with up to 'UAP material' including documents and declassified files that President Donald Trump has described as "very interesting".

With Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day film out in June, it certainly feels like we're living in The Age of Disclosure. Here's how to access UFO files and Aliens.gov from anywhere – with a solid VPN.

Use a VPN to see the UFO files online

The truth is out there – but depending on where you live, the latest UFO file dump might not be quite as easy to access as Mulder would like.

From geo-blocks to overloaded servers and privacy concerns, the best way to see the UFO files anonymously with a strong VPN (no IP tracking).

Use a VPN to see UFO files online

The US gov website is available around the world, but what if you're abroad and find you can't access the UFO files?

This is where a VPN can help. It's a handy piece of software that can make your device appear to be back home, so you can unlock your usual service or subscription from anywhere. The best VPN right now? We recommend NordVPN – it does everything you want it to do at great speeds and an even better price.

What is likely in the UFO files?

Republican Anna-Paulina Luna has been teasing the UFO files again , posting "8am ET" on Thursday, 7 May. Line

So far, the “UFO files” appear to contain a mix of military UAP reports, pilot testimony, radar logs, declassified videos and internal government investigations into unexplained aerial phenomena — not a giant “we found aliens” smoking gun.

Luna has confirmed on X/Twitter that the requested 46 videos and documents will arrive in the second batch of the disclosure.

A lot of today's buzz centres on:

• Navy “Tic Tac”-style encounters
• Cockpit footage and thermal imagery
• Radar tracking data
• Reports of objects accelerating or manoeuvring beyond known aircraft capabilities
• Possible underwater “USO” sightings
• Congressional testimony from whistleblowers claiming hidden retrieval programs

Is this full disclosure? Will it show aliens exist?

No. The first UFO files won't prove that aliens exist or that a flying saucer landed at Holloman Airbase for a meeting with President Eisenhower. Don't expect 4K videos of UFOs going in and out of the water.

There’s currently no verified evidence in the public releases confirming extraterrestrial life. Even pro-disclosure sources such as Rep. Tim Burchett and Weaponized podcaster Jeremy Corbell say the rollout is more about transparency around unexplained incidents and classified investigations than an official 'alien announcement'.

Why should I use a VPN to see the UFO files? Any tips?

Most premium VPNs also include kill switches, tracker blocking and malware protection, which is probably overkill for UFO browsing… but then again, so was building Area 51. Just remember: use official sources where possible, avoid random “leak” sites packed with pop-ups, and maybe don’t answer any unmarked black sedans parked outside your house afterward. You can select from the best VPNs in our full guide – we test them daily to find the most trusted apps.

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A huge tsunami 1.5 times the size of the Eiffel Tower hit a popular tourist spot in Alaska last year, a new study has revealed. 

Measuring 1,578ft (481 metres) high, the tsunami ran up the wall of Tracy Arm fjord on 10 August, 2025.

This makes it the second highest tsunami ever recorded – second only to a tsunami in Lityua Bay, Alaska, in 1958, which measured 1,720ft (524 metres). 

While Tracy Arm is a popular spot for cruise ships, thankfully no one was caught in the wave as it hit early in the morning, at around 5.30am.

The tsunami was triggered by a landslide, which was ultimately a result of climate change, according to researchers from UCL.

'Fjords with retreating glaciers have seen a sharp increase in tourism,' explained co–author Dr Stephen Hicks.

'More people are visiting these beautiful places in the polar and sub–polar regions but they are at the forefront of climate change impacts and so can be dangerous.

'This event took everyone by surprise. The area had not been identified as hazardous.'

A huge tsunami 1.5 times the size of the Eiffel Tower hit a popular tourist spot in Alaska last year, a new study has revealed. Note the trimline along the far side of the fjord, caused by the tsunami stripping the walls of vegetations

Measuring 1,578ft (481 metres) high, the tsunami ran up the wall of Tracy Arm fjord on 10 August, 2025. This makes it the second highest tsunami ever recorded – second only to a tsunami in Lityua Bay, Alaska, in 1958, which measured 1,720ft (524 metres)

While no–one was caught in the wave, there were several eyewitnesses, whose accounts were used in combination with numerical modelling and data from satellites and seismometers to piece together exactly what happened. 

According to the researchers, the glacier holding up the mountain had retreated rapidly – by 500 metres in a matter of weeks – leaving the rock unsupported. 

As the rock plunged into the water, it triggered an enormous wave in the water below.

The wave scraped off trees and plants along the walls of the fjord, leaving a sheer rock face.

This allowed the researchers to infer the wave at a height of 1,578ft (481 metres) for over 0.6 miles (1km).

A group of kayakers camped out further down the fjord reported waking up at around 5:45am to find water flowing past their tent, carrying away one of their kayaks and much of their gear. 

Another eyewitness described a two–metre wave coming along the beach. 

Meanwhile observers on a cruise ship anchored near the mouth of the fjord saw currents and white water, but no obvious wave. 

While no–one was caught in the wave, there were several eyewitnesses, whose accounts were used in combination with numerical modelling and data from satellites and seismometers to piece together exactly what happened

According to the researchers, the glacier holding up the mountain had retreated rapidly – by 500 metres in a matter of weeks – leaving the rock unsupported

Given the size of the tsunami, the researchers estimate that the amount of rock that crashed into the water was equivalent to 24 Great Pyramids of Giza. 

Dr Dan Shugar, lead author, based at the University of Calgary, said: 'Normally with these gigantic rock avalanches, they often give some sort of warning signs in the weeks, months, years prior when the slope is slowly moving down the mountain. 

'It's sagging and then it catastrophically gives way in a rock avalanche. 

'In this case, that didn't happen.' 

Given the popularity of the site, the researchers say that urgent action is needed to avoid a repeat incident.  

'We need to reduce the risk of these expeditions by better identifying the riskiest areas and getting investment into warning systems that might give us a few hours' or days' notice of a potentially catastrophic event,' Dr Hicks explained. 

'With hindsight, there were some warning signs. 

'Tiny earthquakes occurred at an increasing rate in the days to hours before the landslide, signalling that this mass of rock was starting to crack. 

Given the size of the tsunami, the researchers estimate that the amount of rock that crashed into the water was equivalent to 24 Great Pyramids of Giza

'Many seismic monitoring stations provide data in real–time, so this gives us some optimism that we can turn what we have learned into a warning system.'

So far this year, at least six cruise lines have been forced to change their itineraries to avoid the Tracy Arm fjord. 

Read More

• Scientists warn there's a 100% chance a TSUNAMI will hit the French Riviera in the next 30 years 

Dr Shugar added: 'Ultimately what we hope is that coastal municipalities, the cruise ship industry and other stakeholders take these threats seriously.'

The news comes shortly after scientists warned the French Riviera is 'overdue' a tsunami. 

Experts say there is a '100 per cent' chance a great wave will form in the Mediterranean Sea in the next 30 years.

The tsunami could hit France's southern coastline in as little as 10 minutes from the trigger, causing chaos for tens of thousands of people who flock there during the summer months.

WHAT CAUSES TSUNAMIS?

A tsunami, sometimes called a tidal wave or a seismic sea wave, is a series of giant waves that are created by a disturbance in the ocean.

The disturbance could be a landslide, a volcanic eruption, an earthquake or a meteorite; the culprit is most often an earthquake.

If the landslide or earthquake triggering the tsunami occurs nearby the shore, inhabitants could see its effects almost immediately.

The first wave of the tsunami can arrive within minutes, before a government or other institution has time to issue a warning.

Areas that are closer to sea level have a higher risk of being affected by the waves.

Researchers have found that a layer of the remains of microscopic organisms at the bottom of the ocean can cause tsunamis (file photo)

Those less than 25 feet from sea level are the most dangerous.

The cause of death most frequently associated with tsunamis is drowning. Additional hazards include drinking water contamination, fires and flooding.

Initial tsunami warnings are usually based on seismic information only.

Inhabitants of coastal areas that might be exposed to a tsunami are encouraged to follow evacuation routes in the event that they receive a tsunami warning.

They should seek higher ground or move inland immediately to get away from the ocean.

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“This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency,” Hegseth said.

“Today’s release is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort,” said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a statement on Friday.

According to supplemental information made available at the new PURSUE web page, which was featured on a portion of the DOW’s website that can be found here, the new release follows an announcement by President Donald Trump earlier this year, where he revealed on his Truth Social website that he would be directing Hegseth and Pentagon officials to oversee the release of UAP-related materials.

“In response to President Donald J. Trump’s directive for transparency on U.S. government information regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), the Department of War (DOW), with support from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), is overseeing government wide efforts to expeditiously find, review, identify, declassify and publicly release unresolved UAP-related records and historical documents in the federal government’s possession,” read a statement accompanying the new release, which appeared at the website of the DOW on Friday morning.

Characterizing the new effort under PURSUE as “an unprecedented, historic undertaking,” the statement added that the DOW’s efforts under Trump’s directive require “coordination between dozens of agencies and the review of tens of millions of records, many existing only on paper, spanning many decades.”

Friday’s release, which includes a trove of U.S. military imagery depicting what appear to be unidentified aerial objects, as well as NASA imagery from the Apollo era, and a collection of files from agencies that include the FBI, DOW, Department of State, and NASA from over the years, are said to be the first of an ongoing series of releases under the President’s PURSUE initiative.

“Given the scope of this task, the Department of War will be releasing new materials on a rolling basis as they are discovered and declassified, with tranches posted every few weeks,” the DOW statement reads.

Historical Documents and Unresolved Cases

The recent releases feature cases that were previously unresolved, which the DOW characterizes as incidents involving purported UAP for which “the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena,” citing insufficient data and other factors that may account for this.

The DOW says that it “welcomes the application of private-sector analysis, information and expertise” in the further evaluation of the UAP records it has released. “DOW will continue to conduct separate reporting on resolved UAP cases, as mandated by statute.”

“Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people,” the DOW statement reads.

It remains unclear whether any formal directives or other Presidential actions were behind the new release of UAP records. Last year, a similar release of long-classified records was secured with the issuance of a formal Executive Order by President Trump, which led to the release of some new files related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, although many of the files in that release had previously been made available.

Along similar lines, some of the UAP-related documents made available in the new DOW release appear to have been publicly available in various formats previously, including several documents related to past FBI inquiries into reports of aerial phenomena.

Fewer Redactions on Previously Available UAP Files

Significantly, the new versions appearing on the DOW’s PURSUE page are reportedly released with fewer redactions than previous versions made available by the FBI.

A summary accompanying Friday’s re-release of the FBI’s 62-HQ-83894 case file, which features “investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968,” notes that the originals released by the FBI were incomplete.

The FBI’s 62-HQ-83894 case file, as shown in the recent DOW UAP release (Image Credit: FBI/DOW).

“This file is partially posted on [the] FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions,” the DOW summary states.

Although some of the newly released files do feature redactions, the DOW states that these were only made “to protect the identity of eyewitnesses, the location of government facilities, or potentially sensitive information about military sites not related to UAP.”

“No redactions have been made to any files released under President Trump’s directive concerning information about the nature or existence of any encounter reported as a UAP or related phenomena,” the DOW’s website states.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Friday that his agency “remains committed to supporting this rolling declassification effort with the same rigor and integrity we bring to every national security matter.”

“As these files continue to be reviewed and released, the American people can be confident that their security remains our highest priority,” Patel said.

NASA Administrator Jared Issacman said he applauded the new effort, which he said will “bring greater transparency to the American people on unidentified anomalous phenomena.”

“At NASA, our job is to bring the brightest minds and most advanced scientific instruments to bear, follow the data, and share what we learn,” Issacman said on Friday. “We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered.”

What the New Records Reveal

In advance of the release, expectations about what the Trump Administration might reveal ranged from the otherworldly to the likelihood that little new information would be made available.

Based on Friday’s release, very little of the documentation appearing at the DOW’s website provides significant new insights into the nature of UAP, and the new web page appears to be poised mostly to serve as a one-stop clearinghouse for various past U.S. government records related to the subject.

Several images and videos included with the initial PURSUE release constitute UAP imagery that had been assessed by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), and which are currently characterized as unresolved UAP reports.

Also notable from the new release are the inclusion of a series of historic NASA images that have been modified to include “highlighted areas of interest” which emphasize what appear to the unexplained objects. Among the images are photos from the Apollo era, including lunar photography “in which unidentified phenomena are visible,” according to the newly modified PURSUE versions of these images.

It remains unclear whether the “areas of interest” in these images are merely photographic artifacts, reflections, or if they represent genuine physical objects, although the PURSUE versions of these historic NASA images are accompanied by a statement emphasizing that the highlighted portions “do not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the nature or significance of the subject matter.”

In one incident report included with the release, a series of events that reportedly occurred over two days in 2023 describes observations of unusual orange “orbs” that appeared to emit or release smaller reddish orbs.

The sightings, observed by three teams of federal law enforcement special agents, are reportedly deemed significant by AARO based on “contextual factors” that include the credibility of the reporters, which the PURSUE release states “combine to make this report among the most compelling within AARO’s current holdings.”

Despite its apparent significance, no technical information, including imagery or other data, apparently accompanied the report.

What’s Next

In a statement that appeared on her X account, Representative Anna Paulina Luna called Friday’s release “a great first step,” adding that “Additional releases are expected in the coming weeks.”

“A second tranche of documents, including additional requested video footage, is anticipated within approximately 30 days,” Luna wrote, seemingly in reference to several videos depicting UAP that she and other lawmakers have reportedly learned of, which they have requested to be released to the public.

On Friday, a DOW statement accompanying the first PURSUE release also affirmed that additional collections of UAP records will be made available in the days ahead.

“DOW will continue to conduct separate reporting on resolved UAP cases, as mandated by statute,” the statement read.

“Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people.”

The complete contents of PURSUE Release 01 can be found at the DOW’s official UFO web page.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

Welcome to this very special TGIF edition of The Intelligence Brief… This week, the U.S. Department of War has finally launched a new and highly anticipated transparency initiative with the release of its first batch of long-classified UAP documents under the “Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters” (PURSUE) program, an effort officials say will unfold over the coming weeks and months. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at

• 1) how the new initiative aims to declassify decades of government-held UAP records across multiple agencies,
• 2) what Friday’s release actually revealed—including updated FBI files, military imagery, and NASA photographs with fewer redactions,
• 3) why much of the material offers limited new insight despite heightened expectations, and
• 4) what this rolling disclosure effort could mean for future transparency surrounding unresolved UAP cases.

Quote of the Week

“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.”

– Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of War

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Pentagon Launches UAP Transparency Initiative as First Batch of Files Is Released

Just in time for the weekend, the U.S. Department of War (DOW) has released a “new” batch of government documents involving UFOs, or what the Pentagon has now been calling “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP) for the last several years.

The release comes as part of a newly established program that the White House has dubbed the “Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters,” or PURSUE, which officials describe as an ongoing effort to identify, review, and declassify decades of UAP-related records held across multiple federal agencies.

Friday’s release is understood to be just the first phase of a broader transparency initiative under the Trump administration, with future releases expected as soon as within the next few weeks.

“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a statement accompanying the release. “It’s time the American people see it for themselves.” He added that the effort reflects “an earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.”

Echoing Hegseth’s statements, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard described Friday’s disclosure as only the beginning. “Today’s release is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort,” she said.

So what, exactly, was revealed by the DOW this week, and what (if anything) does the latest document release provide in terms of new insights into the longstanding mystery of unidentified flying objects?

The Latest Release of “New” UFO Files

As many had expected in the days leading up to this week’s release, a good portion of the documentation in the “new” batch of files revealed at the DOW website on Friday has appeared online or elsewhere in the past.

However, that isn’t to say there wasn’t plenty of new material, both in documents that were previously only available in partial form or with heavy redactions, and in documents that have never been seen before.

Friday’s release includes a wide range of materials, from military imagery and previously classified FBI files to historical NASA photographs dating back to the Apollo era.

Much of the legitimately new material focuses on unresolved UAP cases—incidents in which the government has been unable to determine the nature of the observed phenomena due to insufficient data or other limitations. Officials say they are encouraging private-sector analysts and independent researchers to examine the newly available records.

So what else did we learn with this initial rollout of the Trump Administration’s new PURSUE effort? Here’s a look at several of the highlights from the information detailed in the new release, and what can be expected in the weeks ahead.

The FBI’s UFO Files

Among the more notable elements of the release are updated versions of previously available FBI files, including the well-known 62-HQ-83894 case file, which documents UFO-related reports between 1947 and 1968. According to the DOW, the newly released version includes additional pages and fewer redactions than earlier public versions.

“This file is partially posted on [the] FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing,” a summary accompanying the release states. “Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.”

Officials emphasized that remaining redactions were limited to protecting sensitive information, such as the identities of witnesses or the locations of government facilities. “No redactions have been made… concerning information about the nature or existence of any encounter reported as a UAP,” the department said.

AARO Imagery and Analysis

The release also includes imagery and video previously assessed by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), as well as modified NASA photographs featuring “highlighted areas of interest” that appear to show unexplained objects. However, officials caution that these enhancements do not represent analytical conclusions and may reflect artifacts or unknown visual anomalies.

One incident report included in the release describes sightings of unusual orange “orbs” observed by federal law enforcement personnel in 2023. According to the summary, the objects appeared to emit smaller reddish spheres and were deemed among the most compelling cases in AARO’s holdings due to the credibility of the witnesses. No accompanying imagery or technical data was included.

Ongoing “Disclosures”

Despite the breadth of the materials, the initial release appears to offer limited new insight into the underlying nature of UAP. Instead, the PURSUE platform primarily serves as a centralized repository for government records, many of which were previously only partially available.

Still, officials say the effort represents a meaningful step toward greater transparency. “Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people,” the DOW said in a statement.

Lawmakers have indicated that additional disclosures may follow soon. Taking to social media, Representative Anna Paulina Luna called the release “a great first step,” noting that a second tranche of documents, including previously requested video footage, could arrive within weeks.

For now, though, the first PURSUE release offers a clearer, albeit still incomplete, look into decades of U.S. government engagement with unexplained aerial phenomena. With more expected as the initiative continues, it remains to be seen whether an even deeper look into Washington’s involvement with aerial mysteries awaits, or if much of what is yet to come will simply be a somewhat fresher look at things we’ve already seen in decades past.

That concludes this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief. You can read past editions of our newsletter at our website, or if you found this installment online, don’t forget to subscribe and get future email editions from us here. Also, if you have a tip or other information you’d like to send along directly to me, you can email me at micah [@] thedebrief [dot] org, or reach me on X: @MicahHanks.

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Now, the Society for UAP Studies, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization that aims to unite academics and professionals who, according to its website, “are committed to advancing the study of the UAP through rigorous scholarly engagement,” will be hosting an online summer symposium that will address how professionals can help advance our understanding of these perplexing phenomena.

“The purpose of this is to organize a broad array of academic fields, perspectives, and discourses that are in various ways concerned with understanding—more deeply and more rigorously—the subject of UAP,” said Dr. Michael Cifone, a professor of philosophy and founder of the Society for UAP Studies, who also serves as its CEO and editor of its official publication, Limina -The Journal of UAP Studies.

According to Cifone, one of the society’s goals is to encourage interdisciplinary dialog between humanists and scientists who approach the UAP phenomenon in different ways and unite researchers on what he calls “the more metatheoretical questions of how to study the phenomenon.”

Despite the recent focus on scientific and military engagement with UAP, Cifone told The Debrief that the phenomenon presents challenges that also impact the humanities and political science, as well as the inquiries of historians, anthropologists, and professionals in a variety of other disciplines.

“With an event like this, we have an opportunity for more involvement from the humanities,” Cifone said, which he believes will provide an opportunity to learn ways those who work in this academic area can contribute to our growing knowledge of the topic.

“But you can look at disclosure from a more distant political theory perspective,” Peters told The Debrief, “and looking at that as being the play between the unveiling and the hiding in modern and in ancient statehood.”

“There’s a lot that needs to be said about these processes,” he added. In line with these perspectives, Peters will coordinate a workshop for the Society’s summer event with historian Greg Eghigian, which examines the UAP issue from the perspectives of history, political science, and political theory.

“There is a big movement going on with serious people working in different fields,” Peters told The Debrief. “I don’t think we’re going to find an interdisciplinary approach, but we will start to facilitate the discussion that needs to take place.”

Along with interdisciplinary dialogue, Eghigian told The Debrief that another aim of the Society’s event involves another of the subject’s most enduring problems.

“Speculation about UAP is often unmoored from any empirically sound and self-critical research,” Eghigian said. “The conference seeks to address this shortcoming by placing multidisciplinary scholarship about the subject center stage.”

Along with Peters and Eghigian’s workshop, several others that address various approaches toward studying UAP will be featured, including a session that focuses on the application of citizen science.

“The UAP Citizen Science Workshop is bringing together scientists from the UAP field and surveying the available resources and best practices for citizen science in general,” said Dan Williams, who coordinates the Society’s official Citizen Science Working Group.

Williams, who will lead the workshop, says such resources include SciStarter, Zooniverse, the NASA Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, commercial satellite Earth Observation imagery and analytics, ground-based instrumentation, smartphone apps, and self-supervised machine learning, or what he calls “needle-in-a-haystack” technologies.

“We hope the workshop participants can then author a paper on best practices and identify several citizen science projects of general interest. We have several members from the recent National Science Foundation’s ASTRO-ACCEL-sponsored UAP workshop participating, and we hope our workshop also advances their goal of forming a UAP citizen science working group,” Williams told The Debrief.

“The study of UAP deals with incomplete, inaccurate, and even at times deceptive information,” said Joshua Pierson, D.S.S., a career investigator who is also an advisor to the Society for UAP Studies. “The beauty of having a conference and an organization that focuses on bringing the social sciences and the humanities to bear is really where we start being able to assess what is inaccurate and incomplete,” Pierson said.

“Except now, instead of taking a practitioner’s approach, we have people who can think deeply on the subject to help inform some of the best models and methods to approach the information that we get on UAP,” Pierson told The Debrief.

Pierson says that in addition to applying the best models and research methods, a collective aim of academic groups like the Society for UAP Studies is also to define the phenomena more accurately. However, along with framing the phenomenon in academic terms, part of the aim of studying UAP from a humanities perspective also involves recognizing how people relate to UAP experiences and what overall impact the subject has on individuals, as well as at the societal level. 

“UAP have profound effects on the lives of those who witness them, and they also stimulate important questions about the nature of knowledge itself and the limitations of ourselves as knowers,” said Dr. Kim Engels, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Molloy University who is also on the Society’s Advisory Board. “Our conference is offering a space for philosophers and theologians to weigh in on these important dimensions of the UAP conversation.”

“One of the most important things I think the humanities supplies—at least the philosophy of science, my own tradition—is a sort of critical perspective on the ways in which people have come to interpret and study UAP,” Professor Cifone told The Debrief.

“I think we’re at an interesting moment here in terms of the science of UAP. There’s a kind of a turning point right here that I think we’re witnessing, and a science is forming out of a history of kind of abortive and failed attempts to bring to bear some kind of systematic scientific engagement with the question,” Cifone said.

If Cifone is correct, and the efforts by organizations like his, as well as those currently being undertaken by other academic groups and government agencies, are pointing to the emergence of a new area of study in the sciences, then groups like the Society may be some of the best-equipped to help guide the process.

“You know, there’s this in-between space that I think the humanities is really good at negotiating,” Cifone told The Debrief, adding that academics like those who will participate in the Society’s forthcoming conference could be particularly well suited to help the scientific community navigate the various challenges presented by such a complex field of study.

“This is, I think, where humanists can bring the scientists together,” Cifone said, “to discuss that kind of a difficult aspect to the phenomenon.”

The Society for UAP Studies will hold its online Summer Conference 2024, titled “Varieties and Trajectories of Contemporary UAP Studies,” from August 16 to August 18, 2024. Registration details and other information about the event can be found on the Society’s website.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

Bob Lazar Documentary Director Claims Key Parts of the S4 Story May Still Be Missing

A new wave of discussion has emerged around the controversial Bob Lazar story following extensive commentary from filmmaker Luigi Vendittelli, director of S4: The Bob Lazar Story. While Lazar remains one of the most debated figures in UFO history, Vendittelli’s perspective adds a new dimension: he believes Lazar is not fabricating his story, but may still be withholding certain details.

Revisiting Bob Lazar’s Legacy

Bob Lazar first gained international attention in 1989 after claiming he worked at a secret facility known as S4 near Area 51, where he allegedly participated in reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology. His descriptions included advanced propulsion systems, Element 115, hidden hangar doors built into mountainsides, and multiple intact unidentified craft.

For decades, Lazar’s account has been met with both fascination and skepticism. Critics often point to gaps in his academic history and inconsistencies in some aspects of his claims. Supporters, however, highlight the surprising accuracy of certain details Lazar described long before they entered mainstream discussion.

Luigi Vendittelli’s Investigation

Vendittelli spent over four years working closely with Lazar while producing his documentary. According to him, the goal was not to create sensationalism but to build the most visually accurate recreation of Lazar’s alleged experiences at S4.

During this process, Vendittelli claims he became convinced that Lazar’s core story is genuine.

“I don’t think Bob Lazar is lying. I believe Bob Lazar is omitting information.”

This distinction is central to Vendittelli’s perspective. Rather than dismissing Lazar, he suggests there are still unexplained omissions involving key events, including Lazar’s reported possession of Element 115 and certain encounters with government personnel.

The Hidden Hangar Doors Controversy

One of the documentary’s most talked-about revelations involves photographic analysis of terrain near Papoose Lake, where Lazar claimed S4 was located.

Vendittelli and his team conducted forensic image analysis on archival photos, asserting they identified geometric structures embedded into the mountainside that align with Lazar’s description of concealed hangar entrances.

While this evidence does not prove extraterrestrial craft, Vendittelli argues it strengthens the possibility that Lazar accurately described a hidden military installation.

Questions Around Lazar’s Education

Lazar’s educational background has long been one of the biggest criticisms leveled against him, particularly his claims of attending MIT and Caltech.

Vendittelli states that after private discussions with Lazar, he believes there are legitimate explanations tied to unconventional government pathways, though legal concerns prevented certain details from being included in the documentary.

This claim remains highly controversial, but Vendittelli insists the missing educational records alone should not invalidate the broader story.

Project Looking Glass, Sidekick, and Disinformation

Lazar also described exposure to briefing documents mentioning projects such as Looking Glass and Sidekick, along with references to Zeta Reticuli and possible extraterrestrial biological data.

Vendittelli acknowledges that some of this information may have been deliberate disinformation provided to Lazar as part of compartmentalized security measures. He personally questions aspects such as the Zeta Reticuli connection while remaining open to the possibility that portions of those documents contained genuine classified material.

Why Lazar Still Avoids Congress

Despite renewed public interest and modern whistleblower hearings, Lazar has consistently avoided congressional testimony.

According to Vendittelli, Lazar feels he has already shared his story and sees little value in entering political arenas that may offer limited transparency. Lazar reportedly prefers to maintain his private life rather than re-enter decades of scrutiny.

A Story That Refuses to Disappear

Vendittelli’s documentary does not claim to offer definitive proof of extraterrestrial technology. Instead, it presents Lazar’s account as a historical case that deserves serious examination, especially given the increasing number of whistleblower claims regarding hidden aerospace programs.

Whether Lazar’s story is entirely accurate, partially true, or influenced by secrecy and misinformation remains unresolved. However, Vendittelli’s investigation suggests the case may be more complex than simple truth or deception.

More than 35 years after Bob Lazar first went public, his claims continue to spark intense debate. S4: The Bob Lazar Story has reignited that conversation by combining modern visual reconstruction with new personal insights from those closest to Lazar.

For believers, the documentary reinforces longstanding suspicions about secret reverse-engineering programs.

For skeptics, it raises fresh questions about omissions, evidence, and the blurred line between classified reality and extraordinary claims.

What remains clear is that Bob Lazar’s story continues to occupy a unique place in UFO history — one that still refuses to be fully explained.

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{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Pentagon releases declassified UFO files including videos and photos held by the government for decades

The files have been a source of intrigue and fascination for generations of skeptical Americans wondering if we’re alone in the universe.

The release came nearly a month after President Donald Trump gave a sneak preview of the possible contents, telling a conservative gathering that some “very interesting documents” would be released by the Department of Defense “very, very soon.”

The first batch of the long-awaited files on what the government is calling Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) are being housed on a dedicated government site, https://www.war.gov/UFO/, and additional files will be added to the site “on a rolling basis,” Pentagon Public Affairs said in a press release.

“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly,” the press release said. “The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place — no clearance required.”

The documents don’t suggest any wide-ranging government cover-up of extraterrestrial encounters, which may disappoint some conspiracy-minded individuals looking for such evidence. The files show no indication that the U.S. government has had any interaction with beings from other planets or that it has any reason to believe such beings have visited Earth. Instead, the release offers pages and pages of files for the public to consume and potentially draw their own conclusions.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon consisting of one minute and 39 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2024.  All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office

A photo of the landing site of Apollo 12 features a highlighted area of interest slightly above the horizon in which unidentified phenomena are visible. NASA

During Apollo 12 in 1969, astronaut Alan Bean reported “flashes of light” that he described as “sailing off into space.”

During Apollo 17, the program’s final mission in 1972, the crew saw “very bright particles” of light that were “tumbling” and “rotating way out in the distance.” Astronaut Harrison Schmitt said the phenomenon looked “like the Fourth of July.”

A photo from the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972 contains three dots in a triangular formation that are clearly visible when the area is magnified. NASA

The newly released documents show some of the incidents were immediately debunked. For example, on Sept. 5, 1948, there was a report from military crew members flying at 30,000 feet over the Netherlands of an unidentified aircraft sighting. The crew cited “sudden accelerations and then a climb.” Within a few months, intelligence officials concluded that it was a single propelled jet using “rocket assists with tremendous reserve power.”

Other incidents in the files are only described and do not draw conclusions.

There is a transcript of an exchange between astronaut Frank Borman from Gemini 7 in 1965 in which he refers to a “bogey at 10 o’clock high,” which occurred about 4 ½ hours into the space flight.

Houston acknowledges the reference and responds: “This is Houston, say again Seven?” Borman then describes the bogey as the following: “It looks like hundreds of little particles going by to the left out about three or four miles.”

The files also include incidents from 2020 to the present as mission reports from the U.S. Air Force identifying “potential” UAPs, with few details on what the object is or when or where it was identified.

Other accounts in the files are reports from people around the country since the 1940s that were submitted to the government.

Other sightings were redacted, such as a September 2023 report of an FBI FaceTime interview with a drone operator who, along with colleagues, saw a “bright light over the horizon” at a U.S. test site.

The document notes that “redactions have been made to protect the identity of eyewitnesses, the location of government facilities, or potentially sensitive information about military sites not related to UAP.”

The sighting was described as the following: “a linear object with a super bright light on the east side of the object. The light was bright white and bright enough to see bands within the light. The object was metallic / gray in color. It did not have any wings or exhaust. The object was smaller than a 737, one to two Blackhawk helicopters in length and was definitely bigger than a drone.”

Study investigates the mysteries of lights in the sky by looking to the past

The witnesses said the object was about 5,000 feet above ground, then moved east to west before vanishing after about 5 to 10 seconds. The person said after that the sky was clear and the object could not be found again.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, along with interested parties ranging from serious scientists to conspiracy theorists, have pressed for the disclosure of these files for years. Trump has also spoken often of the need to release this information.

“The American people have asked for more transparency on these topics, and President Trump is delivering,” the press release said.

“While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the release added.

But there’s a caveat.

“While all of the files have been reviewed for security purposes, many of the materials have not yet been analyzed for resolution of any anomalies,” the press release said.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon consisting of nine seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2024.  All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman praised the Trump administration for its efforts to bring greater transparency to unidentified anomalous phenomena.

“At NASA, our job is to bring the brightest minds and most advanced scientific instruments to bear, follow the data, and share what we learn,” Isaacman wrote on X. “We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered.”

Trump did not immediately weigh in on the new UFO document drop. But he announced in February that he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other agency officials to begin reviewing government documents related to “alien and extraterrestrial life.”

Trump made the announcement just days after former President Barack Obama said on a podcast that aliens were real. Obama later clarified that he meant “the odds are good there’s life out there” and said he hadn’t seen any evidence of alien life while he was in the White House.

The U.S. Northern Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon consisting of 21 seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2024. All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office

The interagency effort to release the UFO files has its own acronym — PURSUE, or the Presidential Unsealings and Reporting System for UAP Encounters.

But the Pentagon appears to be using, as its model, a setup similar to the one the Department of Justice began employing in December, when it began releasing the Epstein Files. And the government site with the UFO documents also appeared to be glitchy in the early going.

That Epstein files release, which is still underway, was widely criticized for releasing paperwork that had already been in the public domain, for heavily redacting many documents while inexplicably omitting others, and for inadvertently releasing the names of some of the women Epstein had been accused of preying on before he was arrested and died by suspected suicide in August 2019 in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

Not unlike the government’s Epstein files document dump, there was no interpretation of the unidentified anomalous phenomena shared by the White House on Friday.

'Extraordinary': Ret. admiral reacts to declassified UFO docs

{ https://www.nbcnews.com/ }

The long-awaited UFO files were released Friday morning, revealing stunning eyewitness encounters with unexplainable phenomena during the Apollo moon missions.

The US Department of War released hundreds of pages of documents, pictures and audio recordings allegedly providing evidence of extraterrestrial sightings dating back to the 1940s.

Included in what has been described as the first batch of UFO files expected to come from the Pentagon this year were the transcripts of the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 moon missions.

Those files and a collection of images taken by the astronauts on the moon revealed multiple encounters with strange objects that appear to fly around their lunar landers.

During the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, astronauts Gene Cernan, Jack Schmitt and Ron Evans reported seeing a bright object that rotated and flashed rhythmically out in space.

Cernan said: 'I'm looking at what - what Jack was talking about; and it's definitely not a particle that's nearby because there is another one I can look at and get a three-dimensional comparison with.'

'It is a bright object, and it's obviously rotating because it's flashing. It's way out in the distance, as I say, because there are particles that are close by and it's obviously not one of those,' the astronaut described.

'It's apparently rotating in a very rhythmic fashion because the flashes come around almost - almost on time. And it's as we look back at the Earth, it's up at about 11:00 about - oh, maybe 10 or 12 Earth diameters. I don't know whether that does you any good, but there is something out there.'

A photo from the Apollo 17 moon landing that highlights three dots in the sky as seen from the moon's surface

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest slightly to the right of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features highlighted areas above the horizon in which unidentified phenomena are visible

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan (Pictured) was the last human to walk on the moon in 1972

During the 1972 lunar landing, which was the last NASA time humans stepped on the moon's surface, the crew of Apollo 17 also reported seeing multiple small objects moving near the spacecraft during their flight.

'Now we've got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver,' Evans told the command center on Earth.

'Roger. Understand,' the center replied. 'There's a whole [bunch] of big ones on my window down there - just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron's window,' Schmitt added.

Evans reported: 'Yes. Now you can see some of them in shape. They're very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling.'

The astronauts revealed that right after they fired their thrusters to change direction, the crew began to see the bright particles and jagged, angular fragments drifting past the windows.

Jack says it looks like the 'Fourth of July' out Evans' window, with big bright pieces tumbling slowly around the capsule.

The astronauts were also recorded describing the strange objects as pieces of something solid, not fluid, very bright, and mostly moving with the spacecraft but with occasional faster ones zipping by. Evans reported taking pictures of them.

Three years earlier, the Apollo 12 moon mission also reported strange sightings as they neared the lunar surface.

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features highlighted areas above the horizon in which unidentified phenomena are visible

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest slightly to the right of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest slightly to the right of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible

While looking through a special telescope known as the Alignment Optical Telescope, in the dark part of the sky, one astronaut in the lunar module reported seeing flashes of light and particles sailing past.

The three-man crew, which included Pete Conrad and Alan Bean in the lunar lander 'Intrepid' and Dick Gordon in the command module called 'Yankee Clipper,' said the objects appeared to come from behind the spacecraft, before moving quickly into space.

'They really haul out of here and just press off at the stars,' Bean said.

Multiple images from the Apollo 12 moon mission in 1969 released with the UFO files on Friday revealed bright objects off in space which were visible from the lunar surface.

NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens issued a statement saying: 'NASA applauds President Trump’s whole-of-government directive to bring greater transparency to the American people on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).'

'NASA is contributing to this interagency effort led by the Department of War and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), and we support their effort to share more information with the public.'

'NASA continues our mission to explore and discover, advancing our understanding of this planet and the universe around us.'

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