Pentagon releases third batch of UFO records

The Pentagon released a third batch of UFO records Friday, adding dozens of files, images, videos and audio recordings to a growing public archive of unresolved sightings that span from the 1940s to this year.

The new material, posted on a dedicated government website, includes records from the CIA, FBI, NASA, the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and at least one unspecified government agency. NBC News reported that the release contains 72 files, including 29 from the FBI, 18 from the CIA, 12 from the Defense Department and 11 from NASA. CBS News reported that the batch includes 53 documents, 10 images, six videos and three NASA audio recordings.

“The materials archived here are unresolved cases, meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena,” the Pentagon public affairs office said, according to NBC News.

The release is the third since the government began a new round of disclosures last month. CBS News reported that the releases followed an executive order signed by President Trump requiring the Pentagon to disclose more documents related to UFOs, also known by the government as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the effort “demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.”

The files include recent videos collected by the FBI showing orb-like objects in the sky, along with witness interviews and some “artistic interpretations” of sightings. One video, titled “Northeastern Orb Sighting,” describes a July 2025 encounter in which two bright lights moved silently and smoothly “in tandem as though they were flying in formation or tethered together.”

Another video, “Orbs Over the Pond,” describes an October 2024 sighting within 25 miles of the Northeastern case. The Pentagon’s description said a light source hovered above a pond about 2,700 feet away. “The luminous object resembled a ‘plasma-like sphere’ intermittently changing shape and luminosity,” the description said. It remained generally stationary for about 45 minutes before disappearing.

Several documents describe a series of events in the Western United States over two days in October 2023, when five federal law enforcement special agents reported strange lights or orbs. One agent described “weird lights moving along in groups miles away.” Another said red lights “accelerated instantly and maneuvered with perfect, smooth coordination into a horizontal formation.” A witness described smaller orbs “being hatched from the larger very bright orange light,” while another said they looked like “grapes being expelled from a basketball” and recalled a partner asking, “Are you seeing this?”

The records also reach deep into the government’s Cold War-era UFO files. A CIA “Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects,” convened in 1952 and 1953, concluded that “flying saucers” did not pose a direct physical threat to U.S. national security. The panel warned, however, that public alarm and a “sensationalist press” could create risks, and it recommended an official policy of “debunking” to “strip the UFO subject of its mystery.”

Other historical records include a 1946 Defense Department evaluation that reviewed about 210 “flying saucer” incidents and said 20% had been explained, with “no tangible evidence” tying any incidents to a foreign nation. A 1949 FBI file includes correspondence from the Rev. Charles Barnes, who told then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover he saw four beams of light converging in the Cascade Mountains followed by a “great explosion.” Hoover replied that the report would be forwarded to the Atomic Energy Commission.

A July 2008 CIA report describes a suspected UFO over Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe. Observers said the disc-like object had a hollow center, rotating lights underneath and beams emanating from it. The file said individuals debated whether it was an advanced foreign reconnaissance device or extraterrestrial in origin.

Not all files point toward extraordinary explanations. A 2022 sighting near Colorado Springs, Colorado, described a “potato”-shaped, creamy whitish, somewhat translucent object. CBS News reported that an intelligence partner assessed with “low confidence” that the sighting could have been sunlight reflecting from snow on Cheyenne Mountain onto low clouds, though the case remains unresolved.