UFOs and UAP: what the official record says

Are aliens visiting Earth now?6/100 evidenceUnprovenReal unexplained sightings exist, but unexplained is not alien. No craft, body or clean data has been shown.Plausible in principle? Low

The verdict so far

Real unexplained sightings exist, but unexplained is not alien. No craft, body or clean data has been shown.

3Debunked8Explained4Unproven3Worth watching0Confirmed alien

Checked 31 October 2026. Scores measure the strength of evidence that aliens are involved, not whether the topic is interesting.

The famous cases

Debunked Shown to be false, a hoax or a misreading.Explained A solid ordinary explanation fits the evidence.Unproven Not explained, but no evidence it is alien either. Usually too little data.Worth watching Credible data, genuinely open. The cases that could move the meter.

ExplainedRoswellJuly 1947 · New Mexico, USAA flying saucer crashed and the military hid the bodies.

UnprovenProject Blue Book1952 to 1969 · US Air ForceThe Air Force studied thousands of UFOs and couldn't explain hundreds of them.

ExplainedRendlesham ForestDecember 1980 · Suffolk, EnglandUS airmen saw a landed craft near RAF Woodbridge, "Britain's Roswell".

ExplainedThe Phoenix LightsMarch 1997 · Arizona, USAA mile-wide V-shaped craft flew silently over Phoenix in front of thousands.

DebunkedThe Belgian UFO triangle photo1990 · BelgiumThe famous photo of a black triangle with three lights proves the Belgian UFO wave.

DebunkedThe "alien autopsy" film1995 · UKA film shows military doctors dissecting a Roswell alien.

Worth watchingThe Nimitz "Tic Tac"November 2004 · Off San Diego, USANavy pilots and radar tracked a white craft that outflew their fighter jets.

ExplainedThe "GoFast" video2015 · US Navy, AtlanticA small object skims the ocean at incredible speed.

UnprovenThe "Gimbal" video2015 · US Navy, AtlanticAn object rotates against the wind in a way no aircraft can.

UnprovenCrash retrieval and "non-human biologics"July 2023 · US CongressA former intelligence officer testified under oath that the US holds crashed craft and non-human bodies.

DebunkedThe "alien mummies" shown to Mexico's CongressSeptember 2023 · MexicoTwo 1,000-year-old non-human bodies were presented to lawmakers.

ExplainedThe 2023 balloon shootdownsFebruary 2023 · USA and CanadaFighter jets shot down four unknown objects in a week.

ExplainedThe New Jersey dronesNovember to December 2024 · New Jersey, USAMystery drones swarmed New Jersey night after night.

Worth watchingThe Yemen "orb" and the Hellfire missileFilmed Oct 2024, shown Sept 2025 · Off YemenA US drone's missile hit a glowing orb and appeared to bounce off.

UnprovenThe Pentagon's UAP filesMay to October 2026 · war.gov/UFOThe government finally released its UFO files, so the truth must be in there.

Worth watchingThe silent black triangleJune 2026 · Western USAFederal agents saw a matte black triangle hover and fly off silently.

Explained'OumuamuaOctober 2017 · Interstellar visitorThe first interstellar object was cigar-shaped and sped up, like an alien light sail.

Explained3I/ATLASJuly 2025 to 2026 · Interstellar visitorThe third interstellar object is alien technology heading for Jupiter.

The official record in one minute

1947 Pilot Kenneth Arnold reports "flying saucers"; Roswell follows.
1952 to 1969 Project Blue Book logs 12,618 sightings; 701 stay unidentified. The 1969 Condon Report closes the file.
2007 to 2012 The Pentagon's secret AATIP program studies UAP; revealed by the New York Times in 2017 with the Navy videos.
2020 The Pentagon officially releases the FLIR, Gimbal and GoFast videos.
2021 US intelligence assesses 144 military reports; it can explain one.
2022 AARO is created to investigate UAP across all domains.
2023 NASA's study finds no evidence of alien origin. David Grusch testifies about crash retrievals.
2024 AARO's historical report finds no evidence of recovered alien technology. Its annual report counts 1,652 cases.
2026 The PURSUE program publishes seven batches of UAP files on war.gov/UFO.

What "unidentified" really means

Most unresolved cases lack data: a few seconds of blurry video, one witness, no radar. When AARO does get good data, cases usually turn out to be balloons, drones, birds, satellites or sensor quirks. A small share stays unexplained, which is what you'd expect from any big pile of sightings, and is also exactly where a real discovery would hide.