‘Orbs,’ ‘Saucers,’ and ‘Flashes’ on the Moon: Pentagon Drops New UFO Files

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The Pentagon released a batch of much-anticipated files about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on Friday including newly declassified documents that have never been seen by the public before.

The release of roughly 160 documents was rolled out on a new website. Among the trove is video footage and images of tantalizing UAP sightings captured around the world. The files also contain scanned historical material about government UAP and unidentified flying object (UFO) programs dating back to the 1940s and the Apollo program.

While it will take days to comb through the finer details, initial highlights include sightings of “orbs launching orbs” by federal employees in the western US in 2023, a “misshapen and uneven ball of white light” reported by the US military in Syria in 2024, and a compendium of UAP reports from the public during the late 1940s, handwritten or produced by typewriter. The files contain accounts of UAP from the Apollo crews, including a light flash on the lunar surface during Apollo 17.

Some of the visuals include an amoeba-like shape captured by the US Indo-Pacific Command in 2024, a bright round shape filmed by the US Central Command in 2024, and unidentified lights in a picture taken by the Apollo 17 crew from the surface of the Moon.

The mysterious nature of UAP has fueled the popular belief that these sightings could be aliens visiting Earth. The US government has never claimed that it has detected or encountered extraterrestrial life in any of these disclosures, including in the newly released files.

In a statement, the Pentagon said that President Donald 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.”

“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation—and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the same statement.

Trump first teased the release in February in a Truth Social post. The Pentagon coordinated the release in partnership with the White House, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the Energy Department, NASA, and the FBI. Many of the files in this new drop contain documents that are already publicly available. However, some versions of these known documents in the new files contain more pages, or fewer redactions, than previously released versions.

More than 60% of Americans believe that the government is concealing information about UAP, according to YouGov, while 40% think UAP are likely alien in origin, according to Gallup. Congress has held hearings into whether there’s been a decades-long program to recover “non-human” technologies, yet evidence remains elusive.

“If it's just more blobby photos or redacted documents that don't have any details in them, it's more of the same,” Adam Frank, an astrophysicist at the University of Rochester who studies the search for alien life, says of the new files. “What we need are actual scientific results from the investigations that should have been done if the most extraordinary claims being made are true.”

The document drop follows a week of high-profile discussions of aliens, including Stephen Colbert’s interview with former President Barack Obama, released on Wednesday. Obama cast doubt on government cover-ups about aliens by joking that “some guy guarding the installation would have taken a selfie with the alien and sent it to his girlfriend.”

Members of the Artemis II crew also second-guessed the idea of a vast government-wide conspiracy to hide the discovery of extraterrestrial life in a discussion with The Daily this week.

“Do you realize that if we found alien life out there and we came back and reported on it, NASA would never have a budget issue for the rest of eternity?” said Reid Weisman, the commander of Artemis II. “So trust me.”

Victor Glover, the astronaut who piloted the mission, added: “Why would we hide that from you?”