kosmos: United States UFO files

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The United States UFO files, officially known as the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), also referred to as the UFO files or the UAP files, are a collection of declassified United States government records concerning UFOs, also called unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), released by the administration of Donald Trump beginning on May 8, 2026. The files were published through the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), a government website created to release reviewed UAP-related material to the public. The first release included reports, photographs, videos, witness accounts, military records, astronaut transcripts, a…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Pentagon UFO videos are selected visual recordings of forward-looking infrared (FLIR) targeting cameras from United States Navy fighter jets based aboard the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2004, 2014 and 2015, with additional footage taken by other Navy personnel in 2019. The four Infrared videos taken from aircraft's targeting pod have been widely characterized as officially documenting UFOs and received extensive coverage in the media since 2017. The Pentagon later addressed and officially released the first three videos of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) in 2020, and confirmed the provenance of the leaked 2019 videos in two statements made in 2021. Foo…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes reported to consider them all saucers or discs. UFOs are also known as unidentified aerial phenomena or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects, natural phenomena, hoaxes, or mirages, while a small number remain unexplained. While unusual sightings in the sky have been reported since at least the 3rd century BC, UFOs became culturally prominent after World War II, escalating during the Space…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Investigation of UFO reports by the United States government has taken place under multiple branches and agencies, past and current, since 1947. In spite of decades of interest, there remains no evidence that there are any UFOs with extraterrestrial origins and, indeed, those identified all have been shown to be natural phenomena, human technology, misapprehensions, delusions, or hoaxes. The first programs were established under the U.S. Air Force between 1947 and 1969 with Project Sign, Project Grudge, and finally Project Blue Book. The Condon Report in 1968 led the U.S. to stop spending resources on the effort to receive and analyze UFO reports because "nothing has come from the study of…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Since 1947, United States media coverage has speculated that UFO reports might be linked to atomic sites. In June 1947, the start of the Cold War led to domestic UFO reports being taken seriously by both military and media. On July 6, 1947, media nationwide claimed that the ongoing "flying saucer" craze was linked to "transmutation of atomic energy", though experts later dismissed that claim as gibberish. In 1968, Air Force debunker J. Allen Hynek, in the wake of controversy over his claim that a UFO report had been caused by swamp gas, floated the suggestion that reports might be tied to the atomic phenomenon. By the 1990s, legends had spread of UFOs interfering with a missile test and tak…