pogoda: List of reported UFO sightings

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

This is a list of notable reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), some of which include related claims of close encounters of the second or third kind or alien abduction. UFOs are generally considered to include any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained. UFOs have been referred to using a range of terms including the more specific "flying saucer" and the more general term "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP). "UAP" is sometimes used to avoid cultural associations with UFO conspiracy theories. Although…

Evidence: 55 • 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: 48 • authority: 72

In ufology, the psychosocial hypothesis (PSH), argues that at least some UFO reports are best explained by psychological or social means. It is often contrasted with the better-known extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), and is particularly popular among UFO researchers in the United Kingdom, such as David Clarke, Hilary Evans, the editors of Magonia magazine, and many of the contributors to Fortean Times magazine. It has also been popular in France since the publication in 1977 of a book written by Michel Monnerie, Et si les ovnis n'existaient pas? (What if UFOs do not exist?). UFOlogists claim that the psychosocial hypothesis is occasionally confused with aggressive anti-ETH debunking, but t…

Evidence: 48 • authority: 72

Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, also known as the UAP Report and colloquially named the Pentagon UFO Report, is a United States federally mandated assessment, prepared and published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on June 25, 2021, summarizing information regarding unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) which include unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Substantial public attention had been given to the mandated June 25 report, fueled by statements by former high level officials in the U.S. government, including former president Barack Obama, who stated in June 2021 "...there's footage and records of objects in the skies, that we don't know exactly…

Evidence: 41 • authority: 88

Geospatial Predictors of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Reports Across U.S. Counties. Reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) have received renewed public and scientific attention following recent Congressional and executive disclosures, yet systematic empirical analysis of their geographic distribution remains limited. We model county-level UAP report counts from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) database across the contiguous United States, restricting to contemporaneous reports filed since NUFORC’s founding in the mid-1990s (1995–2014; 58,776 reports across 3,093 counties) to avoid retrospective memory bias in pre-1995 submissions. A two-stage modelling strategy was emplo…

Evidence: 41 • authority: 72

This is a list of notable alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the United Kingdom. Many more sightings have become known since the gradual release, between 2008 and 2013, of the Ministry of Defence's UFO sighting reports by the National Archives. In recent years, there have been reports of many slowly moving lights in the night sky, which can be easily explained as Chinese lanterns. Undertaken between 1997 and 2000, Project Condign concluded that all the investigated sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena in the UK could be attributed to misidentified but explicable objects, or poorly understood natural phenomena. London is the city with the most UFO sightings in t…