United States President Donald Trump has released a tranche of declassified files on alleged UFO sightings and extraterrestrial life dating as far back as the 1940s, in what he is calling an effort to provide "maximum transparency" to the public.
Sightings of flying saucers, discs and a "super-hot" hovering orb, as well as an encounter with a Lord of the Rings-style glowing orange light, are among the reported incidents in the FBI, State Department, NASA and Pentagon files.
The more than 160 newly released files cover incidents that, for a range of reasons, couldn't be conclusively explained by these organisations.
Additional documents will be released as more materials are declassified, the Pentagon said.
Interest in UFOs has intensified in recent years, after the US government investigated numerous reports of unusual aircraft, amid concerns foreign adversaries could be trialling highly advanced technologies.
Though the Pentagon has been working on declassifying the documents for years, Trump drove fresh curiosity earlier this year when he teased that a major UFO and alien document dump was forthcoming.
He made the promise days after former president Barack Obama went viral for suggesting aliens are "real" during a podcast appearance.
The Pentagon described the files as new and "never-before-seen", though some had been made public years ago.
Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday that he had directed his administration to release the files "in an effort for complete and maximum transparency".
"Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Have Fun and Enjoy!" Trump wrote.
Experts have urged people to avoid jumping to conclusions when reading the files, warning that videos of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, are frequently misinterpreted by those unfamiliar with military technology.
No verified evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth has ever been produced, and the Pentagon said in a 2024 report it had no proof that UAPs were alien technology, with many suspicious sightings turning out to be normal aircraft.
What's in the files?
One report dated 19 December 1947 describes a sighting of "flying discs".
Another shows what is described as "unidentified phenomena" taken from the surface of the moon during the 1969 Apollo 12 mission.
There's also a transcript from NASA's 1972 Apollo 17 mission in which pilot Ronald Evans reports seeing "a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by" from the moon.
Another file details accounts from seven federal government employees who separately reported witnessing several UAPs across the US in 2023.
There are also several reports of sightings of orbs, including one where three teams of federal agents described seeing orange orbs in the sky that emitted smaller red orbs.
In another incident, two federal agents said they witnessed a "glowing orange orb" near the top of a rock pinnacle.
It was described as looking like the Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings movie, "except without the pupil".
One file documented an interview with a US intelligence official who describes encountering a "super-hot" orb hovering over the ground during a helicopter search. The official said the orb was travelling about 32km/h, and recounted seeing four or five more orbs that flared up and down.
Mixed reaction to Trump's move
Trump has previously released records related to the assassinations of former president John F Kennedy, senator Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr that revealed little beyond what was already publicly known.
He also faced criticism over his administration's initial release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, which critics said similarly revealed little new information.
Some Republican allies praised Trump for his latest document dump, including Congressional Representative Tim Burchett, who thanked Trump for "keeping his word" and described the first tranche of files as "just the tip of the iceberg".
However, former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch ally-turned-critic of Trump, characterised the move as a distraction from the war in the Middle East and subsequent oil shocks, as well as the fallout from the Epstein files.
"The most transparent administration in history still hasn’t released all the Epstein files or arrested anyone, but rolled out some UFO files today so you would get so excited that you forgot you are paying over $4.50/gallon because they are fighting another foreign war they said they would no longer fight," she wrote on X.
— With reporting by Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
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