Science advisers working with the Trump administration are pointing to more familiar explanations for some of the strange glowing-orb sightings described in the Trump UFO files — though they say at least one extraordinary encounter still defies any easy answer.
Dr. Avi Loeb, who leads the UAP Science Advisory Council, suggested that a number of the reported mysterious light spheres may actually be plasma effects created by human-made laser systems.
“A glowing sphere could potentially be generated at the focal point of a powerful laser or at the intersection of two laser beams,” Loeb told The Post.
Because that bright point would not be a solid object, Loeb explained, it could appear to streak through the sky at supersonic speeds without producing the sonic boom, fireball or heat effects normally associated with a physical craft cutting through the atmosphere.
Loeb compared the effect to the way a cat chases a laser dot across a wall — the light moves, but nothing physical is actually traveling along that path.
High-powered laser technology is already part of the US military’s toolkit, including defensive systems designed to counter drones and ballistic missiles, such as those used at bases involved in operations against Iran.
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Still, Loeb said that explanation does not appear to account for a dramatic October 2023 incident, when federal intelligence officers reportedly observed orange and red orbs near a restricted military site in the western United States.
“However the anomalous orbs reported by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in the Pentagon require much more powerful lasers than currently available,” Loeb said.
“AARO’s director, Dr. Jon Kosloski, wrote a letter dated June 5, 2026 which describes reports of the objects, including an orange “mother orb” launching smaller red orbs, remaining stationary for several hours, a duration and behavior that does not match a laser-sustained plasma, “ Loeb expounded about the 2023 incident.
Those objects expressed “varied kinematic profiles including seemingly coordinated horizontal motion and apparent changes in altitude,” according to the AARO report.
Fellow UAP Science Advisory Council member Admiral Tim Gallaudet agrees that the “mother orbs” sighting is one of chief concern for federal investigators.
“Ball lighting and laser-produced plasmas are possible explanations in some cases. But in the AARO ‘orbs launching orbs’ case, I cannot think of any conventional explanation,” Gallaudet told The Post.
In an essay this week, Loeb further offered the mysterious rare phenomenon of ball lighting — orbs of electricity that appear most regularly after storms — as a possible explanation for some of the sightings.
However, Loeb pointed out that ball lighting lasts for just a few seconds, while the significant orb sighting lasted for hours.
