WASHINGTON — One reported object was described as a rotating disc that emitted beams of light. Another appeared as a glowing red orb in a shade the witness said they had never seen before. A third was likened to a potato — or perhaps a bean — with a surface that seemed to shimmer like fish scales.
Those accounts are among the UFO sightings detailed in documents released Friday by the Pentagon, marking the third such disclosure since President Donald Trump ordered his administration to make public what it knows about alien life and unexplained objects spotted in the sky.
The 72 files made public Friday stop short of the dramatic revelations Trump has hinted at. They offer no definitive proof of extraterrestrial life or evidence of a government cover-up. Still, the records provide fresh insight into several recent sightings and show how officials have tried to investigate phenomena many observers say defy explanation.
Consider, for example, the so-called potato-shaped object.
The sighting took place in 2022 on a cold February morning in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Five U.S. Army personnel at Fort Carson stepped outside an office building and noticed an unusual object hovering above Cheyenne Mountain, a few miles to the west.
According to an account in an FBI document, the object was “potato” shaped with clearly defined edges and appeared to be painted in a creamy, whitish opalescent color. The report added that it seemed to consist of “articulating fish scales or panels” that were asymmetrical, non-overlapping and irregular in shape.
It stayed motionless, shimmering, for about two minutes, the men recounted to the FBI. Then it vanished in the blink of an eye. None of the men had phones on them. There’s no video, no photos.
Report says ‘potato’ could have been a trick of light
Authorities tasked with investigating the episode said they couldn’t explain it easily. Their report found – with “low confidence” – that it may have been “backscattering of sunlight.” Low light from the rising sun could have reflected off the mountain’s snow and illuminated low clouds above, it said.
The men insisted it was a clear, cloudless day. No aircraft or balloons were believed to be in the area. The four-page report, heavily redacted and attributed only to an “intelligence community partner,” said it didn’t appear to be technology from a foreign adversary. An FBI rendering looks just like one might imagine – like a scaly, pale potato above a low mountain.
The case remains unsolved.
A similarly inclusive report examined a series of sightings in October 2023, this time by six federal law enforcement agents. Multiple times, the agents said, they saw a bright orange orb appear above a ridgeline and spawn two to four smaller red orbs.
The orbs disappeared quickly most of the time, but in one instance, the agents said an orb hovered motionless in the sky for several hours. There’s no video or photo evidence of the sightings, the report said.
An analysis dated this month goes through a series of possible explanations. Military aircraft were conducting exercises in the area, and some deployed flares. There could have been other testing of developmental U.S. technology nearby, the report said. It listed those as “plausible” but not conclusive explanations.
Yet it didn’t rule out the possibility that it was some “unrecognized technology.” With relatively little evidence to work from, it called for more investigation into the case.
White House boosts video of red orb
The analysis was conducted by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which Congress created in 2022 to investigate reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, also known as UAP. Previous reports from the agency say it has not found any evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Among the most recent files is an FBI report from February detailing a sighting in an undisclosed part of the Northeast United States. A person whose name is blacked out reported coming home and seeing an intense light hovering below the trees in their backyard. It was described as a sphere of a “brilliant and beautiful” red, which the person had never seen.
“Inside the red sphere, at the center, there appeared to be what (redacted) described as a ‘white plasma sun’ about the size of a basketball,” according to the FBI file.
A second sphere appeared, and both silently flew out of sight, the file says. Cellphone footage shows two glowing red orbs floating across the sky. The White House shared the video on social media on Friday with no message beyond the file’s name: “‘NORTHEASTERN ORB SIGHTING,’ 2025.”
Zimbabwe sighting included ‘beams’ from a disc
So far, the Trump administration’s transparency campaign has led to the release of about 300 files dating to the 1940s, some brand-new to the public and some adding detail on previously known cases.
The newest batch includes a 2008 CIA report from Zimbabwe labeled as “never before released.” On a July day above the country’s main airport, observers reportedly saw something straight out of a Hollywood movie: It was “disc-like in shape with a hollow center, and had a series of rotating lights on the underside of the airframe.”
“At one point during observation, ‘beams’ were observed emanating from the object,” the CIA report said.
The lights changed colors, and the aircraft ascended high out of view, the report says. There was debate about where it came from, according to the report, with some suggesting a foreign government and some positing “extraterrestrial origins.”
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