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The latest events on the record: hearings, official reports, releases and reported encounters. Each one links to its sources.
Sightings19 Jun 2022
People across the South Island photographed a glowing spiral in the evening sky. The New Plymouth Astronomical Society said it was most likely a fuel dump from the Falcon 9 upper stage that had launched a Globalstar satellite that day.
Photo: NASA Headquarters / NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Public domain
Media14 Jun 2022
Science and Technology Daily, a state-run paper, reported that a Beijing Normal University team had found suspicious narrow-band signals in FAST data; the report was then removed. Lead scientist Zhang Tongjie said radio interference was a very likely cause.
Photo: SCJiang, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government9 Jun 2022
NASA said it would commission an independent team, chaired by astrophysicist David Spergel, to study unidentified aerial phenomena using only unclassified data and recommend how NASA could help. The 16-member team began work in October 2022.
Photo: NASA Headquarters / NASA/Joel Kowsky, Public domain
Media20 May 2022
Randall Nickerson's feature documentary Ariel Phenomenon was released for streaming. It revisits the 1994 Ariel School case in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, through interviews with former pupils who, now adults, still describe seeing a craft and beings near their school.
Government17 May 2022
A House Intelligence subcommittee held an open hearing on UAP with Under Secretary of Defense Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray, who showed newly declassified video. It was described as the first open congressional hearing on the subject in about 50 years.
Photo: U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Public domain
Government17 May 2022
At the House Intelligence subcommittee's UAP hearing, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray said triangle-shaped objects filmed by Navy crews were likely small drones, their shape an effect of light passing through night-vision goggles onto an SLR camera.
Photo: U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Public domain
Skinwalker Ranch3 May 2022
History began airing the third season of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, the series following owner Brandon Fugal's team as it runs tests on the Utah property. The network's episode listing shows weekly episodes from May 3 into July 2022.
Photo: Paul from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
WhistleblowersMay 2022
Former intelligence officer David Grusch filed an urgent-concern and reprisal complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General, alleging UAP information was withheld from Congress. He says the IG found it credible and urgent in July 2022; his underlying claims remain unverified.
Photo: ODNI, Public domain
Sightings2 Apr 2022
A streak of light crossed several Maharashtra districts on the evening of April 2, 2022, and a hot metal ring about 3 m across and a sphere were found in Sindewahi, Chandrapur. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell linked the streak to the reentry of a Chang Zheng 3B third stage.
Photo: Ganesh Dhamodkar, CC BY-SA 4.0
GovernmentApr 2022
The Defense Intelligence Agency released nearly 1,600 pages on AAWSAP, the program it funded through Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, including contractor studies on topics like wormholes and antigravity. The release followed FOIA requests from Vice and The Black Vault.
Photo: MSGT KEN HAMMOND, Public domain
MilitaryApr 2022
U.S. Space Command officials confirmed the velocity data for a January 2014 fireball off Papua New Guinea that Harvard researchers had argued came from outside the solar system. NASA noted the short data record makes the interstellar origin hard to confirm.
Photo: Abraham Loeb and Frank H. Laukien (Galileo Project), CC BY 4.0
MediaJan 2022
Garry Nolan, Jacques Vallee, Sizun Jiang and Larry Lemke published a paper in Progress in Aerospace Sciences on isotopic and other instrumental methods for characterizing unusual materials, framed as potentially relevant to what the authors call aerospace forensics.
Whistleblowers2022
Stanford pathologist Garry Nolan and anthropologist Peter Skafish co-founded the Sol Foundation, a research institute and policy think tank on UAP that says it formed in 2022 after Congress received an intelligence report on the subject. It went on to hold annual symposia and publish policy papers.
MediaJan 2022
A cube-like shape seen by China's Yutu 2 rover on the Moon's far side, dubbed a 'mystery hut' by a CNSA-affiliated outreach account in December 2021, turned out to be a rock when the rover drove close in January 2022. The team nicknamed it 'Jade Rabbit'.
Photo: CNSA, CC BY 4.0
Skinwalker Ranch28 Dec 2021
Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada died at 82 after a four-year fight with pancreatic cancer. NBC News coverage noted that as majority leader he had pushed for funding of a UFO program.
Photo: United States Congress, Public domain
Government27 Dec 2021
The FY2022 defense bill, signed Dec. 27, 2021, ordered the Pentagon and intelligence community to set up an office on unidentified aerial phenomena, with unclassified annual reports and semiannual classified briefings to Congress. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pushed the provision.
Photo: The White House, Public domain
Media10 Dec 2021
Amazon released Michael Pearce's Encounter on Prime Video a week after a limited theatrical run. Riz Ahmed plays a Marine veteran who takes his two sons on the run from what he says is an alien infection; the film leaves open whether the threat is real.
Photo: Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV from Culver City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government6 Dec 2021
After the Pentagon set up the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office told The Debrief it did not go nearly far enough. Days later her own UAP office amendment was included in the final FY2022 defense bill.
Photo: US Senate Photography, Public domain
Skinwalker Ranch4 Dec 2021
Robert Bigelow's Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies, launched in 2021, handed out prizes to 29 essays on evidence for survival of consciousness after death, with Jeffrey Mishlove taking first place. Coverage noted Bigelow's earlier funding of UFO research.
Photo: Bill Ingalls, Public domain
Sightings3 Dec 2021
A moving line of lights puzzled residents of Pathankot in Punjab and parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Indian media cited defence sources calling it a satellite and linked it to a batch of SpaceX Starlink satellites launched from Florida the day before.
Photo: Dktue, CC0
