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The latest events on the record: hearings, official reports, releases and reported encounters. Each one links to its sources.
GovernmentMar 2009
The UK National Archives opened a third batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files, mostly late-1980s and early-1990s reports. Highlights included the Calvine photographs, Tornado crews' 1990 report later traced to Soviet rocket debris, and a 1992 advertising airship mistaken for a UFO.
Sightings15 Feb 2009
A daylight fireball with a sonic boom was seen across central Texas days after the Iridium-Cosmos satellite collision. The FAA first suggested space debris, then said it was a natural object, and U.S. Strategic Command said it was unrelated to the collision.
Photo: Jon Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings5 Jan 2009
Red lights over Morris County, New Jersey, drew many UFO reports and national TV attention in early 2009. On April 1 Chris Russo and Joe Rudy revealed they had launched road flares on helium balloons as a social experiment; they were fined $250 each for disorderly conduct.
Photo: Jared Kofsky, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings4 Jan 2009
A Lincolnshire wind turbine lost a 20 m blade overnight and a local councillor said he had seen a hovering white light, prompting UFO claims in the press. An interim report from the maker Enercon found the blade's mounting bolts had failed, and UFOs were ruled out.
Photo: Steve Fareham, CC BY-SA 2.0
GovernmentJan 2009
Denmark's air force published 329 pages of previously classified UFO report files covering 1978 to 2002, after which a civilian group handled sightings. A spokesman said they were released because journalists kept asking; UPI reported the files include more than 200 unsolved cases.
Sightings2009
The Ministry of Defence logged 643 UFO reports by late November 2009, triple its usual yearly count and second only to 1978 among recent years. Released files show many sightings were Chinese lanterns, and the surge fed the decision to close the MoD's UFO desk.
Photo: Moyan Brenn from Italy, CC BY 2.0
Media12 Dec 2008
20th Century Fox released a remake of the 1951 alien-visitor film The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Keanu Reeves as the visitor Klaatu. Critics such as the Christian Science Monitor found it weaker than the original.
Photo: Y! Musica's photostream, CC BY 2.0
Sightings20 Nov 2008
A fireball seen by thousands from Edmonton to Saskatchewan was caught on widely shared video. A University of Calgary team traced it to a field near Lloydminster and recovered more than 100 meteorites, a record-setting Canadian fall.
Photo: Dale Nosko, CC0
Close encountersNov 2008
Chris French's team at Goldsmiths compared 19 UK alien contact experiencers with matched controls. Experiencers scored higher on dissociation, absorption, fantasy proneness, tendency to hallucinate and reported sleep paralysis, but showed no difference in false-memory susceptibility.
Photo: Alex Blandford, CC BY 2.0
Sightings7 Oct 2008
Asteroid 2008 TC3 was found on Oct. 6, 2008 and predicted to hit within hours; it exploded over northern Sudan as forecast. A KLM crew over Chad saw the flash, satellites recorded it, and meteorites were later recovered from the desert, the first impact predicted in advance.
Photo: Peter Jenniskens, Public domain
GovernmentOct 2008
The UK National Archives released a batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files that included the MoD record of a 1991 near miss reported by an Alitalia crew over Kent, which officials said had no clear explanation. The captain spoke publicly about it after the release.
Photo: G B_NZ, CC BY-SA 2.0
GovernmentSep 2008
The Defense Intelligence Agency contracted Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies of Las Vegas for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, officially a study of future aerospace threats. It produced dozens of technical papers; funding of about $22 million ended in 2012.
Photo: Bill Ingalls, Public domain
Skinwalker Ranch18 Aug 2008
The Defense Intelligence Agency publicly posted a small-business request for proposals for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, seeking studies of possible breakthrough aerospace technologies. The contract that followed went to Bigelow's BAASS.
Photo: Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media25 Jul 2008
20th Century Fox released the second X-Files feature, which grossed about 21 million dollars in the U.S. Critics noted it set aside the alien-conspiracy arc for a stand-alone case, though its title echoed the series' 'I want to believe' poster slogan.
Photo: 20th Century Fox, Public domain
WhistleblowersJul 2008
Apollo 14 moonwalker Edgar Mitchell told the UK station Kerrang! Radio that Earth had been visited and that the Roswell crash was real, citing briefings from unnamed sources. NASA replied that it does not track UFOs, is not covering anything up and does not share his view.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
SightingsJul 2008
MUFON released a 76-page analysis of FAA radar data obtained under FOIA for the Jan. 8, 2008 Stephenville sightings, saying it showed objects flying without transponders. Skeptics said it picked 187 points out of millions of noise returns and that F-16s dropping flares explain the lights.
Photo: CletusDitto, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings8 Jun 2008
A South Wales Police helicopter crew waiting to land at St Athan reported an unusual object that vanished over the Bristol Channel. Police denied tabloid claims of a chase, and a couple later said lanterns released at their nearby wedding were the likely cause.
Photo: Mick Lobb, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government14 May 2008
The UK Ministry of Defence began releasing its UFO files through The National Archives website, starting with sighting reports and MoD assessments dating back to the 1970s. The program ran until a tenth and final release in June 2013.
Photo: Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0
Media14 May 2008
Jesuit astronomer Jose Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the possible existence of intelligent life elsewhere does not contradict faith in God. The remarks were his personal view, not church doctrine.
Photo: Jjstott, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media6 May 2008
Political scientists Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall argued in the journal Political Theory that a taboo keeps states and science from taking UFOs seriously, and that this taboo serves modern sovereignty, which is organized around humans alone.
Photo: Rion Hiun, CC0
