Topic
Civilian, police and airline reports, from single witnesses to mass sightings seen by thousands. 258 events, newest first.
SightingsNov 2023
Harvard's Galileo Project began continuous recording with an eight-camera infrared array at its first observatory in Massachusetts. Over five months it tracked about 500,000 objects; 144 trajectories stayed ambiguous, which the team said were likely mundane.
Photo: Abraham Loeb and Frank H. Laukien (Galileo Project), CC BY 4.0
Sightings24 May 2023
Harvard's Galileo Project announced that its first seven peer-reviewed papers were online in the Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation, ahead of a special issue. They describe the project's methods and its multi-sensor ground observatories for recording and screening aerial phenomena.
Photo: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsMay 2023
Sky360, a volunteer open-source project, built low-cost stations pairing an all-sky camera with a tracking camera and software to flag unusual aerial motion. By May 2023 it reported about 20 stations worldwide.
Sightings15 Apr 2023
A swirling light photographed amid the northern lights over Alaska was explained by University of Alaska Fairbanks physicist Don Hampton as fuel vented by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage about three hours after a California launch, freezing into ice that caught sunlight.
Photo: United States Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang, Public domain
Sightings13 Feb 2023
Astronomer Krisztian Sarneczky in Hungary spotted a small asteroid hours before it hit, only the seventh found before impact. It entered the atmosphere at 02:59 UTC over the English Channel as forecast, fireball cameras recorded it, and meteorites were later recovered in Normandy.
Photo: Wokege, CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsFeb 2023
In early February 2023 drone reports suspended operations at Dublin Airport on several days, diverting flights to Belfast and Shannon; on one day the airport later said no drone was present. Irish ministers met aviation officials and police, and a man was charged over an earlier January incident.
Photo: Skullical, CC0
Sightings18 Jan 2023
A livestream camera at the Subaru Telescope recorded a glowing spiral over Maunakea before dawn. Japan's national observatory linked it to the deployment of a satellite SpaceX had launched that day, sunlit high above; a similar spiral was seen in April 2022.
Photo: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Matsopoulos, CC BY 4.0
Sightings19 Oct 2022
Bergen Airport, near Norway's main naval base, shut for about two and a half hours after drone sightings first reported around 4:15 a.m.; Forde airport also briefly closed. Police said they were sure of at least one drone, and Norway's security service took over the probe.
Photo: Varde / Avinor, CC BY 3.0
Sightings30 Jul 2022
The spent core stage of China's Long March 5B fell back uncontrolled on July 30, 2022. NASA's administrator faulted China for not sharing trajectory data. Debris was later found in Malaysia and the Philippines, a case where fiery lights in the sky had a known cause.
Sightings9 Jul 2022
Locals in southern New South Wales heard a sonic boom and saw a blazing arc as part of a SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon trunk reentered. Farmers later found charred panels near Dalgety, and the Australian Space Agency confirmed the debris came from a SpaceX mission.
Photo: Steve Bennett, CC BY-SA 3.0
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
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
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
SightingsJul 2021
In July 2021 the group UAPx and University at Albany physicists ran a week of camera and radiation monitoring at Avalon on Catalina Island. Their later paper said several early candidates were explained, leaving one unresolved dark spot recorded on 16 July.
Photo: Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsJun 2021
The SIGMA2 commission of France's aeronautics and astronautics association 3AF, drawing on former CNES, ESA, DGA and ONERA staff, released a progress report on unidentified aerospace phenomena days before the US intelligence report on UAP.
Sightings28 Feb 2021
A fireball seen across the UK at about 9:54 pm was recorded by fireball networks and residents' dashboard and doorbell cameras. The tracked path led to fragments on a Winchcombe driveway, the first carbonaceous chondrite found in the UK and the first UK meteorite fall recovered in 30 years.
Photo: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0
Sightings21 Feb 2021
A pilot on American Airlines Flight 2292 from Cincinnati to Phoenix radioed that a long cylindrical object had passed rapidly over the plane. The airline confirmed the call, the FBI said it was looking into it, and the FAA said controllers saw nothing on radar.
Photo: Colin Brown from St Ann, MO, USA, CC BY 2.0
Sightings14 Oct 2020
A China Airlines crew told controllers they saw what looked like a person in a jetpack at about 6,000 feet, seven miles northwest of LAX, the second such report in two months. The FAA notified police and the FBI said it was investigating; no explanation was made public.
Photo: Alfred Twu, CC0
Sightings1 Aug 2020
After loud booms over Central Tapanuli, a stone of over 2 kg punched through the roof of coffin maker Josua Hutagalung's house in Kolang, with more fragments found nearby. Arizona State University classified it as a rare carbonaceous (CM) meteorite.
Photo: Ahmad Fairuz, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings2 Jul 2020
A bright fireball seen across the Kanto region at about 2:32 am set off reports around Tokyo. Fragments found in Narashino, Chiba, days later were confirmed by Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science as the country's 53rd known meteorite.
Photo: National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan, Public domain
