Start here

New to the subject? Start here

UFOs and UAP in five minutes

UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) is the U.S. government's current word for what most people call UFOs: things people saw, filmed or tracked on radar that could not be identified at the time. "Unidentified" means not yet explained, not alien. For eighty years, pilots, police, military crews and members of the public have reported them, and governments have studied them. This page gives you the shape of that history. Everything on uapstats links to its public sources, so you can check it yourself.

The four eras

  1. 01

    1946-1969

    Flying saucers and the Air Force files

    A pilot's 1947 report starts a national wave of sightings. The U.S. Air Force investigates thousands of cases through Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book, explains most of them, and closes the effort in 1969 after a university study concludes further research is unlikely to add to science.

    Show these 310 events on the timeline
  2. 02

    1970-2003

    Quiet officials, loud culture

    Official U.S. interest fades while public interest grows: films, books and famous cases such as Rendlesham and the Phoenix Lights. Freedom of Information requests pry loose old files, and other governments, including France and the UK, run or release their own studies.

    Show these 350 events on the timeline
  3. 03

    2004-2017

    Navy encounters and a hidden program

    Navy aviators report objects they cannot identify, including the 2004 Nimitz case. A Pentagon-funded study runs out of public view, and in 2017 The New York Times reveals it, along with Navy video.

    Show these 210 events on the timeline
  4. 04

    2018-today

    Official acknowledgment and hearings

    The Pentagon releases the Navy videos, sets up a task force and then a permanent office (AARO), intelligence officials report to Congress, and Congress holds open hearings with sworn testimony. Officials say most reports turn out to be ordinary objects, that some remain unidentified, and that they have found no verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology.

    Show these 359 events on the timeline

Where things stand today

The short answer to "so, is it aliens?": officials say they have found no verified evidence of that, and also that some cases remain unexplained.

What officials have concluded

The Pentagon's UAP office (AARO) says the cases it resolves turn out to be balloons, birds, drones and similar objects, and its 2024 historical review found no verifiable evidence that extraterrestrial technology was ever recovered.

The AARO historical report

What remains open

Many reports are still unresolved because the data is too thin. NASA's 2023 study found no conclusive evidence of an extraterrestrial origin and called for better sensors and data.

The NASA study team report

What Congress is doing

Since 2023, sworn hearings have featured former officials alleging hidden programs, most recently a House task force hearing in September 2025, and Congress has required agencies to send UAP records to the National Archives.

The road to the hearings

The Highlights at a glance

Ten of the defining events, in order. They come from the Highlights guided story; follow all 17 of them one at a time.

  1. Page of a typed and handwritten letter with a sketch of a flying object124 Jun 1947 · SightingsKenneth Arnold sightingKenneth Arnold, Public domain
  2. Top of the Roswell Daily Record front page with the headline RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch28 Jul 1947 · MilitaryRoswell debris recoveryRoswell Daily Record, Public domain
  3. First page of a typed 1966 U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book summary document3Mar 1952 · GovernmentProject Blue Book beginsUS Governement, Public domain
  4. Air traffic controllers at work in the control booth at Washington National Airport, 1958419 Jul 1952 · MilitaryWashington, D.C. radar sightingsWarren K. Leffler, Public domain
  5. Portrait photograph of physicist Edward U. Condon51969 · GovernmentCondon Report releasedNational Institute of Standards and Technology, Public domain
  6. Official portrait of Robert C. Seamans Jr. in suit and tie617 Dec 1969 · GovernmentBlue Book shuts downUnited States Air Force Archive, CC BY-SA 4.0
  7. Infrared video frame showing a small oblong object with targeting overlays7Nov 2004 · MilitaryUSS Nimitz 'Tic Tac'United States Navy, Public domain
  8. 2017816 Dec 2017 · MediaAATIP revealed by the New York Times
  9. Infrared Navy video frame showing an unidentified object with on-screen targeting data927 Apr 2020 · GovernmentPentagon officially releases three videosUnited States Navy, Public domain
  10. David Grusch speaking at a witness table during a House subcommittee hearing1026 Jul 2023 · WhistleblowersDavid Grusch testifiesU.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain

Using this site

Search or ask

Type a name, place or case into the search box, or ask a question in plain English. Answers come only from sourced events.

News and podcasts

News lists the most recent events first. Podcasts lists new episodes from shows that cover the subject.

The full history

History puts all 1231 events on one interactive timeline, with guided stories that step through events one at a time.

Sources

Every event lists its public sources, labeled official, firsthand, press or other. How sources are labeled.

Key terms

UAP
Unidentified anomalous phenomena: the official U.S. term today for something seen or detected that cannot be identified right away. It replaced "UFO" in government use.
UFO
Unidentified flying object: the older term, coined in the 1950s by the Air Force. Unidentified means not yet identified, not alien.
Project Blue Book
The U.S. Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 to 1969. Its case files are now at the National Archives.
AATIP
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a Pentagon UAP effort revealed by The New York Times in 2017.
AAWSAP
The Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, a Defense Intelligence Agency study funded from 2008. Officials have described its relation to AATIP in conflicting ways.
NIDS
The National Institute for Discovery Science, a private research group that studied Skinwalker Ranch in the late 1990s.
FLIR
Forward-looking infrared: the heat-sensing camera on military jets that recorded the Navy videos the Pentagon released.
Condon Report
The 1969 University of Colorado study, paid for by the Air Force, which concluded that further UFO research was unlikely to add to science. It led to the end of Project Blue Book.
UAPTF
The UAP Task Force, set up by the Navy for the Pentagon in 2020. It was replaced by AARO.
AARO
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon office set up in 2022 to collect and analyze UAP reports.
ODNI
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which delivered the first public UAP assessment to Congress in 2021.
NDAA
The National Defense Authorization Act, the yearly defense law. Several recent ones contain UAP rules, such as annual reports and a records collection.
FOIA
The Freedom of Information Act, the law the public uses to request government records. Many documents linked here were released through it.

Ready for the story?

The Highlights guided story walks you through the defining events, one at a time.

Start the Highlights