See the Pentagon’s new UFO image release

By Jeanna Bryner edited by Claire Cameron

On Friday the Pentagon released what appears to be the first batch of government files related to unidentified flying objects (UFOs), or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), since President Donald Trump directed officials to do so via a social media post earlier this year. The files include FBI reports into unexplained sightings, as well as NASA debriefs with astronauts who saw things on the moon they couldn’t identify—some of which were captured in images.

Scientific American’s Adam Kovac reports that experts in the field are not surprised by any of the released files and say that, rather than quelling speculation, the declassification could fuel it.

Here are some of the images included in the file release, as well as the information about what the photographs might show that the Pentagon has provided.

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This still image was taken from a video captured in May 2022 by a U.S. military operator flying over the Middle East that showed a UAP flying across their screen.

A newly released, black-hot infrared still image shows an unidentified object below a helicopter above the western U.S. in September 2025.

In 2024 personnel of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command reported seeing a UAP that resembled a football-shaped body near Japan.

In late 2025 a U.S. military operator reported a small, dark and slightly irregularly shaped object visible on their screen. This monochrome image shows the object just below and to the right of the center of the reticle.

In this archival image, you can see the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12, the sixth crewed flight for the U.S. Apollo Program and the second to land on the moon on November 19, 1969. The UAP can be seen in the highlighted area slightly to the left of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon.

Another archival photograph taken during the Apollo 12 mission depicts the lunar surface with an unidentified phenomenon in the highlighted box.

This archival photograph of the site of the Apollo 12 landing features two highlighted areas of interest showing unidentified phenomena. Labeled “Area 1” and “Area 2,” they are slightly to the right of the vertical axis of the frame.

Another Apollo 12 archival image also shows a view from the mission’s landing site in the southeastern region of Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms. A highlighted UAP can be seen near the right edge of the frame, above the horizon.

A previously released NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission that was taken in December 1972 shows three “dots” in a triangular formation in the lower right quadrant of the lunar sky. They are more visible in the inset magnification of the area.

A black-hot infrared still image captured an unidentified object—a dark dot—over the western U.S. in December 2025. Parts of the image have been redacted.

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