On May 9 (US time), ABC News reported that the US Department of Defense said it would continue to release more files related to UFOs, also known as unidentified aerial abnormalities (UAP), after the administration of US President Donald Trump declassified about 160 previously kept secret documents.
The White House and the Pentagon said that the release of UFO files is to help Americans access more information about unexplained phenomena. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that these documents were kept secret for a long time and have sparked many speculations, so the public should be allowed to consider them themselves.
The recently released records include documents, images and videos related to unidentified phenomena. Among them, there is a 1947 report on the "flying disc", a photo of the unidentified phenomenon taken from the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, and a recording of the Apollo 17 crew in 1972 when observing strange objects from the Moon.
According to the record, the Apollo 17 mission pilot - Ronald Evans - once described "a few very bright particles or fragments" passing by while the ship was moving.
Another published image shows an object shaped like a rugby ball, recorded by the US Indo-Pacific Command in 2024.
However, experts believe that this series of documents does not prove the existence of aliens. Astrophysicist Avi Loeb of Harvard University said that the records show that the US Government collected data on UAP, but some images from Apollo missions may be related to the impact of meteorites on the surface of the Moon.
UAP investigator Mick West also said that many similar contents were previously published under former President Joe Biden. According to him, the objects in the video may just be bright spots at a distance or optical effects from the camera lens.
However, the crackdown is still heating up debate in the US about the government's level of transparency in the UFO issue. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna - a supporter of cracking down on UFO files - said that a series of additional documents could be released in the next 30 days.
Some critics argue that the release of UFO records may distract attention from other political issues. However, journalist Leslie Kean said that this move shows that the US government still has a lot of information about UAP that needs to be further publicized.
