‘1,000-foot UFO' near Four Corners landmark allegedly seen in newly released photo taken by commercial pilot
They're getting lost in the saucer.
A new photo claiming to show a 1,000-foot-wide UFO in the American Southwest has been released by unidentified aerial phenomenon disclosure activists — but critics claim the 'disclosure' is more of an embarrassing mistake.
Controversial former State Department employee and activist Luis 'Lue' Elizondo hosted a UAP Disclosure Fund organized panel during which he released an alleged photo of a '1,000-foot' wide, silver, disc-shaped flying saucer.
Advertisement
'Captured near Four Corners at FL20 — estimated 600 – 1,000 ft in diameter, silver-hued, disc-shaped,' the UAP Disclosure Fund posted on X.
'Several speakers confirmed [Department of Defense] and [Intelligence Community] hold hundreds of similar UAP images + sensor files still classified,' the advocacy group alleged, adding, 'It's time for full declassification and open scientific analysis.'
Advertisement
The grainy photo was allegedly snapped by a commercial airline pilot in 2021 as it flew at 21,000 feet near the Four Corners landmark joining parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado, Elizondo claimed.
He pointed to the apparent shadow cast by the large 'lenticular' object as part of the evidence for the existence of a physical craft in the photo.
The UAP disclosure advocate claimed the photo was taken by an 'average camera' — but stated he 'could not vouch for the veracity of this photograph, because I didn't take it,' video showed.
Critics were quick to challenge the presentation — with many eagle-eyed debunkers claiming the photo merely showed irrigation circles that are common in desert climates.
Advertisement
Noted UAP debunker Mick West pointed out that shadow patterns in the hills are counterfactual to the claim that the object is creating its own shadow, according to a blog post.
Elizondo has previously come under fire for presenting evidence of UAPs or UFOs that were later debunked — with the Pentagon pushing back against claims that alien life is present on Earth.
Former State Department employee Luis 'Lue' Elizondo released the alleged photo a '1,000-foot' wide, silver, disc-shaped flying saucer.
X/@LueElizondo
The grainy photo was allegedly snapped by a commercial airline pilot in 2021 as it flew at 21,000 feet near the Four Corners landmark joining parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado, Elizondo claimed.
UAP Disclosure Fund/X
Advertisement
The UAP Disclosure Fund panel included Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Congressman Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Harvard astrophysicist Professor Avi Loeb for discussion Thursday in Washington, DC.
Astrophysicist and nuclear engineer Eric Davis, another member of the panel, claimed during the event that there are four types of alien species that have visited planet Earth, namely 'grays,' 'Nordics,' 'reptilian' and 'insectoid.'
The UAP Disclosure Fund did not respond to The Post's request for comment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pentagon ‘spread Area 51 UFO rumours to cover up secret weapons programmes'
Pentagon officials spent years spreading disinformation about UFOs in an attempt to hide secret weapons programmes at Area 51, it has been claimed. By fabricating and planting 'evidence' about alien research, they unleashed persistent myths about extraterrestrial activity in the US, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). In one case in the 1980s, a US Air Force colonel visited a bar near the highly classified military base, deep in the Nevada desert, and gave the owner images of what looked like flying saucers. The photographs were then pinned to the walls – and the idea was planted that Area 51 was being used to secretly test recovered alien technology. However, the images were doctored, the now-retired colonel reportedly confessed to Pentagon investigators in 2023. The disinformation mission was part of an effort to hide the testing of new top-secret stealth aircraft, developed to penetrate the Soviet Union's air defences. Military officials, fearing that the F-117 programme might be exposed, hoped locals would believe the other worldly-looking jets instead came from outside Earth. The WSJ said the disinformation efforts were uncovered during an extensive review by a Pentagon team into long-running conspiracy theories about Washington allegedly hiding research into aliens. However, the newspaper said a report of the review's findings, published last year, 'itself amounted to a cover-up – but not in the way the UFO conspiracy industry would have people believe'. While the investigation found no evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial beings or crafts – or of a related government cover-up – it 'omitted key facts... both to protect classified secrets and to avoid embarrassment,' the WSJ alleged. Investigators found that many reported UFO sightings were usually of drones, rockets, birds or, in some rare cases, misidentified new experimental space, rocket or air systems. However, the newspaper said evidence also emerged, dating back to the 1950s, of US government agencies fanning the flames of alien-related conspiracy theories to protect military assets. Investigators were supposedly still trying to work out if the disinformation tactics formed part of a centralised, institutionalised programme or were led by local officers. The newspaper said one rumour spread by officials that had spun widely out of control over the decades had originated from a 'bizarre hazing ritual' for new commanders of a classified air force programme. It said recruits would be handed a piece of paper with a photograph of a 'flying saucer' as part of their induction briefing. Officers were then told they would be joining a top-secret fake unit, dubbed Yankee Blue, that was trying to reverse-engineer alien aircraft. The commanders were also ordered never to mention it again. But investigators found that many never discovered it was fake. In 2023, a memo was circulated ordering the hazing ritual to stop, although the damage was largely done. The discovery reportedly led Avril Haines, Joe Biden's director of national intelligence, to ask whether the practice was directly responsible for the ongoing myth that Washington had concealed an alien programme from the American people. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Physicists use AI to hunt for UAPs and UFOs
An international team of physicists has developed a new methodology to aid NASA and other government agencies in their ongoing investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). The result is a novel strategy integrating a specially designed artificial intelligence program that was partially inspired by the physicists' own hunt for elusive dark matter. More popularly known as unidentified flying objects or UFOs, UAPs aren't necessarily considered as outlandish as they were decades ago. Setting aside the various theories that point to mysterious visitors from another planet, analysis increasingly centers on determining more worldly explanations. UAPs are often explained by classified experimental aircraft, astronomical events, or simply a case of mistaken drone identity. Meanwhile, a small percentage of sightings continue to baffle experts. Over the last few years, the US government has attempted to present a more transparent approach to its UAP research, while the military continues a campaign to destigmatize reporting sightings among its ranks. In November 2024, Congress held a publicly televised joint subcommittee hearing about UAPs featuring a former US Navy rear admiral and NASA administrator. While not without its fair share of criticism, these and similar events are shifting the overarching narrative around unidentified aerial phenomenon. Researchers like Matthew Syzdagis at the University of Albany have followed this evolving discourse for years. An associate professor of physics focused on dark matter, Syzdagis recently began collaborating with over 30 colleagues around the world to determine if this approach to hunting dark matter could be adapted to the search for UAPs. Their results, published this month in the journal Progress in Aerospace Studies, offer a new interdisciplinary methodology to review the past and future UAP sightings. 'As this process moves forward, it's critical that future study of UAPs follows a rigorous, repeatable method that can be tested and confirmed by other researchers,' Syzdagis said in a statement. 'We aim to establish a roadmap for these efforts with this paper.' The team relied on an array of datasets and tools to build their framework, including publicly available Doppler weather information from the National Weather Service (NWS). The NWS data was used to corroborate observations from additional equipment and determine if any of them simultaneously recorded a given anomaly. They then utilized Cosmic Watch, a radiation-detection system, to assess if a target UAP observed by infrared cameras was accompanied by ionizing radiation. To help analyze the infrared data, Szydagis created a new software program called Custom Target Analysis Protocol (C-TAP) that utilizes machine learning alongside human verification to review individual camera frames on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Inspired by similar strategies used to scan for direct evidence of dark matter, C-TAP then flags and separates actual UAP observations from any digital noise. Finally, these results were overlaid with trigonometric calculations to exclude any known objects in the sky like satellites or the International Space Station. To test it all out, Szydagis and colleagues used their new methodology to review observable light and infrared images collected on a 2021 field expedition around Laguna Beach, California, amid a period of heightened UAP reports. In total, the team reviewed about one hour of triggered visible and night-vision video footage along with over 600 hours of infrared data and 55 hours of background radiation measurements. Of the multiple anomalies initially flagged, researchers were able to offer plausible and likely explanations for all sightings except for one—a collection of bright white dots inside a dark spot recorded across multiple videos. And even then, it seems unlikely that the UAP event was unique. 'At this point, none can be classified as true anomalies, although further study of remaining ambiguities may alter this conclusion,' the study's authors wrote in their conclusion. Moving forward, the team hopes their methodology will help more researchers around the world continue to vet UAP sightings on a scientific, unbiased basis. 'Given the longstanding, global nature of the UAP/UFO question, [and] the air safety and security implications of their presence… studying and understanding these phenomena is of great and urgent importance,' added University of Albany physics professor and study lead author Kevin Knuth.
New York Times
3 days ago
- New York Times
It's a Really Bad Time to Be an Expert in Washington
The most dangerous occupation in Washington these days is being an expert. Across West Executive Avenue from the White House, the offices that once buzzed with specialists at the National Security Council are now half vacant. Their dismissal reflects an administration not especially interested in the policy options developed by the specialists — many drawn from the State Department or the C.I.A. — who stayed deep into the night pressure-testing alternatives to immediate and long-simmering crises. As Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters this week, the old structure did not fit the 'top-down approach' of President Trump, who views the institution's proper role as carrying out his decisions. At the Pentagon, 14 advisory boards have been dismantled, with curt, thank-you-for-your-service notes sent to Democrats and Republicans alike. Some of the boards dealt with obscure matters. But others focused on vital issues, like rethinking the American nuclear arsenal as China's nuclear buildup, Vladimir V. Putin's episodic nuclear threats and Mr. Trump's ambitious demand for a 'Golden Dome' missile defense system have changed the nature of nuclear strategy. Also gone: The board of experts who were trying to learn lessons from China's astoundingly successful hack into the country's telecommunications networks — where, by all accounts, they remain to this day. Then came historians at the State Department and the climate specialists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which employed experts in weather, oceans, climate and biodiversity. The National Weather Service lost so many people that the agency had to hire them back. No such luck for researchers relying on the National Science Foundation, where projects are disappearing every month. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
