Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Jun 12, 2026 12:58 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

The Pentagon released a third tranche of previously classified files on alleged UFO sightings on Friday, which include reports of glowing, sometimes red, orbs seen by people in the northeastern United States.

The first two batches were made public on May 8 and May 22. U.S. President Donald Trump is the latest president to release federal government reports on unidentified flying objects, a disclosure process that began in the late 1970s.

Friday's release of what the Pentagon calls "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP) involved 72 files from the FBI, CIA and Pentagon and includes testimony, videos and artistic depictions. Reports from several entries refer to sphere or orb sightings in the same general northeastern U.S. location.

One file from February cites FBI interviews with two people who reported seeing an intense bright light in the middle of their backyard one evening. The identities of those interviewed and their precise location were blacked out.

• Wintersleep's new song is about a famous UFO sighting in Nova Scotia

• Trump releases the UFO files: 5 key questions

One person "described the red color as being brilliant and beautiful, and that [redacted] had never seen anything that color of red before," according to the FBI report.

The red sphere, about one metre wide, contained a "white plasma sun" the size of a basketball in its centre, it said.

The people noticed a second orb and the two appeared tethered together as they moved away. They reported seeing several white orbs a few weeks later flying over the house at a much higher altitude, the FBI report said.

WATCH | Pentagon releases decades of UFO reports:

Other, similar reports

A similar interview in July 2025 referred to previous reports of orbs.

"This observation occurred within 25 miles [40 km] of the 'Triangle Orbs,' 'Red Orb Rotation,' and 'Orbs Over the Pond,' sightings at a location well known to them, which is sparsely populated," the FBI report said.

An October 2024 incident describes a light source below the horizon, hovering above a pond.

"The luminous object resembled a 'plasma-like sphere' intermittently changing shape and luminosity. At times, the primary light source appeared to separate into smaller luminous points," according to the report.

"These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled speculation — and it's time the American people see it for themselves," Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said in a statement.

This photo illustration provided by the Department of War in a May release shows an FBI-rendered graphic on top of an actual site photo. The graphic is based on eyewitness reports from September 2023 that described an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky. (U.S. Department of War/Getty Images)