Field files & long-form investigation.
The written record behind the archive — documented case files, the history of government UFO investigation, reported phenomena, and field guides for reading the record. Each entry is researched, attributed, and kept separate from speculation.
Featured Research
Brazil's National UFO Files: What the Declassification of Nearly 900 Cases Confirms
Brazil's National Archives has declassified nearly 900 — by some counts 972 — previously classified UFO documents, reportedly confirming a formal government UFO program and shedding new light on cases like the 1986 'Official UFO Night' and the 1996 Varginha incident.
The Phoenix Lights, 13 March 1997
Thousands across Arizona and Nevada reported a silent V-shaped formation over Phoenix, plus a later series of mountain lights later traced to military flares — a single event that contains both an explained and an unexplained component.
Kenneth Arnold and the 1947 Sighting That Invented 'Flying Saucers'
A private pilot's nine-object sighting over the Cascade Range coined "flying saucer" and opened the modern era of mass UFO reporting — and a useful lesson in how the press distorts witness testimony.
Latest Reports
Why So Many UFO Reports Look Different
Sightings are reported as saucers, triangles, lights, cigars, and spheres — often in different proportions in different decades. What the variation in reported shape tells us about the record.
The Betty and Barney Hill Case
A 1961 drive through New Hampshire's White Mountains became the first widely publicized alien abduction account — and the template for everything that followed.
The Ariel School Encounter in Zimbabwe
In 1994, dozens of schoolchildren in Ruwa reported seeing a craft and beings. The case is striking for the number of young witnesses — and for what it is and isn't.
The Rendlesham Forest Incident: A Complete Case Timeline
Over two nights in December 1980, servicemen at RAF Bentwaters reported an object in the forest. A timeline built from the documented record, including Colonel Halt's own memo.
From Project Sign to AARO: A Timeline of U.S. Government UFO Investigation
Seventy-five years of official American interest in UFOs, from Project Sign in 1948 to the modern All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — a chronology of the institutional record.
Roswell: What We Know, What Was Claimed, and What Remains Disputed
A debris recovery in 1947 New Mexico became the most famous UFO case in history. Separating the documented record from the alien-recovery claims that arrived decades later.
Case Files
The Betty and Barney Hill Case
A 1961 drive through New Hampshire's White Mountains became the first widely publicized alien abduction account — and the template for everything that followed.
The Ariel School Encounter in Zimbabwe
In 1994, dozens of schoolchildren in Ruwa reported seeing a craft and beings. The case is striking for the number of young witnesses — and for what it is and isn't.
The Rendlesham Forest Incident: A Complete Case Timeline
Over two nights in December 1980, servicemen at RAF Bentwaters reported an object in the forest. A timeline built from the documented record, including Colonel Halt's own memo.
Roswell: What We Know, What Was Claimed, and What Remains Disputed
A debris recovery in 1947 New Mexico became the most famous UFO case in history. Separating the documented record from the alien-recovery claims that arrived decades later.
The Belgian UFO Wave
Between late 1989 and early 1990, thousands across Belgium reported large, silent triangular craft, with F-16 intercepts and radar contact. The case is notable for the level of official involvement.
The Westall UFO Incident
On a morning in 1966, students and staff at a Melbourne high school reported a silvery object descending into a paddock. The case is among the best-documented mass-witness school events on record.
Japan Airlines Flight 1628 and the 1986 Alaska Encounter
A JAL 747 cargo flight over Alaska reported unidentified objects flanking the aircraft, corroborated for minutes by onboard and ground radar — a rare multi-sensor commercial aviation case.
The Phoenix Lights, 13 March 1997
Thousands across Arizona and Nevada reported a silent V-shaped formation over Phoenix, plus a later series of mountain lights later traced to military flares — a single event that contains both an explained and an unexplained component.
Washington National Airport and the 1952 Radar Anomalies
Over two weekends in July 1952, radar operators at Washington National Airport tracked unexplained targets over the capital, and Air Force interceptors were scrambled — prompting the largest Air Force press conference since the Second World War.
History
The History of the Modern UFO Era
From Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting to the modern UAP revival — how seventy years of reported sightings, government investigation, and cultural fixation shaped the record the archive now holds.
How Radar Changed the History of UFO Reporting
The spread of military radar in the 1950s turned a subject of visual reports into one of instrumented detection — and gave the archive its most weighted category of evidence.
Kenneth Arnold and the 1947 Sighting That Invented 'Flying Saucers'
A private pilot's nine-object sighting over the Cascade Range coined "flying saucer" and opened the modern era of mass UFO reporting — and a useful lesson in how the press distorts witness testimony.
Government & Military
Brazil's National UFO Files: What the Declassification of Nearly 900 Cases Confirms
Brazil's National Archives has declassified nearly 900 — by some counts 972 — previously classified UFO documents, reportedly confirming a formal government UFO program and shedding new light on cases like the 1986 'Official UFO Night' and the 1996 Varginha incident.
From Project Sign to AARO: A Timeline of U.S. Government UFO Investigation
Seventy-five years of official American interest in UFOs, from Project Sign in 1948 to the modern All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — a chronology of the institutional record.
Project Blue Book: The Air Force and Twenty-Two Years of UFO Investigation
From 1947 to 1969 the U.S. Air Force investigated more than twelve thousand UFO reports under Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book — the largest formal government study until the modern UAP era.
The Pentagon UAP Videos, Explained
How three short infrared clips recorded by U.S. Navy fighters became the first military UAP footage the Pentagon formally acknowledged on the record — and what 'unidentified' actually means.
Phenomena
Why So Many UFO Reports Look Different
Sightings are reported as saucers, triangles, lights, cigars, and spheres — often in different proportions in different decades. What the variation in reported shape tells us about the record.
What Does UAP Actually Mean?
The shift from 'flying saucer' to 'UFO' to 'UAP' is more than rebranding. Each term carries a different relationship to evidence, and to what the speaker is willing to claim.
The Most Common Types of Reported UFO Shapes
A reference guide to the shapes most often reported across the record — discs, triangles, spheres, cigars, and formations of lights — and what is usually behind each.
Nordics, Reptilians and Greys: How Alien Taxonomy Developed
The reported beings of the contactee and abduction eras were not always Greys. How the tall, human-like Nordics, the Gray beings, and the later Reptilians each rose to prominence.
Grey Aliens: Origins of the Modern Archetype
The small, large-headed, black-eyed being is the most recognized alien in the world. Tracing where the image came from — and how it became the default.
Guides & Reference
The Alien Archives Guide to Reading a UFO Case File
How to read a record in this archive: the date-location-source triple, what status and credibility actually mean, and what the tags are telling you.
How The Alien Archives Evaluates Extraordinary Claims
The checks the archive applies before a report enters the record — provenance, physics, edges, corroboration, and the provenance of the story itself.
A Field Guide to UFO and Close Encounter Classification
How the Hynek classification — nocturnal lights, daylight discs, radar-visual cases, and the three kinds of close encounters — gave structure to a subject that had none.
A Short Field Guide to UAP Misidentification
A citizen observer's reference to the ordinary things that reliably produce UFO reports — from Venus and Starlink to lanterns, lens flares, and parallax — so the genuinely unexplained can stand out.
How Analysts Separate Real UAP Footage from Hoaxes and CGI
Most UAP footage is mundane. The discipline of sorting the small fraction worth recording from the large fraction that isn't rests on a consistent set of checks — provenance, physics, edges, and corroboration.