Mysterious images taken during NASA Apollo missions decades ago have been made public as part of the Trump administration’s release of the so-called “UFO Files.”
Grainy images of strange lights and objects taken from the surface of the moon during the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 missions were among the thousands of documents, videos, and transcripts included in the “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” (UAP) release.
One such photo from the 1969 Apollo 12 landing site, which shows a bright dot just above the lunar horizon, was described in the files only as “unidentified phenomena.”
Another photo taken from the moon during the Apollo 12 mission shows five other areas with mysterious lights in the distance.
Elsewhere, another photo from the Apollo 17 mission, taken in December 1972, features three dots in a triangular formation in the distance.
While this image has been released before, the government states there is still “no consensus about the nature of the anomaly.”
The files also contain several videos of strange objects flying through the air.
One of the clips, recorded by an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in Iraq in 2022, shows a mysterious UAP seemingly flying over a residential area before going off-screen.
Another video was submitted in a report by the United States Central Command regarding a mission carried out in Syria in 2024.
The report described a possible UAP as a “misshapen and uneven ball of white light” and noted that a “light/glare halo effect” occurred in the camera feed. The five-second clip of the incident shows unexplained orange blobs that quickly appear and then disappear.
President Donald Trump ordered the Defense Department to release all government files it had regarding the potential existence of extraterrestrial life, framing it as an important step toward bringing transparency to “extremely interesting and important matters.”
In a statement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said his department is in “lockstep” with Trump to bring “unprecedented transparency” about what the government knows regarding potential UFO sightings.
“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Hegseth said. “This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also vowed that more UFO files could be released once further declassification efforts have been carried out.
“The American people have long sought transparency about the government’s knowledge of unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Gabbard said. “Today’s release is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort.”
