Witnesses rarely agree on what they saw, but they keep returning to the same few forms. Every case records the exact words the witness used.
Most famous cases have an ordinary answer, and this archive shows it. These are the ones that, so far, do not.
Twenty-one accounts from astronauts and cosmonauts. Almost none of them claim an alien craft, and most turned out to be the crew's own hardware: ice, boosters, panels, even trash. A few are still open.
Some of the most dramatic cases have the plainest answers. A smoke ring from a castle fire show, a rocket lit by the sun after dark, a model on a string. Here is how a few of them were worked out.
Some sightings come alone. Others arrive by the dozen over one county, one week or one evening.
Each case keeps the shape word the witness actually used. A "triangle of lights" and a "triangular craft" are different claims, so they are recorded differently.
Rocket re-entries, balloons, planets, aircraft and hoaxes sit right next to the testimony, labelled by how firmly they are established.
Every entry links to the newspaper, official file or investigation it comes from. Anything that could not be traced was left out.
Every report sent through the Submit a new case page is read by a person and checked against what was in the sky that night before anything is added.
Drag across the timeline to choose a period, or search and filter below.