Congress holds hearing on UAPs (or UFOs). What are they?

Four witnesses talked about seeing UFOs – or UAPs as they’re now known – in testimony given to the House Oversight Subcommittee on Sept. 9.

The subcommittee heard their statements as part of an examination of a purportedly secret UFO retrieval program managed by the Pentagon. The hearing is the third in as many years since a fiery hearing in July 2023 reignited public fascination in mysterious airborne craft.

The government has rebranded UFOs with its preferred acronym of UAP – short for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Hours of compelling testimony about not just strange craft whizzing unchecked through U.S. airspace, but about a concerted effort of our government to capture and study those craft, does little to dispel those "X-Files"-esque associations. Especially in a nation where nearly half of Americans believe the U.S. government is concealing information about UFOs.

Between May 1, 2023, and June 1, 2024, 757 UAPs were reported. Though most sightings can be identified as planes, balloons, drones and weather events, the independent group says more sophisticated scientific research is needed, along with efforts to remove the stigma of reporting UFOs (sorry, UAP).

A look at some common UAPs reported in that period:

What are the most-reported UAP shapes?

Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them.

UAP witness describes sighting

What is a UAP?

The most common type of UAP sighted in the report was lights. The unidentified objects have been reported in varying sizes through the years, according to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, part of the office of the Secretary of Defense.

Most common objects identified

Balloons were responsible for 70% of the closed cases in 2023–2024. Drones were blamed for 16%, birds for 8%, satellites for 4%, and birds for 2%, according to the report.

Altitude of UAP sightings

The report, which covered May 2023 to June 2024, states that Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) were seen across a wide range of altitudes. A significant number of the incidents reported during this time were at very high altitudes in what is technically referred to as space, however, the great bulk of the incidents took place inside Earth's atmosphere.

Where in the world do UAP sightings occur the most?

The southeastern United States and Gulf Coast states, the West Coast and Pacific Northwest, the Middle East and northeastern Asia, including the region around Japan and the Korean peninsula, are the four main regions highlighted on the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's global map of UAP reporting hotspots.

This doesn't necessarily mean that particular areas are preferred by aliens. The geographical distribution, according to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, instead supports a "continued geographic collection bias based on locations near U.S. military assets and sensors operating globally."

CONTRIBUTING Eric Lagatta, George Petras/USA TODAY