UFO Sightings 2025: Every Major Incident From the Year That Changed Everything

2025 was a watershed year for unidentified flying objects. The National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) logged over 2,174 sightings in just the first six months — a sharp increase from 1,492 during the same period in 2024. Military encounters were caught on camera, Congress held its most consequential UFO hearings yet, and a peer-reviewed study in Nature linked decades-old sky anomalies to nuclear testing sites.

From the New Jersey drone panic that spilled over from late 2024 to the Yemen orb that shrugged off a Hellfire missile, here's a comprehensive look at every major UFO sighting of 2025 — and what they mean for the ongoing search for answers.

The Numbers: A Record-Breaking Surge

NUFORC's data tells a striking story. The 2,174 reports filed in the first half of 2025 represented a 46% increase over the same period in 2024. And that number almost certainly undercounts reality: NUFORC's chief technology officer, Christian Stepien, estimates that only about 5% of actual sightings are ever reported, due to lingering stigma and fear of ridicule.

The types of objects reported were strikingly diverse: classic disc shapes and silent triangles remained common, but 2025 saw a notable uptick in reports of orbs, teardrop-shaped objects, cigar forms, and — most unusually — octahedron-shaped craft that NUFORC flagged as the year's "most unusual recurring shape."

Geographically, California, Florida, and New York remained the top three states for reports. But the phenomenon was thoroughly global, with significant clusters in the United Kingdom, South Korea, Colombia, and Iraq.

January: The New Jersey Drone Mystery Continues

The year began with the unresolved fallout from the New Jersey drone panic that erupted in November 2024. Mysterious drone-like objects had been spotted near Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, and by early January 2025, sightings had spread across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

The objects behaved unlike conventional drones: they were described as silent, capable of hovering for extended periods, and maneuvering near waterways, reservoirs, and military installations. A TSA document later identified one specific incident — over Clinton, New Jersey on December 12, 2024 — as a Beechcraft Baron 58 experiencing turbulence that created wingtip vortices forming condensation clouds.

But that explanation covered only one sighting out of thousands. Military officials confirmed a concurrent pattern of unauthorized incursions over sensitive defense installations — a finding that, as of late 2025, had never been fully explained. Three new sightings were reported in Atlantic City, Bridgewater, and Chatham Township in early 2025, with witnesses describing "orbs passing eastward overhead."

January: The Colorado Orbs Near Lockheed Martin

On January 12, 2025, multiple witnesses reported luminous orbs hovering near a Lockheed Martin facility in Colorado. The objects were completely silent, ruling out conventional aircraft or helicopters. Investigators also ruled out Starlink satellites — the objects were stationary and far too bright.

The proximity to a major defense contractor raised immediate questions. Colorado has a long history of UFO activity, particularly near military-industrial sites, and this sighting fit a pattern that researchers have been tracking for years: an apparent connection between UAP activity and defense infrastructure.

March: The Buga Sphere Returns

The Buga Sphere — a seamless metallic orb discovered in Buga, Colombia in March 2025 — became one of the year's most talked-about UFO stories. The original discovery of the physical object was extraordinary enough, but the story gained new legs when video surfaced in June showing a similar metallic sphere gliding silently across the sky above Valle del Cauca.

Researchers claimed the sphere appeared to react to different audio frequencies, including Sanskrit chants — a claim that generated both fascination and skepticism in equal measure. The town of Buga erected a monument commemorating the discovery, and the site became a magnet for UFO tourists worldwide. Whether the sphere is a genuine anomaly, an elaborate art installation, or something else entirely remains an open question.

May: NUFORC Flags the Octahedron Phenomenon

In its May 11, 2025 report, NUFORC highlighted octahedron-shaped UAPs as the most unusual recurring sighting type of the year. The standout case came from Porterville, California, where two witnesses observed a dark metallic octahedron — essentially a double pyramid or diamond shape — near Granite High School.

The object was estimated at 600–800 feet away and approximately the size of a box truck. It flew completely silently and executed a sharp 90-degree turn before disappearing — a maneuver impossible for any known conventional aircraft due to the g-forces involved.

The octahedron shape was notable because it doesn't fit neatly into any common category of misidentification: it's not a balloon, a drone, a satellite, or an airplane. Similar octahedron reports emerged from multiple states throughout 2025, suggesting either a genuine recurring phenomenon or a shared cultural influence in how people describe unusual sightings.

September: The Yemen Orb — A Hellfire Missile Couldn't Stop It

Perhaps the most dramatic incident of 2025 was revealed not in a field report, but in a congressional hearing. On September 9, 2025, Representative Tim Burchett presented footage during a House committee session showing a U.S. military MQ-9 Reaper drone engaging an unidentified spherical object off the coast of Yemen in October 2024.

The footage showed a Hellfire missile striking the glowing orb — and the orb continuing to fly, apparently undamaged. The object absorbed an impact from a weapon designed to destroy armored vehicles and continued on its trajectory as if nothing had happened.

Physicist Avi Loeb of Harvard, who examined the footage independently, concluded the object was "just a drone" — a heated metallic drone that absorbed the missile's impact. But many analysts disagreed, noting that no known drone of that size could survive a direct Hellfire hit. The incident remains classified and under investigation.

September: The Iraq Jellyfish UAP

On September 17, 2025, nighttime footage from Maysan, Iraq captured one of the year's most visually striking sightings: a translucent, jellyfish-like UAP with glowing appendages hovering silently before descending.

Local witnesses dismissed drone theories due to the object's organic-like, completely silent movement. The description echoed classified military footage that had leaked in previous years, showing similar "jellyfish-type" objects operating over military installations. The footage was analyzed by multiple researchers, but no definitive explanation was established.

October: The Palomar Nuclear Study Shakes the Scientific Community

On October 20, 2025, a peer-reviewed study published in Nature's Scientific Reports dropped a bombshell. Researchers at Palomar Observatory in California had analyzed digitized astronomical glass plates from the observatory's original 1949–1957 survey and discovered something startling.

Transient, star-like flashes — objects that appeared in one photograph but were gone by the time the next exposure of the same sky region was taken — showed a statistically significant correlation with nuclear testing. Specifically:

• Transients were 45% more likely on dates within one day of a nuclear test
• For each additional independent UAP report on a given date, there was an 8.5% increase in the number of transients identified

The implications were explosive: this was the first peer-reviewed evidence supporting the long-standing claim that UFO/UAP activity clusters around nuclear facilities and testing sites.

The study drew significant skepticism from physicists, with several arguing that the transients were more likely photographic artifacts or plate defects. But the statistical methodology was rigorous, and the paper survived peer review — making it a landmark in the slow migration of UAP research from fringe to mainstream science.

November: RAF Base Incursions Rock the UK

Between November 20–22, 2025, police documented roughly 20 drone sightings across RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell — three UK air bases used by the United States Air Force. Eyewitnesses described "10–15 drones potentially entering base airspace," an incursion serious enough to ground surrounding aircraft.

Most dramatically, a National Police Air Service helicopter was forced off-course when two fast-moving craft appeared to "target" and pursue the crew over RAF Lakenheath. The pilot took emergency evasive action.

Britain's Airprox Board later concluded the objects were lights from a U.S. Air Force F-15 operating nearby. But newly released police logs and video, reported by Fox News in late 2025, directly contradicted this explanation — reviving the mystery and raising questions about why official explanations seemed to misrepresent what officers witnessed firsthand.

The Congressional Push: Hearings Intensify

2025 saw Congress apply unprecedented pressure on the Pentagon over UAP transparency:

• In September 2025, the House Oversight Committee's Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets convened the year's most significant hearing. Current and former military officials shared new evidence of encounters, and lawmakers urged passage of legislation to shield UAP whistleblowers from retaliation.
• Lawmakers accused Pentagon officials of a "lack of transparency" over UFO sightings by military personnel, with some alleging that AARO and the Pentagon had broken the law by not revealing classified UAP databases.
• The Pentagon's AARO had now examined over 2,000 cases, with roughly 15% remaining officially unexplained — a percentage that has held remarkably steady despite increased investigation.
• By year's end, pressure was building toward President Trump's February 2026 executive order directing federal agencies to begin declassifying UAP files.

What 2025 Told Us — And What Comes Next

Looking back, 2025 was the year UFO research crossed a threshold. A Nature-published study linked aerial anomalies to nuclear testing. Military footage showed an object surviving a direct missile hit. Congressional hearings produced sworn testimony from active-duty personnel. And public reporting surged to levels not seen in decades.

The scientific establishment is taking notice. Projects like Harvard's Galileo Project and UC San Diego's UAPx are deploying calibrated multi-sensor arrays to capture the first scientifically verifiable UAP data. Meanwhile, 3I/ATLAS — the third confirmed interstellar object to pass through our solar system — demonstrated that interstellar material regularly enters our neighborhood, even if it arrives as ice and rock rather than spacecraft.

The question is no longer whether something unusual is happening in our skies. The data confirms that it is. The question is what — and 2025 brought us closer to an answer than any year before it.

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Track real interstellar science in real time: explore the 3I/ATLAS orbit visualization, view the observation timeline, or read about the 1952 Capitol Hill UFO incident.