Politics

UFO image released by US Government gets absolutely roasted online: 'What the f*** is this'

Actual site photo with FBI Lab rendered graphic overlay depicting corroborating eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky, 130-195 feet in length, and disappearing instantaneously

US Department of War

The Trump administration has released its first round of UFO files and there's one image in particular that is getting absolutely roasted on social media, with a number of users asking "what the f*** is this".

On Friday (8 May), the Pentagon released documents and materials relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs, the modern name for unexplained sightings in the sky) it says have been hidden away for decades.

The release follows comments from Donald Trump about upcoming "very interesting documents" from the Department of Defense.

A newly launched website now hosts the first wave of declassified materials, totalling 162 files that include NASA transcripts and FBI records.

And there's one file of a composite sketch that people have been roasting.

Actual site photo with FBI Lab rendered graphic overlay depicting corroborating eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky, 130-195 feet in length, and disappearing instantaneously The composite sketch by the FBI that social media users have been roasting / US Department of War

The official listing for the image on the US Department of War website said: "Actual site photo with FBI Lab rendered graphic overlay depicting corroborating eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materialising out of a bright light in the sky, 130-195 feet in length, and disappearing instantaneously."

To be clear, it's a photo of the site sightings are claimed to have been seen at with a rendered overlay over the top of it - but social media users have had a lot to say about it.

One viral post simply asked: "Ok come on what the f*** is this man." The user then added in the comments: "Like ok aliens but it's not even f****** cool looking s***, it just looks like a flying Tylenol can be please be for f****** real, sci-fi sucks. Ok yes apparently this is a render (didn't read it all yet, don't want to get spoiled) but this is still goofy."

In the comments on that post, one said: "It's a Photoshop so f****** bad it looks like a fish oil pill that is stuck to the camera lens."

And another added in disbelief: "There's no way this is from the f****** files."

Another user shared the black and white version of the image and joked: "This is a screenshot from a point and click adventure game from 1994 that came on seven floppy disks."

"I'm crying bro there's no way they think we're this stupid," a third posted.

A fourth said: "The released UFO files have to be AI generated slop dude what the f*** is this 😂"

And a fifth posted the FBI sketch part of the image onto the famous Windows XP Bliss background and said: "It all makes sense now!"

A Pentagon Public Affairs press release said: "The American people can now access the federal government's declassified UAP files instantly," adding: "The latest UAP videos, photos and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place - no clearance required."

Despite the release, experts have urged caution over the files, suggesting that many sightings are likely to have come from misread data or advanced military technology that isn't widely understood. They also warn that videos and images are often misunderstood or exaggerated when people don't have the technical context.

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