---
title: Was that flash of light a UFO?
description: The first hearing on UFOs in over 50 years found no proof of aliens… yet.
---

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# [Was that flash of light a UFO?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/05202022-ufos)

 Written by [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) | May 20, 2022 6:13:07 AM

On Tuesday, the House Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation Subcommittee held a [congressional hearing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSDweUbGBow) on UFOs — which, BTW, are now known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).

It was the first public hearing on the subject in 50+ years, per [*NPR*](https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099410910/ufo-hearing-congress-military-intelligence), but cool your jets, Mulder. No evidence of aliens has been found (yet), according to Scott W. Bray, deputy director of Naval intelligence — though some incidents do remain unexplained.

Officials [promised](https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/intelligence/3491492-five-things-to-know-about-the-ufo-hearing/) to declassify more information moving forward — like [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auITEKd4sjA) captured by a US Navy pilot — and revealed that the government’s UAP database contains ~400 reports dating back to 2004. Most of those are from military personnel.

#### **But let’s say…**

… you want as many reports as you can fit in your basement full of filing cabinets. That, my friends, is a job for the [National UFO Reporting Center](https://nuforc.org/).

Its database contains over 138k+ reports and counting, most from the US and Canada during the 21st and 20th centuries (though there are a few outliers, like this clipping from an [18th-century London newspaper](https://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxe176212.html).)

Accounts are organized by date, state, and, oddly, shape. It turns out a majority of people saw a mysterious light in the sky, far more so than people who spotted a disc.

“Cigar” is a more popular shape than you’d think and includes things like [Oumuamua](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-oumuamua/scientists-conclude-cigar-shaped-interstellar-object-not-an-alien-spaceship-idUSKCN1TW3RP), a mysterious object spotted in 2017. Scientists still don’t know what it was, but did conclude it was [not aliens](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-oumuamua/scientists-conclude-cigar-shaped-interstellar-object-not-an-alien-spaceship-idUSKCN1TW3RP). Sounds like the truth is still out there.

**BTW: **Thanks to the Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study organization, you can listen to reports made by phone from 1974 to 1977 [online.](http://www.noufors.com/research_recordings_of_Robert_Gribble_s_national_ufo_reporting_center.html)

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