Eerie footage of ‘angel-shaped’ UFO released by the White House

The White House has released footage of a UFO that one US lawmaker compared to an angel.

The one-minute-and-46-second-long clip shows an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), as officials now call UFOs, filmed on January 1 2013.

Almost shaped like a nautical compass, the eight-pointed object leaves a visible trail as it hovers above a US military platform in the Middle East.

The footage, officially called DOW-UAP-PR38 2013, is part of a tranche of ‘new, never-before-seen’ UFO files released by the Pentagon on Friday.

The White House shared the clip on X in the early hours today, describing it as an ‘unresolved UAP’.

Defence officials called the UAP an ‘area of contrast’ captured by an infrared sensor that creates real-time heat maps in black and white.

‘The reporter did not provide any oral or written description of the observation,’ the department said in the file.

It adds that there was an ‘apparent cut’ in the footage, though it does not elaborate, and lists the location as ‘UL’.

Social media users chalked up the blip as nothing more than a parachute illumination rocket, a distress flare used for search and rescue operations.

‘And honestly, I get why,’ UFO expert and film-maker Mark Christopher Lee told Metro.

‘In infrared, magnesium flares create that exact blooming/starburst effect because of sensor overload, and the parachute silhouette can show up as a dimmer structure behind it.’

What’s less mundane, according to Lee, is the fact that the unsolved sighting was released as part of Donald Trump’s UFO transparency push.

‘If it was a straightforward flare, you’d expect it to be explained and closed out like thousands of others,’ Lee added.

‘Instead, they’re putting it front and centre alongside genuinely unexplained cases.’

Representative Anna Paulina Luna appeared to compare the star-shaped UAP to a biblically accurate angel.

Angels in the Bible aren’t the usual halo-wearing winged people – instead, some are described as flurries of wings and eyes called ophanim.

Luna shared a sketch of an ophanim on her personal X account only hours after the UFO files were disclosed.

She had previously called on her followers to ‘read the Book of Enoch’,  an ancient Jewish religious text which details fallen angels called ‘the watchers’, often compared to aliens.

Lee said that Luna is the latest example of a lawmaker with access to sensitive compartmented information – important and closely guarded intel – ‘openly comparing these modern sightings to ancient descriptions’.

What else is in the UFO files?

The US government has long kept any photographs, videos and documents on mysterious objects darting or dancing in the sky under lock and key.

For the most part, experts have figured out that the sightings were just weather balloons, experimental fighter planes or rogue paper lanterns.

But Trump, between the Iran war and tariffs, has made disclosing information about UFOs in the name of ‘transparency’ a key priority.

The US president said that the files were released last week to let the people ‘decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’”’

Most of the batch consists of murky images of dots, mock-ups of silver discs and reports of ‘orbs launching orbs’ jittering above special agents.

One of the most bizarre images was of a figure raising its arms to the sky. A Virginia man posted it to the FBI and asked agents to ‘comment’ on it.

It was included in hundreds of pages from an FBI case that documented alleged otherworldly sights between 1947 and 1968.

Among the papers was a debriefing to the Apollo 11 crew, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, after they returned from the moon.

In it, Aldrin said he struggled to sleep during the lunar mission as he saw ‘little flashes inside the cabin, spaced a couple of minutes apart’.

While a 1963 government memorandum included worries from the Kennedy administration that the world is not ready for aliens.

More files will be released to war.gov/ufo, a new Department of Defense webpage seemingly styled like a 1990s science fiction movie.

The page appears to be different from the ‘alien.gov’ website domain that officials registered in March.

When asked what the domain will be used for by Metro, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said: ‘Stay tuned! 👽’

For Lee, this ‘drip-feeding’ approach to disclosing what the government has known about UFOs for decades was largely to be expected.

‘The big “We Are Not Alone” speech is still coming,’ he added. ‘This is proof that the floodgates are opening.’

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