Almogordo, New MexicoOctober 1957

On October 16, 1957, a government employee at the White Sands Missile Range near Almogordo, New Mexico took a color photograph of an unusual object hovering over the landscape. The image showed a lenticular, or lens-shaped, cloud formation against the desert sky. The photo was held confidential for months until the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), a private UFO research group, released it to the press in August 1958 with claims it depicted an unidentified flying object.

The photograph received significant media attention. APRO argued that the object could not be a cloud, pointing to features like the "misty trails" visible to one side and the fact that it remained stationary for fifteen minutes during observation. The group calculated the object might be as large as four thousand feet across. The case drew further attention when the Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung, respected worldwide for his work on the human psyche, publicly stated that UFO sightings deserved serious study and could not be dismissed as mere rumor or psychological delusion.

However, the Air Force's analysis reached a different conclusion. Photo specialists at the Air Force's ATIC (Air Technical Intelligence Center) examined both the original color slide and enlarged prints. Researchers at Holloman Air Force Base, located near the sighting location, independently reviewed the material and reached the same finding: the object was a lenticular altocumulus cloud, a rare but natural formation. When examined at high magnification, the transparent edges of the object proved its nature as cloud rather than a solid craft. Air Force officials noted that the people who took the photograph seemed predisposed to believe in UFOs and could not accept the scientific explanation.

The file indicates that no single clue emerged during investigation that would identify the object as anything other than a cloud formation. The case was officially evaluated as unidentified, though the evidence pointed to a natural atmospheric phenomenon. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, totaling 23 pages.