In a small Capitol Hill briefing room, amid talk of extraterrestrials and national security, a former intelligence officer held up a photograph he deemed worthy of the utmost consideration.
This image was captured by a private pilot," explained Luis "Lue" Elizonde, a former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent who now advocates for revealing information about unidentified flying objects. As he peered intently at the printout in his grasp, he added, "One would imagine that someone should find this data significant enough to examine.
The blurry picture seemed to depict a circular, metallic object hovering over the dry landscape of America’s Southwestern desert. Elizondo informed his audience that this mysterious entity might span between 600 to 1,000 feet across. He mentioned that this massive sighting took place around 21,000 feet up, close to the area known as the Four Corners, which lies at the intersection of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.
It happened on Thursday at a panel organized by the UAP Disclosure Fund. Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), which refers to what were once commonly known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). This fund advocates politically for complete disclosure from the government regarding their UFO records. Sitting alongside Elizondo was Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, along with Republican representatives Tim Burchett and Anna Paulina Luna, and nuclear physicist Eric Davis. During this event, Davis asserted that he believes four types of extraterrestrial beings—“greys,” "Nordics," "reptilians," and "insectoids"—have come to our planet.
Elizondo’s presentation was meant to reinforce the idea that aliens are among us. Instead, it unraveled within hours.
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A Shadow of Doubt
The photograph quickly made its way to Reddit , where users in the UFO-friendly and appropriately titled r/UFOs subreddit examined more closely. A member on this platform, mattperkins86 , compared it to satellite imagery and pinpointed the spot near Colorado Springs. The supposed “UFO,” it turned out, matched the shape and arrangement of two adjacent, perfectly circular crop fields.
Notably, the darker of the two fields appeared as a shadow under the brighter one — an optical illusion caused by their arrangement and lighting. “Not even a crop circle,” one user scoffed. “Just regular crops in a circle.”
Now that must be disappointing if you’re into this kind of thing.
Even Mick West, a well-known debunker and former video game developer who’s made a career unraveling UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) claims, chimed in. “The shadows simply didn’t line up the way they should if it was an object floating above the ground,” he wrote.
The supposed flying saucer wasn’t flying at all. It wasn’t saucer-shaped either. It was farmland.
The Bigger Picture — or the Lack of One
Elizondo later backpedaled. In a tweet, he said the photo had been handed to him just hours before the forum by a private pilot and that it “had NOT YET been vetted.” He insisted the dimensions were the pilot’s own estimate, based on “altitude and experience.”
“As you know, I am always first to admit mistakes, but this is not one of those times,” he wrote .
Despite the apology, presenting an unverified photo before a congressional audience — only for it to be immediately debunked — is not a good look.
“He HAD to have known that if this thing was fake, it was going to be found,” mattperkins86 wrote on Reddit. “So I am left thinking this is intentional, I guess.”
This isn’t the first time Elizondo has presented dubious footage masquerading as evidence in favor of UFOs. In 2024, he shared a different photo that he claimed showed a “mothership” UFO hovering somewhere above Romania. That, too, was debunked — this time as an unusually shaped cloud. According to Futurism , He once described military pilots receiving radiation burns from UFOs and said others had experienced “warping of space time.”
Even with some missteps, Elizonda continues to be a key player in the UFO field, particularly due to his advocacy for increased openness from the Pentagon regarding UAPs. He stepped down from his position at the Department of Defense in 2017 as a protest against what he referred to as "the bureaucratic hurdles and rigid attitudes" related to the UAP matter.
But years later, his legacy is increasingly defined by a string of blunders. Even among the UFO conspiracy people, Elizondo is increasingly becoming annoying as each of his errors weakens the broader case for taking the phenomenon seriously.
The Search for More
Interest in unidentified aerial phenomena has increased among the public. since 2020 When the Pentagon released previously classified videos of unusual aerial phenomena recorded by Navy aviators, lawmakers from all political factions began demanding greater transparency. Consequently, Congress has organized several hearings on the subject, leading up to this week’s meeting. There are those who argue that the administration is concealing proof of alien encounters.
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However, the subsequent panel was brimming with outlandish assertions yet lacked convincing proof, giving off an air of a circus rather than a serious academic discourse. That initial visual which sparked everything can still be seen via Google Earth; merely two circles within a field.
"Wow, this is awkward," a UFO aficionado posted on Reddit.
The quest for alien life stands as one of mankind’s most significant scientific endeavors. However, as illustrated in this episode, such searches—particularly those played out in the public eye—need more than fuzzy images and grand claims. They require thoroughness. Equally important is maintaining a sense of modesty.
For now, the truth might still be lurking around us. However, there's also plenty of farmland to consider.
This tale initially surfaced on ZME Science . Want to get smarter every day? Subscribe to our newsletter and stay ahead with the latest science news.
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