Sphere over Tempe, AZ
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
I was looking up at the sky and I saw what May have been a slowly moving plane but as I looked harder it was a bright dot with an aura around it that was moving slowly, then all of a sudden within seconds it moved really fast and disappeared completely. Never saw it again
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #178955). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2023-10-14 → 2023-10-31
From the same sky
Related entries
December 7, 2022 · 6:36 PM · SPHERE
Tempe, AZ
Hi. back on December 7th 2022 I was in Tempe delivering and I noticed a glow at the bottom right hand of the Moon so I stopped, pulled over to take a picture and in the span of 1 minute these are the photos I took.. I didn't recognize the larger glow off to the right at first until it moved.. I'd like to know what you guys think? I never edited any of the photos themselves all I did was add the caption to to list the order of the pictures and what was going on at that time. text or email me anytime. Https://photos.app.goo.gl/njC8P1D84TXnoJ5Z6
October 16, 2022 · 5:00 PM · CHEVRON
Tempe, AZ
I seen a silvery shape boomerang object high in the sky through my binoculars. I grabbed my iPhone and began recording. I felt that it knew I was recording and began to move further away until it eventually disappeared.
February 9, 2022 · 1:30 AM · UNKNOWN
Tempe, AZ
Was walking dog when he suddenly startled and ran the length of 8ft lead jerking him backwards. He and I both looked up and I heard an extremely loud "whooshing" sound and sped off in a sloping upward pattern and then sat absolutely still for over a minute and I actually got nervous and went for cover. I went to my apartment and grabbed my phone and proceeded to balcony and it had gone behind a building for short period and then for roughly 15 minutes I was able to video tape 3 decent clips. The concerning thing is that this object was not a run of the mill drone. It was very large in size. This object had green and red lights. These lights were on the underbody and flashed.
January 12, 2021 · 7:00 PM · SPHERE
Tempe, AZ
I was driving at this location (33°26'54.0"N 111°54'33.7"W) heading southbound on the road when i was facing the southeast looking across the field in the sky to observe the plane as it descended for a landing at sky harbor airport located nearby to the west of my location.As soon as i looked up at the plane two verticals rows of lights each row containing around 4-6 orbs,Each orb seemed around 1/3 the size of the airliner and also very bright with a white light that had almost like a blue aura no outline to a shell of a aircraft, just lights appeared on either side of the plane.I was shocked so i looked around to see if i could see any more of them in the sky when i look back and they were gone without a trace,just gone.I waited to see if anyone saw what i saw and would pullover so i could confirm it with them but not one person even slowed down,but if you know the area you know the field and you know people had to have seen it if they were on the! 202 or at Tempe Market Place if you check the coordinates the lights seemed above The Phoenix rising stadium maybe closer to the road Also to note that when they appeared they were motionless for the whole event and the only thing i could hear was the airplane engine.
January 1, 2021 · 12:00 AM · SPHERE
Tempe, AZ
At midnight new years eve 2020, a friend and I observed six silent dark orange/red spherical glowing flying objects over an 18 minute time period. They appeared one by one, about every three minutes, from midnight to 12:18 AM. Five of the objects moved from my east to my west, and one moved from my northwest to my southeast. The first two objects were a little north of me, the second two almost directly overhead, and the last two a little south of my location. The objects first appeared at about a 40 degree angle to ground position, and appeared about 1/5 the size of an average moon when passing over our position. They looked like large military helicopter size, but as they steadily moved forward, away and upward, they appeared smaller and smaller, until they disappeared into space on the distant horizon. It took about three minutes from initial sighting, at what appeared as lower altitude, to disappearance, at what appeared to we extremely high altitude. It was difficult to estimate altitude, but I first thought the first object was a sheriff's helicopter, at low altitude, coming because of new years gunshots. Upon two of the objects, one by one, disappearance in the eastern sky, I saw four separate blue/white flashes/sparks in the dark sky, near where the objects were last seen. They looked like photo flash bulbs or sparks going off in the sky, roughly the diameter of an average moon. I have never seen anything like that, and the sparks occurred at a very high altitude. Before the last object traveled from the NW to the SE, I ran in an grabbed my 15X x 70mm Celestron astronomical binoculars. I was able to focus and view the last object clearly for over 10 seconds, as it was moving away. It appeared to be reddish orange glowing perfectly spherical plasma (there was a flaming character to it), with a round white halo around it. The halo was six times the size of the ball. The halo reflected white light against some slight feathery clouds that were present. There was no trail, contrail, or exhaust coming from the object. I have worked in aerospace and defense procurement and manufacturing, for over 40 years. I know what satellites look like in the night sky. I know what helicopters and jet aircraft look like in the night sky. These objects were UAP, and exibited high strangeness. I know Sky Harbor tower had to have seen the objects, but, I no longer have any FAA contacts to refer to. I waited for an hour after 12:18 AM to see if there would be further activity, and there was none. It is worthy of note that my internet search that night found videos of orange/red orbs captured at midnight new years eve 2020 in over 10 US states, and in Autrailia, The Netherlands, The UK, Mexico, and others. These videos match what we saw, only our sightings seemed much closer at first viewing, when the objects were at low altitude. Oddly, all the internet videos seem to have been taken at midnight their time zone, right when people were watching fireworks displays. All the objects and descriptions of the objects seem to be very similar. Very strange phenomenon, indeed.
December 31, 2020 · 9:00 PM · OVAL
Tempe, AZ
On December 31st at about 21:00 hours I just finished dinner and walked outside and sat down on the patio. I noticed two aircraft flying in the southern sky from the west to east, one larger, higher up and further out and one smaller closer and lower in altitude. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw another aircraft flying the same path in the space between the two other aircraft but behind. The speed of it did not seem out of the ordinary. This one got my attention. I got up and walked out away from the patio and watched it. What caught my attention was it was orange with no other blinking lights as general aircraft would have. I was trying to see other lights on it and its altitude verses the other aircraft traveling the same path. My initial thought was it was higher than both. Then I saw it slow and seemed to turn north but then stop. I thought only a helicopter can do that but its too high and no other lights can be seen on the aircraft. Now I am wishing I had my camera. It stayed in that position for about 15 to 20 seconds then just faded out. My thoughts where it left the sky in a southern path directly in opposite line with my sight of it. I have seen over the year’s flairs dropped during military exercised in the very distance and I have seen missiles launched also. This was neither. I stood and watched for about 10 minutes the area where the light faded out to see anything and nothing appeared, it was gone. During the entire time of this sighting, I witnessed no sound from the aircraft. I am only making this report because of these facts, I have never seen anything like this in my 58 years. We live south east of Sky Harbor Airport and have seen large jets to small aircraft in our southern skies for 35 years. The sky was clear, and this object traveled in a horizontal path with no discernable arch.