FBI September 2023 Sighting - Composite Sketch

This file is a reconstruction, not a photograph of the object. It is the FBI’s equivalent of a police composite sketch: the FBI Laboratory took an actual photograph of the place where the sighting happened and laid a drawn graphic over it to show what several witnesses agreed they had seen in September 2023. The place is identified only as within the United States.

What the witnesses described

The image depicts an ellipsoid — a stretched, egg-like shape — with a bronze, metallic look. According to the accounts it is based on, the object seemed to take shape from within a bright light in the sky, was estimated at 130 to 195 feet long, and then vanished instantly. The FBI describes the reports as corroborating each other, meaning more than one witness gave a matching description.

How to read a composite

A composite like this records testimony, not measurement. The size comes from witness estimates, which are hard to make for an object in the sky with no known distance, and the graphic shows how the FBI artists interpreted the descriptions. The value of the file is that it fixes the witnesses’ shared account to a real setting. No sensor data or explanation is published with it, and its release does not mean the FBI found anything anomalous. For other recent FBI material, see the Pentagon files index.