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U.S. finds no evidence UFOs came from outer space, but many of over 120 cases remain unexplained

By
David Martin
David Martin
National Security Correspondent
David Martin has been CBS News' national security correspondent, covering the Pentagon and the State Department, since 1993.
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David Martin,
Eleanor Watson
CBS News Reporter
Eleanor Watson is a CBS News multi-platform reporter and producer covering the Pentagon.
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Eleanor Watson

/ CBS News

The task force assigned to report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) — or U.F.Os — has found no evidence that objects came from outer space or were part of some secret U.S. program, but many of the more than 120 cases investigated by the government remain unexplained. 

In December, Congress asked the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other intelligence agencies, to submit a report on what is known about UAPs this summer. 

An official who has read the report said there is no evidence the objects are extraterrestrial, but the report also says that there are still many cases in which the origin of the objects cannot be explained.

An unclassified version of the report is expected to be delivered to Congress by June 25. 

The Defense Department task force has confirmed that the scope of its work includes objects described as a "sphere," "acorn," "pyramid" and "metallic blimp" by military personnel.

In May, CBS News' "60 Minutes" spoke with naval aviators David Fravor and Alex Dietrich, who had never spoken publicly before about an encounter in Southern California in 2004 that was visible on their radar and on video when they were flying in the Nimitz carrier strike group. They observed an object that looked like a Tic Tac moving over whitewater in an otherwise calm blue sea. 

The two said that they saw the object, about the size of their F/A-18F, but with no markings or wings and also without exhaust plumes, mimicking the movements of their own plane.

"Oh there's, there's definitely something that … I don't know who's building it, who's got the technology, who's got the brains. But there's — there's something out there that was better than our airplane," Fravor told "60 Minutes" correspondent Bill Whitaker.  

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