My Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP)

I witnessed and recorded an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) on April 21, 2026.

In its independent 2022 study NASA defines UAPs as "observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena." While it may be known to someone, the apparition is unknown to me. Absent an established reporting system, I volunteer this example merely as a scientific data point in the spirit of their "effort to better understand the nature and origin of the UAPs."

I was out photographing the constellation Corona Borealis (CrB) with my cell phone on the clear spring morning because within the U-shaped Northern Crown is a recurring nova that becomes visible to the naked eye every 80 years. The nova T CrB last erupted in 1946. The "new" star should appear sometime among the thousands of other stars, perhaps as bright as second-magnitude Polaris. April 21, 2026, was my 411th night observing Corona Borealis since mid-2024.

While photographing Corona Borealis, outlined in blue, on April 21, 2026, I captured above and to its right a nebulous bright object visible to the naked eye that slowly moved relative to the background stars.

After taking a few photos I noticed an object brighter than any star that was clearly visible to the naked eye, appearing like a comet head with nucleus and coma, and seemingly with dimension. Looking back over several of my images containing Corona Borealis, the bright blur moved about 19 degrees between Kappa CrB and the star HIP83575 over 30 minutes.

Illustration shows the 19 degrees of separation between the stars Kappa CrB and HIP83575, with the reference star Lambda CrB circled in blue.

Shown below are the times and cropped images between 5:12 AM EDT and 5:42 AM EDT. The unidentified object in the red circle moved relative to the reference star Lambda CrB, in blue circle.

Seven images taken over 30 minutes on 2026 April 21 show a naked-eye fuzzy object (in red circle) moving relative to the reference star Lambda Coronae Borealis (in blue circle).

Each of my CrB images containing the fuzzy object was taken with an Apple iPhone 16 Pro, Fusion Camera, 24 mm, f 1.78, ISO 3200, and a 10-second exposure. By the time I set up a telescope to image the object, twilight had brightened the sky too much for me to find it manually. Dang!

What could be sources of such an object? There had been a SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral SFS in Florida at 2:53 a.m. that morning. Could the Falcon 9 rocket's high altitude exhaust plume appear as a small so-called space jellyfish? I had recently witnessed the surprising result of pre-dawn sunlight refracting off a fresh plume from a couple hundred miles away, and that certainly would be an unidentified phenomenon for many observers. However, a high altitude plume in motion would dissipate, and CrB was to the west of my Indiana location, so I dismiss that candidate cause.

A "space jellyfish" resulted from sunlight refracting off a SpaceX Falcon 9 exhaust plume before sunrise on March 4, 2026, from nearly 200 miles away.

Considering its long duration, it was not a moving satellite. And since the fuzzy blob moved significantly relative to the background stars it was not a planet, comet, nebula, or other common celestial target. It remains a mystery to me.

In Fiscal Year 2024 the Department of Defense All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) issued an annual report on UAPs that was inconclusive, noting "444 cases lacked sufficient data to facilitate analysis and were placed in the Active Archive where they will be held for pattern of life and trend analysis or reexamined if additional data becomes available. Archived cases may be reopened and resolved should additional information emerge to support analysis."

I don't purport my sighting has anything to do with pattern of life; rather, it has to do with an unidentified anomaly. It wasn't a UFO; it was a UAP. Currently, government activity related to the UFO frenzy and transparency initiatives pertain to aviation-related claims. Since I am neither a government employee nor contractor nor pilot, I am not eligible to report my observation and images to the AARO.

I'm just putting it out there. Not sure what I saw, but both my eyes and my camera captured an unknown-to-me phenomenon. Perhaps one day it will support analysis that yields a better understanding of the mysteries of the firmament.