Clip purportedly showing UFO interfering with U.S. nuclear site is not genuine
Video is an altered version of a clip published on YouTube over four years ago
CLAIM
A post on X purported to show a UFO descending on a nuclear facility in the U.S., before it took some components from a nuclear device and sped away.
BACKGROUND
Footage published to X on April 24, 2024, purported to show a UFO that was spotted on security footage in the United States.
The caption read: “A UFO descended on a nuclear facility in the USA. The UFO was then caught on video by surveillance cameras taking away key components of the nuclear device.”
The video shows an oblong shape hovering over a rock formation before a light moves up from the rocks into the flying object. Something resembling a flame emerges from the top of the flying object before it zooms up into the sky.
The post was viewed close to 80,000 times on the platform in its first four days.
METHOD
Viewing the video, it is clear it has been manipulated. There are multiple cuts in the clip, while the latter section of it has been slowed down with several replays of each key moment: the moment the purported “component” is taken into the UFO, the moment the flame erupts from the UFO, and the moment it zooms into the sky.
The first step in determining the source of the video was a series of reverse image searches carried out using stills from the clip. It pulled up a number of other usages of the video, both recent ones carrying the same claims, and older versions, such as this post from May 2022, simply captioned: “Clouds over a mountain range.”
An earlier version of the same clip can be traced to a YouTube channel called ‘Alien Planet’ dedicated to posting videos showing purported UFO sightings. The video has a completely different colour profile and is higher resolution, suggesting that the version recently posted to X was an altered and cropped version of this video.
There are a few warning signs in this video to suggest it has been digitally altered. When the camera zooms in on the scene, the shiny flying object appears in a different and higher resolution than the rocks beneath it, even though it appears to be as far away from the camera as the rocks (if not further: the item that floats up to the UFO emerges from behind the rock).
This suggests that the flying object may have been overlaid onto real footage of a desert.
In addition, while the camera is zooming in on the scene, it appears to go out of focus, which, in the context, is also a red flag. Following our suspicions that the flying object was computer-generated and added to the scene, the moment out of focus could allow the creators an opportunity to adjust their creation for the closer shot — working similarly to a jump cut.
Furthermore, the video is not captioned with a location at a nuclear site, nor does it reference the United States at all.
While it has not regularly published videos in several years, the YouTube account hosts dozens of unverified clips purporting to show UFO and paranormal sightings, some of which are more sophisticated than others.
With this analysis, we can conclude that the footage posted to X does not show a UFO interfering with a nuclear device in the U.S., and is an edited version of an already altered video that is over four years old.
RATING
The video does not show a UFO flying over a nuclear site in the U.S. and is an altered version of a clip published on YouTube over four years ago.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: A UFO descended on a nuclear facility in the USA… [Accessed 28 Apr. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Clouds over a mountain range. [Accessed 28 Apr. 2024].
Alien Planet (2020). Paranormal Activity Caught on Camera | Weird UFO Sighting | Latest UFO Report. YouTube. [Accessed 28 Apr. 2024].