Eight-Pointed Star Over CENTCOM Airspace, 2013

Brief

U.S. Central Command submitted this unresolved UAP report to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office consisting of one minute and 46 seconds of infrared sensor footage from a U.S. military platform operating over the Middle East in 2013. The phenomenon presents as an area of contrast resembling an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length, which moves within the sensor field-of-view, produces a visible trail, exits the frame at least once, and reappears following an apparent cut in the footage. The reporting observer provided no oral or written description of the event. No analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the event's validity, nature, or significance has been rendered.

Metadata

Agency

Department of War

Release

5/8/26

Location

Middle East

Type

VIDEO • .mp4

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Programs

AARO

Tags

eight-pointed star, alternating-arm morphology, visible trail, infrared sensor, Middle East, 2013, AARO, airborne platform, CENTCOM

Key points

• Submitted by U.S. Central Command to AARO; classified as unresolved as of the release date.
• Footage duration: 1 minute 46 seconds (106 seconds) of infrared sensor recording from an unspecified U.S. military airborne platform.
• Phenomenon morphology: an area of contrast resembling an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.
• The object produces a visible trail while moving within the sensor field-of-view between the 00:11 and 00:29 marks.
• An apparent cut occurs at 00:30–00:35, after which the phenomenon is tracked for a further 69 seconds before exiting from the top-left quadrant of the frame.
• The reporting observer provided no oral or written description — the entire evidentiary record is the video itself.
• Release includes an explicit disclaimer that the video description reflects no analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination.

Most interesting

• The eight-pointed star morphology with arms of alternating length is geometrically atypical for known aircraft, balloon, or debris signatures in infrared; diffraction artifacts from bright point sources can produce star patterns, but alternating-arm-length geometry is not a standard optical artifact.
• The apparent cut in the footage between 00:30 and 00:35 raises an unresolved chain-of-custody question: the published description does not account for what occurred during those five seconds or why the footage was discontinuous.
• CENTCOM's failure to supply any observer narrative is unusual — standard military UAP reporting protocols post-2019 require descriptive accounts alongside sensor data; its absence here may indicate the platform was unmanned or that the event was discovered in archival review rather than reported in real time.
• The 2013 incident date predates the formal establishment of AARO (2022), meaning this footage was retained for roughly nine years before being submitted through the current reporting architecture.
• The visible trail behind the object is a noteworthy kinematic detail; propulsive or thermal exhaust trails are consistent with known platforms, but the report declines to characterize it, leaving the trail's mechanism unresolved.