A strange, jellyfish-like object recorded drifting across the sky near a major U.S. military installation in Anchorage, Alaska, has fueled UFO speculation online. But a former Pentagon official who once led the government’s top unidentified aerial phenomena investigation says the footage may have a far more ordinary explanation.
Footage captured June 15 appears to show a dark object hovering near a mountainside beneath a rainbow, with several long, streamer-like strands hanging from its underside.
The object seems to expand and contract as the strands ripple, rise and fall below it. It first travels toward the left side of the frame, with the trailing strands following behind, before appearing to shift back toward the right.
Sara Jane Osborn filmed the unusual scene and uploaded it to Facebook the next day.
A dark object resembling a jellyfish, with strands extending beneath it, was filmed near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on June 15, 2026. (Peter & Sara Jane Osborn via Storyful)
“It looks like a friggin alien. I don’t like it,” Osborn says in the recording.
A short time later, she adds, “It’s moving very weirdly.”
News Media contacted Osborn seeking more information about the sighting.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson said it was aware of the video.
“We are aware of a video circulating on social media regarding a reported aerial sighting near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson from June 15, 2026, but have no additional information to provide at this time,” the 673d Air Base Wing Public Affairs office said in a statement.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who headed the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, testified before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on April 19, 2023. (U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services)
Sean Kirkpatrick, the former director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, urged caution when interpreting unexplained aerial sightings from social media videos.
“I don’t usually make any assessment from an online video,” Kirkpatrick told News Media. “First, as I’ve said many times, social media is not a good source of data for anything, let alone UAP sightings.”
“The video, if authentic and not generated, is compressed and cannot be used for data analysis. It’s too easy to make up video now and cover your signatures,” he said.
According to Kirkpatrick, the recording does not reveal enough to establish the object’s size, altitude, distance from the camera or true direction of travel.
Still, he offered one possible explanation for the unusual movement visible in the clip.
“The motion is similar to a kite with streamers, particularly the waves,” Kirkpatrick said.
Weather records also indicate that strong winds were present in Anchorage around the time the video was made.
Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, sits beneath the Chugach Range. (Getty Images/Getty Images)
Weather Underground reported west winds of 16 mph at 9:55 p.m. June 15, followed by west-southwest winds of 15 mph at 10:55 p.m. The sighting was said to have occurred around 10:15 p.m.
Those wind readings do not prove the object was a kite or that it traveled with the wind. The video does not show which direction the camera was pointed or precisely where the object was in relation to the person filming.
The relatively bright conditions at that hour are also typical for Anchorage in June, when daylight lingers well into the evening around the summer solstice.
A sign identifies the entrance to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 13, 2025. (Mark Thiessen/AP)
The military base did not disclose whether personnel or sensors detected the object, whether it entered restricted or military airspace, or whether officials identified any activity that might explain the video.
Kirkpatrick said a meaningful assessment would require evidence beyond the single clip.
“If it was a real video and not generated, I would add kite with streamers to the hypothesis category and then do some local research on whether there was any sort of celebration or party, what the wind patterns were, and whether or not there’s any corroborating video from another angle,” Kirkpatrick said.