Part I： The Truth is Out There

　　To James and Fawn Clemens of Kingman， Ariz.， the bright but fuzzy amber light hanging above the northwestern horizon seemed odd. It was 8 p.m.， March 13， 1997， and the couple， both 42， were in their yard.

　　Looking through binoculars， the Clemenses seemed to see five intense orange lights， in a "V" formation， heading southeast. Then reports began streaming into local law enforcement agencies， media outlets and civilian UFO groups.Retired Northwest Airlines Capt. Trig Johnston says an object the size of 25 airliners floated slowly and soundlessly past his home in north Scottsdale. "It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen，" he told Reader's Digest. A 43-second videotape， recorded at 8：28 p.m. by a man in north Phoenix， shows five white lights in a "V" formation. At 8：30 p.m. the cockpit crew of an America West 757 airliner at 17，000 feet near Lake Pleasant， Ariz.， noticed the lights off to their right and just above them.

　　"There's a UFO！" co-pilot John Middleton said kiddingly to pilot Larry Campbell. They queried the regional air-traffic-control center in Albuquerque， N.M. A controller radioed back that it was a formation of CT-144s flying at 19，000 feet.

　　Overhearing this exchange， someone claiming to be a pilot in the formation radioed Middleton. "We're Canadian Snowbirds flying Tutors，" a man said.

　　The Canadian Snowbirds are the elite air-show performance team of the Canadian air force. Snowbird pilots fly CT-144s， a two-seat training jet nicknamed the Tutor， which has a single landing light in its nose.

　　But Capt. Michael Perry， squadron logistics officer for the Snowbirds， denied that any of his planes were in Arizona that month. "We don't travel in a V-shaped formation， and we don't cruise with landing lights on，" he told Reader's Digest.

　　Officials at Luke AFB in Phoenix， Nellis AFB in Las Vegas and Edwards AFB in Rosamund， Calif.， all denied that any of their planes were responsible for the sightings. FAA officials profess to be baffled. "We don't have any knowledge of the incident，" says Martin Hardy， the Phoenix air-traffic-control manager.

　　Was it a secret military exercise， an elaborate hoax or something else？ The mass sightings of whatever flew over northern Arizona that night have added new fuel to the UFO controversy.

　　Part II： An Old Mystery

　　Unexplained aerial phenomena have been observed for centuries， but the modern UFO era began in 1947， when there was an unprecedented number of reported sightings. Observers have offered a wide range of reasons for the surge from Cold War hysteria to visitors from outer space investigating nuclear explosions.

　　The U.S. Air Force investigated some 12，618 sightings over the next 22 years. Most were explained as misidentifications of natural atmospheric phenomena， such as meteors or planets， or as weather balloons and other man-made flying craft. Still， 701 remained unexplained， and Northwestern University astronomer J. Allen Hynek， the Air Force's scientific consultant on UFOs， concluded that some of these could be extraterrestrial in origin.

　　That view was challenged by a 1969 University of Colorado study funded by the Air Force， which examined 59 of the more celebrated cases. Some were also revealed as misidentifications or hoaxes. Although 23 still remained unexplained， project director Dr. Edward Condon concluded that no evidence of extraterrestrial visitation existed and "further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified."

　　Nevertheless， UFO reports continue， and interest in the subject remains widespread. In 1997 a panel of nine scientists from France， Germany and the United States， all affiliated with universities， laboratories and observatories， examined the reports of eight UFO investigators. The panel， funded by Laurance S. Rockefeller， a wealthy philanthropist long interested in the subject， took up cases where physical evidence of some sort existed such as radar trackings， damage to vegetation or documentable injuries to witnesses.The panel concluded that some of the incidents may have been due to rare atmospheric phenomena. They found no proof that any UFOs were extraterrestrial. But they didn't rule out the possibility either.

　　The panel's report was met with skepticism from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal， a group that specializes in debunking fringe science. CSICOP fellow Philip J. Klass， a contributing editor at Aviation Week & Space Technology， dismisses the idea that UFOs are extraterrestrial： "In 50 years there hasn't been a single piece of credible physical evidence."

　　Perhaps not. At any rate， I've taken a second look at a pair of the cases examined by the Rockefeller panel， interviewing eyewitnesses and reviewing official documents. Like the lights over Arizona， these episodes remain fascinating and mysterious.

　　Part III： Molten Metal

　　At 7：45 p.m. on December 17， 1977， Mike and Criss Moore， both 24， were driving to visit Mike's mother in Council Bluffs， Iowa， when they say they saw a bright red ball glowing above the treetops about a half-mile away. Three other individuals report watching an object fall in Big Lake Park. Motorists who converged on the site found a pond levee glowing red-orange from a mass of molten metal that was boiling over the frozen ground. Council Bluffs assistant fire chief Jack Moore， Mike's father， arrived within 15 minutes to discover "a big puddle of metal about four inches thick， bubbling and red in spots." Local astronomer Robert Allen forwarded samples of the debris to metallurgists at Iowa State University and the U.S. Air Force's Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. The sample was composed chiefly of iron with small amounts of nickel and chromium， making it carbon steel. "Analytic results make it highly unlikely that the material is of meteoric origin，" reported Robert S. Hansen， director of the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State. Government scientists offered no explanation for the object's origin， but were certain the material was unrelated to military or space projects. "Re-entering spacecraft debris does not impact the earth's surface in a molten state，" Col. Charles Senn wrote to Allen in 1978. Was this an elaborate hoax？ Allen could find only one local foundry with the equipment to produce molten metals. It had not been operating the night of the incident. "Even then，" adds Allen， "no one can explain how a thousand pounds of molten metal could have been dropped from such a height."

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