As we know from official Pentagon documents, UFOs are usually circular, triangular or even a white oblong like a ‘Tic Tac’.
Now, the US government can add another shape to its list – and it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen.
A photographer in Chicago has shared his stunning shot of a spooky object that was changing colour while it was stationary in the night’s sky.
Depending on the observer, it resembles a mask, an alien face, an indigenous totem, or even Rafiki the monkey from The Lion King.
Experts are baffled as to what it might be, although they called the image ‘beautiful and ‘spectacular’.
The bizarre face-shaped object, which changed colour while in the sky, was taken in Chicago by photographer Dietrich Zeigler
The remarkable shot was taken by Dietrich Zeigler, a photographer in Chicago, and shared exclusively to MailOnline.
‘It was around evening just as the sun dipped below the horizon,’ he said.
‘I noticed some colorful shimmering and took out my 70-200 MM lens and shot this.
‘The object’s appearance was striking, with a palette of purple, gold and green.
‘It seemed to be changing colours, but the shape remained the same which looks like a mask.
‘After quickly heading indoors to examine the photos, I was unable to locate it in the sky again.’
Mr Zeigler said it ‘seemed as stationary as a star’ to the naked eye, although slight differences in the photos he took suggested it might have been moving slightly.
‘I was quite startled upon reviewing the photos on a larger screen,’ he said.
‘Even now, I frequently gaze at the sky, both during the day and at night, hoping to witness something as remarkable.’
‘Yet, nothing similar has crossed my view since that intriguing evening.’
Depending on the observer, it resembles a mask, an alien face or an indigenous totem (pictured)
With its elongated and colourful ‘face’ the object even has similarities with Rafiki the monkey from The Lion King (pictured)
UFO stands for ‘unidentified flying object’ and so the term doesn’t necessarily describe an object with an extraterrestrial origin.
Nick Pope, a UFO expert formerly with the UK’s Ministry of Defence, called it a ‘beautiful image’ but couldn’t identify the ‘unidentified aerial phenomenon’ (UAP), now the preferred term by authorities.
‘Often, when looking at UAP images, we’re not necessarily seeing an accurate picture of the object,’ Pope told MailOnline.
‘Distortions can occur for example when an object is photographed through glass, or when zooming-in, or as a result of various anomalies and light effects relating to the camera.’
Another British UFO researcher, Philip Mantle, said the object could be plasma or even ice crystals in the clouds.
‘I’ve seen these ice crystals myself and they do look really spectacular,’ he told MailOnline.
‘[But] it’s difficult to reach a definitive conclusion.’
US Department of Defense – otherwise known as the Pentagon – declined to comment on the image.
However, the usually secretive government branch has been more transparent about what it knows regarding UFOs in recent months.
A Pentagon document published in the summer revealed that the typical UFO has a round shape, usually spherical or an orb, with a white or silver colour.
Most UFOs have been described as ‘orb’, ‘round’ or ‘sphere’, but other reported shapes include polygon, triangle and ‘Tic Tac’, says the Pentagon
Woman spots bizarre Tic-Tac ‘UFO’ from her garden in Stockport
Based on what it knows from reported sightings between 1996 and 2023, other UFO shapes include rectangle, oval, triangle, disk, cylinder, square and even polygon.
Meanwhile, 16 per cent have been described as having lights, although in many cases this may have been due to their reflective qualities.
The Pentagon has also released a hotspot map that reveals the location of reported UFO sightings, including Japan and the Middle East.
The world’s UFO hotspots are revealed – as Pentagon admits hundreds of objects have been spotted ‘all over the world’
The US government is notoriously secretive when it comes to sharing what it knows about extraterrestrial life.
But in a possible bid for transparency, the Department of Defense has released a new document disclosing the ‘world’s UFO hotspots’.
It includes a map disclosing where the most sightings of unidentified objects have been recorded, based on reports between 1996 and 2023.
The map discloses where the most sightings have been recorded based on reports between 1996 and 2023 – naming Japan and the coasts of the US as particular hotspots
Among them Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, the east and west coasts of the US including California, as well as parts of the Middle East.
Another remote mountain village in Japan has already been described as a hotspot for mysterious sightings.
