Shape-shifting UFO in Texas

On the night of the May 2022 lunar eclipse, Nicholas Santos and his wife noticed a group of lights moving in the sky near the moon. As he watched the object through his binoculars, she captured a video on an S series Samsung cellphone. The video was shot at 11:17 PM local time at the peak of totality.

Selected zoomed-in frames from the original video show an object changing shape within a second. (Nicholas Santos)

Using object tracking to frame stabilize the video shows the object moves from directly above the moon to the left and back – not the behavior of an aircraft or satellite.

The first part of the video shows the object moving relative to the moon.

Continuing to track the object, it changes from a triangular formation to a line straight across, to random groupings of lights with some appearing to move in and out from outside the field of view. Clearly, this is not a drone or other conventional aircraft.

The second part of the video shows changing shapes.
Same as above except with false-coloring to enhance subtle differences.
A cross-sectional plot of the above sequence of video images visualized as a volume of data shows changes in the size of the object over time with time increasing from bottom to top. Notice an object moving into the formation at the end of the video (near the top of the plot).

In an attempt to correlate the sighting with others, a search of the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) database found no reports at the time of the Santos’ sighting in the vicinity of Buda, Texas, which is about 60 miles northeast of San Antonio.

Relative frequency of shapes reported since the early 1940s. Data compiled from NUFORC database. See Not of This World for more information on methods and findings.

Analysis of NUFORC data reveals that formations and changing shapes are seen more often in recent years but are still less frequent than other types of sightings.

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