NASA-UAP-VM6, Apollo 17, 1972

NASA IMG Partial
Incident date
1972
Incident location
Moon
Released by DOW
5/8/26
Case ID
NASA-UAP-VM6
Source URL
war.gov original ↗

Our research summary

Apollo 17 (December 1972) photograph showing three dots in a triangular formation in the lower-right quadrant of the lunar sky, visible upon magnification. DOW has opened a PURSUE-program case to investigate it; the metadata explicitly states 'this photo has been previously released and discussed by keen observers'.

Prior disclosure: Partial

The metadata description literally says: 'this photo has been previously released and discussed by keen observers, there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly.' The Apollo 17 'three dots' image has circulated in UFO research communities for years, sourced from public NASA Apollo 17 magazine scans. The new content in the 2026-05-08 release is (a) DOW's case opening, (b) preliminary US-government analysis suggesting the feature may be a physical object, and (c) the recovery of original film for reanalysis.

What was disclosed earlier

Prior-disclosure links

Tags

1972apollo-17explicitly-noted-previously-releasedmoonnasapursuethree-dotstriangular-formation