UFO Files: UK Releases Thousands of Secret Documents, Reports

NASA(WASHINGTON) -- Alien abductions, flying saucer sightings, mysterious lights, and even extraterrestrial autopsies -- they're all in the real-life X-files released by the British government this week.

As part of a continuing effort to declassify government reports related to unidentified flying objects, the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense and The National Archives this week released about 8,500 pages of UFO-related documents, illustrations, letters, and parliamentary debates from 2000-2005.

Some of the files describe paranormal reports that turned out to be mere pranks; other stories of intergalactic proportions were ultimately found to have earthly explanations. But the British government said 5 percent of the cases remain unsolved.

The newly released trove of documents shows that, in the 1960s and '70s, the British government seriously considered a possible alien threat. The esteemed House of Lords even debated UFOs in January 1979.

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