The 'best ever' photograph of a UFO has emerged 50 years after it was taken by a mapmaker.
The image was taken by Aerial photographer Sergio Loaiza, who was flying at 10,000 ft above Costa Rica with a special 100lb camera.
He snapped several frames of the land for a survey, and then the high definition black and white photos were later developed and one frame revealed something unexplained.
It was only when the image was recently enhanced that the UFO was spotted, and it clearly shows something that resembles a metallic disk flying high over the land below - and the pilot said he never saw a thing.
What do you think about the image? Let us know in the comments...
Sergio took the image when he was photographing the area for a hydroelectric project, and it was processed fifty years later.
He took the image in question as he flew over Lake Cote, capturing the rainforest below in 20-second intervals.
The frame, time-stamped at 8.25am, is the only image with the metal disk in it - and it does look remarkably like UFOs depicted in sci-fi films.
New York Times reporter Leslie Kean has dubbed the image as "the best" photo of a UFO ever taken.
He said: "There was this disc object and you clearly see the sun reflecting off this round object that’s got a little dot on the top and what’s important about it is that it was a government photo.
"There’s a clear chain of custody. It’s always been in possession of the Costa Rican government so you know it’s authentic and it’s completely unexplained."
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UFO research group UAP Media obtained a new ultra-high resolution drum scan of the original image.
A statement from UAP Media says that researchers Richard Haines and Jacques Vallee, who published the original photo, had been asked not to talk about it by Loaiza’s employers – The National Geographic Institute of Costa Rica.
Over the years Loaiza’s stunning photo began to be forgotten, but it returned to public consciousness thanks to an April 2021 article in the New Yorker, entitled “How the Pentagon Started Taking UFOs Seriously”.
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