Jimmy Carter had a UFO encounter. What to know
(NewsNation) — Former President Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, left behind a unique legacy of openness about UFO sightings, including his own encounter in 1969, and a message to potential alien civilizations that continue to travel through space.
As a rising politician in Georgia, Carter reported seeing an unidentified flying object outside a Lions Club in Leary, Georgia. He described a bright orb that changed colors from blue to red to white, moving toward and away from the group of about 25 witnesses before disappearing beyond the pine trees, per History.com.
"I've never believed that it came from Mars," Carter told GQ magazine in 2005. "I know enough physics to know that you can't have vehicles that are tangible in nature flying from Mars, looking around, and then flying back."
The late president said, "And all of a sudden, one of the men looked up and said, ‘Look, over in the west!’ And there was a bright light in the sky. We all saw it. And then the light, it got closer and closer to us. And then it stopped, I don’t know how far away, but it stopped beyond the pine trees. And all of a sudden it changed color to blue, and then it changed to red, then back to white."
In 1973, then-Governor Carter filed an official report with the International UFO Bureau, according to History.com. During his 1976 presidential campaign, he promised to release all government UFO information if elected.
However, after winning the presidency, Carter backed away from this pledge, citing national security concerns, per History.com. During his presidency, he maintained a fascination with space exploration.
In 1977, he contributed a message to NASA's Voyager spacecraft mission, and carried on golden records into deep space, per the Daily Mail.
"We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations," Carter wrote in the message, which continues to travel beyond our solar system along with recordings of Earth's music, languages and images, according to USA Today.