The Flint Ridge, Ohio, metal
A lump of metal found on private land near Flint Ridge State Park, Ohio, in the mid-1990s, after the owner said he saw a large unidentified airborne object, was tested for AARO by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and reported on in January 2026.
1995 CE · 39.99, -82.26 · status: explained
The account
Oak Ridge examined three bags of drill shavings and a small bulk piece. The metal is a near-eutectic aluminium-silicon casting alloy, about 86% aluminium and 12% silicon, closest to grades A413.1 and 369.1. Its silicon needles, iron-manganese phases and shrinkage pores point to slow cooling in a large mould, and about two days of gamma spectroscopy found no unexpected emission (ORNL synopsis, pp.2-4, 10). AARO added that the pores and lack of strengthening additives rule out a high-performance part. It listed a commercial casting, an industrial by-product, recycled alloy or a melt from a burned component as plausible origins, while saying it cannot name the actual source (AARO supplement, January 2026, pp.1-2).
The sceptical view
The analysis covers only the samples received, which had been drilled before AARO got them. The owner's sighting itself was reported, not investigated.