Does the British Ministry of Defense believe in aliens? They're not saying — but yesterday they released the first eight of a promised 160 formerly top secret files on UFO sightings over the United Kingdom between 1978 and 2002.

Officially, the Ministry of Defense tracked sightings in order to check whether the UFOs were actually spy craft from other countries. The files include reports ranging from the crackpot to the very credible, such as a 1985 sighting by three police officers observing a white light descending to Earth just after midnight on Christmas Day. Included are files relating to a series of events at Lakenheath-Bentwaters Royal Air Force base.

The files are available on the National Archives website — download them and judge for yourself. More files will be released in the future.