JIMMY.

Carter described the object as "as bright as the moon," stationary then moving, changing colour from white to red to bluish, and changing in apparent size. The event lasted several minutes before the object departed. Multiple Lions Club members confirmed the observation.

In September 1973, while serving as Governor of Georgia, Carter filed a formal sighting report with the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma City. The report, in his own handwriting, gave specific details about the event including the date, location, weather, time, and his own characterization of the object as a UFO. He noted in the report that "the object hovered about 30 degrees above the horizon and moved in toward the earth and away before disappearing into the distance."

During the 1976 presidential campaign, Carter discussed the sighting publicly and stated that, if elected, he would make all UFO information held by the US government available to the public. After taking office, Carter requested NASA to lead a US government UFO study. NASA Administrator Robert Frosch declined to commit the agency to such a project in a 1977 letter. Carter has stated in subsequent interviews that he did not personally see further information after taking office and that he believed his sighting was a natural phenomenon — likely the planet Venus — though he allowed that conditions had been unusual.

Skeptical analyses, including by Robert Sheaffer, have proposed that the object was indeed Venus, which was bright in the western sky on the relevant evening. Pro-case analysts have noted that Carter's description of size and colour change is not fully consistent with Venus, and that multiple Lions Club members corroborated the observation. The Carter sighting is significant primarily as the only formally filed sighting report by a future or sitting US President.