Encounter Atlas

Creature index / Strange visitors

Grey aliens

Also called Greys, Grays, Gray aliens, Zeta Reticulans, Roswell Greys, Little grey men, Ebens

Small, grey, big-headed beings with huge black eyes, the classic face of alien encounters.

Greys are the beings most often described in alien abduction and close encounter reports: short, slender, hairless humanoids with grey skin, an oversized head, tiny nose and mouth, and large, black, almond-shaped eyes. Tall versions are reported too.

Betty and Barney Hill's 1961 account of being taken aboard a craft in New Hampshire, recalled under hypnosis, set the template. Betty's sketch of a star map led to the idea that greys come from Zeta Reticuli. Later accounts of Roswell bodies and Whitley Strieber's 1987 book Communion, with its famous cover, made the face known everywhere.

Skeptics note that similar big-headed, big-eyed future humans appeared in science fiction long before 1961.

What witnesses report

  • Large black almond-shaped eyes
  • Grey, hairless skin
  • Thin body and an oversized head
  • Telepathic communication
  • Missing time

Famous cases

  1. 1961Betty and Barney Hill encounter
    White Mountains, New Hampshire
  2. 1987Communion published
    United States

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Related

Alien abductionaka Abduction, Close encounter of the fourth kindPeople who say they were taken aboard a craft, often remembering only 'missing time'.Nordic aliensaka Nordics, PleiadiansTall, fair-haired, human-looking visitors from 1950s contactee stories.Kelly-Hopkinsville Goblinsaka Little green men, Kelly Little Green MenThe night a Kentucky farmhouse was besieged by small, glowing creatures.Flying sauceraka Disc, Flying discThe classic disc-shaped UFO that launched the modern era of sightings.Black-eyed childrenaka Black-eyed kids, BEKPale children with solid black eyes who knock at night and insist on being invited in.Men in Blackaka MIB, Men in blackPale, oddly behaved men in black suits who warn UFO witnesses to keep quiet.Reptiliansaka Reptoids, Reptilian aliensScaly, reptile-like humanoids from some abduction reports, and a notorious conspiracy theory.UFO crashesaka Crashed saucer, RoswellStories of objects falling from the sky and being quietly taken away.