It is a fact that literally millions of people around the world claim to have seen a UFO at one time or another, and many thousands of reports have been officially filed going all the way back to World War Two. However, investigation into just what these objects may have been have pretty conclusively demonstrated the vast majority of these reports have prosaic explanations such as hoaxes, hysteria, or misidentified natural or man-made objects, much to the chagrin of the UFO community. While many dismiss such explanations as simplistic attempts to skirt the issue or, worse, a carefully contrived and orchestrated effort at debunking the entire phenomena, the fact is that many, if not most, UFOs can usually be explained away. As such, it’s important we examine each of the many explanations offered, if only in an effort to better appreciate the difficulties investigators frequently face when looking at the phenomena from a scientific perspective, compelling me to create my list—in no particular order—of the top ten alternative explanations usually given to explain UFOs.
10. The Planet Venus
It’s no coincidence that UFO reports go up sharply whenever Venus makes an especially bright appearance in the night sky, so this explanation is not as far-fetched as it seems. Under the proper conditions, Venus can be among the brightest objects in the sky—particularly on a moonless night—and has even been known to be visible in the daytime under the proper conditions, making it a frequent explanation for many a mysterious “bright light in the sky.” For those already predisposed towards accepting any unusual light in the sky as a potential close encounter, Venus makes an excellent candidate for being a UFO—especially when it is seen low on the horizon from a moving automobile (when it can appear to be “chasing them”), or on a partly cloudy night when it will seem to abruptly appear and disappear as fast-moving clouds obscure it from view. Additionally, it can be extremely difficult to convince people that the bright light in the sky they saw was merely sunlight reflecting off a nearby planet, largely because of the natural human reluctance to admit error as well as the trauma such an experience can sometimes induce.
9. Meteors, Comets, and Fireballs
This is a less common explanation, since most people are familiar with meteors (or “shooting stars” as they are commonly called) and so are unlikely to mistake one for a UFO. Comets are even less likely to be mistaken for a UFO, especially since they remain fixed in the sky, can be seen for weeks at a time, and are usually not particularly bright in the first place. A fireball, however—basically a large, brightly lit meteor observed at close range—is a better candidate, as they can be very bright, last several seconds, appear to split into smaller pieces, and even abruptly disappear from sight as if “zooming away at great speed” as many UFO witnesses describe. When seen head-on, a fireball can be particularly impressive, as it would appear to be an extremely bright and slow-moving object that suddenly vanishes from view, much like a UFO frequently does. Such astronomical phenomena are not, however, adequate explanations for an object that makes abrupt course changes in mid-flight, changes color (or shows multiple colors) or that lasts more than a few seconds, and as such they probably constitute only a very tiny fraction of all UFO reports.
8. Lenticular Clouds
Technically known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, lenticular clouds are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally where stable moist air flows over a mountain or a range of mountains. Normally these air currents form long strings of clouds known as a wave cloud, but sometimes, under the right conditions of wind and thermal currents, they can take on a roundish or oval shape that can be extraordinarily unnatural and even “saucer-like” in appearance, which in turn can be confused for an extremely large disk by people unfamiliar with such meteorological phenomenon. Only those entirely unfamiliar with this phenomenon are likely to be fooled by a lenticular cloud, however, especially once they observe one for a while and realize it is not moving or that it doesn’t appear to be mechanical in nature. Still, for the unaware, it can be a strange sight and one that might be easily confused for something otherworldly.
7. Ball Lightning
Among the more unusual and lesser understood electrical curiosities known to science is something called “ball lighting”, a phenomenon that has only been identified within the last fifty years or so. Basically, ball lightning is a sphere of static electricity that has the ability to glow intensely for several minutes at a time and, when seen in broad daylight, can even take on a fluid silvery-like sheen that can be easily mistaken for metal, giving them a “disk-like” appearance. Additionally, though usually seen to move randomly, sometimes the discharge is described as being attracted to a certain object—normally an aircraft—giving these orbs the appearance of “following” a plane and even matching it in terms of speed and maneuvers, thereby giving it the impression of being under intelligent control. Commonly described as spherical, ovoid, teardrop, or rod-like in shape, and with colors that vary from red to yellow (though other colors have been observed) it’s not difficult to see how they could easily be mistaken for an unnatural object, especially after it disperses, is absorbed into something, or—though rarely—vanishes in an explosion. As such, ball lightning appears to be a perfectly adequate explanation for some of the more erratic lights seen in the sky—particularly those observed from aircraft.
6. Weather Balloons
Though frequently lampooned as the most simplistic of explanations for UFOs, the fact is that helium filled weather balloons make excellent UFOs, especially when seen from below when their spherical shape can appear disk-like. Further, these balloons can be quite large, are often coated in a highly reflective material (giving them a polished or shiny appearance), and can fly at altitudes as high as 120,000 feet where winds aloft can sometimes push them along at hundreds of knots, giving them the illusion of moving at high speeds. Furthermore, when seen moving through a partly cloudy sky when winds can blow in different directions at different altitudes, sometimes pushing clouds in one direction and a balloon in the opposite, the illusion of high speed is enhanced.
5. Satellites
As the demand for improved communications, weather forecasting and aerial surveillance grows, the orbital lanes around our planet are growing increasingly cluttered with a wide array of fast moving and highly reflective satellites of all sizes and configurations. To give you some idea of how cluttered our skies are getting, the United States Space Surveillance Network (SSN) currently tracks more than 8,000 man-made objects orbiting the planet, of which about seven percent (approximately 560) are operational satellites. Often trapped in their orbits for years at a time, these silent sentinels of the skies can usually be picked out by anyone with a pair of binoculars and some patience, so they are not an uncommon sight. However, as they can often appear to pulsate in intensity (a natural illusion created by atmospheric inversion layers) and even “wink out” when their angle to the sun changes, they doubtlessly account for at least some of the many thousands of UFO sightings made over the years.
4. Flares
Military aircraft often drop flares while conducting night training operations (or, in combat areas, as a means of diverting heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles). These flares, unlike the tiny ones used to mark highway obstacles or for emergency use, are quite large and will burn brightly for up to a half an hour at a time and, when suspended from parachutes, can remain airborne for some time. As such, if dropped in a cluster, they can take on a beaded necklace effect that gives them the impression of either aircraft hovering in formation or, if close enough together, can even appear to be a string of running lights or “portholes”. To a public generally unfamiliar with such ordnance and its characteristics, the effect can be spectacular and even frightening, making flares an especially good candidate to be mistaken for a UFO. This, in fact, may be the explanation behind the mysterious lights that were seen hanging over Phoenix, Arizona in 1997 (which does, in fact, lie near a military training ground where evening bombing exercises are frequently held.)
3. Birds, Lens Flare, Reflections, and Other Abnormalities
Few people can accept the possibility that something as seemingly commonplace as a bird could be mistaken for a UFO, but it must be realized that under certain circumstances—for example, when flying at very high altitudes (some birds have been spotted flying as high as 40,000 feet or more)—birds can be highly reflective and, when wet, even appear to glisten like metal, giving them an “artificial” or metallic appearance. Additionally, bits of tin foil or panels of corrugated metal driven skyward by high winds and strong updrafts, falling chunks of ice broken off from a high altitude airliner, and other bits of aerial flotsam can also take on a silvery sheen and appear quite luminescent, making them occasional candidates for flying disks. Even cockpit lights reflecting off a canopy have been misidentified as high-speed UFOs (especially in the early years of UFO pursuits).
2. Aircraft
While it is difficult to imagine that anyone could mistake a modern airliner or military jet for an extraterrestrial vehicle, there are circumstances when an aircraft can appear quite unusual, particularly to a highly excitable observer. For example, anyone who has ever seen a jet’s landing lights diffused by thick fog (or suddenly turned off during a steep ascent, making the aircraft appear to abruptly vanish) could easily imagine they are witnessing something otherworldly. Additionally, an aircraft flying through thick clouds on a dark and windy night (when the sound of engines is often masked) could easily appear as a mysterious, bright object winking on and off and changing brightness as it moves silently through the darkness. It can be problematic to identify a mysterious object in the sky as an aircraft during the daytime as well. For example, the brushed aluminum fuselage and wings of an aircraft can give off an eerie sheen at high altitudes on a bright and sunny day. This characteristic, when combined with the fact that most aircraft’s navigation lights are invisible in daytime and engine noise is often indiscernible from that height, can make it appear to be a mysterious, silvery object moving swiftly across the sky. Also, if seen straight on, an aircraft can appear to be hanging motionless, at least until it makes a sudden turn, thereby mimicking the sudden stops and start movement often associated with UFOs and further enhancing its otherworldly effect.
While a fixed wing aircraft are less likely to be misinterpreted as a UFO by a growingly savvy flying public today, they were undoubtedly the cause of many early UFO reports when aircraft were less common and, as such, more “unusual”. Blimps, helicopters, and VTOL aircraft (fixed wing planes capable of hovering) are also frequently mistaken as UFOs due to their unconventional flight characteristics—in particular their ability to hover and then suddenly fly away. Normally, one has only to watch these vehicles for a few minutes to ascertain their true identity but the highly excitable witness may never take those few minutes before deciding they are seeing an alien spacecraft.
1. Experimental Military Aircraft
If regular aircraft can be a source for confusion, it makes sense that unusual looking experimental aircraft should be even more prone to being misidentified as a UFO, especially considering the vast array of often unusual or, at very least, unconventional designs being introduced. In fact, this hypothesis was very popular during the early years of ufology, when it was widely assumed—even by our own government—that the strange vehicles seen in the skies were either test-flights of captured Nazi aircraft or new and exotic Soviet vehicles capable of penetrating our airspace with impunity. In fact, the Air Force’s first official attempt to investigate UFOs—Project Sign—worked from the premise that UFOs were such weapons, thus necessitating both the urgency and the secrecy under which Sign operated.
However, considering how rare such craft are, the fact that they are usually flown only over restricted areas well away from public viewing, and that their flight characteristics are not usually all that far removed from traditional aircraft, it’s difficult to see how these would account for more than a tiny percentage of all reports. As such, it’s a near certainty that the unusual craft you see doing right angle turns, darting at incredible speeds across the sky, and changing color and intensity is not one of ours (or anyone else’s, for that matter).
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Jeff Danelek is a Denver, Colorado author who writes on many subjects having to do with history, politics, the paranormal, spirituality and religion. To see more of his stuff, visit his website at www.ourcuriousworld.com.
30 Comments
This is nonsense, I’m an alien and I’ve been to Earth many times
You people all need to wake up and do some research. Explain to me the mysteries and lost pieces of our past. Explain all the mention of extraterrestrial visitation in both word and paint. DO. SOME. WORK.
I have heard of every one of these…except lenticular clouds…that’s a new one!
Lenticular clouds are fairly common over mountains. Mt. Whitney often has lenticular formations, check Google images. But what I saw was no cloud, that’s for sure!
God said dont look to the skys for answers u wont find any answers there. The devil is the master of deception and has many workers and many that dont even relise. No ones better at makin things up then him, like evolution, theres no proof to this..
please don’t bring religion into this…
the devils is an explanation, he know how to fool us and will put manifestations of strange objects for us to b amazed by. this is one way he gets people to take there eyes of god. there is a hell and he willl try to take as many people down with him as poss. people whove came out of dark secret societys will tell u this. and god is not a religion he is a faith . religion is about money, anything not to do with god is religion.
where in the bible did god “say” not to look to the sky for answers. These are still your religious values whether u label it as faith or religion makes no difference.
Satan is described in the Bible as “The God of this system of things”, as such it’s important to recognize that the vast majority of mankind are being misled in one way or another away from the simple basic truths found in the True God Jehovah’s instruction manual for mankind, The Holy Bible. When turning to the true God for guidance one must sift through and discard all the pagan philosophies, traditions and customs adopted by Christendom from the ancients . The only group that has seriously attempted to cleans itself of such corruption despite enormous amounts of ignorant criticism are the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who by the way have published many realistic articles UFO’s, giving very effective explanations. Look one up and ask for a print out and you will be sure to find answers that make sense. And that goes for just about any subject. “Taste and see that Jehovah is good”. Psalms 34:8
You forgot “Aliens”
i was hoping #1 would be aliens
To those who think this article will burst a UFO believer’s bubble, I think you missed the final sentence which says that if you see something making crazy maneuvers in the sky, it’s likely NOT a man-made aircraft.
This is just my personal opinion..
As I understand it, UFO means Unidentified Flying Object. So whenever we see something that flies and we are not sure what it is, then it's definitely a UFO (because it's unidentified). If, for instance, someone threw a shiny ball and from a distance you saw the ball flying and because you are not sure what it is, then again it's a UFO. But if someone else sees it and recognized it as a ball, then it's not a UFO for that person. Just my opinion.. 🙂
People shouldn't trust all mainstream information around them, for all you know, this was probably some mass issued article demanded by the conspirators. That might sound stupid in your mind, but this is happening in all aspects of media and life around you, it is all controlled for a reason.
Having mass disclosure about extraterrestrial life visiting our planet currently, is going to lead to a lost of credibility from the government who is trying to create a N.W.O, and loss of credibility from most religious claims, which is also a means of control the government truly benefit from.
Whether its the Illuminati, the skulls or just some secret society well hidden, they understand that knowledge is power, and the easiest way to have the knowledge is by making sure the 'lesser ones' don't. Obviously this power does corrupt, and you wouldn't understand it unless you were truly in grasp of literally a whole planet.
When you look for information, you have to examine what they say and what means they use to prove their claims. You have to see how sincere their speech is in order to gain credibility. The way they mention all reports about U.F.O's is also followed by a ridiculing factor in their attitude which you can hear in their claim or the way they say it such as " much to the chagrin of the UFO community ". Oh and the UFO community? these claims don't particularly come from a UFO community, those are thousands of claims from regular people, that don't particularly have initial belief in this phenomenon and then a group of UFO enthusiasts use this information to spread awareness.
" The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence" this being that you haven't really seen any of the evidence or rather fall to direct claims of false sightings or misinformation. In truth, you can find the evidence everywhere. The internet has created this fluid flow of vast information coming from anybody, these gatekeepers can no longer control this flow of information, people are finding out about it everywhere now. It is becoming a mind control war, trying to keep the majority on the 'ridicule the fantasy' while others are going through a lot to let people know its out there.
There is evidence, you just have no where to look. CNN, FOX and BBC, are merely screens in front of the reality to keep your mind on their terms of thought. They will never place the ideas to give any sort of credibility to any UFO claims let alone any real evidence , which you can find for yourself all over the internet. Yes, there are false videos, claims and stories out there from people who enjoy stirring up a crowd or getting some sort of attention, but you have to learn to tell the difference between the true and false. Not surprisingly, the most solid and backed up evidence is that which has least views and awareness, such as hundreds of videos all over Youtube.
My point is just that you should keep awareness and understand that what you see and read is not always there to properly inform you, but a lot of times to properly control you.
Brilliant post people need to start wakin up. Take care my brother
it’s much easier to believe in aliens from outer space than to recognize one’s own mental illness…………wish you and the rest of the “true believers” well, you may even find the right medication to make it all better.
You’ve really been productive and helpful with your comment, thanks for trolling.
To live in a silly fantasy world of conspiracy IS a mental illness. You should take my advice and seek help. My comment is not trolling but a verbal smack in the face hoping that you and other childish people like you will eventually wake up. Doubt you will but i thought it was worth a try………….
right on..if they told us all the truth do you realize what chaos that would cause..they know how the majority would behave..people are idiots not to mention it would bring on pure anarchy which is just not exceptable for the government..obviously..and then why not just let people believe in what they want no matter how obscure it is to another thats what peoples problem is always trying to prove the other wrong because its not what they believe..ridiculous
Lenticular Clouds is really cool to see
Excellent. So true.
Although it is almost certain that there must be some life form somewhere else in this universe composed of some 100 billion galaxies with billions of stars in each, it is almost certain at the same time that there wouldn't be any actual meeting of the lifeforms crossing the incredible gap of space-time between them. Dude is more than correct.
Our planet is 4.6 billion years old, the universe (as we know right now) is 14 billion years old. What makes you think that an extremely advanced society doesn’t exist, and doesn’t have the capability to find our planet? Especially with us sending out radio waves into the universe on a constant basis, we are leading them to us. To go along with that, there have been sightings since humans were around. It goes back much farther than the 1900’s, we are not alone.
This is a good way to burst the bubble for the ufologist communities. Still, i believe in aliens but we will never ever get a chance to see them.
just stand along the US-Mexican border at night and you will see plenty of aliens…………..
Wow that’s lame
Lamer. I’m not very far from the border. No aliens spotted, not even from Mexico, let alone another galaxy.
We won’t see those. Our government wouldn’t let them use the restroom facilities,anyway. Theirs can’t be shaped like ours.
Interesting article, I agree with you that experimental military aircraft should be number one because that would help explain why the military so often intervenes when a UFO is reported. I think many UFO sightings can be explained with all of the objects mentioned on the list, but I don’t think it explains all of the supposed sightings. In 1986, Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 was flying over Alaska and an unexplained object was reported on U.S. radar. Captain Kenji Terauchi reported witnessing a UFO following him. He reported the craft was twice the size of an aircraft carrier.
The term foo fighter was used by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II to describe various mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific Theater of Operations. During wartime, one could claim military research, but the reported round glowing balls and unidentified aircraft made impossible air maneuvers. Traveling at incredible speeds and then disappearing. I think many of the most believable reports have come from pilots, who can usually tell the difference between a UFO and many of the items mentioned on the list. Another interesting case is the sudden disappearance of Australian Frederick Valentich.
“There was brief silence and then Frederick Valentich spoke his last words to aircraft control, "it is hovering and it's not an aircraft.” This was followed by 17 seconds of unidentified noise, described as being "metallic, scraping sounds,” then all contact was lost.
Close encounters of the second kind are also interesting, which means the person claiming to have viewed the UFO has some physical harm. An interesting case is the 1980 Cash-Landrum Incident. There is also some information on space encounters, including the Columbia Space Shuttle STS-75 and the event surrounding the failure of the Tethered Satellite System.
Ball lighnting only discovered 50 years ago? There ared ocumented reports of such phenomena in the XVth century when the boats of Portuguese sailors "suffered" with "Saint Tiago's fire" on their boat poles'.
Other than that, i think this article should be shown to everyone who claims to haveseen an UFO.
You forgot "Insanity".