Scientific explaination for UFO sightings?
April 3, 2006 12:14 PM Subscribe
Scientific explanation for UFO sightings?
My bf claims that in an Algonquin park visit a few years back he saw something strange while star-gazing. It was a clear night so the sky was FULL of stars.
He noticed two light dots moving parallel with one another, going in one direction, then it stopped, and reversed directions and kept moving. They weren't blinking, so it wasn't a private aircraft, and really, the only kind of aircraft that would move like that is a helicopter, and they blink.
He's generally quite logical and not a conspiracy theorist of any sort (ok, he actually believes in the 911 conspiracy, but that's another story), so taking into the fact that they weren't taking any drugs of any sort, what are some explainations for the weird phenomenon?
My bf claims that in an Algonquin park visit a few years back he saw something strange while star-gazing. It was a clear night so the sky was FULL of stars.
He noticed two light dots moving parallel with one another, going in one direction, then it stopped, and reversed directions and kept moving. They weren't blinking, so it wasn't a private aircraft, and really, the only kind of aircraft that would move like that is a helicopter, and they blink.
He's generally quite logical and not a conspiracy theorist of any sort (ok, he actually believes in the 911 conspiracy, but that's another story), so taking into the fact that they weren't taking any drugs of any sort, what are some explainations for the weird phenomenon?
that one's kind of a dumb idea I guess, but the others are pretty good
posted by poppo at 12:35 PM on April 3, 2006
One time I was out camping with some buddies of mine in a rural stretch of mountain wilderness. As night fell we went out on a rocky outcropping in the dark, clear night to star gaze and partake of experience enhancing substances.
As we lay quietly in the still, dark starry night, suddenly there was a pair of lights in front of us, unblinking, and coming for us at a massive rate of speed. One of my buddies yelled out, "it's a fucking UFO!" as we scrambled for cover.
Just as the lights reached us, so did the screech of the afterburners as the fighter jets banked steeply to drop into the canyon below us. We returned to our tents to change our pants.
Perspective sucks.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:02 PM on April 3, 2006
As we lay quietly in the still, dark starry night, suddenly there was a pair of lights in front of us, unblinking, and coming for us at a massive rate of speed. One of my buddies yelled out, "it's a fucking UFO!" as we scrambled for cover.
Just as the lights reached us, so did the screech of the afterburners as the fighter jets banked steeply to drop into the canyon below us. We returned to our tents to change our pants.
Perspective sucks.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:02 PM on April 3, 2006
Best answer: The "doubling" could be a function of even very mild astigmatism, i.e., his eyes were focuses on slightly different points, which made the single light source appear to be two.
The odd motion might be explained by cloud movement. Even on a clear night, there are sometimes very small patches of cloud, and if such a cloud were moving, that relative motion would give the illusion that the light source was moving.
A broader way to look at this question would be to ask why a craft built for interplanetary travel should behave so little like our own spaceships, that is, in apparent defiance of Newton's Laws of Motion. If a flying saucer suddenly stopped and then zoomed back along its path, the little green men inside would be thrown violently around the cabin. Even if they were wearing seatbelts, it would be a rough and uncomfortable ride. It would be more logical for an airship or spaceship to incribe a curve when changing direction.
posted by La Cieca at 1:09 PM on April 3, 2006
The odd motion might be explained by cloud movement. Even on a clear night, there are sometimes very small patches of cloud, and if such a cloud were moving, that relative motion would give the illusion that the light source was moving.
A broader way to look at this question would be to ask why a craft built for interplanetary travel should behave so little like our own spaceships, that is, in apparent defiance of Newton's Laws of Motion. If a flying saucer suddenly stopped and then zoomed back along its path, the little green men inside would be thrown violently around the cabin. Even if they were wearing seatbelts, it would be a rough and uncomfortable ride. It would be more logical for an airship or spaceship to incribe a curve when changing direction.
posted by La Cieca at 1:09 PM on April 3, 2006
Response by poster: Well, all his buddies saw it, so it can't be astigmatism. But I'll bring up the other stuff and see what he thinks.
Being not an UFO-nut myself, I was always struck by the unimaginative descriptions of alien sightings.
posted by Sallysings at 1:28 PM on April 3, 2006
Being not an UFO-nut myself, I was always struck by the unimaginative descriptions of alien sightings.
posted by Sallysings at 1:28 PM on April 3, 2006
I don't know off the top of my head what what do this fast enough to be noticed in one night, but there's in such a thing as retrograde motion which used to confuse the hell out of people when they thought the earth was at the centre of everything else's orbits.
posted by tiamat at 1:35 PM on April 3, 2006
posted by tiamat at 1:35 PM on April 3, 2006
I too have seen much the same thing.
I was walking through Arnos Grove in N. London with my friend when we both noticed two lights moving in the night sky. There appeared to be some correlation between the two lights, moving in parallel quite slowly, but they seemed to be coming from two seperate sources. It almost definitely couldn't have been a helicopter or a plane because there was absolutely no sound, especially as they seemed to be reasonably low. My parents live almost directly under the flight path of Manchester Airport and I've never experienced anything like it in my time living with them.
Neither of us could explain it.
As an aside, my mum claims to have seen a triangular craft flying alongside the plane when flying from the US to the UK.
posted by iamcrispy at 1:46 PM on April 3, 2006
I was walking through Arnos Grove in N. London with my friend when we both noticed two lights moving in the night sky. There appeared to be some correlation between the two lights, moving in parallel quite slowly, but they seemed to be coming from two seperate sources. It almost definitely couldn't have been a helicopter or a plane because there was absolutely no sound, especially as they seemed to be reasonably low. My parents live almost directly under the flight path of Manchester Airport and I've never experienced anything like it in my time living with them.
Neither of us could explain it.
As an aside, my mum claims to have seen a triangular craft flying alongside the plane when flying from the US to the UK.
posted by iamcrispy at 1:46 PM on April 3, 2006
Private aircraft will have a blinking red light on the end of the left wing and a blinking green light on the right wing. They also have a white light on the tail. Depending on which direction the plane is moving you might not see all of them.
They also have lights they use when landing, which are similar to car headlights.
As someone else mentioned, a plane making a turn, if seen from a certain angle, could look as if the lights were reversing direction.
posted by bondcliff at 1:49 PM on April 3, 2006
They also have lights they use when landing, which are similar to car headlights.
As someone else mentioned, a plane making a turn, if seen from a certain angle, could look as if the lights were reversing direction.
posted by bondcliff at 1:49 PM on April 3, 2006
Given their description, they could very easily have been two sparks from a campfire that had risien to about 30 feet above the ground. Distance vision with no reference points can play very funky tricks on you.
posted by tkolar at 2:07 PM on April 3, 2006
posted by tkolar at 2:07 PM on April 3, 2006
They weren't blinking ... the only kind of aircraft that would move like that is a helicopter, and they blink.
Don't get trapped in concrete thinking -- that all the things you think you know work the same way everywhere.
So, don't discount the obvious, simple suggestion -- that not all helicopters/planes operate the way he/you think they do.
I see plenty of helicopters with non-blinking lights -- searchlights. I see plenty of planes with both blinking and non-blinking lights. No big deal.
posted by frogan at 2:17 PM on April 3, 2006
Don't get trapped in concrete thinking -- that all the things you think you know work the same way everywhere.
So, don't discount the obvious, simple suggestion -- that not all helicopters/planes operate the way he/you think they do.
I see plenty of helicopters with non-blinking lights -- searchlights. I see plenty of planes with both blinking and non-blinking lights. No big deal.
posted by frogan at 2:17 PM on April 3, 2006
Arthur C Clarke once observed something similar to this. It turned out to be a really large box kite.
posted by SPrintF at 7:30 PM on April 3, 2006
posted by SPrintF at 7:30 PM on April 3, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
of course if he's really convinced he's not going to accept any of these.
posted by poppo at 12:34 PM on April 3, 2006