Comet and UFO??

[Scott & Lai 12]

Here's a picture of Comet 17P/Holmes, which I took with a 15 second timed exposure:

This is another 15 second exposure of the comet taken about the same time, but cropped to show something moving across the sky. It appears to be blinking once a second. There is also a pattern of four or five faint lights in between each of the bright lights. Doesn't seem to be an airplane, because they have steady lights which would appear as line, not a dot in a timed exposure, and the lights that blink on the wing tips are red and green, and I believe flash faster than once a second.

Any ideas what this might be?

[Mags 112]

It looks like a satellite in orbit to me. If you look at the night sky long enough you can track them moving at about the speed you mention and they travel in a very straight line across the sky. I've seen quite a few when I've visited Malta (fewer street lights) and I've seen some here in the USA too.

Edited November 22, 2007 by Mags

[Scott & Lai 12]

That was my thought, but do they blink once a second? And what's the pattern of lights in between the bright ones? A steady light wouldn't appear like this.

[Mags 112]

Admittedly I've never seen one blink, but there could have been atmospheric disturbances high up there that could cause it to appear as if they were doing so. Stars twinkle, but that's just our atmosphere making them appear like that too. My thought is still a satellite but I guess it could have been little green/grey men paying a visit to us for some nice pumpkin pie.

I can't explain the little lights in between, that's a mystery, even for the ultra cynical me!

Edited November 22, 2007 by Mags

[Jamie76 0]

Space junk I think. I don't think it is a satellite because you would get a steady light from them. Space junk would possibly be tumbling in orbit so it would reflect light differently.

[Mags 112]

Space junk I think. I don't think it is a satellite because you would get a steady light from them. Space junk would possibly be tumbling in orbit so it would reflect light differently.

Makes sense to me. Plus I have no pumpkin pie left for the grey/green men should they come a knockin'.

[Peikko 1,575]

Cool. I think the 'space junk' theory, though prosaic, is probably the most likely. Cool pics though

[silvanski 1]

interesting pics, and yes there's a lot of junk orbitting the earth, including a very expensive camera one astronaut let slip out of his hand

[Scott & Lai 12]

Admittedly I've never seen one blink, but there could have been atmospheric disturbances high up there that could cause it to appear as if they were doing so. Stars twinkle, but that's just our atmosphere making them appear like that too. My thought is still a satellite but I guess it could have been little green/grey men paying a visit to us for some nice pumpkin pie.

I can't explain the little lights in between, that's a mystery, even for the ultra cynical me!

I don't think it is atmospheric twinkle....that wouldn't produce an on/off each second effect, but a more continuous, varying brightness line. Plus, stars twinkle because they are so far away, while planets generally don't, except under high magnification.

Space junk I think. I don't think it is a satellite because you would get a steady light from them. Space junk would possibly be tumbling in orbit so it would reflect light differently.

Something tumbling might explain the 15 bright dots, though they are very regularly spaced, and don't appear to change shape, which might be expected if the object were showing different sides. The pattern of lights in between, though, don't fit the tumbling object theory...

[Jasman0717 9]

Hum....all I see is black on the second picture

[eric&gen 0]

Maybe some kind of new secret military aircraft?

[Scott & Lai 12]

Hum....all I see is black on the second picture

You don't see a string of 15 dots going diagonally from top left to bottom right?

[mnieto 2]

What do you guys think about this:

Chicago O’Hare Airport: United Airlines UFO

Ohare Airport UFO November 7, 2006

On November 6, 2006, pilots, mechanics and managers from United Airlines witnessed a metallic disc-shaped object hovering over the United Airlines Terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

The clearly observed object shot straight up leaving a hole through the clouds. Despite the clear aviation safety issues involved, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) never investigated the incident and dismissed it as weather.

Several people took pictures of the Chicago UFO:

Ohare Airport UFO encounter 11-07-2006

Read multiple eyewitness accounts in the Chicago Tribune UFO story. The Tribune is not a tabloid by any stretch of the imagination, so here’s a quick quote of the facts:

The sighting occurred during daylight, about 4:30 p.m., just before sunset. All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft did not display any lights.

Some said it looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds.

Witnesses shaken by UFO sighting

“I tend to be scientific by nature, and I don’t understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport,” said a United mechanic who was in the cockpit of a Boeing 777 that he was taxiing to a maintenance hangar when he observed the metallic-looking object above Gate C17.

“But I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft,” the mechanic said.

A United manager said he ran outside his office in Concourse B after hearing the report about the sighting on an internal airline radio frequency.

“I stood outside in the gate area not knowing what to think, just trying to figure out what it was,” he said. “I knew no one would make a false call like that. But if somebody was bouncing a weather balloon or something else over O’Hare, we had to stop it because it was in very close proximity to our flight operations.”

Another camera pic of the O'Hare UFO

UFO Conference at National Press Club

According to those organizing the UFO Close Encounters Conference at the National Press Club, this head-in-the-clouds refusal by the FAA to investigate stands in sharp contrast to efforts by governments of other countries to understand these incidents.

“I believe that our government should take an active role in investigating this very real phenomenon,” said Fife Symington, who was a witness to the famed ‘Phoenix Lights” incident seen by hundreds in Arizona while he was governor.

“This panel consists of some of the most qualified people in the world with direct experience in dealing with this issue, and they will bring incredible, irrefutable evidence, some never presented before, that we simply cannot dismiss or ignore,” Symington added.

The group, using previously classified documents, will discuss many well-documented cases, including two investigated by the US government.

The first involves a Peruvian Air Force pilot who fired many rounds at a UFO which was not affected. The second was an Iranian Air Force pilot’s attempt to fire at a UFO, but whose control panel became inoperable.

“This case is a classic that meets all the necessary conditions for a legitimate study of the UFO phenomenon,” stated the US Defense Intelligence Agency document on the Tehran incident. Both pilots will come forward to speak about these events publicly for the first time.

When I read this article I was actually wondering how long it would take USCIS to issue a K1 visa to one of THIS kind of beneficiary, I mean, with all these background checks, police clearances, birth certs, certified copies etc, you know...

[eric&gen 0]

Might be some illegal aliens trying to cross the Mexican border in space lol.