Page 40 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

40 10 Mistaken Objects Mistaken For UFOs

10 Flying Objects People

Have Mistaken For Alien

Spaceships

www.businessinsider.com

It's a familiar and intriguing story: A strange
craft appears in the sky, performs seemingly
otherworldly aerobatics, baffles onlookers, and
then is gone as quickly as it appeared, leaving us
to question our eyesight and sanity.
But the reality is, many foreign things
seen in the sky — also known as unidentified
flying objects, or UFOs — are revealed to be
anything but extra-terrestrial. Most of these
sightings turn out to be experimental planes,
atmospheric phenomena, or merely everyday
objects that slip from our hands and head
skyward.
By definition, UFOs are enigmatic,
which is why people love to speculate about lightning strikes we're used to, ball lightning is
what strange sights in the sky could be. But just caused by electrical discharges during
thunderstorms.
because an airborne object's origin is mysterious
But unlike conventional lightning, ball
does not mean that it comes from another planet.
lightning comes in the form of a fireball that can
An airliner that doesn't announce itself to a
bounce around chaotically, hover in place, and
control tower qualifies as a UFO, for example.
even travel through walls. The causes and
Here are 10 "UFOs" that turned out to be
mechanisms behind ball lightning have long
very much from this world.
eluded scientists, though reports of it have
popped up for centuries.
The Lockheed F-117 was created in
However, scientists have recently started
secrecy.
Similar to the F-117, the B-2 "Spirit" bomber — to note the similarities between the structure of
commonly referred to as the "stealth bomber" — ball lightning and a bizarre quantum structure
was also designed around evading detection. known as a "Shankar skyrmion."
The B-2 is essentially designed as one, The idea — which was first proposed in
smooth, uninterrupted wing — its shape is a 1996 paper in Nature— is that ball lightning
known as a "flying wing." The plane doesn't lasts so long because it involves a kind of
have any reflection-prone tails or fins, which electromagnetic knot. This type of knot is also
make typical aircraft easy to spot with radar. seen in a Shankar skyrmion: a quantum structure
Given the B-2's smooth, uniform shape, that was first theorized in 1977 and created in a
it's easy to see why people on the ground could lab for the first time earlier this year.
think this hulking black triangle is from another
world. A failed missile test in Norway was
Plus, flying-wing aircraft were first thought by many people to be a UFO.
The first operational aircraft built around stealth
conceptualized (but not utilized) in Nazi
technology, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk
Germany at the end of World War II, so the
doesn't look conventional, and for good reason.
design is sometimes associated with evil
The F-117's design is characterized by sharp
scientists and other sci-fi antagonists.
angles and a low aspect ratio (small wings in
relation to the plane's body). This strange shape
Ball lightning is a natural
allowed the craft to deflect and absorb radar
phenomenon, but it has left many
signals, essentially becoming invisible to the
witnesses confused.
high-tech systems used to detect enemy aircraft.
Because the F-117 was meant to fly
undetected, its development was cloaked in
secrecy. So after one of the aircraft crashed in a
remote, mountainous area outside of
Bakersfield, California in 1986, the Air Force A large spiral appeared in the winter sky in
closed the crash site and surrounding airspace to Norway in December 2009. Blue-green plasma
the press and public. They deemed it a "national appeared to shoot from its center.
security area," according to the Los Angeles The source of this awe-inspiring display
Times. was a failed experimental Russian space launch.
This led to public speculation about what A Bulava missile, an intercontinental weapons
the government was hiding, eventually forcing system designed to deliver atomic bombs,
the Air Force to go public in 1988 about its long- malfunctioned shortly after liftoff. The missile
rumored but never confirmed F-117, according Natural phenomena on Earth sometimes create launched from a submarine in the Arctic White
to the New York Times. sights and sounds that get misinterpreted as Sea, but a glitch caused the missile's rocket
proof of visitors from beyond our planet. motor to lose control, creating the dramatic
The Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber's Mysterious ball lightning sightings are a spiral design seen across the Nordic sky.
fascinating example. Ball lightning is the name
sleek design has led people to question
for a localized but intense explosion of energy. (Continued on Page 41)
its origins.
Like the long-fingered, ground-punching