Chinese Scientists Try To Clarify UFO Claims

September 14th, 2009 by RK | leave a comment

UFO image from July 22 solar eclipse

www.chinadaily.com.cn reports the Chinese scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, who were confirming the were studying UFO video captured during the July 22nd 2009 solar eclipse, was an unidentified object, but ‘not a UFO’.

The bright object to the side of the sun can be seen in more than 40 minutes of video that the Chinese scientists stated they will be studying for up to the next year.

Ji Haisheng, director of Nanjing-based Purple Mountain Observatory, pronounces each word carefully to clarify that he hasn’t made any claim of seeing a UFO during the July 22 solar eclipse, which could be seen across China.

The Daily Mail, however, reported on Sept 7 that China had “confirmed (that) 40 minutes of footage of the object was captured during this summer’s solar eclipse and that research has already started on a year-long investigation to find out what it is”.

The British newspaper quoted Ji as having said: “During the July 22 total solar eclipse observation, China had discovered near the sun an unidentified object, it’s physical nature remains to be further studied.”

This leads to an interesting point concerning the definition of the term ‘UFO’. The Chinese scientists obviously do not want to associate the connotations that comes with the term ‘UFO’, but are comfortable calling it an an unidentified object.

To be clear, anytime we use the term ‘UFO’ on Whales In Space, we mean exactly that. If we know what they are, we will identify them. The term ‘UFO’ does not imply flying saucers, aliens, or little green men. The object that streaked across the Texan skies in February was a UFO. The lights seen across the United States on July 4th 2009 were UFOs. We are not saying they are extraterrestrial, they are unidentified flying objects.

Whales In Space One Year Anniversary

July 1st, 2009 by RK | leave a comment

Its been one year since WhalesInSpace.com launched in its current format and what a year in the world of weirdness it has been.

Highlights would have to be the Tom Biscardi’s RickMat Bigfoot Press Conference and when it was revealed to be a hoax. Whales In Space was able to get a reporter to the conference and cover the event as it happened. I still think there is more to this story that was never discussed, except in the private conversations between cryptozoologists and and those who pay very close attention to these things. Also the Blossom Goodchild October 14th UFO prediction stands out as one of the most interesting stories of Whales In Space’s first year.

The February 15th Texas Fireball caught on video and the amazing number of other Fireball sightings and mysterious sonic booms before and after wards also caught the worlds attention.

Also in the first year, we saw the rise of sasquatchploitation, multiple black balloon cluster UFO sightins, two Montauk Monsters and the possible return of batsquatch or at least some clarification to the story.

And still going one, with reports still coming in, the Orange Ball of Light (ORBL) sightings over the UK. If these are just chinese lanterns, I would suggest buying some stock in a chinese lantern company, because sales are up.

A big thanks to everyone who read a post, who made a comment, who sent in photos and stories and tips. A big thanks to everyone who linked to our site.

In the first year we had 200 posts exploring the weirdness of aliens, UFOs, exopolitics, cryptozoology, other paranormal fortean phenomenon, and ultraterrestrial activities. I expect the next year to bring weirder yet stories.

Fireball Over Iowa

May 6th, 2009 by RK | leave a comment

Since the Sunday February 15th fireball that was caught on video over a Texas, there have been no shortage of additional fireball sightings from across the US and around the globe. Our collection can be seen under the Texas Fireball subcategory, but includes fireball and sonic booms from both coasts and Europe.

Now this interesting post on UFO Stalker’s website from May 6th over Iowa.

A friend and I were driving down to Iowa City, Iowa. We were heading south on Interstate 380 and up in the clouds in front of us we saw a big green ball of light. It was definitely moving, and very large. It had a tail on it, much like a comet. When I first saw it, my first thought was that it looked just like a comet, but then I remembered how close it was to Earth. It only lasted about 5 seconds, and then it was completely gone. It disappeared just as fast as it showed up. I definitely got the chills after I saw it, it was very very strange

Conflicting Information On East Coast Fireballs and Booms

March 31st, 2009 by RK | leave a comment

Not an actual picture of the East coast fireballThe Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. is quick on the draw to credit Sunday March 29th’s fireball and sonic booms that were seen and heard down the East Coast to exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth. A Russian-built Soyuz rocket lifted off Thursday from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to launch a new crew and American billionaire Charles Simonyi to the International Space Station. The U.S. Naval Observatory claims they were expecting to see parts of that rocket around 8pm on Sunday (thanks for the warning).

Meanwhile, Stefan Bocchino of the USAF Joint Space Operations Center says the “bright light” seen over parts of the East Coast Sunday night was not a result of a man-made space object.

This is very similar to the February 15th Texas fireball, that was first credited to pieces of falling satellites which had collided over Siberia several days before, then quickly the story changed and a meteor was to blame.

Here are two reports that made it to www.ufostalker.com. The first fitting in perfectly with the timing and description of the March 29th East Coast Fireball.

Chesapeake, Virginia
I was not present, however my wife called to tell me about the incident. She heard a loud, rumbling boom about 9:45 PM Sunday. As it turns out, the sound was heard across several states, and several witnesses in the Hampton Roads area have come forward with their descriptions of what they encountered. It has been reported on several of the local news channels, and none of the government agencies have come forward with any information or knowledge of what it was. The meteorogical folks reported no unusual weather or meteors in the area, and NORAD nor NASA have not come forward with any knowledge of space debris coming down. It was suggested that it was the booster rockets from the Soyuz mission, but again, no confirmation from anyone who would certainly know. I hope this gives you a lead to follow up on, and I apologize for not having more info myself. I just thought you folks might find this one of some interest, especially since no government agencies are acknowledging anything.

The second note worthy because its from the area of many of Sunday nights reports and is oddly like a report from March 25th that took place in Oklahoma, both stories start with the person taking their dog out to pee and mention a video camera.

Fairfax, Virginia
I went to sleep early, and woke up a few hours later, I looled at me cell phone and if was 10:35PM. My dog needed to go out, so I put on my shoes and went with him to the garden. When I looked up I saw a small point of light that I thought was a star. The point of light flashed, and then I saw two other lights on either side of it. They began to move in the sky from left to right in triangle formation. I thought it was the underside of a plane, but there was no sound and the wingspan would have been too long for a normal plane. I watched it for a few seconds, and realised this was not a normal plane. I ran back inside and found my digital camera (Sony Cybershot)and ran back out to the garden. When I was back outside they were still there. I took a video for about a minute without using zoom on the camera. Because it was dark out, I could not see what was being captured on the camera screen very clearly. When they continued to move, I went up the stairs that lead to the balcony, and adjusted the zoom on the camera. The lights remained stationary but changing formation. After I filmed it, I went inside and woke up my grandmother. When we went back outside they were still there, and she was able to observe them for about a minute before they became too dim to see. There was no sound in the sky when I first saw them, towards the end of the video, I could hear a plane coming, and two planes flew overhead towards Dulles Airport. The lights continued to move into distance until they were no longer visible. The first half of the video the lights are almost too small to detect, they are in the centre of the screen towards the left. The yellow lights on the bottom of screen at times is a porch lamp from a neighbour’s house. The next day, I read a report that many people had seen lights in the sky over MD, DC, and VA due to space debris from a Russian Rocket that broke the earth’s atmosphere. People reported seeing fireballs, and red and green lights. The lights I saw were white, round and flew sideways and in intelligent formation. I did not see any colours or fireballs, and nothing fell to the ground. 03.29.09 Ms. L. Lyons

Texas Fireball Debris

February 16th, 2009 by RK | 2 comments - leave a comment

Debris is being found in Texas after the fireball sighting from yesterday.

While the fireball was seen yesterday at a bit before 11am in Texas, there are reports of people in Maryland, Ohio, and as far as Ashford Kent in the UK who reported seeing fireballs last night much like those seen in the Texas video. The Maryland fireball was seen around 8pm, the Ohio fireball was reported as being greenish in color and seen not far from Athens around 10pm.


This is also posted on blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy

Hi, We were a bit bored today and we have the equipment in our lab at work, so we analyzed the video and came up with the following:

1. The composition is mixed metallic based on spectral analysis of the video we snagged and converted to avi from the tv station in Austin: iron (steel), chromium, magnesium, and titanium. All 4 spectral signatures are clearly visible as “spikes” in the analysis. There are other spikes as well for various rare earth metals. You can somewhat see this yourself as the color hue changes as the object breaks up in the atmosphere. We simply put the colours through spectral analysis and compared the spikes to known metals.

We adjusted the white balance based on objects in the foreground and came up with a base level to determine composition.

2. the object is very irregularly shaped or of mixed composition. That is, it is either spinning as it falls or it is disintegrating. This is evident in the combustion bursts as the object falls.

3. The overall density is high given the short tail combustion. Lower density objects would produce a longer combustion trail.

4. The object entered the atmosphere at a high at low velocity. This is based on known density, shape, trajectory, and burn rate.

The object is almost certainly man-made and medium sized. Based on density, trajectory, and rotational analysis, the object is approximately 5-10 meters long and cylindrical or oblong in shape. It’s composition, based on spectral analysis, is consistent with current technology.

We’re 99% sure it’s an artificial object of some type – probably a satellite or small high altitude aircraft.

If we had to guess we think it could be a high altitude reconnaissance vehicle that experienced an in-flight incident and got too close to the more dense layers of the atmosphere at the wrong angle.

Cheers!

Davis

Texas Fireball Update

February 16th, 2009 by RK | 3 comments - leave a comment

The sonic booms and streaking fireball caught on tape on Sunday February 15th during a Texas marathon was not debris from last weeks US and Russian satellites collision according to US officials.

The U.S. Strategic Command said there was no connection to the sightings and the collision of satellites almost 500 miles over Siberia.

“There is no correlation between the debris from that collision and those reports of re-entry,” said Maj. Regina Winchester, with STRATCOM.

No crash site has been reported and additional information from the big news sources is pretty crappy.

blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy posts a link to a National Weather Service post that previously unreported fireballs were seen over Kentucky on Friday night, along with explosions or sonic boom type noises, much like the Texas incident on Sunday. Why the major news sources haven’t tied these together, I’m not sure.

blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy also has posts with more information on the sighting and some great links, check it out.

Looks like we have a genuine Texas sized UFO mystery on our hands.