These mysterious UFOs

From time to time, newspapers and magazines publish reports that so-called unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have been found in an area. Often people try to explain these phenomena by the intervention of unknown "aliens from space", believing that the atmosphere is well studied and cannot present any surprises. In fact, there are still many "white spots" in the air ocean: after all, a person is just beginning to learn complex system called the atmosphere. In any case, some UFOs may well be classified as unexplored natural processes occurring in the atmosphere.

For example, at the boundary of two air masses with different temperatures, densities, and amounts of impurities, an air volume is sometimes formed in the form of a biconvex lens. sharply different in physical properties from neighboring layers of air, it can reflect light at any one angle. In this case, the observer will see a "flying saucer made of silvery metal."

If there are several such intermediate volumes of air, then over time one of them may disappear from the field of view, being at an unfavorable angle, and instead of it, at some distance from the first, another "flying object" will appear. Thus, it seems that the "plate" is moving, and at a high speed.

References to the fact that the weather at the time of the appearance of the UFO was quite ordinary are unconvincing. Strictly speaking, "ordinary weather" does not exist, and in any weather there is a place for an amazing phenomenon. Of course, this does not mean that all UFOs are volumes of air that reflect light in an unusual way, or clouds of bizarre shapes. But, perhaps, sometimes it is worth thinking and finding the natural cause of a mysterious phenomenon.

WHAT IS A UFO?

We list the main phenomena that cause reports of UFOs. They can be divided into three classes: astronomical, atmospheric and technogenic.

astronomical phenomena. The Moon and Venus are often the "culprits" of reports of UFOs. Of course, on a clear night it is difficult to confuse the Moon hanging high in the sky with anything, but there are circumstances that make it difficult to identify it.

Very often this is cloud cover that hides the stars, but usually cannot completely outshine the Moon. A particularly strong "UFO effect" occurs when clouds run across the sky: there is an illusion that the Moon is moving in the opposite direction, suddenly disappearing and appearing in gaps between dense clouds. In addition, translucent clouds distort it beyond recognition.

When driving fast at night, a person has the impression that this luminous object is chasing him. A particularly strong effect occurs when he sees not the Moon itself, but a glare from it in the window of a car, train or plane: its shape is often bizarre, and its movement is very strange, because it reacts to the slightest changes in course.

The moon can be seen quite well during the day, but many do not suspect it. Accidentally seeing the "night luminary" in the daytime, some people are lost and do not recognize the moon.

At the horizon, the Moon, as you know, seems much larger than when it is high in the sky. Here, the physiological feature of vision misleads people. As a result of all the effects described above, the Moon is very often mistaken for a UFO.

Much of what has been said about the Moon applies to Venus, which is also often mistaken for a UFO. As a rule, this happens during the evening visibility of Venus. Not everyone knows that the "morning star" - Venus - is very bright in the evenings. In the middle latitudes, it is especially clearly visible in the spring, when twilight sets in relatively early and Venus remains above the horizon for a long time after sunset. Closer to the equator, its visibility practically does not depend on the time of year.

The book by D. Goldsmith and T. Owen "The Search for Life in the Universe" describes a curious incident that happened in 1967 in the town of Milledgeville (Georgia, USA). In the early hours of the morning, the policeman saw in the east near the horizon "a bright red luminous object, similar in shape to a soccer ball", and pursued it with his partner in a patrol car for 12 km. Gradually, the object rose higher, changed its color from bright red to orange, and then to white, and began to resemble a star. According to police, the object was so bright that in its light they could see the hands of their watches.

The Milledgeville police report sparked interest in UFOs throughout the state, and in the following days, similar reports came from many places. The police were assisted in their "hunt" for UFOs by a plane from which, next to a bright object, they noticed another, less bright one. When the plane pursued them in an easterly direction, both objects moved away and moved upward.

As it turned out, the bright object was Venus during the morning visibility period. And "accompanied" her Jupiter.

The luminaries can also take very unusual shapes. The culprit of these surprises is, as a rule, atmospheric refraction - the refraction and curvature of light rays. The sun, for example, near the horizon may take the form of an ellipse, a bag, a trapezoid with rounded edges, a segment, and the like.

o Comets are also often mistaken for UFOs.

atmospheric phenomena.

There are several types of physical objects that are certainly "involved" in UFO stories.

Sometimes observers manage to see clouds of exotic lenticular or elliptical shapes, which are mistaken for classic "flying saucers". A similar formation was observed, for example, in February 1977 in Yalta. Such clouds can be very bright, reflecting light. A long ice plume formed by water droplets can stretch behind the cloud. Sometimes it's one cloud at a time clear sky, but there may also be chains of "squadrons" of clouds. An interesting feature lenticular clouds is their immobility even in strong winds. Despite the apparent mystery, such objects are known to meteorologists, and in German literature they were called "torpedo clouds". Often they really resemble a streamlined projectile, the body of a dolphin, and sometimes they look like a shuttle or a spindle ...

And that's how they come about. The flow of air flowing around obstacles on the surface of the earth forms air waves. As a rule, they arise from the lee side of mountain ranges or behind individual peaks. Usually the length of these air waves is 4-19 kilometers. On the crests of waves, at heights of 2-6 kilometers, moisture condenses in the rising air and a cloud forms. Since the process of cloud formation is continuous due to the simultaneous evaporation of moisture on one side and replenishment of condensate on the other, lenticular clouds do not change their position in space, but "stand" in the sky, as if glued.

o Bright meteors and fireballs have also long been surprising and become sources of myths and legends. The fireball can be seen even during the day, and after it flies, a smoky plume can be observed for a long time. It happens that the flight of a space "guest" does not end on Earth - it can fly back into space, as it was on August 10, 1972 over the state of Wyoming (USA). Some "extra-terrestrial" materials that are sometimes found are also associated with meteorite impacts.

o Halo - faintly luminous circles, arcs, spots, pillars, crosses, ribbons near or around bright heavenly bodies and terrestrial light sources can also be mistaken for UFOs. The reason for the appearance of this phenomenon is associated with the refraction and reflection of light rays by ice crystals in the air. Due to the dispersion of the light, the halos are always slightly colored in iridescent tones. Rare types of halos are still quite often taken by UFO observers.

o Another phenomenon worthy of attention is false suns. Sometimes in calm weather at sunset or at sunrise, one can notice pillars of light on both sides of the Sun, as if rising to the sky from under the Earth. These are rays reflected from vertically arranged ice crystals, from which slowly descending cirrus clouds are formed. Separate sections of the pillars are sometimes so bright that they also create false suns.

o St. Elmo's Fire (the name comes from the occasional glow over the medieval towers of St. Elmo during thunderstorms). These lights are the glow of a static charge at the ends of pointed high objects with a high electric field strength in the atmosphere.

In addition, sources of UFO reports are:

o Polar Lights.

fireball

o Ball lightning, which is a brightly glowing electrical discharge. Its nature is currently not well understood. It can make quiet buzzing, whistling, hissing sounds. Disappears silently or with a loud crackle, emitting sparkling sparks. After the disappearance of ball lightning, a sharp-smelling haze often remains.

o Vertical pillars of light from ground sources. In severe frosts, the light of a bright street lamp or spotlight gives an interesting effect. A clearly visible luminous pillar, reaching very high into the sky. Several nearby lanterns appear from afar as a kind of curtain or wall of light. It looks like a calm northern lights, which is also sometimes observed.

o Brocken ghost. If you climb to the top of a mountain in the evening or in the morning, when the Sun is low above the horizon, then under favorable conditions you can see your shadow on a nearby cloud or layer of fog. This optical phenomenon, available for observation not only in the mountains, but also from an airplane, is called the Brocken ghost (the name is given in honor of the Brocken mountain peak in the Harz mountains in Germany).

Mount Brocken

o The bizarre shadow of the plane on the clouds can be mistaken for a cigar-shaped UFO (in this perspective, the shadow will not have wings).

mirage

Birds and other flying animals. The most common birds can be the source of reports of UFO sightings. The most interesting effects can occur when rays are reflected from the plumage of birds. Unexpected effects can also occur at night, when street lights reflect off the breasts of low-flying birds. In addition, flocks of birds are the cause of unidentified markings on radar screens.

o Luminous organisms. In some living organisms (bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, fish), the phenomenon of bioluminescence is known - a glow due to the enzymatic oxidation of special substances (in a significant number of species - luciferins). This kind of chemiluminescence can be the cause of false UFO sightings.

A number of luminous insects live on the territory of our country. The most interesting are subtropical fireflies (Lampyris), found on the Black Sea coast. The observation of a firefly flying along an intricate trajectory and, moreover, "flashing" with an interval of half a second, leaves an indelible impression.

Birds carrying glowworms or moths in their beaks can easily be mistaken for flying saucers. Fish or flies are infected with luminous bacteria and glow brightly in the dark. Naturally, they attract the attention of birds, and some UFOs are undoubtedly of this nature.

The glow of the sea in the form of stripes and spots can be caused by luminous planktonic organisms.

o For more than a decade, pilots have regularly reported that a strange colorful glow can be seen high above thunderclouds. What is it: UFO or equally mysterious fireballs? And, in general, can eyewitnesses be trusted? After all, so far there has been no reliable evidence: no figures, no photographs.

Finally last summer, geophysicists David Sentman and Eugene Wescott (both from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska) managed to put an end to all speculation on this topic. For 12 nights, they and their assistants climbed on two NASA research aircraft equipped with highly sensitive video cameras, radio detectors and satellite navigation devices. They took off from Oklahoma City and headed to where the most severe thunderstorm raged in the Midwest - there, in the stratosphere, above the clouds at an altitude of 20 km, scientists, in fact, registered some kind of mysterious flashes. However, they needed to be patient - such a radiance accompanied only every hundredth lightning.

However, the game was worth the candle: Sentman and Wescott were in the very midst of these visions. “They looked like some kind of red ghosts, with hair standing on end, with purple-blue tentacles stretching down,” the researchers recalled. ". The instruments on both planes, flying at a distance of several kilometers from each other, made it possible to accurately calculate the world of colorful phantoms: in a few thousandths of a second, a glow with a power of about 1 megawatt fills a volume of more than a thousand cubic kilometers.

But the true physical nature of this phenomenon is still a mystery. It is not clear, for example, whether this is electrical discharges, as in the case of ordinary lightning, or not? It is curious that all these outbreaks are not accompanied by thunder. And finally, will these "red ghosts" or "blue beams" pose a danger to 21st-century jet aircraft that will have to make high-speed passenger flights high in the stratosphere?

technogenic phenomena.

These are planes and helicopters, balloons and rockets, satellites and active experiments in the atmosphere and space.

o Few people know that in many countries balloons are launched regularly, mainly to study the atmosphere. Hundreds of launches a day occur all over the planet. For the most part, they are unmanageable. Balloons, and the wind can carry them almost anywhere on Earth. So, in 1970, a record was recorded for the duration of a balloon flight: being in the air for more than four years, the device made more than 100 around the world travel at an altitude of almost 35 km.

Balloons have different diameters (from 3-4 to 100 m) and different shapes: in France, for example, easy-to-manufacture balloons with a tetrahedral shell, i.e., are often launched. regular tetrahedral pyramid. Sometimes cylindrical shells or bundles of several dozen small balls are used. The appearance of such a structure in the air can cause the most unexpected reaction from unprepared spectators. The balloons look especially impressive at dusk: brightly lit by the sun against the darkened sky, they are visible hundreds of kilometers away. Lighter-than-air vehicles with a solid lenticular shell have recently been designed. In appearance, they cannot be distinguished from a classic flying saucer. And yet, few people observe such devices of a rare form, but rocket launches are visible at a distance of 1000 or more kilometers.

The level of competence of eyewitnesses of the appearance of UFOs is easy to judge in the case of mass observation of such phenomena that occur in connection with space launches or experiments in the atmosphere. Dozens of messages came every time after experiments in the atmosphere on July 17, September 19 and October 18, 1967 at the Kapustin Yar missile range near Volgograd. At the same time, the errors of different people in determining the time reached 1 hour, and in the direction - 1/4 of the circle (instead of the east, for example, the north was indicated). When describing the "Petrozavodsk phenomenon", such errors led, in particular, to the fact that an impression was created of a multitude of objects scattered over a large area. If it is possible to restore the exact picture of the incident, experts in many cases can easily solve it.

Petrozavodsk phenomenon

o Meteorological and space experiments.

To study the upper layers earth's atmosphere meteorological rockets are periodically launched, designed to release special substances at an altitude of 150-500 km. (sometimes in several stages). The resulting artificial cloud (barium, sodium, etc.) begins to glow under the influence of solar radiation, and due to the physical processes occurring in the cloud, its color may change.

Barium vapor released from a spacecraft at a great distance from the Earth turns into a bright plasma cloud, with the help of which scientists carry out various studies, conduct optical observations, and determine the trajectory of spacecraft.

The first artificial comet was formed in 1959 during the flight of the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Luna-1.

MPS “Luna-1”

On October 9-10, 1967, the first joint Soviet-French experiment in the field of space meteorology and aeronomy took place. Employees of the Aeronomy Service of the National Center space research France and employees of the USSR Hydrometeorological Service at the Druzhnaya observatory on Heiss Island (Franz Josef Land, 80 degrees 30 minutes north latitude) launched two MP-12 meteorological rockets with containers containing a substance to create luminous sodium clouds at altitudes from 120 to 180 kilometers. Observations of artificial clouds were carried out in order to determine the temperature in upper atmosphere. (Science and Life, No. 5, 1973, p. 124).

In the early 70s, West German and American physicists, conducting joint research on electrical and magnetic field Land thrown over the territory of Colombia (very high altitude) about 15 kilograms of the smallest particles of barium, which formed a plasma cloud observed from different parts of America. Stretched out along magnetic lines the globe, barium made it possible to clarify their location.

In 1979, from aboard missiles launched from the Swedish test site in Kiruna, in space jets of barium were also ejected. Under the action of sunlight, barium was easily ionized and created a glow that can be recorded at a great distance using ultra-sensitive television installations. The barium cloud was supposed to shed light on some of the processes associated with the aurora.

On December 27, 1984, Ampte's collaborative experiment was conducted on Pacific Ocean USA, England and Germany. During the experiment, bright barium and lithium clouds appeared. "Comet" had a central core and a tail expanding at a speed of up to 800 meters per second. A few minutes after the appearance of the tail acquired irregular shape with clearly visible "density waves", extending up to tens of kilometers. These "waves" were perceived by observers as multicolored concentric arcs or circles. The entire sky fireworks took about 10 minutes.

From July 2 to July 20, 1999, NASA conducted a series of launches of geophysical rockets from the Wallops Island launch site. With the help of a two-stage Taurus-Orion rocket, at an altitude of 69 to 154 kilometers, an ejection was made chemical compound trimefullaluminum to create an artificial cloud. The created artificial clouds were visible at a great distance.

o The kite. Despite the fact that in recent times in Russia it is almost impossible to see a flying kite, we must take into account that this children's fun is a traditional entertainment in various countries of the world (for example, China and the USA).

o Illumination and flares.

o Planes and helicopters.

o Artificial Earth satellites. For several decades space age about 20 thousand artificial space objects were launched from the Earth.

Here is one of the reports of eyewitnesses of an unusual phenomenon associated with an artificial satellite: “It was on October 30, about 7 pm. and without noise. The color of the arrows is red and during the flight the arrows dimmed and lit up again. A group of arrows was 100-200 meters long, the thickness of the arrows from the ground was like a thick rope ... ". "October 30, 1963, at about 19 o'clock, when I was driving to Kyiv ... I saw some kind of foggy substance fly across the highway from the right side to the left, like a long cylinder, 5-6 times more than its width. The length of this projectile at a glance, it occupied the entire width of the track with its shoulders. The projectile had, in its width, i.e. parallel to its length, approximately 16 rows of portholes ... glowing with a pink-red-orange light ... ".

Many hundreds of such reports about the observation of some strange celestial phenomenon on October 30, 1963 were sent by witnesses to the editorial offices of newspapers, magazines, radio and television from the Baltic republics, Belarus, Ukraine, and some regions of the RSFSR. Among the drawings that the authors provided with their messages, there were images spaceships with windows, antennas, wings, stabilizers and other technical attributes. Residents of almost the entire territory of Ukraine and border areas saw a similar sky fireworks 20 years later - on December 2, 1983. And again, many of these details were repeated in the descriptions of the observers.

And no matter how strange and contradictory these reports were in assessing the color, shape, size, trajectories of the observed phenomenon, Ukrainian astronomers, having studied several hundred reports, came to an unambiguous conclusion: over the mentioned territories in the first and second cases, decay and combustion in the atmosphere of artificial satellites were observed. Earth (AES).

An equally grandiose spectacle is the observation of the launch of a launch vehicle from one of our three spaceports. First, the eyewitness sees low above the horizon (5-15 degrees) a bright luminous point, behind which a haze stretches, similar to the contrail of an aircraft. Then the trail lengthens and expands, acquiring a characteristic "fish-like" shape. At the head of this formation is constantly the same bright point, which is a torch from work rocket engines. Sometimes there is a change in the color of the torch and the appearance of jets. This suggests that the second stage of the launch vehicle has been put into operation.

In the next phase, the "fish" turns into a hemisphere (when viewed from the side) relative to the flight path. At other phases, "crosses", petals of a "flower" can be observed - all these are external manifestations of the work of groups of jet engines. Flashes, light cones, "whiskers" of luminous jets are often observed. This means that the launch vehicle has left the dense layers of the atmosphere. In the final phase, this celestial firework begins to blur and eventually disappears ... In the night sky, such a phenomenon, under certain atmospheric conditions, can be observed for 20-40 minutes at a distance of many hundreds of kilometers from the launch site.

o Effects similar to meteorites are caused by obsolete space equipment that burns up in the upper atmosphere. Modern satellites have a special backup system that ensures their liquidation: the satellite is "taken away" from orbit into near-Earth space, where then its main mass burns out. Since the beginning of the space age, more than 6 thousand man-made objects have already descended from orbit, and every day another 5-20 transitional compartments, rocket stages, hatches and other fragments are added to this figure. spacecraft. About three thousand tons of "space debris" remain in orbit - more than nine thousand objects over ten centimeters in size.

o As a result of a certain property of the camcorder's aperture, some object may appear on the film, which can be mistaken for a UFO. Erroneous perception may also be due to a photographic defect caused by aberration and internal reflection in the lens of the device. There are also cases when the lenses of the telescope (due to their features) built a bifurcated image of a bright star that was out of sight. As a result, again, an incorrect judgment about what was captured on film could be formed. Well, also, one should not forget about such common cases as film defects, from exposure, the appearance of spots due to the use of low-quality optics, and much more.

o As for the exaggerations and fantasies of eyewitnesses, this is a special problem that has been proven experimentally more than once. Various ufological organizations have repeatedly conducted UFO imitation experiments in order to study the behavior of eyewitnesses. As a result, the latter argued and proved that it was just a UFO and at the same time attributed to it such characteristics that the object used for imitation did not possess at all.

Falsifications.

AT modern world there are more and more falsifications: fake documents, photos and videos about UFOs. Phenomena perceived by eyewitnesses as the results of UFO activity are also faked. A typical example is crop circles. More than once, the authors of these "mysterious" circles themselves admitted to creating them. Moreover, most often this is done either for fun or to create a sensation, sometimes even by the reporters themselves ... The forgery of photos and video materials is generally difficult to rationally logically explain. It often happens that in the media, incl. electronic publishes exaggerated information, for example, about the expedition, and with elements of fantasy. Maybe in this way the researchers want to maintain their rating? After all, it is difficult to admit that the expedition was almost in vain ...

Under unidentified flying objects (UFOs) it is customary to understand the phenomena observed in the sky or above the earth's surface, the nature of "behavior" and appearance which do not have a generally accepted, logical explanation, i.e., cannot be compared with any astronomical, meteorological phenomenon known to science. On the other hand, there is no evidence of a hoax.

When, nevertheless, the phenomenon finds its logical explanation, the UFO automatically goes into the category of OLO (identified flying object). Often this is what happens. In percentage terms, this is only 5-10% of all reports of strange flying objects that have appeared.

To date, many initiatives have been created public organizations(in our country it is Kosmopoisk), whose task is to register and analyze UFO phenomena.

In some countries, there have been cases when UFO sightings were recorded by civil and military government agencies, including as part of secret programs (for example, the Blue Book project).

For the first time, the hypothesis of the alien origin of UFOs, publicly voiced by the current head of state, was an official address in 1979 by the President of Grenada at a session of the United Nations General Assembly. In addition, the origin of UFOs was theoretically allowed by US Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

To date, a whole program for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been created, suggesting the likelihood of detecting its activity in deep space using technical means. In our age of the development of the Internet and computer technology, there is a tendency to distribute information processing on tens of thousands of computers of ordinary users.

In the mass consciousness of ordinary inhabitants, a UFO is certainly associated with a visit to the Earth by intelligent alien beings. However, most people, including scientists, question the likelihood of such visits, being sure that UFOs are nothing more than an anomalous natural phenomenon. And yet, sometimes some of the former military, astronauts or officials, after leaving the service, publicly recognize and become adherents of the alien nature of UFOs.

UFO eyewitnesses and its declassification

A distinctive feature of most reports of UFO sightings is the lack of precise characteristics - specific dates, places and descriptions of objects. Often, when describing eyewitnesses, they proceed from their own ideas and feelings of the nature of UFOs. Ufologists, who least of all trust the testimony of single eyewitnesses that are not confirmed by other persons or photographs, are engaged in finding out extremely detailed information about a particular incident. From this point of view, the most reliable ufologists consider the testimony of either scientists or pilots.

Sometimes UFO witnesses claim that they directly contacted representatives of extraterrestrial intelligence, abducted them, or simply in the form of an exchange of thoughts. In support of their words, people showed burns, complained of nausea and headaches, some experienced depression or increased excitability, and spatial coordination was disturbed.

The first human encounter with a UFO occurred on June 24, 1947. On this day, American Kenneth Arnold saw nine saucer-like flying objects.

Access to classified materials about the "contacts" of people with alien beings in the period from 1978 to 1987. was opened by the UK government only in May 2008. They consisted exclusively of eyewitness accounts, not confirmed by any reliable facts. In addition, the most entertaining parts of these materials were classified. Later, some of them were deciphered, in particular the episode of combat contact.

Similar materials containing police reports, photographs and eyewitness accounts were published on the website of the French national space agency.

The first official publication of the 1987 UFO video in China, where scientific and military structures have been collecting and processing information for a long time, took place at the end of 2008.

In 2010, UFO-themed material was made public by Brazil and New Zealand.

In April 2011, FBI specialists declassified and published documents on the official website, according to which in 1947 in New Mexico three round objects were found, raised to the center, with a diameter of about 15.25 m. Each so-called flying saucer contained three bodies no more than 90 cm high. Some argue that this document is a fake known in wide circles.

As for our country, information of this kind was allowed to be published only after the announcement of glasnost. But even in the days of post-Soviet democracy, officials did not evaluate the numerous publications on the subject of UFOs, despite the fact that at that time the military was actively studying and collecting information on this matter.

And today there is not a single piece of evidence, confirmed by science, about the connection of alien life with UFOs.

distant contacts

They mean observations when there are tens or more kilometers between an eyewitness and a UFO.

They are divided into:

- night lights - clearly visible lights of white, orange or red colors, having clear outlines, the nature of which is unknown. This group accounts for the majority of UFO sightings;

- daytime disks - objects, as a rule, oval or disk-shaped, which can be observed during daylight hours. They appear to be made of metal. Able to develop incredible speed almost instantly. Often they are seen in a stationary hovering state near the surface of the earth or high in the sky;

- radar bursts - observed on radar screens, especially coinciding with the visual tracking of UFOs and considered extremely important evidence of the reality of the existence of these objects.

Contacts at short distances (close)

These are contacts with UFOs within a radius of no more than two hundred meters.

Distinguish:

- contacts of the first kind - when during the observation of a UFO it is in the air and, from the point of view of visual sensations, its interaction with people, animals and, in general, with environment not happening;

- contacts of the second kind - in such cases, during the interaction of extraterrestrial intelligence with the environment, there is interference with the operation of radio-electronic devices, the ignition system of cars is turned off, as well as the appearance of strange traces and unusual prints on the ground. Often such contacts are registered in the immediate vicinity of the central highways;

- contacts of the third kind - messages indicating the presence of representatives of UFOs, the so-called humanoids, i.e. humanoid creatures. As a rule, there is no direct contact or negotiations between them and the earthlings, but recently there is more and more information about the detention of witnesses for a certain period in order to conduct a “medical” examination;

- Contacts of the fourth kind are the abduction of eyewitnesses.

UFO Variations

- solid objects are, according to Western ufologists, UFOs that look like a solid body consisting of matter. Sometimes they look like metal. Some scientists note that this is not a real form of UFO, existing only to divert human attention from the actions of the so-called "soft" objects;

- disk-shaped objects - they can be of various sizes, glow brightly or shine like metal, have some kind of antenna, porthole or stabilizer on the disks;

- objects in the shape of a triangle - the most famous of them are the "Belgian triangles". They mean objects that have the ability to abruptly change the speed and direction of flight. This phenomenon was observed in 1989-1990 in Brazil and over nuclear power plants and New York's Hudson Valley highways;

- spindle-shaped objects - they mean two UFO cones that have a common base and some wires on top;

- objects in the shape of an egg - an example is the "Case in Sokkoro";

- aircraft - sometimes there are reports that describe cases of sightings of unidentified aircraft: ghost rockets, planes, black helicopters or airships that do not have characteristic of science identifying signs. So, on February 25, 1942, a case was registered when unknown aircraft were found in the sky of Los Angeles, which were fired upon by US anti-aircraft defense installations. At the same time, at least 1430 shells were fired. However, according to eyewitnesses, shells exploded in the immediate vicinity of one of the objects, it first hovered motionless, and then began to move at a speed of about six miles per hour along the coast in the middle of Santa Monica and Long Beach. Three people died in the process, and there were also victims of heart attacks;

- augers - objects in the form of rods, the size of which varies from a few centimeters to tens of meters, often having a formation in the form of blades, similar to a brace. As a rule, they are able to move at high speed and silently along the line of their axis, and therefore are inaccessible to human perception, but they can easily be fixed using photographic and video equipment;

- boomerang-shaped UFOs - an example is the well-known so-called "Phoenix Lights";

- soft objects - do not give the impression of objects that consist of matter, but only exude a mysterious glow or appear in the form of a mist that is not characteristic in its properties.

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More than once in the West, strange cases were reported, meetings of military aircraft with unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Pilots were often ordered to attack undefined object, and such attacks ended tragically for the pilot. In some cases, encounters with unidentified objects took place underwater. They were seen and tried to pursue some surface ships and submarines of the US Navy, but such attempts to attack "underwater UFOs" were unsuccessful. Similar encounters have been recorded in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

And it may be that the Soviet, and after the Russian Navy never encountered such mysterious phenomena? And really, none of the Russian combat pilots have ever seen the notorious “flying saucer” in the sight grid? Or, most likely, such facts, like many other things, were carefully hidden under a veil of military secrecy?

Mysterious phenomena

In Soviet popular science literature, there are descriptions that are associated with unidentified flying objects that took place in the 19th century, and without any censorship obstacles - you never know what was a century ago. For example, in 1845, the sailors of one of the ships in the early morning in the Mediterranean Sea saw 3 sparkling discs rise from under the water, which were connected by luminous “threads”. A message about this was entered by the captain of the ship "Victoria" in the ship's log and the time was put down. Sailors and officers of other ships observed the flight of the Red glowing balls. So why were such phenomena not observed in the 20th century? Messages about mysterious and mysterious incidents and phenomena were "removed" by censorship, completely controlled by the party-Soviet bodies and state security. Meanwhile, in the mid-1970s, the Soviet research vessel Vladimir Vorobyov encountered a mysterious phenomenon in the Arabian Sea. Under the keel, the instruments showed the presence of an unidentified object, heavy and hidden at a depth of no more than 20 meters. Given the constant Arab-Israeli conflicts, the captain and crew assumed that there was a small submarine under them. Just in case, they measured the depth of the sea at their location - it was about 200 meters.

Soon one could observe the mysterious object visually - it had the form of a bright white spot, rotating counterclockwise. After the spot broke up into several parts and quickly disappeared. Tellingly, in the reports of observers of the US Navy, they also noted the disintegration of mysterious underwater and even surface objects precisely into 6 or 8 parts, with their subsequent departure from observation at a very high speed. In 1977, the captain and crew members of the Soviet ship "Anton Makarenko" saw an amazing picture: a huge luminous wheel was spinning in the sea, with a radius of about ten miles. In 1990, a Soviet research expedition operating in the Bering Strait region observed several unidentified flying objects take off from the water.

If civilians saw this, then did the military never notice, with their subtle tracking and early detection of the enemy? Or maybe it was they themselves who tested samples of new technology and therefore kept everything a strict secret? Not, mysterious phenomena the military watched. Data on such mysterious phenomena have always been preferred to be classified and not made public. Recently, many facts of meetings of the Russian military with UFOs have become known. The Soviet Navy has repeatedly recorded and documented the rise and fall of mysterious objects in the waters of various seas and oceans. Such cases were recorded by artificial satellites that worked for the country's air defense, satellites more than once noted takeoffs of unidentified flying objects in the Pamir region, where air defense tracking bases are located. The mysterious and mysterious objects noted there were in the form of flat discs and emitted a silvery glow. The military constantly evades any comments or simply denies the obvious.

The case of a UFO collision with the Soviet Navy in the area of ​​Tikhaya Bay, not far from Vladivostok, is known and described in special literature. In December 1989, a UFO suddenly appeared there, resembling a triangular "flying wing" in shape. It was not an unknown enemy aircraft - air defense stations did not record anything, and, according to intelligence, no country in the world has such combat aircraft. An order was received from the command to open fire on an unidentified flying object, and the anti-aircraft artillery of the ships in the bay opened dense fire on the "triangle" from all air defense systems. Modern ships have powerful anti-aircraft defenses, but they failed to cause damage to UFOs - the “flying wing” abruptly changed course and left the warships at great speed towards Vladivostok. Naval aviation, which soon arrived in time to the scene, could not find anything.

Another incident, which ended without any tragic consequences, was noted in early October 1977 in the Northern Fleet, when 9 unidentified flying objects suddenly appeared over the Volga floating base. They lined up above the ship in a circle and began a round dance. Concerned command ordered to call on the radio to help the base of naval fighter aircraft. However, the sailors could not do this - the radio communication was broken, and until the UFOs flew away, no radio devices on the floating base worked. This went on for about twenty minutes. Finally, the radio operators managed to contact the pilots, and a reconnaissance aircraft of the Soviet Navy soon appeared in the sky. He flew around the entire emergency area, but found nothing: neither on the water nor in the air.

Mysterious underwater encounters

Soviet nuclear cruisers, like American ones, repeatedly detected unidentified objects located in the depths of the oceans with their instruments. Allegedly, more than once attempts were made to attack such objects, but to no avail - they left their pursuers at speeds unthinkable for a warship. In addition, "underwater" UFOs can inexplicably instantly divide into several targets: there are always an even number of them - 4, 6, 8. Hypotheses are put forward that the stubborn silence about the causes of the death of some Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines is associated with collisions with UFOs under water. In this case, we are not talking about a direct, purely physical collision.

Information about "underwater humanoids" is also interesting - they were observed by military divers. In the literature and other sources, there are no indications or facts of the connection of "marine humanoids" with unidentified underwater objects such as UFOs. It is very difficult to draw a clear line between "flying" and "floating", or rather "underwater", unidentified objects, since they often freely and arbitrarily change the environment in which they continue to move at amazing speed without interruption.

A serious clash between representatives of the Soviet naval forces with "underwater humanoids" was noted near the western coast of the deep-water Lake Baikal during the training exercises of reconnaissance divers in the summer of 1982. Even before the Second World War, they began to create special units combat swimmers capable of performing reconnaissance and sabotage missions of varying complexity. For service in such special forces, only psychologically stable, well-trained, physically absolutely healthy young people who are able to endure heavy loads and act in any extreme situations were selected.

Once, after another dive, reconnaissance divers reported to the command that they had seen at a depth - as you know, the water in Lake Baikal is surprisingly transparent - unknown divers. Divers reported having encountered the mysterious swimmers before, but for fear of being "misunderstood" did not report it. According to them, the unknown divers did not have any hoses or cylinders on their backs. They wore tight-fitting, silver-colored suits that looked somewhat like fish scales, and large, spherical helmets on their heads. Most importantly, our reconnaissance divers unanimously asserted: unknown divers are real giants, much taller than the average human height. Of particular interest and curiosity was the fact that unknown "underwater humanoids" were encountered by our reconnaissance divers at depths of about 50 meters and could move in this water column at amazing speed.

Catching spies and saboteurs has always been one of the favorite activities of the special departments of our army and navy. Therefore, the command made a "wise" decision to try to detain and capture the unknown, who were watching the area of ​​underwater training of military divers. The authorities understood that in any case they did not risk anything: they would detain "spies" - orders and stars would fall on shoulder straps, it would turn out that there were no "silver overalls" - divers would be punished for spreading panic rumors.

The command had no doubts about the success of the planned enterprise - the reconnaissance divers were well trained. Of these, a special capture group was created, which included 7 people led by an officer. They were given the task of capturing one of the "unknown swimmers", for which it was supposed to use a tried and tested technique with a net: the enemy would become entangled in it and become the prey of the attackers. During the next dive, the capture team quickly discovered giants in silvery suits, got closer to one of them and tried to throw a net on it. What happened after, no one could have predicted. powerful impulse of unknown origin, the attackers were thrown at a terrible speed to the surface of the water. There was a sharp drop in pressure, which could not pass without a trace: three divers died, and four remained permanently disabled. The mysterious "ichthyanders" in silver overalls simply disappeared.

After this tragic incident, the high army authorities believed that they were not even thinking of deceiving him. There was an instruction from the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces about the need to observe extreme caution when immersed in certain bodies of water, especially deep ones. The order gave a detailed and accurate list of such reservoirs where, according to experts, the appearance of various “balls”, “disks” and similar mysterious objects was repeatedly noted: they plunged into lakes and started from the water. Unfortunately, no one managed to get the text of this secret document. After the order of the commander-in-chief, the mysterious phenomena did not disappear and did not stop. But their secret remains unsolved...

m Many people think that the UFO is an unidentified flying object. But we are talking not about plates with aliens! The abbreviation UFO refers to any object that flies in the air and has not yet been identified. At the same time, unidentified does not mean unidentifiable.Many UFOs are identified over time and receive the status of an OLO - an identified flying object.

Seriously speaking, UFO is not a flying saucer aliens . An unidentified object is only an object for which there is no explanation even after an investigation. At the moment, many ufologists claim that what some people see from the ground is not an intergalactic flying ship, and NAH is an unidentified atmospheric phenomenon.

Does this mean that aliens don't exist? Not at all! However, if you delve into history, you can see many references to UFOs. In Rome, shields were often seen floating across the sky, in the Middle Ages - ships hovering in the air, in the 19th century - something similar to airplanes. It turns out that aliens can actually exist, moreover, appearance their spaceships are being transformed and developed, just like our civilization. This phenomenon has even been called cultural conformity.

What can UFOs really be?

A UFO can be atmospheric or optical phenomena, a figment of fantasy, a mirage, a space device ... There are many versions, at the moment there are 5 main hypotheses that are closest to reality.

atmospheric phenomena.

The simplest explanation for UFOs is an atmospheric phenomenon. Indeed, nature is sometimes unpredictable. It turns out that the unidentified object could be a form of fog, ball lightning, or something like that.

The fruit of fantasy.

If a person is in an excited state, he may mistake a known object for a UFO, such as a balloon, an airplane, a star.

Alien ship.

A common belief in the presence of a UFO is a spaceshipaliens , or biorobots sent by them. The main confirmation of this hypothesis is the impossibility of explaining the appearance of UFOs at the moment and the lack of confirmation of other hypotheses. Against the version says what ifaliens more advanced than we are, they can observe people remotely, which means that they do not need to reveal themselves.

Mirages.

Flying saucers may actually be mirages. Many astrophysicists come to this opinion.

optical effect.

If we assume that the UFO is an optical effect, much becomes clear. For example, the fact that some people see how the object accompanies planes or trains. And, indeed, near each object moving at high speed, air turbulences that are invisible to the eye can occur. But if there is a certain humidity and temperature, they can become visible, get the ability to reflect light. The presented hypothesis also explains the appearance of several saucers at once.

There are many theories of the appearance of UFOs, but until its mystery is solved, everyone can choose the hypothesis that he likes.

A comprehensive study of the properties of the "behavior" and size of UFOs, regardless of their shape, allows us to conditionally divide them into four main types.

First: Very small objects, which are balls or discs with a diameter of 20-100 cm, which fly at low altitudes, sometimes fly out of and return to larger objects. There is a well-known case that took place in October 1948 in the Fargo airbase area (North Dakota), when the pilot Gormon unsuccessfully pursued a round luminous object with a diameter of 30 cm, which very skillfully maneuvered, evading the chase, and sometimes he himself rapidly moved towards the plane, forcing Hormone to dodge the collision.

Second: Small UFOs that are egg-shaped and disc-shaped and 2-3 m in diameter. They usually fly at low altitude and most often make landings. Small UFOs have also been repeatedly seen separating from and returning to the main objects.

Third: The main UFOs, most often disks with a diameter of 9-40 m, the height of which in the central part is 1/5-1/10 of their diameter. The main UFOs make independent flights in any layers of the atmosphere and sometimes land. Smaller objects can be separated from them.

Fourth: Large UFOs, usually in the form of cigars or cylinders 100-800 meters or more long. They appear.mainly.in the upper atmosphere, do not perform complex maneuvers, and sometimes hover at high altitude. There were no cases of their landing on the ground, but it was repeatedly observed how small objects separated from them. There is an assumption that large UFOs can fly in space. There are also isolated cases of observation of giant disks with a diameter of 100-200 m.

Such an object was observed during a test flight of the French Concorde aircraft at an altitude of 17,000 m over the Republic of Chad during the period solar eclipse On June 30, 1973, the crew and a group of scientists on the plane filmed and took a series of color photographs of a luminous object in the shape of a mushroom cap, 200 m in diameter and 80 m high, which followed an intersecting course. At the same time, the contours of the object were fuzzy, since it was apparently surrounded by an ionized plasma cloud. On February 2, 1974, the film was shown on French television. The results of this study have not been published.

Common forms of UFOs have varieties. Thus, for example, disks with one or two convex sides, balls with or without rings encircling them, as well as oblate and prolate spheres were observed. Rectangular and triangular objects are much less common. According to the French group for the study of aerospace phenomena, approximately 80% of all observed UFOs were round discs, balls or spheres, and only 20% were elongated cigars or cylinders. UFOs in the form of discs, spheres and cigars have been observed in most countries on all continents. Examples of rare UFO sightings are given below. So, for example, UFOs with rings surrounding them, similar to the planet Saturn, were recorded in 1954 over Essex County (England) and over the city of Cincinnati (Ohio), in 1955 in Venezuela and in 1976 - over the Canary Islands .

A parallelepiped-shaped UFO was observed in July 1977 in the Tatar Strait by members of the crew of the Nikolai Ostrovsky ship. This object flew for 30 minutes next to the ship at an altitude of 300-400 m, and then disappeared.

Triangular-shaped UFOs from the end of 1989 began to systematically appear over Belgium. According to the description of many eyewitnesses, their dimensions were approximately 30 by 40 m, and on their lower part there were three or four luminous circles. Objects moved completely silently, hovering and taking off at great speeds. On March 31, 1990, southeast of Brussels, three credible eyewitnesses observed how such a triangular object six times the size of the visible disk of the moon flew silently over their heads at an altitude of 300-400 m. Four luminous circles were clearly visible on the underside of the object.

On the same day, engineer Alferlan filmed such an object flying over Brussels for two minutes with a video camera. In front of Alferlan's eyes, the object made a turn and three luminous circles and a red light between them became visible on its lower part. On the top of the object, Alferlan noticed a luminous lattice dome. This video was shown on April 15, 1990 on central television.

Along with the main forms of UFOs, there are many more various varieties. In a table shown at a meeting of the US Congress Committee on Science and Astronautics in 1968, 52 UFOs of various shapes were depicted.

According to the international ufological organization "Contact international", the following forms of UFOs are observed:

1) round: disc-shaped (with and without domes); in the form of an inverted plate, bowl, saucer or rugby ball (with and without a dome); in the form of two plates folded together (with and without two bulges); hat-shaped (with and without domes); similar to a bell; in the form of a sphere or a ball (with and without a dome); similar to the planet Saturn; ovoid or pear-shaped; barrel-shaped; similar to an onion or top;

2) oblong: rocket-like (with and without stabilizers); torpedo-shaped; cigar-shaped (without domes, with one or two domes); cylindrical; rod-shaped; spindle-shaped;

3) pointed: pyramidal; in the form of a regular or truncated cone; funnel-like; swept; in the form of a flat triangle (with and without a dome); diamond-shaped;

4) rectangular: bar-like; in the form of a cube or parallelepiped; in the form of a flat square and rectangle;

5) unusual: mushroom-shaped, toroidal with a hole in the center, wheel-shaped (with and without spokes), cruciform, deltoid, in the shape of the letter V.

Generalized NIKAP data on UFO sightings of various shapes in the USA for 1942-1963. are shown in the following table:

Shape of objects, Number of cases / Percentage of general case

1. Disc-shaped 149 / 26
2. Spheres, ovals, ellipses 173 / 30
3. Type of rockets or cigars 46 / 8
4. Triangular 11/2
5. Luminous dots 140 / 25
6. Others 33 / 6
7. Radar (non-visual) observations 19 / 3

Total 571 / 100

Notes:

1. Objects classified by their nature as spheres, ovals, and ellipses in this list may actually be disks inclined at an angle to the horizon.

2. Luminous dots in this list include small brightly luminous objects, the shape of which could not be determined due to the large distance.

It should be borne in mind that in many cases the readings of observers may not reflect the true shape of objects, since a disc-shaped object may look like a ball from below, like an ellipse from below, and like a spindle or a mushroom cap from the side; an object shaped like a cigar or an elongated sphere may look like a ball from the front and back; a cylindrical object can look like a parallelepiped from below and from the side, and like a ball from the front and back. In turn, the object in the form of a box in front and behind can look like a cube.

The data on the linear dimensions of the UFO, reported by eyewitnesses, are in some cases very relative, since with visual observation it is possible to determine with sufficient accuracy only the angular dimensions of the object.

Linear dimensions can only be determined if the distance from the observer to the object is known. But determining the distance in itself presents great difficulties, because the human eye, due to stereoscopic vision, can correctly determine the distance only within the range of up to 100 m. Therefore, the linear dimensions of a UFO can only be determined very approximately.

Usually UFOs have the form of metallic bodies of silver-aluminum or light pearl color. Sometimes they are shrouded in a cloud, as a result of which their contours seem to be blurred.

The surface of the UFO is usually shiny, as if polished, and no seams or rivets are visible on it. The top side of an object is usually light, while the bottom side is dark. Some UFOs have domes that are sometimes transparent.

UFOs with domes were observed, in particular, in 1957 over New York, in 1963 in the state of Victoria (Australia), and in our country in 1975 near Borisoglebsk and in 1978 - in Beskudnikovo.

In the middle of the objects, in some cases, one or two rows of rectangular "windows" or round "portholes" were visible. An elongated object with such "portholes" was observed in 1965 by the crew members of the Norwegian ship "Javesta" over the Atlantic.

In our country, UFOs with "portholes" were observed in 1976 in the village of Sosenki near Moscow, in 1981 near Michurinsk, in 1985 near Geok-Tepe in the Ashgabat region. On some UFOs, rods similar to antennas or periscopes were clearly visible.

In February 1963, in the state of Victoria (Australia), at a height of 300 m above a tree, a disk 8 m in diameter hung with a rod resembling an antenna.

In July 1978, members of the crew of the ship "Yargora", following the Mediterranean Sea, observed flying over North Africa a spherical object with three antennae-like structures visible at the bottom.

Cases have also been recorded when these rods moved or rotated. Below are two such examples. In August 1976, Muscovite A.M. Troitsky and six other witnesses saw a silvery metal object over the Pirogov reservoir, eight times the size of the lunar disk, slowly moving at a height of several tens of meters. Two rotating stripes were visible on its side surface. When the object was above the witnesses, a black hatch opened in its lower part, from which a thin cylinder protruded. The lower part of this cylinder began to describe circles, while top part remained attached to the object. In July 1978, passengers on the Sevastopol-Leningrad train near Kharkov watched for several minutes how some kind of rod with three brightly luminous dots emerged from the upper part of a motionless elliptical UFO. This rod was deflected to the right three times and returned to its previous position. Then a rod with one luminous dot extended from the bottom of the UFO.

UFO info. Types of UFOs and their appearance

Inside the lower part of the UFO, there are sometimes three or four landing legs, which extend during landing and retract inward during takeoff. Here are three examples of such observations.

In November 1957, Senior Lieutenant N., returning from Stead Air Force Base (Las Vegas), saw four disk-shaped UFOs 15 m in diameter on the field, each of which stood on three landing legs. As they took off, those props retracted inward before his eyes.

In July 1970, a young Frenchman, Erien J., near the village of Jabrel-le-Bord, clearly saw how four metal supports, ending in rectangles, gradually retracted into a round UFO with a diameter of six meters that had taken off.

In the USSR in June 1979 in the city of Zolochev, Kharkov region, the witness Starchenko observed how a UFO landed 50 meters from him in the form of an overturned saucer with a number of portholes and a dome. When the object descended to a height of 5-6 m, three landing legs about 1 m long telescopically extended from its bottom, ending in a kind of blades. After standing on the ground for about 20 minutes, the object took off, and it was clear how the supports were drawn into its body. At night, UFOs usually glow, sometimes their color and glow intensity change with speed. When flying rapidly, they have a color similar to that arising in the process of arc welding; at slower - bluish color.

When falling or braking, they turn red or Orange color. But it happens that objects hovering motionless glow bright light, although it is possible that it is not the objects themselves that glow, but the air around them under the influence of some kind of radiation emanating from these objects. Sometimes some kind of lights are visible on UFOs: on objects of an elongated shape - on the bow and stern, and on the disks - on the periphery and on the bottom. There are also reports of rotating objects with red, white or green lights.

In October 1989, in Cheboksary, six UFOs in the form of two saucers folded together hovered over the territory of the Industrial Tractor Plant production association. Then a seventh object joined them. Each of them showed yellow, green and red lights. Objects rotated and moved up and down. Half an hour later, six objects soared up with great speed and disappeared, and one remained for a while. Sometimes such lights are lit and go out in a certain sequence.

In September 1965, two police officers in Exeter, New York, observed a UFO flying about 27 m in diameter, on which there were five red lights that came on and went out in the sequence: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st. The duration of each cycle was 2 seconds.

A similar incident occurred in July 1967 in Newton, New Hampshire, where two former radar operators observed through a telescope a luminous object with a series of lights flashing on and off in the same sequence as on the object in Exeter.

The most important characteristic feature of UFOs is their manifestation unusual properties, which are not found either in natural phenomena known to us, or in technical means created by man. Moreover, it seems that the individual properties of these objects clearly contradict the laws of physics known to us.