12 things most commonly mistaken for UFOs

1. Clouds

Take a look at this photo. Sounds like a flying saucer, right?

Apparently, this is an alien starship, which is disguised as a cloud. True, there is still work to be done on blurring the shape of the green one.

You can tell that it is a fake. But no. Such clouds do exist. They are called lenticularLenticular Clouds Look Like UFOs / EarthSky, or lenticular. Their characteristic feature is complete immobility even in strong winds.

This phenomenon occurs at an altitude of 2 to 15 kilometers, when strong horizontal air currents bend around some kind of obstacle - for example, a mountain ridge or a separate peak - when it is sufficiently wet air.

Clouds can be located directly over a hill (

Photo the summits of the Mayon volcano) or even at a considerable distance from it (snapshot clouds over Harolds Cross in Dublin).

Due to the unusual shape and rarity of lenticular clouds, many people mistake them for UFOs. But the meteorologist will only laugh at such naivety.

2. Google probes

In 2017, residents of the small town of San Luis, Colombia were terrifiedGoogle balloon mistaken for UFO as it crashes in Colombia / BBC a terrible find. Some unknown contraption fell from the sky and fell apart. Local farmers did not know what to think, and decided not to approach the wrecked unit - it’s not even an hour, it would explode.

As a result, it turned out that the alien device is a Google balloon, launched to distribute Wi-Fi to residents of rural areas. The project was called Loon (closed in January 2021).

Fun fact: in 1782, the Montgolfier brothers in France launched C. C. Gillispie, The Montgolfier brothers and the invention of aviation your first balloon. Having flown a couple of kilometers, he fell near a small village. The peasants who saw this took the balloon for a monster, pounced on it with a pitchfork and finally made a hole out of harm's way.

It would be better for the aliens not to meddle with them. And Colombian farmers are much more peaceful guys.

3. Balloons with advertising

In September 2020, New Jersey fans rushed to the Monday Night Football match.Alien Invasion Averted As UFO Above New Jersey Turns Out To Just Be Goodyear Blimp / The Wire UFO. People stopped in the middle of the freeway to capture the long-awaited arrival of the brothers in mind on camera and post it on TikTok.

The fact that at about the same time scientists discovered there are signs of organic matter in the atmosphere of Venus. And the news outlets were quick to interpret this as "life has been found on Venus!"

Obviously, aliens from Venus are following the earthlings' media.

They saw the flashy headlines on the Internet and decided that now humanity is definitely ready to meet. Possibly even close contact of the seventh In ufology, "contact of the seventh degree" is an intimate connection with the emergence of a hybrid from a human and an alien degree.

It was later revealed that the starship turned out to be a Goodyear airship, which displayed advertisements above the stadium.

4. moon

Sometimes such things are taken for UFOs, to which, in theory, everyone should have been accustomed to since childhood.

In 2008, a woman called the South Wales police and said in an alarming voice that a "bright, stationary object" had been hovering over her house for half an hour. The cops with flashing lights went out to check what other intrigues the aliens from distant planets decided to commit to earthlings.

Some time later, a conversation took place between the officer who went to the scene and the dispatcher.Police say UFO was just the Moon / BBC News with the following content:

— Dispatcher: Alpha Zulu 20, that object in the sky... did you find it?

— Police officer: Yes. This is the moon. End of communication.

5. Venus

Venus is not as close to us a celestial body as the Moon, although it is the next brightest in the sky after it. Therefore, many people, looking at this planet, often mistake it for a star. And in especially advanced cases - for a UFO.

Writer Roy Craig, debunking the myths about "flying saucers", describedUFO? No, It’s Venus / Discover Magazine in one of his books an incident that happened once in Georgia. Police officers chased a fast moving object hovering "about 500 feet above sea level" for some time. And yes, it was Venus.

The cops must have been upset when the situation was explained to them. Contact with brothers in mind again failed.

6. Parachutists

Every year in the coastal resort town of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, UFOs are reported by locals. Aliens are especially fond of appearing on luminous devices in June, on Friday evenings.

Perhaps this is somehow related to the fact that at the same time, the Golden Knights parachute team of the US Army traditionally arranges an air show with pyrotechnics for the festival Sun fun.

The show usually starts at 21:30. Parachutists make up various figures in the sky, light fireworks and other pyrotechnics - in general, they have fun with might and main.

At the same time, the locals start calling the police with requests to deal with the aliens.

“In the first year, there were the most false calls,” saidNo, those weren’t UFOs over Myrtle Beach on Friday. Here’s what was actually seen / The Sun News Michelle Kerscher, one of the organizers of the festival. Then the founders of the holiday began to publish press releases annually to warn the locals that the lights spinning in the sky are an air show, and not an invasion of aliens.

But it didn't help much - who reads any press releases there?

7. Lightning

Among natural phenomena that gullible people confuse with UFOs, lightning takes almost the first place. There is a special kind of atmospheric electricity - spritesC. J. Rodger. Red sprites, upward lightning, and VLF perturbations / Reviews of Geophysics. They are formed in groups in the high layers of the atmosphere, their discharges are colored in red, blue, blue and white, depending on the height and composition of the air.

More often than not, UFOs reported by airplane and jet pilots turn out to beNatural Explanation Found for UFOs / Space.com sprites.

8. Satellites

SpaceX is ramping up its Starlink satellite constellation to bring internet to the entire world. Their satellites, before performing all the maneuvers and disperse along the intended orbits, for some time after separation from the second stage, the missiles move in single file, one after the other. Often on social networks, such a parade is acceptedNo, they’re not aliens - SpaceX’s Starlink satellites surprise British skywatchers / Space.com for UFO flights.

In order not to rejoice ahead of time meeting with alien friends, use the service Find starlink. It allows you to find out where and at what time in your city you can see the next string of Starlink satellites. This way you will definitely not confuse them with anything else.

9. Mosquitoes

How would you react if you learned that a large proportion of aliens are actually insects? No, not intelligent flies from Betelgeuse, but quite normal insects. Just well-placed in the frame.

In 2012, the Denver affiliate of the American television network Fox KDVR publishedMile High mystery: UFO sightings in sky over Denver / KDVR video with the alleged UFO. The quality of the video, however, leaves much to be desired, but still it impressed ufologists very much.

However, astronomer Phil Plate was quick to dispel"UFOs" Over Denver Bug Me / Bad Astronomy their aspirations. He explained that it was only a small insect.

Butterflies, mosquitoes and other little things are extremely often mistaken for UFOs.

This is phenomenon even got the name "skyfish".

Plait has every reason to dislike insects. If such an "alien" sits on the telescope lens, you announce in the heat of the moment that you have found a new dwarf planet beyond the orbit of Neptune, and then all your colleagues laugh at you. A hypothetical situation, but you never know.

10. Drones

In October 2018, vigilant New Jersey residents began tweeting and calling local TV stations reportingUFO seen flying over New Jersey was actually a drone, police say / ABC News about strange lights flying over the Garden State Parkway. A variety of theories have been built: is it a UFO, a secret government probe, or an invasion by North Korean troops?

Everything was resolved when someone thought of calling the police. It turned out to be a police drone chasing a couple of petty burglars who ransacked The Home Depot's building materials store.

One robber, by the way, was detained, but not for long. He escaped the cops' hands, jumped over the fence and was like that.

11. Frozen urine

In 2015, the British ESA astronaut Tim Peak during a flight to the ISS noticed four lights that moved in formation past the station. The trajectory of their movement did not coincide with any of the known spacecraft.

Peak suggested (not quite seriously, really) that it was a UFO. The Briton spoke about this incident on the Graham Norton show.

The reality turned out to be somewhat less attractiveUFO Sighting Of ‘Alien Spaceship’ Aboard ISS Turned Out To Be Russian Urine / The Independent. Shortly before that, urine leaked from a tank in the toilet on the Russian segment of the ISS. Yes, straight into outer space. In a vacuum, urine gradually froze, crystallized and began to shine brightly in the light of the Sun.

Apparently, someone just pulled the drain lever too hard.

12. Paper Lanterns

For 50 years, the Royal Air Force had a dedicated UFO service in the UK Department of Defense. In 2009 alone, she processed 643 reports of possible alien invasion, diligently logging every suspicious case.

But that same year, the military spat and shut down the unit after it was hit by a flurry of evidence of strange orange lights in the sky. It turned outUFO files: Britain's X Files unit defeated... by Chinese lanterns / The Telegraph flying paper lanterns that the British launched at some festival.

At a briefing after the closure of service, RAF commanders said their staff had more pressing things to do than catching aliens.