There are some natural ways that objects can seem to fly through the atmosphere at supersonic speed without making a sonic boom:
- The object is usually a lot smaller and closer than the observer believes. Examples are birds, insects, kites, fire balloons, and model airplanes.
- The object is above the atmosphere, and going faster than the observer believes.
Examples include meteors, satellites, and spacecraft. A specific example is a meteor skipping off
the earth's atmosphere. It gives off a bright glow as it flies, and the plasma can be tracked on
RADAR.
(The RADAR track appears to be slower than the object is really going, and at a lower altitude than the object really is. This is because the meteor's distance is so great that it appears as a second or third pulse echo. This makes each displayed altitude, speed, and/or distance appear to be approximately one half to one third of the true value for the object.) - The object is not real, but an image. Examples are a searchlight moving across a cloudy sky, a LASER aimed at clouds, a reflection of a moving object in a window, etc.
Why do these fool us?
- The human vision system is totally unable to find the correct distance estimate for any object in the sky that is farther away than 30 feet (10 m).
- We unconsciously think any flying object must be vehicle-sized, and adjust our distance estimate accordingly. Since flying vehicles are relatively new, the size-estimate error is new too.
Some UFOs move like a falling leaf.
The described motion here is that of a pendulum or a falling leaf. In a few cases, a falling leaf is exactly what was being observed. But any falling disc shaped object could also produce this effect (such as a paper plate blown away in the wind).
That leaves the glowing objects seen at night that make this maneuver. Fire balloons fit this niche perfectly. Follow the link to see more on the antics of fire balloons.
Only the bottom of the fire balloon is visible at night. It appears to follow the curved trajectory seen in the top half of the picture at right. If the entire balloon were visible, it would appear similar to the bottom of the picture. The balloon oscillates around its center of mass, rocking back and forth. Very little energy is required to produce this effect.
Why does the balloon oscillate? If the wind changes speed, the lighter top of the balloon can react quicker than the more massive bottom. When the wind speeds up, the top scoots ahead. The lighted disc appears to tilt forward, then move forward. It overshoots the top of the bag, and tilts the other way. It wobbles back and forth until it settles out, or until another disturbance sends it swinging another way.
The UFO can appear to descend like a falling leaf when the disturbance is large. When the bag tilts 45 degrees or more, some of the hot air spills out. As it tilts back and forth, the bag loses more hot air each time, and the balloon loses altitude. When it settles out, the hot air builds up again, and the UFO gains altitude again.
This is a variation of the falling leaf motion. Instead of swinging linearly like a clock pendulum, the object is swinging like a tetherball orbiting its post. It is the result of several disturbances acting in different directions on the object at different times.
The fire balloon is also a good candidate for the identification here.
This is an effect not normally seen in prosaic devices, but it does happen in some:
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The image at right is seen from below and is rotating clockwise.
- A fire balloon can rotate, and can even reverse rotation, under the
following conditions:
- When the wind is uneven on opposite sides of the balloon
- When the fire balloon has an asymmetrical air leak that causes the balloon to rotate
- When hot air spills out of the bottom of the fire balloon asymmetrically.
- A night advertizing plane looks like a slowly rotating disc with lights on the rim when seen edge-on. The lighted lettering moves from one wingtip to the other. The red light on top of such a plane looks like a light on the dome of a domed disc.
- A spinning UFO kite is sold. It consists of a round disc and a longer, but narrower ellipse that fits into an S slot in the disc. The disc is vertical, and the kite spins like a wind turbine around the horizontal long axis of the ellipse.
- Other balloons can rotate due to wind differentials.
- Atmospheric conditions can make a non-rotating object appear to rotate.
- A rotating effect is sometimes associated with sun halation in the eye. This happens when a specular object reflecting the sun is bright enough to be expanded by halation (light scattering) in the retina. The strong light causes involuntary eyeball motion to protect the cones from damage.
An interesting side fact is that most early UFOs, and many later ones, do NOT spin.
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The image at right is seen from below and is rotating clockwise. The left side (as seen by the observer) is approaching, while the right side is moving away, and the closest lights are moving to the right.
- The lights on the object dim out when they are farthest away from the observer.
- Something could be hiding the rotating light when it's farthest from the observer.
- This makes observers see the lights dimming and brightening in an intelligent pattern.
- The center light dims at a much faster rate.
Let's assume the object is a rotating fire balloon. Let's also shine a light up onto the framework in the fire balloon that holds up the candles.
Now the framework in the fire balloon that holds up the candles is made visible in the new image at right, as are the candles themselves.
The image at right is seen from below and is rotating clockwise. Again, the left side (as seen by the observer) is approaching, while the right side is moving away, and the closest lights are moving to the right.
- The lights on the object dim out when they are farthest away from the observer.
- The fire balloon frame hides the rotating candle's flame when it is farthest from the observer.
- Now it is clear that the dimming of the candles is caused by the framework hiding its flame.
- The center candle dims each time the framework hides it, 4 times faster than the other candles.
- The "intelligent pattern" is caused by the rotating frame.
Thus, the pattern of dimming of the lights is explained by the rotation of the framework in the fire balloon.
Other patterns of dimming of the lights can be explained by different kinds of framework or by streamers hanging below the fire balloon. Often foil streamers were used to create a sparkle effect or to make the fire balloon appear on RADAR.
Now let's substitute an image of a real fire balloon for the animated simulation.
Now the framework in the fire balloon that holds up the candles is visible from the candlelight itself, as are the candles themselves.
The image at right is also necessarily seen from below (the photography was necessarily from below because the object was flying). Imagine that the fire balloon is rotating clockwise, as are the simulations above.
- The lights on the object would also dim out when they are farthest away from the observer.
- The framework of the fire balloon would hide the rotating candles when they are behind spokes.
- Now it is clear that the dimming of the candles is caused by the framework hiding them.
- The center candle dims each time a spoke hides it.
There are many reasons no sound is heard from flying objects:
- The object may be too far away to hear.
- Balloons (except manned hot air balloons) are silent.
- An advertizing plane's engine runs so slow, it can barely be heard overhead, to give you time to read the sign.
- Birds, insects, kites, and Frisbees are silent.
- Fire balloons are silent, unless the prankster puts in fireworks.
- Meteors, satellites, and re-entries are silent from the ground.
- Wind direction can affect whether or not an object can be heard.
Sounds are generally impossible to link to a UFO:
- Unrelated sounds can be erroneously linked to the UFO by the witness.
- The page author knows of a case combining a seagull with a roaring construction crane hidden behind a hill. - Aircraft sounds are often too faint to be heard, unless the plane is quite close.
- A distant airplane can be heard, but the sound is behind the plane
because the speed of sound delays it.
- This is often mistakenly interpreted as a silent UFO followed by an airplane the witness didn't see chasing it. - Often a witness mistakes the hum of a nearby pole transformer for a sound the UFO made.
There are many arguments why these fields do NOT really exist:
- If the strong magnetic fields claimed really existed, many would be filing claims for erased tapes and computer disks.
- A field strong enough to affect a UFO detector would erase tapes and disks much closer to the UFO.
- If we suddenly have erased tape cases, it will be because some nuts read this page and got ideas for hoaxes.
- There is no way a remote object can steal power from a car battery or a power
line.
- A direct connection or a close inductive coupling must exist to cause electrons to flow. - Only one known energy field can stop a car engine when the hood is down without
damaging the car in some way.
- A heavy static charge in the atmosphere can cause the sparkplugs to fire continuously.
- This sets off the fuel charges too early, stopping the engine and preventing it from being restarted.
- This effect often accompanies desert sandstorms. - In many cases, the electrical power failure causes the UFO, instead of the UFO causing the power failure.
- In many cases, the UFO would not have been noticed if the power had not gone out, or if the car hadn't quit running.
- Some cases of radioactivity at UFO landing sites are background radiation misread by amateurs using Geiger counters.
- Some pranksters have put radium dioxide in their fake UFO landing sites.
- Radiation detected at some distances claimed from the UFO would be lethal
to people much closer to the object.
Reports of radioactivity must be tested against reality.
An example is Bill Rogers' claim of having measured 250 milliroentgens a mile from the UFO. The following levels would then apply:
Distance Dose 1 mile 250 milliroentgens 1/2 mile 1 roentgen 1/4 mile 4 roentgens 1/8 mile 16 roentgens 1/16 mile 64 roentgens - Note that the inverse-square radiated energy law applies.
- Also note that the last distance in the table is about the length of a football field.
- The federal safety limit is 500 microroentgens. Rogers measured 500 times that.
- UFOs have been reported even closer, hovering over hospitals and apartment buildings.
- If UFOs give off radiation, where are all of the cases of radiation sickness?
- Were these measurements in roentgens, or roentgens per hour? Did Rogers have a straight Geiger counter or a dosimeter?
- Was the Geiger counter set wrong or read wrong?
There are several causes for this:
- The trajectory may look strange only from the viewpoint of the witness. An airplane making a curve looks like it reverses direction when the path is seen edge-on.
- The antics of the fire balloon described above have sharp corners at the ends of the swing of the balloon.
- Balloons follow the wind. The wind can make sudden changes due to different winds at different altitudes, storm fronts, buildings and other ground obstructions, or the effects of passing airplanes.
- Autokinesis can make a star or planet seem to jerk back and forth. Actually, the jerking is in the eyes of the witness.
- Stars and planets can really appear to jerk back and forth, when heat rising from a city (or a large parking lot) forms a variable atmospheric lens.
- Two objects may overlap in the sky at just the right point (from the viewpoint of the witness) to appear to be one object making a sharp turn.
There are also several causes for this:
- Police helicopters do occasionally follow vehicles. They check vehicle speed against road markings, and follow suspicious vehicles (to check for crime in progress, or to follow an escaping felon until patrol cars can make an arrest).
- The moon and stars appear to follow only the vehicle the witness is in. Since they are very far away, they appear to move with the vehicle. This is because the rest of the scenery appears to move the other way (relative to the vehicle). Venus is usually the UFO in this case, but often Mars, Jupiter, or even the moon fools people.
- The following may be a mere coincidence. An air route may parallel a major highway, and any plane following the air route appears to be sneaking up on a vehicle on that road.
- In at least one case, college students tied a lighted balloon to a lady's car. She tried to outrun it, until the balloon caught an overpass and broke free.
How can a UFO outrun a plane? Have a look:
- Meteors go much faster than planes do, and appear much closer than they really are.
- Several planes have had "dogfights" with lighted balloons at night. The "UFO" is always described as being much faster and more maneuverable than the plane. Actually, the pilot thinks the object is much farther away. The ramming attacks, tight circles, and evasive maneuvers are actually the result of the airplane's own movements around a nearly stationary object.
- From the ground, a low, slow moving fire balloon can appear to be at the altitude of the plane and outrunning it.
- A large balloon in the jet stream can easily outrun a pursuing plane at lower altitude.
- The Space Shuttles and space stations are quite visible from the ground as moving lights in the sky at dusk or dawn. They are brighter than the planet Venus. On 10/03/97 the author of this page saw MIR, with the shuttle Atlantis about 30 degrees behind it. They turned red and disappeared as they went into the earth's shadow. No airplane could possibly keep up with the over 18000 mi/hr speeds of these objects.
There are several ways this can appear to happen without actually happening:
- The object appears to move rapidly away from the witness along his line of sight. Actually, the object just dimmed out to invisibility. A fire balloon will appear to do this when the last candle burns out.
- The object suddenly darts toward the horizon and appears to go behind it. A fire balloon does this when the last candle falls.
- The object suddenly starts moving straight up, accelerating until out of sight. A fire balloon will do this when the lift overbalances the weight due to loss of candle wax.
- The object rises on a column of flame and then disappears among the stars. This happens when the structure of the fire balloon catches fire. It creates a strong updraft that carries the remains up swiftly until the entire balloon is consumed.
- Satellites and the Space Shuttles do this when they move into the shadow of the earth.
- Lighted weather balloons go up rapidly.
- Meteors appear to leave at high speed when they burn out.
Other objects can also effect some of these events.