UFO’s are tricky little blighters. Those three letters have caused so much controversy over the years and I find myself, yet again, discussing one of the most misrepresented acronyms in the entire Universe. UFO stands for ‘Unidentified Flying Object’ and, if you have never seen a helicopter before, then its a UFO, its unidentified and flying! Forgive me then when I saw the news on January 28, 2011 of yet another UFO sighting and cries of alien visitors as if it were obvious. Well stop right there…..
I’ve been an astronomer for about 20 years and I look at the sky and objects in it, quite a lot. Strange then that I have never seen anything that has made me think yep, the little green men are here. Amongst my astronomer chums, I don’t know anybody that has seen anything that raises even so much as an eyebrow. Astronomers and perhaps meteorologists are perhaps the only bunch of people who have real experience studying things in the sky but, leaving that aside lets talk about the recent sighting in Jerusalem.
The strange light at the centre of the controversy appeared over the ‘Dome of the Rock’ , a shrine in Jerusalem. It hovered there for a short while before seemingly giving off a flash of light and then shooting off, into the night. What gives the whole thing more credibility though is that a number of different people seem to have captured the strange event from different places around the city. Usually, UFO sightings are recorded on just one, dodgy video but to have it recorded many times, surely means its genuine.
Apparently not, according to UFO skeptic Larry Robinson who told Universe Today “One item seems to indicate a hoax. The guy yells ‘Whoa’ before the object jumps into the sky, not after.” He goes on to explain that the whole thing could easily have been knocked up using a flashlight and a window “This could be something like a flashlight reflected from a pane of glass. Tilting the pane of glass moves the UFO.” It seems then that the footage may not be quite so genuine after all.
The whole thing about alien visitors is a little far fetched for me I’m afraid to say. Human’s have only been capable of space travel of ANY form for the last 50 or so years now given that the Universe is about 14 billions years old, it really is the tiniest fraction of time in the scale of the Universe. Consider too that the Universe is totally and utterly colossal and then ask yourself what are the chances that another civilisation have really nailed space travel so well and exist in the same part of the Universe as us! I think those chances are pretty slim, not zero, but pretty slim. I certainly won’t be staying up tonight just in case ET decides to pop by and say hi.
Larry’s UFO website: You’ve Been Hoodwinked
Mark Thompson is a writer and the astronomy presenter on the BBC One Show. See his website, The People’s Astronomer, and you can follow him on Twitter, @PeoplesAstro
“The guy yells ‘Whoa’ before the object jumps into the sky, not after.” — I think you have to view the video again. The truth is the guy yells “Whoa” after the object giving off a flash of light. That’s formal reaction. If it’s not real, it’s the best ufo ever made.
I cannot claim to have ever seen an object in the sky that I could identify as something that I have never seen before. There are lots of times that I have seen a blurry something that I just can’t resolve as anything in particular. Of course with air quality being what it normally is in most places, unless it is up close it will be too fuzzy to tell what it is. In case you were wondeirng, my visual acuity is 20/12 and I am an astronomer. Maybe the aliens just don’t like me.
I do think that the idea of there being a nearby alien race in our galaxy that is even remotely like ours is proposterous. Such a space-faring civilization would have to have massive infrastructure to support itself and evidence for them would be everywhere if they were visiting here on a regular basis. There would be no way to hide it.
I am more open to the possibility of interdimensional travel and phenomena since there is still much to learn about the physical structure of the universe. I am not saying that I think it is likely, but simply more plausible than considering we simply know less about the subject matter.
“In case you were wondeirng, my visual acuity is 20/12 and I am an astronomer.”
I’m good I am. Just ask my mother.
Have you considered it is not only the aliens who just don’t like you?
Please try not to be so rude.
Such comments reveal much more about the inner workings of your mind than mine. On a more pertinent note, I simply would like to see a higher burden of proof than flashing lights and nebulous images. Detailed images in high definition would be much harder to pass off as a hoax. They would also be much more believable if genuine. I have posted before in detail about how the paradigm of alien visitation as it currently stands makes no logical sense. The bottom line is that aliens cannot both choose to ignore us and leave no physical traces in plain sight. If they came here to remain hidden (quite a difficult task in the modern era by the way), then why come at all?
You must have been watching another video…
There is a LARGE flash that spreads over a good portion of the city- he yells “WHOA” right after that happened.
Not quite sure how you can make that flash cover a good portion of the city by using a flashlite and a piece of glass…. LMFAO
I just ran across this article at space.com that points out several suspicious things about these videos, including evidence that the videos were not raw footage from the camera but were edited.
http://www.space.com/10789-jerusalem-ufo-hoax.html
Well Mark, I’ve been an astronomer for over 20 years and I HAVE seen, on two separate occasions, vehicles in the sky under intelligent control, whose flight characteristics were completely impossible within today’s known, earthbound physics. This Jerusalem sighting was benign compared to what I saw. Unfortunately I dont carry a video recorder (certainly not practical for my first sighting back in 1988) and frankly even if I DID have one, I could barely track this object with my own eyes, much less a camera, given the speed and erratic manuvering capabilities. Do not be so quick to dismiss ALL sightings because your small group has never experienced anything of this nature. Rather a close-minded point of view from somebody who is in the field of science, I must say.
Well said, and from my experience the scientific community as a whole is very closed minded on a variety of topics when it does not fit into current established ideologies and beliefs, yes beliefs, not science. I currently have no definitive opinion on the matter and it is irresponsible for me to make a claim on either side of the issue, but all the general evidence over the years is compelling. Maybe one day we will know the definitive proof, but as of now I don’t know.
The thing is, you have this statement:
“…I HAVE seen, on two separate occasions, vehicles in the sky under intelligent control …”
But you also have this sentence:
“I could barely track this object with my own eyes, much less a camera, given the speed and erratic manuvering capabilities”
Your statements are contradictory.
If – by your own admission – you were having trouble tracking the object visually, what makes you so convinced that you are able to make an accurate determination of intelligent control? Especially when said object appeared to be moving in such a way that would be impossible for any conventional aircraft?
‘Poor visibility + breaking the laws of physics = positive identification of a fantastical object’ isn’t a reasonable conclusion.
“Do not be so quick to dismiss ALL sightings because your small group has never experienced anything of this nature. Rather a close-minded point of view from somebody who is in the field of science, I must say.”
I don’t want to speak for Mark, but I didn’t see him dismiss *all* sightings out of hand. He merely offered a personal anecdote, much like what you’ve done with your description of the object you saw.
Furthermore, I’d be a little more careful when throwing around accusations of close-mindedness with regards to the “field of science”. 😉 As I pointed out above, based on the few details you provided, you haven’t exactly come to a scientifically justifiable conclusion RE your sighting. A more open minded, rational conclusion would be to simply admit that you don’t know what it is you saw.
“vehicles in the sky under intelligent control, whose flight characteristics were completely impossible within today’s known, earthbound physics”
Please define what was impossible?
Not only do UFOs/Aliens exist, but the aliens have already made contact with some governments, particularly the US government. They are just waiting for the governments to reveal their existence. As for the Jerusalem UFO – I am pretty sure it is authentic.UFOs and aliens often create a display (like a spiral over Norway or even crop circles) to draw attention to their presence without actually coming out in the open. They would prefer the governments of the world to announce their existence rather than do it themselves (mainly to avoid a panic). It is the US military/intelligence community that does not want the truth about advanced aliens visiting from outer space to be revealed, since that would undermine US military and economic dominance of the world. This elaborate coverup has been going on for almost 60 years. See ufocoverup.org for more info
Where to start …
“… the aliens have already made contact with some governments, particularly the US government …” followed by “It is the US military/intelligence community that does not want the truth about advanced aliens visiting from outer space to be revealed, since that would undermine US military and economic dominance of the world.”
The US government is involved in friendly relations with an alien civilization(s) – presumably to a much greater extent than any other world government, going by your comment – and yet they’re afraid that it will undermine military/economic dominance? Wouldn’t the exact opposite be true? Imagine all the neat alien technology they would be able to get their hands on – good for weapons (military) and good for selling (economic). Being friendly with aliens would be a good way to *ensure* dominance, not the other way around.
Contradictory statement 1.
“They are just waiting for the governments to reveal their existence.” followed by “UFOs and aliens often create a display (like a spiral over Norway or even crop circles) to draw attention to their presence without actually coming out in the open. They would prefer the governments of the world to announce their existence rather than do it themselves (mainly to avoid a panic).”
So they care enough about staying secret to allow the government to carry out all this shady cover-up business that is designed solely to ensure political dominance over the world … but at the same time they don’t care about flying around non-secretively or creating huge spectacles for thousands of people at a time?
Contradictory statement 2.
You also state that they don’t want to start a panic? So why do they spend their time creating strange lightshows, or putting weird patterns into crops, or following cars down lonely highways in the middle of the night, or abducting people, or *insert any other common UFO story here*. If they didn’t want to start a panic, they wouldn’t do *any* of the above.
Contradictory statement 3.
(Also, the Norway spiral had a very human origin, as do crop circles. Why such cliché examples?)
“This elaborate coverup has been going on for almost 60 years.”
“Elaborate” coverups usually aren’t so internally inconsistent. 😉
It looks almost as if they use the gravitational force of the Earth outward with dark matter as the source components of the engine maybe? And it shoots off with a magnetic push of some sorts.
So please explain how dark matter can be used.
Please no fuzzy claim, start with an accurate description what dark matter is. Then we can use that to determine if it could be used the way you described.
I think the evidence you present here and the so called skeptic is extremely weak. I understand the immense challenges that traveling interstellar distances pose and with that it leaves me extremely skeptical as well, but as it stands saying it’s a flashlight then brushing all these videos under the carpet seems very unscientific.
Yes, let’s see, aliens fly across light years, expending the stupendous resources that would require, in order to hover and blink for a minute over some building before vanishing … or someone’s pulling a trivially easy prank using modern video editing software. Wow, this is a really, really hard choice here. XD
why does anyone even WANT to believe in aliens and UFOs? your life here not exiting enough for you guys?
come on, everyone… let’s plan for & do more to go out there into to universe FIRST!
A new viral UFO video, a new wave of uncritical responses.
My first reaction to these videos, especially in response to quotes like that by ufojack, …
“If it’s not real, it’s the best ufo ever made.”
… is, how are low resolution videos of a fuzzy blob – something that even *I* could convincingly whip up on my computer in only a short amount of time – at all compelling or worthy of the description “best ufo ever made”? I’m not claiming that the videos *are* definitely fake … but – especially with the popularity of viral marketing – why is ‘fuzzy ball moving about the screen’ such a big deal? I’ve even had somebody tell me that the poor quality of the video is what *makes* it so convincing. I don’t know what kind of mental gymnastics you need to do to make that argument seem reasonable.
It seems that the worse a UFO video is, the more loudly it is proclaimed as convincing evidence.
THUD! [head hitting desk]. I see the cousins of the 2012 crowd have arrived in force.
@Paul, mine too, must be because S***ce.com screwed up their web site and forum. Prepare to abandon intellect all ye who enter here….
Hmmm. Looks like this video has a lot of people snookered (as was intended, by HUMAN design). Fox News(!) has reported this video is part of a marketing scheme for the upcoming movie “Battle: Los Angeles” : http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/07/dome-rock-ufo-just-marketing-stunt/
From the article:
“It’s beginning to look just as likely that they’re part of a viral marketing stunt for a Hollywood movie, however. Several skeptical YouTube users have pointed out how the UFO clips appear to have been digitally manipulated.
That hasn’t stopped one of the videos (the Jerusalem UFO) clocking up more than a million views, just a few weeks before the release of “Battle: Los Angeles”.
Official teasers for the alien invasion flick use footage from documented UFO sightings to promote the film, and its marketing team has dabbled in online stunts before.
Last June posters at the Comic-Con expo directed people to reportthreats.org, a website apparently run by a group called Worldwide Assessment of Threats Concerning Humankind, or WATCH.
The website was, of course, part of the promotional campaign for the film.”
_______________________________________
Check out the movie’s website for more “UFO videos”. Should be quite revealing how many will still cling to the notion that this was an alien craft under the control of alien intelligence.
“Norway Spiral”?……”crop circles”?…….[facepalm]
Sigh…as with any UFO article ever posted here on Universe Today, this one is filled with many assumptions that don’t follow the scientific method.
1. I’ve reviewed the video, and while it certainly can’t be proven to be an interstellar vehicle, assuming it’s a flashlight reflected through a pane of glass is an embarrassing assumption. If it were possible to create that effect with a simple flashlight, we would’ve seen this trick hundreds of times before.
2. Saying there can be no advanced races out there in close proximity to our part of the galaxy assumes- incorrectly- all of the following:
A. The rate of planet/life development has been consistent throughout the galaxy as it was in our own solar system. That is incorrect, as astronomers have already found extrasolar planets that they estimate are far older than 5BY.
B. That another advanced civilization has a radio bubble like we do. Perhaps more advanced civilizations no longer use radio. Perhaps they’ve found a way to scramble their transmissions so they only sound like static.
Even reading Paul Davies’ SETI book, he admits that if SETI did discover a signal, they first have to report it to the government and nobody else. Good luck having the government tell us.
JIm
I’ve reviewed the video, and while it certainly can’t be proven to be an interstellar vehicle, assuming it’s a flashlight reflected through a pane of glass is an embarrassing assumption. If it were possible to create that effect with a simple flashlight, we would’ve seen this trick hundreds of times before.
Wait a moment. You mean you can’t do it with a flash-light thus it must be aliens?
What about just plan stupid effects effects?
Wha? Talk about an incorrect assumption.
I think it’s funny that you’re being aggressive towards the views of other, yet your explanation, “effects effects”, holds less weight than any of the other theories here. Keep trying…
Where did I claim that special effects was in to place?
I just gave an alternate option that does not involve the aliens must be real mantra. I can list another 3 possible alternatives that does not require a alien to explain this.
all those “scraping the barrel” complex explanations, pains of glass, etc… and the actually _wrong_ statement that the “wow” reaction came before the event discredit the skeptics and, in the mind of a true believer, are proof that the true believers are right. “Professional Skeptics” can sometimes be not very different from “True Believers” in the BS they serve up.
I’ve been working for some decades in special effects engineering and editing. To judge by the edges of the image, by the edges of the alleged UFO and by the (lack of) the way the light from the alleged UFO interacts with the rest of the scene – including, but not limited to the (afaik) metallic temple cupola – it became clear to me very quickly:
The “UFO” was almost certainly added as a post process, and the same is true for the camera shake
I am almost dumbfounded. I can not believe that you qualify yourself, prior to the so obviously incorrect reason for this being fake ( The guy yells ‘Whoa’ before the object jumps into the sky, not after.”) as being “Astronomers and perhaps meteorologists are perhaps the only bunch of people who have real experience studying things in the sky” The exasperation reaction is to the flash just prior to the object jumping into the sky.
I’m not saying this is a real video of an actual alien spacecraft.
It is so obvious that this very first stated reason for this being fake, which should be your strongest argument, is incorrect, that it leads one to assume that you quickly discounted this video for fear of being labeled in the scientific community as a nut. I understand the fear of being labeled by your pears for seaming like you are believing in something that latter turns out to be fake. But, you really should, at the very least, look at these types of videos with a more open mind, because when a video comes along like this one, we count on the true scientists to point out to us the LEGITIMATE reasons for it being real or not real.
Must be a HUGE window to be effective at 2+ quite separate locations… Kudos to another insightful and well thought out debunking…
Yeah, because it’s physically impossible to carry a pane of glass from place to place. 🙂
Who says that it must be glass? I would use something lighter, like plastic 🙂
The best evidence for actual extraterrestrial is, and will remain, the Billy Meier contacts. After one year of holding on to my own personal evidence for the case’s authenticity, I have published it:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/02/prweb5042834.htm
Read the information linked from this article and THINK through the documentation. It’s long past time to stop chasing lights in the sky and to understand the reason for the only authentic UFO contact case…still ongoing for more than 69 years.
SO these aliens that Billy has been in contact with come from the Pleiades do they? Has Billy any idea what the stars in the cluster are actually like? No, I thought not. These stars are young [100 million years old], hot blue stars [spectral class B if memory serves me correctly]. Under current theories and understanding of the evolution of life/planets there is virtually no chance of planets having formed properly i.e. they’re almost certainly covered in exposed magma and or volcanoes, they will be bombarded by u.v. radiation, huge asteroids etc and the chances of life having evolved to the point of contacting Billy Meier or even their neighbour in the pool of lava next door to them is zero. Why do lunatics ALWAYS choose a star system for their contacts to come from that is an inferno of blazing radiation?
Regarding our rigor-challenged friends: Carl Sagan bemoaned loudly and often the lack of awareness in our country about science. Our friends are hanging out here with us and some could conceivably have scientific method and ethic rub off on them. Be careful what you wish for, doc; we’ll just need to be patient.
I am no expert but my guess was and still is the vid is a fake, lots of lighting issues in my humble opinion… However we must keep an open mind… many of today’s accepted concepts, ideas, facts etc were ridiculed or called far-fetched and crazy at some point in human history.
I have an issue with the statement that “Chances are pretty slim” of intelligent life being out there in this Universe. To put into perspective the size of this Universe Just look at our solar system as a “grain of sand” in a beach that is 10 miles long. To sit there and say that intelligent life only exist on our little grain of sand is completely absurd.
I agree Rafael, but the universe is not just a “small beatch”(I know you now that), we can´t imagine how great it is, it is unimaginable, our “fuses” would burn, just by imagine it. 🙂
Would it be “10 miles” long, there just had to be something after the end, Space, Universe… There is no “same part of the universe”, does anyone know on wich part we are? Does anyone know any part? Can we consider it a part?? Will we ever know a part? We know nothing, we are just an insignificant planet in THE Universe that is not big not small, it is all. Life is everywhere, There just have to be conditions on other planets to habbit life, even different life, it all depends on lots of coincidences, we are certainly not from earth, we are from the Universe, Earth conditions allowed develop of humans, and also to be as we are, were and will be, and the other species that live with us to be as they are, and other extinct were, dinossaurs had other coditions, but there are more out there, so many, so different and also common, we share the same origin.
The vid is probably fake…
MR. Larry Robinson “The guy yells ‘Whoa’ before the object jumps into the sky”, well I think he yells “Whoa” because of the Flash before the object jumps up.
Greetings
On the right camera you can see the flash coming from the left of the image and then it goes to the city, second 0:54
In the words of @shitmydadsays: “No. Aliens exist. I just don’t think they came millions of light years just to see Earth. Be like driving 1,000 miles to go to an Arby’s”
Just another bit of logical reasoning that I like to throw into these conversations:
Let’s suppose that an alien civilization has visited Earth and is scouting us for some higher purpose only they can be aware of. Perhaps even they have contacted our governments and made some kind of deal to help them cover their tracks. So what does mean for everyone else? The answer quite simply is nothing at all. Any alien civilization that may exist can and should remain irrelevant to us until which time they decide to make themselves known to humanity. So if you ask me whether I care or get caught up in all of the alien conspiracy nonsense, the answer is no. Until they care to contact us, or directly effect my life, I simply don’t give a hoot. Nor should I.
*High fives Chrissyo and Olaf.
I am blown away at the conspiracy theorists comment’s (chrissyo having spared me the task of replying to them directly). They never cease to amaze…and entertain me.
They ignore the fact that no one in the city reported seeing a giant well lit ball hovering a few hundred feet in the air? Not to mention the 2 brilliant flashes of light which appeared very bright even from miles away. I could only imagine how bright those flashes would be if you were nearby. But then I’m sure they’ve have a totally *reasonable* and *logical* explanation for the lack of eye-witness accounts.
How these people survive in today’s world lacking the ability to utilize basic logic and reason, I’ll never know. Even though its been revealed that this was a promotional stunt for a movie, some will still cling to the notion of truth claiming the youtube clips are real.
Believe what you want but I am telling you, other worldly UFO’s are real my friends.
It was the mid 80’s, I was driving my Monte Carlo with three friends in central Wisconsin. We were driving along a river when I happened to look up out the drivers window and saw we were being followed by a saucer shaped UFO. It was apprx 400-500 yards away and without a doubt was not of this earth. My friends and I freaked out and I gunned the Monte to get the hell away from it, well guess what, the UFO matched our speed for apprx 3 minute until moving off in the distance. It was visible a mile or so away for at least five more minutes before shooting up in the sky and disappearing.
The craft was not of this world, without a doubt. It was silent and looked IDENTICAL to many pictures that I have seen on the net. Once again, believe what you want, UFO’s and probably aliens are real. We have been visited.
I have been re-watching the clips.
Right sight is nearly the same location just zoomed in a bit.
Interesting is that the both object starts to drop nearly the same moment, the left a bit earlier. But interestingly the right clip lags behind. This is a zoomed in scene, the object should be lower at the same time as the left object if this was a real objects.
Something I am missing here, something very obvious. Where is the sonic boom? When it departs!
Also something odd. Look at the lights. Overlap them, look at the blue light below and compare the left image with the right image and tell me how it is possible the on the right side there are lights at different positions than the left side? And why are there missing lights on the left side? These video clips are taken on 2 different times.
The right clip seems to be taken from a monitor screen.
The strange thing is that none of the people that filmed it zoom in on the object.
The object takes about 6 seconds to drop. Clearly no free fall.
I think it is interesting to analyse this clip. When I find time. I want to overlap the 2 images taken with screen dumps. See if the lights do match, timing of object, angle of filmed scene. Seems like digitally added and most probably the shake was added afterwards. I could fake it with the stuff I have right here.
It never ceases to amaze me how arrogant humans are, especially the ones we consider the intelligent ones. It is the height of human arrogance and ego that we think we are “all that” and because we can’t travel between stars, then it must be impossible for any other civilization. But it goes even further, as not only do they not think aliens can do it because we can’t but they don’t even believe there are any…or at least not withing a billion light years.
Why? Because of this idea that we are so special there is no possible way there could be anything more intelligent. That is quite a level of arrogance, especially considering we know so little in the grand scheme of things.
We often look back at people of the past and laugh at their ignorance but the same closed minded and unintelligent thinking that caused these people to be ignorant is still strongly present today. That is proven every single time an astronomer or some other scientist proclaims it’s all impossible because we can’t do it or we can’t understand it. Well you know what, people said the same thing not that long ago about so many things today we think are common knowledge. What makes you think you are any different?
Humans are an arrogant, egotistical, and closed minded species. There is no question about that and it’s sad and frustrating that our supposedly brightest minds are some of the worst.
@JW, I have absolutely no doubt that there is alien life out there but this video is another video that cries fake big time.
Where is the sonic boom when the object accelerates clearly faster than the speed of sound?
Why does the flash at 0:55 light the camera but not the bystanders or the surrounding as it were digitally added?
Why are there missing light in the front near the blue light like it was taped on 2 different times? Yes I used Photoshop to lay both images on top of each other and check the position if the lights.
@ jw
You are right there. Humans are indeed an arrogant, egotistical, and closed minded species but that’s the limit our design :). We were built this way so we can’t easily notice the truth – I’d rather say we have been designed to be handicapped in a way.
As an example, lets imagine a human would be born both blind and deaf, what remains is the sense of touch – well except breathing of course. This handicapped human will adjust accordingly to what he/she has at their disposal of course and at some point of their life, lets say in their mid 30’s, modern medicine found a solution to their disabilties – the sense of hearing and seeing would probably make this human crazy 🙂 – it’s overwhelming enough not knowing since birth what hearing and seeing can offer – to be able to understand (if capable of understanding) many truths that surrounds us….
This is where we humans are at. We have been designed to be handicapped. We thought we have it all but no, there’s more. We just don’t know it yet or maybe never will. Who knows what other sensory parts humans can have which will enable us to understand the truth better.