There is hardly a person who would not like to learn from the newspapers one morning that in the vicinity of the Earth there appeared spaceships of our distant "brothers in mind" - the inhabitants of other stellar worlds. However, no matter how strong this desire may be, it in itself cannot become a real fact. That is why the enthusiasts of "space aliens" must first of all thoroughly investigate information about the appearance of mysterious objects in the sky, impartially seeking to find confirmation of their hypotheses or to find the error they have made.
For many years, at the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, under the leadership of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Vladimir Vasilyevich Migulin, anomalous phenomena in the atmosphere have been studied - those that we habitually associate with UFOs (unidentified flying objects). Information comes from all over the country, a large file of observations has been collected, all facts are carefully analyzed. And although in the overwhelming majority of cases the research did not give the desired result for many - alien vehicles have not yet been discovered - the collection and study of materials does not stop. First, it allows a deeper understanding of the impact of technology on the atmosphere. Secondly, a filter has been created, which will surely highlight the phenomena associated with an alien civilization, if they really happen.
The publishing house "Nauka" is preparing for publication a book by Yu. V. Platov and V. V. Rubtsov "UFOs and modern science", in which the authors investigate the problem in detail. We bring fragments of this book to your attention.
Of the huge number of recorded and studied cases of UFO sightings, we will consider only a few. They may not be the most exotic, but they are certainly of interest as the most typical and widely covered in the press.
1. "UFO LANDING" UNDER THE SERPHOV
“On August 20, 1977, at about half past midnight, a group of mushroom pickers walked along a field road, looking for a place to spend the night, suggesting to rest in a haystack until dawn. Suddenly, their attention was attracted by voices, which stopped as suddenly as they had appeared. When half an hour later the mushroom pickers settled down for the night, a luminous body suddenly appeared about three hundred meters away, at about the same place where the voices were heard. It looked like a light bulb with the base down, but the area around it did not illuminate. According to estimates made much later, its height was about 15 meters, and the largest diameter was 10 meters. The body rose up without sound and entered a grayish cloud that suddenly appeared in the clear starry sky. Moreover, it seemed already a bright star. Soon, both the body and the cloud disappeared. In the morning at the take-off site, mushroom pickers found a dent in the ground with a diameter of about 4 meters with badly crumpled grass.
Here is a summary of the information received from eyewitnesses of the event. The site of the observed "UFO take-off" was subsequently repeatedly visited by groups of enthusiasts for visual inspection, measurements and sampling. According to the results of these studies, it was found that the "place of UFO contact" with the earth's surface is an "active spot" with a diameter of about 4 meters, with four petals ranging from 30 to 40 meters long. The following anomalies were found in this area:
charred roots of wheatgrass, as after exposure to microwave radiation, decreased vital activity of protozoa, as well as the curiosity of dogs, which in this place "dug the earth with their paws."
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It was concluded that mushroom pickers at night passed by a UFO that landed. The crew hid when they appeared and, in order to avoid unforeseen contacts, soon flew away on a flask-shaped ship. The impact on the soil has a long-term character and in its characteristics coincides with the data obtained abroad.
2. PETROZAVODSKY PHENOMENON
Description of the phenomenon was given in the newspaper "Izvestia" for September 23, 1977 in an article entitled "Unidentified phenomenon of nature."
“Residents of Petrozavodsk have witnessed an unusual natural phenomenon. On September 20, at about four o'clock in the morning, a huge "star" suddenly flashed in the dark sky, impulsively sending sheaves of light to the earth. This 'arrival' slowly moved towards Petrozavodsk and, spreading over it in the form of a huge "jellyfish", hung, showering the city with a multitude of the finest ray streams, which gave the impression of pouring rain.
After a while, the ray glow ceased. "Medusa" turned into a bright semicircle and resumed its movement towards Lake Onega, the horizon of which was enveloped in gray clouds. In this veil, then a semicircular hole of bright red color in the middle and white on the sides formed. The whole phenomenon, according to eyewitnesses, lasted 10-12 minutes.
The director of the Petrozavodsk hydrometeorological observatory Y. Gromov told the TASS correspondent that the workers of the meteorological service of Karelia did not observe any analogues in nature. What caused this phenomenon, what is its nature, remains a mystery, because no sharp deviations in the atmosphere, not only over the last day, but also on the way to them, have not been registered. “We also know,” Gromov emphasized, “that no technical experiments were carried out in our area at that time.” It is also impossible to attribute all this to the category of mirages, because this unusual phenomenon has many eyewitnesses, whose testimonies are identical, although they happened to observe a rare phenomenon that did not leave material evidence behind it from different parts of the city.
A. Mezentsev, an employee of Petrozavodsk University, estimated the distance to the “object” and its dimensions based on triangulation calculations based on eyewitness data. Reliably established, however, can be considered only the lower (minimum) estimate of the height of the 'object' and the distance to it - 7.5 km and 19 km, respectively.
3. GLOBAL UFO SURVEYS JUNE 14, 1980
On the night of June 14-15, 1980, a strange luminous object in the form of an "airship" was observed in a large territory of the central part of our country - this is how some eyewitnesses determined its shape. The analysis of the messages, carried out by F. Siegel and other enthusiasts, allowed them to assume that the object performed complex maneuvers, changing altitude, hovering over cities, and then disappeared at dawn. During this movement, "the separation of various smaller bodies, which scattered across the night sky in different directions," took place. Eyewitnesses reported psychiatric influences, and two Muscovites said they saw "boats" from the "Main Object" landing on the street in front of their houses, from which little "little men" emerged.
“The UFO was extremely similar to the one that sailed over Petrozavodsk on the night of September 20, 1977, although this one seemed much larger … It was a really terrible sight, I immediately realized that the reddish semicircle must be an extraterrestrial spacecraft, as I studied UFOs for many years … - this is how one of the observers described his impressions.
Interestingly, on the same day, UFOs, about an hour later, made a uniform raid on a number of countries in South America:
1) Buenos Aires, George Newburn Airport. According to the operator on duty at the control tower, at 07:00 local time, a luminous ring was seen in a completely clear sky. It hovered for 4 minutes. The controllers believed that it was located at an altitude of about 400 meters, less than a kilometer from the control tower. The foggy object appeared to be approaching the aircraft and control tower, threatening to collide. The pilots of the two planes preparing for takeoff reported that they also see the object. The control room postponed their takeoff until the object disappeared. Nothing was detected on the airport radars.
A similar phenomenon was observed that day in other cities in Argentina.
2) Cordoba, airport. 400 miles from Buenos Aires, a strange cloud was recorded by an airport dispatcher and the crew of an Argentine airline plane. There was no radar confirmation. Observation time is from 7 (19) hours 1 minute to 7 hours 6 minutes in the afternoon.
3) Drouant. Four professors from the federal university in Goya saw a luminous object that appeared in the southwest, passed under the moon and disappeared in the northeast between 7 and 8 pm.
Photographs of this object were also obtained, which in the pictures looked like a hot sphere with diffuse outlines and a less bright center. The image was somewhat like a "donut" with angular dimensions of about one and a half degrees.
4. "GLOWING BALL"
"… I am writing because I witnessed a very unusual phenomenon, which, from my point of view, cannot be explained. On the night of May 15, 1981, having stopped for the night next to the road near the town of Rudnya, Smolensk region (Odessa-Leningrad highway), At about two o'clock in the morning, we saw a luminous disk appear above the bushes on the other side of the field, resembling the edge of the setting sun, but having a complex structure, somewhat reminiscent of a pumpkin. Judging by the angular size and distance, the size of this "pumpkin" was 15- 25 meters. The upper part was much brighter - the "lantern." This part, together with the hemisphere, slowly and evenly rose. The top swirled, and stripes that had a flowing appearance went down … Pretty soon the "lantern" turned into a luminous point, and then disappeared from the field vision. There were no sounds during the development of the phenomenon. It was a starry night without a single cloud. The impression was eerie. The comrade woke me up only because he was scared that we might catch fire from this luminous formation. All this lasted about 3-5 minutes. In the morning we didn't go to that place …"
And here is another message about the events of May 15, 1981, from Moscow.
"… and 1 hour 43 minutes I noticed a bright source of light in the dark sky. To the northwest of my house was clearly visible a luminous ball a little smaller than the full moon. It was surrounded by a halo. A reddish cloud was illuminated from the luminous ball with a directed beam of light, For some time, 20-30 seconds, the ball remained motionless above the cloud, then with increasing speed began to move away in the northwest direction, rapidly decreasing in size, and turned into a small luminous point, and then disappeared completely ".
The above events were chosen as some of the most famous in their time, therefore, we will focus on the interpretation of precisely these phenomena, although the principle of analysis itself can easily be transferred to other cases of observing strange effects.
To begin with, we note that, according to the TASS report, on September 20, 1977 in the USSR, another satellite "Cosmos 955" was launched from a test site near the town of Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk region. It happened at 4 hours 1 minute Moscow time. It was on this day that an unidentified object appeared over Petrozavodsk. On the night of June 15, 1980 and May 15, 1981, artificial earth satellites were also launched from the Plesetsk test site, and the launch time exactly coincides with the appearance of luminous objects in the sky, mistaken for UFOs. (This coincidence is typical for many cases of observing mysterious space objects.) Where the eyewitnesses were at the time of the observations, it was deep night, and the entire trajectory of the satellite's orbit (except for a small initial segment) took place in areas already illuminated by the sun,since the cosmodrome is located in the north and in summer, during the white nights, the sun sets below the horizon for a short time.
Almost all the observed mysterious effects were due to the scattering of sunlight on a cloud of gas and dust created by the engines of these launch vehicles. Many eyewitnesses also drew attention to a bright "dot" in front of the formation they observed, which, according to some descriptions, "separated from the main object and went forward." This "point" was nothing more than the torch of a rocket engine, that is, incandescent gases escaping from the nozzle.
Several hypotheses have been put forward regarding the nature of the phenomenon observed over South America. One of the first explanations for this effect was that it was a barium cloud ejected from a rocket at high altitude for research purposes. This hypothesis explained the shape of the object of observation, but did not agree with its rapid movement across the sky. In addition, to a direct request, a response was received from the proving ground that no experiments were carried out that day.
Yet another hypothesis suggested that the observed phenomenon was associated with a "frosty cloud front" acting as a prism. Atmospheric physicists categorically rejected this possibility.
It was suggested that this was a consequence of the test of a neutron bomb in Antarctica, that the strange effect was determined by the reflection of light from the Earth by the Moon, etc. All these hypotheses were untenable.
The first to discover the connection between the phenomena observed in the Soviet Union and over South America was NASA employee James Oberg. Here is what he writes: “I believe that the appearance of a luminous cloud over Argentina and Russia on June 14, 1980 is associated with the launch of the Soviet satellite Kosmos 1188. The specific reason for the observed phenomenon was the discharge of the remaining fuel from the third stage of the launch vehicle, which launched the payload into the reference orbit. The chronology of events follows the usual sequence of actions associated with such launches. A little more than an hour after the launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the satellite passes from the south-west to the north-east over Chile and Argentina … This type of launch is characterized by the operation of the last stage of the carrier over the South Pacific Ocean, while the payload and the third stage are on a high support orbit,reaching at its apogee 650 kilometers … What the Russian observers saw was the actual phase of the launch of this ship. It started a little earlier than midnight, and the engine exhaust jet was illuminated by the midnight Sun, which in summer was shallow under the northern horizon.
In Argentina, they saw a cloud of fuel residues ejected during the flight of the launch vehicle. And again this cloud was illuminated by the Sun, which had recently set in the west …"
D. Oberg also emphasizes the need to be careful when assessing eyewitnesses of such parameters as the distance to the object of observation and its speed. “In Argentina, airline pilots and flight controllers (and these are trained observers), whose subjective assessments are presented to many UFO experts as true real measurements, made big mistakes in their messages. For example, a tower operator at Cordoba airport described the object as taking off from its runway while he was piloting the plane along that runway. In reality, the cloud was at an altitude of about 650 kilometers. The pilot R. Pizzaro observed the object in the air and estimated its speed at 250 km / h - a hundred times less than the real one.
Illumination conditions during the development of the "Petrozavodsk Phenomenon" were somewhat different from those that took place in the above cases. At four o'clock in the morning on September 20, the height of the earth's shadow at the launch site of the carrier rocket was about 200 kilometers, and over Petrozavodsk - 300 kilometers, that is, it was deep night. However, the situation changed along the launch route. At 4 hours 5 minutes, the launch vehicle, on which the second-stage engine was operating at that time, left the area of the earth's shadow, and the gas-dust trail of the engine began to be illuminated by the sun's rays. The coincidence of directions, the nature of movements in the plane of the sky and temporary circumstances exclude the possibility of an accidental coincidence or, if you are extremely careful, make it extremely unlikely.
Comparisons made for data obtained from other observation sites in this region on the same day also confirm the identity of the recorded phenomenon with the effect accompanying the launch of the satellite "Cosmos 955". In addition, there are data from instrumental observations of the "Petrozavodsk phenomenon", which eliminate the last doubts about its physical nature.
Since the effect recorded by the optical patrol service was simultaneously recorded by cameras separated by several hundred kilometers, it is obvious that it developed at a fairly high altitude.
Triangulation calculations confirmed the identity of the observation object with the launch vehicle of the satellite "Cosmos 955". The time of the appearance of the "luminous star", recorded in the observations, coincides well with the calculated moment of exit of the satellite carrier rocket from the zone of the earth's shadow, and the formation of the "jellyfish" - with the moment of separation of the second stage. Since the release of the rocket from the earth's shadow and the separation of the spent stage took place at a sufficiently high altitude, the scattering of combustion products and fuel residues occurred practically without the braking effect of the atmosphere, which led to the formation of a large gas-dust cloud. The scattering of sunlight on this formation created the effect noted by eyewitnesses and recorded by patrol cameras. The specific "jellyfish" shape of the cloud with curved "rays" - jets of gas and dust trail - is associated with the specifics of the rocket engine operation in the transient mode (turning off the second stage engine, turning on the third stage engine).
Thus, the appearance of the glowing cloud over Petrozavodsk can be explained by the optical effects accompanying the launch of the satellite "Kosmos 955".
As for the message about the "UFO landing" near Serpukhov, let's return to the beginning of the story. As you know, binocular vision in humans works quite reliably only at relatively small distances and it is possible to estimate the size of the observed objects and distances only with a certain comparison scale. In this case, there was no such reference - the phenomenon was observed at night against the background of the sky. In such circumstances, we can only talk about the direction to the object of observation and its angular dimensions. Therefore, only this information follows from the data reported by eyewitnesses.
For the same reason, one could say that the phenomenon was observed on the side, where voices were previously heard, but in no way in the same place. The connection between the voices and the phenomenon looks inconclusive, as does the conclusion that the dent discovered in the morning is nothing more than the trace of a UFO landing.
A natural question arises: what does the research carried out, say, conditionally, of the "active spot" have to do with the observed phenomenon? Even taking on trust all the results of the study of this place, one cannot help but think: “Isn't this whole anomaly connected with some very common reason? For example, could not a pile of fertilizers have been dumped in this place, because the place was on the edge of a plowed field?"
There is also a more serious question - how correct are the results obtained by the researchers of this place? Leaving on their conscience the roots of wheatgrass, "charred as after exposure to microwave radiation" (by the way, there is a legitimate doubt - who conducted the study of the effect of microwave radiation on plant roots? At what frequency, what is the radiation power?), Regarding instrumental measurements, we can say that all measured deviations of the parameters do not go beyond the error limits of the instruments used, so that the conclusion about the presence of an anomaly recorded by the instrument is very doubtful.
It seems that the most reliable indicator after biolocation remains the curiosity of the dogs, which in this place "dug the earth with their paws."
Subsequently, members of another group conducted repeated studies of several "UFO landing sites", including near Serpukhov. Omitting the details and the technical side of the measurements carried out, we note that the use of more accurate equipment suitable for operation in the field allowed us to conclude that “the activity of the UFO impact sites” is an effect rather mythical than real.
Facts are stubborn things. In this case, v a number of indirect signs, such as the shape of a UFO - a bulb with a base down, a change in shape - turned into a bright point, the absence of sound effects, etc. alas, with the launch of the rocket. As it turned out, indeed, at that time a launch was made, but not of an Earth satellite, but an ordinary test launch of rocket technology. It remains to add that the launch time corresponded to the observation time, and the observation direction coincided with the direction to the missile launch site. Several years ago, the USSR Academy of Sciences verified five cases of "UFO landings" in the Moscow region, described in the manuscript of F. Siegel. In one case, the main witness - the boy Sergei G. - confessed in a conversation that he had invented the whole story after listening to older children in the pioneer camp. In two cases, the eyewitnesses wished to remain anonymous, in connection with which the question of the reliability of the events remains open. At the meeting, one author of the message literally put it this way: "Well, I did not think that this joke would go so far." We have just dealt with the fifth case.
One of the UFO researchers, R. Cohen, noting that the intelligence services have an extensive UFO file and do not want to publish it, claims that the data from such files, when available, do not contain revelations about alien visits. They only enable intelligence services to sift through reports of UFOs in order to reveal possible space or military secrets, and it is precisely with this that information is classified. As for all sorts of mysterious spaceships that pursue eyewitnesses, destructive rays and other exotics, so far this is undoubtedly the errors of observers, fantasies or falsifications.