Over the last century, there have been a huge number of UFO sightings. Are any of them true? Or is it all a case of mass hysteria, misidentified phenomena, or just bare-faced lying? Let’s join those who claim to have experienced a one-on-one with extraterrestrials from another planet.
FIND OUT MORE: UFO hotspots, sightings, and triangles
The British Rosewell
On December 26, 1980, US Air Force personnel near the joint base at RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters reported seeing unexplained lights in the forest. Lt. Col. Charles I. Halt and others investigated, finding a glowing, metallic object with strange symbols on its surface. The object reportedly moved at high speed and left scorch marks and depressions.
The Belgian Wave
This event is one of the most widely experienced UFO sightings, with an estimated 13,500 witnesses. The Belgian Air Force acknowledged unexplained aerial activity. Starting in late 1989, thousands of people reported seeing large, triangular UFOs. In March 1990, two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to investigate radar contacts of the objects, but the pilots were unable to visually confirm them as the objects moved at high speeds and evaded the radar lock.
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Stephenville, Texas sightings
On January 8, 2008, dozens of residents reported seeing bright white lights in a horizontal arc and then in parallel vertical lines. A local pilot estimated the formation was a mile long and a half-mile wide and moving at high speed with no reported sound. The Air Force stated the lights were from F-16s flying in a military operating area, but many witnesses found this explanation inadequate.
UFO sightings with more credibility
In February 2023, sailors on the USS Jackson reported seeing four objects on radar and visually observing a light emerging from the water off the coast of San Diego. In 2022, a Ryanair pilot reported a black object that passed within 20 meters of their aircraft near Stansted airport.
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Nuclear tests to blame
Many UFO sightings in the post-war period could be related to nuclear tests that were conducted above ground. A recent study, analysing photographs from the Palomar Observatory, revealed a correlation between transient astronomical flashes and both above-ground nuclear weapons tests and reports of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) from the 1950s.
The research found that these brief, bright spots in the sky were 45% more likely to appear on days with nuclear testing and that their number increased in correlation with the number of UAP reports. The findings suggest that the transients and UAP reports may be connected to nuclear weapons activity, providing empirical data beyond eyewitness accounts.
Microwaved lunch – not alien contact
The BBC reported that in 1998, scientists in Australia’s Parkes Observatory in New South Wales picked up unexplainable radio bursts that lasted just a few milliseconds before stopping. The signals, called “perytons,” were short, powerful radio bursts that appeared to originate from the atmosphere around the observatory. They confused scientists because they mimicked some characteristics of genuine fast radio bursts (FRBs) from deep space.
Bizarrely they happened only during office hours and at the same time every day. It had scientists scratching their heads. Until somebody realised this activity coincided with researchers heating up their food. Opening the microwave door before it had pinged led to a radio wave of 2.4GHz. This was picked up by the observatory’s antenna. So, the UFO sightings were actually a piping hot curry or a takeaway spaghetti bolognese.
Identifying the source of the perytons was an important breakthrough, as it allowed astronomers to distinguish these local signals from true extragalactic FRBs, which remain a subject of ongoing research.
