UFO story

[Fictionarious]

I have never personally seen a UFO. However I have always been fascinated by them (especially the rare scientific study of them), and I was a secondhand witness to an "alien encounter" ten minutes after the fact last night. This is the tale.

I was at my grandmother's house where my father lives and the phone rings. It's his good friend, a famous record collector, and he's saying that his granddaughter and her three friends (ages probably 10-16 I'd say) just saw a UFO and got SOLID PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE of it. Needless to say, I was interested. And also mildly pissed, because I had always figured that if UFOs were ever going to rear their head in my boring town it would be around me, you know? I guess I've got a bit of a sense of entitlement when it comes to paranormality.
So my Dad's friend, Joe, invites us over to see.

When me and my Dad arrive there are the four girls huddled around the laptop in the family room, with their mother standing nearby and Joe on the couch. The pictures were what I was not entirely prepared for, and I wish I knew the girls well enough to actually be able to post them right now but I really don't. Everyone there was still in that shock-state of almost joke-paranoia (where when someone mentioned why a lamp light was flickering normally the immediate response from the girls was " the aliens!", followed by frightened giggling) and the family said they were afraid to send the pictures over email for whatever reason (maybe they're anticipating a cover-up?).
Anyway, if you Google "black triangle UFO", the artist interpretations and occasional photos there approximate the four clear digital photographs these girls got. But they don't do them justice.

There is no outline of any "ship" in any of the four photos. In two of the pictures, are three large equidistant glowing white lights in a triangle pattern against he black of the night, no skyline for size or distance estimators. The lights were sized only slightly differently, small, medium, and large; the medium one having a tint of green to it. The pictures were clear and zoomed-in, not fuzzy and shitty.
In the third picture, a light in the middle of the triangle is on, like the others.
The fourth picture is of the streaks of light that the thing made in motion. It must have moved pretty rapidly when it did for that effect. But the craft, according to the girls, was absolutely silent.

I must stress that the pictures were clear and not available from any image search that I've yet done.
I must stress that these are tween and teen girls from a family that I intuit to be pretty conservative who have, as far as I can perceive, neither the means nor the motive to hoax this sighting of which they have proof and then tell everyone in their family and their family's friends about it. To be honest it was a stroke of luck for for me to still have been with my father when I was last night.
Also the girls only had the camera with them because they left it by their pool and they had gone back after dark to get it.
Coming from an empirical atheistic standpoint, I have only one thing to say to this experience:
What the fuck?
What do you guys make of this? Any interesting links? Is it extraterrestrials or paramilitary? What are your general beliefs pertaining to UFOs, if you believe this story exactly as Ive told it, because there was seriously something in the sky last night that freaked these girls out and I'm still waiting to hear exactly what comes of it and learn exactly what the fuck it was.

 

[lrkun]

Be skeptical about it and look for evidence. To claim that it is true or not should is okay, because that is just a guess. The difficult part is to support it with basis or grounds. Until then your story could be considered as heresay.

P.s. Interesting story. Post some pics about what you saw.

 

[creamcheese]

While I am obviously not fully informed about the situation as I have not seen this photographic evidence, I'd say it was probably an aircraft of some sort or another. Could have simply been far enough away or drowned out by local noise sources.

If by UFO you mean extraterrestrials, then I'd say the girls are an unreliable source and you will probably never know whether that's what this was, but it is unlikely in the extreme.

If by UFO you mean unidentified flying object, then I'd say you have now seen a picture of a UFO(s). It apparently flew, it is presumably one object or a group in close formation, and it is unidentified.

 

[Fictionarious]

Just want to clear this one up right now because this is what I always thought, "well maybe a lot of UFO reports are just airplanes from far away or weird looking airplanes..."
NO. I'm sure a lot that get reported are just that, but I can assure everyone here that as a skeptical long-time frequenter of LoR who has seen a lot of airplanes both at night and during the day,
THIS WAS NOT AN AIRPLANE.

Imagine this but without any outline of the craft at all, white instead of orange lights, and better picture quality.

I'm going to keep asking my Dad about what they do with those photos, since I'd love to have copies, but since it's really four degrees of separation I don't feel entirely normal demanding them or even asking about them directly.

edit: Also I should mention that the craft was apparently close enough to them to have illuminated a portion of the ground that was within their normal viewing range, as that's what drew the attention of the first one who saw it, who said the sky was blank one second and that it was sort of just there the next.

 

[creamcheese]

THIS WAS NOT AN AIRPLANE.

I'll defer to you since you have actually seen the photos, but I'd also caution that atmospheric effects can make some things look really odd (remember that russian missile test with the odd spiral?). Or maybe it was an aerial tram car, or a meteor, or something else. Aliens is a last resort. It's also possible that the ground illumination had nothing to do with the flying objects, that either the girls or someone else was fabricating a hoax, etc etc.

 

[Fictionarious]

Personally I agree that "aliens" theory is a last resort, especially with camp David and camp who-knows-what being relatively close to us, it's probably paramilitary (or just military rather, just wikied the word, slight misuse).
I'd have to secure the photos (which are really beautiful shots actually, full screen close up shots of these big glowing lights in an equidistant triangle formation) in order to convince people here of my sincerity when I say this is either paramilitary or extraterrestrial. The girls had been swimming the whole afternoon, taking swimming pictures, so it's not like they had the time or the wherewithal to hoax anything, and since the pictures (multiple pictures) are of glowing lights of white and white-green, with consistent sizes and spacing, both stationary and in streaking motion, it would very much surprise me if this was a hoax anyone could have pulled off, especially having been in the house ten minutes after it happened as the newspaper was being called to see if they wanted it for a story (they didn't).

 

[MRaverz]

For a proper evaluation, we need to see those photographs. As such, I can't really comment further than the others already have.

Plus, is it possible that the children may have forged the image themselves? It's not really that hard to fake a 'lights in the sky' image.

 

[Fictionarious]

Eh, not with a timestamp uploaded from a camera in full view of the parents, four of them together having the acting skills necessary to act freaked out and one of them knowing photoshop well enough to make four consistent...
No it's really not, having seen them and been there.
I mean, not to stereotype, but I didn't think that faking photographic UFO evidence (well) was a common hobby among girls ages 10-16.

 

[lrkun]

I'll be blunt. I think it's heresay. Of course the correct answer is that we do not know. I can't just make the leap of faith or hope that you have, but if it can be proven. Sweet.

 

[RedYellow]

Would be cool if it was aliens, though. I mean nothing about being an atheist excludes the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrials capable of interstellar travel. Aliens would be more likely than God, right?

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

Here is what I can tell you:
1. You weren't there. You can't backup their stories (from the details to generic bulks of the story) either they have fabricated it or not.
2. Stories have a way to become fantastic and bullet proof when told by biased persons and yet still be completly bullshit.
3. Your description of the details indicates that the pictures were not that clear as you seem to sugest, neither the rest of the story.

Here is what you can do:
1. Ask them for the pictures and post them here.
2. If you are confortable with it PM me the LLA (latitude longitude, altitude not needed) coordinates of the location preferably precise to the second of degree (you can do it with a GPS if you are there, or find the place in google earth). This will allow me to put thing in context.

 

[Story]

It's really hard to believe something that has tons of blurry photoshoppic evidence in support of it. To find the one non blurred evidence just appears to be better skills at photoshop than actual evidence. I suppose the question would be: Why now?

It's difficult to come to a conclusion, especially because you seem very impressed with their spectacle so we can't discern what you may have missed or not.

I'd love to see this evidence, but I'm not convinced.

 

[DeusExNihilum]

Until the pictures can be posted and, more importantly, verified as genuine the most reasonable conclusion we can draw is that some youngish girls, at night, claim to of seen something they can't explain, and you're claiming that there is pictorial evidence.

As of right now, you've got a bunch of claims but absolutely nothing to back them up.

You are also displaying possibly bias and having already partially drawn a conclusion. In your opening paragraph you say you were witness to an "Alien encounter" though all you have is pictures of something you can't identify. I'm aware you might of said that with your tongue in your cheek, but my statement is just in case you're being serious.

But, on the whole, the internet is full of UFO pictures, but no compelling evidence that they're valid or Extra-terrestrial. What you have is a fairly common UFO encounter story that is, on the surface, no more or less valid than any other, nor includes any more detail or evidence.

 

[mirandansa]

I'm overwhelmed by the fact that the number of stars in this universe is said to be likely 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Stephen Hawking recognises the high probability of extraterrestrial life. I believe we are not alone in this universe.

But UFO is another thing. Many reports are confirmedly or unconfirmedly fake. Some remain as genuinely mysterious phenomena. They could be meteorological or astronomical in nature. Or they could be terrestrial military/civil artefacts. Or they could be extra-terrestrial artefacts. Or, at least as a possibility, they could be terrestrial but from a distant future. It's fun to think about them.

Some allege that Obama is aware of their extra-terrestrial origin. If that's true, it's very unfortunate that he should keep it secret.

I was once fascinated by Nassim Haramein's idea that the sun is a blackhole and serves as an inter-galactic gateway:



You can see from 6:13 that the sun does appear to "suck in" flares. In the following video from 4:30, Haramein says some more interesting stuffs about the sun:



The original NASA video depicts two supposedly "earth-sized things" approaching the sun with no "tail" that is expected of a comet, and, soon after that, the sun explodes. NASA, upon being inquired of the absence of tail, took down the video and then put it up again, in which somehow tails appear.

If his hypothesis is complete nonsense, I would really like to see it debunked with due expert analysis (there are many people who buy into it). Another reason to look forward to the coming new Discovery Networks series "Bad Universe".

As for Nassim's physics, someone has taken on the job of debunking it:
http://azureworld.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

 

[Duvelthehobbit666]

All I can say it is that it might be fake. The evidence shows that either all UFO sightings are either hoaxes or misinterpretations of planes and other regular terrestrial objects. There was a case of a cop chasing what he believed to be an alien craft and it was moving side to side across the sky. It turned out the cop was chasing Venus and the moving was cased by the cop driving down a winding road. I would say that it is just a misinterpretation but I need more evidence to be sure. And remember what Neil DeGrasse Tyson says. "Remember what the U stands for in UFO"

 

[Commander Eagle]

I'm overwhelmed by the fact that the number of stars in this universe is said to be likely 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Not quite. That's the upper limit of estimates of stars in the observable universe. The key words are "upper limit" and "observable". The lower limit places that number at around 3 x10^22, and there are many, many more stars outside that boundary.

Stephen Hawking recognises the high probability of extraterrestrial life. I believe we are not alone in this universe.

I doubt that anyone here disagrees.

But UFO is another thing. Many reports are confirmedly or unconfirmedly fake. Some remain as genuinely mysterious phenomena.

But not, repeat not, confirmed extraterrestrial visitation.

They could be meteorological or astronomical in nature. Or they could be terrestrial military/civil artefacts. Or they could be extra-terrestrial artefacts.

With a near-infinite drop in likelihood on the last possibility.

Consider:

For the sake of discussion, we'll put the number of stars in the observable universe at 5 x10^22 - a nice middle-range number. Now, the age of the universe is around fourteen billion years, and the first planet might have formed as early as thirteen billion years ago. Assuming that this first planet was capable of supporting life, it would be around half a billion years (judging by Earth's timeline) before the earliest life forms appeared. That leaves twelve and a half billion years for this first life to evolve to the point that it is capable of creating interstellar travel.
It took life on Earth about four billion years to reach the point where we existed. That leaves eight point five billion years for these newly-formed intelligent life forms to build vehicles capable of interstellar travel and reach Earth. For the sake of simplicity, let's say that they created these vehicles instantly, leaving them eight point five billion years to travel.
Now, how many of the planets within eight point five billion light-years of us contain intelligent life? How much of that intelligent life is capable of interstellar travel? What are the odds that they chose to visit this solar system out of the multiple galaxies full of stars available for them to choose from?

TL;DR: Not bloody likely.

Some allege that Obama is aware of their extra-terrestrial origin. If that's true, it's very unfortunate that he should keep it secret.

What evidence is there that he is?

I was once fascinated by Nassim Haramein's idea that the sun is a blackhole and serves as an inter-galactic gateway:

Lunacy. The sun is not a black hole. Haramein is an idiot.

For a more comprehensive debunking, you could try these threads at the JREF.

 

[Fictionarious]

In your opening paragraph you say you were witness to an "Alien encounter" though all you have is pictures of something you can't identify. I'm aware you might of said that with your tongue in your cheek, but my statement is just in case you're being serious.

Yeah, that was pretty much toungue-in-cheek. Im a fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson and agree with that quote about remembering what the U stands for in UFO btw everybody. I may have given the impression of predetermined conclusion, but I honestly haven't reached one yet about what the UFO was, only that it very likely was. I just had to share my curiosity with fellow skeptics.
But for anyone hoping to see the photographic evidence hopefully Ill be getting it tonight so I can post it. Hopefully.
The girls reported all the details of the encounter to MUFON, and took their evidence to some type of expert in the area who apparently said they were some of the best UFO photos he'd seen in his career or something like that. Further updates pending.

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

This is just more of the "triangle UFOs" which are generally considered to be "black projects" from Area 51.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[mirandansa]

Lunacy. The sun is not a black hole. Haramein is an idiot.

Right, but i'm still intrigued by that two bizarre objects in the video he presented. Here's a clearer one (from 3:00):



What are these objects? And is the big plasma ejection just a coincidence?

Also about the prominences (flames) being sucked into the black spot in the other video from 6:13: what caused this? Gravity?

 

[Anachronous Rex]

Seriously? What possible basis does he have for saying they're under intelligent control? He notes that they're 'following' each other, but it's far more likely that they're simply two pieces of the same comet that has broken up, and therefore share the same trajectory. This happens.