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Observation reports January 2003:

Some of the UFO observations in January 2003 are listed on this page. Please note that these are not studies, but second hand observation reports, although mostly obtained from reliable and well known sources.

MORE METAL SPHERES REPORTED IN PROGRESO, YUCATAN:

Inexplicata writes on February 6, 2003 that another sighting was reported along the Merida to Progreso highway, this time in the vicinity of the Flamboyanes subdivision (5 km from Progreso) at 11:00 p.m.

Mrs. Maria Barrera, the eyewitness in the January 17 report, has seen the phenomenon once more, this time in greater numbers, since eighty spheres were reported on January 29th. On this occasion, the event lasted between 15 to 20 minutes, and the spectacle was also seen by the drivers of several vehicles who pulled over to watch the phenomenon, among them an official vehicle from the Federal Electric Commission. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to report. [The witness] states that she looked carefully at the spheres as they made figure-like shapes in the air, first a rhomboid and then an arrow. The apparent diameter of these spheres, explained Mrs. Barrera, was between 30 and 40 centimeters. She made it clear that the sky has been completely clear on both occasions.

This is the third report of such spheres at the site.

LUMINOUS UFOs HOVER WAIHI, NEW ZEALAND:

On Tuesday, January 28, 2003, at 10:10 p.m., S.L. was at his home in Waihi, North Island, New Zealand when he spotted "stationary light spheres of bright white colour shining in the west, moved from west to east, then made a sudden sharp turn to the south, gaining altitude and speed and then disappearing."

"It was a clear, star-filled night," he reported, "I noticed a bright sphere in the west rising from the horizon. I thought it was a very bright star, but it suddenly started moving east, gaining altitude and speed. It sharply turned south, still gaining altitude. As it gained altitude, it rapidly faded from sight."

"When first spotted, it was approximately the height (altitude) of a light aircraft. But when it disappeared from sight, its altitude must have been measured in miles."

Thanks to Joe Trainor, UFOroundup, for this Email form report.

IT APPEARED TO BE RED IN COLOR AND EMITTED 2 FIREBALLS, IRELAND:

The witness writes from Dun Laoghaire, in the Dublin County:

"I looked out of my bedroom window on January 26, 2003, at 7:07 PM, and heading east was a Fireball that was going slightly faster that a normal aeroplane. It then accelerated to possibly 400 mph plus, and I noticed that it dropped two other fireballs from it that disintegrated. It was a very reddish color (about the color of Mars), and then it made a turn much sharper that an aero plane or any other craft could. From my eyesight, the thing looked about half a centimeter in diameter and it then disappeared. The duration was thirty seconds."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

BURNT "SAUCER CIRCLE" DISCOVERED IN ARGENTINA:

On Sunday, January 26, 2003, residents of San Andres de Giles, in Argentina's Buenos Aires province, discovered "a large circle measuring some 7 meters (23 feet) in diameter, with burned grass and a talc-like ash at its center, on a soybean field south of a cattle ranch."

"Juan Carlos Ferreto was startled upon seeing the perfect circle. All around him, the soybean plants were very green, having a height of 40 centimeters (25 inches) overall, except for the 7-meter section found."

"This event was 'reminiscent of others which occurred in the same spot on September 4, 1981, when another ash-filled circle was discovered. Juan Carlos Mendizabal recalled those events, remembering that, at the time, a large Australian water tank had been drained of water, and the electrical system (fuses, wires and windings--S.C.) had been completely melted."

The 1981 "saucer circle" case was never solved.

Thanks to Scott Corrales y Guillermo Gimenez.

I SAW A WHITE SPOT UFO, GERMANY:

The witness writes from Bensheim:

"My mother-in-law, my wife, my two kids, and I were driving home on January 25, 2003, at 2:03 PM, when we came to a stop at a traffic light in the middle of town. I saw a white spot in the blue sky. At first I thought it was a plane, but then I noticed it wasn't moving. Further in the distance to the right of the object I saw an airplane flying leaving a white trail behind it. This kind of helped me notice it was not moving, and looked too big for a star. Plus the plane and this were the only two things in the sky that I could see. Looking closely, I noticed there was a sort of white, cloudy smoke around it. The object looked like someone took a pencil, dipped the eraser in some paint, and taped it on the sky. I looked away for only 1 or 2 seconds to make sure my wife was looking in the right direction. The car hadn't started moving yet, and the airplane was still in site. It happened very quick. But it was bigger than the airplane for sure. It disappeared after about 15 seconds."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

UFOS SIGHTING, CANADA:

The witness reports from Winnipeg, Manitoba, "I was on my balcony having a smoke, on January 24, 2003, at 9:00 PM, and happened to see three objects moving south across the sky in a triangle formation, and rotating around each other. Then a fourth appeared and they broke formation. Then two disappeared and there was only two left. I called my brother to come look and to my surprise; they kept coming, first one at a time, then four at a time, then six. All together I counted sixteen headed south. They looked like fireworks at first, when they took off strait up in the air. I knew they were not fireworks, but might be jets. But no sound of jet engines could be heard, even at the time when there were six in the sky at one time. There was also a single engine airplane that seemed to be trying to chase the objects."

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director.

RED LIGHT IN SKY, ARKANSAS, USA:

The witness writes from Fort Smith: "My parents and brothers fiancé was fixing to leave to go get some Ice Cream on January 24, 2003, at 6:15 PM, when they left about ten seconds later they rang the door bell many times. I opened the door and it was my Mom saying get out side quick. I ran out and my Mom said look at the light. It was a red circle in the sky that was not too high, but not to low and it was jerking side to side, vertically and horizontally. It was not jerking too fast and it would not move too far when it did jerk. About 50 seconds later it did what was a quick U-turn and took off as if something was moving to get away. It was very fast. My parents drove one way and I drove the other way to see if we couldn't see what it was. Then after that we saw 7 airplanes flying around in the sky. At Ft. Smith airport isn't that busy, and never has that many airplanes around at once."

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director, www.ufocenter.com

DIAMOND DEFINITE SIGHTING BY 2 PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE, ENGLAND:

The witness writes from Dover:

"On a clear starry evening on January 24, 2003, at 6:35 PM, we at first thought it was a shooting star because of the speed. It was a definitely structured craft with four faint lights in a square. That flew from N.E. to S.W. across the sky in about 30 seconds. It was very high and could have been in Earth's atmosphere or in space."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

CYLINDER WAS BEEN SPOTTED OVER THE SKIES OF SALEM, OREGON, USA:

The witness writes from Salem: "On January 22, 2003, at 5:05 PM, the initial report of this sighting came KPTV NEWS Fox 12, via a call to investigator Ron Wright. He in turn contacted KPTV Reporter Shauna Parsons for the full story that they ran. "A UFO has been spotted over the skies of Salem." The witness grabbed his camera and took these pictures of an unidentified flying object. He stated, "I was sitting in my house, and I happened to look up into the west sky and I saw something real bright. at first I thought it was just a jet with a contrail, but I started looking at it, and came out side and looked at it. and it was just really strange cause the trail was right on the plane, and just real bright -- it was brighter than anything I ever seen before." If you look at these pictures of ordinary jet planes -- you can see the long trail they leave. This UFO is probably not an alien craft -- but it's not any ordinary plane either."

He says he asked a few of his friends in the Army Reserve if they knew what kind of plane it could be -- and they were just as puzzled as he was. On 25 Jan. 2003, I spoke with the witness via land line to get more details on the sighting that occurred in Salem. He said, "It was traveling south 20 degrees off horizon at an altitude of approximately; 20,000 to 30,000 feet at 5 AM. It was partly cloudywith a temperature of 48 degrees. He videotaped for 45 seconds. The witness description of the object was cylindrical shape, round and long, brightly lit colors of orange/yellow. Object emitted a flame out the rear of the craft unlike any normal commercial a/c would do, to the extent of 6-7 times the length of the object itself. Again witness described the object as rounded cylinder tube shape, dark gray, which was noticed through his Canon Video cam, which had a zoom of 800X power. Witness also claims that object was moving across the horizon faster than a normal commercial a/c would fly, going from the North to the South 20 degrees off the horizon at a very high rate of speed.

The witness called several law enforcement agencies, and some news stations, KPTV Fox News aired the tape 6 AM on the 23rd of Jan. 2003; they still have the original tape, which will be returned to witness soon. I have asked the witness for a copy of the video which will be available soon.

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director, www.ufocenter.com and to Ron Wright, Director, TRIAD RESEARCH Colo. Spurges, CO. LoneWolf@codenet.net

FLOATING TRIANGLE, FLORIDA, USA:

The witness writes from Wellington: "My teenage son and I were leaving Wellington High School on January 21, 2003, at 7:30 PM after a JV basketball game when we noticed a floating triangle with three lights on each corner just hovering about 200 meters above the ground." It was north of Forest Hill Boulevard about one mile west of Route 441. I lowered my window and turned off the radio to listen for any sound (to see if it was a helicopter) but I couldn't hear any ascertainable aircraft engine noise. I tried to slow down and study the craft but had to move on as we were in traffic. Previously I've seen a traveling "ball of light" with my wife flying 500 meters above the ground at 70 MPH for two miles in Boca which then hovered over the Boca West development for 30 minutes this past summer."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com and Guy, from Boca.

STRANGE WHITE CRAFT WITH CLOAKING DEVICE, MASSACHUSETTS, USA:

The witness writes from Sandwich:

"My Parks Department coworker and I were speaking to our supervisor, truck to truck, when our supervisor drew our attention to what appeared to be ice crystals falling from the sky on January 21, 2003, at 10:15 AM. They were unusual as the were large but, obviously light. We dismissed this as wind blown ice and we drove off. My partner and I then noticed an object in the southeast sky that was in front of two jets who were both making contrails. The object appeared to be oval and very white or was reflecting the sun to a high degree. It looked to us as if it was traveling away from us as it was getting smaller with no side to side deviation from its course. We have both seen a lot of aircraft, and this was not a familiar object. We were both watching for several minutes when suddenly it appeared to go out of focus as if it was caught in the shimmer over heat sources. We both said at the same time "did you see that!" The object then began to glow very brightly for 30 seconds then faded again and rapidly dwindled away going up and showing no contrail. My partner said he thought there was a glow around it, but I did not see it except when it was bright. We both watched it till it disappeared in the distance. We spend allot of time outside and there is a military air base very close to us and we are use to seeing various aircraft in our skies, but this was very different."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

UFO SIGHTING REPORTED IN UK:

On Tuesday, January 21, 2003, at 12:37 a.m., Bob W. noticed a UFO approaching his home from the west in Shrewsbury, England, UK. He reported, "I was by myself looking at the clouds toward the south. It was a triangular-shaped object, and it flew at a high rate of speed to the north of me. The hull was (coloured) a black finish and it then headed east. I could make out two engine things (nacelles--J.T.). There were a million bloody lights on the thing. The strange thing is that it made no sound at all. It was larger than any small (jet) fighter craft but smaller than an airliner."

Thanks to Joe Trainor, UFO Roundup, for this Email Form report.

HOVERING STRANGE SILENT LIGHT SIGHTED IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK:

The web site This Is Gloucestershire, held by 4 newspapers, for January 22, 2003, reported that a strange hovering light was seen by residents of the Forest of Dean, near Gloucester, UK, but "they did not know what it was."

The stationary light was seen over Harrow Hill, near Cinderford, during the early hours of Tuesday, January 21, 2003. Steven Taylor, 39, one of the residents who saw the light at 12:30 a.m., described the light as "very brilliant."

"It was like the light of an airplane, but nothing like a helicopter, and it had no sound. I have no idea what it was, and I couldn’t hope to describe it. It was strange!" "It was a very strange pulsating light," said Elizabeth Fletcher, 64, another local eyewitness.

"I thought that something had entered my house, or that it was the police helicopter," Robin Cole said, adding that the UFO looked like "two brilliant planets that could be seen at the present moment."

TEARDROP CRAFT A FEW FEET OVER HOME, PENNSYLVANIA, USA:

The witness writes from Glen Mills that he woke up at 7 AM, on January 20, 2003, and was sitting on his couch looking out his large window when he witnessed three large teardrop shaped craft floating a few feet over than the top of his house. "There was a glare surrounding the outside of the teardrop objects and one was higher than the others. The witness reports, "I could tell they were spinning. All three of them were spinning towards the right of me. I opened my back door and I heard a loud humming sound. I was shocked because this was the second sighting I've seen within two years. The same thing came to my attention perviously. They were also white and had a glow to them. After I gawked for about four minutes they started to fly a little higher and took off at what seemed to be the speed of light up. They left a trail of a reddish white streak of light that faded away within seconds."

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director, www.ufocenter.com

CIGAR SHAPED OBJECT IN EASTERN SKY, TEXAS, USA:

The witness writes from El Paso: "On January 20, 2003, at 7:26 AM, I was pulling out of my driveway to take my children to school. As I pulled out I noticed a very bright object in the eastern sky. At first, because of its location directly above the sun, the object appeared to resemble a bright ball of light in the sky. But after a few seconds the object started to move to the northeast revealing its true shape, which resembled a cigar. The object was tilted at a 45 degree angle as it moved through the sky. I can only guess the altitude or distance it was from us, but from what we saw it was a very big object. It continued to move east/northeast and eventually disappeared. I did not literally see it disappear or shoot off towards the eastern sky, I describe it this way because I turned my head to yell at my wife, who was in the garage, to look at the UFO and as I turned back to look at the object it was gone. There was also a plane in eastern sky, but it was far off in the distance. My 12 year old daughter also witnessed the entire event."

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director, www.ufocenter.com

FLYING TRIANGLE OVERHEAD, WASHINGTON, USA:

The witness writes from Lynnwood: "My brother and I witnessed a slow steady white light on January 20, 2003, at 6:20 PM, turning of then on many times, he thought it was a radio tower, but after about 30 seconds the light stopped the (SOS) type flashes and steadily moved to the right and out of view. I figured It was probably a news helicopter because of rush hour traffic, but I have never seen a plane or helicopter do a steady SLOW beat, like a large search light going off and on. I got to my house and saw two close yellow lights just over the trees behind our house, that looked like a 747 when they fly towards you. This was not too odd to see because of our location near the airports, but the craft never crested over those trees, it actually went down dropping in altitude. I was about to get into my car with my brother when I saw the same two yellowish white lights coming from the right of the trees. This time I watched it for about ten seconds then noticed no sound and told my brother to get out of the car and look at this, he did and by the time he got out of the car it was over head with three yellowish white lights in a perfect triangle. As it went over head I couldn't hear anything, but as it was past us, we started to hear what sounded like a low frequency jet type sound but very quiet and very low. I was ecstatic because I have witnessed a triangle craft that to me was a UFO. After we calmed down we started to drive the two miles to our friends house. About halfway, we both witnessed another strobe search like craft. I was a lot closer this time. After I started thinking about it, the first strobe object we saw might have been a craft to clear the way for this huge triangle craft and the last strobe craft was to follow up. What we saw was probably human craft. But a lot newer then the old stealth bombers! At the time the triangle craft was over our heads my cat jumped into my car and refused to come out. I had to drag him from the back and hold him, he was shaking and appeared scared?"

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director, www.ufocenter.com

UFOs SIGHTED NORTH OF SAO PAULO, BRAZIL:

Two UFO incidents were reported in recent weeks over Sampa, a cidade satelite (suburb) north of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America.

On Sunday, January 12, 2003, eyewitness Roberto Pintucci reported, "The first occurrence happened at my house in Sampa. I was with my son and two of my friends when I saw the object pass overhead. We all saw a distinctive metallic disc that made no sound, and we all thought it was ’quite pretty.’"

"One week passed, and on (Sunday) January 19, 2003, we saw a second object that was spherical and made of silver, hovering above a row of tall apartment houses here in Sampa. It hovered for several minutes, and then it disappeared. We are certain that this was not a ballon or a blimp off in the distance."

"I saw it first," Roberto reported, "and it was one of many times we has seen such things here in Sampa. I used my binoculars to observe this daylight disc. However, I could not perceive anything more definite than its distinctive form. I know that I have truly seen a UFO."

Thanks to Joe Trainor, UFOroundup.

SPHERICAL UFO SIGHTED IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL:

On Saturday, January 18, 2003, at about 10 p.m., observers in the city of Curitiba, capital of the state of Parana in southern Brazil, spotted a spherical, self- luminous UFO over their neighborhoods.

According to eyewitness Arthur Domingues Quieroz, "At 10:05 p.m., I was watching TV" at his home in the bairro O Centro (neighborhood) "when a strange object in the sky caught my attention. I observed for ten minutes a spherical object glowing in a color ranging from yellow to yellow-green. During this time, the object made several movements from a high altitude to a low altitude. Also, it made sudden side movements to the right and then descended to a lower altitude at an oblique angle."

Elsewhere in the city, eyewitness Sergio Valdemar reported, "I was in the bairro Portao (neighborhood) when I saw the same movements, which were made by a self- luminous object that crossed the sky at a rapid speed."

Muito obrigado a Ufologia Brasileira por esos casos and to Joe Trainor, UFO Roundup.

ORANGE LIGHT PURSUED BY AN AIRPLANE, SOUTH CAROLINA, USA:

The witness writes from Isle of Palms: "We live a few blocks from the beach on a barrier island outside of Charleston. Around midnight, several nights a week, I spend an hour or so on our third floor deck listening to the ocean, looking for shooting stars and satellites (wondering about UFO's). On January 17, 2003, at 12:30 AM, I saw a very bright (brighter than the brightest star/planet) orange light in the sky moving from the shore, inland WNW. It appeared lower than a plane when it is on approach and holding. Behind it was a jet. We live near an Air Force base and often see airplanes traveling in tandem, so I assumed it were a pair of Air Force jets although an object moving across the sky with nothing visible but a bright orange light looked quite peculiar. Less than a minute passed when I realized I was observing a jet in pursuit of the orange light. The two traveled back and forth and up and down, with the plane clearly following whatever the orange light was doing. It really looked like a rather slow chase. They were both moving at about the same speed of an airplane on approach. After about six minutes, the plane followed the orange light SE and out of my view."

"On 23 January at the same time of night, my boyfriend and I saw the same orange light in the sky moving inland from the ocean. It was a cloudy night and it disappeared behind some clouds in under two minutes. There were no airplanes in pursuit."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

HIGH SPEED DISK SHAPE, MALAYSIA:

The witness writes from Skudai:

"On January 17, 2003, at 9:30 PM, my dad and I saw an orange colored flying object move from east to west above my Dad's house. This object moved fast and was stable when it was moving. It was going up and not going down. I'm sure this is a disk shaped flying object. The UFO slowed a bit as it hovered above us, and seems like it noticed us as we looked at them. After few minute it continued with a fast and stable speed and disappeared behind the crown. This is fifth time I've seen UFOs in the last two years. The last time it was closer, bigger, and we even saw the "windows" of the UFO."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

UFO FLOTILLA SEEN OVER MEXICO'S YUCATAN:

"On Friday, January 17, 2003, Maria Barrera, 42, saw" a flotilla of silvery UFOs "from the port of Progreso," in Mexico's Yucatan state, 30 kilometers north of Merida."

Señora Barrera saw the objects "over the bridge that crosses the swamp leading to the harbor area - 40 glowing metallic spheres, presenting a rising and descending motion, seemingly unaffected by the prevailing wind. This discounts the possibility that they were balloons or flocks of birds."

"After a brief time period, the spheres disappeared toward the horizon," heading north into the Gulf of Mexico. "Skies were clear," she added, "This is not the first time this event has happened."

"She said that last year, while the (highway's) median strip was being expanded in the same location, both she and the construction company's workers saw more than 80 spheres executing a variety of maneuvers over the same site."

Thanks to Scott Corrales, David Triay Lucatero y el Centro de Analisis de Fenomenos Espaciales A.C. (CAFE).

UFO WITH POSSIBLE GROUND TRACE, NECOCHEA, ARGENTINA:

On January 17, 2003, an electrical technician named Hugo E. Reinoso saw an intense white light over the coastal city of Necochea. The object engaged in a variety of maneuvers and made no noise whatsoever. Now, in the city of San Andres de Giles, a large circle measuring some 7 meters in diameter, with burned grass and talc-like ash at its center, has been found in recent hours on a soybean field by a Buenos Aires cattle rancher.

Juan Carlos Ferreto was startled upon seen the perfect circle. All around him, the soybean plants were very green, having a height of 40 centimeters overall except for the 7 meter section found. These events were reminiscent of others which occurred in the same spot on September 4, 1981, when another ash-filled circle was discovered. Juan Carlos Mendizabal recalled these events, remembering that at the time, a large Australian water tank had been drained of water and the electrical system (fuses, wires and windings) had been completed melted.

Translation © 2003 Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Daniel Giménez, Necochea, Argentina.

MARS, TO GO OR NOT TO GO:

A January 17 story in the Los Angeles Times states that the Bush Administration has given NASA a go-ahead on Project Prometheus to build a nuclear-powered rocket to make human travel to Mars feasible.

Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Pae on an exclusive interview with NASA chief Sean O'Keefe said the space effort may be announced during President Bush's State of the Union address set for January 28. NASA said that Sean O'Keefe did not state anything this precise, and that he doesn't know what is going to be in the State of the Union address and certainly would not get out in front of the President.

A NASA spokesman said that the agency is looking at ion propulsion and things of that nature "but not looking at a specific human mission to Mars."

CYLINDER WITHOUT WINGS SPOTTED, NEW YORK, USA:

The witness writes from Portchester:

"I observed one large dark cylinder shaped object heading north on January `16, 2003, flying very slow at 1:34 AM. The cylinder turned west and started going towards that direction. The object the whole time had no lights. It was dark but appeared to give a slight water shine for maybe half a second. Shortly after that happened, I lost it as if it blended itself with the night sky."

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director, www.ufocenter.com

FLYING WING SHADOW SEEN IN GEORGIA, USA:

The witness reports from Tucker that on January 16, 2003, at 7:30 AM, "I received a call from a friend, who excitedly urged me to go outside to see the paths the jet traffic was clearing through a low level cloud bank. It was amazing to see a narrow swath of clear sky showing through the clouds as several jets passed overhead, and burned away a clear path. This alone was a phenomenon that I had never witnessed in 54 years. But, as I was watching is fascination, I saw what looked like a shadow moving south through the cloud bank. The shadow was the shape of a "flying wing" spotted over Atlanta. I desperately tried to get my friend to see what I was seeing, but was unsuccessful. Although the object appeared as if a shadow, it could not have been, in so much as, it was about 5 degrees from the vertical, and the sun was less than 5 degrees from the horizontal."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

FLOWER PETAL UFO, SPAIN:

On January 16, 2003, at 4:25 AM, a witness from Marsella with considerable education and responsibility in his place of employment saw a flying object that was round with three flower like petals around the center. The object was silver, with black circles and silver frames visible in the center. It was at a 40 degree angle over the sea and 250 meters from my bedroom window. The object was stationary."

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

LUMINOUS UFO SIGHTED IN NORTHERN IRELAND:

On Thursday, January 16, 2003, at 6:20 p.m., the witness was outdoors in Portadown, a city in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK "when something approached from east to west. It was a solitary 'light bulb' travelling very fast and absolutely silent. It was below cloud level, perhaps 600 feet (180 meters) up, and had an estimated speed of between 1,000 and 1,400 miles."

Thanks to Joseph Trainor, UFO Roundup.

FIGHTS OVER GRAVITY SPEED MEASUREMENT:

Scientists annoucements on 01.11.2003 that the speed of gravity had been determined by observation and was equal to the speed of light is under heavy criticism by other scientists.

One of them said it is "complete nonsense" and added no other comment. Others said that other pehnomena was measured, not the speed of gravity. A colleague that claims to be a long-time friend of the two scientists who conducted the experiment said that the experiment is "a great achievement" but their interpretation is "incorrect," while the latter two categorically defend their work, saying that their colleague has made a mathematical error.

Another scientist said the result is flawed because it is to be attributed to magnetic fields of Jupiter, but the two scientists said that at they had thought about that and taken it into account.

Another scientist has published a peer reviewed paper before the experiment to demonstrate that the experiment is flawed. The peer reviewed paper was rejected by the referee, but then the author found another referee which agreed to the publication of the paper. The experimenters answered that there is a mathematical mistake in that paper, and said in a diplomatic way that many colleagues are jealous of their result. Some of them then stated back that their result is merely "science by press release."

There are many debates among us ufologists also.

MANY COLORFUL LIGHTS, WISCONSIN, USA:

The witness writes from Wisconsin Dells: "We live in the country where it is very dark, so we had a good view on January 15, 2003, at 7 PM, of objects that were very bright lights that seemed to be round and of numerous beautiful pinks, blues, yellows, purple, greens and white. My husband saw similar objects before, but this was my first sighting, and it was the most remarkable, awe inspiring thing I have ever seen. They were not all lit at once and one would go off and others would come on. After the light went off at each sight, we could see small, dim white lights flowing around that area. Then there would be a break for seven minutes and the round, colored objects would appear again in a different spot in the sky. The most dramatic display was a line of six in a row. They would take turns going on and off and the most lit at one time was three. We could see the shadow of those that were off when the others would light. This went on for maybe 10-20 seconds before they all disappeared. All would be dark and then it would start over with one or two lighting at one time in a different area. We viewed them from about 19:00-20:00 hours. Then there was a half hour before we saw two more. They seemed to dart around, moving very fast from one location to another. We also noticed five airplanes seeming to be following them. The five planes however seemed to try and stay with or near the objects. When all the objects disappeared, so did the planes."

Thanks to Peter Davenport, NUFORC director, www.ufocenter.com

THREE RED UFOs SPOTTED IN PUERTO RICO:

On Wednesday, January 15, 2003, Prof. Reinaldo Rios was outdoors at his home and "noticed strange lights approaching from the west. Looking toward the mountain of Sierra Bermeja Lajas here in Puerto Rico, I saw three intense red lights. They were hovering above the mountaintop. They were red and orange. They seemed to be 100 feet (30 meters) above the mountaintop." "These objects hovered for several minutes and then departed to the north. I phoned every radio station in my area, but I received no response about the sighting."

Thanks to Joe Trainor, UFOroundup.

CISU: ITALIAN SIGHTINGS RECORDED IN 2002:

Communication by Giorgio Abraini:

The drop in reports in the month of December notwithstanding, 2002 went out as a record-setting year, as far as sightings and reports of UFO phenomena in Italy were concerned.

As of this writing, in fact, the number of cases histories gathered and filed by the Italian Center for UFO Studies (CISU) totals a good 724 for last year, compared with the 796 which made the preceding 2001 one of the richest periods of the last 24 years.

On the contrary, it is expected that in the coming months - as usual - the total of cases for 2002 will grow to surpass that of 2001, which at this point a year ago saw "only" 630 cases.

This result is, in part, due to the always-increasing efficiency of the CISU telematic working group on the Italian caselog, which by now is fully operational and manages to systematically monitor the reports gathered from every available source.

The month-by-month distribution of Italian sightings for 2002 was less spotty than that for 2001, which was much more centered around a summer flap. Geographic profiling indicates that Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna turned out to be the richest regions for reports, followed by Veneto and Tuscany; and the usual prevalence of Northern Italy was confirmed, with 56% of the observations.

As always, greater details, along with the usual summary tables, statistical graphs, lists complete with updates, and data relative also to 2000 and 2001, will be made available in the coming days on the CISU Website at www.cisu.org

Many thanks to Giorgio Abraini and CISU.

COUPLE SEES AN ORANGE PHENOMENON IN WISCONSIN, USA:

On Tuesday, January 14, 2003, at 6:15 p.m., Steve A. reported, "Me and my wife were heading west on Highway 54 into Wisconsin Rapids (population 18,435), and I noticed an orange object in the sky followed by another one. I pointed it out to my wife and questioned what it was. I have no idea."

"There were four dots in a straight line. When the fifth appeared, the first one faded. It was like this for about ten minutes, all the while heading north." "After the dots faded, there was like crystal dust floating and shimmering where the dots had been." "On Thursday, January 16, 2003, a lady called into the WYTE radio station. She had seen them that night over Pittsville, Wisconsin.

Thanks to John Hoppe of UFO Wisconsin for this report.

PRESUMED UFO OBSERVED ABOVE AMAZONIAN CITY OF PUCALLPA, PERU:

A presumed UFO was observed on January 13 in the Peruvian amazonian city of Pucallpa by Alberto Santiva Panduro, a civil employee of the private airline company Aeropantanal, according to the web news portal Radioprogramas in Peru.

Alberto Santiva Panduro said that he saw the supposed UFO today in the morning when the sky was "totally clear." He added that the unknown object went towards the South, and that last week another similar object was seen in the north of the same city.

THREE RED-ORANGE UFOs SPOTTED OVER SYDNEY, AUTRALIA:

On Monday, January 13, 2003, at 11:10 p.m., two people spotted a trio of red-orange UFOs over Sydney, the largest city in Australia.

Paul Van Komen, who lives in the suburbs west of Sydney's Central Business District, reported, "Dominika went outside to move the garden sprinkler. Walking back, she looked up to absorb a clear view of the Moon and Orion's Belt in a gap in the clouds when she noticed three spheres below the clouds to the east of us and called out to me."

"I joined her outside," Paul added, "It was immediately apparent that this was not normal air traffic. They glowed orange-red, made no sound and travelled slowly in a westerly direction."

"The first sphere was larger and maintained a steady speed and luminosity. The other two stopped occasionally and dimmed and brightened. They took a couple of minutes to get about 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of us, then faded and disappeared. They were several times larger than airplanes. Normal air traffic was absent for another half-hour after."

Paul estimated the UFOs' speed as "about 100 kilometers per hour."

Thanks to Joseph Trainor, UFO Roundup.

STRANGE FIREBALLS DOMINATE THE SKY OVER BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA:

On Saturday, January 11, 2003, beginning at 8:30 p.m., numerous "flying fireballs" were seen over Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.

According to Argentinian ufologist Ricardo E. D'Angelo, "Right now, Buenos Aires is experiencing a massive wave of UFOs, possibly the most intense of the past few years."

"Balls of fire, crossing the sky at high and low altitudes and in all directions, were observed by thousands of Portenos (slang word for residents of Buenos Aires--J.T.) and videotaped between 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. I myself counted 23 of them in the sky at one time, and I am accustomed to seeing satellites pass overhead. These were definitely not satellites."

"The balls of fire were three to four times more luminous than Venus. They appeared repeatedly over La Boca, San Francisco, Santa Fe, the Avenida Nueve de Julio and other sections of the city."

"Many of the fireballs had small pulsing lights at their outside edges - colorful blue at the tips but also red and green."

"Later in the evening, ten of the phenomena crossed the sky from one side to the other, entering heavily- populated barrios (neighborhoods--J.T.), in which they were witnessed by many people. Their speed varied greatly, ranging from hovering stationary to showing a very high velocity at times, appearing and disappearing without any regard for logic."

Muchas gracias a Ricardo E. D'Angelo para eso informe and thanks to Joe Trainor of UFOroundup.

SPEED OF GRAVITY MEASURED FOR THE 1ST TIME AND PROBABLY EQUAL TO THE SPEED OF LIGHT:

Taking advantage of a rare cosmic alignment between the planet Jupiter and a bright quasar on September 8, 2002, scientists have made the first accurate estimation of the speed at which the force of gravity propagates, giving a numerical value to one of the last unmeasured fundamental constants of physics: they have determined that gravity's propagation speed is equal to the speed of light within an accuracy of 20 percent.

The scientists used the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a continent-wide radio-telescope system, along with the 100-meter radio telescope in Effelsberg, Germany, to make an extremely precise observation.

This confirms another assumptiun made by Einstein: that the speed of gravity is equal to the speed of light, whereas Newton thought that gravity's propagation was instantaneous.

It also puts some strong limits on the theories that propose extra dimensions, such as superstring theory and brane theories. Knowing the speed of gravity can provide an important test of the existence and compactness of these extra dimensions.

Many thanks to NASA.

EUROSETI SAYS THEY WILL REVEAL STARTLING UFO IMAGES AT THE NATIONAL SPACE CENTRE, UK:

Graham W. Birdsall, Publisher of UFO Magazine (UK), communicates on http://www.ufomag.co.uk/euroseti.htm that for the past two years, hundreds of extraordinary UFO-like images have been gleaned by a Spanish-based team using two space-based satellites and which defy explanation.

A full-page advertisement in the January 2003 issue of UFO Magazine refers to an event taking place on the weekend of 24-27 January, when "some extraordinary satellite images of anomalous objects will be screened at the National Space Centre in Leicester." The screenings will be held on the evenings of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with each commencing at 7.30pm.

The page says that "NASA initially tried to explain the images away as pixel faults, passing meteors or asteroids, etc., but when a European-led consortium presented them with images that clearly were none of the aforementioned, they 'clamped up'."

Attention: the follow-up on this is here.

FLYING-WING OR UFO SEEN BY TWO IN CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA:

On Friday, January 10, 2003, at 9:30 p.m., D.K. and his sister were "star-gazing" in Calgary, Alberta, Canada when they both noticed something strange.

"My sister and I were star-gazing that night," D.K. reported, "Our eyes had adjusted to the low light, and we had to strain them to see most of the stars due to light pollution from the city."

"There was heavy air traffic that night. The unusual aspect of this sighting comes from the fact that it was very hard to see. Like a shadow against the night sky. It flew right over the city (Calgary) centre, coming in from the east. I believe our eyes were sensitive to the low light, and this allowed us to see the craft. From our vantage point, it looked one kilometer away."

"The actual shape was hard to make out. A large wing comes to mind. It was flying faster than most aircraft I've seen over the city. It flew east to west for what seemed like several seconds, then banked and headed in a northeasterly direction. We were able to watch it for several more seconds before it vanished into darkness. I realize now that I detected a distinct sound from it. This sighting did not leave us in awe. More like an uneasy feeling."

Many thanks to Joe Trainor, UFOroundup, for this Email form report.

POSSIBLE UFO LANDING CASE, U-K:

BUFOSC are presently investigating a possible 'multiple UFO landing' case near Runcorn.

Observed by many witnesses over the past two weeks BUFOSC are presently analyzing all the reports.

"This is an interesting time of the New Year to have a multi witness double sighting" explains Eric Morris, BUFOSC's Founder but it could turn out to be a generic RPV like the Dragon's Eye RPV currently being sent to the Gulf for military use. However, we have it on reliable authority the Dragon's Eye is an American dirigible, but it appear's the UK's avionics industry might be experimenting over the north west with an RPV a little smaller than a mini car with wings. We know these can be assembled in minutes and send real time images to hardware on the ground."

No response has been heard from the MOD although the sightings have been reported to them. Interestingly there has been an increase in military activity over the north west of late, a C130 Hercules was observed circling the sighting area on Thursday 9th January 2003.

Morris also states, "BUFOSC are the first people the Press contact when anything like this happens, BUFOSC's ten year history in the North West makes BUFOSC a high profile group from Britain and all the Press know where we are. This just makes a mockery of Fortean Times revelation that 'UFology is dead' in 2002. It shows the inexperience of the staff at Fortean Times, they now appear to have egg all over their faces, they deserve it," he states.

Thanks to Eric Morris and BUFOSC. Indeed I had not noticed myself that ufology may be dead.

SIX WHITE LIGHTS IN FORMATION, GEORGIA, USA:

The mother and daughter called NUFORC from Hepsibah to report a January 7, 2003, at 8 PM, sighting of six yellow white lights in three sets of two lights each, in a V formation, descending vertically in the western sky. The mother and her daughter said they would telephone the local military base, which also was located to the west of their location at the time of the sighting, to see if any pyrotechnic device had been launched there at the time of the sighting.

Thanks to Major George A. Filer, USAF ret., Filersfiles, http://www.filersfiles-ufo.com

THREE DAYLIGHT DISCS SEEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA:

On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 2:40 p.m., "a woman and her passenger were driving along the highway at the foot of the Rosswood mountain range" in Canada's British Columbia province "when they saw three white circular objects hovering near the peak" of Rosswood Mountain.

According to Canadian ufologist Brian Vike, "The (woman) driver stopped the truck, and they both watched the objects as they slowly descended down the mountain. She explained that there was a small hill in front of the mountain. The objects dropped down behind the smaller hill, and both witnesses lost sight of them. She said they sat watching for a short while just in case whatever they saw showed up again."

Many thanks to Brian Vike, HBCC, for this report.

UFO SEEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA:

Canadian ufologist Brian Vike reports that on on Friday, January 3, 2003, Darcy C. spotted a UFO in Delta, British Columbia, Canada. She reported, "The UFO approached from the north. It looked like a big tube moving across the sky. A silver cylinder with two windows that were coloured black. I could hear sounds like a loud beeping noise."

The UFO passed overhead "about 20 meters (66 feet) up and was moving at the speed of a jet," she added.

Many thanks to Brian Vike and Darcy C. for this report.

TV IN BAKU SHOWS LIGHT MOVING ERRATICALLY ABOVE AZERBAIDJAN CAPITAL:

On January 3, 2003, the Presenter of ANS TV in Bakou, Azerdbaidjan, stated that "residents of Baku's third high-rise estate observed an unidentified flying object at about 0800 this morning [04:00 GMT]. The round object, which radiated light of different colours, hovered above the high-rise estate for half an hour. The residents said that this was the second time that they had witnessed the flight of the UFO over the high-rise estate." The video accompanying video showed a bright light moving erratically through the air while seemingly revolving around its axis.

Due to the lack of precision in the report, I may suspect and observation of the star Sirius.

CHANGES IN SETI PROJECT:

The distributed software seti@home reached 4 million users, and a new version will be made available, allowing its users to choose among participating in detecting intelligent extraterrestrial radio signals amon data collected at the Arecibo radiotelescope, or to participate in other projects such as detection of neutron stars or terrestrial climatology calculation.

Also, space radio signal data will be incoming from the Parkes radiotelescope in Australia next year, intsead of the Arecibo radiotelescope in Puerto Rico as they did so far. This will change the scope of the search from stars visible from the Northern hemisphere to stars visible in the Southern hemisphere.

BRIGHT STILL OBJECT WITH LIGHTS IN IOWA, USA:

On January 2, 2003 8:10, P.M. between Aurelia & Cherokee in Iowa, USA, Julie W. "was driving home from work and I noticed a bright object in the sky to the NE. I watched it for awhile and noticed that there were red, green and white lights on the object, and thought it was a plane. The longer I watched it I noticed that it was not moving. It was at that time that I noticed another object exactly like the other one to the SE in front of me. Neither one was moving. Then I noticed an airplane above the object on my left, and that made it very evident that what I was watching was just sitting there. The other object was not moving either. I got within a half mile from the town in Iowa, Aurelia, where I live, and tried to call my husband to tell him, the phone was busy. When I got home I told him what I had seen and that I had tried to call, and he asked me when. I said just a couple of minutes ago. He hadn't been on the phone, and my computer was really having problems - my connection is through a satellite. I know that this sounds crazy, but I had a similar experience several years ago in NW Iowa only there were many more, and my children and I witnessed a ufo only a couple of hundred feet away. So this incident aroused my curiosty."

Thanks to UFOWisconsin and Julie W.


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This page was last updated on February 16, 2003