News -> Home
Cette page en français

News and sighting reports, January 2012:

Météore en Lorraine, France.

An article on January 26, 2012 on the website of the regional newspaper Le Républicain Lorrain explains that the observation of some 15 seconds on January 23, 2012, seen in the sky by hundreds of inhabitants of the Lorraine region, France, between 7:43 a.m. and 7:45 am.m was likely just a meteor, according to research by Didier Mathieu, the person in charge of the Epinal planetarium.

The article also evokes a disappointement of ufologists.

See: http://www.estrepublicain.fr/insolite/2012/01/25/ciel-un-ovni-en-lorraine

It was however the same newspaper which spoke about a "UFO": "Ball of fire, luminous trail, attack by Aliens?", they wondered, while indicating that:

"Tuesday, January 24, between 7.45 and 8 a.m., a ball of fire was observed by tens of witnesses in the North East. It is a "bolide", a meteoroid [sic] body naturally entered in the atmosphere."

See: http://www.estrepublicain.fr/insolite/2012/01/25/ciel-un-ovni-en-lorraine

A "cloud" or UFO reported near Curbans, France.

"Was she the witness of a strange phenomenon? Even extraterrestrial?" - This is how the "Alpes 1" news website reacts on January 26, 2012, after a woman "contacted the gendarmerie Tuesday morning, towards 8h30 ", (thus January 23, 2012) abouth her observation: "In the distance a suspicious cloud above the mountain of Blaux, close to Curbans in the Alps of Haute-Provence. This cloud formed a net, whose body was white and the plume black. It moved in direction of the ground, before disappearing."

For lack of essential information such as a date and hour of observation, or more usable details such as durations, directions, angular sizes, we must satisfy ourselves in learning from the website that "the Court of Gap was immediately advised, then the GEIPAN, Groupe d'Etudes et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Spatiaux Non Identifiés", (i.e. the official Studies and Information Group on the Undentified Space Phenomena).

See: http://alpesdusud.alpes1.com/infos/infos-locales?view=info&id_news=20731

Was this the meteor seen in Lorraine?

The news item is then published by the private TV channel TF1 on their website:

http://lci.tf1.fr/science/ovni-aurait-ete-apercu-dans-le-ciel-des-alpes-de-haute-provence-6955738.html

We only learn in addition that the sighting was "Tuesday morning at 8:30" and that the sitness "is a resident of La Saulce".

Mexican authorities chase UFO in Mexicali.

"'Pursuit' UFO - Police force... and they lost"

"January 24 2012"

"OFFICIAL PART. -- Municipal Public Safety said they pursued the UFO last night."

"By Juan Galvan"

"Mexicali, Lower California. -- An unidentified flying object (UFO) caused a strong mobilization of the elements of the Forces of Municipal Public Safety of Mexicali because of reports by citizens on the presence of a strange craft in the air."

"Alejandro Monreal Noriega, commander of the patrol of the General Management of Municipal Public Safety (DSPM) reported that the first report was received from the local population in the airport area."

"In the same way operators of C-4, who manage the urban safety cameras, saw it through their system which was apparently blocked, and also received hundreds of calls on 066 alerting about the flying object."

"It was seen towards the zone of the airport, then seen moving at a tremendous speed towards the checkpoint again, after that citizens reported it again towards the zone of Maran Industrial Park, before it was located in the zone of Colonia Rivera Campestre and its surroundings."

"The supervisor of the East zone of the DSPM, Martin Ruelas, said that he saw it and that it was a white round luminous object, large, that one could also see flickering in blue and yellow."

"He said that he saw the object which was high up and moving at very fast speed up dans down and laterally, until they lost it when it moved to the south of the valley of Mexicali."

"Under-commander Medina, in the south of the valley, also saw it and said that it was too fast and impossible to follow, and changed course suddenly."

"He then ordered a "pursuit" by the patrol, but in a few seconds the object changed its position, passing from a position near their unit according to their report, but it was not possible to find an answer."

"Monreal Noriega stated that he consulted the airport authorities and also those of Sedena and their American homologues, and that they were on standby for more information."

Source: http://www.oem.com.mx/lavozdelafrontera/notas/n2398228.htm

"UFO sighting" north of Narooma, Australia.

"25 Jan, 2012 11:32 AM"

"A DALMENY resident has contacted the Narooma News after she witnessed an unidentified falling object in the clear night sky last Monday evening. The woman was outside with her dog at around 10.30pm when she looked up at the south west sky and saw a strange bright orangey red object."

"'It was coming down dead straight, but it wasn’t a flare, a comet or a shooting star,' she said [but what about a meteor?]. 'It was weird.'"

"She recalls there was no sound and the UFO was much larger than anything she’s ever seen in the sky."

"She described it as looking like an upright cigar, burning in the centre rather than having a tail. There seemed to be flame all around it."

"The woman was concerned it could start a bush fire and watched for some time after it disappeared from view, half expecting to see a massive blaze flare up."

"Unfortunately there was no way to tell if the UFO was about to land in Tilba or if it was making its way to Antarctica (or Chile)."

"She speculated whether it may have been debris from the failed Russian space probe Phobos-Grunt, which crashed into the Pacific Ocean showering Chile’s coast."

"The Narooma News is keen to hear from anyone else who may have witnessed the same unexplained event."

Source: http://www.naroomanewsonline.com.au/news/local/news/general/ufo-sighting-north-of-narooma/2432453.aspx

KCBD investigates mysterious lights over Lubbock, USA.

KCBD, a news website says on January 24 that there was "An unidentified flying object. Dancing lights. Something unexplainable" according to some Lubbock residents on January 22, 2012. They call this "The return of the Lubbock lights" though it seems entirely different.

They say the National Weather Service has no weather explanation. Astronomy expert Dr. Maurice Clark said "Sirius is rising around sundown, so people are likely to see it low on the horizon" and that this is "pretty common".

One Ethan McHan said around 10 p.m. he drove back to Lubbock from New Home and, on the interstate: "I noticed it in my review mirror. It flashed a bright green color, real quick and went away. It turned a pale orange and went back to the normal star looking color."

Mandi Cheek also in the Southeast Lubbock at the time had a similar description of the bright lights: "It wasn't really moving and I thought it was a pole. It would start moving downward slowly and then it fell and started free falling."

In that same part of town, Shannon Uhlir says he was standing in his front yard when he noticed the mysterious colors: "There was no helicopter or airplane noise." "I just remember the lights were really, really bright blue, red and green."

There were dozens of other reports, the website says.

If it was just one light, and one witness, maybe it was Sirius, I agree. However, people do not tend to mistake a star for something else in mass, independently and at the same time. So I propose that rather than a star, this could have been something else, such as a group Chinese lanterns; which are now sold in colored versions.

See: http://www.kcbd.com/story/16581706/return-of-the-lubbock-lights

SETI now thinks of targeting planets.

So far, scientists involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence via the SETI radio listening project had directed their antennas "blindly", i.e. onto stars.

Space.com says that now that planets are known and located oustide the solar system, they thought it would be interesting to direct the antennas to search for intelligent radio signals at some these planets.

See: http://www.space.com/14168-seti-extraterrestrial-intelligence-alien-planets.html

So-called UFO photo in Cabra Corral, Argentina.

There are still "UFO" websites that are moved by any photograph. One of the recent case is that of a little boy who took a digital photograph and later "discovered" what some say is a UFO, more likely a bird... It was on January 7, 2012 in Cabra Corral:

See: http://www.eltribuno.info/salta/116970-Vieron-un-OVNI-en-el-dique-Cabra-Corral.note.aspx

Nocturnal light in Païta, New Caledonia.

A news website in New Caledonia says that an unidentified flying object was reportedly seen from Païta, Sunday, January 7 2012, with "at least ten people" who "can testify", all spent the evening at a friend's in the Axel allotment.

The first saw what he initially thought of being "a streetlight lamp of the district, above the house of the neighbor. I stared at this gleam which sunddenly went up verticalls, at full speed." He looked at his watch and it was 01:27 a.m. exactly. He alerted the party. He said "I, frankly, was afraid. I do not believe in UFOs, but the fact I witnessed one changes things."

Some thought of an helicopter, "but the light went up at a tremendous speed", "then it remained stationary during, I would say, about 20 seconds, before disappearing in the sky while still going up vertically. That could not be an ordinary aircraft."

Another said that the phenomenon "was directed north-eastern", the direction was checked with a compass. He described it as a kind of "sphere of yellowish color, like a ball of fire."

The website says that the estimates of distance, speed and appearance slightly differ - the website does not give any of these - , but all say it was spherical and in very fast vertical rise. Photographs were taken but in the uregence they "did not give anything".

The local association of astronomy considers a satellites or rocke debrris fall, although the trajectory appears ascending, so the website doubts this is the correct explanation.

Alain Zinger, head of the air traffic control in Tontouta for civilian aviation said: "I checked on our ADS-B system, which locates the air traffic, there was no plane at the vertical of Tontouta at the hours indicated." The website specifies there is no radar coverage of the area.

See: http://www.lnc.nc/article/pays/le-mystere-de-l%E2%80%99ovni-de-paita

The lack of data is regretable, but I can think for example of a "rebounding" meteor, coming from the distance (thus low) and going towards the observers (thus seeming to rise vertically), with an appearance of "pause" at the time of the rebound. This would be nullified if it was clearly stated that there was no trail. Then, one must consider a distant helicoptère with headlinght on directed at the observers, or a rising Chinese lantern. An investigation would be essential...

Discovery report of an intact Martian meteorite in the Sahara.

It is being reported that an intact Martian meteorite coming from a meteor observed by several witnesses in full day in July 2011 in the Sahara was found on December 20, 2011, between Morocco and Algeria by meteorites hunter Luc Labenne.

Luc Labenne proposed two small fragments of approximately 2 grams to scientists of the Natural History Museum, Brigitte Zanda and Violaine Sauter, for expertise. He said the crust which surrounds the meteorite is intact, sign that the fall is very recent. He said an American researcher already identified the meteorite as Martian. Its contamination by terrestrial life would probably be very limited, which would help a possible search for Martian life.

Since more than a decade, controversy rages in scientific circles about Martian meteorites, specially the famous ALH 84001, showing, according to some, clear traces of fossilized microbial life originating from planet Mars.

See for example (in French): http://www.cieletespace.fr/node/8328

Proposition to amateurs to search of ET artifacts on the Moon.

Paul Davies, a scientist known for his interest for the subject of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and Robert Wagner, both from the Arizona University in the United States, propose that amateurs search by their telescopes, or with the naked eye on photographs, traces of waste, or messages, left by possible aliens on the surface of the Moon.

They published their idea in the scientific journal Acta Astraunautica, acknowledging there is perhaps only a negligible probability for aliens to having left traces of a technology on the Moon, in the form of artifact or a deterioration of the lunar surface, but they argue that the place has the advantage of being close and preserving traces for a very long duration, and that the search would not be expensive, so there is not much to lose.

They write: "Extraterrestrial civilizations might have sent probes in our area of the galaxie. Any mission towards our solar system would have probably taken place centuries ago. The lunar environment makes it possible to preserve artifacts during million years."

NASA's Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter collected some 340 000 pictures of the Moon and continues to do it, whereas the researchers did not have enough time to check them. Computerized amateurs could do this.

Three white things in triangle in Georgia, USA.

A Georgia couple outside at 2:30 a.m. on January 4, 2012, reported to MUFON:

"At about 2:30 AM while watching the sky in my backyard; waiting for the meteor shower to begin my wife and I witnessed a triangle shaped object fly overhead from north to south. It was flying very low and was silent. It did not have lights. There was 3 white, round shapes at each point of the triangle. It moved extremely fast. When we first saw it coming toward us we thought it may have been a meteor, or maybe a flock of birds until it was directly over our heads. The object flew in a straight line. When we realized it was not birds or a meteor we were stunned. It left us scratching our heads as to what we had just witnessed. We lost sight of the object as it flew south past the tall trees."

See http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=view_long_desc&id=34586&rnd=

UFOs ring in the New Year across Canada.

Excellent ufologist Chris Rutkowski reported on January 5, 2012:

"As noted in a previous post, I had received a few UFO reports for 2012 early on New Year's Day, suggesting things were getting off to a quick start. Most people who responded to me were of the opinion that fireworks were the likely cause. Unfortunately, the reports don't bear that out. In fact, most witnesses said they had seen the UFOs after the New Year's fireworks displays were over and that the unknown objects were quite different. That's not to say the reports were of alien spaceships. Just that fireworks were likely not the causes."

"One thing to note, however, is that the large number of sightings that occurred on January 1 is very unusual. I've looked back in the files, and no other year had more than a handful of reports on January 1."

Chris Rutkowski provides a list of the sighting reports at:

http://uforum.blogspot.com/2012/01/ufos-ring-in-new-year-across-canada.html

The reports indeed do not like like fireworks reports, however, many are of groups of orange lights that remind much of Chinese lanterns.

Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home

This page was last updated on January 26, 2012