Expert: Most UFO incidents have reasonable explanations

There have been many recent reports of UFO sightings in many different regions and the latest incident involved netizens from Shanghai, Zhejiang, Nanjing and Ganzhou of Jiangxi Province, who claimed they saw UFOs all at different times on Aug. 7.

Along with the continual media coverage, public attention also heated up, and some people even connected it with the recent abnormal weather and natural pits in many regions, and claimed the world would end in 2012. All of a sudden, different rumors are everywhere.

A reporter from People's Daily interviewed Zhu Jin, the curator of the Beijing Planetarium and vice chairman of the Beijing UFO Research Organization. He gave professional explanations about these incidents.

UFOs and flying saucers are different. Unidentified Flying Objects refer to objects flying in the sky with unidentified names and is abbreviated UFO. The flying saucer refers to a saucer shaped flying object and in particular, a strange spaceship that many people claimed to have seen and may come from outer space.

UFOs differ from flying saucers. A flying saucer is one possible UFOs, and there are no cases where one has been confirmed. However, UFOs do exist, and they just have not been identified yet.

As for the latest reported UFOs, they are very easy to identify. Most of them are kites, planes or rockets. There is almost no probability that these incidents are connected with aliens.

There are many reasons for the appearance of UFOs. The research of past relevant phenomena reveals that there are mainly three categories. First, they are flying objects including planes, airships, kites, searchlights, little insects very close to the photographer, bolides, man-made objects falling into the atmosphere, spacecraft, and missiles.

Second, they are stationary objects in the sky but are photographed as moving objects, including planets, shiny fixed stars, the moon behind clouds and even the sun. The last possibility is that they are not in the sky at all and they may be the reflection of the sun being photographed on the frame of the camera, the reflection of the flashlight on glass, and the ghost images caused by the light source at the centrosymmetric location of the visual field.

The appearance of UFOs is not concentrated in a certain region or a certain period of time. Currently, relevant events are obviously increasing, mainly because that the concentrative reporting of the media caused similar psychological effects. People who were not concerned about UFOs before began to frequently look up into the sky after reading the reports. Incidents that would normally be considered as normal were connected with UFOs indicative of relevant reports. The concentrative reporting from the media amplified the events and certain media groups were even suspected of hyping up the news.

The public should treat these kinds of events with a scientific attitude, independent judgment and rational analysis. It is better to objectively record various phenomena through taking photos and videos. Some events will be easy to explain if there is sufficient image data.

China currently has no official professional investigation agency for UFOs. Therefore, it is necessary to ask professional research agencies to investigate UFO events to eliminate people's doubts and fears. Some registered professional associations have been concerned with UFO phenomena for a long time and they possess certain observational knowledge and analysis and are more professional. In fact, most UFO events can be explained by rational reason through systematic investigation and comprehensive analysis.

By People's Daily Online
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