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unidentified flying objectColumbia Encyclopedia entry: unidentified flying object
Unidentified flying object or UFO, an object or light reportedly seen in the sky whose appearance, trajectory, and general dynamic and luminescent behavior do not readily suggest a logical, conventional explanation. Some of these phenomena have been photographed and others correlated with radar echoes. Throughout history there have been reports of strange objects in the sky. In the 20th cent. a number of observers claim to have seen vehicles, or flying saucers, which some believe are space ships visiting the earth from other planets. Because the objects are often shining and in that part of the sky opposite the sun, most investigators, official and unofficial alike, tend to interpret them as reflections of the sun's rays from airplanes. Some UFOs, when pursued by planes, have proved to be weather balloons or other objects of unquestionably terrestrial origin. Fireballs, meteors, and other meteorological phenomena account for most of the relatively few UFOs that observers report seeing at night. However, there are some sightings that investigators are unable to explain in terms of known phenomena.
See D. Ritchie, UFO: The Definitive Guide to Unidentified Flying Objects and Related Phenomena (1994); B. Steiger, ed., Project Blue Book: The Top Secret UFO Findings Revealed (repr. 1995); J. Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial (1997); B. Saler et al., UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth; J. A. Hynek et al., Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings (2d ed. 1998); J. A. Hynek, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (1999); N. Pope, Open Skies, Closed Minds: For the First Time a Government UFO Expert Speaks Out (1999).
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Wikipedia search results for: Unidentified flying object
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unidentified flying object is the popular term for any aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified by the observer. The United States Air Force, which coined the term in 1952, initially defined UFOs as those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert investigators, though the term UFO is often used more generally to describe any sighting unidentifiable to the reporting observer. Popular culture frequently takes the term UFO as a synonym for alien spacecraft. Cults have become associated with UFOs, and mythology and folklore have evolved around the phenomenon. Vallée, J.....more »
