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UFO over Wiltshire, UK

nutter45

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nutter45

nutter45

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Bear with me on this one as it's been puzzling me all night. Driving West along the A303 last night at 2030 I noticed a hugely bright object in the sky just above the horizon to the West not far from Stonehenge. I did a double take as it was so brilliantly bright against the sunset, large and yellow. It disappeared out of view as we went down a hill but picked it up again a few minutes later, now further to the north, with a smoke trail behind it and appearing higher in the sky. From the trail it appeared as though it was moving away from us to the north east. It was visible for 15-20 minutes before we lost sight of it.

 

My wife spent the next hour or so scanning twitter and the news as we were utterly convinced it must have been seen by a lot of people, given how long it was up for and how visible it was, but she found nothing on it at all. After I saw it my first thought was a supernova or something celestial, given it appeared to be far too bright to be anything man made. After seeing the smoke trail I thought Tunguska! I'm aware that it's military country round there but it didn't look like anything we could sensibly reconcile.

 

Any thoughts on a. what it could have been or b. where people report such things, to help put us out of our misery please :)

edit: hope this is the right place, wasn't quite sure where to put it

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parallaxerr

parallaxerr

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My guess is an aircraft of some description. I was based at RAF Lyneham for 15yrs  and in that area of Wiltshire, flying activity, especially low level military, is rife. 

Nobody reports it because it's normal activity. Even being used to it, I could still be confused by what I was seeing in the skies some days.

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jabeoo1

jabeoo1

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There has been a rise in security in Wiltshire on all barracks from 17:30 last night until present due to 3 people reportedly being seen with a rifle.  That following yesterdays incident where an attempted kidnapping of a serviceman was reported has put all bases on high alert.  It could have been something to do with aerial surveillance/drones maybe?

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michaelmorris

michaelmorris

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2 hours ago, MarkyD said:

Could have been a meteor.  They are not uncommon

I doubt it was a meteor as these are usually only visible for a second or two at most.  A large fireball can leave a  trail, but with no one from either the NEMETODE or UKMON meteor video networks reporting anything yet, I doubt a fireball is the answer.

An aircraft sounds far more likely.

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goodricke1

goodricke1

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The setting sun can sometimes produce dazzling effects when reflecting off a shiny surface, the metallic roof of a building eg. Not sure about the smoke trail however.

Incidentally, a bright blue light was observed across southern Ireland last night with some reporting audible sound effects. Spacejunk re-entry is being mentioned.

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Scott

Scott

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clse to the sun? possibly Venus? smoke trail may have been a wisp of cloud mixed with a touch of imagination. eye witness accounts are terribly unreliable as the human eye in conjunction with the human brain can see just about anything. Even to the most logical thinking person :(

Edit: This is not a shot at you nutter (although the name makes me wonder ;) ). I'm merely pointing out that the mind is a pretty tricky bit of kit sometimes :)

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nutter45

nutter45

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I'm sure it was too bright to be Venus, it was much brighter than a very bright moon (and was during daylight). It also moved far too far relative to our position. 

The smoke trail could well have been coincidental, but a hell of a coincidence :)

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nightfisher

nightfisher

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Putting my neck on line, i suspect a military drone, remember the millitary use drones that are very different to hobby phantoms and such like, they have turbine powered ones about 15ft long that would make a con/smoke trail and with the sun reflecting on it you might well see a yellow ball with smoke

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nutter45

nutter45

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2 hours ago, nightfisher said:

Putting my neck on line, i suspect a military drone, remember the millitary use drones that are very different to hobby phantoms and such like, they have turbine powered ones about 15ft long that would make a con/smoke trail and with the sun reflecting on it you might well see a yellow ball with smoke

I don't think a drone or aircraft would have remained constantly bright for so long, the reflection would have changed as we moved but the brightness stayed the same.

It would make good sense for it to be military related though, maybe a parachute flare or something if they last that long?

Otherwise it's X files territory for sure as nothing else makes sense :happy6:

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SilverAstro

SilverAstro

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30 minutes ago, nutter45 said:

Otherwise it's X files territory for sure as nothing else makes sense :happy6:

 :laughing4: It cant be a UFO because :

a ) it wasnt described as being saucer-shaped

b ) They always suddenly change direction at G-defying rates and speed off in the opposite direction denying any chance of getting a good pic ,,,, errr ,,, :):) oh yes, in this case it was the observer that was doing the speeding !

I like Barkis' suggestion of a lantern, except that is not a very densely populated area (Druids party time ?) and would one burn for that length of time ? The brightness would have needed a flare as well ?

 

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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2 hours ago, nutter45 said:

 

Otherwise it's X files territory for sure as nothing else makes sense :happy6:

As an astronomer I would love for any odd sightings to be related to little green men visiting us but the hard truth is the probability of it being ET is like winning the lottery when you didn't buy a ticket. With the universe being only 13.8 billion years old it is in essence only young. The chances of life supporting planets habiting the goldilocks zone next to a sun like star (also important) is very rare. Not impossible as we have proven but none the less not a common occurrence. You then have to add to this the millions of years it takes for a planet to create a habitable environment and it's life forms to evolve through natural selection. While there is every possibility that there may well be intelligent life out there the chances they are more advance than the human race is a topic for debate given how long it has taken us to reach this point. I will add that when you consider the damage we are doing to the very thing that supports our life, our own level of intelligence could be questionable. 

What ever the case, the trouble is that the universe is beyond finite. The distances between objects are simply vast. Just think how long it takes for the light from our nearest neighbouring galaxy M31 to reach us. That would mean that ET would have to have evolved and reached the level of intelligence needed to traverse the universe at the speed of light and left their home world 2.5 million light years ago only to get here now. They would also have to have some sort of cryotube so they were still alive when they got here and carry an awful lot of life supporting equipment with them when they did or it may be like the ending of "war of the worlds" for them. So I'm sure you will agree it is all sounding a bit X-Files at least.

I don't think ET would be burning fossil fuels in his space ship so that rules out dark vapour trails. I agree with other comments that it was more than likely a drone. Given it is the time of the year we can expect nautilus clouds my guess if the drone was high enough it would probably catch the sun's reflection in areas of the sky not usually thought of. As for the colour it may well have been high level clouds or even some other c-ap in the atmosphere. It is not unknown for desert sand to be transferred through the skies after all.

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