io9
Arizonans are buzzing today about a series of floaty lights that hovered over Phoenix last night for about 15 minutes. One guy captured them on film (you can see it here), and the news covered it to death, wondering how people could have seen a bunch of lights that the Federal Aviation Administration and local air traffic controllers couldn't explain. Apparently they are similar to lights that were seen over Phoenix in 1997 too. The really weird thing? The lights also look exactly like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. See below to compare.
Arizonans are buzzing today about At the end of this scene — which is totally worth watching in its entirety to see the full, beautiful goofiness of UFO representations — you can see the three lights in the sky separating and zooming into the clouds. Looks amazingly similar to the video of the Phoenix lights above.
At the end of this scene — which is totally worth watching in its entirety to see the full, beautiful goofiness of UFO representations — you can see the three lights in the sky separating and zooming into the clouds. Looks amazingly similar to the video of the Phoenix lights above.I have never understood why people assume that UFOs will be covered in lights when they visit Earth, unless it's because Steven Spielberg's vision in Close Encounters basically convinced them that it makes the most sense for aliens to arrive covered in visible light spectrum. I sure hope the next Phoenix encounter includes some music too! Bee bee bee boop boop!
Comments
Jesus, Spielberg really can be blamed for anything. Poor guy.
"It's a faaaaake!"
- Vreenak
doo....dooo...dooo....dooo....DUMMMMM.
Waiting for the first idiot to say there flares.
I welcome our pointed overlords.
It looks like a kite that is flying remarkably steadily.
Um, here's a possibility this post seems to have overlooked. These types of sightings have been going on for years and Speilberg and crew decided to... do research and portray UFO sightings "accurately."
Just saying.
Damn again?! I visited Pheonix shortly after the 1997 sighting, and tried talking about it with some people ... and they were not interested in talking about it at all. Lots of my friends were really freaked out, and this morning I got an email that the same thing happened again.
Here's another video from YouTube, from last nights "ufos".
+ Watch video
@male roof blower (CFB):
That's a freaking HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE kite then.
@lonewolf333: They're flares. Guffaw.
Oh wow, I live in Phoenix, but this is the first I've heard about this. I am officially freaked out, thanksverymuch. The dog will be allowed to sleep in the bed tonight.
When I was a child, my greatest fear was that I would be abducted by aliens. It didn't help matters that I went to kindergarten with that kid from Close Encounters and he brought all the toys from the movie to show-and-tell. I wonder whatever happened to little ol' Cary Guffey.
Where a drunk James Cromwell when you need him?!
Oh its just another irresponsible PR stunt for the cartoon network.
@dead_red_eyes: Well, there is nothing to show scale, so it could just be crafty camera work... not that I'm saying that a kite is the actual explanation.
Pack my bag and lets get movin,
cause I'm bound to drift a while.
When Im gone, gone,
you don't have to worry long,
long as I can see the light(s).
@lonewolf333:
No, "swamp gas".
@extracrispy:
I heard he was... ABDUCTED!!!
(insert spooky creepy laugh here).
Well, given that they look like flares, and they float like flares, and the footage was shot directly over a national guard armory / practice range... Just North of the Deer Valley airport, west of I-17...
I'd say the odds of these being flares was about 1,000,000 times more possible that these being the lights of a strange alien visitation. But that's just me.
@dead_red_eyes:
Actually, since there are no physical reference points or landmarks in this clip to compare the size of this thing to, we really don't have any idea how big it is.
We don't know how far away it is, don't know what size it is, since we only see four lights we really don't even know what shape it is, since we lack even those basic pieces of information, we are a long way from saying with any certainty what the hell this thing is.
Even in this would of ubiquitous mobile phone cameras we seem to be no closer to definitely proving that we are being visited by alien spaceships.
That being said, keep watching the skies.
what a load of old cobblers. "I videoed some lights, therefore its a UFO" Nice logic.
All its showing is that aliens are totally irresponsible users of our airspace - they didn't even contact the Air Traffic Control to let them know they'd be hovering nearby. How inconsiderate of them.
Brrr. If any movie about Aliens made me have nightmares it would be "Fire in the Sky". :S
+ Watch video
No, not flares. As a matter of fact, the FAA has just put a cork in the mouths of all of the Phoenix air traffic controllers.
Go to Phoenix story in addy and see page two in thread.
[aliencases.conforums.com]
I have a sudden urge to make some mashed potato sculptures.
ARHHGGHHGHGH I am endlessly annoyed when people assume UFO means alien. unidentified flying object. if its in the sky, and you do not know what it is, its a UFO. in no way does saying something is a UFO mean that it is full of little green men who are going to probe you.
better luck next time
Finally. Concrete proof there are bright lights in the sky.
Just once I wish someone would use a tripod, and include something else as reference for these ridiculous pieces of footage.
I'm also kind of tired of all these aliens turning up in their blinged-out ufos with lights all over them. I mean, I wish once or twice we could get a classy Rolls-Royce style ufo, all chrome and understated.
@underhill: yeah, another case where "unidentified" actually means "oh, that could be anything."
@aspiringexpatriate: It's true. I actually looked through a bunch of footage on YouTube (source of all credibility) and there were dozens of images like the triangular light formation. But I don't think any were older than the late 1970s, when Close Encounters was made. It's a chicken-and-egg question: which came first, Spielberg or shiny UFOs?
@deucailion: Were there green men with probes in Close Encounters? Damn, I missed that part! I thought that was only in Communion.
Personally I'm in it for the insipid background chatter.
You wouldn't think people would be as annoying as they are in Cloverfield, but boy are they.
Quick, someone upload a virus to their computers with an Apple laptop before they destroy the world!
Yes, lights in the sky look like lights in the sky. The similarity ends there.
Probably the aliens 'forgot' to turn off their landing light yet again. It their version of 'cow-tipping'. As for radar etc. if we have stealth technology, I'm sure they have it too.
you know I'm kidding, right?
One theory is it is sky lanterns.
[news.ktar.com]
If you watch dead_red_eyes video, it totally looks like balloons to me. The way they move look like the bobble about and are drifting on air currents.
Rather than sky lanterns, I'm going to guess an intentional hoax of helium balloons with bright lights, probably LEDs, inside of them.
p.s.
I'm surprised no one has claimed it is the second coming since they form the shape of a cross for a time... ;)
Balloons, eh?
[www.guardian.co.uk]
Maybe it's the mysterious floating priest...
Assuming they do decide to use visible light who says these aliens can see the same wavelength on the electromagnetic spectrum we can. Maybe can can see microwaves. Maybe they're running around with a gamma ray shooting it at people thinking "Well shit they've gotta see this, why do they just sit there after we flash it at them." not realizing they are killing folk or possibly turning them into the Hulk
this means something
*jumps out window and starts to throw garden inside living room window*
"how people could have seen a bunch of lights that the Federal Aviation Administration and local air traffic controllers couldn't explain"
Actually that would be Wouldn't explain. They can't actually tell you "that's a squadron of experimental XL-57 Flying Rocket Lemurs on maneuvers" so they simply say "..whut?"
Probably balloons or floating lanterns strung together.
+ Watch video
wtf, three dots on a screen with nothing in the foreground or anything else to indicate scale.
Hoax.
[www.azstarnet.com]
I'm with the skeptics here. I've been to Roswell, sat through the videos, and understand that a LOT of people genuinely believe. However, in the absence of physical evidence there's no proof.
The gov't is FAR too incompetent to completely erase all evidence if it ever existed.
@Dis[Con]cordian: how is it if a man shoots someone on a grainy dark fuzzy security camera that is considered hard evidence, but if someone gets stuff like this (especially the Phoenix lights stuff from a while ago) its never eveidence and always a hoax?
@Dis[Con]cordian: Yeah, I have to go with skeptics too -- even though I do believe there's alien life out there in the universe. I just think it's extremely unlikely that that life would choose to visit Earth wearing a bunch of glowy lights, but never tried to make contact otherwise.
If skeptics are quick to point out that the descriptions of aliens are too close to that of human beings, that evolution would not be the same, why then must we apply the same human logic, developed through evolution, to how an alien would behave or act?
Waiting for the first idiot to say there flares.
Way to try and stifle debate there.
But, well, they *were* flares, moron.
[www.ktar.com]
And so were the 1997 lights.
[www.badastronomy.com]
But you keep right on believing in bull****, sport. I'm sure you'll find much success that way.
@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: You could equally ask why the majority of photos of UFOs are fuzzy, out of focus and lacking depth clues??
Answer, because they're hoaxes and a clear picture would show inter alia the wires holding up the pie dish, the house lights reflected on the window glass, the hot air balloons, the cloud formations, the airplanes etc etc etc.
@sir_eccles:
If an alien being was, say one or two million (or billion) years in advance of our technology, I'd rather imagine that if said alien wanted all photos of the spacecraft to appear fuzzy, that all photos would be fuzzy :)
@scott1560:
And yet, for some stupid reason, they couldn't design a craft that, oh, I don't know, shone STRANGE BRIGHT LIGHTS IN THE SKY?
What, did they not invent an 'off' switch? They're sophisticated enough to avoid radar detection, but not sophisticated enough to think that "Hey, I don't wanna be seen, turn the lights off!"
@Evdor:
Not sure how an alien would act or think? Don't know if they'd drop to Earth disguised as flares or fly WWI Fokkers?
My point is that we wouldn't know what to look for and that both skeptics & believers present equally absurd explanations. All is moot.
@Evdor:
And to add:
Numerous UFO sightings have also been confirmed on radar. Doesn't mean they were alien craft, but objects have been detected on radar.
To further my other point.....Why would you assume that an alien would have a switch to turn off lights or if there was such a switch, why they'd use it? What is your logic based on? Geez, even if there are alien visitations (I sort of doubt it, but who knows?) how have the lights helped in the way of evidence? If I'm an alien, I'm not worried the least bit about lights since it doesn't seem to make any dif.. Something to think about.
The NBC nightly news just reported that they were road flares tied to helium balloons.
The information came from the "neighbor" of the person that released the balloons.
Saying that he saw him release the balloons from his back porch.
I call bullshit
@RagingTowers:
Far greater chance it was some idiot w/flares than aliens. But so what? You'll never get any real answers either way. Flares will always cancel any & all sightings in the Phoenix area for many years to come. I think you (AZ folk) saw flares and were subject to a hoax, but maybe it was something else? Makes no dif as there will never be a serious discussion regarding the situation. Skeptics are always given free points before any debate......Belivers always lose points before a debate. The field is never equal, logic & science are always tossed. Neither side has a chance. But ask a leading cosmologist and you'll find that anything's possible. The U.S. is not the most imformed nation/populace when it comes to current theory; few are even aware of CERN.
@Evdor: What is the alien's motivation to care if we get a visual confirmation. If aliens have the technology to travel from a far away planet that we haven't even been able to confirm life on with ease, I'm sure they also have the technology to confirm that even if we did see them, we would have a snowball's chance in hell of shooting them down.