Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

UFO

Thursday, 12th May 2005 by Alex

Please note that some or all of the objects mentioned in this post are no longer visible on Google Earth or Google Maps.

Tensuns says:

I have no idea what this is. I can’t find anything similar on any google map referenced sites. It doesn’t show up on terraserver and I live nearby so I know there are no towers in that area. It has the same shadow as ground objects and when you zoom out it appears to be too small to be something really close to the satellite.

UFO

Well we’re completely stumped. Any clues anyone?

Update: See the UFO Update entry.

329 Responses to 'UFO'

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  1. 1. Mat says:

    where is the shadow?

  2. 2. Alex says:

    Yeah I wasn’t sure about that either. I just posted what Tensuns said verbatim, perhaps he can clear it up? Sure is weird though…

  3. 3. tensuns says:

    Mat,
    See how it is lighter/brighter on the southwest side of the orb as if the sun is in the southwest. And if you look at the trees in the background they cast their shadows towards the northeast, implying that the sun is coming from the southwest also.

    I take it as futher evidence that whatever it is, it probably isn’t a defect in the film or some object obfuscating the lens.

  4. 4. Scott Lawson says:

    High altitude weather balloon maybe, if the lens is focused on the ground, that could be the reason for the fuzzyness of the object.

  5. 5. James says:

    Is it possible that it could be space debris? I know there is a lot of stuff just out there is space.

  6. 6. James says:

    And i looked at Terra Server and nothing is there

  7. 7. Terry says:

    Yeah, a weather balloon, that what you WANT us to think it is :)

  8. 8. was says:

    90% of UFOs are weather balloons

    and 73% of statistics are made up

  9. 9. chris says:

    I used to live in that area- West Palm Beach, FL. It’s definetly not anything on the land there!

    Also, Notice how it overlaps the adjacent housing. My buck goes on weather balloon.

  10. 10. AgentX says:

    It is just a weather balloon. You didn’t see anything.

  11. 11. Austin says:

    I am no astronmer but could it be condensation on the lens?

  12. 12. GUdlyf says:

    That has to be where the Crossbow Project laser hit that poor bastard’s house, filling it with Jiffy Pop.

  13. 13. Ian Pottinger says:

    I guess including links forced my previous comment into a moderation queue, so I’ll post again with out links.

    I not exactly sure what this is but I believe it is caused by something either on, inside or very near the lens since you can find more of them at right angles of each other. I’m going to dub them FloridaSpheres. You can find a similar FloridaSpheres exactly exactly due west (FS1) and due north (FS2) from the one pinpointed above (FS0). Just keep clicking the west or north arrow and you will reach it. I’ve found more using the same search pattern. Below is the latitudes and longitudes of other spheres. Copy&Paste the numbers into the appropriate place in a GoogleMaps URL.

    ll=26.748651,-80.074550 FS0 - The Original FloridaSphere
    ll=26.748651,-80.189370 FS1 - Due West of FS0
    ll=26.901956,-80.074550 FS2 - Due North of FS0
    ll=26.901956,-80.245299 FS3 - Due West of FS2
    ll=26.901956,-80.302420 FS4 - Due West of FS3 (Partial)
    ll=26.901956,-80.357441 FS5 - Due West of FS4 (Half)
    ll=27.002249,-80.245299 FS6 - Due North of FS3

  14. 14. David says:

    I believe one of the engineers shot a spit wad at another when they were building the satelite and it stuck to the lens……..or maybe like on your vehicle windshield at night one of the unlucky insects bit the winder “lens” in flight…. you know space insect…..:)

  15. 15. Ravaaron says:

    After reading all of these comments-i believe it is a weather balloon or something of the sort. Florida has definatly had its fair share of hurricanes and storms and such. If I were in charge of Florida, I’d have lots of detection mechanisms watching for the first sign of messy weather.
    and theres always the irrational explination- aleins and UFOS, burmuda triangle, jeb bush, etc etc

  16. 16. jher says:

    They’re all in alignment with each other. I’d bet they’re alignment points for the map data.

    If you zoom out to the 3rd level and scroll left/right and up/down in a straight line, they form a grid.

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    Note also how they’re more or less identical in shading. Light on the bottom, dark on the top. #4 above and #7 above are partially overwritten by new data.

  17. 17. Cyrris says:

    How high do weather balloons go? The top side of it is shaded sky-blue, so if weather balloons still fly low enough to have blue sky above them (and thus reflect it in this direction), then I’d say it’s pretty darn likely to be one.

  18. 18. Gabriel Radic says:

    It’s obviously an Unidentified Flying Object.

  19. 19. Duane says:

    If it forms a grid, then something’s a little odd. I would have said it could be a decloaked bouncer…. or baloons, or just the same object drifting fast enough to get tagged by the same satellite?

  20. 20. David says:

    Given that it’s blurry all the way around it, it’s not motion blur (unless it’s moving up or down *really* fast or *really* close to the lens). Motion blur occurs because something is able to travel the distance of the blur in the time it takes to expose the sensors to light. You’d only see blur where the object has temporarily obscured the background at some point during its travel. More likely it’s simply out of focus, which implies that it’s at a significant altitude, probably nearer to the camera lens than the ground.

    Given that other posters have found a grid-like relationship to them, it seems likely that it’s something that has condensed/frozen/landed on the lens itself and every photograph taken has this same dot in the same place. I suppose it’s possible that whatever it is is in orbit with the satellite also, but I would expect at least a *little* relative drift.

  21. 21. Aaron says:

    Didn’t you see Independence Day (or was it Signs)? They’re in a grid because they’re positioning themselves for an attack!

  22. 22. nichole says:

    Prettier than Vogon ships, anyway.

  23. 23. JTk says:

    It’s a flying crop circle without the, er, crops.

  24. 24. J Peterson says:

    Weather balloon. Photographs at this scale aren’t taken by satellite, but by aircraft. A balloon would be close enough to the plane (relative to the distance to the ground) to be out of focus.

  25. 25. Ross Easton says:

    Maybe it’s a planet :S (showing my ignorance now, perhaps)

  26. 26. Ross Easton says:

    Oh no, not a planet! What am I saying?! Just had a closer look on Google Maps. Weather balloon I think.

  27. 27. Luiso says:

    To my mind a meteorite or spacial garbage has been impected to the camera, and this is making wrong fotos.

  28. 28. Josh says:

    it’s just force field around my house

  29. 29. drogulus says:

    >>They’re all in alignment with each other. I’d bet they’re alignment points for the map data.

  30. 30. drogulus says:

    > They’re all in alignment with each other. I’d bet they’re alignment points for the map data.

    Well, it’s obviously a well organized invasion…

    They look just like the space craft they used in “V”.
    It must be space nazi lizards, it would be too much of a coincidence to be anything else.

  31. 31. Jared says:

    Oh, there’s where my ball bearing went.

  32. 32. James says:

    Gabriel, Josh, Jtk, Jared, all you guys - this has been the funniest thread I’ve read in ages. Geniuses, the lot of you :D

  33. 33. Mike says:

    Executives at Google are going to be annoyed when they hear you’ve spoiled the launch of their Google Thumbtacks Beta.

  34. 34. moo says:

    Its a Giant Chewy Peppermint.

  35. 35. musti says:

    Now where’s Mulder when you need him?

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