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

Posted by Alex Turnbull, Thursday, 12th May 2005

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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. 106. James says:

    Don’t have much time to punch this in: reference evidence stored under file classifcation FNG070326 in the National Quarkives. It is a… OH NO… THEY’VE FOUND ME… IT IS A

  2. 107. _Jello_ says:

    I love conspiracy theorists!
    The puffy metallic marshmallows are almost laid out in an Orion type constellation pattern…but not quite. Maybe out visitors are being graded on formation and artistic expression.

    But seriously, for those of you still having issues with this, here is a photo from almost the same magnification of the Goodyear Blimp.

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    Please notice the dramatic shadow cast on the ground due to its elevation. The object in question here does not cast a ground effect, therefore does not exist in the air. There is no such thing as condensation in space, and these photos were not taken from aircraft as the resolution and coloration does not alter the more finite you make your view. Also this is not a software mapping anomaly. When satellite photos are rendered together you get mapping discoloration defects such as this

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    or this

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    as an elongation or distorted perspective of the image content (both of these links show the Pacific Northwest).

    These objects were inserted post-render of the photos, and in the case of finding one where the Google watermark bleeds into one of them it should be unequivocal evidence that these were inserted into the photo after the product was finished. I can make the same objects and effects in Photoshop with simple gradation and blur effects.

  3. 108. Agent G says:

    Nothing to see here folks, move along.

  4. 109. nickstang says:

    This is a smoke cloud from a fire.

  5. 110. jillian says:

    where is Fox Mulder when you need him?

  6. 111. Mr. Volley says:

    No, No, No you are all wrong!
    These are the satelites of the NBA

    Give me my Focusyn

  7. 112. Judith says:

    Quite interesting. I think the first question to ask is: Is it a real object or is it a defect in the lens? I guess a possible way to find out is to have the picture analyzed and find out whether it is real or not.
    So far, a lot of people seem to have gotten the impression that it is round, grayish-metallic and to me it looks flat, too.
    I think the photograph/s should be analyzed first before jumping to any conclusions.

  8. 113. DominoEffect says:

    You’re all wrong. It’s a picture of me, close up. I am a small disc shaped object; some tell me I resemble an AOL disc.

  9. 114. Will Smith says:

    WELCOME TA ERF

  10. 115. gogogo says:

    its an ad for the upcoming War of the Worlds movie.

  11. 116. Christina says:

    You silly people….there are no such thing as aliens. Sightings of aliens and space ships are really human time travellers from our future coming back in time to observe us.

    Duh

  12. 117. Jay says:

    You did not see a UFO.

    Swamp gas from a weather balloon got trapped in an air pocket and reflected the light of the planet Venus.

    Now, just look at this red light…

  13. 118. ZORBO says:

    This is definitely a satellite photo with a round, silver collored shape that could be an anomalous find with pure aesthetically ambiguous meaning accidently and/or intentionally confounding onlookers into guessing, investigating even, the deep rooted purpose of the State of Florida.

  14. 119. indomitus says:

    If someone will take the time to Google Map around Washington D.C., you’ll notice that certain…landmarks…are similarly blurred.

    Capitol Hill is blurred, though strangely enough, the White House isnt….but the White House in the image looks very out of place and photoshopped. The Pentagon, of all buildings seems to fit in the most.

    Somehow I doubt the government was willing to let Google take polaroids of our national nerve centers. The Capitol was blurred, a carefully remastered White House implanted, and obviously some deep dark Government installation (or Jeb Bush’s mistress’s house) deep in the heart of Florida supplanted with a blurry pond.

    Speaking of that, anyone tried to GoogleMap Langley?;)
    Along those lines, anyone try to Google

  15. 120. slayer88 says:

    They can run, but they can’t hide!

  16. 121. Memphis says:

    it looks like someone took the smudge tool in photoshop and went wild

  17. 122. Professor Ping says:

    Somebody above suggested going to the areas beneath these “objects” and photographing the sky above. I think that someone already has…

    http://www.ufocasebook.com/stanfordlinearaccelerator.html

    (OK. So they flew over to Stanford when they got bored with Florida. Who wouldn’t?)

  18. 123. Grownup says:

    Some points to consider:
    1.These pictures are not taken in-sequence on one orbital-pass (then on to the next state,city, zip-code, etc). It’s a mosaic, meaning: some adjacent images were taken on different orbits- even days apart- Look at the clouds, way BELOW the “object”. Those are in-focus and thousands of feet above the ground. Some views show clouds in one square, stopping at the edge of that image. The entire image is made up of many of these smaller images- therefore, it is erroneous to assume that this THING is one object, only- it may be, or it may not be, the same object.
    2. Any serious analysis of these images needs to be done by someone who knows (at the very least) the distances involved in taking these images- They ARE taken from space.
    3. This “GRID” thing- take any number of random points in space, spread them out 2-dimensionally, and you can draw lines between any of them.
    These lines will always be straight. This means nothing. There are too many assumptions going on here.
    Why not just LOOK at the pictures and see what you see, without trying to justify it as something “explainable”.
    4. One thing stands out (to me). This IS an object. It is out of focus, and consistently so. It appears to be spherical and reflective, and the reflections are consistent with the lighting and environment seen in each separate image-section in which it appears.
    5. If (4) is true, it is closer to the camera (but NOT on the lens- come-on, now) than it is to the ground, and probably quite large- Huge, actually.
    6. This is not the only image of a large, silver, spherical object- seen either in the sky (from the ground), or from air to air, or in seen in space:
    A Russian Cosmonaut is on record, having reported a large-Silver sphere between Mir and the earth. Because of the vacuum of space, it was impossible for him to determine either it’s size OR distance from him at the time, but he “thought it looked BIG”.
    It was visible for a long time (a few minutes?) . It was moving at his speed, so seemed stationary in relation to his window, with Earth and the clouds moving below. He said it just vanished (it didn’t move away) before he could get a picture.
    This photo should be sent to Bruce Macabee (spelling?) for analysis.
    Anyone using Google can verify anything I have stated here.
    Anyone with half a brain can debunk what I have stated here, as well.
    Anyone with both halves of their brain intact is probably just reading these posts- not adding to them.

  19. 124. led says:

    i think that its the government trying to hide somethng.

  20. 125. Professor Ping says:

    I think I have caught one hovering over some trees at the Stanford Linear Accelerator.

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

  21. 126. Professor Ping says:

    Try blowing it up in an image editor.

  22. 127. Gamo says:

    What a loss for earth……they want Tiger Woods back……

  23. 128. Me says:

    They are not markers for stitching together images. First, why would they be so big? Its not like humans are stitchign together these images. Second, there is no reason to make them blurry greyish disks. I think it is condensation.

  24. 129. Alex Bilbilov says:

    People! Its a Yahoo visual obsicle contraption lauched to block Googles sat-map site. Monica Lewinsky is flying it.

  25. 130. Dysgenic says:

    EasterEggs

  26. 131. Kevin Burton says:

    It could also just be a blimp. This would explain why from the air it seems like a disk. From the side it would appeare like the normal eggdrop/blimp shape.

    Just apply Occams Razor here :)

  27. 132. Space Pirate says:

    I think it’s a flying ninja.

  28. 133. Sticky says:

    Rumour has it, the japanese were trialling out a new form of gravity-defying soldier in the region!

    Call it what you will!!

  29. 134. Siftah says:

    Who cares what it is, it made for funny reading ;)

    My money’s on something on the lense, fwiw ;)

  30. 135. Luke says:

    Maybe Google put those in to get us all crazy?!

    Or the aliens have come!!!!

    -pulls out Tin Foil Hat-

  31. 136. Privacy says:

    It is probably someone in google that doesn’t want there house to be shown.

  32. 137. Grownup says:

    Blimps don’t fly ABOVE clouds seen at +5000 feet. No wonder Bush still has his job…

  33. 138. Rob from NZ says:

    What we have established:
    Its a weather balloon.
    Its not condesation/water drop
    The foto was not taken from an aircraft.

    Oh and its is not a mentos or a UFO

  34. 139. Shi Ju says:

    It’s not Google trying to hide something beneath those spots. It is not.

    As we’ve seen it in the White House screenshot government officials and Google’s staff don’t bother itself with making stylish effects like blurring, real shading, lightning to hide something. They just erase that place from the picture:

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    Now compare it to our THING.

    And it’s not lens dust. Have you seen lens dust? On any pictures from your digital camera? Here how it usually looks:

    http://www.pbase.com/image/43328271

    So just drop that lens’ guessing. (’Man, where’s my tin foil hat?’)

  35. 140. Jocko says:

    white spot, inner bevel and 5 of gaussian blur, when you makeing this kind of montage first thing on the mind is direction of light…

    suckers

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