Another super-cool bridge shadow here, belonging to the Hernando Desoto Bridge. Built in 1972 it carries the I-40 across the Mississippi River in Memphis (it’s actually right next to the previously posted Memphis Pyramid). Memphis has a total of four bridges that cross the Mississippi. Top to bottom in our second image they are The Harahan, The Frisco and The Memphis-Arkansas. Steve Cox has a cool ground-level tour of these bridges on his site.

Props to Justin for this one

The Louisiana Superdome is the home of the New Orleans Saints, and with a dome diameter of 680 feet (210 meters), it is the largest domed structure in the world.

Thanks to Andrea and Jeff Fuchs.

The 308 by 2,400 foot Olivenhain Dam appears to be nearing completion in this photo, although it’s still under construction (there’s a yellow crane at the centre).

As part of San Diego County Water Authority’s US$827 million Emergency Storage Project, the dam does not block a stream or river but instead boxes off a 200 acre man-made reservoir (to the north) which will be filled with 7.8 billion gallons of imported water. The project is expected to be completed in 2010 (more information).

Thanks: Papapenguin

Thanks to everyone who commented on the original UFO find, although we’re still not sure what they are, there’s been some interesting developments.

Ian Pottinger and jher were the first to find that there are in fact eight of these UFOs over Florida, at the following points

One – Two – Three – Four – Five – Six – Seven – Eight

and Tensus used keyhole to map the points showing that they make a very neat grid.

Yoshino and jher later noticed that the UFOs are not limited to Florida but can also be found over L.A.

One – Two – Three – Four – Five – Six – Seven – Eight – Nine – Ten – Eleven – Twelve – Thirteen

and Tensus again mapped the points, which appear in an almost straight line.

Things the UFOs are definitely not…

Space debris or another satellite?

Derek & Tensus discovered that the close-up images of Florida are taken by AerialsExpress.com at an altitude of 17,500 feet so are aerial photos and not satellite images.

Marks added to obscure famous peoples homes?

While there’s no doubt the whitehouse photos were processed for security it is very unlikely these UFOs are intentional ‘cover-ups’ due to the neat grid layout.

Water towers?

The UFOs are just too big to be water towers (and there’s no shadow).

Anomaly produced by the stitching software?

Shi Ju says

Definitely they’re NOT marks for picture stitching. In most stitching software (like for making panoramas) the algorithm comes down to finding sharp and contrasting details and aligning those spots with each other.

Things the UFOs still could be…

An alien spacecraft?

It’s still possible!

A weather balloon?

Tm says

The “Grid” is centered around an airfield, common launch points for weather balloons.

Although Klem says

All currently used radiosonde devices (weather balloons) are latex, yellowish beige to transluscent

and Jello adds

The object in question here does not cast a ground effect, therefore does not exist in the air.

A ‘lenticular’ cloud?

Patrick was the first to float this idea and the images he posted do look similar to the UFOs, although it is unlikely clouds would form in neat grids.

Condensation on the lens?

Possibly the current forerunner for most likely explanation, Stuart said…

Condensation inside some sort of housing would be my guess. If the drop were directly on the lens it would be effectively invisible. Put it a few inches/feet away and have the camera shooting with a very deep depth of field (as you would with a small aperture) and it would look just like that anomaly.

Something else?

Possibly one of: Peppermint, baseball, Vogon ship, crop circle, planet, thumbtack, ballbearings, smoke, pond, swamp gas, golf ball, satellite, flying ninja, space junk or contact lens as others have suggested!

This 15,000 sq. ft. island is the floating green of hole 14 at the Coeur d’Alene Resort’s golf course in Idaho. The island is automatically moved daily so the distance to the pin varies between 100-175 yards (it’s always a par 3 though).

Thanks: Andrew