eburacum
Papo-furado
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,812
One reason that these unidentified phenomena can sometimes appear to move very rapidly without making a sound is that they are (in reality) much more distant than they appear, therefore the sound is too diffuse or arrives much later than expected. Among successfully explained phenomena are such events as meteors, reentry events and bolides, which generally happen tens of kilometres away from the observer, and so the sound would arrive many minutes later if at all; and various rocket launches, fuel dumps and satellite passes, which occur above the edge of the atmosphere so make no sound we can hear.
In other cases the explanation is that the observed phenomenon is caused by a relatively distant plane or helicopter, much further away than the observer believes, but visible because of reflected light, brilliant landing lights or searchlights, or because of a large and obvious fuel or water dump. Note as well that chinese lanterns and balloons are silent, and drones are rarely loud enough to be easily heard.
Finally there are sightings caused by stars, planets, parhelia or other celestial objects, which are always silent.
It is relatively rare for any sound to be heard in association with the sighting of an unknown object, for these reasons; yet another reason to suspect that there are no alien spacecraft in our skies. And the 'interdimensional hypothesis' is impossible to falsify, so I won't bother with that.
In other cases the explanation is that the observed phenomenon is caused by a relatively distant plane or helicopter, much further away than the observer believes, but visible because of reflected light, brilliant landing lights or searchlights, or because of a large and obvious fuel or water dump. Note as well that chinese lanterns and balloons are silent, and drones are rarely loud enough to be easily heard.
Finally there are sightings caused by stars, planets, parhelia or other celestial objects, which are always silent.
It is relatively rare for any sound to be heard in association with the sighting of an unknown object, for these reasons; yet another reason to suspect that there are no alien spacecraft in our skies. And the 'interdimensional hypothesis' is impossible to falsify, so I won't bother with that.
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