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Identified Flying Objects (IFOs)
IFO means "Identified Flying Object". The term is used to describe known phenomenon, both natural and technological, such as satellites or ball lightings, that misguide UFO witnesses. Most UFO sightings are due to these very explanations.
By Michele Bugliaro Goggia - last modified: April 12, 2007 5:46 PM
IFO means "Identified Flying Object" and is used to describe known phenomenon such as satellites or ball lightings. Sceptics love such explanations, Governments push on them to keep the masses away from every spectacular case. Reductionists go further, and they propose their own explanations. Nevertheless, it remains true that most witnesses are mislead by a list of natural and artificial phenoma happening in the atmosphere. The base for the following article courtesy of Alfredo Lissoni (© Notizie UFO).
Meteors
Meteors, wrongly and commonly known as falling stars, are the kind of objects that can be easily seen even with modest means, like your own eyes, with little optical instruments and photographic machine or a videocamera. Let’s say right now that meteors may appear as feeble and with short or luminous tracks, leaving long traces, even beyond 20¯ in the sky. It’s not known where they may appear, if and when. Meteors are generally rocky agglomerates that, entering in contact with the earthly atmosphere disintegrate through friction, leaving typical traces in the night sky. Sometimes, if their mass is enough, they can not disintegrate completely and the remains may reach the ground. In this case they’re called meteorites. It’s also good to know that such “meteorites rains” can be periodical or occasional.
Comets
Without doubts they represent the most unusual objects in the sky. In case they’re very luminous, they can be seen with our own eyes, with magnitude +1 or 0. Some can even be more luminous with a negative magnitude. These stars possess a tail whose lenght goes mostly always beyond 10 times the appearent Moon’s diameter. When they become more lightful, for the Sun’s proximity, feature high speeds, as much as 10¯ in 24 hours. Little comets are not visible with the only eyes, unless they’ve magnitudo +5, +6.
Zodiac light
Zodiacal light looks like a twilight, even though being caused by the sunlight scattering back to Earth from microscopic space dust. These particles orbit in the plane of the Earth's orbit. Once the dusky twilight disappears, you can see the zodiacal light if you are in dark skies. The light appears as a large pale grayish cone-shaped light. The base is on the horizon and it slants to a rounded peak about 30 degrees up. It's a bit like a triangular luminosity that could be sighted from west after sunset when the sky is very clean. Its angular extensiveness, added to the low light conditions.
Of course the name comes from the fact that it comes from the Zodiac, and could be seen before sunset from east, though it’s really rare. At 180¯ from the Sun the zodiac, the light forms an egg-shaped light called Gegenschein, which is seen only in rare good conditions. The Gegenschein possess a superficial luminosity of about 5 times less that a zodiac light at 40¯ from the Sun. Normally it’s difficult to spot such phenomenon.
Polar auroras
Polar auroras actually include both aurora borealis and aurora australis. The term "aurora borealis" was firstly used in 1621 by the French scientist and philosopher Pierre Gassendi, although George Siscoe has given reasons to believe it was introduced by Galileo Galilei in 1619. It was only in 1954 that auroral electrons were actually observed by detectors aboard a rocket launched into the aurora by Meredith, Gottlieb and Van Allen, of Van Allen's team at the University of Iowa. Carl McIlwain, another member of that team, used a 1959 rocket experiment to identify the particles as electrons of an average energy corresponding to acceleration by 6000 volts!
Polar, boral and austral auroras can happen mostly on high latitudes, more than di 50¯, though they happen to be visible at lower latitudes in temperate areas (Milano 45¯9'). Shapes can change just like the light extensiveness.
Artificial satellites
Satellites, approximately 33-34'000 including geosynchronous satellites, appear as light dots like the stars but without the movement, typical of the planets, due to the reflection of solar rays. The light can vary, for these objects spin and expose a different side of themselves to the Sun light. They also can appear and desappear, when they enter or leave the Earth’s shadow cone.
A lot of satellites feature strange orbits: stationary ones seem to to move face to a point of the Earth, but they seem to move face to the stars. Others are never visible from certain areas of the Earth.
Ball lightning
Ball lightning, a less known phenomenon, is generally spherical, from 1 to more than 100 cm (0.4 to more than 40 in) in diameter. It usually lasts less than 5 seconds. The balls are reported to move horizontally at speeds of a few meters per second and to decay silently or with a small explosion.
Ball lightnings should not be confused with balls of light (BOL).
Venus
Venus being the brightest star in the sky (except for the sun and moon), it is frequently misidentified. Contributing to this, Venus is often visible in the early evening and morning sky, so seen by many people. Even experienced witnesses, especially when they are in unfamiliar surroundings or atmospheric conditions are unusual, may be confused, at least temporarily. Even though there is no doubt that Venus frequently triggers UFO reports, it is often overplayed as a UFO culprit by many skeptics.
Lenticular clouds
Lenticular clouds, technically known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned at right-angles to the wind direction. Where stable moist air flows over a mountain or a range of mountains, a series of large-scale standing waves may form on the downwind side. Lenticular clouds sometimes form at the crests of these waves. Under certain conditions, long strings of lenticular clouds can form, creating a formation known as a wave cloud. They can be mistaken for visual covers of UFOs.
external links
Meteors, Meteorites and Impacts
Gary W. Kronk's Comets and Meteor Showers
Spacewatch Friday: False Dawn: All about the Zodiacal Light
Lenticular clouds at Wikipedia
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