Unidentified Flying Objects Chinese Lanterns The New Millennium Swamp Gas

During Project Blue Book's operating years, 1947-1969, the military dismissed many UFO sightings away as natural phenomenon, including swamp gas, the planet Venus, stars, temperature inversions and sunlight reflecting off the bellies of migrating geese. One particular term was used much more often than the others, swamp gas. By definition, swamp or marsh gas is a gaseous product, chiefly methane, formed from decomposing vegetable matter, as in marshes. This explanation was picked up by the media and used whenever it seemed to fit. It's apparently much easier to accept this than the idea that we're not alone in the universe.

The investigation of UFOs must involve the elimination of conventional explanations, which could easily include any of these aforementioned items. One of the most recent items added to the debunking catalogue is Chinese lanterns, which are mostly collapsible paper lanterns, lit with a candle in the center, that are released during celebrations, such as weddings. These lanterns tend to glow white/orange, travel with the wind, and can be seen for quite a distance.

There have been many sightings lately that could possibly be explained by such lanterns, but hardly all of them should be dismissed away with this as the cause. Locally, in Bucks County Pennsylvania, several news agencies picked up on a large influx of UFO sightings. The next day, some visited a local shop that sold Chinese lanterns and claimed that these had to be the cause of the sightings. Dismissing the sheer number of different sizes and shapes, including saucers, boomerangs and egg shaped craft. Ironically, the lanterns that they lit barely made it off the ground, just like their explanation for these sightings.

The bottom line is yes, Chinese lanterns could be the cause of some UFO sightings. They're an unfamiliar aerial phenomenon, that when seen from a distance, multiple lights can appear to be one large solid craft. The same investigative approach needs to be taken when approach every sighting. All conventional explanations need to be ruled out first, before claiming anything is extraordinary. It's truly unfortunate that the news and media automatically accept this as the cause without doing any true investigative work of their own.

You decide, swamp gas, Chinese lanterns, or simply a convenient alternative to reality, an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Credit: aquarius-project.blogspot.com