What was that?

Saw a strange light in the sky? The most common UFO misidentifications: what they look like, why they fool us, and how you can check what you saw.

• Two bright lights side by side before dawn? It’s Jupiter meeting Mars – In mid-November, two bright points of light sit close together in the predawn sky: one dazzling, the other fainter and orange. They aren’t objects flying in formation. They’re Jupiter and Mars, which appear closest together on November 16. Here’s why planets so often get reported as UFOs, and how to check what you’re looking at.
• A spinning-top UFO over Chignahuapan? A giant paper balloon is the likeliest answer – On November 1, a video from Chignahuapan, Mexico, went viral: locals and tourists film a large, slow-moving object shaped like a spinning top. According to the Mexican press, the footage is real and shows a traditional paper hot-air balloon. That is very likely, but no one has yet identified which balloon it was.
• Zigzagging circles of light on the clouds? Probably an advertising searchlight – Bright, round spots zigzag, circle and cross each other on the clouds, sometimes spinning in a circle. They come from above, and nothing can be heard. Sights like this are regularly reported as UFOs, yet often they are the advertising searchlights of a disco, event or light show projected onto the cloud base, even from kilometers away.
• Three Suns in the Sky? Halo Phenomena and the Sun Dog – Two bright, colorful patches glow on either side of the Sun, as if three suns were shining at once, or a huge ring of light surrounds the Sun or the Moon. The phenomenon has frightened and fascinated people for centuries, and it is still sometimes reported as a UFO. Yet it is caused by sunlight refracted by ice crystals high in the atmosphere.
• Orange lights hovering in the sky? It may be a military illumination flare – A few bright, orangish lights appear side by side, hover almost motionless for minutes, then go out one by one. Sights like this are often reported as UFOs, yet they are frequently caused by parachute military illumination flares, which are dropped during exercises to light up target areas at night.
• Mass UFO Sighting in Chile: A Chinese Rocket May Be Behind the Mysterious Light – On the night of October 24 into October 25, an expanding, bright phenomenon in the sky was filmed in several regions of Chile, and the videos spread as a mass UFO sighting. That same night, China launched a Long March 8A carrier rocket. The connection is obvious, but no one has officially confirmed it yet.
• The Belgian black triangle – Petit-Rechain, 1990 – A black triangle in the night sky, a strong light in each of its three corners and a reddish one in the middle. For two decades, the best-known photo of the Belgian UFO wave was examined by physicists, image analysts and specialists from a military academy, and none of them could prove it was fake. Then, in 2011, its maker explained how he did it: from Styrofoam, with flashlights, hung on thread. We looked into how a workplace prank became one of the world's most famous UFO pictures.
• Saucers in the Sky – Washington and Canmore, 2026 – A giant, smooth, saucer-shaped cloud hangs motionless over downtown Washington, then twenty minutes later vanishes without a trace. According to an American UFO researcher, it was a cloaked alien craft, just like the disk photographed in the Canadian Rockies that he wrote about in the summer. We looked into it, and both images show a well-known, often misunderstood cloud type. Our verdict: identified.
• What was that? Snowflakes in space – John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, 1962 – In orbit around the Earth, the first American astronauts found themselves in a cloud of tiny, brilliant particles, as if fireflies or snowflakes had surrounded the capsule. This year, Scott Carpenter's audio recording about it was included in the U.S. government's UFO files release. We looked into it and found that the mystery was solved by Carpenter himself, on the same flight. Our verdict: identified.
• Fake UFO video? How to spot doctored footage and AI-generated clips – A perfectly sharp flying saucer hovers over a city, soldiers examine a crashed spacecraft in the footage, or a strange object is visible from an airplane window. Videos like these spread across social media within hours, and they often turn out to have been made on a computer. In the past with 3D effects programs, and today increasingly with artificial intelligence. We show you the types of fake UFO videos, the signs that give them away, and how you can check them before you share them.
• What was that? The color-changing, flickering “UFO”: Sirius – It sits low in the southeastern sky, flickering red, green and blue, and on a phone video it turns into a pulsating disk. Many people in this situation are sure they are seeing something unusual. Most of the time it is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. We show why it is so striking, why the camera is fooled too, and how you can check it in a few minutes.
• What was that? Light pillars in the winter night – Motionless beams of light reaching into the sky look as if a spaceship were shining down on the ground. In reality, tiny ice crystals floating in the freezing air reflect the light of lamps on the ground. They occur regularly in Hungary too, most recently last January over Lake Balaton.
• Strange-shaped light in your footage? Focus error and digital zoom – A bright point in the sky, you zoom in with your phone, and suddenly a pulsating disk, ring, triangle or rippling, colorful "jellyfish" appears on the screen. Footage like this regularly circulates as UFO videos, yet most of the time the same thing is behind it: the camera cannot focus on a tiny, distant light, and the digital zoom magnifies the error too. We show you how to recognize it, why this footage is so convincing, and how you can check what you recorded.
• Glowing orbs in photos? Dust, moisture or raindrops lit by the flash – You take a photo in the evening in a room, in the garden or in an old building, and translucent, glowing spheres float in the picture that no one saw with the naked eye. These are often shown online as ghosts, energy orbs or UFOs, but photographers have long known the phenomenon: the light of the flash reflects off dust, moisture, raindrops or insects floating right next to the lens. We show you how to recognize it, why these images are so convincing, and how you can check what your camera recorded.
• What was that? The ISS and bright satellites – A bright, steadily moving point of light crosses the evening sky. It doesn't blink, it makes no sound, and then after a few minutes it simply disappears. Sightings like these regularly lead to UFO reports, even though the explanation is most often the International Space Station, orbiting about 400 km above our heads, or another bright satellite.
• What was that? The blue spiral in the sky – Norway 2009, Australia 2010, Hungary 2025 – A bluish-white spiral slowly unwinding from a bright point, eventually with a black “hole” in its center. In 2009, people in northern Norway watched it in astonishment; in March 2025, so did people across half of Europe, Hungary among them. The images have been circulating ever since, labeled “wormhole,” “portal” or “UFO.” We looked into it: both cases were caused by a rocket, and the phenomenon now returns almost like clockwork. Our verdict: identified.
• A bright sphere hanging motionless in the sky? Party and weather balloons mistaken for UFOs – A silvery, glinting sphere has stood in the same spot in the sky for days, a white dot keeps shining after dusk, a metallic object drifts slowly in front of the clouds. Behind these there is often a balloon: an escaped helium balloon, a weather balloon or an advertising balloon. Balloons also played leading roles in the biggest mistakes in UFO history, from Roswell to the Pentagon's recent UFO videos. We show you how to recognize them.
• A fireball in the sky? A bright meteor or reentering space debris – A dazzling greenish or orange streak of light crosses the sky, flares at the end, sometimes breaks into pieces, and is over within a few seconds. People in Hungary see this several times a year too, and each time there are always a few "crashing UFOs" among the reports. In reality it is a fireball, that is, an especially bright meteor. We show you how to recognize one, what the difference is between a meteor, a fireball and reentering space debris, and what to do if you have seen one.
• What was that? “Three objects seen in formation” – tracking down the viral military infrared image – A black-and-white image is spreading on social media: three bright objects above mountains, among them a circled, triangle-shaped “saucer.” According to the caption, it is 2023 military infrared UAP footage. We looked into it: only one official video matches the description, and according to the investigation it shows three distant airliners. The circulating image also does not match the official description on several points. Our verdict: misleading.
• Drone or UFO? How to recognize drones at night – and what only looks like a drone – Colorful, blinking lights hover in place, then suddenly change direction, or a dozen points of light come together into a formation in the sky. In recent years, drones have become one of the main sources of UFO reports. But the story goes both ways: many people mistake drones for UFOs, and during drone panics, people mistake stars, planets and airplanes for drones. We show you how to tell them apart.
• Orange lights in a row in the night sky: how to recognize sky lanterns – A few orange, flickering lights float slowly and silently across the sky, one behind the other, as if flying in formation, and then disappear one by one. This is one of the most characteristic “UFO sightings,” and almost always the same thing is behind it: Chinese lanterns, or sky lanterns, released at a wedding, a birthday or on New Year’s Eve. We show you how to recognize them.
• What exists only in the photo: lens flare, bokeh and the phone's other tricks – Many people who take "UFO photos" saw nothing with the naked eye: the strange spot appeared only afterward, in the picture. In such cases the "culprit" is almost always the camera itself. Light reflected inside the lens, an out-of-focus point of light or the phone's image processing draws shapes that do not exist in reality. We show the most common camera tricks, and also how you can filter them out.
• Venus, the most common UFO – and why it will trigger many reports this winter – After the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky. Low on the horizon it twinkles and changes color, viewed from a car it "follows us," and on a phone it looks like a disc or a ring. No wonder it is one of the most common causes of UFO reports worldwide. From November 2026 it shines in the southeastern pre-dawn sky, and it will be best visible in mid-December. We show you how to recognize it.
• A row of lights in the sky? It may be a Starlink satellite train – Ten to twenty identical points of light move one behind the other, in a straight line, silently, and then disappear one by one. Someone seeing this for the first time might think of a UFO fleet; in reality it is probably a train of freshly launched Starlink satellites.