ID | #1614791698 |
Added | Wed, 03/03/2021 |
Author | July N. |
Sources | NUFORC
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Phenomena | |
Status | Hypothesis
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Initial data
On a business trip to Cancun, a colleague and I were the only tourists lounging by the hotel's unlit pool and gazing up at the stars. We were simultaneously observing what appeared to be a shooting star.
As we "gasped" with pleasure, the shooting star stopped over our heads and changed direction. We were immediately silenced and confused as another "shooting star" streaked back towards us, crossing the path of the first object at a sharp angle.
At this point, we both confirmed that we were actually seeing the same thing. The two objects turned and then slowly headed towards each other and seemed to come together and turn away at extremely tight angles. As we watched, another object streaked across the paths of the first two.
As we watched, these slightly glowing objects continued to cross each other's trajectories. They moved slowly when grouped next to each other, and we could see that they were more or less chevron-shaped with the entire shape defined by a clear, visible glow.
The glow was about the same intensity as the surrounding stars, with a greenish tinge of light that they seemed to emit. All of their movements were straight or at sharp angles, creating invisible triangular trajectories as they flew past and intersected with each other. From time to time, they would converge for a split second only to quickly separate from each other in various angular patterns.
One of the hotel employees was cleaning the pool. He didn't speak English, and my Spanish was pretty rusty. However, when I asked about what we were observing, I realized that he explained that they were birds, and they were glowing because of the plankton in the water, which was also glowing. The explanation seemed somewhat acceptable.
This, of course, could explain the greenish glow and the shape of the formation. However, I live in an area where there are many hawks and falcons that fly in the hills of my community. I didn't see any of these birds flying in the angular order I was observing. Their turns tend to be softer and more curved. I did not see any of these birds, but I admit that at night, seeing that the objects seemed to meet, perhaps there was an illusion, as one object could be higher or lower than the other.
This does not explain how objects are constantly breaking away from each other and moving in different directions, but I feel that even some of these observations can also be attributed to the illusion and visual impairment created by the night sky.
Perhaps the most unusual behavior that makes me wonder about the birds ' explanation more than any other is the fact that all their movements seemed to be straight, and all the turns seemed to be made only with a sharp angular movement.
I have since tried to investigate the observations of seabirds under similar circumstances, and to observe the movements of other groups of birds, but have not found any descriptions that seem to fit my experience.
At this time, I can't say for sure what I saw, but it wasn't shooting stars. However, I have seen other visitors to Cancun describe similar sightings at a later date.
Original news
Date: January 19 1995
Location: Cancun Mexico
Time: 22:00
Summary: While on a business trip to Cancun, an associate and I were the only tourists lounging by the unlit hotel pool and gazing at the stars. We simultaneously observed what we thought was a shooting star streak across the sky. As we “ahhed” in pleasure at the sight, the “shooting star” stopped above our heads and reversed direction. We immediately became silent and confused when another “shooting star” streaked back toward us crossing the path of the first object at a sharp angle. At this point, we both confirmed that we were actually seeing the same thing. The objects both turned and then slowly headed back toward each other and appeared to come together and turned away at extremely tight angles. As we watched, another object streaked across the paths of the first two. During the time we watched, these lightly glowing objects continued to streak across the travel paths of each other. They moved slowly when they were grouped near each other and we could see that they were more or less chevron shaped with the entire shape being defined by a clear, visible glow. The glow was about the same intensity of the surrounding stars with a greenish tint to the light they appeared to emit. All of their movement was in straight lines or at sharp angles, creating invisible triangular travel paths as they flew past and crossed over each other. Occasionally, they would come together for a fraction of a second only to break away quickly in different angular patterns. One of the hotel employees was cleaning the pool. He did not speak English and my Spanish was quite rusty. However, when I asked about what we were observing, I understood him to explain that these were birds and they glowed because of the plankton in the waters that that also glowed. The explanation seemed acceptable to a point. That could certainly explain the greenish glow and the chevron shape. However, I live in an area where there are a lot of hawks and falcons that fly on the thermals created in the hills of my community. I have not seen any of these birds flying in the angular patterns that I observed. Their turns tend to be more gentle and curved. I have seen none of these birds come together but would allow that at night, seeing the objects seemingly meet may have been an illusion as one object could have been above or below the other. This does not explain how the objects would consistently appear to break away from each other and travel in different directions but I feel that even some of those observations could also be attributed to illusion and vision impairment created by the night skies. Perhaps the most extraordinary behavior that gives me pause to question the bird explanation more than any other is the fact that all of their movement appeared to be in straight lines with all turns seemingly to be accomplished only with sharp angular movement. I have since attempted to research sea bird sightings under similar circumstances and watch the movement of other groups of birds but have found no descriptions that seem to fit my experience. At this time, I cannot say for sure that what I saw but they were not shooting stars. However, I have seen that other visitors to Cancun have described similar sightings at later dates.
Source: NUFORC
Hypotheses
Luminescence
![](https://ik.imagekit.io/u4ftyhke2kx/storage/tr:h-500,w-500/nt_version/5181/glowring2.jpg?ik-sdk-version=php-2.0.0)
Luminescence is a non-thermal glow of substance that occurs after absorption of the excitation energy.
Luminescence of solids can be divided into the following types:
Photoluminescence is luminescence under the action of light (visible and UV range). She, in turn, is divided into:
- fluorescence (life time 10-9-10-6 s);
- the phosphorescence of (10-3-10 s);
Chemiluminescence is luminescence that uses the energy of chemical reactions;
Investigation
Resume
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