Petrozavodsk Phenomenon
1977 jellyfish-like light formation over the Soviet city
| Petrozavodsk Phenomenon | |
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| Date | September 20, 1977 |
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| Location | Petrozavodsk, USSR (Russia) |
| Type | Sighting |
| Status | Likely misidentificationDisputed |
Thousands of residents of the Soviet city reported an enormous jellyfish-like light formation hovering and then dissipating into a shower of smaller lights, generating rare open Soviet press coverage during a period of otherwise heavy state UFO secrecy.
Assessment
Soviet and later Russian scientists linked the phenomenon’s timing to a Cosmos satellite launch from the nearby Plesetsk Cosmodrome that night, proposing the light effects resulted from high-altitude fuel venting illuminated by the rising sun; some witnesses and researchers dispute that this fully accounts for the descriptions of a solid, structured object rather than a diffuse cloud.
[1]See also
References
- ^ Soviet Academy of Sciences UFO Commission, contemporaneous analysis; Plesetsk Cosmodrome launch schedule, September 1977.