Missile contrail sharing the sky with the Moon and Venus, seen from Las Vegas, NV. (Credit: Ben McGee)

As Space.com explains, the brilliant streak in the sky “was created by the launch of an Army Juno missile early Thursday from Fort Wingate in New Mexico, which soared high into the atmosphere on its way to the White Sands Missile Range to be intercepted by a Patriot missile. The unarmed Juno rocket flew so high that its long contrail reflected sunlight from the yet-to-rise sun, sparking a dazzling night sky light show.”

This contrail generated widespread inquiry across the southwest. According to the Associated Press, a New Mexico deputy in San Juan County stated, “We had gotten reports that there was an explosion or a UFO or missile or whatever, and people thought it was real close so they were concerned there would be debris falling from the sky.” White Sands Missile Range spokeswoman Monte Marlin told Space.com that her office “received more than 100 calls and a flood of emails from observers who saw the Juno rocket’s contrail from states across the Southwest.”

Missile tests are a regular occurrence, so why aren’t sightings like this one more common? A White Sands Missile Range spokesman explains, “It’s one of those things, it does not happen every time — the weather and light conditions have to be just right, and this was one of those times.”

Spiral seen over the Middle East. (Credit: imadomar2/YouTube)

MSNBC reports that Isreali police lines were jammed by hundreds of witnesses calling to report the UFO. The object’s strange appearance led many to conclude it was an alien spacecraft entering some sort of wormhole or time portal. But according to Universe Today, “The strange sight has been confirmed to be a Russian ballistic missile test of the Topol ICBM from the Kapustin Yar firing range near Astrakhan in southern Russia.” And space analyst Jim Oberg told MSNBC that the Topol’s “third-stage spin is a ‘feature,’ not a malfunction, and may be associated with guidance, or decoy deploy, or enhancing hardness against U.S. boost-phase antimissile weapons.”

What do you think? Do you agree that the object in this video was a Russian ICBM, or do you think it was something completely different? Share your opinion with us on the Open Minds Facebook page.

You see some stars and the horizon, then suddenly an ethereal pale arc pops into view. It rapidly expands into a thin circular shell, then fades away as it fills the view. The whole thing takes a few minutes to expand; you can see the stars moving during the event (some of the pixels on the webcam are very sensitive and make stationary “hot spots” in the field of view).

The mysterious event initiated speculation of UFOs, wormholes, and star gates. This is reflected in the title chosen by the Daily Mail for their article about this incident: “UFO, ‘Star Gate’ or just a ballistic missile?”

The ballistic missile explanation has received the most credence so far. The Daily Mail claims, “[T]he most likely explanation is that is shows a U.S. Minuteman III inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), ejecting fuel as it enters the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere. Supporting this theory, Plait points out that a “missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (in California) at 03:35 Hawaii time, just minutes before the halo was seen.”

So the timing of this missile launch seems to fit the time of the eerie light in the sky, but there has been no official word to support this theory.

Missile over NY? (credit: Juan Rodriguez / NY Post)

As with the UFO sightings hype of October, initiated by a mass UFO sighting in New York, it appears that media hype surrounding the mysterious Los Angeles coast vapor trail is going to result in additional “mystery missile” sightings around the country. The New York Post is reporting a New York mystery missile. Yesterday, a Queens resident photographed what he believed to be rocket in the sky above Brooklyn or New Jersey.

The investigation into the strange vapor trail off California’s coast has been called off by the Pentagon after reaching the conclusion that the trail was simply caused by an airplane, and an “optical illusion” from the camera’s angle is what gave the plane and its trail the missile-like appearance.

But there are many who refuse to accept the Pentagon’s explanation.

According to the New York Post, Doug Richardson, editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets magazine, said he was certain it was “a solid-propellant missile,” referring to the Los Angeles UFO. Further, the NYP states that the Pentagon, Navy, Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration, Coast Guard and North American Aerospace Defense Command have said that, following their investigations, they are unable to explain what it was.

As for the latest “mystery missile” in New York, the witness who took the photograph said that the trail he observed did not resemble the usual contrails produced by planes from the nearby JFK Airport.

Object over Newfoundland

Historically, if a UFO sighting is significant enough to make it on the nightly news, it has almost been guaranteed that the same explanation will be given for absolutely every sighting – “It’s a weather balloon.” Weather (or “research”) balloons have been the default report offered by government and other officials when it has come to explaining mysterious areal objects. The balloon response even dates back to the famous 1947 Roswell incident, where a research balloon was offered as the official explanation for a downed craft (after retracting an initial statement about the capture of a flying saucer). Based on responses to recent sightings, however, it seems that the “weather balloon” response has now been replaced by a new default response – “It was a missile test.”

A missile-like UFO sighting was recently observed by hundreds of residents in a rural community in Newfoundland. Witnesses reported the noiseless object rising from the ocean, and shooting through the sky with smoke and flames shooting out its back. The French Ministry of Defence came forward to state that it had launched a test missile from a submarine recently.

Object over China

Another recent flying object was seen over Xinjiang, China. The bright object had a cone tail, and was flashing red, blue, white, and green lights. The explanation for this object was a ground-based midcourse missile interception test.

Object over Norway

Yet another strange object was seen recently – this one in the sky above northern Norway. As seen in the photo, the sky was filled with a blue trail, leading to a brightly illuminated, spiraling object. This incident has been explained by the testing of a new Russian intercontinental missile. Russia has admitted that their recent test was a failure (which could explain the spiral motion of the object), but Russia’s defense ministry refuses to confirm that the mysterious lights seen over Norway were from their missile test.

It’s possible that several countries are conducting more and more missile tests. It’s also possible that missile tests are the new trendy subterfuge that will replace the weather balloon to explain UFO sightings. Either way, I wonder how many more unusual objects in the sky will be credited to missile tests this year.

Sorry, weather balloon. You’re a has-been. I think you’ve been replaced by something sexier and flashier.