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The Unexplained Gazette

Isle of Man editionPrice: nothing at allAll the news that fits the evidence

Strange sightings and odd events, reported fairly and then checked against the evidence.

Front page · Exclusive

Saucers skip across Washington sky

Our artist’s impression of nine objects “like a saucer skipping on water”. A drawing, not a photograph: nobody photographed them.

In 1947 a private pilot reported seeing nine strange objects moving at speed across the sky over Washington State, USA, “like a saucer skipping on water”. It was the first report of “flying saucers”. [source]

UFO stands for “unidentified flying object”, a US Air Force term. To the military it means something in the sky that can be seen but not recognised, not something from another world. [source]

NASA’s independent study team (2023) said that, to date, there is no conclusive evidence in the peer-reviewed scientific literature suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAP. [source]

Asked whether it has found any evidence of extraterrestrial technology, the US Department of Defense’s AARO answers: “No.” It adds that examination of sightings is ongoing. [source]

Read the full UFO case file

Puzzle corner: Which case?

9 clues. Pick the case each one belongs to.

Press start for your first clue.

Every clue comes from the case files. After you pick, the full fact and its source appear. The drawings in this paper are our own.

How this paper works

unexplained.im is the REALLYBYTE hub for strange sightings and odd events. Every case comes in two parts. First, what was reported, with who reported it. Then a boxed what the evidence says, from sources such as The National Archives, NASA, the US Department of Defense, NOAA, the Met Office and peer-reviewed research. We don’t tell you what to believe, and we don’t claim more than the evidence does. Myths and legends live on our sister hub folklore.im; this paper sticks to sightings and events.

More from today’s edition

MAP ENCLOSEDThe Bermuda Triangle

Ships and planes “vanish” in ocean triangle

What was reported

Source of the account: Many reports since the 19th century, and the popular legend of the Triangle (as described by NOAA)

The Bermuda Triangle is a region of the western North Atlantic where ships, planes and people are alleged to have mysteriously vanished. [source]

The USS Cyclops went missing in the area of the Bermuda Triangle in March 1918. There were no survivors, and the wreck has never been found. [source]

What the evidence says
  • According to NOAA, there is no evidence that mysterious disappearances happen more often in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-travelled area of ocean. [source]
  • The US Navy and US Coast Guard say there are no supernatural explanations for disasters at sea there. [source]
  • Everyday explanations include the Gulf Stream, which can bring rapid, sometimes violent changes in weather, and many areas of shallow water around the Caribbean islands. [source]
  • There is some evidence that in the Bermuda Triangle a magnetic compass sometimes points to true north rather than magnetic north. [source]
  • The US Board on Geographic Names does not recognise “Bermuda Triangle” as an official name, and no official maps mark its boundaries. [source]

Our verdict: A busy stretch of sea with tricky weather and shallows, not one that swallows more than its share.

SPECIAL REPORTCrop circles

Mystery rings flatten English fields

What was reported

Source of the account: Farmers and researchers in southern England, from the late 1970s (as described by Britannica)

From the late 1970s simple crop circles began to appear regularly in fields in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Gloucestershire. They were made at night and grew more complex over the years. [source]

Some people who studied crop circles thought the plants looked bent but not broken, so no human could have made them: either an unknown natural phenomenon or extraterrestrials must be at work. [source]

What the evidence says
  • In 1991 Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, of Southampton, confessed to making more than 200 crop circles since the late 1970s, using nothing more complex than ropes and boards. [source]
  • Bower and Chorley were first inspired by a 1966 report from near Tully, Queensland, Australia, of a flying saucer that supposedly landed in a lagoon and left a flattened patch of reeds. [source]
  • Many crop circles have been proved to be the work of humans. [source]

Our verdict: At least some were planks, rope and a long night out. Plenty have been proved to be made by people.

STILL OPENBall lightning

Glowing ball of light seen drifting about

What was reported

Source of the account: More than 10,000 written accounts (as counted by the Royal Meteorological Society)

The Met Office describes ball lightning as an incredibly rare form of lightning in which a glowing white or coloured sphere is seen, lasting and moving about. [source]

What the evidence says
  • It is estimated that only about one lightning strike in a million produces ball lightning, yet there are more than 10,000 written accounts of it. [source]
  • The Met Office’s leading hypothesis is that the glowing sphere could be a bubble of glowing soil particles, formed when lightning hits the ground. [source]
  • Some scientists have studied ball lightning for decades and still aren’t sure whether it exists. Sceptics suggest it may be an after-image left on the eye by an ordinary lightning flash. [source]
  • One theory, the atmospheric maser theory, would still need to be reproduced in a laboratory before it could be confirmed. [source]

Our verdict: Case still open. Very rare, very hard to study and not yet explained for certain.

FROM THE ARCHIVEGhost ships

Ship found abandoned with nobody aboard

What was reported

Source of the account: The crew of the brig Dei Gratia, December 1872 (as described by Britannica)

The Mary Celeste, an American brigantine, was found abandoned roughly 400 nautical miles from the Azores on 5 December 1872. [source]

She had left New York on 7 November 1872 for Genoa, Italy, carrying more than 1,700 barrels of alcohol, with 10 people on board, including Captain Briggs, his wife and their two-year-old daughter. [source]

The crew of the British brig Dei Gratia boarded her and found her deserted. The cargo and belongings were mostly undisturbed, but a longboat was missing. [source]

What the evidence says
  • The Dei Gratia’s crew sailed the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar, where British authorities investigated and found no evidence of foul play. [source]
  • The sounding rod, used to measure water in the hold, was found on deck, and one pump had been taken apart. A faulty reading and a poor pump could have led Captain Briggs to think the ship was sinking and order everyone off. [source]
  • The story became famous in 1884, when Arthur Conan Doyle published a short story about a ghost ship he called the Marie Celeste. It was pure fiction. [source]

Our verdict: No foul play was found. One likely story is a false alarm about water in the hold and a hasty exit in the longboat.

Open all nine case files

Coming soon: ten case sites

Each kind of case will get its own site. The two marked “First wave” come first.

  • UFOs and UAPFirst waveufos.unexplained.im

    Planned: sightings from the official files, what UFO and UAP actually mean, and how investigators sort the explained from the not-yet-explained.

    Coming soon
  • The Bermuda TriangleFirst wavebermuda-triangle.unexplained.im

    Planned: the ships and planes said to have vanished, the map nobody can draw, and what ocean scientists say about the area.

    Coming soon
  • Hauntingshauntings.unexplained.im

    Planned: reported hauntings in palaces, castles and vaults, and what researchers found when they took volunteers for a walk round them.

    Coming soon
  • Cryptidscryptids.unexplained.im

    Planned: reported sightings of Nessie, Bigfoot and other mystery animals, with the searches, the sonar and the hoaxes laid out fairly.

    Coming soon
  • Crop circlescrop-circles.unexplained.im

    Planned: how the patterns appeared, the two men with the planks, and a printable to design your own (on paper, not in a farmer’s field).

    Coming soon
  • Ball lightningball-lightning.unexplained.im

    Planned: eyewitness accounts of glowing balls of light, and what weather scientists think might be going on.

    Coming soon
  • Ghost shipsghost-ships.unexplained.im

    Planned: ships found with nobody aboard, starting with the Mary Celeste, and how investigators pieced the clues together.

    Coming soon
  • Earthquake lightsearthquake-lights.unexplained.im

    Planned: strange glows reported around earthquakes, the scientific argument about them, and lights once blamed on ghosts.

    Coming soon
  • Disappearancesdisappearances.unexplained.im

    Planned: famous vanishings at sea and in the air, and what searchers and the records can and can’t tell us.

    Coming soon
  • Strange rainstrange-rain.unexplained.im

    Planned: reports of fish and frogs falling from the sky, checked against what weather scientists say.

    Coming soon

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