(UFO) Unidentified Flying Orb

Water droplet on the camera?

> Water droplet on the camera?

On a satelite photo?

It's clearly not a 'water droplet' or any other image fault, since the surface of whatever-it-is reflects the sun at the same angle as the ground images do.

Weather balloons are pretty small, though. Hm. Could it be some kind of experimental aircraft? The Palm Beach Airport is directly south.

I'm voting for "frozen water droplet a short distance from the satellite." A weather balloon or aircraft would qualify as a terrestrial object within the thin envelope of Earth's atmosphere and should appear in sharp focus from the distance this photograph was taken. Since it is out of focus, I am assuming it is close to the lens. If you look closely at the lighting, one side is white where the sun hits it, the other side reflects the blue of the Earth, and the middle displays the blackness of space. My compliments on a fascinating find!

Extensive, and I do mean extensive, analysys of these "UFO"s has been going on at another G-maps site. There are a bunch in Florida, and another bunch in LA. The prevailing opinion appears to be that they are an artifact of some sort from the processing of the photos.

First thread:
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/2005/05/12/ufo/

Second thread
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/2005/05/18/ufo-update/

Thanks for the links. Given that this is probably not a satellite but an aerial photo and that these orbs appear multiple times in Florida and Los Angeles in linear paths, it almost certainly is a physical artifact in the photographic equipment of some kind (dust motes, water droplets, pits in plastic shields, etc.). A processing artifact also seems likely.

I found some of the more obviously "pasted in" artificial targets and lettering mentioned in and linked from the thread intriguing as well.

Road trip! Who do we know in Palm Beach?

Same location on Microsoft Maps, nothing unusual there:

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=17&X=2960&Y=14794&W=3&qs=%7cWest+Palm+Beach%7cFL%7c

A lot of the urban imagery is not satellites but is from regular aerial photo surveys taken frequently over US cities by USGS. This is why there is a discontinuity in the resolution of the images as you zoom out or move away from cities. Aerial photos are taken at fairly high shutter speeds, which would mean a wide lens aperture, but still, the depth of field is sufficient that an object would not be blurred unless it was really close to the airplane. Maybe a water droplet? The other images at 'second link' look like they could be water droplets. That would explain the blur, and the consistent sun direction without shadow. You would have to look at the original picture frame.

The other theory, of course, is that these are special government hideaways where aliens are bred with Bush administration officials to form a grid to focus telepathic rays that are bounced off the moon and teturn to Earth to cause mass hysteria and social unrest. TOO TERRIBLE TO CONTEMPLATE!

i dont know why all yall have to be so "scientifical" about it. so all im sayin is that it looks computer animated not real

a round cloud

I'm voting for water droplet. Some one call a college professor or somesuch other smart person and ask them.

How bout that Balloon that goes around the world. I think it was making a trip around this time.

I think it's the top of a water tower .

Do check out the discussion in the More Info link. Just about every possibility is covered over on Google Sightseeing. It's definitely not something on the ground, because there are a bunch of them, and people have gone to the sites and confirmed that there's nothing like that there. It's either something in the air, something on/in the camera, or something introduced during the processing. I really don't think it's in the air, but I have no real idea whether it could be something (drop of water) on the lense, or an error introduced during processing.

It is a weatherballoon. They can reach pretty high altitude and so seeming to cover a rather large piece of ground when viewing from straight up. (space)

The frozen water drop -theory isn't impossible, but the object is too symmetrical. Also, if you see it as identical on some other picture taken by a different satellite, then it is not in the satellite itself. Dunno about Google Maps, but Google Earth shows the satellite's name.

Anyway, the facts are that it is symmetrical and it propably doesn't move. (Can't be sure about that though, as many planes show with sharp lines in Google Maps, whichs means the blur in the "orb" doesn't come from moving. So ok, forget the not-moving-fact :D)

OMG THEYRE INVADING!

I found 2 of those exact some orbs hovering over L.A. when I was looking for the "Hollywood" sign.

it should be water droplets or cloudy pictures

Thank god im the only person who knows this. They are actually Floating cameras placed at extremely high altitudes near the nations borders. They are meant to get a Top-Down Radar display on low flying drug running airplanes. Look in any aviation map and they will be a little blurb about it. Now I should have ladi this to rest.

Then whys it so blurry?

I bet its an alien space craft. Since its in Florida, the extraterrestrials were obviously getting a nice tan. Who wouldn't? Leaving Mars to come closer to the Sun is more than enough explanation for anyone.

Why's it blurry if its a limp or a floating camera or whatever? I bet it's a nick on the camera lense (although it is a bit too round). More posts are welcome (as long as there not like the "bigfoot" post at Area 51 those just clutter up boards.

Sorry I ment blimp not limp.

damn, thats freeky!

It's in Flordia.... people, people It's simply swamp gas!........... how could it be a water droplet, when there is a shadow that makes it look either concave or convex? and if it is indeed a water droplet then would it not show in many different pictures? not just one? The satellite takes many rapid pictures. explain how the droplet makes any logical sense. If it were a droplet then would it not be a black spot, if frozen or distorted. not a fluffy looking thing. The out-of-focus is interesting, but a water droplet would cover a much much larger portion of the lenses, not a extremely minute part. the fact that it's the size of a few houses (standard size of u UFO) is odd.(swamp gas is a joke)

i wonder if there's a way of calculating the altitude based on the blurryness, probably would have to know a lot about the camera that was used, field of depth, lens diameter, etc..

Somebody taking a joy ride , in a "hot-air balloon" ???????????

may be another satellite closer to earth. one side shined by sun. blurried by movement. just my minds...

Pfft you're all wrong.. I know exactly what this is; I've seen it
before.




Theyyyyy're commmminnnnnngggg ;(

cest un ballon météorologik

if you ask me, which is doubtful, i have to agree with the other satellite idea. It seems to fit in all the right places. Saying its a UFO doesnt mean its an alien. Its just....unidentified...but then, if it was a satellite, it would probably appear alot bigger, and would be alot more blurred. I'm guessing that the artifact in question is around 40 km from the surface of the earth...thats not high enough to be in space, its just under the thermosphere. what flys around at that level? haven't a clue. What i've also noticed is that; not only the image is blurred, but it causes an amount of interference with the things surrounding it. Any idea's anyone?

you all know too much, you are seeking answers to questions that can not be concieved that this time. The answer is beyond your curent realm of understanding. All will be understood beyond the paridigm shift.

What makes you randomly guess 40km? There is an image with a Cessna in it, which was probably below 5000 feet, and it was QUITE blurry. It wouldn't have to be that high to be that blurry. As a pilot I learned a lot about meteorology and there are 80 weather balloon (actually called radiosonde) stations around the continental US where they launch large balloons into the atmosphere twice daily...sorry folks, alien spacecraft have pilots and bumperstickers ;)

Regardless of all the ...shall we say theories?
Why has it been corrected yet several other imperfections around are left alone?

No conspiracies here. Just limited time constraints of the moderators. We usually correct maps the poster requests corrections to. Or, if there is an unambiguous description of the map provided by anonymous users like yourself. Otherwise, we generally leave it to comments box to sort things out.