Monday, January 29, 2007

Unexplained Lights Over Hawaii Creates Buzz

In the latest of what seems like a rash of unexplained lights in the skies, objects that are being dubbed UFOs were spotted over the Hawaiian sky on Friday evening around 6:20 pm by a surfer and his son. Honolulu resident Peter Hollingworth described the orbs as two lights circling in the sky, about 45 degrees above the horizon, according to KHON 2 news.

The television station even grabbed video of one of the lights from the Channel 2 SkyCam. So -what were the lights? The National Weather Service says nothing showed up on their radar at the time of the sighting and the Federal Aviation Administration didn't report anything unusual, reports KHON.

The U.S. military conducted a missile defense test off of Kauai Friday evening but the test didn't begin until 7:20 p.m.

And according to a report from the TV station's website an eyewitness account from Hollingsworth says this, “These two little fireballs with a stream behind it,” said Hollingworth. “Looked kind of like a shooting start but it just kept going. They changed directions a few times, at first it was coming in then it turned, then it went out then it came back in again"

Hollingworth was surfing with his 12 year old son when the unexpected show began.

“I was a little concerned. I told him come over and sit with me - this might be the last surf session we ever have together because this thing's coming straight for Honolulu. It looked deadly to me it was kind of spooky.”

The lights remain unexplained according to the report, but one skeptic gave his analysis. University of Hawaii astronomy professor Gareth Wynn-Williams told KHON that believes there's a simple explanation behind the UFO’s. “It's probably a contrail of some kind,” he said while watching video of one of the lights at his Kailua home.

The professor says contrails are caused by high flying airplanes burning hydrogen based fuels. One of the byproducts of the fuel exhaust is water. “The air is very cold so the water condenses and forms like drops very quickly and then these drops stay behind the plane until eventually they warm up and they evaporate.”