UFOs in Brazil? What are the lights seen in the south of the country

The skies in southern Brazil have been attracting the attention of astronomers and ufologists since the end of October, with the occurrence of several unidentified luminous phenomena.

So far, there have been at least eight days of strange and very bright sightings, reported by airline pilots. These mysterious lights can be called UFOs (acronym for “unidentified flying objects”).

This does not necessarily mean that they are phenomena from another planet. They are called that simply because there is no confirmation of what they are, according to experts heard by Tilt.

“We need to separate what is a natural effect to then move on to those that are really UFOs. And, if it is a UFO, we are not necessarily talking about an extraterrestrial ship, it could be some military technology equipment being tested by some country or even ours,” says Daniel Christian de Souza, ufologist and founder of the Center for Ufological Studies (CEU) of the North Coast, from Cidreira, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS).

LIGHTS THAT TURN ON AND OFF

The first record occurred on October 22nd, and the most recent one last Tuesday (15th). Most of the sightings took place between the 4th and 9th of November, on consecutive days. Many were reported by pilots near airports in the States of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, and widely publicized on social networks.

The most intriguing involve blue lights, which turned on and off, and also rotated at an altitude of 38,000 feet. Some followed alongside the aircraft for great distances before moving away. From what is known so far, the events were only luminous: the pilots did not report any situation that would affect the flight or landing of the planes.

WHAT COULD THE LIGHTS BE?

For Roberto Dias da Costa, professor at the astronomy department at USP (University of São Paulo), the characteristics of the sighted lights demonstrate that they are the result of the movement of Starlink satellites,structures launched by the company SpaceX that can reflect more sunlight. Their passage could even be seen over Rio Grande do Sul at the end of last month.

“The satellites are launched in a group and when they are released they are lined up until each one goes to its destination position. In the images released about these lights that appeared in the southern region, this can be seen clearly. A row of bright lights, exactly as satellites are,” he explains.

Still according to the professor, the satellite recently launched by SpaceX at Cape Canaveral Station, in Florida, in the United States, is a current and brighter model, which may have confused the pilots. On September 24, SpaceX launched 51 satellites into orbit.

LIGHTS THAT MOVE

Astronomer Marcelo de Cicco, from the Exoss Project, linked to the National Space Observatory, also believes that part of the lights reported by the pilots are reflections of sunlight on the Starlink satellites, and justifies that the light patterns are repetitive, in addition to occur on consecutive days.

He rules out the possibility of being meteors, for example. However, some reports also talk about lights that move and seem to follow the plane. For the astronomer, these cannot be evaluated as satellites. “We need to analyze the sightings piece by piece. Some lights that appear flashing southwards on the skyline are from Starlink, but there are other lights,” he says.

“The problem is that in the audios the pilots report that there are points of light walking lower, swirling, following the plane and the satellite is a blinking light. So we can’t put everything in the same box and say that it’s Starlink, because there are gaps with the pilots version. Furthermore, because the tower asks them to film these lights, if it were all satellites there would be no reason for that,” adds De Cicco.

WHAT ABOUT UFOs?

The ufologist Souza is cautious when talking about the sighted lights being UFOs. According to him, a detailed study is being done to explain all these records in the southern region of Brazil and in neighboring countries, such as Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, where there are also reports of sightings.

“We are in contact with scholars from these countries, making a chronology of the sightings and studying them case by case. We believe that there may be situations in which the sun may be reflecting satellites, but there are reports of pilots who take the interpretation of UFOs a lot, because they are professionals pilots, with 36 years of experience, who know how to differentiate a satellite from a UFO,” he explains.

The ufologist also reports that the routes of satellites, meteors and the movement of armed forces planes are being monitored so that there is no confusion in the sightings.

INPE AGENCY DECLINED TO COMMENT

“Inpe [National Institute for Space Research] does not monitor the sky throughout Brazil. We cannot talk about the lights released by some media and we do not comment on facts or statements made by people from other institutions,” the agency said in a note.

With information from UOL/Tilt