Unidentified flying object facts for kids
A UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) is any object flying in the sky which cannot be identified by the person who sees it. Sometimes the object is investigated. If people can still not figure out what the object is after an investigation, it is called a UFO. If they figure out what the object is, it can no longer be called a UFO because it has been identified.
Even though UFOs can be anything, people often use the word UFO when they are talking about alien spacecraft. Flying saucer is another word that is often used to describe an unidentified flying object.
Identified flying objects (IFOs)
Studies estimate that 50-90% of all reported UFO sightings are identified later. Usually 10-20% are never identified. Studies also show that very few UFO sightings are hoaxes (people trying to trick other people). Most UFOs are actually natural or man-made objects that looked strange.
80-90% of IFOs are identified as one of three different things:
- astronomical causes (for example: planets, stars, or meteors)
- aircraft
- balloons (including weather balloons)
10-20% of IFOs are other causes (such as birds, clouds, mirages, searchlights, etc.)
- Allan Hendry, The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigating, Evaluating, and Reporting UFO Sightings, 1979, Doubleday & Co., ISBN: 0-385-14348-6
Images for kids
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Italian ufologist Roberto Pinotti with astrophysicist Josef Allen Hynek in 1981
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Fata Morgana, a type of mirage in which objects located below the astronomical horizon appear to be hovering in the sky just above the horizon, may be responsible for some UFO sightings. (Here, the shape floating above the horizon is the reflected image of a boat.) Fata Morgana can also distort the appearance of distant objects, sometimes making them unrecognizable.
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Photograph of "an unusual atmospheric occurrence observed over Sri Lanka", forwarded to the UK Ministry of Defence by RAF Fylingdales, 2004
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Allen Hynek (left) and Jacques Vallée
See also
In Spanish: Ovni para niños
