Sighting in Notre-Dame-de-Londres, September 9, 2012
Hérault, Occitanie, France
Sighting on September 9, 2012 in Notre-Dame-de-Londres (Hérault, France). GEIPAN considers the phenomenon probably identified (class B).
What happened
Around midnight, three friends were watching shooting stars when they noticed a very bright star-like object. It seemed to them to move fairly quickly in every direction, followed by a second, fainter light. Only one witness account was collected by GEIPAN.
The investigation compared the description with a sky chart: the planet Jupiter and the star Aldebaran were located where the witnesses had indicated. The movements they described are clearly not what fixed celestial objects would do, but an autokinetic illusion was put forward to explain them. That part of the sky contains few other bright stars, which makes this hypothesis plausible.
GEIPAN classified the case as B: the witnesses probably saw Jupiter and Aldebaran, affected by an autokinetic illusion.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- September 9, 2012
- Location
- Notre-Dame-de-Londres · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- B
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2012-09-08316
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.