What UFOs turn out to be

Meteors and fireballs mistaken for UFOs

A meteor is a grain of interplanetary material burning up as it enters the atmosphere. Larger ones produce fireballs: balls of fire sometimes brighter than the full Moon, coloured (green, orange), breaking apart and leaving a trail.

The event lasts only seconds, but its speed and brightness are startling; because it happens tens of kilometres up, witnesses hundreds of kilometres apart see it at the same time and often believe it was close by. Camera networks such as the Global Meteor Network help cross-check reports.

SkyUnknown lists 130 UFO sightings explained as a meteor or fireball, from 1955 to 2025, drawn from official records: GEIPAN (CNES) for 127 cases and Aeronautica Militare (Italie) for 3. The busiest year was 2012, with 15 cases.

Most frequently named places: Rentree Atmospherique (5), Rentree Atmospherique — National (3), Bolide — Toulouse (2), and Nancy (2).