Sri Lankan UFOs neither Mars nor Flintstones?

On December 14, 2012, the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror reported how that Southeast Asian country’s Medical Research Institute is advising witnesses observing the island republic’s recently reported UFO phenomena to search surrounding areas for metal and rock that “they think would have fallen off” the UFOs. In a story dated Dec. 12, 2012, Dubai’s Emirates 24/7 narrated how a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) spokesperson cited an astronomer’s reported conclusion that observations of the planet Mars were behind claims of luminous objects in the skies.

Recordings of what appear to be shimmering UFOs were shown by Newsfirst Sri Lanka television in a video dated Dec. 11, 2012. None of the civilian videographers whose work is featured in the newscast appear to have achieved sharp focus while using their cellular telephone cameras. The unfocussed nature that characterizes most of these images only adds to the difficulty in determining their true identity.
UFOAM: Today’s Top UFO News for Dec. 14, 2012
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Note to Newsfirst: Mixing images of the sun obscured by clouds interspersed with the other footage while a reporter’s narrative describes “unidentified lights” only serves to further compound the confusing nature of the television presentation.

Known as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean,» the tidings of Sri Lanka’s recorded history reportedly span a period of three thousand years. One of the earliest literary records of this “nation of smiling people” appears in the Sanskrit epic “Ramayana,” first reproduced as written text an estimated 2500 years ago. The poem’s 24,000 verses explore how a Lankan king named Ravana used a flying machine (Dandu Monara or “Flying Peacock”) to abduct Sita, wife of Rama, who journeys to Lanka from his northern Indian home in a bid for her safe return.

While no testimony of abductions by extraterrestrials accompanied the videos of luminous UFOs shown by Newsfirst, what the images do reveal are bright orb-shaped objects (one of which appears to emit a beam of red light) in both twilight and starlight conditions.

However, it is what the videos do not show that is perhaps most revealing, in light of claims from SLAF media spokesperson Wing Commander Shiras Jalaldeen who reportedly told Emirates 24/7 how a senior lecturer in Physics at the University of Colombo Sri Lanka was concerned about witnesses errantly submitting UFO reports when the source of the mystery was light from the planet Mars.

This is just one of the top UFO news stories covered on this morning’s edition of UFOAM, a live broadcast over YouTube that has also featured previous top-ranked coverage of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s recent comments on ETs, revealing how those remarks followed in the wake of an official disclosure by a government-tasked military team that took place in 1997.

Live UFO News Weekdays

Click here to watch “UFOAM: Today’s Top UFO News for Dec. 14, 2012,” featuring coverage of Sri Lankan UFO reports plus exclusive analysis of testimony from a first-time UFO witness in Sonoma, Calif.

UFOAM is a new online public UFO news forum providing access to informed discussions, opportunities to receive feedback and answers to questions concerning one of the world’s most intriguing subjects: the mystery of UFO phenomena. Host and moderator Jon Kelly is joined by special guests including veteran experiencers, authors and videographers who drop by to share their latest insights in what promises to be a lively half hour event every weekday at 7 a.m. PST, 10 a.m. EDT and 3 p.m. GMT.

Island Investigator

Chandana Jayaratne, consultant to the Astronomy and Space Applications division of the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, was cited by an SLAF spokesperson in a story that appeared on Dubai’s Emirates 24/7 website as the source of a claim that “lights seen by people emanated from Mars as a result of it orbiting closer to the earth.”

In an earlier story about local UFO sightings dated July 7, 2002, the physicist reportedly told Sri Lanka’s Sunday Observer how “one cannot ignore these incidents as fantasy but needs a thorough investigation,” adding how «These rural folk who have not even seen a sketch of an extra-terrestrial spaceship, cannot fabricate a story. Some strange thing is really happening in the area»”

Known locally as an ardent proponent of UFO investigations into reports of sightings, Chandana Jayaratne has reportedly played a role in setting up a UFO reporting hotline at the University of Colombo while maintaining good relations with the Sri Lanka UFO Research Association as well.

Impossible Planet?

The apparent magnitude or relative maximum brightness of the planet Mars as seen from Earth is rated by scientific tables at -3 with a minimum brightness of +1.6 when in conjunction with the Sun (whose apparent magnitude is -27). Astronomy magazine online shows an image of the planet Mars recorded on March 22, 2012 using a Blackberry camera mounted to the eyepiece of an Orion 8″ Dobsonian reflector telescope.

Viewed in such a way, the planet appears bright and occupies nearly as much of the image frame as those objects seen in the frames of out-of-focus Sri Lankan UFO videos.

However, there were no reports that the residents of Sri Lanka had mounted cellular telephones to the eyepieces of telescopes in order to render their evidentiary images. It is understood by this reporter that the Sri Lankan UFO videos as shown on Newsfirst television were lensed via cellular telephone on-board camera systems alone.

And if such instruments are capable of capturing images of light reflected from the surface of planets that are nearly 56 million kilometers away at their closest approach, why are no other celestial phenomena visible in the video backgrounds?

Is that because, without the aid of a telescope, cellular telephone on-board camera systems lack sufficient low-light sensitivity and are thereby unable to resolve videos of planets in the night sky when recording at frame rates approaching 30 fps?

According to one source, the planet Mars made its “closest approach to Earth and maximum apparent brightness in nearly 60,000 years, 55,758,006 km (0.372719 AU), magnitude −2.88, on Aug. 27, 2003, at 9:51:13 UT.”

Erratic Hypothesis

All of this leads to where this article began with the Medical Research Institute of Sri Lanka’s reported citation of rocks that would fall off of UFOs.

Would these naturally occurring solid aggregates positioned over top of flying vehicles at rest on the ground be glacial erratics? From this perspective, the now UFO-borne rocks would have been previously located inside of ice age glaciers. With the end of that era and subsequent glacial melting those rocks and other sediments would have descended to the surface of the earth to rest on the airframes of spaceships that had been parked under the ice for possibly hundreds of millions of years (as understood within the context of this hypothetical perspective).

The journal Sedimentary Geology reported in 1981 how “Evidence for probable Paleozoic glaciation is reported for the first time from Sri Lanka. Rhythmic sequences containing clay/peat, sand, gravel and pebble layers occur in valleys underlain by Precambrian metamorphic rocks. Varve-like sediments and discshaped [sic] striated pentagonal pebbles characterize these sequences. This interpretation is also supported by granulometric data.”

The Paleozoic era reportedly ended over 252 million years ago. In order for Paleozoic-era glacial erratics to appear on the airframes of spacecraft parked on what is now Sri Lanka (to be discovered by witnesses after falling off of UFOs seen in flight) would necessitate those UFOs remaining both inert and undiscovered at their original locations from the time of the Paleozoic era until the present day.

Yabba Dabba Discs?

Adding to the sense of a stone-age perspective informing official opinions where Sri Lankan UFOs are concerned is a trope from twentieth century North American television. The ABC television animated sitcom “The Flintstones” portrayed the technology of prehistoric human beings in terms of 1960s analogs including a “footmobile” fabricated from stone and wood that relied upon human sole power to achieve terrestrial locomotion.

If Sri Lanka’s premier Medical Research Institute is suggesting that the island nation is being frequented by luminous “Flintstones”-like “footships” dispersing pebbles while in flight to be retrieved for study by witnesses on the ground, what hope is there for discovering the true origins of phenomena that continue to astound the tropical island paradise (and the rest of the world)?

Desert Rock

Click here to watch “Marfa Lights Desert Mystery Trance” on YouTube: “Suspense and intrigue linger when mystery lights appear in the open desert east of Marfa, Texas. The lights appeared to rotate in the cold night air, emitting periodic bursts and color-changes towards observers. Witnesses traveling on U.S. 67 stopped their cars at the viewing platform to talk about this incident and a military jet [unusual for this area?] flew out over the desert minutes later.”