A photographer from Zurich, Switzerland who goes by @Eavix1Eavix took several photos of what he called a "doughnut UFO" on Monday night.
The flying object was composed of many bright-blue concentric rings and looked almost as much as a spacecraft. He suspected that he had seen SpaceX's Endeavour capsule. It was due to return to Earth the next night along with four astronauts from the International Space Station. The Endeavour capsule is scheduled to be returning to Earth on Tuesday, April 22nd. The eerie photographs were even featured in an article by The Daily Mail, a British tabloid.
However, there is a problem to this story. The Endeavour capsule crashed into the Gulf of Mexico just after 10:30 EDT that night. It was more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) away from Zurich.
@elonmusk hoped it was the spaceX Dragon capsule, not a doughnut UFO invasion .... pic.twitter.com/Ie542DMEuoNovember 9, 2021 See more
Although spectators in Louisiana, Alabama, and other Gulf states were able to see clear views of the capsule streaming across their skys, it was almost impossible for anyone in Switzerland to have seen the craft's return, Marco Langbroek, an amateur satellite tracker, and academic researcher at Leiden University in The Netherlands, stated in an email.
"Any passes [of Endeavour] made over Switzerland before landing that night would have been in Earth's shadow," Langbroek said. Langbroek stated that it would not have been illuminated by sunlight and therefore not visible. "Reentry was visible only from Switzerland because it took place over Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to reentry the deorbit burn was also over the Indian Ocean. It is therefore not visible from Switzerland.
If the donut UFO was not a SpaceX craft, what then? Langbroek suggests that the unidentified flying object above Switzerland might not have been flying at all. It could be the garbled image from a distant star.
Langbroek stated, "I am fairly certain that the donut UFO’ on the Swiss images are an out-of focus image of a bright Star." "It quite looks like it."
Other images taken that night by the photographer show a zig-zagging trail light behind the object, suggesting that it was moving.
Jonathan McDowell, an Astrophysicist at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts, believes that the doughnut UFO could have been the upper stage of rockets. This is the section that propels a craft into orbit, reentering the atmosphere, and burning up.
McDowell explained to Live Science via email that it was difficult to link the mysterious lights to any object in the sky at that time. (Live Science asked for time stamps, but the photographer could not provide them.
Are you looking for a star, rocket, or something completely different? The doughnut UFO that hovers over Switzerland is still a mystery and remains an unidentified flying object.
Original publication on Live Science
