Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2012, discussing a viral image captured by NASA’s SOHO observatory that sparked intense debate among UFO enthusiasts and sceptics alike.
A strange, gigantic object spotted seemingly flying near the sun looks far more like a huge, metallic ‘spaceship’ completely similar to those we frequently see in massive Hollywood blockbusters. Keen alien spacecraft observers quickly pointed out that the clearly ‘jointed’ arms of the mysterious object near the sun are visually very similar to highly complex fictional interstellar craft.
A Viral Phenomenon
The fascinating picture officially released by NASA’s dedicated sun-watching Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, widely known as SOHO, quickly became a massive hit all over the internet and particularly among passionate UFO lovers.
The unidentified flying object, which bears absolutely no resemblance to anything ever previously spotted near the Sun, somehow seemingly manages to withstand the immensely blazing heat continuously thrown off by violent solar flare activity and the incredibly high temperatures constantly emanating from nuclear fusion generated entirely on the boiling surface of the star.
The SOHO Mission
SOHO, which originally launched on December 2, 1995, is a highly advanced satellite explicitly built to comprehensively study the Sun from its deep core right out to the outer corona and the powerful solar wind.
The twelve highly sensitive scientific instruments on board SOHO constantly communicate with incredibly large radio dishes located securely around the world, which collectively form NASA’s Deep Space Network, actively used for vital data gathering and commanding.
The viral video heavily analyses what exactly looks like a dense metallic, sharply jointed spaceship with a massive, gigantic extension—perhaps a long boom arm—anchored securely off its lower end.
Artefact or Alien Craft?
An extreme enlargement of the intriguing object definitely makes the enormously large UFO look exactly like a complex ship straight out of a flashy Hollywood movie. Some other observers are far more sceptical, claiming firmly that such strange artefacts are incredibly often just the simple product of digital distortion or cosmic rays directly hitting SOHO’s delicate camera sensors.
“There is no way this solid object is merely vapour, as the precise shape of it is rigidly straight and clearly grooved and appears to be heavily manufactured in some way,” says a popular UFO fan site. “Also, there strictly seems to be some incredibly intelligent design involved. It’s totally beyond any human engineering to create.”
