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A set of golden lights hovering silently in the night sky in a "V" formation stopped traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike, but were the drivers seeing visitors from outer space or just a set of military flares flaming out?
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| At least 15 people contacted police to report seeing strange lights in the New Jersey sky over the weekend. |
More than a dozen people, including two Carteret, N.J., police officers, saw the lights last weekend, and several of the witnesses described a sense of serenity that seemed to emanate from the celestial display. The gold lights hovered for awhile, according to the witnesses, and then disappeared.
To some, the description sounded very much like the so-called Phoenix Lights, another V formation that appeared in the sky near Phoenix in March 1997. Like the apparition in New Jersey, the Phoenix lights were caught on videotape. The formation also matches reports of unexplained lights in the sky from all across the United States, as well as England and Europe.
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said that there were no planned military operations in the area and that air traffic was light at the time of the reported sightings. He also said that no pilots flying in or out of Newark Airport reported seeing anything out of the ordinary.
To Michael Hathorne - who has written several books about UFOs. "It's certainly unusual," Hathorne said. "From my experience it sounds like something very anomalous, a true UFO or even an extraterrestrial craft. But of course it could turn out to be something else. Most of them do."
See Chris Wallace's Internet Exposé on the UFO phenomenon.
He said that of the more than 1,000 sightings reported to him each year, more than 80 percent turn out to have earthly explanations.
Colm Kelleher of the National Institute of Discovery Science says that from what he's heard, this one fits into that category. He said based on a preliminary investigation, it sounds like the Jersey Lights were a set of military flares.
The same explanation was given for lights seen over Arizona four years ago.
One of the half-dozen witnesses who have spoken to the institute used infrared night-vision glasses with a rangefinder to look at the lights, Kelleher said. He reported that the lights were just 1,800 feet up, which should have been close enough to see the outlines of a vessel, if there was one.
Several witnesses, including the retired military man who used the night-vision equipment, described a kind of flare-out as the lights disappeared. The retired military man also said that he saw smoke after the lights disappeared, according to Kelleher.
"This is early days, though," he added. "We want to talk to more eyewitnesses. This is a work in progress."
What struck several people who study sightings of unexplained lights or objects in the sky was the emotional weight they gave it.
"There is something about it that strikes them deeply," said Michael Mannion, author of Project Mindshift.
"When people tell about a sighting even 15 years later, that emotion comes through. You don't get that a lot with things that turn out to be mistaken sightings," he said.
(Agencies)
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一列金色的光束在靜靜的夜空中盤旋成 "V"字, 吸引了新澤西州收費公路上司機駐足觀看，以至于阻塞了新澤西州這段公路的交通。那么，司機們看到的是外星的來客嗎，或者只是一些用于發送軍事信號的飛行物突然冒出了火焰?
上周末，有十多人，其中包括兩名新澤西州卡特雷市的警官共同目睹了這一景象，金光在空中盤旋了片刻，然后消失了。據一些目擊者描述，當時四周異常平靜，似乎是從空中這些物體中散發出的一種平靜。
這種描述對某些人說，聽來很象是所謂的"菲尼克斯之光"。1997年3月在亞利桑那州菲尼克斯市附近天空也曾出現過與這次出現在新澤西州的金光很相像的V形光束，當時還有人將其拍攝下來。另據報道，與此相似的來歷不明的光束在美國的其它地方和歐洲都曾出現過。
美國聯邦航空總署（FAA）的一位發言人說，在金光出現的地點當時并沒有任何軍事活動，而且當時該地區的空中交通流量也很小。這名發言人還稱，當時出入紐瓦克機場飛機中也沒有飛行員報告任何異常的情況。
但是對于邁克爾-霍桑來說，出現在新澤西州的金光卻十分的尋常。霍桑曾著有幾本有關UFO（不明飛行物，飛碟）的書。霍桑說："這當然是不尋常的。憑我個人的經驗來看，這束金光是不同尋常的，它應該是一個真正的UFO或者是一艘外星飛船發出的光束。不過，它也有可能會是其它的什么東西。事實上，很多這些不尋常的東西最終都被證實并不是UFO或者其它一些外星飛船。"
霍桑說他每年都會收到1,000多個類似景象的報道，但是其中80%都被明確證實是地球上的一些飛行物或自然現象造成的。
國家科學探索研究院的科爾姆-凱萊赫說，從他所得知的情況來看，這次的金光也應該屬于地球上的一些飛行物造成的。他說，基于一項初步的調查，他認為"新澤西金光"應該是某種軍事活動中飛行物發出的光束。
4年前出現在亞利桑那州上空神秘的光也得到過同樣的解釋。
在十多位目擊者中有六位向研究院描述了當時情景，其中有一人當時還使用了帶有測距儀的紅外線夜視鏡對光束進行觀察。據這位目擊者稱，這束光距地面只有1，800英尺，所以如果空中有任何飛行物的話，應該可以看清該飛行物的輪廓。
幾名目擊者，其中包括這位使用夜視儀的退休軍人，描述了在金光消失的時候發出了閃亮的光芒。據凱萊赫說，這名退休軍人還稱他看到金光消失的時候，空中還留有煙。
凱萊赫說："對這次金光現象的調查才剛剛開始，我們將要和更多的目擊者交談，調查工作還在進行之中。"
對于研究未知的空中不明光線或物體的人來說，這次的金光對他們的震動很大。
《思維轉換工程》的作者邁克爾-曼尼恩說："金光現象中的某些東西深深地吸引著人們。當這些目擊者15年后再談到這次經歷，他們仍然會激動不已。如果他們見到的只是一些假的UFO，他們是不會有這么激動的。"
(中國日報網站譯)
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Updated: 2001-07-27 01:00
