World
Mysterious orb zooming past NYC accidentally caught on film by local news chopper
A mysterious orb-like object appears to zoom over the Hudson River and past Lower Manhattan in eerie footage shot by a local news helicopter.
A Fox 5 news report that aired Monday accidentally caught the object or light seemingly gliding in the crystal clear New York sky, making an arching pathway in the direction of the news chopper which was filming from south of Battery Park.
The orb appears white in the distance and takes on a blue tint as it seems to get closer to the camera.
The speckle appears to outpace every boat on the Hudson and quickly arcs its way past the news chopper’s camera.
But some of the world’s foremost ufologists have doubts that the orb is a real-world object.
Avi Loeb, a theoretical physician, cosmologist and Harvard professor, believes the apparent orb is a trick of the lights.
“This is most likely an optical artifact from the helicopter glass in front of the camera, namely a bright spot from the reflection of sunlight as the camera gradually changes its orientation relative to the sun and the ground,” Loeb tells The Post.
“But even if it was a real object, the apparent speed is of an order the speed of sound and not extraordinary,” Loeb concludes.
Tim Gallaudet, a retired rear admiral in the United States Navy and CEO of Ocean STL consulting, agreed.
“For several reasons, looks like an artifact and not an actual UAP,” Gallaudet told The Post, using the acronym for “unidentified aerial phenomenon.”
A rep for “Good Day New York,” which originally aired the clip, said they couldn’t say when the footage was recorded — but that it was likely within the last calendar year.
Some have theorized the image is of a drone that appears to be moving faster than it actually is because of the speed of the helicopter and the movement of the camera frame.
A similar “parallax effect” was just used as an explainer for the famous “GOFAST” UAP FLIR radar video, which was reportedly solved by the Pentagon on Tuesday.
“Good Day” also confirmed that the footage has not been tampered with by digital editors on its staff.
The orb appears to be opaque, not transparent or translucent.
This characteristic indicated to photo experts at The Post that it is not a standard lens flare, which refracts see-through light on camera lenses and also bears a distinct aperture mark.
At the start of the video, it appears that the object crosses in front of a building in New Jersey near Hoboken. A brief shadow is visible on a building. The trace of the shadow is then picked up by the possible object — or photographic blemish.
The image then quickly crosses the tree line and enters the airspace of the Hudson River, moving away from New Jersey, banking along the Lower Manhattan shoreline and down toward the mouth of the bay.
The speck follows two distinct arcing pathways, first going across the camera left to right, then banking back left, cutting across the center of the frame — movement that could described as directed.
If the supposed object did originate in the sky in the vicinity of Hoboken and then proceeded to travel all the way down river, passing the tip of Manhattan, it would indicate an incredible speed.
If the object traversed the 3-mile distance in four seconds, it would put its speed somewhere in the vicinity of 2,700 miles per hour — more than double the speed of an F18.
The strange sight caught the eye of “Good Day New York” newsman Dan Bowens, who was on the desk with co-anchor Tashanea Whitlow when Hayley Fixler’s segment aired.
Bowens took to Instagram after Monday’s show and posted a clip of the orb curving down the Hudson River.
“Anyone else see this on Good Day?,” the Emmy winner wrote in an Instagram Story. “What is that? A balloon?”
Bowens could not be reached for comment.
The object appears similar to other unidentified objects that have been reported around the world.
Last year, the Pentagon released radar footage of a metallic orb zooming through the controlled airspace of an active military zone.
The military does not know what these objects are, according to Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, former director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
Just this past week, members of Congress held a hearing where witnesses alleged secret crash retrieval programs, communication with non-human intelligence, and government intimidation of UAP whistleblowers.