What on (or out of) Earth could have destroyed this wind turbine in Lincolnshire, UK? In a strange incident, half a dozen residents reported mysterious glowing orbs in the sky before the turbine was wrecked.
Matthew Moore of Telegraph has the story of the incident that baffled engineers:
Matthew Moore of Telegraph has the story of the incident that baffled engineers:
"It sounds unbelievable but actually we don't have any explanation at the moment," said Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, the energy company which owns the wind farm at Conisholme near Louth.
At least half a dozen Lincolnshire residents reported seeing the orange-yellow spheres, which some witnesses claimed were trailing octopus-like "tentacles".
(Photo: Newsteam)
http://blogs.the-haleys.org/media/1/20051014-iwant2believe400x330.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
But a person seeing, from 1.5 miles away at night, a "low-flying object skimming across the sky towards the turbines" sounds like a small airplane and an over-active imagination.
in fact, there're loads of reasons you could think of before "aliens" even come into the equation.
A lightning strike is possible except there haven't been the meterological conditions in the area for ...well several weeks at least. Given the recent weather conditions, the most likely explanation is ice formation causing structural failure, with the blade that separated from the turbine catching the bent blade as it came away.
erm, or fireworks.
The Guardian is able to reveal one possible explanation. Late on Saturday night, the Guardian's director of digital content, Emily Bell, was a mere two miles from the Ecotricity plant when she witnessed an unusual light show in the night sky: the firework display she and her brother had arranged in their parents' garden to mark their father Peter's 80th birthday.
"There were several roman candles, and some of those ones which are orange and have the little blue dots when they go off," Bell said yesterday. Because it's so flat in that part of the world, you can see for miles and miles."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/09/wind-turbine-ufo
or its the flying spaghetti monster and his noodly appendages
And as we see here, the fireworks weren't necessarily the culprit.