Case file · Sighting
Kolkata 'shape-shifting' light
In October 2007 Kolkata television channels broadcast footage of a bright, pulsing, shape-changing light low in the sky, drawing crowds onto rooftops.
2007 CE · 22.57, 88.36 · status: explained
The account
The images were zoomed-in, out-of-focus video of a bright point that appeared to change shape. Several channels ran it for hours as a UFO.
The sceptical view
Astronomers at the city's M.P. Birla Planetarium and elsewhere identified a bright planet (Venus was brilliant in the dawn sky that month); defocused camcorders turn point sources into shifting blobs.