The 1981 'sky spiral' over western China
Millions of people across Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan watched a bright spiral of light turn slowly across the night sky.
1981 CE · 30.00, 103.00 · status: disputed
The account
At about 10:40 pm on 24 July 1981 a glowing spiral moved east to west over western China. Newspapers first quoted astronomers linking it to meteors; Liu Yan of the Purple Mountain Observatory, who reviewed the eyewitness reports, concluded it was a man-made craft at roughly 650 km altitude. It fed a Chinese UFO craze in the early 1980s.
The sceptical view
The shape and height fit the spiralling exhaust of a rocket stage seen in sunlight, like the 'space jellyfish' over Petrozavodsk; skeptics such as James Oberg argued many Chinese mass sightings of this period were rocket launches. The specific launch is still debated.
The researched reading
A huge, slow spiral of light over western China. It matches a rocket stage venting in sunlight, even though the exact launch has not been named.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 50% | A slowly turning luminous spiral seen across several provinces at about 650 km altitude is exactly what a spinning rocket stage venting propellant in sunlight looks like; the Norwegian spiral of 2009 and many Soviet launches produced identical displays. |
| Undetermined | 25% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| Secret human technology | 10% | An undisclosed military launch or test, possibly Soviet or Chinese, would explain why no specific launch has been identified. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 4% | A large meteor or aurora does not form a slowly turning spiral. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 4% | The specific launch is still debated, but the display matches known rocket effects. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 3% | No known natural phenomenon produces this display. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 3% | Millions saw it; perception is not the issue, only interpretation. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 1% | It was seen across three provinces; it cannot have been staged. |
Official position: Purple Mountain Observatory’s Liu Yan concluded it was a man-made craft at about 650 km altitude.
Connections in the atlas
- The 30 June 2002 object across China
- The 1982 halo over northern China
- 'Space jellyfish' rocket sightings
- Petrozavodsk phenomenon