The '8·20' giant sphere seen from an airliner
On the evening of 20 August 2011 the crew of a China Southern flight at 35,000 ft watched a white sphere swell from a point to hundreds of times the Moon's size before fading, and more than ten other crews reported it. Staff of China's national observatory and Beijing's planetarium photographed it. Some astronomers called it a spacecraft or missile debris; Wang Sichao of Purple Mountain Observatory called it a major UFO event hard to explain with rockets. No launch that day is in the public record. A similar sphere was seen on 18 June 1982.
Evidence, in date order (1)
- 20 Aug 2011National Astronomical Observatories (Ma Jin) and Beijing Planetarium (Zhan Xiang)sensor dataphotographed the expansion, from Xinglong and Beijing
How plausible · High
An airline crew, ten more crew reports and observatory photographs of an expanding sphere; a rocket is proposed but no launch matches. (Revised 2026-10-23: a single proposed explanation is noted, not deducted.)
- ●●Access Airline crews at 35,000 ft.
- ●●No gain sought Crew reports and observatory photos.
- ●●Character record Airline crews and observatory staff.
- ●●Independent convergence Over ten crews and observatories in several provinces.
- ●●Checkable details check out Flight, time and photos are public.
- ●●Physical traces or official reaction Photographed from Xinglong and Beijing.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.