“I occasionally think how quickly our differences, worldwide, would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world,” former President Ronald Regan told the United Nations in 1988.
On Saturday, for some stargazers around La Plata County, the attainment of world peace spurred by alien invaders, appeared almost near.
Posts to several local Facebook group pages erupted with speculation over a strange sighting in the sky: hot air balloons flying above the festival in Pagosa Springs, emissions of swamp gas, and even the coming of Michael the Archangel – all thrown into the mix as plausible explanations.
But of course, the most widely favored theory was the spotting of an unidentified flying object.
“It’s a UFO,” Durango resident Zach Arrow posted to the Durango, Ignacio, and Bayfield Area online Yard Sale group. “They’re here to watch us.”
La Plata County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. David Griggs told The Durango Herald on Sunday that residents were calling in the mysterious object, which was supposedly flashing red lights toward the Bayfield area.
“We weren’t really able to determine exactly what it was,” Griggs said. “We had a captain run in here and say, ‘Man, that thing has got to be a UFO.’ Then it just disappeared.”
However, Reagan’s premonitions of world unification will have to wait. It was soon revealed that aliens had not arrived to take over the world.
The object was eventually identified as a NASA weather balloon. Members from the NASA team were not available for comment Sunday.
However, according to the mission’s Twitter account, the X-Calibur weather balloon launched Saturday from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, with the goal to “study astrophysics of black hole binaries, neutron stars, gamma ray bursts, & supermassive black holes and their jets.”
The X-Calibur traveled as far north as Nageezi, New Mexico, about an hour southeast of Farmington. At an elevation of 128,000 feet, the balloon was easily visible from Southwest Colorado, said Charlie Hakes, an assistant professor of physics and engineering at Fort Lewis College, and director of the Fort Lewis Observatory.
“If it’s really clear and the sun hits them just right, it’s easy to see them,” Hakes said. “They stand out.”
The X-Calibur landed Sunday near the Arizona-New Mexico border, by the Arizona town of Springerville, after its 27-hour, 30-minute mission.
Still, for some on Sunday, the jury was still out on just what exactly was spotted the sky.
“My 3-year-old calls it the jellyfish balloon because of the color and ‘arms,’” Bayfield resident Sara Trujillo posted to the Bayfield Online Yard Sale Facebook group.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
