Jonathan McDowell

An astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian, Jonathan McDowell keeps a record of rocket launches that sighting investigators have turned to again and again. In 2001, Ricardo Campo Pérez and Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos used his launch database to match the glowing sphere over Gáldar in 1976 to two Poseidon C-3 missiles fired from the USS Von Steuben. For the Pacific smoke ring of 1961, he confirmed a Soviet maximum range launch toward the southwest of Hawaii. Then came Norway, 2009. McDowell named a failing missile as the cause of the spiral before Russia confirmed it.

Stories3

Pro early

The Pacific Smoke Ring: BOAC, Pan Am and the S.S. Iberville

September 21, 1961 · North Pacific Ocean, between Tokyo and Honolulu, northwest of Midway

International waters

UAP · Other · 8 sources

26Thinly documented

Confirmed a Soviet maximum range launch toward southwest of Hawaii

The Gáldar Giants: the Canary Islands Sphere of 1976

June 22, 1976 · Gáldar, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Spain

UAP · Sphere · 22 sources

36Partially documented

Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist whose launch database was used to match the event

The Norwegian Spiral Anomaly

December 9, 2009 · Northern Norway, seen from Trøndelag to Finnmark and in Northern Sweden

Norway

UAP · Other · 58 sources · 5 photos

53Partially documented

Harvard-Smithsonian analyst who named the missile before Russia confirmed it