Mysterious white balloon-like object above cross - in the sky over northern Japan, June 2020

[dotr]

Balloon-like object in Japanese sky sets Twitter afire with talk of UFOs, Godzilla

A balloon-like white object in the sky is pictured in Sendai, Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo June 17, 2020.Kyodo / REUTERS
Balloon-like object in Japanese sky sets Twitter afire with talk of UFOs, Godzilla | The Chronicle Herald
''TOKYO (Reuters) - The appearance of a mysterious white object in the sky over northern Japan on Wednesday set social media ablaze, with speculation ranging from UFOs to coronavirus and North Korean propaganda.

Television footage taken in the northeastern city of Sendai showed a balloon-like object above a cross, on which propellers seemed to be turning. Officials in the Sendai Weather Bureau said it had appeared near dawn and hung in the sky for hours, largely unmoving, until obscured by clouds.

By afternoon it was the third-most trending topic on Japanese Twitter, with theories including UFOs and North Korean balloons used to drop leaflets. One user said it could be spreading novel coronavirus, adding, "This gives me a very bad feeling, as if Godzilla might suddenly appear."

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[LadyL]

the cross-like imagery is probably cloud or vaper but the photo cuts it off so I can't see it fully
and I don't see any propellers in the picture or video at the link
my guess though is a weather balloon but no one has claimed it so that makes it creepy

 

[Eloise]

I don't know what it is and yet I'm 100% sure it's 0% related to coronavirus.

Looks weather balloon-y to me.

 

[Vern]

Definitely a weather balloon, We launched them twice a day in Canada's arctic every day while I was at CFS Alert. Close to 1000 other weather stations world-wide doing the same thing twice a day. That's a lot of balloons!!

Linking in a video below of a launch; if you watch it closely, then compare it with the original video of the object in question, you can see the chute and instrument hanging below.

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[dotr]

Definitely a weather balloon, We launched them twice a day in Canada's arctic every day while I was at CFS Alert. Close to 1000 other weather stations world-wide doing the same thing twice a day. That's a lot of balloons!!

Linking in a video below of a launch; if you watch it closely, then compare it with the original video of the object in question, you can see the chute and instrument hanging below.

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Very cool, that explains it, thanks Vern!

 

[Vern]

the cross-like imagery is probably cloud or vaper but the photo cuts it off so I can't see it fully
and I don't see any propellers in the picture or video at the link
my guess though is a weather balloon but no one has claimed it so that makes it creepy

There's no propellers; I rather suspect that it's just sunlight shimmering off of the instrument in a flickering manner as it the balloon/instrument are in motion even if hung up in an air pocket and therefore not rising upwards. Saw it many times during our launches.

Given the couple thousand launches of these helium filled balloons a day, suspect no-one can actually "claim it" as theirs as there'd be no way to tell. The instrument is designed to drop off and down (hence the little chute) once it reaches sufficient altitude for the readings.

 

[LadyL]

There's no propellers; I rather suspect that it's just sunlight shimmering off of the instrument in a flickering manner as it the balloon/instrument are in motion even if hung up in an air pocket and therefore not rising upwards. Saw it many times during our launches.

Given the couple thousand launches of these helium filled balloons a day, suspect no-one can actually "claim it" as theirs as there'd be no way to tell. The instrument is designed to drop off and down (hence the little chute) once it reaches sufficient altitude for the readings.

thank you
I didn't realize they are so prolific