The recording lasts two seconds. A separate report described the phenomenon as cold orbs.
A phone captured a spot that stayed centered on a sensor display aboard an aircraft over the Gulf of Oman. A separate report described it as cold orbs but did not explain the basis for that description.
An area that looks different from its surroundings and stays roughly centered on the sensor display. It does not clearly show what the area is.
The source does not say who wrote the accompanying report or what the description “cold orbs” was based on.
Over the Gulf of Oman, a spot stayed centered on a military aircraft’s sensor display. A phone recorded the screen for two seconds, and the spot remained there for nearly the entire video.
The footage does not clearly show what was there. Still, a separate report described the phenomenon as cold orbs about four feet in diameter. The gap between the spot visible in the video and the report’s description is at the heart of the story.
The video is brief. It shows an area that looks different from the rest of the image, within the sensor’s field of view. The area stays roughly centered for two seconds. There is no clear shape to identify.
The display belongs to a sensor that shows differences in heat, even in darkness. But this is not the sensor’s original footage. Someone filmed the screen with a phone, so the image is less sharp and limited in quality.
U.S. Central Command forwarded the report about the phenomenon. An accompanying intelligence report described it as cold orbs about four feet in diameter.
Those words are the report’s description. They do not clarify what was measured or how anyone concluded that the orbs were cold. The video also offers no way to identify orbs or measure their size. It shows a small spot on a screen, not the thing itself.
The spot stays centered in the image, but the video does not show whether it is an object moving in front of the sensor or an artifact created by the recording. The report’s description and the footage together still offer no clear answer.
It is not known who wrote the accompanying intelligence report or what the description “cold orbs” was based on. The source does not explain. It notes that blur or flicker can occur when filming a screen, and that the video’s quality is limited.
After two seconds, the spot disappears from the footage. The question of what was there remains.