Experts have examined a set of mysterious photos showing a «glowing» ring where a family claims to have witnessed a UFO landing before it took off and knocked over a tree.
The pictures come from an incident in the small town of Delphos, Kansas back in 1971, which would produce what’s been dubbed «some of the most credible UFO evidence of all time». On an episode of the History Channel’s The Proof Is Out There series, scientists weighed in on the possible extraterrestrial spacecraft sighting as they took a closer look at the evidence.
On the evening of November 2, 1971, 16-year-old Ron Johnson was on his family farm when he suddenly spotted a «bright mushroom-shaped spacecraft» hovering nearby. The teen ran to tell his parents, who returned to the spot he’d been in just in time to witness the spacecraft themselves as it disappeared.
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But while it vanished into the sky, back on the ground the UFO appeared to leave something behind. Where the spacecraft had allegedly been hovering, there was an eight-foot-wide ring with a «whitish crust» around the edge scorched into the ground.
(Image: History Channel)
When the family took a closer look at the ring they spotted it «glowing». The Johnsons called for help after the eerie incident and Harlan Enlow, a local sheriff at the time, was one of the first officials to arrive on the scene.
«It was an eye-opening surprise,» Enlow told History. Going on to describe what he saw, he added: «Here’s this white, dry ring, looks like a big doughnut, sitting in the middle of a mud field.»
Officers took statements from the family, photographed the ring and even gathered soil samples. Ron’s mother, Erma, told Sheriff Enlow that when she touched the white substance her fingers instantly went numb.
The Johnsons weren’t the only locals to witness something odd that night, two other eyewitnesses also reported seeing the aircraft and claimed they even observed a tree falling after getting in the way of its flight path. The compelling witness statements and ring left Sherriff Enlow sure a UFO had visited the farm.
(Image: History Channel)
«I am 100% convinced that an incident happened and what the family told us was credible,» he said. The samples taken by his team were tested and resulted in a 21-page soil report, making the Delphos incident one of the most lab-studied UFO sightings in history but despite this, there was still no answer for what the ring was.
The History Channel turned to their own experts for answers. Astronomer and video effects designer Marc D’Antonio speculated that because UFOs have been traditionally associated with heat the ring «might have been ash» but noted how there «wasn’t an excess of carbon ash» in the chemical report.
When it came to the «glowing» element he had another answer, pointing to the camera used to take the picture. «It looks brighter in the film precisely because it’s a brighter soil compared to the darker soil, the camera tries to balance the light,» he explained.
(Image: History Channel)
But physicist Dr Matthew Szydagis didn’t agree. He added: «We have physical deposited evidence that the samples still have the same glowing property today, which is absolutely mind-blowing to me.» In another bizarre piece of the case, a photo taken of the Delphos soil sample around 20 years after the incident showed a droplet of water repelling off it.
Dr Szydagis explained this was because the soil contained elements that were hydrophobic in nature. He said this could mean the circle was actually a fairy ring, naturally occurring circles typically formed by fungus feeding on decomposing matter in the soil.
He explained how fairy rings are also known to have a hydrophobic effect on the soil, making it a «partial explanation» for the ring in Delphos, but noted how it still doesn’t «fit the entire story». Meanwhile, NASA geologist Dr Bob Anderson doesn’t think the ring has anything to do with a UFO, putting it purely down to a natural phenomenon.
(Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)
According to his theory, water mixed with an unknown organism and reacted to create a froth of bacteria forming the ring. Dr Anderson thinks this could also explain Erma’s fingers turning numb.
He said: «The mother got her hand burnt a little bit by touching that ring, that usually happens if you have an acid.» He added: «My gut feeling is that there was something buried in that area that was man-made chemical, which would not show up on those 1970s soil surveys.»
But despite the various theories, none of the experts could be sure what the ring was and what caused it, meaning the eerie case remains an unexplained phenomenon.
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