A Sardinian professor's luminous sphere reaches U.S. air intelligence with a Vatican astronomer's calculations
August 27, 1952 · Sassari, Sardinia, Italy · Sighting · Primary document linked
At 21:45 on 27 August 1952, Professor G. B. Sias, walking in the courtyard of an institute for war orphans in Sassari, saw a sphere slightly larger than the full moon, green-blue and pearl-bright with metallic streaks, cross the sky from east to west at great speed for three to five seconds, vanishing and reappearing and leaving a thin luminous ribbon. He published the account in a local paper the next day and said two others at the institute also saw it. He took his data to Father Junkes, described in the report as director of the Vatican Observatory, who calculated that the object, if it was emerging from the earth's shadow, was over 1,000 km away and 9 to 15 km across, so it 'could not be a common terrestrial flying saucer'. The U.S. acting air attache in Rome interviewed the professor and forwarded his translated account to Air Force intelligence on 15 December 1953.
Era: Project Blue Book · Threads: Public sightings and waves
Why it matters (2/5)
A single foreign report forwarded by the air attache in Rome and rated low; it changed nothing.
Caveats
The attache rated the report D-4, a low reliability grade, and noted that the professor was convinced the sphere was either a secret American advance or supernatural; his own account calls it a heavenly sign. The astronomer attributed its colors to iron and nickel such as many astral bodies contain. No independent check is in the file.
Sources
- Air Intelligence Information Report Italy 1953 (DOW-UAP-D157) (U.S. Department of War), primary