Mysterious Orb Caught on Camera by News Chopper over NYC

An enlarged image of the mysterious orb. *(FOX 5 New York / YouTube)*

A mysterious orb was accidentally caught on camera by a FOX 5 news helicopter flying over New York City sometime earlier this year.

The helicopter was recording footage over the Hudson River and past Lower Manhattan when an object seemingly flew in front of the camera.

Good Day New York anchor Dan Bowens noticed the strange object as the segment containing it aired on the show, and afterward, shared a clip of it on Instagram.

“Anyone else see this on Good Day?” he asked on the social media site. “What is that? A balloon?”

A representative for Good Day New York, who originally aired the clip, couldn’t say exactly when it was recorded, although it was likely within the last calendar year. They also confirmed that the video had not been tampered with in any way.

In a November 18th video covering congestion pricing posted to YouTube by FOX 5, the orb can be seen to appear at approximately 2:44.

The object appears to be flying with incredible speed towards the helicopter, which was filming south of Battery Park. As the object approaches, it seems to change from white to blue in color.

While the object looks extraordinary, some experts believe there is a very ordinary explanation.

In a comment to The New York Post, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and Harvard professor Avi Loeb said that he believes the orb to be an "optical artifact."

“This is most likely an optical artifact from the helicopter glass in front of the camera, namely a bright spot from the reflection of sunlight as the camera gradually changes its orientation relative to the sun and the ground,” Loeb said. "But even if it was a real object, the apparent speed is of an order the speed of sound and not extraordinary."

Tim Gallaudet, a retired rear admiral in the United States Navy and CEO of Ocean STL consulting, agreed with Loeb's assessment.

“For several reasons, looks like an artifact and not an actual UAP,” Gallaudet said.

UAP, or unidentified anomalous phenomena, is the current government nomenclature for UFO.

Still others claim that the object is a drone which only appears to be moving so quickly due to the speed of the helicopter combined with the camera’s movement.

However, photo experts at The New York Post found the video to defy easy explanations.

First of all, they noted, the object appears opaque and not translucent.

“This characteristic indicated to photo experts at The Post that it is not a standard lens flare, which refracts see-through light on camera lenses and also bears a distinct aperture mark,” journalist Shane Galvin wrote in an article about the orb.

Galvin went on to say, "At the start of the video, it appears that the object crosses in front of a building in New Jersey near Hoboken. A brief shadow is visible on a building. The trace of the shadow is then picked up by the possible object — or photographic blemish."

He continued: "The image then quickly crosses the tree line and enters the airspace of the Hudson River, moving away from New Jersey, banking along the Lower Manhattan shoreline and down toward the mouth of the bay."

Galvin pointed out that the orb "follows two distinct arcing pathways, first going across the camera left to right, then banking back left, cutting across the center of the frame—movement that could be described as directed."

Finally, he concluded, "If the supposed object did originate in the sky in the vicinity of Hoboken and then proceeded to travel all the way down river, passing the tip of Manhattan, it would indicate an incredible speed. If the object traversed the three-mile distance in four seconds, it would put its speed somewhere in the vicinity of 2,700 miles per hour—more than double the speed of an F-18."

Mysterious glowing orbs similar to the one presented above are regularly reported throughout the country.

Last month, several eyewitnesses took to social media to share videos of mysterious lights recorded above Kokomo, Indiana.

And earlier this year, a woman contacted The Singular Fortean Society to share her experience witnessing a series of anomalous orange orbs in Arizona.

That contact was inspired by a ‘Reports from the Void’ that described a series of anomalous glowing orb sightings which reportedly occurred “out in the desert, east towards the mountains on the alluvial plain at the vidock curve of the Florence Junction east of Phoenix, Arizona.”

In early 2023, North Carolina man Christopher Bledsoe recounted a series of encounters with seemingly intelligent glowing orbs to British tabloid the Daily Mail.

And later that year, The Singular Fortean Society was contacted by Georgia resident Paula Adams, who wished to report an anomalous glowing orb seen by her and her daughter one Sunday night.

Also in 2023, a witness reported psychic contact with a series of spherical objects to The Singular Fortean Society.

In addition, a man in Indiana near the Prairie Creek Reservoir has spoken to The Singular Fortean Society about a series of glowing orb sightings spanning from 1981 to 2020 that could be related to winged humanoid sightings in the area.

And in 2022, The Singular Fortean Society was contacted by Shane Taylor, 44, who wished to report an encounter with a multitude of seemingly friendly orange orbs he’d had on Christmas Eve of 2014.