Light over Ruidoso Downs, NM
A conventional explanation is favored by the record but was never formally confirmed.
The report, as filed
Initially spotted three stationary white lights in the sky that were in a straight line parallel to the ground, due west, as a passenger in a vehicle traveling down highway 70, at mile marker 265. There was a decent amount of distance between them, not a massive amount, just enough to know that they were together. They stood out against the stars but did not emit an overpowering amount of light; Venus at the time was brighter than these objects. After noticing the lights, the far left light faded out and at the same time, another light of equal distance faded into sight to the right of the formation. This sequence happened again, the left light faded out and a new light appeared to the right of the formation. This sequence happened one last time, the left light faded out and a new light appeared to the right of the formation. I reached for my phone to open my camera app, and as soon as I did, the three visible lights all faded out to darkness at the same time. The distance of the formation was difficult to determine, they could have been out a few miles to as far as 30 miles, hovering over the White Sands Missile Range. [NUFORC annotation: Starlink - Probable]
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #175285). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2023-04-14 → 2023-05-01
From the same sky
Related entries
August 6, 2021 · 7:33 PM · LIGHT
Ruidoso Downs, NM
At 7:30 in the evening I observed a ball of light that appeared to be moving across the sky. Roughly 10 to 20 people observe the same and took several videos and photographs Best description would be a blue ball of moving static light.
March 10, 2015 · 9:30 PM · FORMATION
Ruidoso Downs, NM
My wife and I were driving home at about 9:15pm on Tuesday, the 10th of March. We were driving NE on hiway 70. I looked out of my driver's window and saw several very bright orange/yellow lights in a stationary line formation, so I pulled over immediately to observe them. As we sat parked on the side of the road we saw that the light farthest to the west was fading rapidly and at the same time a new light at the east end of the formation was emerging, this went on for several seconds, until a small cluster of lights formed at the east end of the formation, and the rest of the lights from the west end all faded away. As I was trying to record them with my cell phone they all disappeared. We sat looking for them and discussing what we saw for a few seconds and then we pulled off and continued driving about 500 feet to our entrance and as we turned in and were driving west again we saw the same bunch of lights so I drove towards them trying to get a better view through the trees and after that we only saw them for a couple more seconds through the trees and they were out of sight again.