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- XMT: 11:41 Wed Jul 25 EXP: 12:00 Wed Aug 01
- SCIENTISTS RECORD FLASHES AS MYSTERY CIRCLES FORM IN ENGLISH CORNFIELDS
- LONDON (JULY 25) REUTER - Excited scientists said they recorded evidence on
- Wednesday that could solve the centuries-old mystery of circles in English
- cornfields which have aroused speculation of visitors from outer space.
- Experts filmed two big circles being made during the night amid a barrage of
- unexplained flashing lights in a field in the southern county of Wiltshire.
- It was the first known recording of the formation of symmetrical circles that
- have puzzled Englishmen since the Middle Ages.
- Theories of what causes them range from earthworms to whirlwinds to
- spaceships.
- In medieval times, countryfolk believed they were the work of the Devil.
- Scientists from Britain, Japan, West Germany and the United States monitored
- Wiltshire cornfields round the clock this week with thermal imagers and
- low-light cameras.
- On Wednesday, they recorded two circles being made, one about 100 metres (330
- feet) across, the other half that size, said Colin Andrews, leader of the
- project coordinated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
- Analyzing their recordings hours later, they sent in helicopters to take
- daylight pictures of the find and said they had made a significant scientific
- discovery.
- ''We do have a major event here, very much excitment as you can imagine,''
- Andrews said. ''We do have two major ground markings in front of all the
- surveillance equipment performing absolutely to form,'' he told BBC
- television.
- ''We had a situation at approximately 3.30 this morning on monitor -- a
- number
- of orange lights taking the approximate form of a triangle and within that
- triangular form was a second triangle,'' Andrews said.
- ''We had many lights, following that a whole complex arrangement of lights
- doing all sorts of funny things. It's a complex situation, we are actually
- analysing it at this very moment. But there is undoubtedly something here for
- science.''
- Andrews said the circles could not be a hoax.
- ''We have high-quality equipment here and we have indeed secured on
- high-quality equipment a major event,'' he said.
- Asked what caused the circles, Andrews said: ''As you can imagine, this only
- happened some hours ago. We have experts arriving by the minute here now to
- analyze this. We do have something of great, great significance.''
- Describing the circles, he said: ''One formation is about 100 metres in
- diameter, a circle with two satellites and two concentric rings, another
- brother nearby about 50 per cent of the size of its nearby neighbour.''
- Andrews said the field had been cordoned off. ''We're doing nothing more now
- until we have helicopters over the top to film in detail what we have before
- anybody enters that field.''
- The authoritative New Scientist journal published an article last month which
- said corn circles, more than 300 of which appeared last year, were caused by
- weather conditions creating whirlwinds and electrical discharges in the
- atmosphere.
- Author Terence Meaden said his theory could explain flashing lights seen by
- eyewitnesses and patterns of flattened corn.
- =END=
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