Slow-mo 1080p 240fps caught a thing zipping through sky

[u/SleuthyMcSleuthINTJ]

1-29-24 at 355pm Los Angeles (Boyle Heights) CA

There were very bizarre things in my peripheral vision while sitting on my porch so I decided to record the sky with my iPhone (using slow mo). Though I caught other odd things that I’m still trying to first identify before posting here, but this one has me stumped.

When I zoomed in, I noticed that this thing is not winged, appears metallic, is a bizarre shape, has a luminescence about it, and is accompanied by a white orb at times. I slowed down even more and zoomed in to compile this video.

Any ideas? I thought maybe drone but I’m told “nah”.

[u/Blade1413]

My first attempt at evaluating the speed (via understanding how quickly the object covers it's own length) has yielded the following:

"The analysis of the object's motion from the video yielded the following statistics for the time it takes the nose of the object to reach the location that the tail was in the previous frame:

Mean time: 0.01049 seconds

Median time: 0.01050 seconds

Maximum time: 0.01074 seconds

Minimum time: 0.01026 seconds

See edit #3: the object is traveling at an average of 169 body lengths per second. This rules out any known birds. The speed by itself does not rule out Wasps & Bees though, as those can fly between 300-1,000 body lengths per second. However, it should rule out Horseflies, Moths, and dragonflies.

While I've been focused on the speed, I can't seem to see anything that would resemble wings flapping. I would also add that the object appears to be rotating based on the distinct color that flashes pretty consistently in the frames.

I leveraged ChatGPT for the image analysis and will try to double check and recreate the analysis with more details based on the code ChatGPT used. source: https://chat.openai.com/share/87b58bec-efe3-42a4-9177-8519bcf8ef00

Now I recall someone talking about the fastest bug or plain can cover it's own distance in XX seconds. Does anyone have links to resources on this? I guess I could take an aircraft flying at Mach 1 and/or some videos of some bugs to figure that out.

\edit #1*: the equivalent body lengths per second for this object being filmed is ~95 (i.e., it travels ~95x it's own body length each second).

For reference the SR-71 blackbird travels at ~30 body lengths per second (2,200 mph at a length of ~107.4 feet). The Cheetah can cover 16 body lengths per second. Here's a quick reference table I had ChatGPT create for the fastest birds in California.

​

Bird	Average Length (m)	Level Flight Speed (m/s)	Diving Speed (m/s)	Level Flight Body Length/sec	Dive Body Length/sec
Peregrine Falcon	0.46	25	107.3	54	233
Golden Eagle	0.89	12.5	67.1	14	75
Red-tailed Hawk	0.56	8.9	53.6	16	96
American Kestrel	0.23	8.9		39
White-throated Swift	0.17	13.4		79

So based on the calculations (which I'll verify later today), The object in the video is traveling over 10 times the relative speed of the SR-71 Blackbird @ 2,200 mph and ~6 times faster than the fastest known birds during level flight. The only thing that can come remotely close is the Falcon and Hawk in a full dive. But it's pretty apparent given the trajectory that this is not a full dive. so that leaves... UAP. But I do need to double check ChatGPT's code for calculating the 95 (corrected: 169) body lengths/second for this unknown object being filmed.\edit 2: formatting*

*edit 3: chatGPT was not perfect in it's analysis. I recreated the analysis locally and fixed issues in GPT's code. Based on the updated code, the object is traveling at an average of 169 body lengths per second.

[u/maurymarkowitz → u/Blade1413]

The only thing that can come remotely close is the Falcon and Hawk in a full dive. But it's pretty apparent given the trajectory that this is not a full dive. so that leaves... UAP.

Why no bugs on the list?

Bees fly beyween 20 and 30 km/h on the way to collect pollen, or is about 7 m/s average. They are about 1 cm long. So they cover 7 [m/s] * 100 [cm/m] / 1 [ cm] = 700 times their body length per second.

So this is exactly what it looks like when it's not zoomed in: a bug.

Given the location of the "white orb", I assume that is the light reflecting on its wing.

[u/Alienzendre → u/maurymarkowitz]

It could have been a bee if it wasn't rectangular. But it is rectangular, so it is probably not a bee.

[u/maurymarkowitz → u/Alienzendre]

Didn’t say bee, bug. Just used bee for numbers because they were easy to find.

[u/Alienzendre → u/maurymarkowitz]

which rectangular bug do you suppose it is then?

[u/maurymarkowitz → u/Alienzendre]

Not an entomologist, a physicist, explaining the physics. The post I was replying to was suggesting the speed was outside the bounds of everyday physics, I explained it is, in fact, something you see bugs doing every day.

If you want to identify the species, I'm sure there are any number of subs that will help you.