On 20 Sep 1977 Petrozavodsk residents reported a 'jellyfish'-like glowing phenomenon, which Soviet researchers later attributed to the Kosmos-955 launch
Documented · occurred What these labels mean →At about 4 a.m. on 20 Sep 1977, residents of Petrozavodsk reported an enormous star-like light that sent pulsed shafts of light to the ground and spread over the city 'like a huge jellyfish.' Juliy Platov and Boris Sokolov, who ran the Soviet study of UFO reports from 1978 to 1990, wrote in 2000 that its cause was the launch of the satellite Kosmos-955 from the Plesetsk spaceport. The sighting reports and the attribution are documented; no anomalous object is established. Whether Nordic officials wrote to the Academy of Sciences is held separately.
Evidence
| Relation | Record | Note |
|---|---|---|
| documents | timeshighereducation.com | Juliy Platov & Boris Sokolov, 'Nobody's out there', Times Higher Education, 20 Oct 2000: at about 4am on 20 Sep 1977 Petrozavodsk witnesses saw a star-like light 'like a huge jellyfish'; 'whose cause was the launch of the satellite Kosmos-955 from the Plisetsk spaceport' |
| documents | en.wikipedia.org | Wikipedia |
Sources
| Source | Relation | At |
|---|---|---|
| China UFO files (Cappy Army 2026) | reports |
Tied from
| From | Role | Years | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern European governments wrote to the USSR Academy of Sciences about the 1977 Petrozavodsk phenomenon | reaction to the event | 1977 | Structural |
Claim
At about 4 a.m. on 20 Sep 1977, residents of Petrozavodsk reported an enormous star-like light that sent pulsed shafts of light to the ground and spread over the city 'like a huge jellyfish.' Juliy Platov and Boris Sokolov, who ran the Soviet study of UFO reports from 1978 to 1990, wrote in 2000 that its cause was the launch of the satellite Kosmos-955 from the Plesetsk spaceport. The sighting reports and the attribution are documented; no anomalous object is established. Whether Nordic officials wrote to the Academy of Sciences is held separately.
See Northern European governments wrote to the USSR Academy of Sciences about the 1977 Petrozavodsk phenomenon and The video's claim that a secret Soviet investigation concluded Petrozavodsk was unexplained is unproven.