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More than 10 aircraft crews in China witnessed an unidentified flying object on the evening of Aug 20.

The object, a huge shining globe, was spotted 10.7 kilometers above Shanghai at 9 pm and transformed from a small globe to one about 92 kilometers in diameter, which faded away after 20 minutes, according to a micro blog by a man claiming to be the pilot of China Southern Airlines flight CZ6554.

A source at the East China Air Traffic Control Bureau said they had received more than 10 reports of similar sightings from pilots on the night of Aug 20.

The source said the object was not detected on radars and had no effect on flights at the two international airports in Shanghai.

According to Tang Haiming, spokesman for Shanghai Sheshan Observatory, considering its huge size, the globe was not likely to be an astronomical object, as no astronomical object could appear a hundred times bigger than the moon to the naked eye.

In Beijing and Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, there were reports of similar sightings.

Zhan Xiang, a staff member at Beijing Planetarium, posted a picture he took on the evening of Aug 20 around 9:10 pm showing a round, pale blue bubble-like object with a twist of aquamarine.

Meanwhile, Ma Jin, an engineer at National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, took a series of pictures showing the object traveling above the horizon.

Yu Jun, a former editor at a scientific magazine and member of songshuhui.net, a popular science network, said the sightings can easily be explained.

"The glowing bubble was a phenomenon caused by the launching of rockets of satellites," said Yu.

However, no open resource shows rockets or satellites were launched that day in China.

Questions:

1. What was floating over Shanghai on the evening of Aug 20?

2. Who reported the sighting?

3. Where else were these sightings reported?

Answers:

1. A huge shining globe was spotted 10.7 kilometers above Shanghai at 9 pm and transformed from a small globe to one about 92 kilometers in diameter.

2. A source at the East China Air Traffic Control Bureau said they received more than 10 reports of similar sightings from pilots.

3. In Beijing and Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province.

（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.