Petrozavodsk — the phenomenon of 20 September 1977

OVERVIEW

The Petrozavodsk phenomenon was a series of celestial events of disputed nature on 20 September 1977, reported over a vast territory from Copenhagen and Helsinki to Vladivostok. It is named after Petrozavodsk, where a glowing object was widely reported to have showered the city with numerous rays. It contributed to the creation of Setka AN, a Soviet research programme for anomalous atmospheric phenomena.

HISTORY

At least 48 unidentified objects were reportedly seen, most between 1:00 and 1:20 a.m. UTC — over Medvezhyegorsk, Loukhi, Kovdor and Palanga, by staff of the Leningrad maritime port, and by the crew of the fishing vessel Primorsk. In Helsinki taxi drivers, police and airport staff reported a glowing ball. Government officials from northern European countries wrote to Anatoly Aleksandrov, president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, asking whether it was a Soviet weapons test. A preliminary report for the Academy, compiled by Lev Gindilis, D. Menkov and I. Petrovskaya with visual observations, radar reports and measurements, concluded that 'based on the available data, it is unfeasible to satisfactorily understand the observed phenomenon'. In November 1977 a clinical psychologist, Y. Andreyeva, examined nine eyewitnesses and found them fully sane and their testimony truthful.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

James Oberg attributed the event to the launch of the satellite Kosmos-955 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 3:58 local time that morning, and a later account also linked an unsuccessful ballistic-missile test in the region; others proposed aurorae or a meteorite. The Kosmos-955 explanation is the one most often given, but it remains contested.

VISITING

The pin marks the city of Petrozavodsk, over which the object was reported.