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The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Alsace, Mulhouse, France, on March 23, 1977.
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UFO here, ufo there. For a few days (is this the wave of the great conference held recently in Mulhouse and which had seen the confrontation of Professor Paul Muller and Jean-Claude Bourret) several witnesses observed in the "south" sky of the region of strange phenomena. In our issue of yesterday March 22, we reported that in Rixheim four people had noticed a very bright red-orange object located approximately in the direction of Masevaux-Thann and which after having remained stationary had suddenly disappeared. The phenomenon was observed between 8:25 p.m. and 9:10 p.m.
Another witness Mr. Marcel Brangard, technical agent at GdF living in Mulhouse, 175, rue de Bâle, visited us yesterday afternoon and, confirming earlier statements, nevertheless provided further clarification.
"Waiting for guests, Saturday evening around 8:15 p.m. and going to the window of my apartment I was struck by the luminosity of a sort of star much larger and abnormally located, almost within range eyes, and a twinkle that I would not qualify as orange, but bright white. The object was in the direction of the Vosges. Coming back to the window around 8:30 p.m., I noticed that the shiny object had moved to the right. At 9 p.m. I saw nothing anymore. The star of "first magnitude" had dissolved."
But Mr. Marcel Brangard had had the presence of mind to look for his camera. He took three pictures. The film produced was developed yesterday at the "L'Alsace" lab.
This document, it goes without saying, will be controversial if not at least debatable. We know from having read it in our previous editions ("L'Alsace" of March 20) that the craft currently observed in Alsace would be, as communicated to us by Mr. Karcher, observer at the Meudon observatory, one of the 80 fragments of the "Pageos" satellite-balloon put into orbit in 1966 and which exploded in July 1975. The object currently visible, both by day and at night, would be part of the envelope of the satellite in nylard [sic, Mylar]. This remaining envelope would spin on itself and the period of revolution would be 178.8 minutes. The crossings would last 25 minutes and be located to the east between 60 and 56 degrees high.
This explanation, very plausible, does not satisfy everyone. Some astronomers argue that a satellite having exploded most of the debris would have fallen back to earth and that in any case the extreme brightness of the object currently observed would tend to invalidate such a thesis. It appears, in fact, and most of the statements collected since Saturday confirm it, that the clarity given off by this immense star gives the impression "of a mirror reflecting the sun."
